Letters to Spencer

Ms. Leom is working on writing friendly letters with her students. The writing standard is that students write in a variety of styles.

Ms. Leom was able to organized fourth grade penpals for one class (she has been anxiously waiting for the first letters to arrive and will post when that happens), and she looked for another opportunity ...

It happened with a friend from high school shared her experience of sending her son, Spencer, off to basic training for the marines in San Diego, California. Ms. Leom contacted her friend and asked if Spencer might be interested in receiving letters from fourth graders. The mom was sounded thrilled! She contacted his drill instructor to make sure. There were some rules involved ... no pictures, stickers, fancy colors ... we could do that! The drill instructor also inquired if some of the letters could be shared ... some of the recruits in that platoon had no family who would be writing! This was even better!

Marine Recruit Spencer

We started on Wednesday with our rough drafts. We had to talk about the difference between writing to fourth grade penpals and the writing to recruits. We "know" Spencer, but when we are writing to members of his platoon, we need to think about being safe. This is a discussion we need to have when we talk about internet safety too, so it was a fantastic opportunity! We talked about how there are bullies in the world, people who like to be mean. One way we can protect ourselves, is to limit the information we share and include our parents when we have situations where we have the potential to meet new people. When we limit information, we don't tell specific details about ourselves, like all about our families and our likes and dislikes. We talk in more general terms. This is new to students, so we work on this together and have minimal independence for now. Safety is our priority.

For example, we started our letters:
     "Hello from 9 degrees farahenheit in Central Minnesota! It feels like minus 1 degrees, because of the wind chill. Some of my favorite things to do this time of year are ..." In the summer, we like to ..."

Ms. Leom collects all the letters to edit. Even the final drafts will be collected to insure students were careful in what they share.

This is a big learning opportunity for us. It includes several learning areas. We are working on our writing. We are writing to someone in San Diego, California. California is in the Western Region of the United States, so it has a Social Studies application. When we talk about Olweus and our School expectations, we talk about citizenship. Citizenship is the trait of helping others. Our school works on Dimes for December (collecting money for Christmas gifts for local children), Pennies for Patients (collecting loose change for leukemia research), and our Soup Drive (collecting soup and other foods for our local food pantry). This is something our students can share with their time.

Today, our students worked on our final drafts.

Lastly, we talked about how Spencer and his platoon are beginning their JOB training. They may not have the opportunity to write back to us. If Spencer does have time for a letter, we think he should write to his mom.

After further chatting with his mom, she said boot camp is tough, and these letters have the potential to make a big difference in this training phrase without access to phones, tv, newspapers, or any other media, letters are welcome!

The benefit of having one class write friendly letters to fourth grade penpals and one class write friendly letters to Marine recruits, both classes can benefit from the purpose of letter writing. Students can learn about the process as we share our discussions and talk about the differences. What an exciting time to learn!!

Drawing Conclusions

Ms. Leom's Flex Reading groups have been reading, developing their vocabulary, and practicing their drawing conclusions (making inferences) skills. Students work in groups with Ms. Leom or one of our paras in the room to read and have discussions. Students not working with one of the staff members, work independently. One of the skills was to record on index cards conclusions you find as you read. This week, we shared our conclusions.

The second reading flex group is featured.

students learn by hearing new examples with evidence

It is interesting to walk around the room and listen to the different discussions. Students are learning from each other.

Fairy Tales

Our most recent genre study was Fairy Tales. We learned about the features of Fairy Tales:
- the tale is a type of fantasy, often about royalty
- one character is helped by another
- the tale has a happy ending
- often, people appear or events happen three times
- tale often features fantastic or magical creatures; some animals and objects can talk
- a helper and/or a "bad guy" may have magical powers

We've been reading a variety of fairy tales and discussing the features. We also looked at fairy tales from all over the world. We had the opportunity to compare two Cinderella-like stories. Here is the graphic organizer of our class discussions.

Ms. Leom's class discussion

Mr. Greniner's class discussion

Then, we took what we learned from our fairy tale study and wrote a narrative, using the super powers from three of our characters.

It has been a busy week of learning in fourth grade communications!

Peer Practice

Last week we started Peer Practice for Spelling. Each week, students work with partners to practice their weekly spelling words before the test. Students should also practice their words at home. The Spelling Lists are green and located in the prong section of home folders. We want students to know the words and patterns we are studying each week. We want students to show improvement from the beginning of the week until the end of the week.

This is what is looks like with Mr. Greninger's class.

Wrestling

Good Luck to our Wrestlers who are going to the State Tournament! We are SO PROUD and excited to be a part of your community!! Today we had a pepfest to send our love and support.

Ms. Leom's class heading to the pepfest in the main gyms

Ms. Leom's class waiting for the elementary to arrive

the high school students

Activities Director, Mr. Westphal welcomes us

 Introducing our 2015 Milaca Wrestlers ...

They ran out to the center of the gym and threw t-shirts!

 Each wrestler was introduced and walked to the center of the gym so we could cheer.

 Then they introduced the individual wrestlers who were competing at the tournament.

 We liked where they dimmed the lights in the gym and showed a video (created by a high school student!) of some of the highlights from the season.

(a scene from the video)

(the student who created the video is in this picture)

the band played

the wrestlers accepted our well wishes as we exited

We have about 1800 students in our school and another 200 staff members. It is such a thrill to have our 2000 people in the gym at one time and place. We talked about how Milaca has a population of about 2700 people. We are thankful for the contributions of the communities of Foreston, Pease, Ogilvie, Onamia, Hillman, Bock, Princeton, Estes Brook, Oak Park, Foley, and more that make our school so amazing!!

It is always a thrill when we have high school students achieve! Many of these were in our classrooms, many of these students are family members, neighbors, and special people. There are SO MANY activities to join in high school. Each has their own celebrations and opportunities to succeed. We hope today's pepfest inspires our fourth grade students to dream their own dreams! Start dreaming!! In four to eight years, we can't WAIT to cheer for YOU!!

High School Helpers

This Quarter, Ms. Leom is THRILLED to have TWO high school helpers. She has a student helping in the morning and another student in the afternoons.

morning *MISS*

afternoon *MISTER*

 * Our blog does its best to maintain confidentiality of our students. These are not the names of our helpers, and we created a term to protect their privacy. Please ask your fourth grader to tell you more!

So what does a high school helper do ... ? The list is endless!

Today, our morning MISS organized our books orders. Then she worked on some spelling papers Ms. Leom needed help organizing. MISS has been creating writing portfolios for over a week.

In the afternoon, our afternoon MISTER put stickers on all of our Daily Language (you would be amazed at how much time it takes to stamp or sticker each paper ... there are days, where Mister has spent his entire HOUR on just one night worth of homework!!), then he fixed Ms. Leom's classroom library shelves. Next he started on conference folders. In addition to our classroom, MISTER is a mentor for a student in the elementary. He takes time each week to hang out listen and spend time with a student from another hallways that could benefit from having a role model.

The two hours these two students share is two hours that Ms. Leom isn't working on these details at home. TWO HOURS EACH NIGHT, over TEN HOURS each WEEK!!

Mr. Greninger also has an afternoon helper. Today, he was working with two students and helping them catch up on some homework from an absence.

Other jobs they do for our students:
- pass out papers
- help students in class
- give make up tests (with Ms. Leom's supervision)
- cut, sort, organize all the spelling sort assignments
- prepare class materials for student learning
- water plants
- clean and dust
- organize and label responsibility cards
- MORE!

The list is endless. They always arrive with a smile. They are dependable. They are amazing!! If you see these young adults in your community (your fourth grader will spy them long before you can even blink), please feel welcome to thank them for their service! Their time and efforts matter and directly impact YOUR fourth grade student!! This is a benefit and an advantage to being a Kindergarten through twelfth grade building! Sometimes we "hear" things about "those high school students". Please know, the benefits of sharing a building are many!!

So Thankful!

D.E.A.R.

D.E.A.R. stands for Drop Everything And Read. Ms. Leom was buzzing (third day of indoor recess has fourth graders buzzing with energy) with excitement over this opportunity! She HAD to read quietly her own book (Mr. Voshell came on the announcements and said so!). Two of her favorite authors released new books this week, and she would like nothing better than "have to" sit and read!

She did stop to take a break to take some pictures of students reading in "her" two classrooms, because most of our audience reading the blog would like the opportunity to peak at their fourth grader ...

Ms. Leom's class ...

Even our high school helper was reading!!

So quiet in our classroom!

Ms. Lynda, our afternoon paraprofessional was reading too!

In Mr. Greninger, the scene looked like ...

Can you spot Mr. Greninger reading?

We have fifteen minutes of D.E.A.R. time every week during I Love to Read month in February. Cuddle up with a GREAT book, and READ!