Leom Selfie

Last Friday, Ms. Leom was taking a quick picture of the board in between classes. She finds it helpful to make sure both classes have similar experiences and the picture offer the opportunity to reteach parts of the lessons that evolve in the different groups. As she was setting her phone down, someone had the idea we should take a class selfie. So later in the afternoon, we did!

These are the spontaneous ideas that make each day priceless and memorable!! Love these kids (the group across the hall, and the thousands I've had the chance to call my own through the years)!!

A Week in the Life

So ... what does Ms. Leom do when she is not in the classroom ...

 Over the weekend, she took a rare weekend off from all schoolwork ... the next two weekends with be filled with the Community Breakfast and report card work ...

She ran in a 7k (4 mile) race in Minneapolis

with her family cheering her on at the race

She finished a set of of a dozen cards for gifts

She is overseeing homework - book projects for two of her children this month

She finished embroidering some towels for a wedding gift, time to wash and iron

During the week ...

Teacher homework - exciting nights of reading argument and opinion writing! (Really, it was thrilling to SEE the progress of students' skills over the last six months!)

She attended the Tuesday night School Board Meeting and learned about the new iPads for every student in grades 4-6 next year ( the iPads will be locked up in a classroom cart each night to charge)

family haircuts

two morning meetings

and fifty pages of professional development to read and take notes for a third meeting over lunch

The meals, laundry, dishes, paying bills, house maintenance ... goes without mention! ;)

Basically, the details may look different in your homes, but our family shares in the juggling of responsibilities and activities that any other family in our school experiences. Thank you for ALL you do to support and love your children. The typical week for EVERY family is a busy one, and your time and efforts matter!! Happy SPRING!!

Multiple Meaning Words

On Thursday, we are looking at Multiple Meaning Words. It started with a RACE in place ...

RUN!

 Then, we settled down, caught our breaths, and considered the multiple meanings of the word run ... which allowed us to talk about the work, "spitfire" that some students chose from the "Casey Jones" story for a vocabulary word. The learning concern, some students defined it as a "British airplane during World War II", a proper noun. In our story, it was an adjective ...

Our lesson was "multiple meanings of words" and by fluke, it has a real value THIS week!!

Ms. Leom's class work 

Mr. Greninger class work

Then, we sent students back to their seats to consider the word, "like"...

Ms. Leom said, "I would LIKE you to think of many meanings for the word like. Uses some of the strategies LIKE we did for the word "run" or "spitfire". I LIKE the opportunity for you to use your brains." Students have overnight to continue to think of ideas they LIKE ... 

We introduced this idea of multiple meaning words earlier in the year. Students benefit from having time between learning to develop their "mind map" of these skills.

New Skills

Our big skills are Summarizing and Synthesizing. We took notes in class.

One challenge of asking fourth graders to summarize, they may have difficulty sticking to the main idea and details and being "succinct", so we are practicing!

Our other BIG skill is determining the author's purpose. We've read four stories this week to develop our skills. We continue to use clues and look for evidence.

 Then today, students were invited to write six sentences ... two sentences about persuading, two sentences about informing, two sentences about entertaining ... Their topic, any state of their choice. We brainstormed resources in our classroom (textbooks, postcards, picture books, our classroom library, and more), then we went to work!

All students have the challenge, if they were interested, to extend their learning. Instead of just writing two sentences, they could write a paragraph (topic sentence, two or more detail sentences, and a closure sentence) for the three reasons authors write (persuade, inform, entertain). It is interesting to watch who accepts the challenge.

Thankful

Just a quick note of thanks ... three nights of conferences from 4:00-8:00 when your husband is a teacher too ... means a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to my parents (pictured here, my dad), who watched my kids so I could focus on my students.

Mr. Greninger's wife also puts on overtime on these days.

We are so thankful for the support of our school!

Reading Pepfest

It is hard to believe we ended another annual tradition last Thursday with the end of "I Love to Read" Month's Pepfest.

"Please, take my picture."

 The man in the yellow hat (Mr. Meyer) and Mr. Voshell welcomed us to the Pepfest.

 There was some music and singing.

 There was a relay. Here are our two fourth grade representatives, both from Mr. Greninger's class.

 The Relay Result:

 Then, we heard the results of our goals.
Goal: read 7000 minutes. We read 7400 minutes.
Goal: collect over $2000 for Pennies for Patients. We collected $2,567

Interesting Tidbits:
- sixth grade raised the most, over $500
- one student saved all year and donated $187
- sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Marxhausen matched her class's donation with $220

We earned our Pie Eating Contest!

Fifth grade teacher, Mr. Anderson MC'd the event. Sixth grade teachers, Mr. Vedders, Mr. Deboer, Principal Voshell, Asst. Principal Meyer, and sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Marxhausen participated.

 A hilarious moment, when Mr. Voshell and Mr. Meyer took out forks and spoons to eat their pie ... in the "no hands" pie eating contest ...

 Mrs. Marxhausen was declared the winner

Making memories one minute and penny at a time.

Rollerskating

Ms. Leom woke up on roller skating morning with two eight year olds with strep throat. She was beyond disappointed to miss rollerskating at Thunderblades, even more so, it was difficult to "be responsible" and go to the walk-in clinic, just blocks away from all of the fun!

Here are two pictures she "borrowed from a friend".

Congratulations to all the students who were able to participate!

Odyssey

The school has completed Winter Testing, and we are thrilled to welcome back our Odyssey time into our weekly routine!!

Last week, students who were caught up in Social Studies were able to use the computers for some Odyssey time. Students who needed more work time and support had Ms. Leom and our two paras available.

Mail Delivery!

After waiting months (literally), Ms. Leom's class received their pen pal letter replies! It was such a thrilling day!!

 We had started our replies earlier in February, anticipating ... We wrote a paragraph about school events, then added a paragraph about events in our lives. We added a paragraph, handed in our rough drafts for editing, then immediately started working on our final drafts.

When Mrs. Leom was on maternity leave for her first "baby", Mr. Triplett was her long-term substitute. We got to know each other enough to keep in touch. In this high-tech world we navigate, it is difficult to find other classrooms interested in pen pal writing opportunities. You also have to have a "partner" that is flexible, and willing to casually offer the opportunity. Letter writing does not always easily fit into the curriculum scope and sequence, and with school events, vacations, and illnesses, organizing 25 letters through a writing process can take more than a "day or two" to do!

Looking forward to our next mail delivery!!