Into the 2nd Quarter...

Can you guess the favorite book characters?

 

 

It is so hard to believe we are already into the month of November!  Congratulations to our class for surpassing our home reading goals for the month of October!  We enjoyed dressing as our favorite book characters last Friday as a reward for reaching those goals.  Keep up the awesome reading at home!  Please don't forget to enjoy your FREE personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut before the end of the month. Your coupon is good for thirty days.  Enjoy!  Speaking of books, our Shadybrook Book Fair is currently going on in the media center.  It will be open this Saturday, from 10am to 2pm.  Stock up on some great titles for your child and continue to encourage his/her love of reading!

I am so proud of our students' generosity in raising money for the American Red Cross, a United Way Agency we have been learning more about in fourth grade.  Our class collected over $60 for the agency.  The annual Shadybrook "Holiday Canned Food Drive" begins this week and runs through Monday, November 24th.  We are collecting canned food for the Open Door Ministries of High Point. Our class goal is 200 items which comes out to 10 items per student. Do what you "can" to show kindness and compassion to those in need.  Feel free to tell your neighbors, friends, grandparents, etc. about our school's project and let them assist you.

We are excited to be learning about nutritious foods in science, our state government in social studies, mult-digit multiplication in math, and poetry in language arts.  Click on each of the colored topics to review and practice the concepts we are learning in class.  Have fun!

As always, thank you for all you do to support your child and Shadybrook!  We are always in need of small prizes for our Eagle Store to reward positive behavior and learning in the classroom.  This is a great time to find candy and other fun items on clearance.  If you are able to send in any items for the Eagle Store, it is greatly appreciated.  The children always enjoy new items.  Thank you in advance for your assistance!


Enjoy the pictures below from our science unit on Earth, Moon, and Sun during the first quarter!  What an amazing group of children you all have; I so enjoy working with each of them!

September News...

Interim Reports:

Per Dr. Taylor’s instructions, interim reports will be sent home with the Monday folders this coming Monday, September 29 rather than as previously scheduled for this week.  Please look for your child’s interim report on Monday and sign and return each of the three pages on Tuesday, September 30.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

 Due Date:

Moon phase calendars as well as September home reading log calendars will be due this coming Wednesday, October 1.  The moon phase calendar has been part of your child’s nightly homework assignment for the month of September and will count as a science grade.  The home reading has also been part of your child’s nightly homework assignment and counts as a reading grade.  Please sign and total the number of minutes your child read for the entire month (it should be 400 or higher).  Thank you for supporting your child’s reading habits and let me know if you have any questions.

Help Needed:

The students are working hard to earn lots of Eagle Bucks!  We appreciate any fun items that can be sent in for prizes in our Eagle Store on Fridays.  Thank you so much for your assistance!

Happy autumn to all!

First Nine Weeks: That's A Wrap?

I can not believe the first quarter has already ended!  Below is a video I made of the students closer to the beginning of the year that I realize I never shared.  Sorry for the delay, but I think everyone will enjoy it just the same.

It has been a busy nine weeks indeed! In math, we have studied place value, adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers with regrouping, factors/multiples/prime/composite numbers, and multiplying two-digit by one-digit and two-digit numbers. In science, we learned about the earth, moon, and sun while we have learned about nutritious foods in health. ELA (English Language Arts) has been filled with learning about character traits, author's point of view, cause and effect, and theme. We have also included reading for information, paraphrasing, text features, and incorporated writing in both nonfiction as well as fictional text. We have learned about the three geographic regions of North Carolina, the state symbols, and our state government in social studies. Really, these are just the main highlights; the list could go on and on! We have been extremely busy, and you have some very amazing and talented children!

 

 

Thank you to everyone who has sent in the sanitizing wipes!  We use those every Friday to keep our desk tops germ-free.  This will be especially important as we enter the cold and flu season.  Please continue to send those in as you think of it.  We also have a need for sandwich-size Ziploc bags and small prizes for our Eagle Store.  Your children work hard each and every day to earn prizes and the store is running a bit low right now.  This might be a good time to find some things on the clearance racks.  Suggestions include individually wrapped candy, cool pens, notepads, small toys or games or puzzles, or anything your child would like or be interested in earning.

 

Finally, a special thanks to the many parents who assisted with our field trip to Raleigh!  We had a fabulous trip.  The children learned so much (and I believe the parents did as well).  It was a day filled with learning and wonderful memories!

 

  

February News

Calling All Authors!

We are excited to begin the publishing process of our very own hardback book!  Each student will become an author of his/her very own hardback book.  You will receive one FREE copy of your child's hardcover book just by signing and returning the form that will come home in the brown Monday envelope.  If you need additional copies of your child's book, the form will have information about ordering those.  Each student will need a package of colored pencils for this project.  Please purchase a new package of colored pencils for your child to use in the final stage of the publishing process.  Send the colored pencils in to school with your child as soon as possible.  Thank you!

 

Student Spotlights!  Congratulations to our Science Fair participants and Spelling Bee participants! I am very proud of the hard work and effort put forth by each of these students. Way to go!

 

Science Fair:

 

Spelling Bee:

 

 

Science Fun!

We enjoyed learning about rapid changes in the Earth with a special visit! Take a look at our learning fun! 

 

 

 

Try This:

Math and Science Fun!

Fractions are a breeze with this site.  Practice what we have been learning in class using the models on this site.  Have fun!

 

Rocks and minerals are cool to experiment with in these virtual learning labs.  In the first online lab, classify minerals according to their properties.  In the second  online lab, enjoy classifying rocks as igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary.  Enjoy science fun!

  

 

 



Welcome 2013!

I hope everyone has had a relaxing and memorable winter break!  I have thoroughly enjoyed the time with my family, and I feel rejuvinated and excited to be getting back to learning soon!  I am thrilled to let you know that I finally had some extra time to produce a video which shares some highlights of our trip to the Heritage Theater back in the fall.  Enjoy the clip below!



Coming up this month, we will be finishing up our unit on factors and multiples in math.  Following completion of that unit, we will begin to move into fractions.  Get geared up for fractions by playing some of these online fraction games!

In science, we are wrapping up our healthy living unit and will start our unit on matter.  This will include investigations of rocks and minerals.

If you are able to help out, our class can always use prizes for the Eagle Store.  The children enjoy working hard to earn Eagle Bucks and using their Eagle Bucks to shop for rewards.  New items in the store are always a big hit! 




Please help us be germ-free!

Additionally, we are in desperate need of sanitizing wipes (e.g. Clorox, Lysol, etc.). We especially want to cut down on germs as much as possible during this time of year. Thanks in advance for your help and support!


Welcome to Fourth Grade!

We are off to a great start and settling in to our fourth grade routines and procedures well!  Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Reminders:  Remember our lunch time is 11:20-11:45 daily if you would like to join us.  Don't forget to send your child to school dressed for P.E. on Tuesdays and recess all other days.  Remind him or her to bring his or her library books to school every Thursday, our media center day.  Your child may bring a daily afternoon snack and may keep a bottle of water at his/her desk (only water please). 

I sent home the first Book Club flyer this week.  I will send them home monthly (except when we are having Book Fair at Shadybrook).  Please consider allowing your child to order from time to time.  Typically, there are many high-interest choices available at great prices.  It is an excellent way to help foster your child's love of reading!  The more your child reads, the better reader he or she will become.  If you prefer online ordering, you can do so at Scholastic.  The class activation code is GWHGZ.  You may send the order form along with payment (checks made to Scholastic) to school with your child, if you would rather.  Orders will always be due Friday morning of the week the flyer is sent home in the brown Monday envelopes.  Online orders must be entered by this time as well.  Thank you for supporting your child in becoming a better reader!

You can also assist your child by playing a key role in home reading.  Please help your child record his/her daily home reading in his/her reading log folder.  There are instructions and examples in the front of the folder as well as questions you can use at home to discuss your child's reading with him/her.  Discussion is an important component to developing comprehension!  ReadWriteThink is an awesome website that you may find helpful.  Let me know if you have any questions, and happy reading to all!

Be on the look out for information regarding our first field trip of the school year in the next blog!

Missing Persons Alert!!!

What a wonderful time we had on our most recent field trip to the Heritage Theater in Winston-Salem!  We have some budding actors and actresses in our midst at Shadybrook Elementary.  The costumes looked great, and you read your lines well.  The "drama kings and queens" who hammed it up, made the performance entertaining and exciting.  You all were fantastic, and everyone really enjoyed the show!  We learned many amazing facts about the history of our state as well.  Several of the scenes in our performance were related to The Lost Colony of Roanoke. 

It all began in 1584 when Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, explorers from England, discovered the island of Roanoke.  They returned to England, brought with them two Native Americans, and informed the Queen of the wonderful land they had found.  Queen Elizabeth I of England was very excited about this discovery, so she gave Sir Walter Raleigh permission to establish a colony in the New World.  The very next year, in 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent Ralph Lane and a group of 100 men to this impressive new land to establish the first colony for England.  For several reasons, the colony didn't last long.  Sir Francis Drake sailed to Roanoke Island in 1586.  The settlers pleaded with him to take them along with him back to England, and he agreed.  A week after they left Roanoke Island, Sir Richard Grenville arrived with supplies.  Fifteen people from his crew stayed at Roanoke Island in a fort built by Lane and his men.

Sir Walter Raleigh set up another voyage to Roanoke.  This second group was led by John White and included over 150 men, women, and children.  They arrived on Roanoke Island on July 22, 1587.  This group made improvements to the houses that existed from Ralph Lane's colony and built additional new ones.  Because of hostility between the first colonists and the Native Americans, this second colony didn't have a good relationship with the Native Americans.  The Croatoans, one Native American tribe that lived nearby, wanted to have peace and understanding with the new settlers.  The first English baby born in the New World was part of this group of settlers.  Her name was Virginia Dare, and she was the granddaughter of John White.  Her mother was Eleanor Dare, John White's daughter.  Near the end of August, the settlers decided that they needed more supplies from England.  John White and several others returned home with the fleet of ships to get food and other supplies for the colony.

How do you lose a colony?  By the time John White arrived back in England and raised enough money to return to Roanoke, he couldn't.  In 1588, the Spanish Armada had advanced on England making it impossible for White to return to Roanoke.  Finally, in 1590, White and  a few sailors were able to sail back to Roanoke Island.  However, when they reached Roanoke in mid-August, there were no signs of the settlement.  The only thing they found were the letters "CRO" and "CROATOAN" carved in a tree.  The English people had agreed that they would leave a cross to indicate trouble, but no cross was found.  John White and his men tried to sail to Croatoan Island but the strong, stormy seas prevented them from doing so.  They had no choice but to return home to England once again.  There weren't enough funds for them to return again. 

What happened to the colonists of the second settlement on Roanoke Island remains a mystery today!  There are several theories about what may have happened.  Read more in the book, Roanoke: The Unsolved Mystery by Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple; we have a copy in our classroom library. What do you think happened to the colony on Roanoke Island?  We would love to hear about your ideas in YOUR next blog post on kidblog.org.  Read the book, then post your reader response!