THE SCOOP ON-LINE

This Week @ 4B

Filed under: Classroom News on Friday, October 24th, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

SPELLING: This week’s words are verbs ending with ed, ied or ing. You can visit www.mrbrownsroom for the weekly spelling list and ideas for different ways to study spelling words.

READING: On the Pampas, a story about a city girl visiting her family’s ranch in Argentina, is a wonderful introduction to gauchos and other exotic characteristics of another country. I plan to use Google Earth to help kids get a real feel for where in the world Argentina is by watching an animated globe move from Lecompton Elementary all the way to Argentina in just a couple of seconds. These animations are made from actual satellite photos from space! Pretty dramatic stuff! I hope you hear about it from your fourth grader on Monday night.

MATH: Having finally completed our unit on multiplication facts, we’re moving into multiplication of larger numbers. There are so many opportunities for kids to make mistakes in these long problems, that this unit is a good one for teaching children how to pay attention to details.

One interactive Internet-based game that kids like to play to help them improve their skills in this area is Crack The Code. This is one that Indiana Jones would love!

SOCIAL STUDIES: We will have a couple of review sessions, then a unit test to finish up our Kansas unit. Then it’s on to the regions of the United States in our wonderful new textbook.

WRITING: Students have been concentrating on learning to write paragraphs for a few weeks now. This week, we will begin working on longer compositions.

NOTE: Please send jackets or sweatshirts for kids to wear out to recess as the weather grows colder. Also, due to the rise in fuel costs, USD 343 schools will keep our thermostats relatively low this winter. Please see that your children dress accordingly as temperatures begin to drop so they can be comfortable and alert during the learning process.

This Week @ 4B: October 19

Filed under: Classroom News on Friday, October 17th, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

SPELLING: This week’s words are plural nouns ending with s, es or ies. You can visit www.mrbrownsroom for the weekly spelling list and ideas for different ways to study spelling words.

READING: This week we get to read another one of my favorite stories from our textbook. It’s called Marven of the Great North. It’s about a young boy who spends the winter in a logging camp in order to avoid the Great 1918 Flu Epidemic.

MATH: Timed tests on multiplication facts will continue through most of this coming week. As kids pass their 12s, they’ll work on a mixed problem test with 100 problems so they will continue to be challenged and continue to increase their fluency. However, instead of the practice games we’ve been playing, students will learn about the properties of multiplication and division as well as how to decide whether to choose these opperations in problem solving situations.

Our test on this unit is scheduled for this coming Friday. The actual day though will depend on how well prepared students are at the end of the week.

You can help your child improve your fourth grader’s multiplication speed and help them have fun, by steering them toward a wide variety of games at multiplcation.com.

SOCIAL STUDIES: As our Kansas unit draws to a close, kids will learn about famous Kansans and write short research reports about one or two of them. This unit also scheduled for testing at the end of this week.

WRITING: Students will choose a book to review in a well constructed paragraph.

NOTE: Due to the rise in fuel costs, USD 343 schools will keep their thermostadts relatively low this winter. Please see that your children dress accordingly as temperatures begin to drop so they can be comfortable during the learning process.

This Week @ 4B: October 13

Filed under: Classroom News on Monday, October 13th, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

SPELLING: This week’s words are adjectives of comparison that end with the suffixes est, iest and er. You can visit www.mrbrownsroom for the weekly spelling list and ideas for different ways to study spelling words.

READING: We get to read one of my favorite stories in our reading textbook this week, John Henry. This is a wonderful tall tale with millions of hysterical exaggerations. The main skill this week has to do with making judgments about what is realistic and what is exaggerated in the story. This story has inspired a famous old folk song by the same name… with ukulele accompaniment.

MATH: The unit on multiplication facts continues through the beginning of this week. Then it’s on to properties of multiplication and division. You can help your child improve their multiplication speed and have fun, by playing a wide variety of games at multiplcation.com.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Kids will be learning and writing biographies about famous Kansans and tall tales from Kansas.

WRITING: Fourth Graders will write their own tall tale this week.

NOTE: I’d like to apologize for not sending home my usual Weekly Reports. I’ve had some technical difficulties with the software. I plan on getting help with it before the end of this week.

This Week @ 4B: October 7

Filed under: Classroom News on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

SPELLING: This week’s words contain vowels whose sounds are altered because they are followed by an “R” You can visit www.mrbrownsroom for the weekly spelling list and ideas for different ways to study spelling words.

READING: Our second non-fiction selection, Komodo Dragons is always a very popular story because it’s about animals and they happen to be a bit on the scary side. Komodo Dragons are from Indonesia, so we listened to some short examples of very exotic Indonesian music.

MATH: We have begun a new unit on multiplication facts. This unit includes a variety of practice games, timed tests and songs with ukulele accompaniment.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We have learning about the history of Native American peoples in our state. We’ll also learn about how troubles in Bleeding Kansas led to the civil war and how Lecompton was very much involved.

WRITING: We’ve begun working on writing a good paragraph. The vehicle for this project will be paragraph long book reviews.

NOTE: I’m sending home a spinner that kids can use to help them practice multiplication facts. Other ideas for multiplication practice can be found here.

This Week @ 4B September 28, 2008

Filed under: Classroom News on Monday, September 29th, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

SPELLING: This week’s words are homophones (sound the same, spelled differently). I’ve sent home spelling sentences to help kids learn the meanings of each spelling. You can visit www.mrbrownsroom for the weekly spelling list and ideas for different ways to study spelling words.

READING: An excerpt from the Little House novel, On the Banks of Plum Creek. The main skill we’ll work on this week is helping students learn to identify the theme of a story. The theme of this story is a parent’s favorite, Do what your parents tell you. We’re using some of Aesop’s Fables to help us learn about theme.

MATH: We are completing unit on addition and subtraction of larger numbers and the properties of addition. Next up: multiplication facts songs with ukulele accompaniment.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We have begun our unit on Kansas geography and history.

WRITING: We’ve begun working on writing a good paragraph. The vehicle for this project will be paragraph long book reviews.

NOTE: Just a reminder to send a sack lunch for our Thursday field trip to the Topeka Zoo. Check back later this week to see photos and an article about this trip. They’re sure looking forward to it.

Big, Bad, Bald Eagle Rendezvous

Filed under: Classroom News on Friday, September 26th, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

Lecompton kids got to attend the fifth anniversary of our own Bald Eagle Rendezvous today. It was wonderful (as always)! The annual Rendezvous is a reinactment of the kind of gatherings that mountain men participated in over 150 years ago in order to sell furs, buy supplies, see old friends and have a good time. Students got to watch mountain man reinactors make lead bullits, explain and shoot a bow and arrow, throw tomahawks and knives. They also watched a working blacksmith, saw clothes and blankets made from buckskill an buffalo hide and learned about how they are made. They even got to talk to Benjamin Franklin, and lots more.

Guilt by Associative

Filed under: Uncategorized on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

4B kids were learning about the properties of addition and subtraction last week. Here’s a picture of one activity we did in which “the audience” had to decide which property was being acted out. After this photo was taken, the grouping was changed but still added up to the same sum. They correctly identified this as the associative property of addition. We also acted out the commutative property of addition and the zero property of addition.

Huge Turnout of Grandparents

Filed under: Classroom News on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

Grandparent’s Day was an even bigger hit this year than it is normally. The halls and rooms were packed with grandparents and other special friends who got to spend part of the day with their young relatives.

The afternoon began with special education teacher, Sue Nanniga’s mother who performed some of her ragtime favorites on piano. Then we grabbed a tray of cookies and went back to our classroom. We spent the next 45 minutes or so eating cookies, playing math dice games and talking.

Finally, due to a Fall rainstorm, we ended with indoor recess games. It was a wonderful time for everyone involved.

This Week @ 4B September 8

Filed under: Uncategorized on Monday, September 15th, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

SPELLING: Words that use the vowel sounds as in put and out. Visit www.mrbrownsroom for the weekly spelling list and ideas for different ways to study spelling words.

READING: An excerpt from the novel, The Cricket In Times Square. We plan to watch the animated video of the entire book this coming Friday. Skills this week include learning to visualize in order to better understand a story.

MATH: We are completing our Place Value unit with a test in the middle of the week. This will include comparing and ordering larger numbers, and counting money. Our next unit will include addition of larger numbers and the properties of addition.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We will finish up our natural resources unit towards the end of this week.
Next up: different types of geographical and political regions.

WRITING: Our project on writing an essay that gives directions continues.

NOTE: Has your child reported on the links I have to educational games? You can reach some of the best ones from right here at the Scoop. You’ll find them in the frame to the right just a bit down the page. Enjoy!

Our First Field Trip

Filed under: Classroom News on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 by rbrown | No Comments

Meet this guy at the zoo! That’s right! Our first field trip is coming up on October 2. It’s one that Mrs. Folks and I have not tried before, but it sounds wonderful. It’s the annual Safari Edventure Day at the Topeka Zoo. Kids from Lecompton and other area schools will be at the zoo to see the animals and learn about a multitude of animal related topics. As a Kansas City guy, I’ve never seen the Topeka Zoo and am really looking forward to it. Several parents have signed join us and share this special day. The zoo’s website has a nice page for kids too. Be sure to pay them a visit.