ECA Fourth Grade

we made it through SAT week

2008-04-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-03-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2008-03-03T09:22:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-02-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-30T06:37:00.000-08:00

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....

Merry Christmas

2007-12-17T06:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry that it has been so long since I last got on here. Oh well, no excuses, we all know how busy this season is. This is our last week for the semester and grades. Please keep up with your studies this week. Posters are due for Science on Thursday and we have tests in every subject except Math. I hope that you all have a wonderful and restful holiday. The only homework over the holidays will be Math which is review work to keep your brains from going stale and forgetting everything we have learned. There will be no packet going home this Thursday; just a weekly assignment sheet given to the students. Enjoy your family and friends and remember the true meaning of Christmas!

It's almost Friday!

2007-12-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

Some students in the class are getting confused in Math between changing an improper fraction to a mixed or whole number and reducing a fraction. Remember that reducing is done with proper fractions only when they have a common factor besides one. With an improper fraction the denominator is divided into the numerator and the remainder is written as a fraction if there is one. Please practice these so that it can be done quickly. We are going over this every day in class and now we have started with least common denominator so that throws something else new. I am going to make a study sheet for all of this to give out next week, to hopefully eliminate and clear up the confusion. Please do not lose it because this study sheet can be used on the tests when we are doing fraction problems. Next week we have the last test for this quarter in Math and these things will be on it so practice. Use the supplemental pages in the back of the book if you need or make up some proper and improper fractions to reduce and divide.

Christmas is coming!

2007-12-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

Dont forget our special projects for Christmas. SGA is doing a toy drive and the elementary students are collecting toys for needy children at the Shepherd's Staff. Be sure the toy that you bring is unwrapped. We are also collecting items to send to our soldier, Trevor Davis, that we pray for each day in class. His wife is spending a bundle buying stuff and sending packages to him so this will help her out also and he can share stuff with his "buddies" over there with him. Also remember your permission slips and money for Looneys. I would like for the first six people in our roll, Robin, Mockingbird, Cardinal, Meadowlark, Goldfinch, and Bluebird to send some kind of goody for our Christmas party. It doesnt matter what you send. We will be eating it at the skating rink for our snack time.

As far as major grades for the rest of this quarter:
We have a special project coming up in Science, a poster on any topic you choose from chapter 4, 5, 6, or 7. It must be full size poster and there are no other guidelines. It is due on Dec. 20, Thursday. It can be an experiment or an informational poster about anything in those chapters. This is an easy 100 for a test grade in Science. We have one more test coming up for chapter 7 in Science, one more EXAM for history on chap. 15-18 (for which I will send a study sheet next week)as well as an open book test for chap. 18, and a states/capitals test. We have one more test in Language on plurals, diagramming, and pronouns as well as our book report in class which is a test grade. We also have 3 more spelling tests, 3 more Bible tests, and 2 more math tests. So there are plenty of chances to pull up grades you may be worried about. Stay busy until we get out and then you will have 2 weeks of REST and RELAXATION (I know, we really don't get any rest at Christmas break; but at least we can get a break from school work)!!!

hey there!

2007-11-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a very busy week and I have not had time to blog anything. The students were great at the Christmas program and we are all caught up with that. We have several things due on Monday. WW 8 is due along with the puzzle that is after it, the take home history from chap. 15 and 16 is due and anyone who wants extra credit can turn in the News Current that was in the packet yesterday early on Mon. It is actually due on Friday, as usual next week. We have a major test in History and Science next week. The Science test is an EXAM on chap. 4-6 and the History test is on Chap. 17 on the World Wars. Thanks for all your help and cooperation helping your children. They are improving every day. Math is getting confusing now and they may need extra help to keep it all straight in their heads. Have a great weekend!

Wow! 7 people made a 100...

2007-11-19T06:04:00.000-08:00

More than half the class made a 100 in Bible this past week on the memory verse and the others made an A or a B. The best ever.... The 100's were Lark Bunting, Cardinal, Purple Finch, Wren, Bluebird, Chickadee, and Common Loon. Keep up the good work. Learn Isaiah 53:1-7 for next Friday, Nov. 30...

Overall, I was very proud of midterm grades. The students are improving so much. There are still four weeks to pull up any grades that you are not pleased with.

Next week we will have an exam in Language. Study sheets are going home today and the next two chapters in history are take home. They are due on Dec. 3. Those papers were sent home today also. Have a great Thanksgiving dinner and don't eat too much turkey! You will get fat!

this week

2007-11-15T10:31:00.000-08:00

Busy! Busy! Busy! But today we were able to slow down a little and get some things accomplished. We read a great story in Reading about a little girl from Vietnam who came to America and terribly missed her family. We dont know the ending and we all are curious as to what happened so we want to read the book. If anyone can find it we will read it to the class. The book is Onion Tears by Diana Kidd. We also wrote a summary of the story and what it was about in class for a quiz grade.

Midterms are going home today in the packet. Please sign and send them back. They will also be posted online on your family email next week. Extra credit opportunity was given yesterday for the language test and only one person did it to add five points to the test grade. Thank you to Purple Finch for being a diligent hard working student.

We are having a team challenge for conduct checks next week: Auburn vs. Alabama
Ask the students about it. They are excited and we will have a special visitor at our Auburn/Alabama pep rally on Tuesday to present the prizes to the winning team.

There are 2 weekly assignment sheets in this weeks packet since we are out next Thursday. Study sheets will be sent home on Monday for the Language EXAM.

You may keep the artwork in this weeks packet for your refrigerators!

extra credit

2007-11-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

Opportunities have been given for extra credit in history and math. In history there is a Veteran project and memorizing the Gettysburg address to say to the teacher or the class. In math, a thanksgiving worksheet was given out. Have a great day off on Monday and thank a veteran for your freedom. Hope to see you all at our Vets Day chapel next Wed. at 10 am in the Sanctuary.

Pray for our Soldiers

2007-11-07T06:05:00.000-08:00

Since Veteran's Day is coming up I would like to highlight two soldiers that we are praying for who are in Iraq. We pray for them daily and their families in our classroom. One is Joel Register who goes to Mr. Van Zweden's church and his name was brought to our attention early in the school year by one of the students in the class. He is the grandson of Robert Harper who formerly worked at our school and church doing traffic control in the mornings and maintenance. Mrs. Ryals also knows his family well and knew him when he was a baby. He has been in Iraq for a long time and he is full time Army. The other soldier is Trevor Davis and he is the best friend of Mrs. Ryals' son-in-law. They went to the police academy together and graduated back in March. He was deployed in early June and is now in Iraq since early October. He is in the army reserves. His wife attends Evangel Temple and he has been married less than a year. Joel is less than 21 years old and Trevor is about 28. We will be getting stuff together to send them a package for Christmas later this month (if I can get their new addresses). Please add them to your prayer list for this Veteran's Day and throughout the year until they all come home! Thanks!

mpp journals

2007-11-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

I just finished grading journals that were turned in yesterday for our book, Mr. Popper's Penguins. We truly enjoyed reading the book and were sad at the end when Mr. Popper left his family to go to the North Pole with the penguins. But we were glad that he finally got to go on the adventure of a lifetime. The following students did an excellent job completing their journals and made A's for their effort: Meadowlark, Purple Finch, Robin, Wren, Chickadee, and Common Loon
Good job guys and for the rest of you, next time make sure you follow directions, complete all the pages, and do the summaries at the top of the quiz time pages on the back.

busy week

2007-11-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry we didnt have time to blog and there wasnt much to tell about last week. The children were all hyped up with the holiday and candy so we were busy last week. This week we are finishing up chap. 5 in Science and testing on Friday and next week we will have our next history test on chap. 13 and 14. Study sheets have already been given out for both of these. Students who turn in their News current quiz on Monday when I give it out on Friday get bonus points. Congrats go out to Bluebird, Cardinal, Purple Finch, and Mockingbird for turning them in early today. They received 5 bonus points.
We are writing our George Washington Carver report in class this week. Hopefully everyone will be finished by Friday and not have to take it home over the weekend. It cannot go home to be worked on until Friday if not finished. We will begin today by taking notes on notecards in class. We will spend 2 days writing the report and the last 2 days rewriting and editing it. Students will have about 45 min. to an hour each day in class to work on it.
Our bible verse this week is John 1:14. It is really short so let's all get an A!
We only need two more letters to spell popcorn party so lets not get any conduct checks and we can do that really soon!

ready for tests

2007-10-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

No math homework tonight. We finished our math page in class. STUDY for spelling test and History Exam. The last hour of our school day, we played baseball with our history and spelling words to get ready for tomorrow. Team A won the spelling game and Team B won the history game so everyone gets a piece of extra chocolate tomorrow when we take our test. The students received the new book to read by Dec. 12 for a book report. They should read about 3 chapters per week to finish. Bring it on Friday if you want to read during DEAR time.

Its monday!

2007-10-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

The following students have received extra credit for turning in their news current for this week early that was given out on Friday: Robin, Purple Finch, Bluebird, and Flicker. Good job to you all! We always talk about wise use of time and these students now dont have to worry about getting that done this week.

Thanks to Flicker and Purple Finch for bringing in Hersheys kisses for the class. We now have plenty to last us through the rest of this year. We will let you know when we need more. Thanks again!

We will be finishing Mr. Popper's Penguins this week and the journals will be due next Monday. The students will receive their last set of worksheets tomorrow. Remember that this is 2 test grades in Reading. They will receive Mary of Plymouth this week to take home for the next book report in December. We are also preparing for an exam in History to be given on Wednesday. The students received a study sheet on Friday as well as the one in their Thursday packet last week. It is the same one.

thanks

2007-10-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

A special thanks goes out to Mrs. D who has put together a great drug free packet in this weeks take home packets. Please take the time to read them and discuss these things with your children at home. She has done alot of hard work this week arranging our special speaker, hanging posters, and getting together "stuff" for us to make this week more meaningful. Our class won the award for most creative in the poster contest. We are proud of all the students who helped create our poster.

Mrs. Ryals and the fourth graders would also like to send out a special thanks to Bluebird's mom for sending us some chocolate. We truly appreciate it and will enjoy eating it to give us "brain power" before we take our tests. I think we have enough to last until at least Thanksgiving.

Tonight the students have no math homework. Just study for History test, Science quiz, and Bible verse test. Anyone who absolutely needs extra time for the take home test (that was given out on Mon. for Chap. 11 in History) and is due tomorrow can send it on Monday with a note from a parent stapled to the top. No homework pass is needed and No points will be deducted if the note is attached. "Kudos" go out to Purple Finch, Meadowlark, and Flicker for turning it in early this week. That was a great use of your extra time to get ahead.

2007-10-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

Our class was in the newspaper yesterday. There was an article about our field trip in the ABC education section along with a picture. It will also be in the Montgomery Parents this coming up edition. Check it out!

spelling bee

2007-10-23T05:10:00.000-07:00

Dont forget our class spelling bee on Friday. We will use the words from our old spelling lists so just be ready for any of these. The students who win will receive a book to study for the school spelling bee coming up on Nov. 16. More details coming.

Tabasco

2007-10-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

We had an exciting pig race on Friday. Tabasco was paralyzed and had to go up to the Physics lab for surgery. He could not be fixed so his cousin Sherbet flew in from out of town to care for him and take his place in the race. Tabasco showed up at the race with his bandages and was wheeled out onto the gym floor by a student from last year's class and a student from this year's class to watch the festivities. Sherbet really "did him proud" and won the race so that the fourth grade gets to keep the trophy for another year and Tabasco has been officially retired. Go Big Red!

finally on here again

2007-10-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry, it has been a while since I posted. Well, I am finally having time to post again. Anyway, I heard that report cards came out today on the web today so check it out on your family email. You will get a paper copy in Thursday's packet to keep.....
Also I gave out the take home paperwork and assignment for chap. 11 in History. It is due on Friday. Please comment and let me know how you like doing the chapter that way. You can get help from your parents as long as they dont TELL you the answers.
We are proceeding to chap. 12 in class and the study sheet has been given out today. I just thought we would try the take home approach for the quiz and test since chap. 11 is so short and should be fairly easy. We will cover this concept again in Alabama History in the Spring. Students should be able to get a good grade with a take home and give their history grade a good boost. Read the chapter, do the workbook pages, and then take the quiz and test.
We have been having extra time at the end of the day for homework so hopefully students are using this time well and getting their math finished so that all they need to do at home is STUDY.

tests today

2007-10-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

8 students received an A or B on today's language test. That is excellent and shows that we have mastered our punctuation and capitalization rules. Our language tests can be tough and this is the best we have done on one this school year.

We are working on our Red Ribbon poster in class. #1 is drawing the picture for us on the posterboard and the other students are decorationg and doing the writing for the poster. We are really looking forward to next week and don't forget to wear your red shirt on Friday. We are also excited about our RED pig, Tabasco, racing on Friday.....We are going to charge him up and and hope that he can remain the PIG CHAMPION OF ECA!

new quarter today

2007-10-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

The new quarter grades begin today! We began new chapters in Science and in History today. We did section 5.1 in Science and completed the cc in class today and we went over the French and Indian War in History (chap. 9) Please read this chapter for an open book quiz on Wed. Tomorrow will be the open book quiz on chapter 8 which we went over last week. We are finishing up capitalization rules and doing review pages for this in our Language book and in our Easy Grammar book. The students had lots of time to work on Language today and practice these rules we have learned. Everyone did their homework over the weekend. I know that it was alot but all of it was unfinished classwork and many of the students used class time well on Friday and got much of it finished at school. Tomorrow we have a language quiz on capitalization rules. I gave out a study sheet for the new science chapter today (the test will be in about 3 weeks and they do not even have a quiz until next week). The students also received their news current quiz to turn in for this Friday and had time in class to start on it as well.

2007-10-12T05:03:00.001-07:00

Now all the students have seen how to get to this, so hopefully you will take a look and enjoy the finished product. In history, any student who makes a D or F on a test can write all the terms for the next test from the study sheet given and the information that goes with these terms, to have points added to their next test grade. They turn this in stapled to their test. From the ones who have done this so far, they have realized that they actually learn the material and do better on the next test, so this is a good study technique for them. Mission accomplished!

Today ends the first quarter for grades in our class. So Mrs. Ryals will be figuring out report card grades over the weekend. Conduct grades have dropped just in the last two weeks so let's start out the new quarter with a brand new slate and do better this time, beginning on Monday. Several students had notes go home in their packet this week about behavior and homework.

2007-10-10T05:42:00.000-07:00

In the packets tomorrow you will find an Arrow book order form. If anyone wants to order from it for Christmas gifts send the order in a sealed envelope and I will get it back to you secretly so that you can save if for Christmas gifts for your child.

2007-10-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Today it was brought to my attention and I double checked when we took our Wordly Wise quiz that I had put list 3 on the assignment sheet last week. Sooooo since only 5 people made a passing grade, they may have studied the wrong list. I am giving everyone an opportunity to take this quiz over again before Friday of this week. The ones who passed were #1, 2, 6, and 8. All the others may take the quiz over on Wednesday or Thursday of this week...

We worked on our book reports today in class and wrote rough draft paragraphs for the summary of what the book was about. Tomorrow the students will be rewriting and editing their rough draft and turning in the finished book report on the form which I gave them.

We also aced the test on John 14. Hallelujah!! We have reviewed now for 2 days in preparation for tomorrow's History test. The following students have opportunity to get extra credit on the test if they write their terms and study notes out to turn in with the test: #4, 5, and 8

welcome

2007-10-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

I hope that you have found this ok. We will try to post on here on a regular basis things that you may not know about our class and things that I tell the students on that day in class. It will not be every day. Once I get the hang of this thing, I will figure out which days we will be posting and may even let the students make some of the posts. Anyway, this week is a big test week because it is the last of the grading period so lots of tests and quizzes. We are doing our book report in Language which is a test grade Tuesday and Wednesday in class. Until next time......

Welcome to my Blog

2007-10-08T13:26:00.001-07:00

More info coming soon.