3 Hs - Hero, Hardship, and Highlight

Today during our inservice time we were asked to participate in an activity called 3Hs.

Share your hero, hardship, and highlight in 2 minutes with a card partner.

I have many people that I respect and admire but my easy answer for a hero is my dad.

It was my biggest hardship to watch my dad die.  I watched it happen quickly beginning May 17, 2017  and with his final breath on June 12, 2017.  That was HARD.  I watched and could do nothing.  Some of our weekends during his final month were spent in the hospital in Iowa City.  It became ice cream for dinner and swimming parties at the hotel when visiting hours were over.  My sister and I spent Memorial Day evening with him and we listened to him tell stories that we'd never heard before.   When he came home on June 9, we knew it was near the end and I am so glad that we all spent that morning eating donuts with him in the living room.

Another hardship for me is whenever my kids struggle.  I want to rescue them.  I want them to live an ideal life.  I cannot solve all of their problems for them.

It is my biggest highlight to celebrate successes with my kids.  It is a highlight of my hard days to get to come home and spend time with them.

I have many more thoughts on these 3Hs but I hope you will take a few minutes to think about your own answers to the 3Hs.

Open House is Thursday Night from 4:30 to 6.  Hope to see you there! 

Friday Fun

When I was growing up I was definitely a rule follower.  I was very quiet and never questioned anything.  If my younger sister gave me directions or an order I followed even what she told me to do.  

This week we introduced some new things.  Limericks were just one of those new things.  I am so thankful for those students that questioned a little bit of the new that I was trying to introduce.  Some of them didn't question it but they were willing to break the mild ever so slightly to be an original.

Friday afternoon we spent time reviewing math skills with some games.  In our room we did Number Top-It.  It's a great way to review place value.   This time we played with hundreds, tens, and ones.  Later we will play it with decimal places (tenths, hundredths, and thousandths).

I am proud of my 4th graders for their anxiousness to try new things this week as well as to question the rules.  They were willing to take risks and because of that they achieved far more than I had imagined.

They are  a fabulous crew.

It was also a super mail day!   A new Scholastic Book Order arrived.  I'll be reading all that I can from these new books over the weekend so that the 4th graders can start reading them on Monday.

It's going to be a great week! How will you plan for your success?

Where has the week gone?

Time seems to be moving at an amazing speed in 4th grade!  Check out some of the fun things that have been happening.

Ella's new puppy, Bella, came to visit.  Everyone loved getting to meet her.  She was so well behaved and adorable.

During our math time today we worked on word problems to figure out measurements for Moon Ball Cookies.  I love them but know that I would eat the whole batch if I made them at home.  The students worked really well in their small groups.  At the end of the day, 4th graders were able to give a small valentine to someone else that contained 2 cookies (they ate one or 2 if they wanted to).

I saw great teamwork today but it started with Miss Middendorf last week when she was in our room.  Check out the winning spaghetti tower! 

We are enjoying the week as we prepare for Valentine's Day.  Don't forget that tomorrow we will be celebrating a green cup award by dressing in Sock Hop apparel during the day.  Plan to come back to Winskill from 4:30 to 7:30 for the Friends of Winskill Sock Hop!

Hope the week slows down a bit so we can enjoy the events.

Friday FUN!

Today was a great day!  We were busy and we didn't get any homework!  We took our spelling test in the computer lab ( a few issues today with computers acting strange....).  We also did XtraMath to practice our facts.

 We took our reading quiz over Stormalong and then had a few minutes for QRT (quiet reading time).

 By the afternoon we were ready for math facts with some multiplication war.

 A quick review of the multiplication methods taught this week.

We wrote our family journal letters.

Our day wasn't over yet!  We met on the carpet for some reading time with the fall athletes.

The final moments were spent getting autographs from the wonderful role models that visited Winskill this afternoon.

There's a home football game tonight so I hope to see you there.   Thanks for taking time to check out the pictures from our day!

Five for Friday

I know that I sent home Friday Folders and that they were filled with papers and the newsletter and that students had written family journal notes, too, but today I feel like sharing 5 Fabulous Things about my day!

#1 - It is fabulous to have a talented and energetic teacher share an apple and a smile on a Friday morning. Thank you, Mrs. Strobush.

#2 - It is FUN to have a mentor who is willing to run out at lunch to VERY QUICKLY get ice cream on a Friday (no that is not good for my diet or my stress levels, but the apple that I ate after school balances it out....maybe).  Thank you, Mrs. Stimpson.

#3 - It is FANTASTIC to have all my spelling posttests scored and in the gradebook before 5 o'clock on Friday Night.   Thank you, Spelling City.

#4 - It is fortunate for us to have 2 high school aids.  Our classroom was pretty quiet near the end of the school day today.  This was especially enjoyable since it was a Friday and we aren't this quiet even on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.  While the high school aids are pretty good about going with the flow, I am not sure what happened today.  It might have been some of the Friday Fun but there was definitely something when Nate came in at the end of the day.  The kids were very excited to get to have a picture taken with him.  Nate and Tyler, we hope you win your football game tonight!  We are fortunate to have you in our classroom each day.  Thanks for all you do.

#5 - Family Time and Fun Fall Weekends - I am excited to have this weekend to spend with my own 2 kiddos and husband.  We are heading to a wedding tomorrow and I am loving these cooler temps.  I know that this family time will help me to refresh my spirit so that I am ready for all that the next week brings!

Take time to celebrate what's so fabulous this Friday.   Leave me a comment to let me know something fabulous about your Friday!

Wonderful and Whimsical Wednesday Ramblings

I don't have much to share this evening but I wanted to put something out here...  Most of it will be random but you might be interested;-)

We've been reading a story this week about MLK, Jr.  It's not the story we all think of when we hear the name Martin Luther King, Jr.  This story is about Martin's childhood and it's told by his older sister.  Some of the questions I've heard this week make me giggle.  One student asked if I was alive when Martin Luther King, Jr. was alive.  I did tell the class that I WASN'T alive when MLK, Jr. was.  He died in 1968 and I was not born until later in the 70s....  

We began our week with a little information about Nelson Mandela, too.  I think that was good information to start with because I remember when Nelson Mandela died last December.  In some of the information that we looked at about this great leader, we learned that he was born in 1918.  Someone again asked if I was born then....NOPE.

Word Work for today was with BOGGLE.  Do you ever play BOGGLE at home?  Today we were looking for long e and short e vowel patterns.  While I have not gotten to be at this center yet, I am very thankful that our high school helper is there to work with the kids.

 BOGGLE is one of my favorite word games and I hope to get to play with my 4th graders soon.

Math has been getting smoother every day, too.  Today we tried out XtraMath in the computer lab.  Students will have directions in this week's Friday Folder for how they can practice at home, too.

Our Science cells study is moving along nicely, too.  Tomorrow we will be finishing our close read of "The Cells that Make Us."  

While this post if full of random rambling, please know that we are working to make the most of each day.  My crazy expectations of nobody getting up during my lessons and not asking to go to the bathroom 9 times during the day are beginning to be understood.  From the book See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles, I am now sure that Ran's words to Fern hold true to me, too:  "All will be well."

Make Your Mark Monday

Have you ever felt overwhelmed? These last couple weeks I have felt some strong feelings of stress. I have 2 1/2 extra hours in the day than I had in previous school years and yet my to-do list is far longer than it has ever been and the list isn't getting any shorter. My goal over the weekend was to get caught up. I'm happy to report that many of the necessary things did get done but I do still have quite the to-do list.

Today was not a day to worry about those to-do lists.  Today was a day to celebrate all of the ways that we are making our mark.  We began our community circle time with the Dot Day Song.

I had encouraged the 4th graders to celebrate their "mark on the world," by wearing polka dots today.  

Our WIN time today was spent focusing on Author's Purpose.  I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Mr. Addison's class on how authors write to persuade.  Our class worked with Miss Enloe on writing to inform.

I definitely didn't get my to-do list completed by the end of the day.  I may have even created a few more things to do...(How does that happen?)  I am doing all I can and I hope I am leaving a wonderful mark as I begin this journey at Winskill Elementary School.

Reflecting on Today

It's Tuesday and I am T I R E D!   Maybe it's the weather.  I HOPE it's the weather.  I will say that we are busy at school ALL day----seriously.  Today I took a can of pineapple to eat for my lunch and I just now realized that I had opened that can of pineapple and set it next to my desk and never eaten it.  We are that busy all day.  Want to know what we were busy with today?  Here are some of the exit slips reflections from our class.

We DID learn about place value and rocket math during math today!!!  I'm glad that electronics day was a good surprise, too.  It makes my heart happy to see that my students are enjoying their classroom friends, too!  Star reading scores will be shared with students tomorrow.  Goals will be written on how we can work on our reading to bring up our star scores before we test again (it will be awhile before we test again for reading).

I LOVE that this student realized that we are studying cells in science.  Today we played a fun Kahoot game about cells to help us introduce the topic.  The TIGWARS Team won with 3 out of the 4 questions answered correctly!

It was pretty neat to have 2 birthdays in our classroom and 3 in 4th grade today! 9/9 is a neat day to celebrate. 

As you can tell from all the answers on today's exit slips, we have been BUSY!  Being tired tonight is okay because I know that I will be refreshed and rested for tomorrow.  We are making progress and that takes work.  The only place where success comes before work is the dictionary!  

Shine On!