Holiday Breakfast!

My first annual holiday breakfast was a huge success!  The kids, as well as the adults, enjoyed the variety of food and beverages we had to choose from.  We enjoyed pancakes, bacon, an egg casserole, cinnamon buns, banana bread, cinnamon coffee cake, fruit, and donuts!  It all was absolutely delicious!  No one wanted to eat lunch because we were so full!!! 

Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to bring food or drinks in.  This party could not have happened without you!  Also thank you to Mr. DuBreuil for coming to help out at the party.  It was nice to have you there! 

Last but certainly not least...a huge thank you to my mother who came in and helped make pancakes!  Her help was greatly appreciated and I think the kids enjoyed meeting her.

Holiday Craft Fair

Wow!  I have some very crafty and creative kids in my room!  During activity period the 4th grade team had our kids rotate throughout each classroom to make crafts to give as Christmas gifts.  In Mrs. Vandell's room they made painted ornaments.  In Mrs. Lagos' room they made snowmen out of washers.  In Mrs. Beaudet's room they got to show off their sewing skills by making a wreath made out of felt pieces.  In our room we made snowmen ornaments and Christmas crackers.  Christmas crackers are actually a popular tradition in South Africa.  Check out some pictures of the craft fair from yesterday afternoon:

Team News: Week of December 16-20

This week:  We had a festive week learning about Christmas traditions from countries around the world.  We traveled to Mexico, Italy, France, Germany, and Holland.  While visiting each country we learned about their traditions and made a craft.  We also listened to some Christmas music in different languages.  Ask your child who La Befana is.  See if they can tell you something about each of the countries we visited.  In math, we took our Unit 2 assessment and our Unit 3 pretest on equivalent fractions.  In Social Studies, we completed our quilt project by putting it together and hanging it in the hall.  It looks amazing!

Next Week:  We resume school on January 2^nd and will ease our way back into the swing of things.  We will not have a literacy story.  We will begin learning about equivalent fractions.  In Social Studies we will begin our new chapter about NH in the 20^th century. 

Team News: Week of December 9-13

This week:  In Literacy, we read a nonfiction piece called “Words Add Up to Success.”  This is a true story about an inner city school teacher, Jaime Escalante, who motivated his students to do great things.  His story was turned into a movie, Stand and Deliver.  We focused on distinguishing between fact and opinion.  In math we continued to focus on division.  I am happy to say that everyone seems to be catching on!  In Social Studies, we learned about quilt codes and how they helped slaves along the Underground Railroad.  Each student was able to make a quilt square the will be part of a class paper quilt.  Look for pictures coming soon to our class blog!

Next Week:  We will not have a literacy story.  Instead we will be doing a mini-unit on Christmas around the World.  Students will be learning about different countries’ Christmas customs and traditions.  In math, we will be taking our Unit 2 test.  While this means we will be moving on to equivalent fractions after the break, we won’t be abandoning multiplication and division.  On Friday we will have our holiday breakfast and book exchange.  On Friday afternoon we will watch The Polar Express and have cookies and hot chocolate.

Important Dates Coming Up:

December 18:  Book order due…please make checks payable to Scholastic Book Club or myself

December 20:  Holiday Party

December 23-January 1:  Christmas Break

Don’t Forget:  to practice multiplication facts, read 20 minutes, and complete homework!  

Using Khan Academy for Math Help!

Another 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Beaudet, introduced me to this website and when I checked it out I knew I had to introduce it to all of you!  I want to encourage all of my students as well as parents to check out www.khanacademy.org for excellent math tutorial videos.  The videos will help students and parents to better understand math concepts.  There are some great video tutorials for multiplication and long division.  The website is very easy to navigate around...all you need to do is sign-up for free!  There is also a FREE Khan Academy App in the Itunes App Store.  Again, I encourage all of you to have your children spend some time looking at these videos.  I think it will be very beneficial!

Check out this sample video from the 4th grade division menu:

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-fourth-grade-math/cc-4th-mult-div-topic/cc-4th-division/v/dividing-3-digit-by-1-digit-without-remainder