Fall is Fantastic!!!

Hello there.

First up…Congratulations to Miss. Hanna for taking 2nd place in the Saturday Live Fun Run! Way to go Hanna!


Thank you so much for having some great discussions about midterm grades and behaviors last night. For the most part, I was able to see a difference right off the bat. For some others, it was back to old habits. A LOT of money was taken today for talking. It is not really more than usual, but I just cracked down harder to back up your conversations. There really are only a few kiddos left that need to break the habit of talking whenever and to whomever they feel like. I have the upmost faith in all kiddos to get better each and every day! The best part is that I have created a safe environment in the classroom. It is now safe to really call kids out on their behaviors and not risk them thinking that I don't like them or that I am picking on them. They now know it is because I truly care about them now and in their futures. Awesome!!!

In Fly Time, we read a book about being trustworthy. It was not a book about telling the truth. We all know the right and wrongs about lying by now. It was a book about sharing truths that really don't need to be shared or that have no place in the time setting they are said in. For example, the little girl in the story tells her friend that she has a hole in her sock right in front of everyone rather than pulling her off to the side and whispering it to avoid embarrassing her friend. She also tells the teacher that Willy didn't do his homework before he had a chance to tell her himself. Was she telling the truth? Yes. Was it appropriately done? No. So, today we talked about how some kids come up to Mrs. Grewell all the time and tell me that they are done or that it was easy or whatever. These are things Mrs. Grewell doesn't really need to know. Are they true? Yes. Are they necessary? No. It may seem like a second, but it is a second that adds up to a minute and so on. So, when we need to tell the truth…the honest-to-goodness truth, then absolutely tell it! But, if it is something that we don't really need to share and can wait for a more appropriate time (like recess) then we should just let it go.

We finished our lower letter cursive today!!!!!! Kids now know a-z!!! They also know capital A and I. Homework tonight is their first page in their cursive books. They also need to read, read, read those book report books. All books but three have been approved. Those that weren't know they need to bring it in tomorrow to show me.

Testing season at Arrowhead is finally over so we were able to get into the computer lab today. Kids did keyboarding and then had some well deserved free play time with friends. Being social on screens is all about their generation. Being able to talk others through how to do this or that is fun to watch. They know waaaaaaayyyyyyy more than I do that is for sure! Here are some pictures of them typing away!


In MT History, we created two pages about our upcoming field trip to the NILE next Monday. Kids have brought those home to share with you tonight. They need to take you through the different rooms that we will be visiting and share with you their thoughts. Please take ten minutes and just sit next to them and allow them to express their excitement with you. It is quite the field trip and ALL about MONTANA! Awesome! Kids were excited to go when they saw all they would see. It will make even more sense after we go on Monday. I am still looking for a chaperone. If you could join us Monday morning right away until noon, please text me or let me know. Thanks!

Please begin to save your boxtops. The annual collection drive is coming up in two weeks. Kids will begin to turn them in soon. This year, we are doing it a little differently. When kids bring them in…they can either put them in the cat or the GRIZ bag. May the best (GRIZ) team win! :0) Just collect at home. I will share with you later when to bring them in. Thanks!!!! What do we do with all of these???? Ask your child if they like to play with a ball at recess. All of them are purchased with money we earn from this program. Yay!!!

Tuesday folders came home today. Inside is a few things from PTA and the October newsletter from Mrs. Meier. Please note the need for a dozen cupcakes for the Halloween party! Since Halloween is my birthday (yes…I am a spooky baby!) I can't wait to attend this even with my own kiddos. We will make some fun cupcakes as well to donate to the awesome cause! Please sign and return folders tomorrow.

Noah L was star of the week last week. We finally got to hear all about his love for soccer and his rice bear. I may need to borrow that Noah as this pregnancy progresses. :0) Thanks for sharing with us Noah!


David got a cool lego set that builds three different things. Rather than having him wait until he is star of the week in the future, I said just share it today so he could build the next one. Legos rock! Great work David!



Well, that about says it all for today! Thanks for being such amazing advocates for your kiddos! I love each and everyone of them as if they are my own! Have a wonderful night!

Mrs. Grewell

Monday…Funday!

Happy Monday!!!

The wind is back, yet these kiddos are still doing sooooooo well with their EQ. I am so very proud of all of them. In the short amount of time we have been together, things have just really settled in. We are getting so much done each day, and that is because of their high EQ. Love it!

Midterms FINALLY came home today. The front page is about their classroom behavior/EQ. Kids know that they need to talk about this with you tonight and come up with an action plan to do even better, starting tomorrow. Many kiddos went home with the nothing needed box checked. They are just doing great, great, great things. Great choices…great consequences. Please sign and return only this sheet tomorrow. The back pages are their grades thus far. However, there have been more added since I printed them. Please always check online to see the most updated. Missing assignments are the number one grade killer. They can drop an A to a C or even an F if there are only a few grades to average. You will know it is a missing assignment because it will say MA in the grade book online. (Missing Assignment). Overall, I am so impressed with all the kids. The work in here is not easy. They have to really think to earn those grades. If you do ever hear that school is too easy, please let me know immediately! If you discuss the midterm with your child tonight, write MIDTERM in the planner for $10 tomorrow.

Homework tonight is Math-4-Today. It is in their orange daily homework journal. We have been doing this together in class up to this point, and are still doing so in the language part of it. However, the kids are ready to do it on their own in the math portion. Kids also need to read for at least 15 minutes in their October book report book. They MUST bring these books to school tomorrow so I can record the titles.

After correcting the addition and subtraction quizzes today, kids did MUCH better! Those that didn't, will work with one of our volunteers this week and then retest again.

Kids shared their book reports from last month with other classmates today. It was super fun for the kids that read the same book as another student. They took away totally different things from the stories, and it was fun for them to compare them. The other kids had fun as well. They got to hear about another fun book and ask questions they had about their posters. Now, they will become a hall display!


I leave you tonight with a picture and some exciting news. Gabrielle was so kind and filled my bucket this morning at Fly Time. She brought me a little gift back from Florida. When I saw the BELIEVE journal I almost started crying. Zach and I just found out last week that we are expecting a baby in June. I was going to go tonight and buy a special journal to write in during the pregnancy. Now, I have an extra special one. I also can't wait to wear the starfish earrings tomorrow. And, black…my favorite color in the world!!! I also love, love, love my shiny apple. It will forever remain on my desk! Thank you so very much Gabrielle and family for making my day extra special. Love it!

Have a wonderful evening!
Mrs. Grewell

NILE Field Trip Next, Next Monday! (Not Tomorrow)

Hello there. I hope your weekend is going great. I spent Saturday doing some yard work and watching some pretty fantastic kids play soccer and football. Great job Espen, Reece, Noah L., Cayden, Adler, and Josh! Thanks for inviting me to watch!



This week will be a packed week. On Thursday, we have Bill Merical in the house. I can't wait for the kids to meet him and talk about The Journey of Fallen Rock! Come join us if you can. Our class will talk to him from 8:30-9:30. Awesome and exciting!!

Math: Addition and Subtraction mastery testing did not go well for the majority of the class. Simple mistakes made incorrect answers. So, I will pass them back and allow kids another chance to find those mistakes and make corrections for a better grade. Then, we will move onto Algebra. Kids will be able to write expressions, solve expressions and equations. We are moving right along in math, and are at the correct place on our district pacing guide. Yay!

Lead 21: We will spend the week mastering author's purpose and sequencing using our biography, My Name is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz. We listened to the story last Friday online. We also worked on identifying different types of figurative language: onomatopoeia, personification, similes and metaphors. We will wrap that up this week with a quiz on the story. Next week, we will move into Unit 2: A Green Future.

Spelling: Last week's homophone tests went either really well or really ick. It was pretty easy to tell who spent some time in the dictionary and/or practicing with sentences. Many kids spelled the words correctly but had the wrong word with the wrong context. A BIG congratulations to: Lauren, Claire, Laney, Josh, Gwen, and Hanna for making the alternate club this week. Well done! This week, the words have a yoo-oo-u sound. There will be NO spelling next week due to short week and field trip to the NILE. We will do the review on Units 1-5 instead. This is just book work. There will not be a test.

Language: Mastery testing on Adjectives and practicing finding all parts of speech in context using DOL.

Science: We will move away from hurricanes and into the atmosphere and its layers. We will also take a look at the 3 basic types of clouds. We will do a few fun labs to make this concept concrete.

S.S.: Last week, we took  look at latitude and longitude. Kids will use both coordinates to find specific places on a USA map. We will wrap up our map skills and will start to take a look at our first US region: the Northeast. Flashcards will be made for our first group of states and capitals. We will make a set for school and a set for home. Please begin to practice these daily in the car or at home. The test will be in about 3 weeks. More on the format later.

MT History: In preparation of our field trip to the NILE, we will take a look at the agriculture and animal industry found in MT. We will learn about the 5 basic crops and the main sources of meat.

Fly Time: We will look into trustworthiness and what that looks like in and out of school. We will also continue to review EQ in the 4th grade.

Book Orders from Scholastic have been submitted. They should be here late this week or next week. Yay! Remember next week (not this week!) is a short week. We have a half day on Wednesday and then off Thursday and Friday. Teachers are at a state wide conference.

The NILE field trip is not tomorrow, but the next Monday. The date on the field trip was incorrect. Please write NILE in the planner if you see this so I know it is still ok for your child to be off campus on this day rather than the 6th. Mrs. Jeziorski apologizes for the mistake. :0)

Midterms will come home on Monday. However, the grades have somewhat already changed due to grading this weekend. But, you get the main picture of how your kiddos are doing in class. Please sign and return ONLY the top page. The rest is for you to keep. :0)

Kids came home with their new book report books with a spooky/Halloween theme. Hopefully, they broke into those this weekend. They will have three weeks to read them. The last week of October, we will construct the report. It will NOT be the same format as last time.

I leave you with some fun pictures of the after school cross country meet against Poly, McKinnley, and Will James (6th graders). It looks like the trophy will stay at Arrowhead! Yay!!!!



Have a wonderful Sunday!
Mrs. Grewell

Happy Birthday Reece!!!

Well, hello there. What a wacky Montana weather day!!!! I can't believe how awesome this class was with all that craziness out there!!! Sunny, to windy, to rainy, to freezing! I told the kids the same thing I tell my own two kiddos…when you live in Montana in the fall, you should ALWAYS have a hat and a pair of gloves in the bottom of your backpack. Please remind them to do this tonight. They were FREEZING at lunch recess!!! We do go out unless it is too wet or below zero. If your child does this, please write MONTANA in the planner for $10.



As you can see, we finished up those origami hurricanes. The kids were sooooo excited! They were twirling them around, putting them on the big wall map in the oceans, and making the eye bigger and smaller! They were a little mad when I told them they had to leave them here for a wall display. :0) They will come home next week…and/or…they can make another one at home with you if they just can't stand the wait. :0) Kids also wrote one fact that they remembered learning about hurricanes. Do I have the best job ever or what! If you are in the building, please check them out. They are in the hall by the library.



Happy Brithday to Reece. The BIG 10 today! We helped him celebrate by eating his yummy cookies which turned our mouths and teeth bright blue! A happy day to him!!! I hope you have a ton of fun at the corn maze and Spinners as well! Happy Birthday buddy!

Tomorrow, we will have our homophone spelling test and we will take a mastery test on adding, subtracting, and column addition with large numbers. We have been practicing daily on these three skills. I have had kids work a problem, come up to me to get it checked, go work another problem, and so on. Subtraction was the hardest for them, but today it was pretty much smooth sailing. Please know that if your child does not show mastery on a math test, they are worked with one on one with either myself or an adult tutor that comes in M-Th and then is given a chance to retest. The goal for me is to have them eventually understand the content and show mastery on their own. :0)

Homework tonight is a cursive sheet. We now know letters a-u. We will finish up the lower alphabet next week and then start the Upper case. They will then start their cursive 4th grade books where they will write a famous quote and author instead of just words. You will see this blue book come home once a week in two weeks. Yay!

Tomorrow kids will get their new book report book in library class. The theme is haunted story, scary story, or Halloween themed. Mr. Casey has books to share with them as examples. The only one they will NOT be allowed to do is The worst/best Halloween Ever. We will be reading that one aloud in class. Kids will have three weeks to complete their story. Please remind kids to bring back their other books to turn in tomorrow. I have their school themed ones and will return those as I finish grading them. So far, reports have been awesome for the most part! I have had to read a few of the books in order to help a couple students understand my expectations a little better. Please make sure kids are actually reading these books at home. Thanks!

If you are free tomorrow from 11:30-12:15 I need ya. Kids will be doing accelerated math and often need help one on one. Just show up, sign in, and come on back. Thanks.

Have a great and warm night!
Mrs. Grewell

Origami…FUN!

Hello there.

What a fun day in the 4th grade! We did origami hurricanes today. A HUGE thank you to Gwen's dad for coming to help out! I could not have done it as smoothly without you! As you can see it was all smiles creating them. We will finish them up tomorrow. They are really cool when they are done because you can make the eye larger or smaller as well as the feeder bands. Awesome.

Science tests were passed back today. Everyone did awesome (well…almost everyone). I could tell kids used their notes and their ability to apply their notes to new situations. I was very impressed and proud! Way to go kiddos!! They tests were passed back and should be in their take home folders. If your child has theirs to share with you, and does so, write SCIENCE in the planner for $10 tomorrow.

Thank you for returning the Teusday folders today. I forgot to mention a couple of things. The purple sheet was the bullying contract. We went over it in detail in class, especially how there is no bullying allowed at Arrowhead, and that there are severe consequences for doing it. We will be talking about this issue again during Fly Time later this month. I don't see or hear about a lot of bullying at Arrowhead, but there is some, and kids need to know what to do when they see it happen.

The other piece was the blue sheet from PTA with the envelope attached. This is the ONLY fundraiser PTA is trying to do this year. Last year, you were polled and doing a one time donation was the way that most of the families wanted to go this year. So, PTA is trying it. If you take the number of families and divide it into the amount we need to raise to fund all that we do at Arrowhead (which is more than most people think about) it came out to about $100 per family. There are many ways to donate. You can send it back with your child in the envelope provided, you can mail it, or you can go on the Arrowhead website and donate online using the button at the bottom of the front page. I sure wish my own kiddos school would do this. I am kinda tired of the cookie dough, BELIEVE stuff, and pizzas. It usually ends up being us, the parents, doing the selling. Urg. So, please consider making a one time donation and being done for the year. If you can do more than the $100…great. If you can do less…great. Just know that every dollar counts and it all goes back to the kids at ARROWHEAD! Amazing things happen here, so lets keep it alive! Thanks!!!!

Book orders are due this Friday if you are ordering. Sheets came home last week telling you how to order online. I can also do it with the paper sheets and a check at school as well. No pressure, just for fun! Thank you to those that have ordered already. I have been able to order 10 new books for our classroom library for Fly Time as well. Yay!!!

Homework tonight is Accelerated Math. Kids need to finish the problem page they are on and have their scan-tron ready to scan in tomorrow morning. If they also have a test that needs to be done, they should also work on that as well. They know that tests always come first.

I am SUPER excited to grade the book reports tonight! They look so awesome and fun. I can't wait to get them up on display in the hall as well. Grades should be posted before midterms come home on Friday.

 I leave you with a couple of fun pictures from our friend Gabrielle. Her brother found a hermit crab and caught it for her. She was hesitant at first, but they became friends with it. :0) We sure do miss her!

Well, that about sums it up. Have a wonderful night with your amazing kid!
Mrs. Grewell

Happy Birthday Josh and Landon!

Hiya!

Lots happening in G4! We took our science hurricane test today. It was funny to hear comments like, boy I am sure glad I took good notes. :0) I will grade those tonight and record the grades so you can see them online.

Tuesday Folders came home today. If you ordered pictures they are in there. If you didn't, then you got a proof sheet and you can still go online and order them. Yay!

Homework tonight is to finish up those September Book Reports. Kids need to have them all connected and completely finished in 4th grade quality work. There will be NO extensions on the due date. They are due tomorrow 8:15 a.m. Thanks. Kids also know they need to bring the actual book in. I do this in case I become suspicious that the student didn't answer something completely or correctly. If need be, I can read those small books pretty quickly so I can help them to understand what they need to do next time.


Students will need to get their new October book report book this Friday during library. I will share with them the genre type that day. Then, they will have three weeks to read that one. This pattern will continue all throughout the year.

At Fly Time today, we talked a lot about excuses and solutions and choices and consequences. We read a story about a little boy that wanted to become a marine biologist. He kept running into obstacles that almost made him quit on his dream. Instead, he learned to come up with solutions instead of excuses. He also learned that by coming up with solutions he was rewarded with positive consequences. The bottom line of the lesson was that kids need to stop before they come up to me and tell me an excuse as to why their homework or classwork is not done and instead come to me with an accountability sentence along with a  working solution. For example, Mrs. Grewell, I did not do my homework last night. I am going to do it today at recess instead of playing. Awesome! Money fine and we are done. Excuses though take up way too much time to explain and reason with. We will continue to practice this by me saying, stop…what is your solution when they start to give me an excuse. It would be awesome if you would do this at home as well. In the story the little boy said he couldn't become a biologist because college would be too expensive. Ask your child what his solution was. They should tell you that he started working at the aquarium at a young age doing any job he could and saved his money for college. IF they do tell you this, write SOLUTION in the planner for $10 tomorrow.

A BIG woohoo goes to AJ today. I hope he has a wonderful time at Disneyland with his family. Go make a ton of memories AJ, and send us a picture of you and Mickey! Safe travels buddy! :0)

There is NO cross country on Friday morning this week. There IS a cross country meet instead against Poly elementary right after school here at Arrowhead. I can't wait to cheer all the Arrowhead kids on! Fun!

I leave you with a Happy Birthday to both Landon and Josh today! They are both the BIG 10! Double digits…wow! Thanks for the delicious donuts this morning Landon and the yummy cupcakes/brownies this afternoon Josh. We still have some cupcakes left, so we will sell again tomorrow. Landon wanted to enjoy the rest of his treats at home with his family. :0) We still have two more birthdays this week. Oh my goodness, can you say sugar rush!!! When it rains it pours they say! :0) I hope the two boys have a wonderful evening with their families doing something super fun!

That does it for Tuesday! Have a great day!
Mrs. Grewell