Missouri Salt Dough Maps

We are very proud of our salt dough maps showing Missouri's regions and landforms!

Guest Bloggers!

Our Meeting With Mrs. Franklin

by Andrew

Dear Reader,
Mrs. Franklin is awesome! She is an expert on history. Today she came to our school and told us about Sunset Hills. She told us all about Native Americans. She told us that there were many Native Americans in Sunset Hills and they ate meat like fish, birds, and deer and used the salt springs to keep the meat fresh. She told us about Native American burials and how some people still try to steal things from the mounds. There are still Native Americans today and they look just like us. Some of the Native Americans like to be called Indians.

Mrs. Franklin is related to George Washington! She is his cousin. He died 100 years before she was born.

From Andrew
P.S. Do not take something that belonged to Native Americans.

Roald Dahl Party

by Cullen

In my class we had a party for Roald Dahl. We all made an artifact and brought a snack. They both needed to have something to do with a Roald Dahl book. I made a clay turtle to represent Alfie from Esio Trot. For a sanck, I brought in a chocolate bar called a Wonka Bar.

After the class showed their items, we went to the library for Roald Dahl trivia. We all got in groups with a different class. After that, we came back to class, read The BFG, and finally the party was over.

We've Gone Crazy for Roald Dahl!

Join our author study of Roald Dahl!

Please make a comment below to share with us!

Do you have a Roald Dahl book to recommend? Please tell us the name of the book and what you like about it.

For superfans of Roald Dahl- please tell us what you like about this author!

Our First Digital Word Wall Billboard!

Our First Walking Field Trip: By Mrs. Hake's Guest Bloggers

Maddie and her mom checking data

Students collecting data

Dear Reader,
Today we went on a field trip to the Eddie Cemetery. I learned so much about history. I learned that some kids and adults had a very short life in the 1800's. Some lived long. I never knew history could come alive!
I also learned that a headstone marks where the body is. Even though the cemetery was small I had a big load of fun! If it weren't for the parents and Mr. Hayes and Mrs. Hake, we would have been very unsafe to cross the little sections of the road. I would like to thank Mrs. Riley and Mrs. Cobb and Mr. Hayes for going with us.
With Love,
Caroline

Bryce Writes:
There were so many tombstones with the last name of Eddie on them. Did you know they have footstones too? I saw one Eddie only lived for one day. Thomas Eddie had the fanciest tombstone. Mrs. Hake said the Eddie family had 11 slaves! Whoa!
When we were walking we saw a lot of sewers. This is because there used to be lots of creeks and there are underwater springs all around the property that used to belong to Thomas Eddie.

Summer Says:
I found a spider carrying an egg sac on one of the tombstones. Sadly, I also learned that Thomas Eddie named his first son Thomas and he died after one day and that is why they started the cemetery. When Mrs. Hake first started taking trips with her class ther cemetery was tragic! There were weeds and some of the stones were knocked down. Now it looks much better!

Madeline Writes:
There were 11 slaves but no tombstones for them. They also did not call them by their name.
The sad thing is that the Eddie family is not around anymore. It is up to us to help care for the cemetery. You can help, but that is up to you.

Welcome!

Another new school year is about to begin! Welcome to all the new fourth grade students! I am so happy that we will be learning together this year! Soon I will begin blogging regularly and I welcome all students, teachers, and parents to join in as we Live and Learn together!

Please feel free to introduce yourself below in a comment. If you are new to blogging, here are a few points to remember.

1. Always ask your parents first. That's right students, go get your parents right now and share this blog with them! Parents, we love comments from you as well!



2. Use FIRST NAMES ONLY if you choose to put your name in your comment .



3. Everything that goes on this blog is "moderated." This means, I will recieve an email to let me know there is a comment that someone wants to post, and I must approve it before it is posted. This means, we are taking care to be sure all the comments are appropriate for a school setting.



4. If you are new to blogging: To comment, click on the words "comment" and you will see other people's comments. On the right, you will see a box where you can type in your comment. You can put your first name in the box as well, if you like. You can then click the circle for "annonymous".



5. When your comment looks the way you want it, click on the "publish" tab at the bottom.

Blogging is such a great way for us to share and work together. You can scroll down these blog posts to see all the great things that have already been shared on this blog. As always, if you have any questions or would like to contact me personally, you can use my email: jhake@lindberghschools.ws.

Love,

Mrs. Hake

Communication is key!

Another Surprise When I Opened The Paper!

In the South County Times!

History Comes Alive!!! Service Project Update!

Great news! Our new fence and gate for the Historic Eddie Cemetery is almost a reality!

Read about our project from an article in the South County Times last year by clicking here.

The Crestwood-Sunset Hills Rotary heard about our work at the site from Mrs. Franklin, our community partner, and Mrs. Mary Jane Driscoll, Lindbergh's Funding Specialist ...and has donated $500 towards our project!

Thank you, Crestwood- Sunset Hills Rotary and community Partners!

Another fundraiser will be held on June 13 at Watson Trails Park during the German Fest.
Thanks to the Sunset Hills Historical Society, all proceeds from the sales of water and soda will go to "History Comes Alive." We only need to purchase the pepsi products and water bottles.

Helpers are needed to sell drinks at the German Fest for about an hour or so starting at 5:00.
If you can not help us with our selling, we could also use donations of cans of pepsi, diet pepsi, or water bottles for selling.

Please comment here- or email Mrs. Hake at jhake@lindberghschools.ws if you can help!

Just to remind us of how students can be leaders, here is a video clip of some ex-students conducting a tour at the Cemetery.

That is our Principal, Dr. Hutchins, and a member of the Sappington Historical Society getting the lesson! Each year our class makes a great local timeline like the one you see in the background to share with the community... Cool!

One of Mr. von Rosenberg's Silly Frog Poems!

Here is one of our favorite local poets, reciting his latest work, "Goldifrog."

(Local Poetry Lovers: He will gladly recite one of his many silly poems for you in person if you visit him at his store in Crestwood Court called "I Don't Want to Kiss a Llama!")

Mr. vanRosenberg will also be at our poetry tea on May 15 to share more of his work!

Guests are welcome to visit our classroom from 1:30-2:00 for our poetry reading and to meet Mr. vanRosenberg in the Truman Cafeteria on May 15 from 2:00-2:30.

Owl Pellets Part 2: Your Turn!

We've recieved many great comments about our disection videos! Here is our guest blogger, Gregory, to tell you about owl pellets.

After you read his post, you may want to try disecting owl pellets yourself on this virtual owl pellet site link !



Owl pellets are what an owl coughs up after he eats. The owl pellet iis bones and other non-digestbable parts of the animals the owl eats. Owls cough up owl pellets 2 to 3 times a day.


You can find bones of the animals in an owl pellet. The bones will vary in type and size. On the outside, there is fur.


You disect an owl pellet by breaking it apart carefully Then you find the bones. Clear off the bones carefully!

Disecting Owl Pellets

Here is just a sample of what we found in our owl pellets!

Student Blogger Assignment

Click the link below to comment on Mr. C's Students' Work.
Carefully listen, examine the work and give thought before commenting.
Please make your comments specific and relevant.
You will be evaluated on the quality of your comments.
http://anovelapproachtoreading.blogspot.com/

Making a Memorial Garden

Service-Learning Continues at Eddie Cemetery

The stepping stones for our memorial garden are complete...Thank you Truman Tiger Council!

We will have a work day at Eddie Cemetery on Saturday, April 18 from 10:00-12:00. All students and ex-students are welcome to join in the fun as we install the memorial garden for the Eddie Family Slaves. Meet at the cemetery to mulch, plant, and install the stones made by Tumran Tiger Council to memorialize these important early settlers in our community!

Nature Unleashed!

This post is dedicated to our visitors from as far away as across the USA, or across the globe! Have you noticed our new map of visitors on the right of our blog? We have been so thrilled that we are getting to know some bloggers from far away.

Please comment below and tell us about the natural environment where you live!

We are working on a unit in science called "Nature Unleashed!" We will study the plants and animals around our state of Missouri.

So non-Missourians, let us know where you are and what plants and animals you have seen in your own neighborhood!

Would you like to help us create a googlemap about nature?
If so, email our teacher at jhake@lindberghschools.ws

Character Word of the Month...Patience

One of the most rewarding things about this time of year is to see the bulbs we so patiently plant in the fall bloom again! It's time to work on "keeping history alive" with our service learning project.
Past students have raised funds for the bench where our guest historian is sitting in this video. Clean up, planting, and restoration has all been done on this historic family cemetery by Truman Fourth Graders! This little video with music will get us in the mood to renew our work. Be sure to keep checking our blog to see all the wonderful things come to be that we have planned for our historical preservation project this spring!

Springtime at Eddie Cemetery

Our Digital Word Wall

In The Classroom

Guest Blogger: Sindi

Hi I'm Sindi and I am in Mrs.Hake's class.
We learned so many things.
One thing We learned is multiplacation and division.
We have done a lot of tests so far.
Mrs.Hake says we need to know our facts because we're
going to use them in the future.
You need to know multiplacation to learn division.
We use multiplacation and division almost every day.

Right now we are focusing on geometry.
We are practicing alot to get ready for the map test.
Mrs.Hake taught me a lot.

I'm learning more and more at school.

Mrs.Hake is the best teacher!

"The Dog Ate My Homework"

Guest Blogger: Kate
Here is Kate with her homework folder that her dad brought to school for her.

Today my dog ate my homework. Because I left it at home. I called my dad to bring it up. He said it was in pieces. I said "what? Who did this?" My dad said "Sonny." I was really mad and sad. Because he ate all my homework up.

In Honor of Nathan's Birthday...His Animoto is HERE!

Jake's Animoto Take 2

Jake's Animoto about Pioneer Day

I'm So Lucky

A first attempt at an Animoto video. I was hoping to highlight how lucky we are to be working together in 4th grade. Wish these lasted for longer than 30 seconds!

Magic House Village

Our trip to the Children's Village at the Magic House was a huge success! We learned about making and saving money. All the students did an excellent job at working... and spending their paychecks wisely!
Here's the news...

Making decisions...

Working...

What a fun way to learn about the economy!

Happy Birthday, Theodor Geisel!

How do we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss? With Read Across America Day! For the month of February, we read and re-read some of our favorite Dr. Seuss Books. We found lots of mature themes, especially relating to character!


Here is Erin celebrating the book, The Lorax. The theme of this book is conservation and caring about the environment. It also teaches us what can happen if people get greedy. There were lots of economic concepts in this book to tie in with our social studies unit!


Our First Grade Buddies enjoy the Easy Reader Books...and we prepared a party for them to celebrate and read together. Our guest blogger, Kate, will tell you all about it...



Kate's Blog: Dr. Seuss Day

At the end of the day our buddies came over. We had punch and cookies. We dressed up from the Dr. Seuss book. We cleaned up and watched Daisy Head Maisy and Horton Hatches an Egg. In Daisy Head Maisy, a little girl was sitting in class and a daisy popped out of her head. All the kids sang "Daisy Head Maisy!" The teachers were panicking. She became famous, and she was very happy at first. But she was very sad at the end because she had no friends and no mom and dad. So she went home and said to her mom, "I should have listened to you."
In Horton Hatches an Egg, Horton was walking along and the bird said can you watch my bird for a couple of minutes. So he sat on the egg, not for A couple minutes he sat for 53 weeks. When the bird was flying she saw the crowd. So she went to see. The egg was jumping all around. The egg hatch it was an elephant that had wings. The people let him go with his baby.

Ability Awareness Day!

Our guest bloggers will tell you about a great afternnoon we had yesterday. We call it "Ability Awareness day." We learned from people who have disabilities, but we focused on their ABILITIES! We met some amazing people...and an amazing dog, too! Thanks to Mrs. Butz and all the other adults who put this afternoon together for Truman 4th Grade!

First...Meet Our Guest Bloggers!

Jon

Darren

Gabby

Alex

Darren's Blog Post:

Ability Awareness Day was fun. First, for an introduction, we went into the Library Media Room. We met a woman who has Cerebral Palsy. Then we went to the gym and we met Mr. Jim, whose legs were blown off in the Vietnam War. He was in a wheel chair and he brought some of his wheelchairs and we tried them out. They were very fun. We had races with Mr. Jim's wheelchairs. I couldn't park the one I rode in. Next we went back to the Library Media Room and met a therapy dog named Tommy. He was some type of terrier. Tommy showed us all the ways a dog can help people with disabilities. The dog can turn on the light if it has a string on it. Then we went to the library and we met a woma who told us about famous people with disabilities like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and Michael Jordan. We went into the lobby and voted for our favorite part. Mr. Jim won the favorite.

Jon's Blog Post:

The first speaker was Mrs. Martin. Mrs. Martin has cerebral palsy because she didn't have enough oxygen when she was born. She told us that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover and that disabled people have a lot in common with us. Like we like to go shopping, eat pizza and play Uno. She said that disabled people have to adapt, like when she plays Uno, she has to have a card holder but she can still play the same as the rest of us.

Gabby's Blog Post:

My favorite part of the day was Tommy. He's a therapy dog. He helps people with things, such as turing off lights, getting tissues, picking up things, and obeying his owner, Liz. Tommy goes to hispitals and Urgent Cares to put a smile on sad people's faces and also people who have broken bones can actually work their muscles by throwing balls or Frisbees for Tommy. Tommy is a great dog, and really helps Liz a lot! I wish we could have this day again and again!

Alex's Blog Post:

I think the most fun thing on ability day was the wheel chair race. The person that helped us with the wheel chairs was a person named Jim. Jim was very nice and funny. He's a great athlete.

To learn about another really special person, who happens to have autism, visit this blog!

Nick is Mrs. Hake's handsome and talented nephew!

Nick has never spoken in words, he speaks with pictures.

http://artismbynick.blogspot.com/

Inventions!

Which of these inventions could YOU use?

This is Darren with his "Pullinator." It will pull stuff and it will wear out your dog's energy if you put treats in the boxes and pull them around really fast.


This is Erin with her Dogbrush. You can get your dog to calm down with the bacon treat on the end and then brush your dog!

This is Jon with his "Descrambler." It will keep your vanity organized and clean and help your morning routine go faster. It has a drawer for cosmetics, holders for your flat iron and hair dryer, a clock radio, ipod dock, a water dispenser with a cup, and holders for your combs and hairbrushes!

This is Jake with his "Duster/Scratcher Personmatic 2000." It will dust far away if you are allergic to dust, or scratch your pet if you don't like pet dander.

This is Ryan with a great soccer shoe he invented. When you don't know what time it is in the middle of the soccer game, you can just look at it and find out!

"I Don't Want to Kiss a Llama!" ...Byron von Rosenberg Visits

We got to meet a really entertaining author on Friday!


Byron von Rosenberg came to our class to talk about being a poet. He shared two of his published works with us, I Don't Want to Kiss a Llama and Thinking Upside Down! He even gave us a sneak peek at some of the things he is working on for his next book.

Mr. von Rosenberg has a store in Crestwood Court Mall called "I Don't Want to Kiss a Llama" and he can also be seen often at Grant's Farm, where he hangs out with the real llamas!

He inspired us to write some great rhyming poetry to add to our portfolios.

For more on Byron von Rosenberg and his poetry, click the link below.

http://www.byronvonrosenberg.com/kissllama.html

Wintertime Projects

Mrs. Joyce Franklin, our local history expert, will make several visits to our classroom.

One of my favorite things about the winter months is our focus on meaningful projects. By now, the class has a good idea of what is expected and how to use the resources in our room and school. We are getting to know each other very well. It's so fun to be in the classroom with these energetic, enthusiastic students!

History Comes Alive- Classroom Project: We are beginning our History Comes Alive project by studying local history with Mrs. Franklin, a local history expert who will visit our classroom again this week. We are getting some historical perspective on how our neighborhood developed over time. Along with this, we are creating a timeline of events and inventions which shaped the way we live today. We will donate our findings to the Sunset Hills Historical Archives, making our class service-learning project meaningful not only for us, but for the larger community!

Invention Project Our History Comes Alive project ties in well with our work in science and language arts where we are studying inventions, creating our own invention, and writing a research report to back up why our creations would improve life.
Parents: check your child's assignment books and folders on detailed instructions on the invention project! We are using the format from the Lindbergh PRISM book which each student received or it can be found online here:

http://pages.lindberghschools.ws/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?

Enjoy the holdiay ahead...recharge for a great second half!

Pictures of some recent contributions to school-wide caring efforts...

Donations of books for a school in Galveston struck by Hurricane Ike.

Tiger Council boxing up the donated supplies to be mailed.

Our reading teacher Mrs. Niehaus

My name is Jonathan. Today I am the guest blogger.

I am going to tell you about our reading specialist Mrs. Niehaus.



Mrs. Niehaus is our reading specialist.She helps us in our reading groups. She carries a big blue and yellow box with all the things she needs to run her reading groups. She chooses the books we read in our groups. Some books she's read with us are: From the Mixed up Files of Mrs.Basil.E.Frankwiler, Joey Pigza Loses Control and Bridge to Terebithia. I think that she is very nice and I am glad that she comes to our room every morning.

Meaningful Giving...

Here's how we put together a "human body"...





And here's what a human body needs for fuel...



Have you noticed a new trend in education? If you're a reader of our blog, surely you have heard about "service learning." The service learning concept is reflected in the title of this blog "Live and Learn." In service learning, students reach out with what they learn in the classroom to help others. To me, this is what education is all about. Learning is essential for us to make positive contributions to our community. I'm proud that what we learn in our schools will make our world a better place.

Our curricular focus on health has encouraged students to participate in our school's "Adopt-a-family" initiative. Each classroom in our school has adopted a family for the holidays. Our family consists of a mother and a 19-month-old child.

These caring students carefully studied the human body and nutrition in health class this week. We created a model of our bodies and studied our body organs and systems, and what we need to do (and not do!) to keep healthy. We studied the food pyramid of recommended servings from each food group. We learned to read food labels to check for serving sizes and nutritional contents.

We knew we were successful in our learning goals on the day that we brought in food items, read the labels, and put together menus for our family. Our food items represented every food group (meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, protein.) For the next few weeks, we will be continuing to collect food items, money to buy grocery store certificates for perishable items, and personal needs items. We already have diapers and laundry detergent, food for meals such as tuna casserole and spaghetti and sauce, and more!
Thank you for contributing. Caring is sharing!

Happy Veteran's Day

Nathan's grandpa was one of our guests today for Veteran's Day. Nathan and Grandpa spent some quality time together! Thanks for being here for us, Veterans! And thanks for your service to our country!

Service Learning on a Cold Fall Day

Character Word of the Month: Peace

"Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me..."

After school on a cold November day, we walked to the Eddie Cemetery to work on our historical preservation project, "History Comes Alive: in my own Backyard." Our goal was to repair a broken stone and to plant more spring blooming bulbs. We brought along our cemetery stone expert, John Maurath. He was going to teach us something that few fourth graders ever get to learn... How to repair a tombstone. The tombstone was damaged during our dedication ceremony last summer when a guest inadvertantly backed into it. We were determined to get that stone repaired and those bulbs in the ground before the winter freeze.

We surveyed the damage. Mr. Maurath had the stone all ready and clean for the repair.

Mr. Maurath showed us how to mix the epoxy. We helped him apply it to the stone.

We put the stone in place very carefully.

The epoxy will need to set for a while to get hard as a rock.





We took a moment to reflect on Margaret Eddie, the 36 year old woman who was buried here with her two children, ages 4 and 6. This must have been a rough time for the pioneer family. The weeping willow tree on the stone symbolizes sadness.

We brought along a sketch of the cemetery from the 1950's to compare it to what we see today. We identified many missing stones. Mr. Maurath told us that before the sketch was made, all the stones were laying down and someone restored the site as best they could, placing the stones back as well as they could. Mr. Maurath restored the site again about 5 years ago. He had to pull every stone out of the ground and look for the original frames in the ground where they were set. He told us that he was working in October, and many of the loose stones were stolen on Halloween night...maybe a prank? How disappointing! This group of good citizens will help make sure that the memories of this pioneer family are preserved and honored for future generations.

Even Lucky the dog seems to appreciate that tombstones are great primary sources of historical information!

Before we left, it was time to get those bulbs in the ground.

We returned to school promising to continue to work hard all winter long...and anticipate the spring blooms!

Fall Festival

Fall Festival Day was a blast!

We had a dance contest with the Radio Disney touring tent... Check out our dance moves...

And the winner was....

Jon! Who danced on his head to win this cool hat!

Then it was time for some Halloween fun!

"Slim Goodbody" ...and our Nerves!

We have begun a unit on the human body. There are so many fun ways to learn. We have been watching video clips like the one you can see us watching above with the wonderful singing and dancing "Slim Goodbody" ...and taking notes! "Slim" taught us all about our nervous system and how "messages" travel to and from our brain.

After the video, we conducted an experiment to test our reflexes!

The class did a great job taking notes, and collecting and analyzing data. Plus, we had a lot of fun!

Learning About Our State!

Sampling some pioneer activities like making bread

and panning for gold.
What an exciting day!

First, we sampled some "pioneer day" activities!

Then we had a "Famous Missourian Living Museum."
Here are some of our "Famous Missourian" Costumes.



Martha Jane Canary (Calamity Jane)


Jackie Joyner Kersee

Sheryl Crow

William Clark

J.C. Penney

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Charles Lindbergh

Brad Pitt

Mary Engelbreit

Mark Twain

Harry S Truman

Yogi Berra

Sacajawea

Josephine Baker

Our Guest Blogger Today... BRYAN!

Our class went on a field trip to Daniel Boone's Home in Defiance, Missouri!

Today our guest blogger, Bryan is going to tell you what he learned on this trip about school in the 1800's.

A long time ago when Daniel Boone's son Nathan went to school, they had to get up early so they can get the fire started for school so the school can stay warm. If he misbehaved the teacher would have to give a spank with a paddle, or have him put his nose on the slateboard and stay still.

When school was over, the boys would all have to burn out the fireplace and clean it up.

Male teachers could be married but female teachers could not be married.

Salt Dough Maps!

Here is a group of proud students with our beautiful salt dough maps. We learned so much from this hands-on activity!

Sorry for making you blog readers wait so long for this post! I had a few problems with internet permission for students but I have figured this out now. You can expect more frequent posts now!

What do you get when you mix salt, flour, water, and 20 enthusiastic students?

Answer coming next week!

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." ~John Dewey

The Journey Begins!

Here we are...a community of learners on our way to accomplishing great things! Already we have so many goals and so much curiousity about what we will learn and ideas on how we can use what we are learning throughout our lives.



Below are just a few examples, but the possibilities seem endless...
First...Blogs! Today we each got on a laptop and learned how to navigate Lindbergh's computer network and the internet a little better. We now have lots of students interested in blogging, so expect some "guest bloggers" this year! This should be fun. We learned about the history of blogs, their purpose, and internet safety. I can only imagine the access to information that these students will have as they "live and learn"... This is coming from a teacher who earned her first degree before personal computers, the internet, cable television, digital photography and music, or cell phones. Learning to navigate in this world of instant messaging, texting, googling, channel-surfing, etc, is going to be key for these eager learners. Their future is something I can only imagine... how important it will be for them to communicate effectively and sort through all the incoming stimuli.


We began our study of social studies today with a look at Google Earth and different kinds of maps on the internet and around our classroom. We had a visit from the technology expert and Google certified teacher, Cindy Lane. I had an "aha" moment as I thought back and remembered telling my third graders in 1985 that "a globe was the best, most realistic model of the earth ever!" Now, I have to wonder, (and if you have ever experienced Google Earth, you know what I'm getting at here), is a globe still really the best model of our earth?

We have some plans for exciting activities in the next few weeks. These long-range plans can guide our journey because they keep us focused on mastering the skills we need to carry them out . We will have the experience of creating a salt-dough map of the United States, which will help us to understand landforms in science and the geography of our country.
We will be taking our first "history walk" to the Eddie Cemetery. On the way, we will be observing the land that Thomas Eddie chose for his homestead...the creeks and hills and valleys. At the cemetery, we will do some math activities in subtraction...figuring out the ages of the people memorialized there. I have found that the key to success is learning that all the skills we learn in the classroom have a purpose beyond room 216... and this first "history walk" will help us to expand our learning community.

Off To A Great Start!

I think it is safe to say that those of us who worked in room 216 today will sleep well tonight.


As usual, the first few moments of a new school year can be a bit tense, with everyone arriving with new school supplies and needing to find out where everything goes, where to sit, where their locker is, and generally how things will work in fourth grade. Some students arrive with smiles... and for some the smiles come later, as our questions are answered and our concerns put to rest. Soon we will all know each other well and will feel confident and successful as we work together to meet so many goals. Thanks to tons of planning and lots of cooperation from this great group of students and parents, we are well on our way!

Here are some of the concerns we addressed already...you can see it was a productive day. Parents, I hope this will give you some topics for conversation with your child!

• Routines: restroom, locker, drinking fountain, pencil sharpening, morning warm-ups, basic schedule, work seating choices


• Organization: 3- Ring system (no binders necessary this year!) folders, mailboxes


• Expectations: There are 3 basic expectations I have for students 1) Be Where You're Supposed to Be; 2) Do Your Work; 3)Respect Others With Your Words and Actions


• Multiplication Facts: Practice


• Place Value: Introduced numeration to thousands and played a game


• Student Planners: How to complete these with weekly goals, words to learn, daily assignments, etc. (Parent signatures appreciated in planners)


• Reading: We begin reading groups tomorrow, select a book


• Snacks: Bring a healthy, non-messy snack if you want


• Service Learning: We had an exciting introduction to the "History Comes Alive Project" (watch the short video my class made last year on how this started and the work we've done, with opportunities to continue this year. This will help answer lots of questions about service learning and how our field trips to the cemetery this year will help us learn.)

All this...plus a visit from the principals, the counselors, Tiger-vision, flowers for the teacher, and we met our class mascot, Mr. Sloppy (a puppet). What a day!

Today we watched this video that my class made last year about "History Comes Alive." This is an on-going project, with Eddie Cemetery as our outdoor classroom. I also offer students opportunities to complete service hours beyond the school day if they are interested.
A project like this helps show students that what we learn in the classroom has meaning and purpose in our community. More information on this project will be coming to you on curriculum night, Aug 28. (Sorry about the sound quality on this video- you may need to adjust your volume as you watch.)

That's all for today...

My plan is to blog regularly this year, and I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful. I appreciate feedback in the comments section.

For Now...A List...

Today I am inspired to blog! I just received my class list of students' names for the new school year. After 23 years as a teacher (and many, many more as a student) I still get excited about beginning a fresh school year. That list of names...some familiar, some totally new...represents a group of learners whom I will soon know very well. I know there will be moments of confusion, frustration, joy, and truimph. I know that by the end of September I will be sitting at the dinner table, telling my family, "This is the best class I have ever had!" And my teenage daughters will say "Mom, you say that EVERY year." It's true. Every year I fall in love with another class.

This is the magic that happens in every school year. This is what makes the beginning of each school year a time of excitement for me. It always begins with this neatly typed list of names in alphabetical order...