Week 22

Weekly Greetings!

We made it through the cold snap at the beginning of last week, though the room was much cooler than when we have warmer weather. Please make sure on very cold days that your child has an extra sweatshirt, or wears a long sleeved shirt to class. This was the second time the room was harder to heat during a cold spell. Forecasters are saying we could get colder temperatures again sometime this week.

Something out of our normal routine last Tuesday was our participation in an AK Teach Instant Challenge. Even though we had a small number of of students in class that day, there were three groups of two in each team for the competition. We signed in to the program with a number of schools around the state, and the students were given a challenge to build a tower with just two pieces of copy paper. This 4th grade group continues to amaze me on how well they work together and the ideas they generate when given a problem to solve. After hearing the challenge, they got busy and figured out ways to make to complete the challenge.

It was a timed event, and when the time was up we were able to hear about and share about everyone's building ideas.

Not only will we continue to connect with scientists in different fields though AK Teach, but also hopefully we can continue to fit in the Instant Challenge events as cooperative and problem solving activities.

On Tuesday this week, the class will be participating in the district wide Battle of the Books reading competition. I am not sure what time it will start, but I will tell the class when the time is set and they can pass on the information if you would like to attend. 

Also, I am still contacting families to set times for Parent/Teacher conferences next Monday. Trying to connect on the weekend was not the best idea, as some people were not available. I will send a reminder note with your time on it sometime during the week. Of coarse, please remember that there is no school next Monday, January 23.

I have just two more pieces important information before I close. First, book orders are due this Friday and second, I am sending home a permission slip for your child to participate in the 2018 Migratory Bird contest. Most students have worked on both a literature entry and a poster entry. 

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 21

 Weekly Greetings!

We had a fast and productive week to start the New Year, though there were a few tired students the first couple of days. In Social Studies we started a short unit on Dr. Marten Luther King, Jr. with the focus being on strong leadership. Students worked in small groups and answered questions on three large pieces of paper located around the room. The statements on the large papers were: "A leader is...; I like it when leaders...; One day, I would love to lead...." I was really impressed with all of the responses and discussion that took place in each group.

After talking about their responses we did a KWL chart on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to assess what they already knew and wanted to learn about the famous man. Then we read a short story on his life, and were able to answer a few of the things the class wanted to learn about him. This week we will continue this mini unit leading up to his birthday.

Looking at the Universe is the focus in Science for the next month, and we started off by looking at the importance of the sun. We did an experiment using a lamp as the sun source, to see what heated faster: water, soil, or sand. Our prediction was the soil because it was dark and dark things usually absorb heat more. We found that the sand actually heated the most in a short amount of time. The water was the slowest. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be looking closer at the solar system. This week, we will also participate in an AK Teach activity on Tuesday that is called an "Instant Challenge". The students will not know what we are doing until the director gives them a challenge to create something with the materials provided. These challenges are great problem solving and cooperative learning experiences with students from other schools across Alaska and in other states.

I will be sending home book orders with the parent letter to start the week, and please return any orders by January 20th. Also, Friday will be the end of our 1st Semester, and the end of the 2nd Quarter. After discussing time slots at our PLC on Friday, I will be letting you know next week what your schedule will be for conferences on January 23rd.

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 20

Weekly Greetings and Happy New Year!

I hope you have all enjoyed the vacation break, in addition to a memorable time with family and friends. A four-day week should be a good way to get back into the swing of school again after two weeks off. As most of you know, we will be starting 2017 off with a "Movie Night" fundraiser on Thursday night. Thank you all for your support in input.

The last week before the break was really busy, with a lot of special activities. We enjoyed reading The Gingerbread Man along with The Ninja Bread Man, and compared and contrasted the traditional fairy tale with the fractured fairy tale.  Then of coarse, we had to make gingerbread cookies.

 Another day we read The Gingerbread Baby, and compared and contrasted that version with the traditional story. At the end of The Gingerbread Baby, the run away cookie is caught in a gingerbread house instead of being eaten by a fox. So for fun, the students made gingerbread houses using gram crackers.

 When we were finished with the houses, it was time for the mini and little dribbles games. Some of the students from our class were playing in the little dribblers competition, and it was fun to cheer them on.

 Later in the day, students explored Tangram pieces after reading Father Tangs Story.

 On Thursday morning, we were able to log on with the AK Teach program to Antarctica and view the Adelie Penguins that exist in the far southern region of our planet. We were able to connect live with scientific researcher Jean Pennycook who lives among the penguin colony. She is in her third of the year of collecting data for long term studies about these amazing animals.

 That same day was the Christmas concert, and it was a lovely event. Our class got to close out the show with Feliz Navidad, and the group did a great job with the song.

Friday afternoon was our class party, and we started off with a piñata . Unfortunately, I was so busy handling the rope and making sure students were safe that I forgot to get pictures until the class was diving for candy.

Then everyone settled in to eat great snacks and watch a movie before school was out. Thank you for sending in snacks!

Everyday. the our last week of school in 2016 was packet with interesting activities and fun events. 2017 should continue to be rich with stimulating and rigorous content also. In class this week, we will get right back into our regular routines with two new units in Science and Social Studies. I will continue to send homework nightly as usual too.

Have an awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 17

 Weekly Greetings,

Thank you to all of you that helped and donated food for the movie night fundraiser last Friday night. We made $388.00! I have a couple more movies coming in the mail, and we still have concession food left over, so hopefully we can do another movie night again soon.

This week we will be having an enrichment week with books and activities surrounding the holiday season. There will be homework as usual, but no spelling list this week. The most important event will be the Christmas Concert at 2:00pm on Thursday. Please try to be there, as the students have been working hard on the songs that they will be singing. The last day of school before Christmas vacation will be this Friday. We will be having a class party starting at 12:30pm and I will attach a snack sign up list with this week's parent letter.

As for some highlights from last week, we started the week off on Monday with the bi-weekly visit from the school councilor. The students are being encouraged to explore careers, and work hard academically.

The class has also made a Christmas wall with the 3rd grade, and we needed numerous hand prints for a tree decoration. Everyone traced and cut enough hand prints for a good-sized tree and then colored some decorations to go on it.

There was a special presentation sponsored by the Tetlin Refuge on Wednesday, and the class got to meet master snowshoe maker, George Albert. He did a nice job of showing the students the tradition way of making snowshoes from birch trees.

In Science, observations were recorded about the aquatic organisms in our classroom. As a class, we then compared and contrasted the snails and Guppies viewed in the containers.

Friday, everyone went to the greenhouse to see what was growing during the winter months. The class saw the barley growing in the dirt beds that will be tilled in for organic fertilizer before planting new food crops this spring. Then they made decorations out of natural materials that will come home later this week.

They also got to have a special snack before we returned to our class to finish the day.

This will be the last post of 2016. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. Class will resume again on Tuesday, January 3, 2017.

Wishing you a warm and healthy vacation break.

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 16

Weekly Greetings!

As I mentioned last week, Tim Lorenzini from the Tetlin Refuge was in on Monday to help get the class focused on a contribution to the Migratory Bird calendar for 2018. After the students returned from PE, and the wonderful time practicing NYO techniques that day, they were ready to research the bird each had chosen to study. For those that had been struggling with picking a bird, Tim had numerous books to look at and he was able to help everyone find a bird that interested them. Using the internet, the students read and took notes on characteristics and habitat, in addition to listening to the bird's song. This week, they will finish a literature contribution, and start a picture in Art on Wednesday.

Last week in Science, we started seriously looking at the role of living organisms in the balance of recycling nature. Students worked in pairs to observe and describe Pill Bugs on one day, then Millipedes on another day.

They seemed to enjoy the Millipedes more, as they were far more active.

This week, the class will observe aquatic organisms and compare the snails and fish we have in our room.

Please remember that we have a fundraiser movie night planned on Friday and I will send home a final flyer later this week.

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 15

Weekly Greetings!

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving break, despite the cold temperatures last Thursday. Even though we had just three days last week, the students accomplished a lot. Stephen Rudolph returned on Monday to do a poetry activity with the group and each one wrote a response to the Robert Frost poem he recited. They took turns sharing what they wrote in front the class.

In Social Studies the focus was on the first Thanksgiving and the important role that the Native Americans played in the survival of the pilgrim settles. The students made a table decoration to help them remember the positive relationship the two groups had.

On Wednesday, the class had worked so hard during the week that we took a short break for some Eraser Tag. It is a fun game and can easily be done in the classroom.

There are some new critters in the room to go with our Science unit on "Organisms" that we will be starting this week.

 

Also, on Monday we will start work on the Migratory Bird Calendar competition with the help of Tim Lorenzini from the Tetlin Refuge.

I hope you have a awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown