August 27-31

Parents! We had a great first week and I am excited to begin the second. Look around for several new features on the blog, like book orders (found at the bottom of the Class Info page) and a Daily Writing page where I have a description of what we are working on in writing, and where I will post that night's writing suggestion each day after school. Please look also at the updated Help Out page; I have added a few more items we need and a request from Mrs. Pixton for reading volunteers.

Thank you for those of you who have already sent in shoe boxes and dinosaurs. Due to some schedule changes, we will be postponing the diorama project. However, we are happy to keep the ones that have already been brought, and ask you to keep collecting your shoeboxes to send in. Thanks!

Mrs. Bird, the Dance teacher M-Th and Health teacher on Friday, will also post an update each week of what they will be doing, which I will post here on the blog. For this week:

Dance- Students will be furthering their knowledge of dance etiquette by demonstrating proper behaviors in the dance room. Students will also discover the importance of warming up the body before any form of exercise and create their own individual dance warm-up sequence.

Health- Students will differentiate between the facts and myths of exercise through a fun “Fact or Myth” game. Students will discover the effects of exercise on the heart through an in class blood vessel experiment. Lastly, students will demonstrate the importance of stretching and cooling down the body after exercise.

Social Studies Dioramas

In talking about Utah's prehistory in Social Studies, we would like to have the students make dinosaur habitat dioramas. Each student will need a shoebox and lid, and a small plastic dinosaur. They are welcome to add additional such items if they like. If you are able to contribute any supplies for this project, that would be much appreciated!

Starting School!

It's school time again! And it's going to be a fabulous year in fourth grade! I am so excited to get to know all of you. We are going to read some fantastic books, learn some Spanish and ASL (American Sign Language), and become amazing authors. We will begin this year by talking about the writing process that real authors go through and work toward living "writerly" lives - thinking like a writer would think. Come ready to discover that you have SO many stories you can tell - the rest of the fourth grade class is waiting to hear them all!