Morning Message 1/8/10

Good Morning and Happy Friday! Today is Friday, January 08, 2010.
Day 77 of School, 103 days left
Tiger Day: R

I hope you enjoyed your morning! Everyone should be well rested and ready to take their plant/natural resources test this afternoon. We’ll proceed with today’s schedule as usual.

Starting off the new year right means getting organized. Let’s clean out our desks and our lockers!

• There should be no loose papers. Everything should have a home.
• Work-in-progress goes in your Work In Progress folder of course!
• Be sure to wipe out all crumbs and eraser shavings.
• You should only have 1 book from our classroom library in your desk.
• Everyone will need to be checked by a desk checker. Once you are checked, the desk checker can put a stamp on your point card (counts as 1 point).

To-Do List:

1. Complete your morning routine! Don’t forget about snack!
2. Clean out your desk and your locker.
3. Once you are done cleaning out, you may begin work on your VA Studies Weekly quiz.

Morning Message 1/7/10

Good Morning! Today is Thursday, January 07, 2010.
Day 76 of School, 104 days left

We’re nearly done with our first week of school in 2010. Have we started off the year on the right foot?
This morning we’ll be doing a fun role-playing activity to better understand how the colonists felt. As you know, the King of England will be visiting our classroom this morning. Be sure to show him the proper respect.

This afternoon...

• We’ll do our best to start our new writing project with our Book Buddies
• We’ll have an opportunity to do some more research for Colonial Day.

Note: Ms. Allan’s Math class needs a book today.

To-Do List:

1. Complete your morning routine! Don’t forget about snack!
2. Take out your plants and natural resources flashcards. Study with some colleagues.

Morning Message 1/6/10

Good Morning! Today is Wednesday, January 06, 2010.
Day 75 of School, 105 days left

Remember we’re trying to get back into our routines this week. We want to start the year off right! It’s 2010 and many of you are 10 or turning 10-- I think there’s something special about that!

REMINDER: Math Olympiad Test today.

To-Do List:

1. Complete your morning routine! Don’t forget about snack!
2. Take out your plants and natural resources flashcards. Study with some colleagues.

Morning Message 1/5/09

Good Morning! Today is Tuesday, January 05, 2010.
Day 74 of School, 106 days left

New Student: We will be welcoming a new student (Thomas Reeves) into our classroom, possibly today. Be sure to be helpful and show Thomas how we do things around here. J

This Afternoon: Colonial Day Research! And Plant Experiment!

This Morning: The trouble with the British!

Getting Back Into Routines: It’s always tough to get back into the swing of things after a long break. Let’s do our best today to earn some points and few letters... A matinee sounds pretty good about now.

To-Do List:

1. Complete your morning routine! Don’t forget about snack!
2. Check out your graded Math Fact quizzes and the movie flyer on your desk. You’ll need to study those Math Facts you got wrong. Put both the movie flyer and your Math Fact quiz in your HW folder.
3. Take out your writing notebook and find a colleague or two. Share your writing with at least two other people in the classroom. Remember to be a good listener and to hand out compliments where appropriate.
4. When you are done sharing, you may enjoy reading until it is time to start Virginia Studies.

Morning Message 1/4/10

Good Morning and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Today is January 4, 2010.
Day 73 of School, 107 days left (We skipped days 70-72 because of the snow days.)

Wow! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other! I can’t wait to hear about your adventures over break-- I’m guessing that everyone had a fantastic time in the snow! J It was a fabulous end-of-the-year gift to have those extra days off... But it did result in some loose ends... Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to give our friends Sloane and Riley a proper farewell. They both have assured me that they will send emails and photos of their new homes in Thailand and Romania. Also, we haven’t done our plant test yet. We’ll talk about scheduling that this morning. It’s going to take us a little while to get back into the swing of things this morning-- to remember where we left off... But we’ll get there!

As we begin a new year, we make resolutions to improve. My resolution: to increase my vocabulary... What’s your resolution?

To-Do List:

1. Complete your morning routine! Don’t forget about snack!
2. Return your empty Friday Folder to your mailbox.
3. Check out the flashcards on your desk. Have you seen any of these words before? Which do you like best? Try to learn the meanings of at least 4 words. Then quiz your podmates.
4. Once you have mastered the meanings of at least 4 words, locate the “Trouble on the Frontier” worksheet (on the other side it has a “My Lesson Guide” for Chapter 7, Lesson 2) in you Work in Progress folder... Continue working on this.

Fabulous Jamestown Digital Stories

First, 4th graders worked in groups to create storyboards for their digital stories. They chose 10 photos from 3 files, representing the 3 different cameras we used on our trip. They wrote narration to go along with each chosen photo. Then they used PhotoStory3 (a free Microsoft program) to add text to the photos, to "animate" the photos (focusing and zooming out, transitioning between photos, etc.), and record their scripted narration. The results are awesome!-- especially for our first try! We had a great time watching them all during our popcorn party. I highly encourage 4th graders to use this program again to create digital stories for home and school. A big thanks to Mr. Knight for providing us with recording headsets and helping us to understand the program-- we couldn't have done it without you!

The following are embedded in no particular order. Please share these with family and friends!

Ethan's Story

Eliza, Katarina, and Hannah B.'s Story

Ben S. and Ben L.'s Story

Hope and Hannah R.'s Story

Eva and Kirsten's Story

Sam and Christian's Story

Sloane and Stephanie's Story

Jenna, Hannah T., and Skyler's Story

Gordon, Riley, and Josh's Story

Thomas and Michael's Story

Morning Message 12/18/09

Good Morning and Happy Friday! Today is December 18, 2009.
Day 69 of School, 111 days left                       
Tiger Day: G

Reminders:

• Today is Sloane’s 2nd to last day. Riley leaves us next Wednesday.
• We didn’t go to Book Buddies yesterday because they had an important science lab. We will reschedule for sometime next week.

Bowling today!

• You need to be wearing clean tennis shoes.
• We have 5 lanes assigned to our class and 23 kids-- so how many kids per lane does that work out to?
• Think about whether you want to have bumpers on your lane. You have to decide definitively-- bumpers can not be added or taken down later.
• Be flexible about lane assignments. We’ll do our best to make sure that everyone is happy.

Finally, Ms. Bragg has some special news to share with you today-- stay tuned!

To-Do List:

1. Complete your morning routine! Unpack quickly! We need to talk about lane assignments before 9am!
2. Write your name on your Colonial Outfit research packet and put it away in your research folder.
3. Work on your Poem of the Month illustration, while Ms. Bragg works out the lane assignments.
4. If you are finished, you may enjoy reading, writing, or practicing poetry quietly.