Make Yourselves Comfortable!

A few of our girls have made themselves comfortable during read to self. We are glad they have made themselves feel right at home!  

Friday the 20th, we will be out and about.  We will sing at Brookside Nursing Home, Skate at Campion Rink, and have a reading celebration and book discussion about the book, Buddy at Kilton Library.  We need a few chaperones to help with the singing/skating and we need volunteers for set up and take down at Kilton.  If you can help, email me!

Snowflake Bentley

Yesterday, we read the book, "Snowflake Bentley" by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.  Using this Link, you can read it too. We also watched a short video about Snowflake Bentley online.  With black paper we caught snowflakes and looked at their crystal shapes.

Today, we read a play on Bentley and watched a quick you tube video on the formation of snowflakes. Here is a picture or two from today:

Testing Picture Uploads

Newsy Notes

Hi there!  It's been a long while since we made our last entry.  We've been busy little bees and it is only going to get busier! Take a look below to read about what we've been doing in each subject area.

In math, we've been studying double digit division (say that ten times fast!).
In science, we've begun our study of electricity.  To introduce electricity, Ms. Allen had us watch a Brain Pop! video.  Do you know why you get shocked after walking across a carpeted room?  Ask your fourth grader, they can tell you!
In social studies we've been reading about the typhoon in the Philippines using our TFK magazines and news broadcasts online.  A typhoon is the same thing as a hurricane.  The name depends on which part of the world you are in - we call it a hurricane, Filipinos call it a typhoon.
In Daily 5, Mrs. Stone has been reading us the book Buddy by M.H. Herlong.  It's about a three legged dog who has to weather Hurricane Katrina in the bathroom of his family's home in New Orleans.  We've also been working on reading fluency by listening to two different read alouds of The Ugly Duckling and then we read the play using our best reading voices.  Handwriting has been BIG in Daily 5, we're almost done with our Zaner Bloser books.  We're also becoming SUPER SPELLERS!  The last spelling test we had six students in the one hundred club.  Some of the words this week include discernible, camouflage, mistletoe, cranberry, and oasis.
Our school is running a food drive and we are taking part in the organization of it!  The food collected will go to The Haven.  Our class has a goal to collect fifty cans.  We have seventeen so far.

Here are a few field trip dates:
December 13th - Lebanon High Concert
December 20th - Christmas Carols @ Brookside and Skating @ Campion

Hatchery Hike

Today we went to the hatchery.  Here are some pictures...

Rolling River

Mrs. Green, our resident watershed expert, read us the book River today.  This reading is in preparation for our trip to New Hampton Fish Hatchery tomorrow.

Goin' Fishin'

It seems late in the season to be going fishing, but it is early for us! If we waited any longer we'd be ice fishing!
Today, the students learned about the difference between male and female brook trout.  Like  birds, the male brook trout have showier features including a broad jaw and colorful belly.
The pictures below are showing the students sketching a male or female brook trout.  More to come soon!

Happy Thanksgiving! Here is our very own Macy's Day Parade!

We read the book, Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet. The book talks about the creator of those magical Macy's Floats -Tony Sarg. In celebration of Mr. Sarg and Thanksgiving, we created our very own Broadway street and floats.  Take a peek!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Field Trip Friday!

We are headed to the New Hampton Fish Hatchery on Friday, November 16, 2013.

My Favorite Quote of the Day (and it's only 8:40)!

"Excuse me Ms. Allen, may I wash out my water bottle because a mosquito fell in it?"

Dance Mat Typing!

Today in class, the students had an opportunity to go to the computer lab to try out a new typing program called, "Dance Mat Typing."  You can try it at home too!  It's online!  Here's the link

October 31st

We'll hold a small celebration on the 31st.  Look for a flyer in your child's BEARS book today!

Conference Sign Up!

Dear Families,

  Conferences are taking place during the week of November 4th. Your children will be bringing home the sign up sheet today!  

Super Spellers Spell with Spelling City

Petunia's been drilling the kids on their spelling and it's making a BIG difference!  Today we took a weekly preview and discovered more words to work on.  We used Spelling City to help us practice our mispelled words.  There are several games and practice pieces available for free.  Try it out!

Hootenanny!

Today in class we read the book Cock-A-Doodle-Hooooooo! by Mick Manning and illustrated by Brita Granstrom.  In this book, an owl wants to sleep and ends up in a chicken coop.  The chickens pick on him because he can't peck, crow, or dig.  There is, however, something he can do!  Read this book to find out!
As part of the reading we made owl pictures using pencil, sharpie, watercolor, and marker.  Come view them in a classroom near you!

Many students have put in tons of effort to complete their Picturing Writing books on the monarch butterfly. Bindings should be on books by the end of next week.  You'll see the finished products at conferences.

We took a math test this week on unit 2.  This is part of our math pilot, Math in Focus.  Several children found the test challenging.  We'll be working through the problems next week to see what problems caused a ruckus!

Have a great weekend!

Open House Tonight!

Join us for tonight from 6:30-7:30 for Mount Lebanon's annual open house!  You'll be participating in a scavenger hunt as you work your way through the projects we've done and routines we follow!  See you tonight!

Around the World

This week, we had a guided discovery on globes.  The globes fit in your hand.  Using a mini magnifying glass we had to look for countries, cities, oceans, and states.  We learned how to think ROUND instead of flat. We also (with little attitude) learned about latitude and longitude.  We also were introduced to atlases.  Did you know, for every car in Peru, there are 56 people?
In math we TOOK A TEST on place value!!!!  We did pretty well.
We've completed NWEA testing for the fall.  Our jaws hurt because we chewed so much gum!  One of our students is even complaining about her jaw clicking.  Be sure to check your child's chops!
Next week we have our FIRST Four Winds lesson!  We are also trying to head to the Kilton Library.
Have a GREAT weekend.

Welcome Parents!

Dear Parents,
Welcome to class!  We're so excited to tell you about fourth grade!  Did you know, we have read 14 books in 8 days?  Our favorites include A Bad Case of Stripes, The Dot, and Spud Murphy.  In addition to reading lots of books we've set our goals, made rules, and created classroom jobs.
Ms. Allen loves art.  We have participated in three art projects.  They are displayed on the walls.  Can you find your kid on the bulletin board titled, "Guess Who?"
In math, we are studying place value up to the ten thousands place.  We can write numbers in three ways. standard form, word form, and expanded form. Can you?
Social studies has been all about us!  We read the book Me on the Map and are making our own Me on the Map books!
In Daily 5, we have learned about word work, read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, and work on writing.  We've been working on building stamina in reading and sitting properly when reading with a peer.
Want to know what's really fun (and not so fun) about this class?  OCASSIONALLY, we get treats, our teacher yodels, Ms. Allen is loud and CRAZY, we have eleven girls and only four boys, we play fun games, we have a lot of homework, we eat lunch in our classroom, we get to go on fun field trips, pick THREE books from the library, and walk to the Kilton Library to pick books.
We hope you enjoy the meeting.
Love,
The Dots

Day 5

Today is day 5 of 180.  We've been very busy!  Today we worked on our self-portraits, we wrote about a shoe on the side of the road, we took a math pre-test, we learned about and practiced read to someone, and had a lesson on short and long vowels.  The best part of our day?  CUPCAKES!  YUMMO!

Welcome Back!

Here are a few photos from our most recent activities...

Dum Dums from a morning meeting game.

From the book The Dot.

"Hey Ms. Allen, doesn't this look cool?"

She had the job of clean up... which required a lab coat!

Brainstorming things we could write about after reading the book Library Mouse.