Connect 4

Hello Everyone!

Connect 4 has been a very popular game at indoor recess.  This has become very competitive and some students feel left out. I also feel that the kids are getting bored at indoor recess. To help alleviate this frustration, I have developed the bracket system for playing Connect 4.

Our rules:
1.  You must sign up to play Connect 4. If you do not sign up at the start of a new bracket, you will need to wait until the next bracket starts.
2.  A referee will be assigned (initially by Mrs. Marcotte).  The winner of the previous bracket will become the referee for the next bracket.
3.  If you win your game, you advance to the next round.
4.  The winner of the bracket will become the new referee and earn a HW pass.  

The class is very excited by this new idea.

If you have any questions please comment or let me know.

~Mrs. Marcotte

I hope everyone had a good week.

I wanted to let everyone know that Progress Book will be down until early next week.  They are updating the system.  I have not entered any second quarter grades, so that everyone was able to clearly see quarter 1.  I will have grades updated by next Friday and those will reflect the most current grade.

Enjoy your weekend and keep reading
~ Mrs. Marcotte

November Book Project and Book It Program

Dear Families,

Yesterday I passed out a packet that includes information on the November book project and information for our new Book It Program.

November Book Project

This is a fourth grade wide project.  Each project includes TWO parts: a written part and a project.  The project is due Friday, November 22, 2013.  We will present the projects on Monday and Tuesday the following week. I have asked the kids to make sure they return their rubrics to help control paper waste. Please help them keep track of the packet.  Students are not limited to the projects listed in the packet, these are suggestions.  If you'd like to visit the project site from our previous project and use one of those ideas, please feel free.

During the next three weeks, I will still be requiring the 20 minutes of reading and the written response.  The class agrees that this helps them to understand their books, so they also want to keep doing this.

Book It
Most of the Amelia Elementary teachers are going to be using the Pizza Hut Book It Program.  I passed out information on Friday. I have asked the students to write the total number of minutes read in the Parent Comment section of the planner.  Please initial the minutes so they can get credit.  Three times a week we will record our minutes read on the computer. At the end of the month, we will brag about our reading by posting our total minutes on our class door.  The kids seem very excited by this.  Every student is encouraged to read a minimum of 400 minutes for the month of November.  Students that meet this goal will get a free pan pizza coupon from Pizza Hut.  If all our students meet or exceed this goal, we will have read 8,000 minutes as a class.  How awesome is that??

If you would like to learn more, please visit the Book It website.

Thank you for continued encouragement and support.  The class is doing great and is very excited by the learning that is going on. Please contact me with any questions.

J Tammy Marcotte

Library

Good evening!

Remember that tomorrow is our library day.  Please remind your child to bring their library book.

Have a great night.

Class Update Email

Hi everyone,

I do not have everyone's email, so I wanted to post the email I sent to parents today.

Thank you to the parents that have signed into Progress Book to check their child's progress.  Correct user names and passwords went home Thursday, October 3.  Students were told to put it in their HW folder.  If you did not get this, please let me know and I will make sure you get your username and password. 

Also, thank you for adding your email to PB.  This allows for easy communication.  If you have not yet signed up for text messaging, or blog updates, be sure to check out my blog link below.  This will allow you the most up to date info.  I try to update the blog when major assignments are given, or I feel parents need to know something.  I will also do this with text messages.  The information for text messaging is in the blog.  

Since I have been in and out with my oldest. I wanted to touch base with everyone.  This past week was a bit of a struggle.  Next week, I will be addressing all of the missed instruction, book projects, writing assignment, and any needed intervention.  I will use our computer time (Wed) and library time (Thurs) as a way to touch base with any individual student that may need/want assistance with an assignment or subject.  I also have intervention time on Mondays at recess.  I use this time to help students improve their tests, clarify misconceptions, and improve writing responses.  Most days students are welcome to stay in from recess if they want help on an assignment, want to catch up on work, or get ahead on HW.  All students are aware of this and a few have taken me up on this opportunity.  They usually will work 15 minutes then go out for 15.  Sometimes, I may have them stay in to complete work they didn't do, or to correct an assignment.

If at any time you have questions, please email. This is usually the quickest way to get hold of me.  

Thanks again.

Book Projects

The students have been enjoying their Read and Respond assignments over the past few weeks.  There will be a culminating activity to bring the whole book together.  Each book - Misty of Chincoteague, Black Beauty, and Shetland in the Shed- will have a final project that will be due Thursday, October 10, 2013. Today, I suggested that students look online for creative ways to represent their book.  I am going to let the kids be creative.  They all did a fantastic job on their Social Studies projects, I know they will do great on the book projects.

Below is a link of creative book projects. The list is very overwhelming, but has a lot of great ideas.

http://teachnet.com/lessonplans/language-arts/more-ideas-than-ever-book-reports/

I am going to show them a quadrama using the blog, I'm Blog Hoppin', as an example of a creative project. They seemed very excited about the suggestion of a quadrama, so I wanted to let them see one.

Project expectations

On time                                 0          1          2

Presentation Included:

Title and Author                  0          1          2

Main Characters                0          1          2

Setting                                   0          1          2

Conflict/Problem               0          1          2

Resolution                            0          1          2

Opinion of the book         0          1          2

Clear/loud speaker          0          1          2

Eye Contact                        0          1          2

Knowledge (not read)     0          1          2

Project

Relationship to story          0          1          2

Creative                                0          1          2

Neat                                       0          1          2

Effort (not last minute)      0          1          2

Student work                       0`        1          2

Enjoy the rest of the book and I look forward to seeing their final projects.

~Mrs. Marcotte

Math Test

Just a reminder that tomorrow we will be having our first math test.  Students will be coming home tonight with practice problems, test example problems that were completed in class, their notebook and their extra credit work.   All of these can be used to study for the math test.

If you have any questions, please email.