New Math Books

We started our fourth math unit of the year this week.  With the start of this unit we also got new activity books.  It's always exciting to get a new set of books and feel like we're moving on.  Most of the math pages that come home are the ones torn out of our activity books.  We are a little past half way through the year, but I think we'll still be able to finish the math series.  The second activity book is a little shorter than the first.

Here are the math units that we have remaining for the year:
Unit 4 - Multidigit Addition and Subtraction
  - Place Value and Rounding
  - Grouping to Add
  -Ungroup to Subtract

Unit 5 - Write Equations and Solve Word Problems
  - Types of Word Problems
  - Two Step Word Problems

Unit 6 - Polygons, Perimeter, and Area
  - Triangles and Quadrilaterals
  - Area and Perimeter

Unit 7 - Explore Fractions
  - Fraction Concepts
  - Equivalent Fractions

Art Award!

Congratulations to one of our Van Clan members, Jackie, who will have her artwork on display at the Wisconsin Capitol from February 23-March 1.  Her piece, titled Plant Explosion, is the only piece from Iowa-Grant that will be displayed at the Capitol and earned a first place ribbon.

Awesome Job Jackie!

Valentine's Day Party

Party

We will be able to have our Valentine's Day Party on Valentine's Day this year.  It will be on the afternoon of the 14th.  Our Valentine's Day committee will be in charge of games and treats.

Cards

We will be making Valentine's Day Envelopes for our cards this Friday.  Students do not have to bring cards in, but if they do please have them make them for all the students in the class.  I am sending home a class list with the children tonight.

Box Tops

The Parent/Teacher Club is also sending home a sheet to collect Box Tops.  It has a Valentine's Day theme. The class that returns the most Box Top sheets will receive a special surprise!  The sheet to tape the Box Tops to will be coming home tonight as well.

Harriet Tubman

This week we are starting our Harriet Tubman unit.  We'll spend all of February reading the book, filling out the study guide, and learning more information about her.  Most people knew that she was an escaped slave, but she also did many other amazing things during her lifetime.  Above is the book that we read about her.

The students will also do a Harriet Tubman home project, which I'll give more information about soon.  The students will have several different options for which kind of project they would like to do.  The project will be due on Friday, March 1st, but I want us to get into the book a little bit before they start their projects.

Congrats!

Congratulations to the following students for turning in their reading calendars:  Mariah, Emma, Abby, Montanna, Nicole, Jackie, Alyson, Hailey, Skyler, James, Hailee, Zach, and Savannah!  It was a great day for them to have an extra recess outside.  The sledding hill had a nice layer of fresh snow!  The students got their Pizza Hut coupon today as well.

Also, our math test is tomorrow (Tuesday).  We reviewed for a good chunk of the math lesson today so they don't have any homework tonight.

Updates

• January Reading Calendars are due tomorrow, February 1st.  Remember we won't have the extra reading recess until Monday, February 4.  That sounds like much nicer weather too!
• Spelling Test is still tomorrow.  I know that we haven't had as much time as usual to practice our words, but we'll give it a try anyway.  If it goes really poorly I may throw that grade out.
• Cold Room - The room has been pretty cold so kids may want to make sure that they have a sweatshirt to wear in class.
• The Math Test will be early next week.  It will probably land on Monday or Tuesday.  That is also the halfway point of the math book.
• Stay Warm!

Math

We have moved on to the last section of this math unit.  The rest of this week and next we will be looking at pictographs, bar graphs, and plot lines in our measurement unit.  I think the kids are more excited about this part of the unit than any other this year.

Or next math test will either be on Friday, Feb. 1 or Monday, Feb. 4 depending on how well we do next week.  The test will include problems about units of measure (miles, pints, pounds, etc.), time, and graphs.

I also added several new games to the list.  Both of them work with bar graphs and collecting data.

• Math Data Games
• Bar Graph: Favorite Color
• Bar Graph: Favorite Vegetable
• Bar Graph Quiz 

Lots of Updates

• Reports cards get sent home tonight.  Don't forget to send the envelope back, but keep the report card.  I also sent home the rubric for their talent show presentations.
• January Reading Calendars are due next Friday.  We are going to do the extra recess on Monday, February 4th, but the calendars will still be due on Friday, February 1st.  The recess is pushed back so we can finish our country unit in social studies.  My class will be learning about Australia next week.
• 2,000,000 Words!  The class has combined to read 2 millions word read since the beginning of the year.  It took the class nearly three months to reach it's first million words, but only two months to reach it's second million.  That's great work!
• Thanks for the bags.  I should have enough plastic bags again.  We go through a lot this time of year with boots and snow pants.
• Everyday Math Apps.  Several of the Everyday Math Apps are currently free if you have an iPad, iPod, or iPhone.  They usually will only remain free for a couple of days, so if you are interested act quickly!  When you click on the link below it will have price at the right.  That's where you can check whether or not they are still free or not.  None of the games are very big either, most of them are between 10-20 mb.
• Addition Top-It 
• Monster Squeeze
• Beat the Computer
• Divisibility Dash
• Equivalent Fractions

5 p.m. Sunset

On Wednesday mornings we track the sunrise and sunset in our area.  Our sunset has finally officially gone back over 5 p.m. when we checked today.  The last time we had a sunset after 5 p.m. recorded was before time change on Halloween.  It may not be warming up yet, but more sunlight is at least a sign of warmer weather to come.

Report Cards

Just so everyone knows report cards will be sent home on Thursday, January 24.  Please keep everything inside the envelope, but return the envelope signed so we can reuse it next quarter.

Thanks.

Language Arts Test

First, a reminder that we don't have school on Monday.  It is the end of the 2nd quarter.

Next week we'll take our Language Arts unit test.  We will split the test up over three days (Tues.-Thurs.) and go over it on Friday.

Because of the testing we won't have spelling words next week.

Have a great weekend!

Quick Requests

I just wanted to ask for a a couple of things quickly if you had them.

1.  The first is very simple, if you have any extra plastic bags that you could send with your child that would be great.  I don't need hundreds of them, but my supply is gone and we use lots of them during the winter season.  We just can't stuff everything in those book bags.

2.  If you ever have old books that are laying around that you child is done with please send them to school and we'd be happy to use them in our library.  No matter how careful students are paperback books just don't last forever.  The kid's are always happy to have new books in the library.  Also, I have the students write on the inside cover it was donated by them.  If you have younger children still coming up then don't send any yet, it's only if you have books that your child has outgrown.

Thanks!

Apps for Kids

I know I haven't posted yet this week, but I have been working on a little project I have wanted to do since Christmas for the blog.  Several kids said their family got iPads, iPods, or Kindle Fires for as a gift.  Others I know already have several different tech tools.  I know it can be overwhelming looks for apps so I made a chart that I help will help.  I will also create a page on the blog that keeps the chart below.  Hopefully I'll be able to add more cool apps as time goes on.

Apps for Kids 

App Name	Price	iPad	iPhone or iPod	Kindle Fire	Categories	Notes
Storia	Free	x			Kids	Free - Includes 5 free books
						New books are for a fee
Educreations	Free	x			Kids	Drawing and presention program
Cursive Writing HD	$0.99	x			Kids	Found this free during a preview
Addition Top It	$1.99	x	x	x	Kids	This program has been offered
Everyday Math						free several times.
Beat the Computer	$1.99	x	x	x	Kids	This program has been offered
Everyday Math						free several times.
Divisibility Dash	$1.99	x	x	x	Kids	This program has been offered
Everyday Math						free several times.
Name that Number	$1.99	x	x	x	Kids	This program has been offered
Everyday Math						free several times.
Multiplication Baseball	$1.99	x	x	x	Kids	This program has been offered
Everyday Math						free several times.
Fractions	$1.99	x	x	x	Kids	This program has been offered
Everyday Math						free several times.
Bluster	$1.99	x	x	x	Kids	Word work.
Everyday Math
Dinosaur Zoo	$1.99	x	x		Kids	Cool dinosaur program
						Large download - 1 gb after downloads
Reading Timer	Free	x	x		Kids	Sets up a timer and keeps track
Scholastic						of a child's reading time.
PBS Kids	Free	x	x	x	Kids TV	Need to have a WiFi connection
						to watch
Animal Planet	Free	x	x		Kids TV	Need to have a WiFi connection
						to watch
Disney Jr.	Free	x	x		Kids TV	Need to have a WiFi connection
						to watch
iBooks	Free	x	x		Adults	Books are a fee again
						Better adult selection than kids choices
Google Docs	Free	x			Productivity	Free word processing option
						Need google connection
AppShopper	Free	x	x		Productivity	Gives list of top selling/trending apps
Back Soon
Bet You Didn't Know	Free	x	x		Fun	Off beat facts and information
Photon	$4.99	x	x		Productivity	Allows you to play flash games
						from the Internet

Telling Time

We are switching over to telling time this week and next.  We didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted so the kids have one page to do for homework this weekend.  A few decided to stay in from recess to work on it so they didn't have homework for the weekend.

I also included a weekend game, which we haven't had for a while.

Clockworks

Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla

We're spending some time working on pronouns in language arts.  Today we watched the School House Rock video for pronouns.  The person in the story is Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla, and it's much easier to use he than that name.