Coulson Park River Clean Up! Thank You!!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Marvelous Monday!

Happy Monday! We had a great day. Of course we had cake to help that out, but overall it was good all on its own! Thanks though to Maddie, Marley, and Jordan for donating the yummy carrot and white cakes that you won for the most interesting finds at the volunteer opportunity this past weekend. Very cool! Thanks to all that participated in the volunteer opportunity! Fun times and hope to get a slide show of it on the blog this evening while watching Dancing With the Stars!

Today in spelling we talked about homophones. We had fun trying to figure out what was what. Now that students know what the homophones mean tonight's assignment is to decide if each word is a noun (person, place, thing) or a verb (action) and put them into the correct categories. This will really tell me if they understand which word is which, or is that witch??? :0)

I sent home quite a few lunch account notices today. There are many students that are over-drawn or close to being over-drawn. Please keep your child's account current. You can pay online now. All you need is their student ID number, which you can get by calling the office. I do this for my own daughter, and it is really quite easy. Plus, you can use your debit/credit card.

Picture day was a success. We had them after lunch and no one slopped or spilled. Yay! Thanks to those of you that used the new online service. Very cool! Thanks also to Kaleb, Preston, and Garret's moms for helping out down there. Way to go Erickson team!!

Today we also read about the Black Sox Scandal in our what happened on this day in the past sheet. Students have been challenged to google the research question on the bottom of the paper to find out what teams were playing in a world series when a earthquake hit in San. Francisco during the third game. Students need to write the answer down on the sheet in order to collect their $20 at check in tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will begin our new novel, Owls in the Family. We will be using an online chat tool called Yaplet to share our predictions with a fourth grade class at Burlington Elementary on the West End of Billings. Then we will oovoo, similar to what we did with Rusty, to meet and see them! A field trip is being planned to travel, via the Met Bus, to their school at the end of the novel for an Owl Party/Lunch! Fun with technology I tell ya!

Well, that is about it. Have a great night and play outside! Rusty told us that the harder we play the deeper we sleep, and deep sleep helps us wake up refreshed and energized. And I must say, when we share feelings in here I have a surprising amount of students that state they are feeling tired. Play, play, play!! :0)

What did you make with your leaves?

What did you make with your leaves?

Volunteer Tomorrow!

Wow! What a week and what a Friday! Most importantly, I took footage of the leaf projects! They were totally awesome and packed with the creativity I knew this class would offer. I will put it on this weekend so check the blog before Sunday to see what your child did with their leaves. This project was inspired by a book Mrs. Hankins shared with me called, Look What I Did With A Leaf! by Morteza E. Sohi. We also talked about other crafts that we could make with nature and some of the different crafts created by Native Americans in the past and continued on today. Great input by all!

The Coulson Park Volunteer Opportunity is tomorrow! We will meet at Coulson Park at 9 am. Students need to be picked up PROMPTLY at 11:15. To get there from the heights...

Take the 27th Street Exit off I-90, turn left. Road will T in about an 1/8 of a mile. Turn left onto Garden Avenue. Turn left onto Belknap. Turn right onto Charlene (this street says dead end but you can go all the way to the parking lot by the river. MCC trucks and signs will mark the location of where to meet. Don't forget your long pants, warm clothes, good shoes, gloves, and water bottle. If you get lost, I will have my cell phone on. Thanks again for all your help in advance!

Saturday Live is also tomorrow. It starts at 10 and runs till 4. Make sure to stop by the Bitterroot Candy Shack. Thanks to all of you, I think the entire class!, for bringing in the needed candy to make this happen. If you attend this event, please write a note stating so in your child's planner and they will receive a $500 bonus on Monday! We appreciate your support for all Billings Schools!

Picture day is Monday! Get those pretty/handsome outfits ready. Please register online or send money in by Monday. If you register online, it is my understanding there is a slip that prints out that students bring in.

By Monday afternoon, there will be a lot of different projects hanging in our hallway. Please stop in before/after school to spend some time looking at what we have done. Quite amazing.

We are finished with our first novel, The Kid in the Red Jacket. Students have completed their writing project and we had to learn the hard way about how to use a topic sentence. My bad. I thought they knew this skill, but we ended up having to start over and do it together. But, now they know how to make a paragraph more clear to the reader and they were good sports about it. Big Mean Ms. Erickson! :0) On Monday, students will take the final test on this novel. It is a test that can't be studied for. It is in a MONT CAS format and it is more for guiding my instruction in the next novel rather than for a grade. It tests skills rather than details from the story, like fact or opinion and sequencing. Our next novel is called, Owls in the Family. We will start that on Tuesday.

We are also very close to finishing Chapter One in math. That means a notebook check will be happening soon. Students need to have their notebooks organized and complete by next Thursday. The chapter test will be on Tuesday and Wednesday. Review will be happening on Monday.

I generally try to send home a grade report each Friday, but today our computers/server went down for most of the day. Therefore, I was unable to print the grade reports. So, we will wait until next Friday, which is also midterms. If you would like to see your child's grades before this time, please send me an email or note and I will surely print one for you at any time.

Well, have a great weekend! See most of you tomorrow!

Leaves, Leaves, and more Leaves

Happy Half Day!! Please remember to have kids bring in the leaves that they have been collecting all week. Thanks!

Reminders

Hi! Sorry the blog is late today. We, the teachers, spent the afternoon bagging all the candy for our Candy Shack booth for Saturday Live today so I ran out of time at school. But, none the less, here I am! First and foremost, the kids received an AWESOME sub report for yesterday! I am so, so, so proud of them all. As a reward for their choices, I will be popping popcorn on Friday for them. They may bring a soda/drink of their choice to have with it that day. Yay!!

Just a couple of Reminders:

1. Tomorrow is a half day. Kids get out at noon.

2. The volunteer opportunity is this Saturday at Coulson Park from 9-11. If you need directions let me know.

3. Saturday Live is this Saturday from 10-4 at Pioneer Park. Make sure you stop by the Bitterroot Candy Shack. Maps will go home tomorrow.

I was sorry to do this but, I sent home the shoeboxes with the kids today. The project we were going to do required a lot of hot sun. It just isn't happening now that fall seems to have arrived. So, please store the box in a safe place to come back later in the year! Sorry!!! Montana weather...gotta love it!

Finally, I have noticed that some students are not bringing back their library books on Thursday. It seems to always be a surprise when midterms go home with Ds and Fs in library. The number one reason is failure to bring back their books or turn in their folders. Student's grades are docked heavily every time books are forgotten. Please make a sign and paste it to the front door to help kids remember this. They work hard in all their subjects and it is sad when this mistake keeps them from fun activities. Thanks!

Have a super night!