we made it through SAT week

We have survived the fourth grade SAT tests. We will take the last one tomorrow. It was great having a week with no tests, quizzes, or homework and we have some wonderful artwork gracing our bulletin boards in our classroom. Come by to see it some morning or after school one day. We also have had fun listening to Alabama History stories about our early settlers and Indians. We look forward to getting back to normal next week and finishing up the month of April with some new activities in our classroom. Thanks for all your support and prayers throughout this week. Thanks also to Mrs. Thomas who sent our snacks for this week and to Mrs. Key who prepared them for us with inspirational slogans.

spring break

We are finishing up to get ready for a nice spring break. The only thing which the students need to work on over the break is their state notebook pages which are due on April 4 and the scenery pages (5,27,29,57,59,61) due on April 18. Many of the students may want to do some extra practice in Math, especially the Yellowhammers with Math, (use the rest of the supplemental packet they have been given) and the Hummingbirds may use pages at the end of the book to practice subtraction with borrowing and multiplication of fractions. If they turn this in after Spring Break I will give extra points to be added to the final report card grade in Math. We also have tests in Language, Health, Bible, and Spelling the week that they come back. The week after that is SAT week and there will be NO tests that week. I have only sent home a weekly assignment sheet this week and no packet. A paper copy of the report cards will be sent home after Spring break and I think that the report cards will be emailed as soon as Ms. Donna can get the grades in the system.
Thanks so much for all your help and support. Have a great vacation.

This time change is killin me!!!

Ok, now that you have my introduction, do you agree? It is too cold to be getting up in the dark and trying to get ready for school and I know that it is really hard when you have to get children ready also. So, let's hang in there because Spring Break is coming up really soon. We are presently addressing letters for the walk-a-thon in class while I type this blog. Some of the students are having trouble reading your handwriting, Mom and Dad. lol....Kudos to those who typed their list. Those who did not bring addresses are helping those who did. They will get a quiz grade of 100 for helping and the ones who brought addresses are getting a 100 test grade in Language. We thank you for sending the addresses to help support our school. We will have a fun day next week when we go to the park. Remember that it is only a half day of school, we dismiss at 12 and there is NO aftercare. We are OUT on Friday and then the next week for Spring break. I hope that you enjoy your time off. I will be working on accreditation stuff to get ready for our school visit in 2009-2010 school year and hopefully enjoying some time with my grandbaby as well. Have a great weekend and get some REST!!!

homework!!!!

We are having a real problem with students not doing homework or doing it carelessly especially in Math. Only 3 students turned in this weekend's spelling homework: Taylor, Jordan, and Anna. All others have received a zero out of a possible 15 points for this week's dictation grade. I will not accept late homework anymore. I will only accept late News Current because it is very simple to grade, but I will take off points if it is late without a homework pass. I will accept other homework late only if a student has been absent. I know the students are writing their homework down because I see them writing it down but it is not being done. Spring fever has set in way too early this year and it is affecting grades. Math homework is given for practice so that students can be sure they know how to do the problems on their own. When we do them in class together they do not get a true chance to see if they can work them on their own as they would during a test or quiz. So homework is extra practice on their own or for parents to give them individual instruction if needed. Please speak to your children and begin to check homework pads to see if they are completing their assigned work. It is not always on the sheet that goes home but they always have a chance to write it down for themselves at the end of each school day.

this week in fourth grade

I have given extra credit for every history chapter. It is the pages in the workbook that we do not do in class. Attach them to the open notes tests when they are given for that chapter. Chapters 5 and 6 counted as only a quiz because of all the absences and holidays that we had in there and some students did not get good notes. In Science since we did not have a test on chapter 9 only, just he exam which included chapter 9, I am counting the ccs for chapter 9 as a TEST... please be sure that they are correct and done in complete sentences, cursive, and with correct punctuation.....
I hope that Mrs. Lord is getting a good response for the winter festival. It is next Friday. We also have a school play and a walkathon coming up in the month of March.
We have had a busy week catching up from all of our sick days and days off.
On Friday, pages 1, 33, and 35 are due from the state notebook. This counts as an easy quiz grade in history. I will assign some more pages to be done for the first week in March tomorrow. Also you need to be collecting pictures for the scenery pages that we will work on in March. Have a good weekend! Until next week.....

P.S. I am having trouble logging on to this blog some days, so if I do not post every week you will know why. I have time to do the post, but I dont have time to sit and wait for all the trouble it takes to sometimes log on.

almost everyone is back

Please pray for Jarrett who is out this week in our class with the flu. Everyone else is back including the teacher who was out on Monday this week. So let's keep washing our hands, taking our vitamins, getting plenty of rest, and stay well. Today we took our Language EXAM which I postponed from yesterday because of me being out on Monday. I wanted the students to have plenty of time to study from the practice test that was sent home with them last night completed and graded. Some of the sentences were even the same. Anyway, the Science exam will be next week on chapters 7 through 9 and then we will start health the following week. There will be about 2 quizzes per week and the first 3 chapters have the most material for memorizing. After that health will be a breeze. We will also have a class project to boost the health grades that will involve cooperation between students in groups. TBA later....Until, next week, stay well and God bless you and your family!

what a week!!

Well, we have had alot of sickness in our class this week and Mrs. Ryals was out Mon. and Tues. morning for the spelling bees. We are also out on Friday to clean so that everyone can get well. So we are playing catch up in our class. WE have done alot of review this week for adverbs and a little SAT practice in our history book and we have worked on our Legacy pictures for the calendar contest coming up. The students need to catch up in their reading journals. We are not moving on to chapter 9 until next week so take the weekend to complete worksheets for chapters one through eight. Thank you so much to Mrs. Lord for making Turkish Delight for us. It was delicious; the best ever....The students will recieve a practice test tonight to turn in tomorrow or Monday for the Language test. It counts as a quiz grade. It needs to be done tonight even though there is no homework so that I can get it back to the students tomorrow and they can use it to study over the weekend, since we are out on Friday. The exam is next week and if they know what is on this test, they will be ready for the exam. It is just different sentences, same concepts. If they wait until Monday to turn it in, they will only have one night to use it to study and I will have to make time to grade them on Monday, but I will do that. Well, have a good weekend....Until next week!

finally we are back

Forgive me for taking over a month to get back into this. We have just been sooo busy! Anyway, the students are receiving extra credit assignments for every histoy chapter. It is the pages in the workbook that we do not assign for class. They need to be completed before the day of the test and then stapled to the test when it is turned in for extra credit on that test.
Also, we need someone to make Turkish Delight. If you like to make candy and would like to make this for our class to try, I can get the recipe for you. It would really be nice for the class to try it before we finish the book at the end of February, so anytime this month would be great. Since we have a small class, you would not have to make that much. Let me know and I will get the recipe to you.
You will be receiving a phone call from one of the room mothers very soon about the winter carnival on Feb. 29. Please cooperate. We are trying to really keep it simple but with such a small class, we need everyone to participate to make it successful.
Thanks again for your patience with this blog. I will try very hard to keep it updated at least once per week....