Homecoming

Friday October 5th is Homecoming at Milaca Schools. There are many events taking place throughout the day. Students are invited to wear "spirit" wear by dressing in Milaca clothing or wearing red and black.

Ms. Leom's Class

Mr. Greninger's Class

waiting our turn to enter the gym

our welcome

waiting for the fun to start

friends

our elementary school ... 1000 strong

big smiles

friends

the Homecoming Royalty

(Fun fact, the 2012 Homecoming King and Queen used to be fourth graders in Ms. Leom's class!!)

the high school students play games: who can wrap the girl in toilet paper first?

the high school students also give prizes (free t-shirts)

There were moments the crowd was LOUD (and the speakers weren't ...), there was music, there was cheering, there were videos of the different activities we can choose as high school students ... We are one school community, and today, we were able to share our excitement, our enthusiasm, and our spirit in one voice, "GO WOLVES!"

Game Day Reward

Today was Game Day Reward. Students were told the night before about the Game Day Reward. Like all fourth grade rewards, students need to have their Responsibility Card with enough credit, all their work completed and turned in, and have no Discipline Referrals (or any Stop and Think 10s need to be returned the next school day) to participate.

Take a peek at our participants ... (do to the number of students who earned this reward, not all participants are pictured) ...

Students who did not make this reward, worked in one of two "work rooms". They are good kids, who did not make use of the multiple opportunities to be successful this reward period. They had a quiet room, time, space, materials, and a licensed teacher available to provide support during the school day. All students start with a "clean slate" and a new opportunity to participate in the next reward.

Homecoming Week

Homecoming Week at Milaca Elementary, we can choose to dress up ...

Jersey Day (Tuesday):

Western Day (Wednesday):

 

Crazy Sock Day (Thursday):

Ms. Leom's Room

Mr. Greninger's Room

Book Projects

Ms. Prose and Ms. Leom are THRILLED to announce the start of Book Projects!! Book Projects are important to fourth grade on SO MANY LEVELS!!! Some of our favorite reasons for students to work on Book Projects ...

Students are:
* reading books
* talking about books
* considering new books
* having the opportunity to talk about books and their ideas with their families
* developing organization and time management skills
* developing their speaking skills
* developing their summarizing skills
* showcasing their own creativity, interests, talents, and gifts
* developing confidence

On Wednesday, Ms. Prose and Ms. Leom's classes gathered together.

We talked about Book Projects. More information is available in the center section of student Homework Folders, after the spelling. The teachers shared previous examples.

a game board project

What is it?
* Students select a book (no books with a movie version or books a teacher has read in class)

book & author list of ideas on-line

 * Students select a 5 point project (or multiple projects that equal five points. The points are listed in the Book Project Idea packets). There are over 100 project choices!
* Students have the projects approved (the teacher makes sure the student is reading a book that meets the criteria and a project with enough points so students are on track for success)
* Students read their book (usually recommend reading the book within the first two weeks of the month)
* Students work on their project (usually recommend working on during week three of the month)
* Students practice presenting their project and summarizing their book (usually recommend working on during week four of the month)
* Students arrive on the first school day of the new month, ready to present their project (with so many students, and some enthusiastic about their projects, it can sometimes take more than one day to present)

The presentation:
* My name is ...
* My book is ... by ...
* My project is ...
* Let me tell you about my book!
   - Characters
   - Setting
   - Problem
   - Events
   - Solution
* Let me tell you about my project(s)!

We want students to be successful! We want Book Projects to be FUN! We want our students to READ! We need our students to develop their speaking skills!

Some suggestions:
* plan ahead (leaving to the last minute is stressful, rushed, and lacks fun for everyone involved)
* use the Milaca Public Library, school book check out, Mr. Greninger or Ms. Leom's classroom libraries, share books with friends, or your own books for tools
* if you need materials, ask Ms. Leom. We are happy to provide paper for projects.
* be creative, tap into your hobbies and interests
* notebook paper, pencils ... are not helpful to a presentation to students in the back of the room
* practice in front of the family or a mirror
* a "poster" and a "summary" are not book projects in themselves

The students at Milaca Elementary are incredibly creative and smart! In this age of testing in the areas of Math and Reading, we often miss the opportunity to showcase the multiple intelligences of our students. We are thrilled to see our students shine!

Rule Breakers

Turns out, when you are growing a forest of learners, the collaboration of many minds thinking about one idea yields more success. As we have enthusiastically become aware of prefixes, we noticed, that not all words with prefixes "re-" and a root word, follow the rule ("re" = do again). Take the word, "resign". It means to "give notice". There is no "again" to that word. So we needed a way to represent the "rule breakers" in our forest. We decided to add apples. Still planting seeds ... can't wait to see what blooms tomorrow!!!

Growing a Forest

We are growing a forest. Seriously. Ms. Leom fourth grade class and Mrs. Lepper's third grade class met today to plant the first seeds.

Our class

One of the skills we need to develop in third and fourth grades is the use of prefixes, root words, and suffixes. If students KNOW what the common prefixes and suffixes MEAN, it can help them read and comprehend. We want our students to be successful, and we need to work together to make it happen.

So the third and fourth grade students in these two classrooms will be reading. As they read, they will be looking for examples of the prefixes "un-" (meaning "not") and "re-" (meaning "again"). When they find a word that uses these prefixes, we will be sharing our findings with our class. We will look up the word in a dictionary. Then we will record the words and the meanings on leaves to be displayed. As we read and recognize new prefixes, we will add these trees and collect more leaves, creating a forest.

the "re-" tree

As our classes become comfortable and knowledgeable in the process, we will "adopt" other classrooms in our hallway and invite them to participate and build our forest. We look forward to the opportunity for our third and fourth grade learners to share our forest and share our learning with the fifth grade, sixth grade, and many other students in our school community! Our forest grows on the hallway as you walk outside to the big playground.

We welcome you to help us collect prefix seeds (for new trees) and leaves (new words) ideas to help us learn and grow.

We have Spirit

Last Wednesday was "W.O.W. Day" - Wipe Out Wednesday - where we wore white to communicate our commitment to end (wipe out) bullying in our school community.

Look out! Our plan is on-going. Every minute of every day, we want everyone in our school community to feel safe. There will be more W.O.W. Days each month to come.

This week is Homecoming Week at Milaca Schools. Monday is Color Day. It is a vivid day in our school. Each grade has a different color. As you walk down the hallway, you are surrounded by the colors. It is exciting to be a part of such fabulous community participation!

Can you guess the fourth grade color?

Tuesday is Sports or Jersey Day.

Wednesday is Western Wear Day (no hats).

Thursday is Crazy Socks Day.

Friday is Milaca Spirit Day.

(Please check back for our daily classroom pictures showing our school spirit!)