It is a Friday morning in July, my kids are still asleep at 6:30 a.m. and here I am drinking coffee and preparing for the upcoming school year! Every summer teachers all over spend their "free time" getting ready for the next batch of kiddos to arrive in August. I don't know if we are crazy, excited, or both! I know one thing, I can't wait to meet the next group of students and can't wait to try all the new, fun ideas I have found throughout the summer!
I cannot believe Halloween is Friday! That also means the end of the first trimester is near!!!
Throughout the last few months I have gotten to know my kiddos, and I feel it is when of my best classes yet (don't tell the past classes) :) The students come in day and day out and give me 100%! I have never seen a class work so hard, and learn so much in a short amount of time. Whether it is reading nightly or practicing math facts, this group of kids have been working hard! This week is also red ribbon week and students will be participating in different dress up days. Yesterday was pajama day, and I forgot to take a group picture (oops!) Today is wear red and bring a can good. I will try and post pictures into the classroom scrapbook as we go :) Well after spending 2 days at a technology conference, I feel like I need to up my game! I asked the students on Thursday what they would like to see different on the website, and they said pictures of themselves! I then realized I had pictures that were over a YEAR old and thought I was good to go! :)
I will be trying to update and add more resources that I see fit this 3 day weekend! Did I just hear we are a 1/3 of the way done with school? OH MY! The students are finally realizing hard work pays off! We have learned so many things so far from nouns to themes of a story to animals to government! The students are learning from a variety of activities and Chromebooks lessons. This trimester we are going to do more "flipped" lessons in which students will independently learn by watching videos and doing activities, rather than solely teacher led. For example, next week we are learning about adjectives. Students will watch a school house rock video and work on an adjective activity all via their Chromebooks. It is a different style of teaching/learning but it creates independent, critical thinking individuals!
I am not sure if you heard yet, but our class has Chromebooks to use all year (and years to come)! After about a week of glitches and minor problems, the whole fourth grade hall is up and running! The students have learned so much already, and we only introduced google drive. Also, my class was the first to experience Google Classroom, which has completely changed the process of submitting assignments to the teachers. The geeky, tech person that I am, is more than excited for this concept, and I know your child is too!
As well as Google classroom and drive, we bookmarked and used several websites as well. Students have logged into Accelerated Reader (AR) and have begun taking quizzes off their Chromebooks. Also, we are working on a typing program, https://app2.edutyping.com/student/, in which students will learn how to effectively use homerow to type. We used https://xtramath.org/signin/student, to practice our math skills, starting with addition. If you would like the logins and passwords for any of these websites to practice/try at home, look in your email inbox, as I am trying to get all of them together to send. Happy Weekend! (And Go Bears!) Can you believe it is back to school time already? I surely can't! My summer consisted of chasing around my daughter who learned to walk, working on my Master's classes online, as well as getting ready for this school year, especially with the 1:1 initiative to Chromebooks. It is going to be a crazy, fun, new school year, and I am ready! I
Well I saw it has been a while since I updated the website. Things have been crazy getting ready for ISAT tests (reviewing what they have learned) that I forgot all about the weebly site!
I think the students are doing a great job and doing their best on the standardized test, and that is all I can ask for! :) Next week we get right back into it by finishing up a math chapter on patterns and sequences. My reading class also is going to give my book case some TLC and help me organize it. The same class will be surprised to find that we are finishing up our "Star" language workbook this week as well! For writing, students will do a leprechaun writing prompt. We are going back in the textbook to work on Social Studies and learn more about the history of the Southwest region. In science, we are going to work with the Smart Readers and learn about weather! Especially in Illinois, the weather could change drastically Well the first "week" is done. The kids came back with a lot of stories about their fun times over break as well as what they did on their extra days off.
A new year and a new week of things to do. This week we are reviewing in my math class; addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Then, we are going to start long division! In ELA, we are working on text features. The kids have already learned that there were books to help you research before the internet, who knew! :) Also, we are working on writing 5 paragraph essays on what they would like to be when they grow up. For Science, we are starting our 4th rotation of science readers of Earth Science. For Social Studies, we are onto the Midwest, which they enjoy since Illinois is included. On a side note, we are starting to use the computer lab on Mondays to work on typing. Here is the link to their new favorite website! http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ I am so excited to be writing my first blog post! I have seen many great teachers post ideas that they are doing in their classrooms and cannot wait to be one of them! As I type this, my 4 month old daughter is asleep on the couch next to me, and my husband is watching a movie while it snows outside and the Christmas tree is lit and alive inside. What a great life I have! :)
Next week we are finishing up projects and chapters in our classroom, because on Friday, it starts winter break! It will be a crazy week, but a fantastic week as well. Here is to a great new year, bring it on 2014. Mrs. K |
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July 2016
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