In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can. Nikos Kazantzakis

Well hello there.

THANK YOU to Josh, David, and Carl for bringing in our first gift cards from students. Yay!!! They all earned $100 fake dollars for each card they brought. See your Tuesday Folders for more information. I updated the side list today as well. Thanks!

We took some time in the computer lab today to take two tests that measure two different things. One is to find an independent reading level, and the other was to find a measure of the child's vocabulary. Most kids were able to finish both tests. Those that did not, will finish this week. I will share the data with you soon.

We read our second chapter in Fallen Rock today. The two boys collected their shells that sound like the ocean. Lucky for us, David just happened to bring one of these exact shells to school today. So…we all got to listen to the same sound the boys in the story did. As you can see, we also took the time to map out the boys' journey and glue on our first artifact. Fun!



We started our small group rotations in Lead 21 today. I met with each group. We spent the time taking apart the text and identifying different text features that help us solve problems. We also talked a lot about fact and opinion and synonyms and antonyms.

In Montana History today we discovered the four states that border Montana using a code to decode the names. Ask your child to name all 4. If they can, write BORDER in the planner for $10 tomorrow. They should say: Idaho, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming.

We have been working hard at reviewing our cursive lower case letters. We have done letters a thru i. So, tonight's homework is a practice sheet. They need to fill up each line as many times as they can. All the words are created with the letters we know. Remind them to use their lines correctly and that cursive is slow and smooth. NO rushing!!! We talk a lot in class about one of my favorite phrases…if you don't have time to do it right, then you must have time to do it over. Please take a look at their sheets and point out your favorites and maybe one that they could erase and do even better. If you sign their homework sheet, I will know you did this and reward them $20 tomorrow. Thanks for supporting what we do at school at home. :0)

Many students didn't finish their multiplication review sheet in math either. They may need to finish that up at home as well tonight. So many kids are learning how important it is to use class time effectively. There is quite a few that are doing more talking than doing, and their backs are starting to feel the pain of that. Hopefully, they figure it out soon so homework isn't such a big part of their night. Gotta love life lessons and responsibility. :0)

Tuesday Folders came home tonight. A BIG thank you to Avery's mom once again for stuffing those. Inside you will find a lot of useful information. Please remove it all, sign and date the folder, and return it tomorrow. Those that do will earn their $50. Thanks.

Well, that about does it for today. Have a fantastic evening.
Mrs. Grewell

Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve. Mary Kay Ash

Hello. Happy Monday! We had a great day learning today.

We started our Journey of Fallen Rock book today. We read the first chapter and discovered what the 6 challenges are that the father gives both of his two sons. One of my favorite parts of this book is the character addressed throughout it. The two brothers have such a wonderful and healthy relationship. Most books with competition address mean issues. This one, the two boys are constantly encouraging each other while doing their best. Awesome role modeling going on! We also got our map of the USA ready. It is now divided into the 5 regions and tomorrow we will map out the two brother's routes to complete the challenges going from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Cool! At the dinner table tonight, ask your child to share at least one of the six challenges the boys will face. If they can tell you, write CHALLENGE in the planner for $10. The six challenges are: collect shell from atlantic ocean, a feather from a bald eagle, a whisker from a mountain lion, a pine cone from a tall tree in rocky mountains, a pouch of water from the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, and another shell from the Pacific Ocean.

In reading today we dived back into our Lead 21 books. We took a closer look at how dance deals with heritage. We even got to do a dance…a square dance that is. Enjoy the video!

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We also started our leveled books today. I used the kids placement tests they took last week to create their groups. As I am just starting to know your kids academically, I am trusting this test and the research behind it this time. As I work with kids more in small group, I will probably end up moving many kids from group to group depending on their needs. All groups will be learning the same skills. It is the depth, method, and the pace that changes from group to group. I will text you tonight what group your child is in. I ask that you don't make a big deal about the group meanings level wise. I promise all kids will make growth this year! I do not share what these book letters mean with kids. I just tell them they are in this group.

A: Above grade level
B: On grade level
S: Slightly below grade level
I: Below grade level

In Science today, we started our lessons on wind. We talked about how wind is found in any kind of weather, sunny or stormy. We also talked about how if we didn't have wind we would not have weather, just like the moon. We connected this to a book we read about the flag the other day and how the footprint of the astronaut is still up there undisturbed due to this exact thing. No wind…no weather. Pretty cool. On Wednesday, we will be treated with a  first hand lesson from a real live meteorologist from KULR8. A big thank you to Kyra's family for putting that one together. We look forward to that real world lesson.

We had honor choir tryouts today. A good luck goes out to Hanna and Dominic on that one. What a great opportunity for kids. My Emma made it last year as a forth grader and loved it! We hope to see both Dominic and Hanna on the stage as well this year! A BIG high five to both of them for even trying out. Takes guts!!!

Hopefully kids read their school themed chapter book this weekend. They know that they only have two and a half weeks left to read it. We are busy reading the one here daily in class as a model. I will not be giving out any details until it gets closer to the time. Right now, they should be reading at least 15 minutes a night for enjoyment.

Homework tonight is a reading comprehension sheet on the Pledge of Allegiance. We did an entire lesson on this awhile back at Fly Time. So, we did not read it aloud together. Kids need to read it at home and then complete the activity on the back. The back matches the front exactly. So, if they get stuck, please lead them back to the front rather than telling them the answer. Thanks.

Tuesday folders come home tomorrow. There is once again a lot of information. I want to remind you about our Saturday Live Basket donations. There is a detailed sheet in the folder tomorrow. I got our first gift card this weekend at Olive Garden. Please send in others to add to our basket soon. Cards are due on Friday the 19th so that Noah B's mom can organize and build our basket. I have put a list of cards collected on the side of the blog under the spelling words. This way we can avoid duplications. I will add to the list each time new ones come in. Thanks so much for doing this!

I leave you with another hall display. Since I am out of wall space in our area, I have now taken over the wall in front of the library. Thanks to Mr. Casey for allowing me to do this each year. I hope you take a closer look on Sept. 19th during open house at your child's superpower. They did a great job writing their very first RACE paragraph!



Have a great Monday night!
Mrs. Grewell

PS. PEAK Fitness club starts after school tomorrow for those that signed up. It is not too late!

Believe you can and you're halfway there. Theodore Roosevelt

Happy Sunday! Don't you just love Sundays? I love how it is a day that is just wrapped up in family and time spent just relaxing with them. I hope you enjoyed yours just as much as I did mine.

Right off the bat I want to thank all of you that came out to the Ice Cream Social. It was a BLAST! I have not laughed that hard in a long, long time. Watching all of you interact with your kiddos was my favorite part. Great times!!! If you attended the function, please write ICE CREAM SOCIAL in the planner for $50 tomorrow. Thanks for your support! (I also noticed that the MT Song didn't come through last week. So…here it is again along with some Ice Cream Social fun!)

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A special thank you to the Thompson family, the Dowler family, the Lambourne family, the Arroyo family, the Wagmeister family, and the Ellis family for donating your time and skills! Your help was sooooooo appreciated! We could not have done it without you!

We ended the week last week with our very first star of the week. Miss. Emily set the bar high for us! She brought in some fun items to share and told us some great details as to why they were special to her. It was the perfect example of what I hope all of the star of the weeks to be like! Thank you Emily! I soooo enjoyed learning more about you. I LOVE that you are in the Special Olympics. You have won so many medals!!! I LOVE that you have a cheer leading uniform just like your big sister at West High! And…I LOVE your night light! How cool is that thing! I would love going to sleep every night if I had one of those! Thank you for sharing with us little missy!



This week will be even more academics. We are starting to move away from procedures and get into more life long learning.

Math: Rounding, comparing large numbers, ordering large numbers, and discovering how numbers relate to one another.

Lead 21: We will start small leveled groups. I will be texting you your child's level group this week. I graded their placement tests this weekend. Kids will be doing some independent reading at their level and then coming back to group to discuss and dissect it. Kids move groups all the time throughout the year as they show growth or needs.

Language: Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Writing: RACE paragraphs. R-restate the prompt. A-Answere the questions being asked. C-cite examples to support the answer, E-end it with a wrap up statement.

Spelling: Words with short and long e sounds. Test Friday. This will be the qualifying test for the Alternate Spelling Program. Those that score a 100% on this test will be offered to join the alternate spelling group. They receive more challenging words at a higher level that still practice the same skill in class. It is optional. Students may join any week they get a 100%. Alternates still have to do the regular skill work in the spelling book all week.

Social Studies: Fallen Rock Book. We will FINALLY begin the book!!! (We had to keep postponing it last week due to a SuperHero project we did in class)(Which was WELL worth the wait!!! They turned out awesome!!) We will take a look at a map of the USA and divide it into the 5 regions we will study this year. We will follow the two boys across the US as we read the story and map their trail. We are all super excited to start the journey!

Montana History: We will take a look at the states that border our great state. We will also begin to look at the three regions of Montana and what kinds of landforms are found in each, including the Continental Divide!

Science: Wind. We will take a look at how it is formed, where it comes from, and what it can cause.

FlyTime: Trustworthiness and being a good sport. This will wrap up our 6 traits of character study. Next, we will get into more specifics of what I am seeing in our own classroom. Last week, we did our Respect pillar. We read a book called, My Mouth is a Volcano. Ask your child what it means to have a mouth explosion. If they can tell you that it is when we can't wait for a teacher to call on you and instead their words just come flying out of their mouth write the word VOLCANO in the planner for a $10 bonus. In the story the little boy was always interrupting others. Then it was hist turn to share some items with the class. Two other kids end up interrupting him. He then gets a taste of his own medicine (an idiom we talked about!). All day on Friday, I was saying…Uh oh…someone's volcano just exploded. Unfortunately, in our class eruptions cost kids $20 a pop!

Please mark your calendars for Thursday, September 18th. That will be our open house at Arrowhead. This is for parents only. It will be a time we spend together and talk about your child's upcoming year in my classroom. Bring any questions you have. This is NOT a time to talk about individual kiddos. We can do that anytime one on one or at our November parent teacher conferences.

There is one more thing I would like to talk about today. Saturday Live is coming up later this month. Our classroom has decided to do a gift card basket. Kids may bring in a gift card from any place for any amount. I know that I had some mom's volunteer to put this together for me. With all the volunteers for Ice Cream Social, now I can't remember who said they would help. Please write me a note in the planner if this was you. I apologize for not being more organized. My bad.

Students may begin to bring in gift cards at anytime. There are no rules or limits on this one. Anything goes and is gratefully welcome! In fact, I will pay $100 in fake money for each card a child brings in. We did this same basket last year and it brought in some good money for our school when auctioned off at Saturday Live. Who wouldn't want a basket full of free stuff????? Dinner could be served for a month, not to mention ice cream and coffee for desserts! :0) Please consider donating to our school basket soon. Thank you for all you do!!

I can't tell you how much I enjoy each and every one of your kiddos! They are all so unique and so special. I can't wait to take them from point A to point Z! All of them need to be challenged at their level and beyond, and I can't wait to be the one to do just that! Thanks for trusting me with your children. It is not an honor I take lightly!

Happy End of the Weekend!
Mrs. Grewell

PS-Please send in football, soccer, or whatever schedules. My kids and I love to come watch as many as we can!

I LOVE my class!

Hi there!

We had a great, great day. There is a staff meeting tonight so this will be a short one.

Homework tonight is to fill out three bucket fillers. They may choose any other their classmates or a teacher. We talked today at Fly Time about being specific and not general with our compliments. For example, instead of saying I fill Mrs. Grewell's bucket because she is a wonderful teacher, say I fill Mrs. Grewell's bucket because she helped with my math problems today. They are due tomorrow morning.

Kids all got their chapter book with a school theme today in library for their September book report. They have three weeks to read these. I will go over and completely model the book report in class before I assign it. Right now, they need to spend at least 15 minutes reading each night. Big book…read more! You may read with them too. :0)

Tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!!

Enjoy your night!
Mrs. Grewell

Be helpful, make a difference, and be friendly

Happy Wednesday!!!!

In Fly Time today, we did a little lesson on Superhero vs Villain behaviors. Kids were given a slip of paper with a certain behavior on it and they had to then hand it to our volunteer Superhero (a.k.a. Carl) or our Villain (a.k.a. Noah L.). They did a great job figuring out just how to be a superhero in class. All day long, I was asking if they were were acting like a Villain or a Superhero. Gotta love those all day long lessons!

Money is being taken left and right for talking out. Many of them are repeat offenders. I am going to up the fine to $50 for those kiddos soon. They know who they are. Tough habit to break, but break we must. We do have the NILE field trip coming up. If they don't have the fake $300 to buy in, they will be staying here and doing an alternative lesson. I rarely leave a kiddo behind, but it is all on THEM and THEIR choices. Many kids already have close to $500 or $600 in their wallets. Those that don't, need to buckle down and pull it together. I BELIEVE in all kiddos, and will help them curb their poor decision making by holding them accountable for their actions.



There is a PTA meeting at 8:30 AM tomorrow morning. Please consider coming. They really are interesting to just sit and listen to. You DO NOT have to sign up for anything if you come. You can just come and listen too. I went all last year while my kids had Art. I am not as lucky this year. Soooo…now you can go for me! :0)

The Ice Cream Social is Friday night from 5:30-7:30. Fun, fun, fun for the entire family!

Thank you for the quick turn around with the Fallen Rock $4. Over half of them came in today. We are starting the book tomorrow. Those that have their money here will receive their book. We read it aloud, so no worries if your kiddo doesn't have theirs yet. Just get it in when you can. Thanks. We have had a couple of parents respond to the wanting to bring the author back out to Arrowhead. They are talking about donating some of their flyer miles. If you are interested in helping too, let us know. He is so amazing with kids and so tall in person! :0)

Homework tonight is a writing piece for Fly Time. Students have done two exactly like it. They need to use the starter sentence…I can be caring at school by…. and fill in the rest of the page (and they know they have to fill up the page) by sharing how they can do just that. After they finish it, please have them read it aloud to you. Make sure it is about SCHOOL and not home or other locations. If you do this write CARE in the planner for $10 tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we have library check out. Mr. Casey is going to take the kiddos for 15 minutes in the morning while I go talk to the PTA about the event on Friday. Students MUST check out a chapter book that has a SCHOOL theme. This will be used for their first book report. More on that tomorrow. Please remind kids to bring their old books back tomorrow. Kids are allowed to check out three books.

Well, that about sums it up! Enjoy this video of the kiddos singing the Montana State Song in music class today!

Mrs. Grewell

Be Unique, Silly, Responsible, Strong, True, and YOU!

Welcome back to reality! We were in FULL swing today.

Homework tonight is a follow up from our science lesson in class today. They have their notes and they can also use the worksheet information up top as well. Please refrain from helping as much as possible. This is due tomorrow morning. The last question is a bonus. They know it is challenging and may require some googling and/or math calculations. Feel free to guide them on this one. :0)

Tuesday folders came home today as well. Please empty and sign the envelope before returning it tomorrow.

Inside are many, many goodies. The one I want to discuss is the one about the book, The Journey of Fallen Rock. The information sheet gives you all the details. The skinny is…the author has signed a copy of the book for each student. The kids were super excited about this. We will start reading the book this week. Please send the $4 need to purchase their copy in a sealed envelope with their name on it starting tomorrow. As soon as I receive this, I will give them their copy. Fun, fun, fun!!!

There are also three permission/information forms for Mr. Pertuit's fitness clubs. These are new to these kiddos. I attended last year and they were SUPER fun!!! Come one day or come all three. Kids need signed permission forms before they begin. Free and fun for everyone!

For the dinner discussion question tonight, I would love it if you would practice where in the world we are. In MT History today, we discussed where exactly we live. Ask kiddos what continent, country, state, and city they live in. If they can tell you North America, USA, MT, and Billings write LOCATION in the planner for a $10 bonus.

Tomorrow is gym, so shoes are needed.

Have a fantastic night!
Mrs. Grewell

BELIEVE all things are possible!

Hi and welcome back to the blog. I hope you had a wonderful extra day off! Our weekend was spent rounding up bulls, picking choke cherries, doing yard work, and a BBQ with some students from last year and their families. Fun!!!



This week, we will continue on with procedural learning and practicing how to be a 4th grader in Mrs. Grewell's class. Along with that, we will dive into our academics.

Math: Place value to the billions place. Kids will write numbers in standard, expanded, and written form. They will also be able to identify the place value of a given digit along with its value/worth. We may make it to rounding…we will see how it goes. :0)

Lead 21/Reading: We will begin Unit 1 in the theme reader. Students will learn all about cultures and heritages. We will work on a variety of reading strategies such as visualization, compare and contrast, predicting, summarizing, and others. We will also do our first reading comprehension sheet with a RACE response question on the back. RACE is a format of paragraph writing. It stands for Rewrite the question, Answer the question, Cite evidence to support the answer, and Expand by using an example. We will do the first two or three of these together. Then they will become independent seat work.

Spelling: Unit 1. Test will be this Friday. We will do bookwork together all week long. Soon, this will be independent practice. A skill sheet will be sent home this week for homework to practice the words we are learning in class.

Language: We will begin to identify the four types of sentences:
Declarative: General statement or idea.
Imperative: States a specific command or order.
Interrogative: Asks a question
Exclamatory: Shows strong emotion and ends with an exclamation mark.
Students will read sentences and identify the type of sentence it is.

Science: We will begin our weather unit. We will review the water cycle, then go into wind, then into hurricanes, and eventually end up with other storms. All the while, we will be implementing vocabulary, tools, and hands on experiments.

Social Studies: We will begin our mapping skills unit. Students will learn where in the world they are from universe to school locations. They will practice cardinal directions along with latitude and longitude skills (which will also help tremendously when we track hurricanes). We will also practice using a key and a scale.

MT History: We will begin our interactive notebooks. These are just fun, fun, and more fun! This is all hands on learning and all about our wonderful state!

Fly Time: We will continue our journey through the 6 pillars of character. We will take a quick review of the two we learned last week: citizenship and responsibility. We will then move onto caring next. I will be introducing Rusty from schooltoolstv.com as well. Rusty does a one minute show on character each day. This week he is doing the 6 traits. Perfect!!! We will also do a creative craft where kids will make themselves into actual superheroes and write about a time they were proud of themselves!

Last week, we finished up some fun projects in class. Remember when I teased you with those pictures the other day and said hmmm…what could we be up to? Well, here is a picture of our wall displays.

The first one is The Best Part of Me. This was done from a  book with the exact same title. Kids picked their favorite part of their bodies and wrote why it was their favorite part. Man these were adorable. They will stay on display thru open house. Please take a better look then.



The second one is their Super I Am poem. Students did a great job on these. I then took their pictures in their favorite superhero pose and then cut them out and attached the picture to their final draft. It was our first time writing in pen, so some don't look quite as good as I imagined, but as they get used to slowing down and really focussing with a pen they will get better and better! These will also be on display thru open house. Enjoy!



 Our birthday board is also updated. It was fun to have our first birthday last Friday. I hope she had a wonderful weekend celebrating! She sure did make some cash selling those birthday treats! Yummy brownies!!! Thanks girly girl!


Last week at Fly Time we also studied the trait of citizenship. We can also call this being patriotic. I asked the class if they knew what the word indivisible and allegiance were. No one knew!!! I asked them how they had been saying it from Kindergarten, but never knew what they were saying when they said the pledge every day. So we took apart the pledge using the flip up sheet below. Now, your kiddos should know what those big words mean in 4th grade language. Kids finished up the lesson by writing what it meant to them to be patriotic or a good citizen AT SCHOOL. Many shared that they could really look at the flag when saying the pledge, think of soldiers while saying the pledge, wear red, white, and blue with pride, and to follow rules set by schools and teachers to keep them safe.



This brings me to our dinner discussion table question for tonight. Ask your kiddo what indivisible means. If they tell you: cannot be divided then they are correct! Write the word INDIVISIBLE in the planner for $10 bonus money on Tuesday during check in time.

Once we learned the pledge, we followed up with a story about how our flag came about. We went back all the way to the times of the revolutionary war and traveled through history to now. I am lucky enough to have many of the flags described in the story. So, I had a couple of kiddos hold those up for the class to see when we got to those parts. We even discussed the confederate flag and why our nation split. The class was really interested in this lesson. I have some history buffs in here for sure!



After lunch on Friday we went to library class. Kids had a lesson on internet safety. They also checked out their first books. I do require kids to keep one of their books at school to read when they finish other work or during silent reading time. Many kids wanted to take them home for the long weekend, which I said was fine as long as they promised to bring them back. A test of their responsibility trait! :0) Please help remind them.

We finished the day off with a fun science lab. I wanted to just introduce the scientific method to them. We went all the way through the method when answering the question: Can you tell the difference between Sprite and 7-up? I was surprised how many of them knew right away which one was Sprite. Each student, along with myself on the front board, wrote a science lab report. Again, just a quick and fun way to introduce a concept we will be using all year long!



Next week there a few things that I really need help with. One is tomorrow. Every week, as you know, Tuesday folders are sent home. I am in need of a mom or dad or whomever, to come to school every Tuesday before 3:00 and stuff our folders. It is a quick and easy job, but one I often don't have time in the day to do. If you can do this, starting tomorrow, could you give me a call or throw me a text/email. I would LOVE you forever!!! :0) Second, this Friday is our Family Fun Night/Ice Cream Social. Mr. Pertuit and I volunteered to spearhead this event. We are in need of some strong guys that could help carry inflatables from a trailer to the playground and then unroll them and set them up. This has to happen right after school on Friday so they are ready to go by the 5:30 start time. We also need moms or dads to help man the inflatables. Hour shifts are available. We also need people to pass our pizza and ice cream. Again, shifts are available. So, here is the deal…If you can volunteer for any of these please write YES in the planner. If you can't please write NO in the planner. If you write one of these, your child will earn $50 at check in tomorrow. Please, please, please consider helping. It is going to be so much fun for all families! Thanks!

Lastly, I am in need of a group of moms to do our Saturday Live basket. Out theme is going to be Gift Cards. Students will bring in the cards from all different places, but I need some people to make the basket and design a letter that can go home soon to explain it. Please email or text me if you can do this from home. I will explain it all to you. Thank you!!!!

Well, I think that about sums up our last week and the upcoming one. You have such absolutely amazing kids and I am so lucky to be in their lives! By the way, many of the kids have mentioned soccer and other sports/events coming up. Please send me schedules or dates and I will really try to attend some functions. My kids and I LOVE to do this!!!! Seriously, we LOVE it! I am not just an 8-5 teacher. I love being in kids lives inside the four walls and out. :0)

Have a wonderful Sunday.
Mrs. Grewell (a.k.a. One of the Superhero Teachers! :0))