Mrs. Alexander's Fabulous 4th

Back to the Good Old Days!

04/20/2014

It is so nice to finally have testing done! We are back to our reglary daily schedule and routine! Thank goodness!

We will continue to work on vocabulary through learning the Nifty Thrifty Fifty. Remeber, learning about prefixes and suffixes can help you when come to words you don't know.

We have a few more formal spelling lists and Power Language.

April is National Poetry Month. We will learning about different forms of poetry and writing poems to share. You will also be choosing a poem for partner reading to perform as well!

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Reading Week Activities

03/02/2014

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It's time to celebrate Dr. Seues's brithday. We have lots of reading activies planned throughout the week that you won't want to miss out on.

Monday - Black, White and Read Day
Wear black, white, and red today.

Tuesday- enjoy your reading time because it's Spring Picture day.

Wednesday - Book Character Dress-up, World Read Aloud Day
Dress up as your favorite book character.
Listen to stories being read aloud by our own VP athletes and cheerleaders!

Thursday - Reading Marathon Day
Wear your PJ's and snuggle up with a good book in the morning!

Friday - Hats off to Reading
Wear your hat today!

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Science Investigation

02/26/2014

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You will learn about ecosystems, habitats and animal adaptations in the upcoming science unit. To familiarize yourself with the topic, go to Discovery and log in as a student. Under My DE Services, click on My DE. There you will see an Assignments icon. Click on this. Then, click on the Habitats link. You will be directed to a Board of information. Watch the videos, take notes and learn more about the topic. Answer the questions at the bottom of your screen in your science ntoebook. Be prepared to learn more and discuss during Science.

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Reading Goals- On Our Way!

02/23/2014

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Our class has read 76 books since the holiday break. Our goal is to have 400 read by the end of the year. It's a lofty, but completely DOABLE goal! Students will be evaluating how well they are doing in relation to their personal goals set back

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Eagle Watching for All

01/21/2014

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Clip art copyrighted by Bobbie Peachey, http://webclipart.about.com

This weekend we went to the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Charles for Eagle Days. This was quite a treat for the kids. We got to look through scopes to see bald eagles in trees. We even spotted 2 soaring above. We especially enjoyed the informational show by the World Bird Sanctuary where we got to see a live bald eagle. My family loves this time of year because many eagle nests are anticipating the hatching of eggs. Last year, we watched several different eagle cams. The 3rd grade group I worked with had read about them and loved coming to see them. If you can't get out to see them in your community, check out these great live eagle cams!

Southwest Florida Eagle Cam- you can fledglings here and there are 2 views. This is by far my favorite right now!
Alcoa Eagle Cam
Decorah, IA Eagle Cam

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Indoor Recess

01/21/2014

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Indoor recess can be fun! Here are some great ideas of things you can do.

Origami Instructions
More Origami for fun
Make a Monster Origami bookmark - read the directions on the page.
Paper Plate Weaving - read the directions and see the pictures
Paper Plate Weaving video
Draw a 3-D Hand
Create your own cartoon characters - you will have to click on the pages you want to print them off. Or you can use paper to draw them.
How to Draw Cartoon Animals - these are step-by-step directions to help you draw lots of fun different cartoon
animals
Finger Knitting how-to
Finger Knitting video how-to
Create Fingerprint drawings - click on the picture to enlarge it and see examples

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Grammar is Power!

12/05/2013

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We have been learning about the difference between plural noun and possessive nouns. Students have created Who Wants to be a Millionaire games to hep reinforce the concepts. Check out the games below!

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Connecting with Each Other

10/29/2013

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It's hard to believe that by the end of this week it will be November. We have wrapped up first quarter and are really getting into the meat of things in 4th grade.
Students were introduced to our new virtual classroom, Edmodo. Edmodo is a wonderful way for students to connect with each other, their teacher and even other students and teachers. This is completely moderated by me and is safe for students. We will be using Edmodo as a way for students to publish their writing and get feedback from each other. Parents can even join our group and give feedback as well.
As part of our introduction, I used this to discuss the importance of safety online. Students will have access to technology (i.e, cell phones, tablets, video games, computers, etc) all of the time. It's important for students to understand how they present themselves online. Students asked lots of questions about what they can do on Edmodo. Here are our guidelines for Edmodo.

Edmodo is our online classroom.
Edmodo is only to be used for school-related topics.
Students may post homework assignments any evening.
Students may reply to each other using parameters outlined by me.
All comments and posts are seen by me.
Students who use this for social purposes will no longer have access to Edmodo.
Parents are invited to join our classroom and be involved in the conversation.

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All Access

09/15/2013

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This past week, students have been able to access several sites online. They have been given usernames and passwords to access their math books. This is such a great tool for kids. Ask them to show you how to do this at home. You can click on the link on right side of this page to get started!

We have been using Class Dojo as a way to keep track of behavior. This is an excellent tool for me and for the kids. Students can earn points and use these points to redeem for fun rewards. They have a username and password for this as well. I will be sending home parent log-ins this week so you can see thier progress too. There are a few glitches such as they can't see how many points they have unless I log in and show them. However, they can still see how they are doing and that's what's important! You can also access this by clicking on the monster to the right.

Finally, I am trying to keep this site updated with quality links for math, reading and other subjects. Students certainly can play these games at home to help build math fluency, reading excitment and word knowledge. Strategy games have been a big hit! These help build skills such as visual discrimination and problem solving.

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Summer's end

09/02/2013

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Summer has officially come to an end, yet, we are starting the fourth week of school already! We are wrapping up our first chapter in Math. I will be assessing chapter one this week. You can find links to practice place value, rounding and basic facts on the Math page.

Students will also be working on mastering 4th grade high frequency words in spelling and reveiwing short vowel sounds in more complex words.

Students should be reading at least 20 minutes each evening. We are averaging about 25 minutes, uninterupted, in the classroom. We are working on thinking about reading and "talking to the text". The picture below is a great visual to remind us all why reading every night, including weekends, is so important.

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V.P. Elementary Library: Destiny Quest
Look up the books you want to read and check out!

Click to access Edmodo.

Access Class Dojo here!

Connect for access to math help.

XtraMath for fact practice

All external links are intended for educational purposes only.
The Valley Park School District and Mrs. Alexander are not responsible for questionable or controversial content that may be found through the links.

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