Snowflakes

One of our Elementary School Community Building projects this month is to meet with our Reading Buddies and cut out snowflakes. We welcomed our Kindergarten Reading Buddies to OUR classroom today to make snowflakes.

It just warms my heart, creates goosebumps, and even a slight mist in my eyes to watch our fourth graders welcome and work with their reading buddies. Our Kindergarten buddies had a substitute teacher today. They don't visit our hallway nearly often enough, and they had never been to our classroom before. For some of our newer to school students, this is a recipe for an anxious experience.

Our fourth graders welcomed their buddies with BIG smiles. They got right to work. In the beginning, you can see the fourth graders showing their friends what to do.

As the time passed, within five minutes, the fourth graders were soon encouraging and supporting their kindergarten friends. It was SO AMAZING to walk around and see!! When it was time for our buddies to leave, the fourth graders got right on the floor and started picking up all the scraps. I LOVE these fourth graders!! SO PROUD to be in THIS ROOM!!

So PROUD!

Students made three snowflakes. One they wrote on for the Community Building Project. We wrote how we can make our school a friendly place. Then each student was able to make at least one snowflake to take home.

Snowflakes, each one individual and special!

BINGO!

It was the BINGO! Reward in fourth grade today! Students who completed their learning and followed the school expectations were invited to the High School's Dahlager Theater to play many exciting rounds of Bingo this morning!

Silent Cheer for all the WINNERS who were invited to participate!

Mrs. Hakes-Anderson models how to read a Bingo Card

Ms. Prose calls the numbers

Our first winners are selecting their coupons.

Players were playing for fourth grade coupons. Coupons were for such exciting opportunities as:
* sit with your friend at lunch
* wear a hat in the classroom
* switch seats (including with a teacher) in class - the favorite
* bring a stuffed animal to school
* more!

Mrs. Arens lists to the numbers

All of our winners!!

Congratulations to ALL of our participants today!! It was an exciting morning of play!!

From Friends

There is a line from a song, "I get by with a little help from my friends ..." Over break, Ms. Leom was able to get together with her best friend from college, "Kim". We went to a SCSU Husky Hockey Game.

Kim is a gifted and talented extensions teacher at another district in Central Minnesota. She was cleaning out her classroom and found some games she wasn't using and donated them to our classroom.

Our class is LOVING her donation on these inside recess days!

If you find yourself doing some Spring cleaning of books or games, our classroom would welcome your donations! We "get by with a little help from our friends"!

MAP Testing

This week, Mr. Greninger and Ms. Leom's students are participating in the MAP Testing. These tests are taken on the computer. Students usually have 90-120 minutes to complete the 40-odd questions tests. On Monday Mr. Greninger's class took the Reading Test. Ms. Leom's class took the Reading Test on Tuesday.

Assistant Principal, Mr. Meyer gives us directions in class.

More words of wisdom from Mr. Meyer

Mr. Samuel works with a student

On Wednesday, Mr. Greninger's class took the MAP Math Test. Ms. Leom's class will take the Math MAP Test on Thursday. There are three mobile computer labs. There are six fourth grade classes. In the Winter, it was the team of Mr. Greninger and Ms. Leom who were split up on their days to take the tests. It is really an area of pride of how well our students are able to be flexible and make our learning times work with these changes!

The results are being gathered and used to determine student learning needs. What flex group, ALP recommendations, Title One, and other strategies do we need to put into place to make sure ALL of our individual, unique, students are making progress. Results will be shared when ALL students have completed their testing, and we know the academic changes (if any) we will be making. We are very excited with the results we are already seeing!

Crash!

At the end of Winter Break, Ms. Leom's home computer CRASHED. What is means for her students ... she is not able to upload grades easily from home ... she is not able to update the blog from home ... she is not able to work on lesson plans and newsletters from home ... so the frequency of posts may change until we figure our a fix or solution ...

I appreciate your patience and understanding!

Winter Benchmarking

On Tuesday January 6th, the fourth grade classes participated in Winter Benchmarking. This is when students read three passages. We assess student reading fluency. Six Title One staff are able to assess students at a time. Every elementary student is assessed three times a year: Fall, Winter, and Spring.

This year, we lined up outside of the Elementary's Kurth Media Center for our turn. We enjoyed some independent reading.

Ms. Leom's class waiting for their turn

Mr. Greninger's class waiting for their turn

Book Project Placemats

When we returned from Winter Break, our classes immediately started working on our December Book Project, Placemats!

Students started by writing the title and author on the rim of paper plates. 

 On Friday January 9th, Ms. Leom's class presented their placemats at lunch. On Monday January 12th, Mr. Greninger's class shared their placemats at lunch. It is all a part of our speaking lessons. Sometimes you need to speak in a more formal setting and to a large groups (a classroom), sometimes you need to speak in a more informal setting and to a small group (a table over a meal). The pictures loaded feature Mr. Greninger's class first. Ms. Leom tried to get each of the speakers, so she would take a spoonful of her lunch, then run to catch the next speaker. It isn't the most relaxing of lunches for her, but the student energy and enthusiasm for this learning is enjoyable.