Weather Report

It's Wednesday, December 30 and that means it's time to check the national high and low temperatures as well as the sunrise and sunset (even on vacation). We'll check the blog when we get back to school and record the information.

National High: Miami: 75 degrees
National Low: International Falls, MN: -22 degrees
Difference: 97 degrees

Sunrise: 7:32 a.m.
Sunset: 4:35 p.m.
Amount of Sunlight: 9 hours 3 minutes

We've added 3 minutes of sunlight since the shortest day of the year on December 21st. Use those three minutes for some extra sledding today. It's supposed to get close to 30 degrees.

School House Rocks

Here's a preview of what we will be learning when we return to school. Another fun School House Rocks video.

Math Man

It's a math version of Pac Man!

Math Man

Happy Holidays

Thanks to everyone who gave us gifts for the holidays and for the donations made to the class. They were all very nice gestures.

Thanks again,
Adam, Jessie, and Alstan

Super Hyper Spider Typer

A fun and challenging typing game. I suggest you select the easy option. It starts off pretty easy, but it gets more difficult quickly.

Super Hyper Spider Typer

Star of the Week

Dec. 14-22

The Story of Snow

Here is an e-book called The Story of Snow. I would suggest clicking on the full screen button at the top of the page. I am planning on adding a couple of e-books and games over break so check back often!
The Story of Snow

Weekend Game

Connect all the wires to all the bulbs to light up the whole tree.

Tree Light Up

North Pole

Here are a couple of videos from the concert last night. It's all still pictures that I took before and during the concert. The first video has quite a few more pictures.



The second one is longer, but it has fewer pictures. The graphics that go with it are great.

Christmas Reminders

Gift Exchange
When: December 22nd
How Much: $3
What: Each child will bring a gift for another student. If your child is a girl they should bring a gift for a girl and if they are a boy they should buy a gift for a boy. We will draw numbers randomly to decide who gets the gift.

Holiday Supper
When: We’ll go food shopping on Dec. 17th or 21st.
How Much: Your Choice
What: I know students look forward to giving gifts to teachers, but please donate money to this cause instead of giving me a Christmas gift. Our class will donate a holiday supper to a family who otherwise may not have one. As a class, the students will plan the menu and prepare a shopping list. One or two days before our Christmas break, three students (with parental permission) will go with me to a local grocery store to purchase the groceries with our class donations. The family will be someone who lives in the Iowa-Grant school district, however, neither the students nor I will know who the family is. Mrs. Belken will deliver the food to the family without us knowing who the family is.

Holiday Concert

The Holiday Concert will be next week. It starts at 7:00 on Tuesday, December 15th at the IGEMS gymnasium. Please have your children come to our room by 6:45. After the concert is over, you will be able to pick your child up in the classroom as well. If there is a snow day on Tuesday, the make-up day will be on Thursday, December 17.

Talent Show

Next week the kids will be presenting a talent of theirs to go along with the story we are reading, The Talent Show. Since we are going to be working on the same story for two weeks we will not have spelling words next week. We also didn't take our spelling test this Friday (Dec. 11), because we haven't practiced those words enough. We will take the spelling test on Monday or Tuesday however.

Each child has a talent picked out for the talent show. We will be presenting our talents on Thursday. I plan on taking several photos and will post them in a slideshow on the blog.

Multiplication Station

Combine two numbers to solve the multiplication problem.



Or go to the link below for a larger version of the same game.
Multiplication Station

Snow Day Game

Here is a game for you play on your snow day.

Snowball Duel

Holiday Party

Get a Voki now!


The party will be on December 22nd from around 2:15-3:15. Allyson, Nathan, Keaton, and Kailey will be in charge of the party.

Snow Day Reminders

Here are the best ways to check to see if we are having a snow day, early release or late start due to weather.

The first two places where Mr. Slack will call are WISC-TV 3 and D99.3.

You can also call the school 608.943.6313 and there will be a recorded message from Mr. Slack saying if there is a delay. If there is not a delay it will just have the normal welcome to Iowa-Grant message.

Finally, you can go to WISC-TV 3's website for school closings and sign up for an e-mail whenever Iowa-Grant has any delays. Here's the closing website with the e-mail sign-up to the right of the page: Channel3000.com This link will also be in the top right of the page through the winter season.

I always tell the kids that the more we talk about a snow day the less likely it is to happen. With this post, the storm weakened and we'll only get 2 or 3 inches.

Star of the Week

December 7-11.

Snow Boots and Pants

It's that time of year again, when students have to start bundling up in snow pants and boots. As long as there is only a little bit of snow, like now, kids will be able to go out into the grass on the playground with only boots. However, when we get more accumulation they will need snow pants and boots in order to go out onto the grass.

If students don't have boots they have to stay on the blacktop to play at recess.

Spelling Bowling

On Thursdays we play a spelling game to practice our words for the week. This week's words were especially challenging because they dealt with singular and plural possessive nouns. This week we played spelling bowling. In order to roll a frame of bowling the students had to spell one of their words correctly on their white boards.

Weekend Game

Combine numbers together to solve the problems. There are some tough division problems in there, but don't forget if you divide by 1 the number stays the same.

Arithmetic Game

Holiday Notes

I also sent a letter home with the same information that is on this post.

Christmas Store
When: December 7 at 1:00
How Much: $0.50 or $1
What: Students are able to buy up to two gifts at the store for a 50 cents each. It gives students the opportunity to buy gifts for their parents or guardians on their own. Volunteers wrap the gifts and prepare them to take home.

Gift Exchange
When: December 22nd
How Much: $3
What: Each child will bring a gift for another student. If your child is a girl they should bring a gift for a girl and if they are a boy they should buy a gift for a boy. We will draw numbers randomly to decide who gets the gift.

Holiday Supper
When: We’ll go food shopping on December 17th or 18th.
How Much: Your Choice
What: I know students look forward to giving gifts to teachers, but please donate money to this cause instead of giving me a Christmas gift. Our class will donate a holiday supper to a family who otherwise may not have one. As a class, the students will plan the menu and prepare a shopping list. One or two days before our Christmas break, three students (with parental permission) will go with me to a local grocery store to purchase the groceries with our class donations. The family will be someone who lives in the Iowa-Grant school district, however, neither the students nor I will know who the family is. Mrs. Belken will deliver the food to the family without us knowing who the family is.

Party Committee
When: December 22nd
Who: Allyson, Nathan, Keaton, and Kailey
What: These committee members will bring drinks and treats as well as plan games and activities for our Christmas party.

Science

In science we are beginning Unit B: The Sun, Moon, and Earth. We will do several experiments and read about these things and space for the rest of December.