February 17-20

Hello! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. Thank you so much for all of the darling Valentine's Day treats and notes! I loved it and felt so loved. This week we will be taking our next set of Galileo tests. Please help your children get a good nights rest and eat a healthy breakfast. I know you will. :) We will also be celebrating Chinese New Year this week as it falls on the 19th this year. I like to make long noodles for a long and happy life for the kids. 

If you could do me a favor.......

The class has been very chatty as of late. There have been consequences such as losing their morning snack break but it hasn't seemed to help. I moved every one's desks to change it up a bit and am hoping this quells the talking. It is beginning to disrupt the learning in our classroom. If you could please just have a little talk with your student about classroom behavior, following the class rules, and being respectful of other learners and me that would help so much. Thank you! 

Due to the short week, Galileo and monthly spelling and phonogram testing, we will not have a spelling test this week. Enjoy! 

Ms. T

February 9-13

Happy Valentine's Day!

A big thank you to all who came in for parent teacher conferences. It was wonderful to meet with each of you. If you did not make it into a conference your child's progress report will be coming home on Monday. If you would like to conference with me please know my door is always open and I would be happy to schedule a time.

AZ Merit Test....A heads up you will be seeing a lot of the common core workbooks coming home! We are working on them in class and there will be homework from the ELA (English Language Arts) book and the Math book.

Valentines Day Party...We will be making Valentine "Mailboxes" in class. I have a white bag and decorations for the students to make one this week. So you don't have to worry about making a mailbox! Students are encouraged to bring valentines to share with the class. Please make sure they have a valentine for everyone in the class, it is no fun to be left out. We have 25 students in our class. Our party will be for the last hour of the day on Friday and the children can pass out their Valentines and share treats they have brought in. Treats are welcome, I am not making any assignments. An easy peasy party. Please just have your student sign their name in cursive on the Valentines. (Please don't send in Valentine's or treats until Friday) Thank you!

WEDNESDAY IS EARLY RELEASE 11:30
NO SCHOOL MONDAY- President's Day

Our field trip was a success! We had so much fun at the World Wildlife Zoo. I love spending time with my class outside of the classroom. It is fun to see their personalities! What an awesome group of kids I have. Here are a few pictures.

The fourth grade team is THE BEST TEAM!! Log ride! 

I'm sorry...love my wack-o hair in this one!

For Fun: In class today we read an Asian/Indian Folktale called, One Grain of Rice. The heroin in the story makes a deal with the Raja to double one grain of rice each day for thirty days. We did the math today, doubling all the way from 1-30. It was a lot of math! However, the kids were totally engaged and loved it! I have given them the option if they are done with their work in class to use the computer to play educational games on FreeRice.com. They also have to pay me $20.00 of class money for computer time. Free Rice is AWESOME! They donate ten grains of rice to children in third world staving countries for each correct answer! I am going to assign math fact practice on FreeRice for homework tonight (Monday) that way the kids get a chance to check it out and help other kids in the process. I hope they end up loving it and will use this site often. I am making it mandatory at my own home that my kids use Free Rice for 10 minutes after homework and before any TV or video games. Enjoy!! Here is the link to the site. ( This all ties into our study of China/Asia)

http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1442

Spelling Words:

1. paragraph
2. patient
3. patience
4. pianist
5. pianos
6. piano
7. pickles
8. pickle
9. prisoner
10. release
11. resign
12. reveal
13. sleeve
14. soldier
15. summary
16. sum
17. sword
18. tomatoes
19. tomato
20. often
21. motion
22. theater
23. improvement
24. improve
25. century
26. cent
27. total
28. mention
29. arrive
30. supply

February 2-6

Good Morning,

It has been a wonderful week at school, we are working very hard. We have just begun our common core test review. You will see books coming home and there will be homework assigned in these books for the next month or so until the new AZ Merit test. I am excited to help get the kids ready and I know the kids will do their very best. 

Field Trip this Friday! We are going to the World Wildlife Zoo in conjunction with our study of animals in Science. If you have not paid it is $12.00 per student. I have not received money from all the chaperons yet and it is first come first serve for those spots. I will let you know if you are a chaperon by Wednesday. 

Parent Teacher Conferences are this week please sign up at Volunteer Spot. Here is the link and information. 

We're using VolunteerSpot (the leading online signup and reminder tool) to organize our upcoming signups.

Here's how it works in 3 easy steps:

1) Click this link to see our Sign-Up on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/5Dotcn

2) Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like.

3) Sign up! It's Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on VolunteerSpot.

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

Wednesday is a half day 11:30 dismissal for conferences. 

Next week is Valentines Day we will be exchanging Valentines on Friday. I will have a list of class names next week on the blog. It is going to be a low key party for the last hour of the day. If you would like to send in treats that would be great! 

Thank you! Have a great week! I adore these kids. 

Love,

Ms. T

Spelling List ( short list due to the half day and field trip)

1. enemy
2. example
3. excitement
4. exciting
5. excite
6. fierce
7. flew
8. flies
9. fly
10. forgotten
11. forgot
12. gigantic
13. giant
14. guide
15. hurrying
16. hurried
17. hurry
18. knowledge
19. know
20. lawyer

January 26-30

Hello. 

What a great week we have had. We have been busy learning about the life cycle of the butterfly and sketching our caterpillars everyday. We love to see how much they have grown in such a short time. Isn't mother nature amazing! Have a Wonderful week!

Important Information:

Each child should have a book or printed information from the internet about their animal for their animal report. If they do not have it please have them do it tonight! :) 

Parent Teacher Conferences are February 4. I will be sending out a sign up via Volunteer Spot. We can also phone conference if you are unable to make it in. (Here is the link to sign up) 

We're using VolunteerSpot (the leading online signup and reminder tool) to organize our upcoming signups.

Here's how it works in 3 easy steps:

1) Click this link to see our Sign-Up on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/5Dotcn

2) Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like.

3) Sign up! It's Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on VolunteerSpot.

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

Please check IC for grades so there are no surprises. Some subjects have only a few grades and will be changing as the quarter progresses. Please just keep in mind there are only about two weeks of grades in there. So if your student is missing one assignment it will greatly affect the grade. 

If you have a teacher request for next year it must be submitted to the office. Each teacher is given 10-14 spots for requests only. So if you have a preference I would make your request soon. 

Mis-Match Day is Wednesday. Students must wear their uniforms as usual but may mismatch socks, shoes and hair accessories. 

Spelling Words: 

1. tomorrow
2. consider
3. against
4. again
5. complete
6. search 
7. treasure
8. popular
9. Christmas
10. Christ
11. interest
12. advice
13. advise
14. American 
15. America
16. bargain
17. beneath
18. beyond
19. broken
20. broke
21. break
22. cocoa
23. collar
24. comparison
25. compare
26. controlled
27. control
28. debts
29. disaster
30. eager

January 19-23

Isn't that the truth?!?!??

Hello Wonderful Families,

We have live butterflies! We will be learning about life cycles in conjunction with our Science unit. The class is very excited. 

Our new WIG goal for this quarter is 100% mastery on math facts. I can see that many of the kids need to really work on their facts. Please practice them at home. They will be quizzed periodically through the week. 

Congratulations to Rustin who was a finalist in the School Spelling Bee and will be competing in the District Spelling Bee this week. We are all cheering for you! 

Each student has been assigned a desert animal for our next writing project. The class will be writing a report on an desert animal. Most of the work will be done in class. They may need to do a few finishing touches at home but the bulk will be completed here. I need each child to have a book or two about their animal so they can complete the research for the project. Each child needs their books by Friday. I will print one source from the Internet for each of them to use and they will have some access to the class computer. (Thank you!!!) 

Important Dates:

Monday 1/19- Martin Luther King Day*** No School***

Thursday 1/22- District Spelling Bee

Friday 1/23- Book Due for desert animal report

The kids are learning and growing. I love each and every one of them. 

Have a lovely week, 

Ms. T

Spelling Words: (Short List due to Monday off)

1. provision
2. provide
3. according
4. already
5. attention
6. education
7. director
8. direct
9. purpose
10. common
11. diamond
12. together
13. convention
14. increase
15. manner
16. feature
17. article
18. service
19. serve
20. injury
21. injure

January 12-16

Hello!

Congratulations to Rustin for winning the class spelling bee and Lucas for being our runner up! We had a lot of fun learning new words last week. We are enjoying science, learning about animal adaptations. One of my favorite stories in our Jr. Great Books series is Beauty and the Beast. It is so fun to read the original version and compare it to the Disney version we all know and love. We are focusing on Math facts and the children are being quizzed on 7's and 8's. There are a lot of fun apps to quiz math facts on! It is a great thing to pass the time in the car. I make my kids do it all the time! I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Love,

Ms. T

Important:

Wednesday, Jan 14- Half Day
Thursday, Jan 15-School Spelling Bee details TBA
Monday, January 19- MLK Day No School

The students are expected to read for 20 minutes every day. There will be Math homework as usual unless they finish it in class. We have a regular spelling list this week.

Spelling:

1. combination
2. combine
3. avenue
4. neighbor
5. weight
6. weigh
7. wear
8. entertain
9. salary
10. visitor
11. visit
12. publication
13. machine
14. toward
15. success
16. drown
17. adopt
18. secure
19. honor
20. promise
21. wreck
22. prepare
23. vessel
24. busy
25. preference
26. prefer
27. illustration
28. illustrate
29. different
30. differ

Happy New Year January 5-9

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful break! I missed my darling class and am happy to be back in a regular routine. This week we will be doing a lot of review. We will be getting back into the swing of things. There is not the usual spelling homework this week. There is still spelling however. We will be focusing on the Spelling Bee list. Our class Spelling Bee will be held Thursday and the winner will go on to the school Spelling Bee. I will have the class defining words this week and focusing on vocabulary skills. There will be math and reading homework as usual.

Report Cards will be sent home this week. I require the class to have them reviewed by a parent, signed and sent back the next day. A note in the agenda that you have seen the report card is also sufficient.


Thank you!

Have a wonderful week!

Ms. T