Computer Lab

Today Ms. Strum took us to the Computer Lab. Ms. Strum showed us how to do several different things in the Computer Lab. The 1st thing Ms. Strum showed us how to do was Accelerated Reader(AR). Ms. Strum told us that when we are done reading an AR book that we checked out, we will sign onto AR and take a comprehension test on the book that we read. The 2nd thing that Ms. Strum showed us how to do was log on th Study Island and take sample quizzes to help prepare us for the MCT2. Study Island has lots of fun games that we can play once we make a certain score on our quizzes. This is so much fun! The last thing that Ms. Strum showed us how to do was get on the internet and read our class blog. Ms. Strum has a class blog for our class that shows what we are doing in our classroom. We love to see ourselves in pictures doing our classwork.

Zachary and Kirston taking a Study Island quiz.

Daijana, Xavier, and Makyla reading our class blog!

Subtraction with and without Regrouping

Today we began a math lesson on Subtraction with and without regrouping. Ms. Strum wrote a problem on chart paper. Ms. Strum told us to know if we have to regroup or not, we must look at the number on top first. If the number on top is smaller than the number on the bottom, we must REGROUP. Ms. Strum told us that when we regroup we must trade for the place value next door.

Ms. Strum told us that today, we would begin taking notes in our BEAR Binder. Our BEAR binder is very important to us keeping our things neat and organized. In our BEAR Binder, we have sections for Reading, Language, and Math. Today we began taking notes on Math. Ms. Strum told us that in our BEAR binder that we are only to write IMPORTANT information about school.

Our class taking notes on Subtraction with and without regrouping.

Look at us taking notes!

We are going to learn so much this year in 4th grade. We are going to be neat and organized students. This will teach us so much! Ms. Strum told us that we will be taking notes daily to learn new information. We are so excited about 4th grade!

The Mouse and the Motorcycle

Armand following along as Ms. Strum reads aloud to the class.

Ms. Strum loves to read. She tells us this everyday. This week we began reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle. This story is by Beverly Clearly. The Mouse and the Motorcycle is a book about a little boy who stays at a hotel where he becomes friends with a mouse. The little boy lets the mouse ride his motorcycle. Ms. Strum reads this book to us daily. We love this book. We like to hear what happens with Ralph and Keith daily. As we read this book, Ms. Strum asks us questions about what we have read. We have done different activities with this book. One activity that we have done was to compare and contrast a mouse from a human. This was a fun activity. After every chapter that we read, Ms. Strum has a retell what has occurred throughout the chapter. We ALL really enjoyed this book. We would encourage everyone to read this book.

The class following along as Ms. Strum reads aloud.

Jamal, Jame'ica, and Ja'Ray working together comparing and contrasting

a mouse from a human.

Cienoshia and Makyla working together to ocompare and contrast

a mouse from a human.

Keatan, Keosha, and Daijana HARD at work!

Dorien and Dekawana working as a team on their activity!

Please feel free to come by the school and see our work posted in the hallway on The Mouse and the Motorcycle. We have had a great time reading and doing activities that go with this book!

In the midst of working on The Mouse and the Motorcycle, we had a surprise visitor. Mrs. Shepherd and Zooey, her precious little baby boy, came by to visit us. Mrs. Shepherd use to teach 1st grade here at our school. We were so EXCITED to see her! Thanks so much for making our day extra special! :-)

Special Subjects

We began going to Special Subjects today. We go to Music and Library on Mondays and Wednesdays. Ms. Sasser is our Librarian. She is great! Today in Library, Ms. Sasser took us to the computer lab and showed us how to take AR tests. AR tests are tests that we take to earn prizes from Ms. Sasser. Ms. Sasser gave Ms. Strum a crate full of books for us to check out from in the classroom. Ms. Strum and Ms. Sasser told us that in the hall and when we complete our work early, we are to read our AR books.

Just a "few" of the AR books that we are able to check out in our room.

Daijana reading her AR book.

Look at Darlyn and Cienoshia read.

Ms. Sasser watching us read after she shows us how to take AR tests!

After Library, we went to Music. Mrs. Williams is our Music teacher. She had a great lesson, as well as a rap, planned to help us learn the rules. Mrs. Williams taught us "Music Rules Rap". We learned this rap, so we would know the rules. What an awesome 1st day we had in Music! I can't wait to see what we will be doing the rest of the year!

Mrs. Williams teaching us the "Music Rules Rap".

Jamiee and Armand learning "Music Rules Rap".

As you can see, our music teacher and our librarian are the BEST! We look forward to having a great year as we read and sing.

All About Me!

We have had a FANTASTIC first few days back at school! Ms. Strum had a fun All About Me project planned so that we could get to know each other, and so that Ms. Strum could get to know us. Ms. Strum gave each of us a plain white poster and the letter that our name begins with cut out of construction paper. Ms. Strum gave each of us a magazine. We were told to look through the magazine and cut out three pictures of things that we enjoyed doing. Ms. Strum had us draw and write about our favorite things on the poster.

Kirston, Jamiee, Rodney, and Makyla hard at work on their "All About Me" poster.

Cienoshia and Darlyn hard at work!

Keatan and Zachary hard at work on their "All About Me" project.

Georgia, Mary, and Xavier hard ar work.

Armand, Zachary, Xavier, and Keshuna finishing up their projects!

Look how GREAT the "All About Me"projects look!

As you can tell, we had a great time completing our "All About ME" project. Ms. Strum learned a lot about us, and we learned a lot about each other! We look forward to having a great year together as we learn even MORE about each other!

Open House

Today our school had its Open House! We will go back to school tomorrow. We were able to go and meet Ms. Strum. Ms. Strum had paws cut out for our parents to write us encouraging notes. These notes were placed around the Positive Paws for Success. Take a look at all the parents and students who came to today's Open House!

Ja'Ray and his mom

Makyla and her grandmother

Keatan and his family

Jalyn and his family

Rodney and his mom

William and his family

Xavier and his mom

Kirston and her family

As you can tell, we had a GREAT Open House! Ms. Strum is looking forward to a fantastic year with us. The 2010-2011 school year will be great! :)

A Tour of Our Classroom!

I am so excited to teach each and every one of you this upcoming school year! I would like to share with you our classroom. We will work together as a class to keep it neat, clean, organized, and a FUN place to learn.

You will find this spot located outside our classroom door. Ms. Strum made a Positive Paws for Success area. This special section is where your parents will write you encouraging notes to do your best!

The AR Reading Rainbows board is where we will go to the different level rainbows as you earn your points by reading Accelerated Reader books. We will check out AR books in the library, as well as the classroom. We will take AR quizzes on the books that you read. We will earn prizes as we earn AR points.

This is the section of the room where the teacher desk, objectives, classroom expectations, and some student desks are located. As you can tell, we have a very colorful room.

In this section of the room, you will find the Reading/Language Arts word wall. This is the area where we will have whole group discussion, reading time, and writing!

Our Classroom Library

In the area at the back of the room, you will find your cubbies. In each cubby, Ms. Strum has already put our textbooks and workbooks in their nice and neat. We are so excited and ready to learn all the new information their is to learn.

This is the front of the classroom where Ms. Strum will teach us and model our lessons. As you can tell, there are baskets on our desks. These baskets are where we will keep our pencils, pencil sharpeners, and materials that Ms. Strum provides for us.

As you can see, the Computer Center is located under the windows. This is where we will take our AR quizzes and practice on Study Island.

We are going to have a great year together! I know that you will grow in leaps and bounds! I can't wait to meet each and every one of you!