Week 28

 Weekly Greetings!

To start off, I would like you to know that I will be out on Monday due to dental appointments but I know the class will do great while I am gone. In addition there will be a Science Fair this Wednesday and our class will have three boards to display. I will share a bit more about that further into this letter and send a memo home when I have more information about times, etc. Also, please make sure your child is well rested and on time this Thursday as they have a national test that will be administered. It is my understanding that a letter was sent out about this from the district earlier in the year. The test is for the 4th and 8th grades only.

Now for a few highlights from the past week. We started the week celebrating Presidents' Day by making George Washington Thumb Print Cherry cookies. Everyone enjoyed working together and the final product was delicious.

All week, the students have been working in groups on a Science Fair project to display this coming Wednesday. They researched a topic, did an experiment they choose, and typed out the results. They are on the final leg of placing all the information on a board to enter in the fair. If you would like to know more, ask your child what they learned or come by the school to see their project.

On Friday, Tim Lorenzini from the Tetlin Refuge will be in to introduce trapping methods to the class. We had to post-pone it until this week because of the Homecoming assembly a couple of weeks ago. Possibly, we can go out and look for some animal tracks before the winter ends.

Have a wonderful week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 27

Weekly Greetings!

Another four-day week flew by and I have a number of highlights to share. We started the week with an investigation in Math on creating and taking surveys that tied into the last investigation about information that can be graphed. The students created a survey about the favorite juice of our class. After all the tallies were made, we found that apple is liked the most.

The next day was Valentine's Day and we shared cards, goodies, graphed candy hearts, and did a class word search. When sorting and graphing the hearts, we found that there were very few white hearts, while pink and yellow were the most common color in two bags.

On Wednesday we went to the Homecoming Assembly and the class was full of school spirit. They also enjoyed watching the lip sink competition and the Wolverine mascot dance.  For the middle school and high school groups, there were other activities that we all had fun watching.

This week we will continue to work on the Science Fair projects and display boards. I am sure there will be some tired students after all the excitement of the basketball tournament, but we will press on with our regular rigor. Also, thank you to all the parents that helped with the gate!

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 26

Weekly Greetings!

Each week seems to pass so quickly! Last week was no exception. Wednesday was the school Spelling Bee, and the three 4th graders from our class did really well. One student won the 1st through 5th grade competition, and two of our three participating went on to the older grade bee after lunch. It was a great event, and it was wonderful to see the parent support there also.

 In Science, we closed out the unit on our universe with an activity packet and Magic School Buss DVD. In doing the universe unit, the class has learned about our place in the universe, how we fit in the solar system, and understand how we are integrally connected to space. 

 In addition on Thursday, we will participate in another AK Teach activity that will tie in nicely to the unit we just completed. Over the Internet, we will join Denver Museum planetary scientist Ka Chun Yu, PhD on a virtual tour through space. The program description says we will start from the surface of the Earth, using stunning visualizations, and Dr. Yu will narrate our tour into lower Earth orbit, fly past the International Space Station, beyond our familiar 8 planets, ice balls and asteroids, and into deep space. It will really blend in nicely as a cumulative review.

The class was also able to experience the "Reality Sandbox" from UAF that allowed them to explore landforms in a topographic map format. Our thanks to Mr. Dunning, who organized getting it to Tok.

 I hope you all got the letter that went home on Friday about the Valentine's Day party planned at the end of the day on Tuesday. I sent home a list of names if your child would like to give out any Valentine cards that afternoon. Wednesday, there will be a homecoming assembly at 2:00pm if you are free to attend. Also, if you would like to order books from the book order I sent home last week, I will need the orders returned by Thursday. There will not be any school on Friday, so that will be the last day for this week. Thursday is going to be an early out at 2:00pm too, due to all the basketball action starting Wednesday night at the school. 

It is looking like an exciting week, and I am thankful to be a part of all the enriching activities offered at the Tok School!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 25

 Weekly Greetings!

Before I get into the highlights from last week, I would like to make sure you are aware of a few things. First, I am still trying to see what interest there is for the fundraising offer given to us to take money at the door of the up-coming basketball tournament. Please get back to me by Tuesday so that I know if we can cover the hours listed in the letter I sent home last week. Secondly, all the teachers were given a letter requesting help for the local food bank. It would be a great way to give back to the community, and the class that contributes the most donated food will win a root beer float party. The last thing on my list this letter is to let you know of the school-wide Spelling Bee on Wednesday at 9:00am in the library. We will have a class competition on Monday to find our top three spellers to compete on that day.

Now for some news about last week! The week was pretty busy with the regular amount of content to cover as the class moves through the expectations for fourth grade, but in addition they also had MAP testing Tuesday and Wednesday. So, when the 100th day of school arrived on Friday it was a perfect way to celebrate all their hard work and effort so far this year. Even through a 100th day celebration is usually a lower elementary activity, I promised the class 100 minutes of fun to acknowledge how much they have grown academically since starting school.

We started the morning finishing their daily journals that have 100 things that they have written about themselves. They were excited to see how much their writing has improved from the beginning of the year. Next, they were given some special glasses to hunt down 100 Chocolate Kisses hidden in the room. They found them really fast! Even though we had a small 100 number chart, and counted what was found, we still misses 10 that I found later. We started to make the connection that some were still in the class during snack when the Kisses were added into the other treats brought in by the students. 

The class made predictions about whether the 100 Chocolate Kisses or 100 Peanut M&Ms would weight more. They were split on which one was heaviest, but the Kisses won out. Next, the class was divided into two groups to make a 100-object train. They marked every length of 10 to help keep count.

 Graphing is always fun, so we made a graph using choices that they might want a 100 of. It was a tie between 100 cookies and 100 frogs.

Breaking up into pairs of two, the students took turns tossing a penny 100 times and recording if it fell on heads or tails.  Surprisingly it was pretty much equal, so we figured there was a 50/50 chance of getting one or the other in a coin toss.

 Those activities took up about 70 minutes before snack and recess, so because of the short day on Fridays we had the last 30 minutes of and instant challenge activity before lunch. Two groups were made and given the challenge to build a tower in a large square with toilet paper rolls. Each group was given fifty rolls out of the 100 I had collected. One person was to guard the tower, while the others tried to knock down the tower of opposing group using paper wads.  They all worked well together and had an active finale to our celebration.

As for this week, we will be starting a new unit in reading and finishing the Science unit on the universe so that we can start work on the upcoming Science Fair. On Friday, the class will also have an opportunity to experience a "Reality Sandbox" being set out from UAF.  If I understand correctly, it has something to do with topographic mapping. 

Lastly, even though I am still waiting for lasts months book order to arrive (it should be here any day), I am sending home the February list and would like it back by Thursday February 16.

I hope you have an awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown