Week of November 12th
This is our last week before Thanksgiving Break! I will be away from Nickajack Monday through Thursday. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I will be with Ms. Meyer and several other teachers at a conference in Atlanta. Thursday I will be away at Cobb Teacher Leader Academy working with other Cobb teachers. I will be back at Nickajack on Friday to reunite with our students! While I strongly dislike being away from the classroom, I am excited to continue to work with others to make Nickajack an even better school! I will send home progress reports and Red Folder on FRIDAY instead of Thursday this week.
Reading: The students will be working on finishing our unit on learning about Main Idea and Details. When we come back from the break, we will be continuing with Animal Defenses and writing our own choose your own adventure book!
Language Arts: Our grammar topic this week is irregular verb tenses! We will be going through different verb phrases that are not made past tense using our regular verb rules. The students will have a quiz on Friday. The students will be starting their second opinion writing this week. The students had a choice of writing about a VIP Historical Figure, should cell phones belong at school, what to read next, and what should your family have for dinner.
Math: This week the students will be working on area in class. To find the area of a space you multiply the length of the object times the width. For homework, students will have more practice on long division.
Social Studies: Students will be reading the Week 12 newspaper this week. The students will be completing several activities during the week using their newspapers.
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Reminders:
November 13th: Family and Friends Lunch from 11:27-12:07
November 19th- 23rd: Thanksgiving Break
Please do not send your students to school with a snack containing peanut butter! We have several students in the class that are allergic! Thank you in advance!
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“Stop thinking about what could go wrong, and start thinking about what could go right.”
Week of November 5th
Wow! I can’t believe that we only have two more weeks until Thanksgiving break! Here is what we have coming up this week:
Reading: This week in reading we will continue talking about Animal Defenses. My goal for this week is to be able to start researching with partners about a specific animal that uses an animal defense mechanism to defend itself. The students will be starting an in-class project over the next few weeks that students in previous years have really enjoyed!
Language Arts: Our grammar topic this week is verb tenses! We will be going through different verb phrases and determining whether the verbs are future, past, or present tense. The students will have a quiz on Friday. The students will be finishing their first opinion writing today and will be typing it in the computer lab. The students have worked very hard on these and I know they will be great! Wednesday we will start our second opinion writing piece for the quarter!
Math: This week we will complete lessons 15-18 in Module 3 and the students will have a short quiz on division on Friday. These lessons start division for the students and will work on several strategies of solving division problems with a remainder.
Science: This week we will be finishing up Ecosystems! The students will finish learning about the complex food chains and systems that keep an ecosystem running smoothly. The students will have a test on ecosystems on Friday. Here is a link to some flashcards that go over the terms we have been studying: https://quizlet.com/143875852/ecosystems-flash-cards/
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Reminders:
November 6th: No school
November 13th: Family and Friends Lunch from 11:27-12:07
November 19th- 23rd: Thanksgiving Break
Please do not send your students to school with a snack containing peanut butter! We have several students in the class that are allergic! Thank you in advance!
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“Stop thinking about what could go wrong, and start thinking about what could go right.”
Week of October 29th
Reading: The students will have a test on Monday covering summarizing, making inferences, and finding the main idea of a text. The text will be about animal defenses and they are ready for it! This week, the students will be working in expert groups to learn more about a specific animal and their defense mechanisms. The expert groups will then make a poster and present it to the class later in the week! The students are loving learning about the cool things animals are capable of!
Language Arts: Our grammar topic this week is possessive nouns! We will be going through nouns and figuring out how to show possession. The students will have a quiz on Friday. The students will continue this week with opinion writing. The students’ first opinion writing will be on their opinion on ice cream! I am excited to read why your students like (or dislike) ice cream!
Math: We have officially moved back into Engage NY! This week we will move on to lessons 11-13 in Module 3 and the students will have a short quiz on multiplication on Thursday. The students have been working on 1 digit x 4 digit multiplication. We will begin moving into 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication very soon. Here is a picture of the partial products strategy that the students have been learning:
Science: For the next two weeks we will be talking about Ecosystems! We will be talking about Consumers, Producers, and Decomposers. We will also be talking about Herbivores, Omnivores, and Carnivores. This is a great time for students to not only learn about the environment, but to also learn about how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Here is a video we will be watching on the food chain: Food Chain Video
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Red Ribbon Week Dress Up Days for the week:
Monday- “Real Heroes Don’t Do Drugs”: Dress as a Hero
Tuesday- “Sock it to Drugs”: Wear crazy socks
Wednesday- “Good Character, Good Choices”: Dress as any good character from a Disney movie
Thursday- “Tu-tu cool to do drugs”: Wear a tutu or sunglasses
Friday- “Lei off Drugs”: Wear Hawaiian clothing
Reminders:
November 6th: No school
November 19th- 23rd: Thanksgiving Break
Please do not send your students to school with a snack containing peanut butter! We have several students in the class that are allergic! Thank you in advance!
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“Stop thinking about what could go wrong, and start thinking about what could go right.”
Week of October 22nd
Reading: We have started our next reading unit on Animal Adaptations! We are still working on summarizing, making inferences, find the main idea and supporting details. We will be discussing Millipedes and reading excerpts from the books Venom and Poisonous Prey. The students will finish this topic up at the end of this week or early next week! We will still be discussing Animal Defenses, but we will be working on different skills.
Language Arts: Our grammar topic this week is concrete and abstract nouns! We will be going through nouns and figuring out how to distinguish if they are abstract or concrete. The students will have a quiz on Friday. This week we will start opinion writing! Our students have a lot of opinions, so we want to teach them how to organize their thoughts into a logical argument.
Math: We have officially moved back into Engage NY! We took a short quiz on Module 3 Lessons 4-6 today, Monday. This week we will move on to lessons 7-10 in Module 3 and the students will have a short quiz on Lessons 7-10 later in the week.
Social Studies: This week we will be finishing up talking about the Constitutional Convention. We will be discussing the Founding Fathers of the Constitution and what challenges they faced. What decisions did they have to make when writing the Constitution? What did they decide on and how did it impact our country? We will also be talking about the Bill of Rights, and explaining what those are in kid friendly terms.
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Reminders:
November 6th: No school
November 19th- 23rd: Thanksgiving Break
Please do not send your students to school with a snack containing peanut butter! We have several students in the class that are allergic! Thank you in advance!
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“Stop thinking about what could go wrong, and start thinking about what could go right.”
Week of October 8th
I’m sorry my blog is late this week! Here is an update for you:
Reading: This week have started our next reading unit on Animal Adaptations! The students will be working on finding main idea and details, and using inference skills when looking at pictures and a matching text. We will be reading the text Venom together and learning about how animals defend themselves in different ways!
Language Arts: Our grammar topic this week is a review of the last 8 weeks of grammar! We will be going through nouns, plural nouns, irregular plural nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. The students will have a review quiz on Friday. This week we will finish up our informational writing on planets. They have worked extremely hard on them and I am extremely excited to read them! Next week we will start digging in to informational writing!
Math: This week we will be finishing perimeter by talking about finding the missing side of an object. We will be discussing how to find the length of a side if there are other sides that are labeled. Next week, we will jump back in with multiplication in Engage NY Module 3!
Science: We are finishing up with our unit on planets, the sun, and the moon! The students will be working to review all of the material we have learned, and we will be learning more about galaxies and our solar system.
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Nickajack’s Fall Festival is coming up Friday, October 12th! The fourth grade team runs a stand called the Pumpkin Walk, which is similar to a cake walk. Each class is asking for snack donations for this stand at the fall festival. If you are willing and able, please send in individually wrapped snack sized cookies, crackers, rice crispy treats, or chips. Any donation is greatly appreciated!
Reminders:
October 11th: Early Release Day
October 12th: Fall Festival
October 15th-19th: Conference Week
Please do not send your students to school with a snack containing peanut butter! We have several students in the class that are allergic! Thank you in advance!
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”
Week of October 1st
Happy Monday and the beginning of October! I hope you all had a wonderful week off with your amazing students. I went to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon and came back ENGAGED! Wow! It was so much fun getting to share my news with your students this morning!
Reading: This week we will be talking about point of view and perspective. We will be discussing how the point of view a story is told from can change it’s outcome. We will also talk about how the someone’s perspective of an event can change how they feel about it. The students will have a reading quiz on Friday over point of view and perspective.
Language Arts: Our grammar topic this week is Irregular Plural Nouns! The students will be working on irregular plural nouns throughout the week, and we will have a quiz on Friday. These are the nouns that don’t always follow the regular plural noun rules that we covered before break! This week we will start drafting our informational piece on the planets! The students will have plenty of time this week to write, and I will be conferencing with them to make sure they are on the right track.
Math: This week we will not be using Engage NY. This week we will begin talking about perimeter! We will go over that in order to find the perimeter, you must add up all sides of a given shape or form. Here is an informational video on perimeter: Perimeter Video
Science: We will be talking about the planets for the next two weeks! We will be working on learning about the differences between the inner and outer planets, the technology involved in observing objects in space, and why Earth is unique compared to other planets!
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Reminder from Administration:
When packing a lunch from home for your student, please include any utensils (spoon or fork) that they may need to enjoy their lunch. The cafeteria only supplies utensils for students who purchase a lunch from the cafeteria.
Reminders:
October 3rd: Picture Day
October 11th: Early Release Day
October 12th: Fall Festival
October 15th-19th: Conference Week
Please do not send your students to school with a snack containing peanut butter! We have several students in the class that are allergic! Thank you in advance!
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“Be the energy you want to attract.”
Week of September 16th
Happy Monday! It is our last week before September break! Woohoo! Please do not send your students to school with a snack containing peanut butter! We have several students in the class that are allergic! Thank you in advance!
Reading: We have two more scenes of Divided Loyalties left to read! The students are very excited to learn how the story ends. Feel free to ask your students about the characters at home! They should be able to tell you plenty about William, Abigail, Robert, and the rest of the Barton family!
Language Arts: Our grammar topic this week is Plural Nouns! The students will be working on plural nouns throughout the week, and we will have a quiz on Friday. We will type our final drafts of our informational writing today, and then we will begin researching for our second informational piece on Planets! The students always love learning about the differences between the planets.
Math: This week we will not be using Engage NY. This week we will finish covering Elapsed Time. Students should be able to tell the time that has passed from one given time to another. Toward the end of the week we will talk about distance and measuring. When we come back from the break we will begin talking about perimeter.
Social Studies: This is our last week of Social Studies for the 9 weeks! We will be talking more in depth about George Washington, and the specific battles that were fought during the American Revolution! The students will learn about the Battle of Ticonderoga, Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Trenton, Battle of Saratoga, Battle of Charleston, and Battle of Yorktown!
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Reminder from Administration:
When packing a lunch from home for your student, please include any utensils (spoon or fork) that they may need to enjoy their lunch. The cafeteria only supplies utensils for students who purchase a lunch from the cafeteria.
Reminders:
September 20th: Multicultural Night
September 24th-28th: Fall Break
October 15th-19th: Conference Week
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. That’s why inventors put erasers on pencils!”
Week of September 10th
Reading: We will continue reading the book Divided Loyalties! The students are loving the book, and are doing a great job of summarizing. We will finish the book before fall break.
Language Arts: Our grammar topic this week is Pronouns! The students will be working on pronouns throughout the week, and we will have a quiz on Friday. We will continue to work on editing and revising our informational writings this week, and we will be publishing them in the computer lab next Monday!
Math: This week we will not be using Engage NY. This week we will be covering Elapsed Time. Students should be able to tell the time that has passed from one given time to another. An example would be: If the school bus left the school at 2:30 and arrived at the student’s house at 3:15, how long did it take the bus to get to the student’s house? Answer: 45 minutes.
Social Studies: This week we will switch back to Social Studies. We will be talking about the Declaration of Independence. The students will get to write a ‘historical blog post’ this week also! I can’t wait to see what creative things they come up with! The students will have a Social Studies quiz this week.
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Reminders:
September 14th- In-School American Revolution Field Trip
Back the Jack Campaign Ends Soon!
September 24th-28th: Fall Break
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
Week of September 4th
Happy Labor Day! I hope you all have had a restful day with friends and family. I will be out of school on Tuesday, as I have a meeting with the Cobb Teacher Leader Academy. I will still be available for emails but will be out of the building working with other educators in Cobb. I have prepared for a substitute and the class should be great! Remember that this Friday is our Field Trip to the Cobb County Fire Safety Village. If your student is bringing a lunch, it needs to be in a bag that can be thrown away at the Fire Safety Village. We will not be bringing any food items back with us.
Reading: We will continue reading the book Divided Loyalties! The students have been assigned different speaking roles and reading aloud. The students will continue to work on summarizing a literary text in using the Somebody, In, Wanted, But, So, Then method. Here is an example of this method that we will be using this week.
Language Arts: This week the students will continue to work on their informational writings, as we are getting closer and closer to having a completed final draft! In light of the short week we have this week, the students will not have a grammar quiz this week. We will pick up grammar again next week with Pronouns.
Math: We will go over lessons 17 and 18 in Engage NY this week. Students will have nightly homework for math from EngageNY. If your student ever has questions about their math homework, you can find TONS of Engage homework help on YouTube. Please remember that all of the Engage lessons can be found online at Engageny.org.
Science: This week we will continue to dive into the sun, Earth and moon. The students have been doing great with learning about the phases of the moon and how the Earth rotates around the sun.
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Reminders:
September 7th- Cobb Fire Safety Village Field Trip
September 14th- In-School American Revolution Field Trip
September 24th-28th: Fall Break
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“Progress is impossible without change.”
Week of August 27th
Reading: This week we will begin reading a ‘Drama’ called Divided Loyalties! This book tells the story of a family during the American Revolution that is divided between the loyalist and patriot sides. The students will be learning the parts of a drama including: act, scene, stage directions, script, characters, setting, and dialogue. While we begin reading, I will be working with the students on summarizing the acts into shorter summaries of the story.
Language Arts: This week we will be working on Adverbs for our grammar topic. We will be covering how to use adjectives to make our writing and sentences more descriptive. The students will have a short quiz on adverbs on Friday. The students will work on finishing their informational report rough drafts on Monday and Tuesday, then we will go back and start talking about how we can read and revise our writing to make it even better!
Math: We will go over lessons 15 and 16 on Engage NY this week. We will have a quiz on lessons 15-16 later in the week, depending on how far we get during the lessons. Students will have nightly homework for math from EngageNY. If your student ever has questions about their math homework, you can find TONS of Engage homework help on YouTube. Please remember that all of the Engage lessons can be found online at Engageny.org.
Science: I am super excited to be starting science with the students this week! We will be talking about Day and Night. We will discuss how the Earth rotates on its axis, and how this makes our days longer or shorter. The students will have a short, five question quiz later this week as well. Here is a video that cover’s this week’s topics: https://youtu.be/l64YwNl1wr0
Homework:
Reading: Reading packet (due Friday)
Math: Math homework will be given nightly
Reminders:
August 27th– Back the Jack Campaign Begins
August 29th– Early Release
August 31st– Back to Football Friday
September 3rd– Labor Day/No School
September 7th- Cobb Fire Safety Village Field Trip
September 14th- In-School American Revolution Field Trip
If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]
“Your brain is a muscle, and making mistakes are like lifting weights.”
