Fall is in the Air

The weather was record breaking warm this weekend, but we aren't going to let that fool us.  Fall has arrived.

Next week is Harvest Break (Potato Harvest, Harvest Vacation . . . I hear it called all sorts of things!).  Watch for information about the Harvest Read-a-thon sponsored by the PTO.

Math: more on geometry and missing addends in addition and subtraction.  It's the first step to Algebra.For example:  M - 35 = 72  (Switch operations and solve in reverse!  Sounds crazy, but what it really means is, if you can't subtract down, then add up . . . once the problem is written vertically.)
Spelling and Grammar: Review of the past four weeks.
Reading: Two short stories about journeys.  The first an excerpt from A Cricket in Times Square. The second a true story about a little girl who was "mailed" to her grandmother, The Parcel Post Kid.  The cool thing about this story is that it took place in Idaho about a hundred years ago.

Thanks again to Mrs Allen who sings the best songs ever with us!

WOW! Stop the Presses!

I've been teaching for many years and sending home weekly folders for just about as many.  Last week was the first week EVER in the last twenty years that EVERY student brought back his or her folder!  Amazing!

And if that wasn't wonderful enough, these awesome students did it AGAIN this week. Two weeks in a row.  A record! 

Will we make it three weeks in a row next week?

Horses and Huckleberries

What do huckleberries, Appalousas, star garnets and monarch butterflies have in common?  They are all official symbols of the State of Idaho.  So are potatoes, Rocky Mountain bluebirds, white pines, rainbow trout, syringas, peregrine falcons, the Hagerman horse fossils, the square dance!  This week we will be studying them and choosing one of them to create a pillow top.

The Rexburg Civic Club is sponsoring a Spelling Bee for fourth graders in the Madison District.  A list went home this week, but if you need another copy of the word list, please email me at school (smithb@mail.d321.k12.id.us) and I send it right away.

Spelling: 10 pairs of homophones. 
Grammar Skill: common nouns
Math: Perimeter, geometric shapes, lines, line segments, rays and angles -- plus continuing to practice addition, multiplication, and subtraction.

We've finished reading Brighty of the Grand Canyon and will watch the movie on Friday afternoon.  We will then compare and contrast the story elements of the book and movie, including characters, setting, and plot.  Most are the same, but some are very different.

This is going to be the best week ever!  ;)

Thomas E Ricks and Company

Our field trip to the Rexburg Cemetery was fantastic.  Both Mrs. Hancock's and my class went, so there were a lot of kids in the cemetery this afternoon.  First we visited the Thomas E Ricks Family Monument and calculated how old Mr Ricks lived to be.  Then the students made rubbings of the designs they found on the headstones.  Some of their favorites were four-wheelers, music notes, airplanes and baseball bats.  Some had beautiful kanji (Japanese characters used in writing) on them. We noticed that the older gravestones were more plain and simple than the newer ones. 

We are almost finished reading Brighty of the Grand Canyon.  Even though the movie is old and doesn't follow the story line of the book very faithfully, the fourth graders are sure they want to watch it.  I'll let you know what they thought of it.

Tue, Sep 14, 2010

Mrs Allen came on Monday and sang with us! Amazing! We started learning "Accentuate the Positive" and "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" and finished with the rollicking nursery rhyme song "Through it out the Window." Doesn't get much better than this!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Had a great time at the Eastern Idaho State Fair on Saturday.  Tiger ears = YUM!

This week we are reading about the Titanic.  We will read about a family who was sailing on the ship and also about how Dr Robert Ballard and his team of scientists and explorers finally found the wreckage.  Grammar skill for this week is compound sentences.

Math: We are continuing to review addition and subtraction.  We'll be solving problems with missing numbers in both types of problems.  We'll also be studying "real life number lines" like thermometers, analog clocks, and speedometers. We'll also be reviewing multiplication.

History of Rexburg: We'll be visiting the Rexburg Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon.  Some parents have asked if they could come as chaperones.  Please meet us at the cemetery as the bus will be full.  We'll be arriving at the cemetery about 1:00 pm and leaving about 2:00.  We'll visit the grave site of the Thomas E Ricks family and also make rubbings of the interesting and important designs on the headstones.

Individual student pictures will be taken on Thursday, September 16th.  An exciting day!

It's going to be the best week ever!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Labor Day is behind us.  Mine was great.  Hoping yours was, too.

This week we will be reading Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say.  It is a story of immigration but also returning to one's roots. In the context of the story, we will also be discussing World War II and the dropping of the atomic bombs at Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  We'll also read Bicycle Man, Mr Say's memories of seeing American soldiers for the first time after the war.  Spelling words will have the sounds of /o/ and /i/.  Grammar skills for this week are studying subjects and predicates.

Math: We are continuing to review addition and subtraction.  We'll be solving problems with missing numbers in both types of problems.  

History of Rexburg: We'll be talking about the failure of the Teton Dam and watching a video about it.  We'll also learn about the number of Veterans who have served from Rexburg during past wars and conflicts and the Veterans Memorial at Smith Park.

It's going to be the best week ever!  ;)

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Back to School Night

I look forward to meeting my student's parents at Back to School night.  This is a busy time of year and so I appreciate those who can make it.

Just in case you missed it, here are the topics and a few details about the things we discussed:

• News and Notes - goes home Tuesdays in the Weekly Folder. Has announcements on the top front, list of this week's spelling words, a place to record time spent reading at home, and a homework assignment on the back. Students bring the homework assignment back the next week.  Folders can come back to school anytime.
• The format of Saxon Math is different now that the students are copying problems from a text book rather than using worksheets.  Students are encouraged to copy the problems onto their paper so parents can easily understand what their students are doing.
• In Idaho History we will be studying Native Americans of Idaho, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Fur Trappers and Traders, Missionaries, Miners, Pioneers, the Nez Perce War and Agriculture and Industry.
• Power School is a great way to keep track of your student's grades and even pay for school lunch.  If you need to know your student's username and password, please contact me or Mrs Yeaman.
• We will be discussing current events daily in our classroom. Students at this age are typically just discovering global events and are trying to make sense of them.  Weather, earthquakes and disasters are the most typical topics students choose to talk about.
• Students are always welcome to bring a treat to help celebrate their birthdays, but this is not necessary. 

I can be reached by email at smithb@mail.d321.k12.id.us  If I have not replied to you in twenty-fours, give me a call at school as your email may have ended up in the Junk Mail Folder.