Christmas Party!

Our Christmas Party will be held on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 from 12:45-1:45. Each student needs to bring a wrapped dollar store gift that would be appropriate for a girl or a boy. We will then be able to play a gift exchange game and everyone will end up with a prize! We will also need treats and volunteers to be here. Please let me know in advance if you want to bring something or if you want to be here. The kids really enjoyed decorating a cookie last time so we could do that again to. I really appreciate all of your support.

P.S. I know in these economic times it may be difficult to provide a wrapped gift - please let me know as soon as possible so that I can find another way for your child to have a gift. If you wait until the last minute to inform me, I won't be able to help out and they may not get to participate.

Christmas Food Drive

Every year our school likes to donate "kid friendly" food items to the Middleton Food Bank. This year we are focusing on Peanut Butter, Jelly (not homemade), and Cereal. Of course, you are also welcome to donate any other non perishable items as well. These donated items go to helping our community's families. Send items to school this week and next. Thanks in advance for your donations!

Apangea Challenge

There is an Apangea Challenge going on for the month of November. The more kids log on and participate, the more likely we will earn a prize! Apangea is a great math website that kids can earn individual prizes and now for the month of November class prizes as well!

Book Club Online

Miss Young, one of our Gifted and Talented teachers, has set up a book club blog online for the kids at Mill Creek. Any student can participate at any time. Check out the books, read, and respond!

http://msdgtfamilies.blogspot.com

Have Fun!

Book Orders

I sent home a number of book order packets. There are a few ways to order. You can send the order form back to school with a check attached made out to Scholastic. Or you can order online! Go to http://www.scholastic.com/ and follow these steps:

1. go to book clubs page and sign up. Register and pick a password. When prompted, use the one time class code: HDX4T. This code ensures that the orders are sent to my class which earns us free books for the classroom!

2. Select the books you would like to order. There are many more books available online than just the ones I sent home.

3. Send your orders to me by the due date written on the paper orders sent home.

Progress Reports

Progress reports were ready last week, I hope you had a chance to see them. We have a great class this year and I hope it continues! We are learning a lot about how to respect each other, our teacher, and all the other teachers in the building. Let's make it a great year!

Welcome to 4th grade!

I am so excited to be teaching fourth grade! We are going to spend a lot of time learning, growing, and laughing! Come to this blog for important information regarding room 206.

Seeds and Plants

Our new Science unit will begin next week. I am asking for my students to please bring in one or two packages of seeds to share with the class for our seed study. They will also need an empty egg carton. At the end of the unit each student will bring home one dozen baby plants to begin growing at home! Thank you.

Spelling Changes

On Monday, I will give a pre-test of the 2nd grade words (not including the vocabulary words from the story). If they miss 2 words or less, I will move them to a different “just right” list based on the data I’ve collected in the classroom, (if you are curious stop on by and I’ll show you the theory behind it). The first 10 words are based on the rule, the rest are vocabulary words from the story. Students should know their words and what each word means. If a student misses more than 2 words, they will stay on the grade level list (list #1).

If a student loses a list or forgets what list they are on, you can go to spellingcity.com and print off a new list. Lists are now number (1, 2, or 3) for easy identification on spelling city. I will also send home a paper copy on Mondays. Please feel free to call or e-mail any concerns.

Here's the link to spelling city: www.spellingcity.com

Valentine's Day Party!!

I sent this newsletter home about a week ago. Here it is in case it didn't quite make it home :-)


Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. We have been busy making hearts and talking about Valentine’s Day traditions! We have also discussed how there are many types of love celebrated on Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day is on a Monday so we will have the party that afternoon from 2:00-2:45. Anyone who wants to attend is welcome to stop by. We will have a Valentine Bingo station, maybe a cupcake or cookie decorating station (help needed to make this happen (-:) and a valentine delivery station. It should be a lot of fun! I have bags that would be great to make a take home party gift if we bring in wrapped items or pencils, or other valentine type items. I try not to sugar them up too much for ya’, but if you would like to send items for the decorating, or the bags, or other tasty treats that would make our party extra nice! Thanks again for all that you do!
Here is a list of students. If your child would like to give Valentines it is only fair to give Valentines to everybody. If you need Valentines, there is a group at the high school donating to us so let me know as soon as possible! 585-3065 or hlarsen@msd134.org

Girls
Ryen
Avonley
Kallee
Diana (DJ)
Maggie
Rachel
Abigail
Emma
Maegan
Macenzee
Estrella

Boys
Haden
Jose
Nikoli
Ben
Cole
Zack
Wyatt
Brady
Payson
Colton

Reading Homework Packets

I've put the reading homework packets on the right side column of the blog instead of on the reading page. I am hoping this will make them more convenient to access. Let me know!

1/25/11 math homework

Math Homework 1/25/11. Find real world examples of spheres, pyramids, cylinders, cones, rectangular prisms, and cubes. Also, find real world examples of circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles. List as many as you can of each on a separate piece of paper.

Since Break

Since winter break I have not been as good at updating the blog as before! I am so sorry! I will make sure the spelling words are up and ready to go.

Report Card Fun!

I just finished report cards with 1 hour to spare! Whew! For the most part I continue to be amazed at the wonderful improvements our darling children are making. They are all working so hard and are so eager to continue to learn more. What a wonderful group of children, thank you for sharing them with me.

On the report card you will see quarter one grades, then quarter two grades, followed by a S1 grade - that stands for a cumulative of 1st and 2nd quarter grades. In the past, we let the quarter grades stand for themselves and did not average them together so that is new and different with our new system.

I will send home a paper copy of the report card next week. Have a wonderful long weekend!

This week we started our new reading unit. The genre is expository text. Expository text gives information. It tells people something. It uses facts about real events or people. It presents information in a clear way, and gives events in the order in which they happen. Our new reading theme is “Look Again”. The students will be learning a lot of information about animal camouflage. If you have any books at home about our new theme please bring them in to share with the class! Also students may go to the Animal camouflage link found on on the Mill Creek Website under student. Have fun exploring this site at home too! We will have a special guest come and visit out classroom from Deer Flat Wildlife refuge later this month.