Hello, hello, hello!!!
One test down (NWEA MAP Reading)...three thousand more to go! :0) OMG!!!! The kids did soooooooooooooo awesome!!! Everyone came out on level and made their growth goal and then some! Wowzers!!! I felt like doing cartwheels! WooHoo!!! Kids needed to be at least a 197 and needed to make at least a 6 point growth. A HUGE wow to David and Adler who topped the chart with a 28 and 23 point growth!!! Noah B, Claire, Morgan, Noah L, AJ, Espen, Carl, Gwen and Landon were right on his heels with double digit scores as well! I just kept walking around looking at scores saying...oh my goodness you learned a TON this year! Great, great job 4th graders! We will continue on down the testing journey this Thursday morning with our Math NWEA MAP test. I CAN'T wait to see the growth there as well!!! Long division, fractions, angles, multiplication...no problem! We are ready!
Speaking of math, today we used our area and perimeter skills to construct a paper dog. Kids had to listen orally to instructions moving across the x and y axis lines on a grid to create the outline of the dog. Then they had to draw certain shapes in certain places using coordinate graphing. Finally, they got to fold it and turn it into a dog. Awesome! If they brought theirs home, have them tell you the area of it and the perimeter (which they found in class when all done). They should come up with an area of 40 square units and a perimeter of 58 units. Tomorrow...we try a squirrel, without so much help from Mrs. Grewell :0)
Kiddos shared their D2 slide documents with the class today. They all did a great job. The grades will be posted soon. Most kiddos got a few points off for little things like capital letters and punctuation, but overall they earned great scores for the presentation. There were a few that I would have like to have seen a bit more effort to expand a simple fact out with more details, but they all did great.
I will be gone Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. It is our once a year trip to Chico for my husband and I and another couple. The deal is only on weekdays, so I am taking some me time on this one. The sub is one we have had before, and he is wonderful with the kids.
There is no homework this week or next due to testing. Just in bed early and dreaming about shining like the bright stars that they are!
Have a great, great night!
Mrs. Grewell
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Monday, April 13, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Happy Birthday Claire!
Hello there.
Happy Birthday to Claire on Wednesday!!!! We sure enjoyed your donut treats! Yum!!!!!! I love that you had a wonderful time with your family celebrating with a sushi dinner! Enjoy that iPad mini too! Her best gift however, was finally finding her puppy Sox after he got out when the recent wind storm blew over their fence. Yay!!!! Pretty lucky girl Miss Claire!
Homework tonight is a math review sheet. We were on number 7, and tonight I sent home number 21. I skipped ahead to grab some of those geometry concepts that we just learned. :0) It should still all be a review and little to no help should be needed.
We started the computer part of our inquiry project today. Kids are using their D2 slide program. They are creating a 5 slide presentation. Today, we just did the basic slides (no fluff and stuff yet). Tomorrow, we will fluff it up. Kids can access this at home and work on it as well. They will have about 45 minutes to finish it up in class on Friday. After that, it is homework for the weekend. Presentations will begin on Monday.
The trial 2 spelling test is tomorrow. Study sheets came home on Wednesday.
The SW states and capital test is also tomorrow. If your kiddo can tell you all four, write STATE in the planner for $10.
Mr. Landon used one of his show and tell coupons today. Earlier this year, he showed us a preview of the book he was writing. Today, he showed us the real deal! It was even typed and illustrated! Wowzers!!! I can't wait to read it this weekend Landon! It is now on our class bookshelf for everyone to enjoy. I am very, very proud of you Landon!
I leave you with a couple of fun BELIEVE sightings I had in class yesterday. Miss. Gabrielle has sure caught that BELIEVE bug going around! And YES! It is contagious....watch out!!! :0)
Enjoy the beautiful weather!
Mrs. Grewell
Happy Birthday to Claire on Wednesday!!!! We sure enjoyed your donut treats! Yum!!!!!! I love that you had a wonderful time with your family celebrating with a sushi dinner! Enjoy that iPad mini too! Her best gift however, was finally finding her puppy Sox after he got out when the recent wind storm blew over their fence. Yay!!!! Pretty lucky girl Miss Claire!
Homework tonight is a math review sheet. We were on number 7, and tonight I sent home number 21. I skipped ahead to grab some of those geometry concepts that we just learned. :0) It should still all be a review and little to no help should be needed.
We started the computer part of our inquiry project today. Kids are using their D2 slide program. They are creating a 5 slide presentation. Today, we just did the basic slides (no fluff and stuff yet). Tomorrow, we will fluff it up. Kids can access this at home and work on it as well. They will have about 45 minutes to finish it up in class on Friday. After that, it is homework for the weekend. Presentations will begin on Monday.
The trial 2 spelling test is tomorrow. Study sheets came home on Wednesday.
The SW states and capital test is also tomorrow. If your kiddo can tell you all four, write STATE in the planner for $10.
Mr. Landon used one of his show and tell coupons today. Earlier this year, he showed us a preview of the book he was writing. Today, he showed us the real deal! It was even typed and illustrated! Wowzers!!! I can't wait to read it this weekend Landon! It is now on our class bookshelf for everyone to enjoy. I am very, very proud of you Landon!
I leave you with a couple of fun BELIEVE sightings I had in class yesterday. Miss. Gabrielle has sure caught that BELIEVE bug going around! And YES! It is contagious....watch out!!! :0)
Enjoy the beautiful weather!
Mrs. Grewell
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Native Games in PEAK this Month!
Hello there!
In math we are working on solid shapes, edges, faces, and vertex. Kids homework tonight revolves around that. Have kids find 5 items around the house and tell you what solid shape it is. (cube, cylinder, pyramid, sphere, prisms, and so on). If they can, write SOLID in the planner for $10 tomorrow.
Our Southwest regional states and capitals test is this Friday. Kids need to know where the 4 states are and be able to match their capital cities.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Austin, Texas
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Phoenix, Arizona
In Montana History today we talked all about how kids in the 1700s learned while playing in the Native cultures. We looked at many of the traditional games such as double ball, shinny, hoop games, and run and scream. These games are all being offered for play during PEAK fitness club this month on Wednesday and Fridays after school. I LOVE double ball!!! It is just like lacrosse. The kids took it upon themselves at lunch recess to play a little run and scream. I am sure they scared the heck out of the duty aides. :0) Literally....you run and you scream at the same time. The one that can do this the farthest distance wins. We had a big talk about being honest and being respectful when playing all of the games. Otherwise, it is just not fun to play. I hope to see your kiddo out there today!
It was great to have Gabrielle and Kyra back from Florida, and Noah B from time with family!!!! We missed you all!
Have a great, great night!
Mrs. Grewell
In math we are working on solid shapes, edges, faces, and vertex. Kids homework tonight revolves around that. Have kids find 5 items around the house and tell you what solid shape it is. (cube, cylinder, pyramid, sphere, prisms, and so on). If they can, write SOLID in the planner for $10 tomorrow.
Our Southwest regional states and capitals test is this Friday. Kids need to know where the 4 states are and be able to match their capital cities.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Austin, Texas
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Phoenix, Arizona
In Montana History today we talked all about how kids in the 1700s learned while playing in the Native cultures. We looked at many of the traditional games such as double ball, shinny, hoop games, and run and scream. These games are all being offered for play during PEAK fitness club this month on Wednesday and Fridays after school. I LOVE double ball!!! It is just like lacrosse. The kids took it upon themselves at lunch recess to play a little run and scream. I am sure they scared the heck out of the duty aides. :0) Literally....you run and you scream at the same time. The one that can do this the farthest distance wins. We had a big talk about being honest and being respectful when playing all of the games. Otherwise, it is just not fun to play. I hope to see your kiddo out there today!
It was great to have Gabrielle and Kyra back from Florida, and Noah B from time with family!!!! We missed you all!
Have a great, great night!
Mrs. Grewell
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Happy Late Birthday Mrs. Emerick!
Hello there!
I have to start off with this! Miss. Hanna got her braces off!!! I guess I am heading to Red Lodge this weekend to get her a bag of Huckleberry taffy as promised! Sweet!!!
We wrapped up our unit on finishing up strong this morning. Kids watched the butterfly video I shared with you at open house about struggling out of the cocoon. The little boy ended up cutting the cocoon open to help the butterfly get out instead of struggling. Little did he know that the struggling of the butterfly is necessary to push the fluid out of its body and into the wings. The butterfly is supposed to struggle. So, I told kids they are SUPPOSED to struggle!!! During Fly Time, we used our compasses to create a butterfly that encompassed all of our study on this subject. They will be hung in the classroom as a reminder to finish up strong and to not give up!!! Ask your kiddo what a butterfly has to do with struggling. If they can tell you what I just told you write BUTTERFLY in the planner for $10.
Tuesday folders came home today. Report cards are in them. Kids looked at them today and made goals. They did great! I am so proud of all of them! I can't wait to see what 4th quarter brings. Can you believe we are down to the last 44 days? (Tear, tear). Please take out the information inside, sign the back, and return ONLY the envelope tomorrow for $50.
How can you reward your kiddo for a great report card? How about a fun book from the new book orders. :0) (You will also reward their teacher because I get free books when you do! ;) Orders will be submitted in two weeks.
Homework tonight is cursive. No homework passes were allowed to be used.
Have a great, great night!
Mrs. Grewell
I have to start off with this! Miss. Hanna got her braces off!!! I guess I am heading to Red Lodge this weekend to get her a bag of Huckleberry taffy as promised! Sweet!!!
We wrapped up our unit on finishing up strong this morning. Kids watched the butterfly video I shared with you at open house about struggling out of the cocoon. The little boy ended up cutting the cocoon open to help the butterfly get out instead of struggling. Little did he know that the struggling of the butterfly is necessary to push the fluid out of its body and into the wings. The butterfly is supposed to struggle. So, I told kids they are SUPPOSED to struggle!!! During Fly Time, we used our compasses to create a butterfly that encompassed all of our study on this subject. They will be hung in the classroom as a reminder to finish up strong and to not give up!!! Ask your kiddo what a butterfly has to do with struggling. If they can tell you what I just told you write BUTTERFLY in the planner for $10.
Tuesday folders came home today. Report cards are in them. Kids looked at them today and made goals. They did great! I am so proud of all of them! I can't wait to see what 4th quarter brings. Can you believe we are down to the last 44 days? (Tear, tear). Please take out the information inside, sign the back, and return ONLY the envelope tomorrow for $50.
How can you reward your kiddo for a great report card? How about a fun book from the new book orders. :0) (You will also reward their teacher because I get free books when you do! ;) Orders will be submitted in two weeks.
Homework tonight is cursive. No homework passes were allowed to be used.
Have a great, great night!
Mrs. Grewell
Monday, April 6, 2015
"Love is what makes the world go round" by Hanna in her DMG to me.
Well hello there. I have missed all of you! I hope you had a fabulous time just relaxing or doing whatever you did! I know a few of you were traveling, so I hope you made it there and back safe. The Grewell's had a wonderful break. We branded calves(in the picture below you can see all three brands belonging to the Grewell family...CH is grandpa, RK is brother Ricky, and ZlazyT is Zach's...it took me FOREVER to get this picture!), got our 4H bunnies, built a rabbit hutch, went to church, had a family/neighbor ranch hot dog roast/picnic, and finally relaxed on a rainy day!
I promised you a fun slideshow showcasing our fun PLTW restraining device egg/car exploration. Well...here it is. Kids went all the way through the design process from asking what it is they need to do, to writing down what they know from all of their experiments about speed, direction, potential and kinetic energy, force and backward force, transferring energy in a collision using an absorbing object, and having wiggle room to move a little in a collision. Knowing all that, they each wrote down a design/model that they wanted to build as a test car. They had certain supplies that they could shop for (they could only shop once per trial so they really needed to plan)(it was a bummer for some that forgot items like tape and cotton balls). Then, they got together in their groups and explained their ideas one at a time. The kids then had to rate each idea on a matrix asking questions like, is it realistic, will it take too long to build, will it protect the egg, and does it use supplies listed? After evaluating each design they had to decide which one to actually build and test. Then, they build and explored. That its the part you see in the video. Each time, they would have to go back and reflect on how the test went. If it went poorly, they had to fix the problem. If it was successful, then they had to go back and try another one on their list. Each group got at least two trials. It was really fun! Finally, they had to show mastery of their learning one on one. Each child was given some real world situational questions and they had to select an outcome to that event using what they knew from all their lessons and then tell why. That grade is on 4th quarter's science grades online. We will now move on to a new PLTW unit and start to build a bicycle and take apart a flashlight to see how it works. This second unit will take us the rest of the year. :0)
Lastly, a happy, happy, happy birthday to Mr. Cayden! I hope he had a great one on his day off on Friday! Thank you so much for the yum, yum, yummy cupcakes on Friday. I sure enjoyed mine while sitting in a great, great presentation on Thursday. Wow! Happy Birthday buddy!
I promised you a fun slideshow showcasing our fun PLTW restraining device egg/car exploration. Well...here it is. Kids went all the way through the design process from asking what it is they need to do, to writing down what they know from all of their experiments about speed, direction, potential and kinetic energy, force and backward force, transferring energy in a collision using an absorbing object, and having wiggle room to move a little in a collision. Knowing all that, they each wrote down a design/model that they wanted to build as a test car. They had certain supplies that they could shop for (they could only shop once per trial so they really needed to plan)(it was a bummer for some that forgot items like tape and cotton balls). Then, they got together in their groups and explained their ideas one at a time. The kids then had to rate each idea on a matrix asking questions like, is it realistic, will it take too long to build, will it protect the egg, and does it use supplies listed? After evaluating each design they had to decide which one to actually build and test. Then, they build and explored. That its the part you see in the video. Each time, they would have to go back and reflect on how the test went. If it went poorly, they had to fix the problem. If it was successful, then they had to go back and try another one on their list. Each group got at least two trials. It was really fun! Finally, they had to show mastery of their learning one on one. Each child was given some real world situational questions and they had to select an outcome to that event using what they knew from all their lessons and then tell why. That grade is on 4th quarter's science grades online. We will now move on to a new PLTW unit and start to build a bicycle and take apart a flashlight to see how it works. This second unit will take us the rest of the year. :0)
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| Another slideshow design by Smilebox |
Our new spelling went great. Everyone did fantastic! We will take the second test tomorrow morning. Those that get two or less wrong will earn a 100%. Those that miss more than 2 will try again on Friday morning. I will give them back their paper to study from with the correct spellings. They must use the word correctly in text as well, so capital letters are a must where needed or it is wrong.
We will blaze on in MT History. We did seasonal rounds on Thursday. We followed two MT tribes up in the NW part of MT through the four seasons. Both tribes, the Salish and the Blackfeet, followed the buffalo through each season and relied on it to survive. Next, the gun and the horse are introduced through European contact. Everything pretty much changes after that.
In SS, we are ready for our SW states and capital's test. There are only four this time. The test will be on Friday. We will also take our open book test on the chapter in the text this week.
In math, we took our big geometry test last week. For the most part it went great. The grades are recorded in 4th grade math online for your viewing. There are a couple of areas that we need to revisit as a class, but overall the kids showed mastery of the subject area presented. So, we will press on. Now, we will go back and begin to review all that we have learned by applying it to real world problems. Kids will be getting hands on assignments where they have to use what they know from day one. This will help them solve the why do I even have to learn this question. :0)
In reading/Lead 21 we will be doing inquiry projects all week. Kids will be using a D2 doc program to showcase their learning about one of the Mid and Southwest States. They will do this all in class, and we will present them on Friday. If they want to work on them at home, they may, but they will have plenty of time in class if they use their time wisely. Check out this picture I took last week while kids were doing rotations. Here is your donation and tax money being well spent. Kids were typing informative essays while I was editing them online at the same time and commenting back to them on what they needed to fix, doing Moby Max math/reading/language programs, and looking up idioms and what they mean in order to do their language work successfully. Three rotations...all using the chrome books you bought! Thank you!!!!
We finished up our unit on struggles in Fly Time last week. Kids discovered the following sequence: struggles create perseverance which creates character which creates hope. We learned to look at struggles as a learning opportunity and find the fun in them knowing that giving up will not help our character form which will then not lead us to hope for ourselves or for others. We talked about how we sometimes struggle so that we can later know how to help someone else going through the same thing because we will have empathy and advise for them. It was a great unit.
Lastly, a happy, happy, happy birthday to Mr. Cayden! I hope he had a great one on his day off on Friday! Thank you so much for the yum, yum, yummy cupcakes on Friday. I sure enjoyed mine while sitting in a great, great presentation on Thursday. Wow! Happy Birthday buddy!
I hope that all of you have a wonderful Monday, and I will see you on Tuesday!
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Happy Easter and Spring Break!
Hi!
We sure did have a great April Fool's Day. We got Espen's mom REALLY good!!! Hee Hee! That will teach her to send her kid into school with a fake broken arm! :0) Ask your kiddo about our trick. If they can tell you, write COOKIE in the planner. Why cookie? Ask the kids!!! :0)
Homework tonight involves you. Please pull up a chair and complete the spelling homework together with your child tonight. This new spelling has these built into it. Fun! Please sign the bottom of the page. This signature tells me that you and your child had a great discussion about the skills being done. They don't have to do the bottom extra part, but do a few to get the skill across. Thanks!
Espen, Noah L, Carl, Hanna, and Krissy need to be ready for the spelling test tomorrow. They should have brought their practice sheets home on Monday when I handed them back. :0) I know they are going to do great things this time! Yay!!!
Tomorrow is a half day. Kids are out at noon. Then, they are off Friday and Monday as well. Enjoy the mini spring break. I will post the slideshow of the cars/eggs then. No time...I tell ya. :0)
Have a wonderful break, and a very happy, hoppy Easter! :0)
Mrs. Grewell
We sure did have a great April Fool's Day. We got Espen's mom REALLY good!!! Hee Hee! That will teach her to send her kid into school with a fake broken arm! :0) Ask your kiddo about our trick. If they can tell you, write COOKIE in the planner. Why cookie? Ask the kids!!! :0)
Homework tonight involves you. Please pull up a chair and complete the spelling homework together with your child tonight. This new spelling has these built into it. Fun! Please sign the bottom of the page. This signature tells me that you and your child had a great discussion about the skills being done. They don't have to do the bottom extra part, but do a few to get the skill across. Thanks!
Espen, Noah L, Carl, Hanna, and Krissy need to be ready for the spelling test tomorrow. They should have brought their practice sheets home on Monday when I handed them back. :0) I know they are going to do great things this time! Yay!!!
Tomorrow is a half day. Kids are out at noon. Then, they are off Friday and Monday as well. Enjoy the mini spring break. I will post the slideshow of the cars/eggs then. No time...I tell ya. :0)
Have a wonderful break, and a very happy, hoppy Easter! :0)
Mrs. Grewell
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