Oh Board!

Our new Prometheon Board was ready for student use today! This is really the BEST part of the board!!! It was operational yesterday, with help, and today, students were using the board to further our learning!!

Ms. Leom figuring it out with helpful observations yesterday (her sweater brushed against the board and "wrote" on it!!)

Today:

SO much more to come!!! :)

Read It!

This morning, our Spelling learning included reading!! We turned on our new Promethean Board (and with a little help from our media specialist, Mrs. Vickers, who Ms. Leom pulled into the room as she was walking by), we got it set up and working!!

Our new Promethean Board is SO amazing!!! You can TOUCH it to use it!! It is so sensitive, that Ms. Leom's sweater even "wrote" on the board! This is a post yet to be written!!

In Spelling, we handed out the article, "Living Sustainably". We wrote our names on top. Then we wrote the spelling pattern on the top (several reminders were given to participate and write notes on the top of the page). Taking notes and getting our mind "focused" on our learning is an important step. We read small portions at a time. We looked at our patterns to determine if what we read had an example. We highlighted the examples and labeled above the highlighted section. We did most of the first paragraph together. Students worked with a partner to read and look for patterns in the last sentence. Then we checked our work and discussed any "rule breakers" and justified our thinking.

Students worked with a partner on the second paragraph, while Ms. Leom walked around the room, monitoring student discussions and learning. It is amazing the word choice and discussions students are having about our pattern! We went over the second paragraph together as a class.

Then, when Ms. Leom is feeling confident that students can successfully work independently, they work together to complete the rest of the page. She continues to walk around the room, engaging students in conversation, giving feedback, and redirecting if needed.

 Students could choose to miss a step, but reminders, encouragement, and support were available to help students be successful!

Hot Lunch Week

In Ms. Leom's head, it is "Bring a Parent to Lunch" day. In the rest of the world, it is "National School Hot Lunch Week". At Milaca Elementary, it means we invite parents to school to eat with their children, and they come!! LOVE that!! (We aren't really surprised, because we already know we have amazing parents!!). We know how busy our families are and appreciate the ones who wanted to come, but weren't able to make it!

Thank you families!!

Homework Club

Starting this morning, Mr. Greninger opened his classroom at 7:45 for Homework Club. He is available for twenty minutes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for students who would like more support in theirMath learning. Ms. Leom will be in her classroom, for Reading support. This is not a replacement of homework. Mr. Greninger talked to our students, emailed families, and sent home a bright, red letter about it (having students earn FIVE initials on responsibility cards for having a parent sign it and return it today).

We want students to be successful. We are available and want to work with students. 

Thank you to all the families who are checking School-View and talking with their fourth grader about their expectations. It matters. 

Where We Are

In Social Studies, we are wrapping up Chapter One about "What is Geography?" (Where are we? Why are we there?) Some of our vocabulary words included: latitude, longitude, regions, erosion, tectonic plates, basins, glaciers, natural resources, renewable resources, flow resources, and more.

We started out using folders with flaps, folds, shapes, and colors. We wanted students to have more movement and opportunities to talk about our learning. 

We will wrap up Chapter One this week, with a ten point test next week Friday Oct. 9th for Leom and Monday Oct. 12th for Greninger), mainly on  vocabulary. If students have their notes in their Social Studies folders (the daily directions), they will be invited to use them to take the test. The test will be read out loud to students. It is multiple choice.

Then we will heavily use the text book for Chapter 2. Students will read a lesson, and complete a traditional worksheet that has them define the key vocabulary and choose any two of the questions relating to what we read. A traditional test will follow this lesson, in about two weeks. 

Here are pictures from students in Mr. Greninger's class reading about resources today. 

After these two Chapters, we will begin studying the five regions of the United States and learning the fifty states and capitals.

Ms. Leom's class is back to the text too ...

Main Idea

We've been learning about the Main Idea and Details in class for the last week. This is an important reading strategy to help with reading comprehension. After several days of working on it in class, and during flex, today we added it to our note section in our Flex Journal (the composition notebook that students designed with duct tape). 

We write the name of the strategy. We include related definitions. We included steps or clues to help us apply the strategy. We identify why this strategy is important.

Both classrooms (Greninger and Leom) have an "anchor chart" (educational term, meaning "poster") of our learning.  

Olweus

We have W.O.W. (White-Out Wednesdays), T-shirts, kick-offs, Captain Olweus, Friendship Girl, even a fire hydrant dedicated to this "Olweus" ... last year a helicopter flew in! This year a motorcycle drove ON the football field ... Even the high school students have Olweus activities! ... but what IS Olweus?!

Olweus is the curriculum and school-wide plan to develop a safe school and community. There are four rules, and we have weekly classroom meetings to educate and develop a school climate that actively combats any type of bullying behaviors.

Our rules:

1. I will not bully others

2. I will stand up for someone being bullied.

3. I will include everyone.

4. I will tell an adult at home and at school if I see someone being bullied 

Our school staff have participated in extensive trainings regarding bullying; including our administration, teachers, para professionals, cooks, custodians, bus drivers, administrative assistants, and more. Efforts have been made to reach out to the community and invite the community to extend our Olweus culture. Further opportunities are in development. 

Bullying is a repeated and unwelcome behavior or words as felt by the person being bullied. It often includes an imbalance of power. 

At least once a week, it is part of our morning announcements. There are signs in every classroom, our hallways, gyms, and lunchrooms that outline the rules.

Today we had a class meeting. We are working on Rule 2: I will stand up for someone being bullied. Using a hackey sack, the student holding it had the opportunity to talk (or pass), we brainstormed ideas. 

Then we watched a short video clip.

This is not a passive viewing. Ms. Leom pauses the video, and we discuss the concerning behaviors, tones, words, facial expressions (smirking for example), and more. 

We don't have all the answers. Having a safe school is important. It matters. If you have a bullying concern, please contact your child's teacher, so we can work together to resolve this matter. Often, when working with people, it can take more than one conversation or day to "fix" a concern. Please keep connecting and communicating. A safe school is worth our time and continued efforts.