Sentences, Subjects and Predicates, Oh My!

We have been working with sentences. We spent quite a bit of time learning the differences between commands, statements, exclamations and questions. That went pretty well. Now, we have started "dissecting" the sentences. The kids have been learning where the complete subject and complete predicate are. Once they have that figured out, it's time to decide what the simple subject and simple predicate is. This has been a bit challenging. I thought a little "hands on" activity might help. They liked it.
We will be practicing this and starting to work with nouns next week.

It Was A "Spook-tacular" Day!

The big day was finally here. The kids were so excited. They were wonderful all day and hardly asked when the party was or when can we put our costumes on? They were very patient! When the time finally came, it was well worth the wait. The costumes looked great!We always go on a parade through the school so we can see everyone's costumes and they can see ours. It's a tradition that has carried over from the Elementary School. The kids were working on their Halloween placemats while they were waiting for the parade to begin.

Once we get back to our rooms, it's party time. My, oh my! Did we ever have a party! You parents went way above and beyond. Thank you so much! Thanks, Mrs. Schulte, for "taking charge" and organizing things for me. I really appreciate it!

Juice, cupcakes, cookies, treat bags and more....

How about some pizza, and meat with cheese slices?

Would you like some fruit, too?

I hope your kids didn't have too big of a tummy ache when they got home. I did pass out some "to go" baggies and it looked like most of them were used. :) All in all, it was a great success!

Happy Halloween! Have a great weekend!

Fourth Graders are Great!

We have a different "special person" each day. The special person runs errands and takes care of any special requests I might have for that day. The job rotates alphabetically and it doesn't take long before the kids figure out when their turn is coming. Everyone is very excited for their day. They keep much better track of it than I do!

Mrs. Smith (our friend in the office) donated some "frog eyes" to our classroom and the special person gets to wear them all day, if he or she wants. As you can see, lots of us still want to. (I will get everyone's picture eventually!)

Can't you see why I love Fourth Graders?

A Week Of "M's"

We had a week full of "M's"! This week we finally started working on "Multiple Digit Multiplication". The kids were nervous and excited at the same time. They have been working really hard on single digits times two and three digit numbers. It was finally time to tackle two digit times two digit numbers.

I love their determination! I introduced them to their friend, "Zero Hero".....and off they went. Soon, they were saying, "Ms. Spilker, can we have another one? Can we have a harder one?" Ah....music to a teacher's ears. We will be practicing this a lot. We will be working our way up to three digit times three digit numbers. I'm sure you will be practicing a lot, too! Be sure to have your student introduce you to Zero Hero. He makes things so much easier. Please let me know if you are noticing any problems on the homework.

Another "M" for the week, was some "Mapping" skills. Our class worked with Mrs. Overman's class getting to know our state. Using some Washington State maps and a list of locations, they filled in their own Washington State maps. They should at least now know that Seattle and Spokane are on opposite sides of the state, where the Cascade Mountains are, where Puget Sound is, that the Columbia River runs throughout the entire state, and a few other things. If you are ever looking for something to do with your child, grab a map and look at it together. As you can tell by the pictures, they are fascinated by maps.

The last "M" was "Minigutbucket". I know...I said "What???" as well. It was one of our tools for testing vibrations and pitch in the Physics of Sound Unit. Mrs. Overman and I had a quick review of the unit with the kids today and we were very pleasantly surprised. They have learned a lot about high and low pitch, vibrations, sound discrimination and how to journal what we have been doing. We are getting ready to move into our third and final investigation of our unit.
I let the kids have some buddy reading time today. I also let them get my Halloween books out. I told them they could read together and before I knew it, some of them were actually becoming teachers and reading to their partners. I love this class! They are always surprising me.

There just isn't a much sweeter sound than a 4th grader reading! (Sorry about all the background noise...more 4th graders reading! I will work on blocking that out with my camera.)

It's a busy time of year. We are in the middle of our Silver Slide Fund raiser. It's a class competition. The class that raises the most money wins a candy bar and a book for every student in the class. The PTSO does a lot for our students and this money helps fund many of the activities they provide. The Halloween party will be on the 30th. Collin's mom will be contacting you with information for that. Conferences are the week of Thanksgiving and will be here before you know it. Progress reports will come home on Monday. We are finishing up our first theme in Reading and did begin writing our first stories this week. We are doing that one paragraph at a time. Thanks for all of your support. Homework is coming in very regularly and keep up the great work on the Reading Logs!

Goodbye September and Hello October!

I finally found something that challenged everyone! Spelling Sudoku! It was fun and challenging but also a great way to practice their spelling words. This class likes to finish what they start and they have been determined to finish this. They don't give up easily!

After all that "brain-stretching" with the Spelling Sudoku, we needed a brain break. We have to take a little advantage of the nice weather while it is here....and sometimes, kids just have to be kids! I love these pictures!

Birthdays are important in 4th grade! We had one this week! The birthday girl loved celebrating but was a little shy for the camera.

Happy Birthday!!

It's always fun to be asked to help pass out the birthday treats...

But the best part is EATING the treats!

Sometimes, the teacher needs a break! We've been practicing and practicing multiple-digit multiplication (I'm sure you've noticed). This was a great time to let some "experts" do the teaching.

This week in science, we continued with the Physics of Sound kit. We focused on vibrations and that brought us to "pitch". While exploring many different activities, they discovered that the slower the vibration, the lower the pitch. It was very interesting (and maybe a little noisy!)

Thought you might like to hear some scientists actually discussing their discoveries about "pitch".




We finished our first full month of school and we have gently moved from reviewing skills to working on fourth grade curriculum. I think the kids are doing great. As always, be sure to let me know if you have any concerns!