Sonora #Socktober Video

Check Out the video we are submitting to Kid President to tell about our #Socktober service project.

#Socktober Update

I am so very happy to be giving an update about our class service project. The students have done an amazing job organizing and carrying out this project with minimal help from me. We are half way through the month of October and we have collected 460 items so far to donate the 7 Hills Homeless shelter. The school as a whole has done a great job joining in on our cause. The Arkansas Children's Hospital Dental program was here doing check ups and sealants. They saw our signs and donated the remaining toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss that they had. Thank You ACH! Also, our Springdale Family Literacy Program parents in the building have been bringing items to donate to the cause. A big Thank You to them as well!!  I will continue to update you on the progress of our project. As a school we are doing a competition among the classes. The class in the lead right now is Mrs. Price's class. They brought 96 packages of BATTERIES!!! We had no batteries up until their donation. The class that is in 2nd place is Mrs. Wilson-Scott's class. Please check out the blog regularly for updates. :)

#Socktober

Check out this new video from Kid President about #Socktober featuring Grover.

Rounding Practice

Let's practice some rounding! Go to the link below to play the pirate rounding game. Good Luck, Matey!

Pirate Rounding Game

Subtracting With Regrouping

Use the link below to practice the standard algorithm for subtracting with regrouping.

Subtracting with Regrouping Practice

#Socktober

Here is your #Socktober Update!! The students were hard at work this morning in their committees. Some were tracking the data. Others were planning their announcements. One group was sorting the collected items into baskets. They are working so hard to help others. I'm hoping this is only the beginning. We were given a good lead from a teacher here at Sonora on a contact for 7 Hills Homeless shelter in Fayetteville. This is the shelter that the students chose to donate to after researching shelters and programs in our area. Please spread the word about #Socktober! Below are the items we are collecting.

1. SOCKS!!!
2. toothpaste
3. toothbrushes
4. travel size shampoo and soap
5. batteries

#Socktober

Here is part of our advertising group with their first video announcement for our #Socktober Project.

#Socktober

Hello Families! I am so excited to tell you about what our class will be participating in for the month of October. The students are going to be participating in an event called #Socktober. We are participating through Kid President. If you haven't seen any of his youtube videos, you should definitely check them out. They are very funny with a great message. We will be partnering up with a homeless shelter in the area and help them get the items they need to help families. The students have formed committees and they are coming up with all the ideas. Stay tuned to the blog for details and updates.

Welcome Families!!

I am so excited to meet with each one of you for parent teacher conferences. Please enjoy this video while you are waiting.  Click the link below to watch.                  
                                                     We Are The Future!!!!

How Are You?

Hello! I wanted to take a minute to check in with all of you. How is your summer going? What have you been doing? What are you reading? I just finished reading a great book. It's title is Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool. It was a great book. It did not end like I would have predicted which made it even better! I would like to hear from all of you about what you have been doing and what you are reading. Please post commnets! :) 

Book Summary from www.goodreads.com :

At the end of World War II, Jack Baker, a landlocked Kansas boy, is suddenly uprooted after his mother’s death and placed in a boy’s boarding school in Maine. There, Jack encounters Early Auden, the strangest of boys, who reads the number pi as a story and collects clippings about the sightings of a great black bear in the nearby mountains.

Newcomer Jack feels lost yet can’t help being drawn to Early, who won’t believe what everyone accepts to be the truth about the Great Appalachian Bear, Timber Rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero known as The Fish, who never returned from the war. When the boys find themselves unexpectedly alone at school, they embark on a quest on the Appalachian Trail in search of the great black bear.

But what they are searching for is sometimes different from what they find. They will meet truly strange characters, each of whom figures into the pi story Early weaves as they travel, while discovering things they never realized about themselves and others in their lives.

Welcome!!!!

Hello Future 4th Graders!!!

I am so excited to be your teacher for the 2014-2015 school year. I hope we can get to know each other a little bit over the summer using this blog. I would love to know what you are reading and the fun things you are doing while on summer break. Hoot! Hoot! It's going to be an "OWLSOME" year!!

The Whipping Boy

We have started a class literature study of the book The
Whipping Boy.. The students are to read a portion each night and respond to some questions. They will have time in class  to answer the questions but they do need to work on them at home as well. Below I am posting the book trailer we watched to introduce the book. Our transfer goal for this unit is: Opinions change over time. Each night please ask your child if their opinion of Prince Horace has changed and why. 

Adding and Subtracting Fractions

Here is a game to practice adding a subtracting fractions with like denominators.

Fractions

Measurement

Please use the links below to play games and interactive activities to practice measurement and converting. Have fun and Learn! :)

Measurement Matching

Converting Inches and Feet Practice

Today's Lesson

Students, 

Please use the passage below to do today's interactive benchmark practice activity.

Writing

As we continue to find ways to improve our writing, we are focusing on sentence formation. This is one component of the Arkansas Writing Rubric that is used to score the writing section of the Benchmark exam. Today we practiced identifying simple, compound, and complex sentences. This will help the students use a variety of sentence types in their own writing. The picture below will help students identify the sentences correctly while playing the interactive game linked below it.

Sentence Types Game

Perimeter and Area

Please visit the link below for an explanation of perimeter and area and some interactive practice. Students often have trouble remembering which is the correct formula when they encounter these types of problems. I encourage you to work through some of these problems with your child if you are able to do so.  Happy calculating! :) 

Perimeter and Area Practice

Cause and Effect

We have been working on Cause and Effect in nonfiction. The students have been doing a great job identifying cause and effect when reading factual information. This week we are working on cause and effect in fiction or stories. Mrs. Head and I noticed that last week on a benchmark practice question that they had a more difficult time with identifying cause and effect in fiction. Below is a link to help the students get some more practice.As always, please notify me if there is anything specific that you would like to see on the blog to help you and your child at home. 

Cause and Effect

Transformations

Our geometry concept this week is transformations. Here is a link for some practice.
Transformations

Editing

Hello! As we continue to prepare for testing and improve our overall writing skills, we need to remember the basics. I'm posting a link below for practice editing punctuation and capitalization. Happy Editing! :)

Capitalization and Punctuation

Text Structure

Parents and Students,

Good Morning! I hope your day is off to a great start. We have been working on text structure in our class. Students are identifying if text is written in one of the five ways listed below.

• Order/Sequence
• Compare Contrast
• Cause and Effect
• Description
• Problem Solution

I am posting an anchor chart below as an example. I am also posting a link for students to play a fun interactive game that allows them to practice identifying structure. 

Text Structure Basketball

More Practice!!!

Here is a link to some more online interactive geometry games. :)
Geometry Practice

Polygons

Hello Sonora 4th Grade Families!

I hope you are enjoying the weather we have been having. I know I have! I wanted to take a moment to communicate to you a few things we are learning about and some things your child can work on at home to help them in class. We have been studying geometry during our math block of time. Much of what we are doing builds upon what the students have learned in previous grades. We are currently working with polygons. In order to be successful the students need to be able to identify and describe polygons. For some additional practice I am posting some links to interactive games that can help students to review the names and properties of these figures. Thanks so much for taking the time to visit our class blog.


                                                                                          Kari Spurlock :)

Polygon Game

Polygon or Not?

Homework

Hello Sonora 4th Grade Families!

I wanted to take a moment to talk about homework. Many of you and your children have been asking about it. Just as we discussed earlier in the year reading 20 minutes each night is their homework. They can do it alone or with someone. It is very beneficial if someone can discuss their book with them or ask questions to see if they understood what they read. I'm going to post below a couple pictures to show the importance of reading every night and a few examples of questions you can ask. Please contact me or comment below if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing you at parent teacher conferences next week. Notes have been delayed due to snow days, so look for them coming home this week. Can't wait to be back at school!

Hello. I would like to take a moment and introduce myself. My name is Brianna Head. I am a student from Harding University and I am majoring in Early Childhood Education. This semster I will be completeing my intership through Sonora Elementary. For the next few months, I will be helping out in Mrs. Spurlocks classroom. She will be guiding me through observations, planning, and teaching. Before my internship ends, I will teach her class for two weeks, again with the guidance and support of Mrs. Spurlock, the school, and my teachers at Harding.  My teaching responsibilities are the same as the other staff here at Sonora Elementary. I look forward to getting to know and learning from her and her students! Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions on the blog for additional information. Thank you!