Treats?????

I need 2 parent volunteers to send treats or drinks for our Fall Party on Thursday.  If you are willing, contact me. 

Grace and the Time Machine

Click the following link to take the Grace and the Time Machine reading assessment.

Grace and the Time Machine

What Will We Do With iPads?

What will you do with iPads? was one question that was asked last night that got me thinking.  Has anyone really said what students will specifically be doing with their iPad at this level. 

Each room will probably be a little different.  I can't guarantee that our room will do all of the same things that every other room does.  I can promise that the teachers will be having many discussions about how they are being used in their rooms.  We already share many ideas with each other and will continue to do so with how we are using the iPads.

My number one goal to start with is to do as many things on the iPad as possible that were done on paper before.  I want to try an eliminate some of our paper use.  I know I won't be able to completely, but we should be able to cut-back considerably.  I feel that attempting this is a great place for our class to start. 

My second goal is for students to use them to create.  I am a firm believer that creating and producing leads to better learning and deeper understanding.  Each week the students have the assignment to create a poster about the Reading Skill or the Grammar Skill for the week.  Look back through the Twitter feed to see some examples.  The iPad has a million different things that students could do to show they understand the skill rather than making a poster with markers and crayons. 

There will be many other things that students will use their iPads for.  These are my first two goals.  I feel that if we start small we will be better in the long run.  I encourage parents to ask their student each day what they did in school and also what they did with their iPad.  In the beginning it might not be much, but hopefully every day they say more and more things.

I would also like to take the time to thank the parents for their support during this exciting transition!!!

Library Visits

Each week our class will be taking a short field trip to the Kendall Young Library.  We are very fortunate to have such a great library in our town.  Students who have library cards will be allowed to check out 1 or 2 books.  Students who don't have a library card should go with a parent to the library to get one.  They are FREE and it only takes a couple minutes to get one.  Below are some pictures from our library visit.  Notice I have taken them off Twitter.  These pictures were upload during our library trip.  If you follow @mrbrimsclass on Twitter you can get live updates of what is happening in our class throughout the day.

iPad Rollout

Next Sunday, October 20th will be the date for iPad Rollout.  Each household should be receiving a letter about this if they haven't already.  The letter does have a form pertaining to the Apple ID that needs to be returned by October 17.

Every student will need a parent to attend the meeting on the 20th.  If they don't have a parent attend the meeting they will not get an iPad.  If you are unable to attend the meeting you need to contact me or Mr. Bonjour. 

Look for more information on this matter very soon. 

A Look Ahead....

Reading

This week in reading we will be working on drawing conclusions as our reading skill.  Drawing conclusions is using information from the text along with prior knowledge to make a decision about what is happening or has happened in the story. Here is the example we used this morning:  I am the only one at the bus stop where there are usually several kids also waiting for the bus. I wait a few minutes and am still the only kid there.  Then I see my friend riding his bike to the park.  The conclusion I can draw from this is that there is no school today. 

The grammar skill that will be focused on this week is changing singular nouns to plural.  We will only be working with regular plural nouns which are words that can be made plural by simply adding -S, -ES, or -IES.

The spelling pattern will be irregular plurals.  These are words that need spelling changed to become plural.  An example is the plural form of, tooth.  We would say teeth not tooths. Click here for a link to Spelling Words.

Math

This week in math we will continue work on multiplication.  Every student will be switching from addition Rocket Math to multiplication.  It is very important that students memorize all the basic multiplication facts.  They are more likely to do so if they practice at home.  This could be as simple as having a parent quiz them for a few minutes a day.

Science

Tuesday of this week we will be switching Science/Social Studies classes.  Mr. Brim's class will be going to Miss Martzahn for the next 7 weeks for Social Studies.  Mrs. Anderson's class will be coming to Mr. Brim for 7 weeks of Science.  At the end of the 7 weeks everyone will rotate again.  At the end of the year each student will have had time with each 4th grade teacher for either science or social studies. 

#todayIlearned

Today we used the Twitter concept to share what we learned today or earlier this week.  I gave an example and then each student had to write out their own "tweet" on paper.  Check out the "tweets" below. 

Mr. Brim – A dependent clause can’t be a sentence on its own. #todayIlearned

Allison – Long U sound can be spelled many different ways.  #todayIlearned

Cydney – That long U can be used by u, ui, ue, u consonant e. #todayIlearned

Cole – Our spelling pattern this week is long U sounds. #todayIlearned

Mollie - OO makes the U sound. #todayIlearned

Saul – A magnet can mess up a credit card. #todayIlearned

Jordyn – Volleyball isn’t about winning, it’s about friendship. #todayIlearned

Saliha – Magnets can be inside things, such as fans, doors, hooks.  #todayIlearned

Emily – Double O makes the long U sound and the U makes the long U sound. #longUsound #todayIlearned

Jaxin – Good readers always go back and reread. #todayIlearned

Cody – There are a lot of ways to spell words with a long U sound. #todayIlearned

Taylor – Long U can be used in a lot of words and long U is our spelling pattern. #todayIlearned

Jake – Old Faithful and Yosemite are very big and Yosemite is very popular.  #todayIlearned

Chase – Long U can be spelled in different ways. #todayIlearned

Jasmine – Magnets stick to some things and not to some things. #todayIlearned

Mateo – A magnet can stick to this rock with lodestone. #todayIlearned

Athit – Long U has a lot of spelling words. #todayIlearned

Carter – A magnet can ruin a TV and an iPad. #todayIlearned

Matt – A magnet can ruin electronics. #todayIlearned

Happy Friday

At least this rain storm is not dropping snow on us!!!!

I have decided that daily updates and information about our class will be added to Twitter rather than the blog.  I feel that Twitter will give me a better platform to keep students and parents up to speed when they are away from the classroom.

Big announcements will still be added to the blog.  If something is better announced on the blog it will be put on Twitter as a link.  

Twitter is easy to use and becoming more and more popular everyday.  It is FREE!! It can be done on any computer, iPad, tablet, Smart Phone.  Things that most of us are fortunate enough to have access to.  If you don't you soon will, as each student will be getting an iPad.

Twitter can be used by anyone.  It is just like the internet, it has great information.  It is also just like the internet in the fact that it has things that can be found that may be inappropriate for 4th graders.  Whether you allow your child to have a Twitter account or not is up to you.  I am going to be doing some research on this and if it is something that kids will be asked to have or not when they get their iPads.

My advice as of today is for parents to get it and use it with their student to follow @mrbrimsclass. 

Information Overload

This post will have a lot of information in it since I haven't blogged since last Thursday.  I was gone Friday and Monday of this week and it has taken all of my free time to get caught up and keep things going for this week.

Reading

In reading we have been reading a nonfiction story about Yosemite.  We also watched a video that showed what a cool place Yosemite National Park is.  The reading skill for the week is Main Idea.  The grammar skill for the week is Clauses and Complex Sentences.  The spelling pattern for the week is Long U sounds.  Friday we will have a reading assessment that covers main idea and will also possibly cover author's purpose or sequence from the previous weeks.  The spelling test will also be Friday.  Remember, most weeks there isn't time to study spelling at school so it needs to be studied at home.

Math

This week in math we took the Unit 2 test.  In math I correct the students' tests and then return them and give them one opportunity to correct their mistakes.  We had several perfect math tests after the correction round.  That is great!!!  We have spent the rest of the week reviewing some things and going over the second part of the math test as it is not corrected or counted toward the grade.  Tuesday we will begin Unit 3.

Science

We have continued to work on energy and circuits in science.  We did a couple solar panel experiments and looked at different ways to set up circuits.  Today we are moving on to Magnets.

We will be starting our weekly trips to the Kendall Young Library this month.  Students with library cards will be allowed to check out books.  Some students had cards and they are now expired or have been blocked because they have past due books or fines that need to be taken care of.  I will talk to those students and let them know.  Students who have never had a library card should have a parent go with them to the library and sign-up for one.  This is a great opportunity for students to have access to way more reading materials than we can provide at school.