Nutcracker Performance SOLD OUT

I am sorry to announce that the performance to see the Nutcracker on Friday, featuring our very own Genevieve has been SOLD OUT!! I will send the money/checks back with your student today. Guess we can try again next year. If you would still like to go and see the Nutcracker during a matinee there are two next week, on Tuesday and Thursday, however Genevieve will not be performing in either one of these.

The Mayflower Journey

For the past few weeks the students here in 3/4 West traveled on the Mayflower to the new world. During the weeks we took virtual tours of the ship, and Plimith Plantation. We learned how the Pilgrims made their homes, what the Wampanoag Indians taught the Pilgrims and how they got along and shared their customs with one another. Ending in their first shared harvest and Thanksgiving Feast. Just as we did as a school community last week. The students became Pilgrims themselves, keeping journals as though they were individuals on the Mayflower, journeying to the new world and creating a new life. I have had the opportunity to read each students journal, they are GREAT!! Please spend time reading your students Mayflower Journal, my guess is that you will learn something you did not know prior.

State Fair Projects

WOW! Were these State Fair Projects good or what??? Thank you to all the parents who came and supported our wonderful students. We have moved the projects to the Library on display for other students and families to enjoy.

Angelville News, November 28-December 2, 2011

BON DIA WEEK 13!
November 28-2, 2011

Bon Dia, Good Day!

Hope Everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. Many of you may have eaten yourselves into a food coma!

GREAT JOB ON THE STATE PROJECTS! THEY WERE ALL AWESOME!! There have been many staff members and parents who have commented on how well each and every one of you did on your states’ projects. WAY TO GO!!!


READERS/WRITERS WORKSHOP – This week we will publish our 3rd piece of writing. We are working on writing good solid paragraphs. Paragraphs are like the grids that hold a story and ideas together. When we look down on a page in a book from high above we see black lines divided by white lines. The black lines are our paragraphs; the white lines are the ones that separate one paragraph/thought from the next. It makes me think of flying in a plane, and as we fly over the earth we can see the grid of the land, separated by roads, and farms, and boundaries.

This week we will continue with our Stone Fox book. The students will show comprehension skills, vocabulary, character relations and connections. Many of the students were held in from break today since they had not completed a character grid from last Monday. We just finished our 1st Trimester in school. It is always important to show our best work, and work to our fullest potential.

MATH – We are all currently all in the fraction/decimal unit. The triangles are working on fractional parts of a number this week. The hexagons are looking at comparing fractions.
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RELIGION – This week we begin the season of Advent. We also began the beginning of our Liturgical year. During mass the students will carry with them little mass booklets since many of the prayers and responses in mass have changed. During Advent we are preparing for the coming of Jesus. We will work through many activities during advent.

SPELLING – There will be spelling this week.

SOCIAL STUDIES – Now that our State Fair is over, we will go back to our Studies Weekly. We will begin Studies Weekly 7 on Tuesday.

SCIENCE – Continuation of our Metric Unit.

ROCK STAR EMILY

Emily was our Rock Star this past week. Emily is one of our new favorite, best friends in 3/4 West. Emily's friends say over and over again that, "Emily is NICE!" We feel so blessed to have Emily in our St. Al's community.

Emily's Thanksgiving Poem

"Something is on my table, I don't know. What is it? I think it's a cornucopia. That's what it is. Cornucopias have pumpkins, apples, corn, grapes, and squash inside of them. I like Thanksgiving, it's my favorite Holiday!"

Angelville News, November 21-23, 2011

BON DIA WEEK 12!
November 21-23, 2011

Bon Dia, Good Day!

Did anyone get snow on Friday night? Miz Schmutz did! I still have residuals of it left in and around my yard. So cold, but so fun! Growing up in Spokane, Wa, this makes me feel right at home.

I would like to thank all of the families who worked so hard to make our Annual School Auction such a success!! “The Gifts You Have Received, You Gave As a Gift”

There will be no homework packet going home this week due to the short week. There will be a reading log to go home however.

This is a very exciting week since we are all going to enjoy the wonderful State projects each student has been working so hard on for the past two weeks. Our State Fair will begin at 1:45 – 2:45pm on Tuesday, November 22. Each student will have the opportunity to present their board to family members and other students in the school.

We have begun to collect Food for the Food Bank. Our class will be collecting Pasta and Sauce. I know we will do a great job since we collected so many soap bars to take to our One Saturday! BRING IN SOME PASTA AND SAUCES!!!!



READERS/WRITERS WORKSHOP – We continue with our ‘Slice of Life’ stories. These stories are still personal narratives, but with a kick, hoping to raise the quality of narrative writing.

This week we will continue with our Stone Fox book. The students will show comprehension skills, vocabulary, character relations and connections.

MATH – The triangle group will take their multiplication test on Tuesday, November 22 so that they can catch up with the Hexagons as we have started our fraction/decimal unit.
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RELIGION – This week we will be reading in our Religion books, Chapter 4 on Prayer. We will also continue with our Steps to Respect and Anti-Bully Plan.

SPELLING – There will be no spelling this week! There will be MSL

SOCIAL STUDIES – State Fair on Tuesday. We will continue our Journey through the lives of the Pilgrims as they ventured across the Atlantic to settle at Plimoth Plantation. Each student has been keeping a journal as if they were one of the pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower. We have seen wonderful visual tours of this amazing journey and where the pilgrims eventually settled. This week we will meet the Native Americans, Wampanoag, who helped the Pilgrims with crops, hunting, games, and their first Thanksgiving Harvest Feast. This will prepare us as we sit down to the table on Wednesday, November 23, to share in our very own St. Alphonsus Thanksgiving Dinner at 11am. Please join us. There will also be a Thanksgiving Prayer Service at 9am for those of you who are interested.

SCIENCE – Last week we started a science
Experiment, “What happens to a pumpkin after Halloween?” Many things, all ending up very gross. The students kept a log of different pumpkin parts being exposed to different variables. They became so smelly by Friday we logged and tossed them all out. Those logs you will see in their Friday Folders.

May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and Friends, God Bless!!

State Fair/ Thanksgiving Feast

November 16, 2011


Dear ¾ Grade Families,

The students in both ¾ classes have been working very hard on their States project to present at out State Fair on Tuesday, November 22, from 1:45-2:45pm. We would like to invite all of the families who are available to come and support these wonderful students who have worked so diligently.

The poster boards will be posted up in the hall and in the library. The students will take turns standing by their boards and explaining their states to those students and family members who will be touring the Fair.

We need all boards to school no later than Monday, November 21.

Thank you and we hope to see many of you at school on Tuesday.


Miz Schmutz, Mrs. Connell, and Mrs. Weber


P.S. Please also don’t forget to join us at our Thanksgiving Feast on Wednesday, November 23 from 11-12pm. This is a wonderful time to share our many blessings with our students and other families in our St. Alphonsus Community.

Angelville News, November 14-18th

BON DIA WEEK 11!
November 14, 2011

Bon Dia, Good Day!

I am sorry for the late post. Sick kids at home!

This week there will be no homework packet so that the students can spend time working on their State poster boards. We spent some time yesterday on the computers and I hope to give them all one more day in class to work as well.

We will begin to collect Food for the Food Bank. Our class will be collecting Pasta and Sauce. I know we will do a great job since we collected so many soap bars to take to our One Saturday! BRING IN SOME PASTA AND SAUCES!!!!



READERS/WRITERS WORKSHOP – We continue with our ‘Slice of Life’ stories. These stories are still personal narratives, but with a kick, hoping to raise the quality of narrative writing.

Last week we started the Stone Fox book. We will continue with this book. The students will show comprehension skills, vocabulary, character relations and connections.

MATH – I have decided to divide my 4th grade students up into 2 different math groups. I was very happy with the results of the first Unit test by many of my students. I am hoping the triangle group will be ready to take their test early next week so that they can catch up with the Hexagons as we started our fraction/decimal unit yesterday.
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RELIGION – This week we will be reading in our Religion books, Chapter 4 on Prayer. We will also continue with our Steps to Respect and Anti-Bully Plan.

SPELLING – (NOT FOR MSL STUDENTS, THEY HAVE THEIR OWN WORK) each week a new list of spelling words is given. Monday is a pre-test and spelling assignment. Tuesday and Wednesday they are writing spelling sentences. Thursday is an additional spelling worksheet. Fridays we have our spelling test, turn in all of our spelling from the week, and then are able to play word games. Each day an assignment is assigned to work on in class. If they are unable to complete the assignment, they need to complete it at home. At the end of the week all of the spelling work is neatly put together, stapled and turned in.

SOCIAL STUDIES – Please read through the Homework packet with your student. The students will be researching their ‘state’ from home and at school. All of the information they need for this project they have in their binders. I do not think I can post it on the blog since it is so many pages long. This week we will also take a visual tour of the Mayflower. We will be keeping journals as if we all were on the Mayflower.

SCIENCE – Last week we started a science
Experiment, “What happens to a pumpkin after Halloween?” We are watching pumpkins with different variables (air, water, cold, and heat, dirt…) to see what happens to them over time. We will also continue with the Metric System Foss Kit. We continue our Metric Unit. We enjoyed a Metric experiment last week as well.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Angelville News November 7-11, 2011

BON DIA WEEK 10!
November 7, 2011

Bon Dia, Good Day!

Our ONE SATURDAY went well. We had many volunteers from St. Alphonsus, and one Super Start student from our class, Brynne. Brynne came to share the gifts she herself has received as a gift. Thank You Brynne, it was great to see you up there.

HUGE, HUGE, thanks to all of the students who brought in SOAP for our One Saturday Drive, there was so much soap, and it was GREAT!!!!

This week will also be a short week. Friday is Veterans Day and a Holiday. Make sure you thank any Veterans in your life who have served in the armed forces. Because of them, we continue to life a life of freedom. Thank You!!!


Notices
*Please join us for our Veterans Day Assembly in the Auditorium on Thursday, November 10 at 8:45am



READERS/WRITERS WORKSHOP – Starting this month we will be working on ‘Slice of Life’ stories. These stories are still personal narratives, but with a kick, hoping to raise the quality of narrative writing. I love to hear the students say, “I love Writers Workshop!” I know they do, because it really shows in their writing. This week we will work on another strategy. When we need help getting started writing we can think of a strong feeling to write about. This week we will be writing about strong feelings.


In Readers Workshop we finished our Judy Moody book. We will demonstrate that fluent reading involves pausing after an independent and meaningful flow of words, rather than after every word. This week we will begin the Stone Fox book.

MATH – I have decided to divide my 4th grade students up into 2 different math groups. I will send out a review sheet to those who will be taking the Math Unit Final on Thursday. For those who do not receive a math review sheet, I will be working with them further in the multiplication unit. 3rd graders coming into 4th grade need to have their multiplication facts mastered. For those who do not have their multiplication facts mastered, they will receive extra support until they have them mastered.
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RELIGION – This week we will be reading in our Religion books, Chapter 4 on Prayer. We will also continue with our Steps to Respect and Anti-Bully Plan.

SPELLING – (NOT FOR MSL STUDENTS, THEY HAVE THEIR OWN WORK) each week a new list of spelling words is given. Monday is a pre-test and spelling assignment. Tuesday and Wednesday they are writing spelling sentences. Thursday is an additional spelling worksheet. Fridays we have our spelling test, turn in all of our spelling from the week, and then are able to play word games. Each day an assignment is assigned to work on in class. If they are unable to complete the assignment, they need to complete it at home. At the end of the week all of the spelling work is neatly put together, stapled and turned in.

SOCIAL STUDIES – Please read through the Homework packet with your student. The students will be researching their ‘state’ from home and at school. All of the information they need for this project they have in their binders.

SCIENCE – Last week we started a science
Experiment, “What happens to a pumpkin after Halloween?” We are watching pumpkins with different variables (air, water, cold, and heat, dirt…) to see what happens to them over time. We will also continue with the Metric System Foss Kit.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Rock Star Carolyn!

We are becoming such writers here in 3/4 West and I couldn't be more happy with each students' progress. This week Carolyn is our ROCK STAR! I wanted to share a published piece of work created by Carolyn.

It was a Saturday, my family and I drove to Canada. We stayed at a hotel for two days and one night. We stayed in one big room. The hotel had three pools. One pool was three feet deep, the second pool was four feet deep and the biggest pool was five feet deep. There was also a large hot tub. For dinner we went to this really fancy restaurant and they had somebody playing the piano. Restaurant had rocking food. After we ate, we went for ice-cream! We got back to the hotel and went night swimming. I think the most fun part of the trip was when we spent time together and when we went for ice-cream!

Cornell Notes for our Noun Quiz on Friday

This year I have been teaching the students how to take notes, Cornell Notes. Left column is for learning, right column is for recording all of the information, and we add a summary to the bottom of the page to let us know what this pages notes are all about. This system was started by a professor from Cornell Univeristy. It is proven to be a wonderful way to take notes and learn information. There are many utube videos on this type of note taking system. I teach this note taking system to Middle School and HIgh School students during the summer time. My hope is that my students will learn and use this system throughout thier middle school/high school/ and on to college years. These are the notes that we took today to prepare for our noun quiz on Friday.

Rock Star Julian

Julian was our Rock Star last week. Julian brought us in some very exciting eyeballs to enjoy while we were carving our pumpkins last week. Julian has been a wonderful addition to our classroom this year.