Holiday Party

We will be having our Holiday Party on Wednesday, December 19th.  Students may bring a snack and a drink for themselves, and a board game if they'd like.  We will eat, drink, and play board games.

Reminder--Early Out on Wednesday for professional development.

READING PROJECTS

Students reported having a great time making their art projects for their books.  It was a fun way to share what we have been reading, and for others to get ideas on new books to read.  We had very creative projects as you can see from the photos below.

Google

Mr. Slabaugh recently taught us how to use our information to sign in to Google docs.  Students will then be able to create a document and share it with each other and/or a teacher.  We will be using it in the near future.

FYI--READING--Students have a reading assignment to do over the weekend. It is an art project to represent a book they read in the first quarter. They have a rubric which tells what they will be graded on, and a paper to fill out.  Get creative and have fun!

Please join Kalona Elementary Parent Boosters for a

Beef and Noodle Meal

And

Homemade Dessert Auction

Fundraiser

Please mark your calendars and join us on Saturday, December 8th at M-P Middle School for a fun evening! Beef and noodles, green beans, bread and dessert will be served from 5pm-7pm in the cafeteria. Cost for the meal will be a free will donation. The live auction will begin at 7pm in the gym. All items being auctioned will be homemade and include cheesecakes, pies, specialty cakes and cinnamon rolls. Invite grandparents, neighbors and friends for a fun evening!

Math Facts in a Flash

Math Facts in a Flash

Why Math Facts in a Flash?  It is becoming more and more evident that students do not know their basic facts, including addition, subtraction, and multiplication.  Ideally, these facts would be automatic so students can spend more time analyzing the larger problem (i.e.:  multi-digit addition, subtraction, or word problems) without having to spend their energy figuring out 7 + 4 or 6 x 3.  There is not enough time in the day for this type of practice, and often, memorization.  We would rather spend our math class time on higher order thinking problems and processes.

Earlier this year, Mrs. Pennington and Mr. Slabaugh learned about a program, Math Facts in a Flash, that is being used at Wellman Elementary and Washington Township.  Recently, we were able to purchase it for Kalona Elementary.  The program takes students through the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and then goes on to other topics such as fractions, decimals, percents, etc.  Students must achieve mastery at a particular level in a specific time frame before moving on to the next level.  We spent time in class on Monday getting started.  Fourth graders will have approximately 30 minutes in school a week to work with this program.  However the good news is that students can access this from home as well--what a quick and easy way to get in 5-10 minutes of fact practice each day!

The payoff will be immense!

To access Math Facts in a Flash, go to:

goo.gl/w4tjz

Username:  First name (capitalized) and then last initial (capitalized)  JohnD

Password:  Initials (both lowercase) jd

Thanksgiving Plays in 4J

To view our two Thanksgiving Plays from 4J go to:

Play #1

Play #2

November 12, 2012

planting the outdoor classroom...

Thank you to JW's for donating A LOT of perennials to our outdoor classroom, and to Mrs. Fisher (former KE teacher) for organizing them.  Mrs. Yoder's class spent time on a Friday afternoon planting.  We even found some new friends.

Iowa Assessment party...

All 4th graders worked incredibly hard during the two weeks of Iowa Assessments.  A HUGE thank you to the families who supplied brain food during our tests.  We had a great time celebrating the end last Friday afternoon.

Veteran's Day celebration...

On Friday, November 9, five veterans visited KE to help us honor our active and retired military service men and women.  After the school recited the Pledge of Allegiance, Mrs. Juilfs' class recited a poem of appreciation.  We then watched a short video before singing as a school.  Fourth graders were extra honored as the veteran's visited our classroom to answer questions about the military.  Thank you, Veterans!

math news...

We are working through problem solving and number sentences in math.  We worked with map scale to determine the distance between Washington, D.C. and other cities in the world.  After doing our calculations and multiplication (1 inch = 880 miles), we used the ipads to look up the actual distance.  It is amazing that even though we had plastic globes and tape measures (not very high tech tools!), we were very close to the actual distance; in some cases, we were only off a couple hundred miles.  

social studies news...

Now that we have studied natural resources, we watched to movie The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (the original movie, not the feature length one that was recently in theaters.)  We discoverd hat seems to be a simple children's story is really a story about natural resources, the environments, pollution, and habitats.  It sparked some great discussion.

We are now preparing for our first Mystery Skype of the year.  On Monday, we will be skyping with another 4th grade class somewhere in the US.  We do not know where they are located and they do not know we are in Iowa.  We worked to develop yes and no questions to narrow down where they are located.  Mrs. Yoder's class will do this first skype and, if all goes well, we will work to find other classes willing to skype with us.  

Next week is American Education Week.
The 2012 Motto is: Great Public Schools: A Basic Right and Our Responsibility
We will be dressing up for some of the days.  Please see the schedule below.

Monday, Nov. 12 – Wear your favorite sweatshirt day
Wed., Nov. 14 – Wear red, white, and blue day
Fri., Nov. 16 – Black and Gold or School Logo shirt day

Reading

Our reading goal for the 2nd Quarter is 500 pages.  Be sure to check out the new info on Reading in 4J.  You can get there by clicking here.

Thursday, October 18th we went on a field trip to Coralville Lake.  We started at the visitor's center with a movie about the dam and floods followed by a question and answer session with Ranger Terry Escher.

Then we spent some time in the visitor's center looking at the fossils and stuffed animals native to the lake.  After Stopping for a class photo op we headed to the Gate House.

We were lucky to see the inside of the gate house as it is "top secret"!  Following that we headed for Fossil Gorge.  We saw many fossils and other interesting things.

Our last stop at Coralville Lake was a quick trip on the Veteran's Trail.

Because of the cold rainy day we decided to eat lunch at CoralRidge Mall.

And then we were off to the Museum of Natural History where we toured Iowa Hall, Mammal Hall, and Bird Hall.

This guy was a favorite.

And even with the cold wet weather a good time was had by all!

Thank you to the parents that accompanied us.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Wow!  We have been so busy this past week.  Homecoming Week was very fun and we enjoyed seeing the kids dress up on each day.  The week concluded with a Pep Rally on Friday afternoon with the captains of the football, volleyball, and cross country teams.  The athletes stressed the fun they have while playing, but also pointed out the importance of keeping their grades up and homework.

math news...
We have time in math working with a great program on the ipads, Educreations.  This program allows us to make 1-take videos (no editing) explaining what we are learning in class.  We have found a few glitches, especially the fact that only one video can be created at a time as there is no saving.  So, we are alternating which classes make videos with partners and which make whole class videos.

Our goal in math was to make videos explaining and reviewing the target (secure) goals for Unit 1.  We hope to do these throughout the year.  The videos are private, meaning you have to have the url to access them as they are not searchable.  Hopefully these will become another resource for students as they are working at home.

There is a new page at the top of the blog called, "Links to Educreation Videos."  I will keep updating this page with all the links.

This week we moved back to unit 2, Using Numbers and Organizing Data.  Today we used fun size packs of M-n-M's to explore maximum, minimum, range, and mode.  We will also spend time reviewing multi-digit addition and subtraction.

social studies news...
Now that we are geniuses on landforms, we are also using Educreations to share that genius.  While working on these videos, we are constantly asking ourselves if they are "WOW", worthy of the web.  We only want to share accurate information while still paying attention to our verbal skills, written skills and grammar.  I will post these as we finish.

Next, we will study climate and natural resources.

field trip news... 
Our 4th Grade field trip to the Coralville Lake (visitor's center, gate house, fossil gorge) and to the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is scheduled for THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18.  Your child will bring home a form on Friday asking you to indicate whether he/she will be bringing a sack lunch or will purchase a sack lunch from school that morning.  Please return this form by October 16 so we can let the kitchen know.

blog survey...
According to our latest survey, only 1 person has signed up to follow our blog and receive updates.  Please consider doing this.

parent-teacher conferences...
Conferences are scheduled for Thursday, November 1 and Thursday, November 8.  If you have not returned the bright green scheduling form, please do so as soon as possible so we can get those scheduled.

Field Trip

We will be going on a field trip on Thursday, October 18th.  We will leave school at 8:45 a.m. and return by 3:00 p.m.  We'll visit the Fossil Gorge and Museum of Natural History.  At this time we are looking for chaperones.  Please email or send a note to Mrs. Juilfs.  More information coming at a later date.

In the meantime, check out the programs offered at the Museum of Natural History.  You can find them HERE.

SCIENCE

Our first science unit is "Earth Materials".  We began with a QCE using a Snickers.  Students designed a test to prove their claim as to what a Snickers contains.  Most of us were surprised at what we later found is in a Snickers that we just couldn't prove.  The Snickers is similar to a rock in that it has more than one ingredient.

Pam Holz visited to teach us about the Rock Cycle.

READING

In reading we are almost finished with our first theme--"Journeys".  In this theme so far we have  read "Grandfather's Journey", "Akiak", "Finding the Titanic", and a chapter from "By the Shores of Silver Lake".  The students have especially enjoyed studying about the Titanic.  We will be taking our unit test soon.

Chapter book reading and writing book reports is coming along.  I hope everyone is reading at home each night.  Remember our first quarter goal is 400 pages.

Math

Mrs. Yoder recently finished teaching the first math unit which was Geometry.  Mrs. Juilfs brought in some quilts to share.  The students identified shapes they found in the quilts.

Sometimes looking at the back of an unfinished quilt square surprised us as it is hard to tell what shapes are sewn together when you look at the front.

Friday, September 14, 2012

dot day news...

Happy Dot Day!  We celebrated with so many activities!  After reading the book, The Dot, by Peter Reynolds, we made our own dots (our own marks) using compasses as a tool and then put our work in swirly frames.  Mrs. Juilfs worked in reading classes to create a quilt using buddy dots.  In math classes, we learned how Louis Braille made his mark creating the Braille alphabet, which helped Helen Keller.  We worked with the Braille alphabet to first decode a message and then write one ourselves with split peas as our dots.  Mrs. Yoder's class worked with a computer program, Animation-ish, to create cartoons of dots and Mrs. Juilfs's class used the ipads to go on a dot scavenger hunt.  We culminated the day by making dot t-shirts and taking a gallery walk to see all the projects created at KE throughout the day.  Below are some pictures...check out the rest on the "pictures" page.

A note about t-shirts...they will be sent home on Monday with washing instructions.  We are asking all students to wear their dot shirts on Tuesday.

social studies news...

The overall umbrella theme of 4th grade social studies is how where we live affects how we live, work, and play. 

To begin this theme, we have spent a lot of time with the basics of globes and maps, including a lot of vocabulary.  Ask your child to tell you about or define hemispheres, equator, prime meridian, continents, relative location, absolute location, latitude, longitude, and different landforms.

math news...

We are finishing our unit on Geometry.  We really enjoyed the manipulatives we used to get very "hands on."  We used straws and twist ties to build polygons and also shapes that were not polygons for various reasons.  We also worked with compasses to draw circles, concentric circles, and intersecting circles.  Next week we will learn that compasses can be used to draw equivalent line segments when a ruler is not available.  This was a unit full of vocabulary including the following:  line, line segment, ray, point, vertex, angle, polygon, regular polygon, quadrilateral, quadrangle, convex, concave, parallel, acute, obtuse, right angles, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, and equilateral triangle. 

guidance news...

 Mrs. Kehoe has started an 8-10 week unit with fourth graders.  She is working with the students to complete a workbook teaching that we are "Too Good for Violence."  This curriculum ties in perfectly with our anti-bully rules and helps the kids work on strategies to avoid and eliminate bullying.

rainbows returns to KE...

KE will be hosting the Rainbows program for kids grades K-6 again this year. Rainbows is a FREE loss program for kids who have experienced a divorce/separation in their family, a death in the family or a parent who has been deployed or other loss. The meetings are Thursdays after school starting Sept. 27. I am attaching the parent information on the program. 

Fourth grade has gotten off to a great start!  We have taken our first spelling tests, read our first story in reading, and discussed all of our rules.  The weather hasn't quite cooperated causing us to have three early release days last week due to heat.  Happily most fourth graders weren't all that thrilled to leave early!  That excitement is what we like to see!

Let's take a little look at our blog.  At the top of the blog in red are eight tabs to eight different pages.  Just click on the tile to go to that page.  The pages are Home, Important Links, Math Info, Reading Info, Discipline Plan, Pictures, Schedules, and About Us.  The Important Links page will lead you to links for reading games, math games, spelling lists, and the school newsletter among other things.  The Math Info page gives an overview of how math works in fourth grade.  The Reading Info page tells about reading chapter books, page requirements, and procedure.  Our Discipline Plan page tells about Time to Teach which is the plan both classrooms will be using.  The Photos page will contain photos we will post from time to time that you can copy if you like.  The Schedules page will direct you to the schedules for each classroom. (our schedules are not up to date yet) And finally, the About Us page will give you a little background about Mrs. Yoder and Mrs. Juilfs.  Home will always bring you back to this page.

On the right hand side this time we have a poll for you to take.  We are trying to gather a little data about internet availability.  Below that is the place for signing up for email notices when we have posted on the blog.  We hope all parents will subscribe to that.  Next is a link for Mrs. Juilfs' reading blog called, "Reading in 4J".  Just click on the title to go to that blog.  On that blog you will read articles about reading from time to time in addition to other information.  Next you will see lists of the cycle days, and important dates that affect fourth graders.  And below that is a link to the KE newsletter.

Below the photos of Mrs. Juilfs and Mrs. Yoder is a shelf of books that are popular among fourth graders.  And then contact information for both of us.  

Hopefully, you will take a little time to become familiar with our blog.  We will use this for most communication.

Just a reminder about our spelling packets--The last page contains a writing portion.  Students must use five different spelling words in their writing along with complete sentences.  

We're looking forward to a full four day week!

Welcome to our fourth grade blog! We will use this space to share photos and information about class activities. On the sidebar we will keep a calendar of events for the upcoming week or so. At the top right hand side of the blog is an icon that will allow you to sign up for email alerts when we have a new post.

If you have signed the form requesting that your child's photo not be used in the newspaper or on the internet we will not be including them on this blog. If for some reason they are inadvertently included please let us know ASAP so we can remedy the situation. Or, if you decide they can be included on this blog let us know that too.

We are excited to begin another great year at KE!