September 27, 2007

Student:
Today we went to math . Then were finishing up our writing story.
Then we did our projects. Then we went to art. M.K.

[This entry was actually from yesterday, Wed. Sept. 26]
Today we worked on our projects. REMEMBER,
BRING SUPPLIES FOR PROJECTS!! Then
we went to music with Sue Ford. We learned a
new song and it was awesome. The star musician was
Alex. M.K.

Teacher:
We are working our tails off in here! Phew... I'm exhausted and I imagine your kids are too. Lots of action going on in here in preparation for our conferences. These conferences will be used to reflect on last year, discuss challenges we may face this year, and to set goals. I look forward to getting a chance to speak with each of you, one on one.

Reminders

• Spelling quiz tomorrow
• No School on Monday (Oct. 1st) but students are expected to be here for their conference.
• Fall Family Night is Thursday, October 18th (Book Fair also opens this night.)
• Evergreen lost and found items now have their own web page! CLICK HERE

Field Work

Health Adventure

Oct. 11, 2007

11:00-2:00

$5.00

*We need drivers and we can pay for four chaperones*

September 25, 2007

Student:
Today we had our math groups. In my math group we had a multiplication quiz and we learned about place value with marshmallows and Cheerios. Then we did expedition. We are starting projects. We got our reading response journals today.
M.K

Teacher:
We talked at length today about the writing process. Specifically, we discussed graphic organizers. We saw our friends at BrainPop and they taught us about story maps. We then read Salt In His Shoes. The story was about Michael Jordan. This activity modeled for the students the writing process, from brainstorming, to story mapping. Then the kids worked on their own stories. Look for these to be shared with you at your conference!

I will be out of the classroom tomorrow, so there will be no blog updates. Please sign up for conferences and ask your child about the new Reading Response Journal. This will be handed in each Monday, during the school day to be checked. This will be much better then the stray pieces of paper I have been seeing. Plus, students can look back on their reading responses and see how their views or predictions have changed.

That’s all, folks! Have a great day and I hope you will scroll down to see our Sleep with the Sharks slideshow.

Spelling List

Spelling List #2
Short Vowels – e

been
ever
lead
deaf
fresh
twenty
smell
slept
inches
breath
except
guess
west
next
friend
getting
Short vowel – a (review)
fact
mammal
subtract
actor

Challenge List
Short Vowel – e
weather
whether
breathless
everyone
explain
splendid
plenty
together
skeleton
spread
arithmetic
envelope
everything
elephant
wealth

Sleep With the Sharks Slideshow

Student:
Today we did aquarium reflection then we started new stories. Then we did job’s. REMEMBER, parents sign up for parent teacher conference on Monday, October 1st. M.K

Teacher:
We watched a slideshow from our recent visit to the aquarium. After watching this we wrote reflections from the trip. I'll try to post a few online. After that we discussed Writers Workshop and reviewed the writing process. Our friends at BrainPop offered some advice and we recorded notes on what we learned. We then choose a topic and started a new story. Students also got new spelling words. Parents, please stop in and sign up for a conference time. Conferences will be held on Monday, October 1st from 8:40-5:00. Student attendance is mandatory. So far just an 8:40am, 11:35am, and 3:00pm slot is filled up. Conferences will last 20 minutes (with 5 minutes of teacher preparation time in between).

Climbing Wall Trip

Student:
Today we went to the climbing gym and everybody met their goal. Some people climbed with blindfolds and ear plugs. It was so much fun. M..K

Teacher:
It was great to see these guys encouraging one another and cheering each other on. I was so proud of the class. Each student set a goal and attained it. Lee and I are so proud of each and every one of you! Way to go class! K.S.

Happy Friday!

Student:
Today was a community Circle! We had P.E., one of our favorite enrichments. We also watched another lunch time movie called IMAX Coral Reefs. A.W.
Teacher:
We had an action packed day! It started with a school wide community circle. We then took our first spelling test of the year. After that we discussed homophones and did some fun activities with that. During lunch we watched an IMAX movie on coral reefs. These movies are building background knowledge, in addition to our habitat research, for our night at the aquarium.

Monday, we start off with our MAP test so please do your best to have your child here on time. We will then leave for our climbing trip at 9:30am. We are all looking forward to our Sleep with the Sharks program on Tuesday. Hope you all have a great weekend!

September 13, 2007

Student
Today we each got to make a letter. The letter is for a community circle on Friday. We also watched the rest of the IMAX Deep Sea movie. We hope you all can come to our community circle. And were having such a fun time! A.W.

Homework Tonight
Bring in can food item
Reading Response
Spelling test tomorrow. Please do a practice test with a parent and have it signed.

*MAP Test * We will be having our final MAP test first thing Monday morning! We need to start at 8:30am so that we can leave on time for the climbing wall. Please do your best to get your child here on time. Thanks!

Climbing Wall Trip on Monday

Lots of updates on the blog today. Hope you are enjoying this form of communication.

We have a busy week ahead. Please do not forget about our trip to the Montford Climbing Wall. This is one of my favorite trips as I can learn a lot about a child by watching them climb. Students should wear sneakers, bring a lunch, and girls should avoid wearing skirts. If you would like to join us come by Monday around 9:30. We can always use more belayers and if you don't know how I will do a quick training session with you. The more belayers we have, the more climbing the kids can do. Thanks a bunch!

September 12, 2007

We saw an IMAX movie called Deep Sea! We had a lovely time in music. This afternoon we got to pick our groups for which coastal plain habitat to learn about. Our math groups our going very well. A.W. (student)

We also review parts of speech, worked on “I Am” poems, and had our very first fourth grade library experience! Then we did some research on our habitat as a group. We discussed note taking skills and used highlighters in highlight important information.
-Kevin

PS For the record, we watched the IMAX movie as the kids ate lunch. Our time is valuable and we aren't just watching movies all day! :)

* Important Field Trip Information *

We sent home a newsletter and more information in regards to this trip today. Please read the documents in your childs communication folder.

THIS IS IT! We are going to the Aquarium! The following is all the info you need on our travels to Gatlinburg’s Aquarium of the Smokies.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007
We will have a normal school day (8:30-3:00)
5:00- Teachers arrive at ECCS to prepare bus and gather paperwork
5:15- Students arrive with gear packed, full stomachs, and ready to board
5:30- Depart for Gatlinburg Aquarium
8:00- Arrive at Gatlinburg Aquarium and start program

Friday, September 19, 2007
9:00am- Program ends
10:30- Leave Gatlinburg Aquarium
12:30- Arrive back to Evergreen
· Lunch will be provided
· Students will write field work reflection
· We will celebrate our first successful field work experience

Click HERE to see our schedule at the aquarium. Feel free to explore the website with your child. We will see lots of interesting things. It's going to be great!

Student Blogger and Teacher Information

Student:
Today we looked at two Brainpops! We also went to enrichment (art). We saw how deep a styrofoam cup, a diver, a squid, and a submarine can go into the ocean without be affected by pressure. We are leaning about the coastal plain habitats, the ocean, and every creature within it.

A.W.

Teacher:
Yes, it is true. Our coastal expedition is in full swing. We are learning about the coastal plain and the many habitats within it. We are also investigating the ocean and coral reefs (though no coral reefs are found along the Outer Banks). Students will spend this week learning about the following habitats: beach/sandy shore, estuaries, kelp forest, ocean, swamps, coral reefs, and peat bogs. If you have any information, books, websites, or expertise, within any of these habitats, let us know! As you are aware, we are gearing up for the Sleep with the Sharks trip next Tuesday. Be sure to read the important information that we will be sending home tomorrow. There will be a list of items students should bring, important times, and information about lunches.

Be sure to ask your child about the following parts of speech: nouns, proper nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives. Also, be sure to quiz them on their spelling words. A great time to do this is in the car while on the way to school.

Also, ask your child about BrainPop! This is a great site that offers tons of great information. We are hoping to get a license to use the website year round. Right now we have a temporary membership. Ding! Donation/volunteer opportunity! Check out the site at www.brainpop.com. We watch these animations when it is appropriate, or sometimes during lunch time. Another site we frequent is www.unitedstreaming.com. Again, this is a temporary membership.

Please feel free to leave comments and thanks for visiting our blog!

-Kevin

First Day of Spelling

Our first spelling list is shown below. Students who got just one, or two, wrong on the pretest should use the CHALLENGE words listed. Also, all students had their SPELLING CHOICES sheet stapled into their planner. These choices will be used throughout the year so put the SPELLING CHOICES list somewhere that it can be referred to weekly.

Also, if you would like to leave a comment please click on the COMMENT section below. It would give me a good idea of whom, and how often, people are checking this blog. Let us know!

Thanks.
K.S.

Spelling List 1

Short Vowels- a

Short vowel: The sound of the vowel is soft.

Example: A short a is pronounced like the a in the words: mask, task, act, jack, bag.
1. Short-Vowel Rule: When one-syllable words have a vowel in the middle, the vowel usually has a short sound: Examples: cat, dog, man, hat, mom, dad, got.

If the letter after the vowel is f, l, or s, this letter is often doubled. Examples: staff, ball, pass.

This is our spelling list. (Unless you got all but two wrong, then your list is the Challenge list.)
actor
batch
brass
craft
draft
gases
graph
grass
organ
quack
scrap
smash
stack
taxes
taxi

Challenge List

Absent
Adventure
Basket
camping
canyon
capacity
dragon
factory
gather
mammal
passage
planet
scramble
shadow
traffic

September 10, 2007

Today we learned about adverbs . And we had our second MAP test in the computer lab (reading). Sadly, we did not have enrichment. We have been reading lots of funny books.
A.W.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Today in Kevin and Lee’s classroom we went to art and worked on our Original Arts. We also went to our assigned math groups and got some math homework. Some kids did there math homework in class. It was cool. We also worked on our exhibition work. We studied habitats. We learned that habitats offer food, water, shelter and space.
S.H.

Visit Kevin's Website

Although I haven't updated the website in a while the educational games are still online and loads of fun for our students. Each game reinforces concepts that we will cover throughout the year. To visit the site click HERE or follow the link below.

www.kevinsclassroom.com

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Today’s enrichment was music. At music we played on the small marimbas. It was very fun of course. We also took a small parts of speech quiz (nouns, proper nouns, verbs, adjectives). We also saw a Brain Pop video on parts of speech. We have had lots of fun Kevin and Lee’s class. :)

S.H.