I'm Elmo and I Know It ( OFFICIAL LMFAO Parody )

Last Week of Jan. Already??!!!

I am at home today with a sick child so while they are napping, I am updating the site! I have included links on the Word Play Friday page.  I am also in the process of updating the book info page to include books we have read this year and links to resources for them.


Since I have had a student tell me that they use the site for their spelling words, I thought I had better post these!

A “Sweet” Day and A “Super” Day

recipe

measurement

chocolate

confectioner candy hearts

cupcake

romantic

frosting

icing

admire

secret admirer

bouquet

friendship

delicious

delightful

commercial

television

trophy

stadium

penalty

helmet

championship

conference

roman numerals

        

Mysteries, Martin Luther King Jr. and Report Cards

It is the new 9 weeks! Report Cards will be sent home on Friday. You may keep the report card, but please sign and return the envelope. The fourth grade teachers will include a conference notice if we feel that we need a conference at this time. Of course you are always more than welcome to request a conference...just send in a note or call the office to be placed on the conference night schedule.

Our mystery unit continues and we are really enjoying reading the mysteries at http://kids.mysterynet.com/.  

Next week we will begin writing our own mini-mysteries. This is not an easy task, but I know the kids will do a great job!

Our spelling words this week are focused on the theme of Civil Rights and Martin Luther King Jr. Everyone has 12 words to learn, and words are chosen on Monday. The kids are very honest about choosing challenging words that are right for them. Then the words are written in their planners in the Spelling section for the week. The other 4th grade teachers have allowed me to steal a few minutes of homeroom time for the kids to complete this work!

Speaking of Martin Luther King Jr...WOW! We had a great discussion on Friday, and the classes seemed very interested in the Civil Right movement. This is one the the reasons that I love teaching Language Arts. I have the freedom to go along with the student's interests while still covering the state standards!

Flocabulary: Five Things

Mystery Unit Unfolds!

 
The mystery is just beginning!
We are reading From the Mixed-Up File of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
I found the BEST WEBSITE! http://picturebookreport.com/category/from-the-mixed-up-files-of-mrs-basil-e-frankweiler/
As the creator Meg Hunt states on the site,
Picture Book Report is an extended love-song to books. Fifteen illustrators will reach out to their favorite books and create wonderful pieces of art in response to the text that has moved them, shaped them, or excited them. From sci-fi to children’s books to fantasy to serious novels, we’ll cover them all. For three weeks out of every month there will be a new illustration every day from one of us along with our thoughts, process, anything we can come up with. Together we will try to excite readers both new and old and capture some of that magic of storytelling.
I love these illustrations and can't wait to show the kids. They are going to flip. Hope the site isn't blocked.

Each student has picked 12 spelling words from the following list:

scene

mystery

spy

disguise

detective

red herring

clue

solve

suspicious

suspects

hunch

investigate

question

case

crime

wrong doing

solution

alibi

sleuth

witness

victim

evidence

proof

treasure

innocent

guilty

reason

explain

decide

evidence

footprints

fingerprints

gumshoe

Can't wait to show the kids this site too! They will have a chance to explore the site with the net books this week.
http://www.metmuseum.org/

Happy 2012!

What a fun way to start the new school year... a linky party! 

Mor over at A Teacher's Treasure is having a 2012 resolution link. I thought I would join in!

directions: 

1. copy and paste this image to your post & link it to this party!

2. Make sure you include both personal & professional goals.

3. No more then 3-5 goals for each.

Here are mine!

Personal:

1. Goodbye to fast food.

2. Goodbye to Diet Coke.

3. Hello to Zumba 3 times a week: Monday, Tuesday...Saturday?.

Professional

1. Lesson plans posted every week, on time!!!

2. Read 1 new children's lit book a week.

3. Take 2-3 pics of the classroom and student work and post to website.

*******************************

 The first half of the school year is almost over...and I honestly think it was great. The break is a nice time to reflect and revamp some of the lesson plans and learning expectations for the class. We have covered several different genres and I am excited to begin a Mystery Unit!


Here are some mystery book recommendations:

Encyclopedia Brown

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Polar Express

Chris Van Allsburg

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ZooWeeMama!

The Book Parade was great! Thanks to Mrs. Gorby, Mrs. McClish, Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Huber and Mrs. Buzzard for announcing. I was able to get some video clips and have uploaded them to YouTube. Thanks to Miss Daley for letting me borrow an iPad! Thanks to Mr. Covert for bringing Arthur to the parade! I promise to work on my camera skills.
The classes have been working on earning a movie reward...Diary of a Wimpy Kid. They are almost there so we will probably be seeing it soon. Many kids have read the first book, so it will be interesting to compare the different versions.
Winter break and Christmas will be here before we know it!
Over the next 3 weeks, we will be reading and writing non-fiction. The focus of most of our reading will be centered around holiday traditions that we celebrate. Mrs. McClish and I are working together to cover Social Studies and Language Arts standards together.
Spelling:
This week: antonyms and holiday words
Dec. 5-9 homophones and Countries
Dec. 11-16 homographs and holiday words

Synonyms

source unknown

This week our focus lessons are about different categories of words starting with a sampling of each: synonyms, antonyms, homophones and homographs.
We will be using activities from Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. I thought this information from the Brain Pop Jr. site was worth sharing...

"Explain to your children that they use synonyms and antonyms everyday without even knowing it. Synonyms are words that have the same or similar definitions. For example, a few synonyms forsmart are intelligent, brilliant, clever, or genius. Encourage your children to think of other synonyms.

Synonyms can make writing more powerful and bring words to life. Children should always look for ways to bolster their sentences by using strong verbs and vivid adjectives. We recommend watching the Similes movie together as a review. They can read what they have written and find synonyms for lackluster words. A thesaurus is a book that lists words and their synonyms. Explain that a thesaurus is different from a dictionary, which lists words and their definitions. Some thesauruses also provide antonyms for words.

An antonym is a word with the opposite meaning of another word. For example, a few antonyms for bored are excited, thrilled, energized, and wound up. Some words have only one antonym, such as black and white. Other words have many antonyms.

Brainstorming and using synonyms and antonyms are great ways to increase your children’s vocabulary and expose them to different words that are above their grade level. Reading also exposes your children to new words. Students should read actively and write down new words in their notebooks or have a dictionary handy to look up difficult words."

In addition, here are some other sites to use to at home for vocabulary building:

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/synonyms/

2nd Annual Joshua Dixon Reading Parade

2nd Annual Joshua Dixon Reading Parade

Second Nine Weeks!

After several weeks of reading fantasy books highlighting the works of Chris Van Allsburg and Roald Dahl, we are starting a new focus!
Jerry Spinelli"s Fourth Grade Rats

Reminders!

*It is Red Ribbon Week.
Monday: Animal Shirt
Tuesday: 70's, Tie-Dye
Wednesday: Blue jeans & denim
Thursday: CrAZy HaiR
Friday: PJ's

School pictures are in. I will send them home Tuesday.
*Report cards will be sent home on Friday! Please sign and return the envelope.
*Fall Fun Day is NEXT MONDAY! Please send costumes to school and we will get ready about 2:00 or so. 

Effective Teaching Articles: Using A Multi-Sensory Approach For Students Who are Experiencing Trouble In Learning Sight Words

Effective Teaching Articles: Using A Multi-Sensory Approach For Students Who are Experiencing Trouble In Learning Sight Words

We finally finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was such a wonderful book and I think many kids are convinced that the book is better than either of the movies!

We will spend the next week or so reading many books by Chris Van Allsburg. He is the author of Jumanji and Zathura.  He is both an amazing author and artist.

I found the book images from http://a-b-c-delicious.blogspot.com/, along with this GREAT description of his work. "Chris Van Allsburg is an AMAZING artist and storyteller. His picture books are full of mystery, suspense and science fiction. They are not best suited for little ones, however you could read Z was Zapped and a few others to younger readers. Although he is best known for his beloved Christmas book, The Polar Express, most of Van Allsburg's books are perfect for reading in October, with the mystery and eeriness that his books are full of. Welcome the autumn season in by reading The Widow's Broom and The Stranger. His illustrations are so incredible, you really have to spend more time looking at the pictures than reading the words. He captures so many emotions and leaves the reader thinking all the time. When you pick up these books for your child, make sure you read them together and discuss what happened in the book. Read it more than once and reinforce what you discussed. He leaves a lot of clues and children have to use inferencing to figure out exactly what went on. Inference is a sophisticated and important comprehension skill that good readers need to develop. Chris Van Allsburg is a great way to practice that skill with your child. His books are so fun! I promise you'll enjoy them as much as your child."
We spent time pre-testing over the Ninety Most Common Misspelled Words. We covered 40 of the words. The kids added the words they misspelled to their spelling list, and included social studies and science words if they needed extra to make a list of ten words. This spelling test will be on Friday.

On Friday, I will be presenting at the Mahoning County Educational Center’s Technology Conference!

Book of Spells Assignment

Book of Spells