Spelling Bee and Kid President

First of all...I want to say how proud I am of Reese and JW!  Third (JW) and Fourth(Reese) place in the county spelling bee!  They outlasted many middle schoolers!  Way to go!  :)

Today we talked about encouragement and teamwork in my reading class.  We watched the "Kid President" pep talk and wrote our own pep talks for the third graders coming up into fourth grade.  The students really enjoyed the video...it made us laugh, and really made us think about how much effort we are putting into our school work!

Notes should be going home soon (my homeroom's went out today) about parent teacher conferences in February.  If your child was marked that a conference was not needed, but you would still like to meet-just send in the times that work best for you, and we'll be glad to meet with you!

Good morning!

Good morning!  I hope you all had a great weekend!
Your students may come home excited about an upcoming reward they are working towards.  Currently we are at 982 books finished in 4th grade.  When we reach 1,000 books you will receive a note with specific details about our reward day!  In February (date not yet set), we will have a "Favorite Book Character" day.  Your child should dress like their favorite BOOK (not tv or movie...unless it was a book FIRST) character.  In class, they will need to provide a summary and character traits for the character they have chosen.  The character may be from any book they have read over the years.  (Picture books are okay!)

Upcoming Dates:
County Spelling Bee January 29th, 6:30 at MCHS Lecture Hall.  Go Reese and JW!!!
February 7th-Family STEM night (this will be lots of fun for the whole family!!)

Friday!

Happy Friday to all!  I hope you are staying dry today!
Students have finished their "I Have A Dream" speeches.  I've got a great group of students who are ready to make a difference in this world! :)  Essays will be hanging in the hall outside of our classroom, I'll post some pictures of them this afternoon!

FYI

No Reading WS for homework tonight.  Our speech writing activity took longer than expected, so we did not get to the Reading activity.  Your child may still have the ws written in their agenda...please disregard this.  They do still need to do their Reading Log.

ebooks!

After a discussion with my last class today, I promised I would post this information on the blog.
If you have an e-reader, ipad, tablet, ipod, iphone, or any other device, you can borrow ebooks from the public library!  It's a great (and cheap) way to read more books!
The Overdrive app is free in your app store/marketplace.  When you log into the app, it will take you to the Tennessee R.E.A.D.S. section.  You just need a library card to check out the books.

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Parents and Guardians,
I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend...I know I did!  I was finally able to tackle the mountain of laundry that had been staring me down all week!
You will see that our Reading Log for this week has changed slightly.  Your students still need to read for 20 minutes, but I am challenging them to extend their responses.  They need to respond in short paragraph form (5 sentences) to answer a response question each night.  Please talk with your children about their answers...and don't forget to ask my favorite question-WHY?  :)
As your children move into the second half of fourth grade, we are reminding them that we are raising the expectations for them.  They have risen to the occasion, so let's keep that forward momentum going!
We are close to 1,000 books read in fourth grade.  We are just around 950 books right now!!
Please remember to feel free to contact me with any questions you may have!

I Have A Dream

I Have A Dream video

This link to teachertube shows Martin Luther King, jr delivering his famous "I Have A Dream" speech.
(My projector bulb is broken, so we'll be using the laptops to view this in class.)

Martin Luther King, Jr biography practice

Links for class today:

http://www.brainpop.com

MLK Webquest

Back to school!

Welcome back!
I'm so excited to be back at school with your students today!
We accomplished so much during the first part of the year, and I can't wait to see what we can do this month!  We will be setting the bar higher for our Reading class.  Students will be required to read more complex texts, along with more nonfiction pieces.
Your child will be bringing home a paper about our next project towards the middle of next week.  Students will be creating a biography on an interesting person in their own lives.

Just a quick reminder:
Report cards DO NOT go home today...they go home January 10th.  Please call me or email with any questions or concerns.

Thanks again for all that you do!