Patience running thin.

Hello,

I got a little upset with our congress this afternoon.  They made a law that didn't quite jive with previous laws and when I asked about it, I immediately got differing opinions.  They didn't know either.  I got on them, because a lot of people in our class have lost elections, so when the winners don't do their jobs well, it feels like a slap in the face to the kids who have lost.

I also wasn't so happy with their homework. I haven't made these last two weeks overly difficult on them, so the slide on the effort in their homework just isn't acceptable.  Tonight's writing minimum is five sentences.  If we can't do that, I'll up it to seven.  We can and will do better.

The winning fairy tale unit team, I forgot their team name, got to cash in on their reward today.  We started watching The Princess Bride at lunch time.  Students not on the winning team can also watch, if they scored above 80% on their test.  Students scoring below 80 can earn a viewing of the second showing after the holiday break if they can show that they learned the material from the test.  It should take four or five lunch times to show the entire movie.

I'm thinking of starting an entire classic movie reward system.  It gets the kids out of the cafeteria for a change.  It should motivate some of them to get their work done and learn the material that they are supposed to.  It also gives me an excuse to show them some quality movies that I can then reference in class.  The Wizard of Oz is on deck, along with a movie based on a Roald Dahl book.  I think that I"ll go with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the old version).

We got in our last computer lab session before the break for writing.  We will continue to get in there as much as we can for a variety of subjects.

No homework club tomorrow.  Sorry for the inconvenience of the late notice.  I still don't know my hoop schedule for Jan - Feb, but will let you know the homework club plans as soon as I can.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Final Four

Hello,

The final four contenders are in place for the WWF adoption challenge.  Tomorrow, the walrus will take on the emerald hummingbird in the first semi-final.  Thursday will see the penguin and the tiger go head to head. The final champion and adoptee will be determined on Friday.  It has been a year of lop-sided victories, but there is no way I would try to predict a winner.  I'd say whatever animal can remained focused and keep their eyes on the prize will prevail.

The switching of narrators from August to Via in our read-aloud, Wonder, is going to open our eyes to some extra drama going on in the story. I've got to figure out a good stopping place for our vacation and make sure that I get there.

Please ask your child how many Roald Dahl books that they have read during our Dahlathon. Anything less than three, even if they are reading other books at home, is really inexcusable. Dahl has some very short books and the class has been given thirty plus minutes to read, every day, for the last ten school days.

We now have three Supreme Court justices in place. Congrats to Will, Elly and Luke. Now it's time to see if our laws and economy can work hand in hand.  My payroll dept. is way behind, but I'll get on those people.

I'm hoping for a chapter 3 math test on Thursday.  We'll see how tomorrow's review goes.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Last week before the big break

Hello,

We didn't get to our class government today because of all the discussions surrounding the two pages of Wonder that I tried to get through.  Topic included genetics, (ask about dominant and recessive genes), the freedoms of college (including food and homework choices), the pros and cons of online college, and finally, because the main character's family is half Jewish, we talked a bit about what that meant.  This book brings up a lot of topics.Your child may even understand a reference to the book War and Peace by Tolstoy. (Although it was mentioned last week, ask to see, I bet some remember.)

In math we are reviewing our long division and multiple digit multiplication.  I hope the long vacation doesn't put some of those neurons to sleep.

We have been lucky enough to get another couple of sessions in the computer lab for writing.  I hope that can keep up.  We can only sign up for two sessions a week, but if it is open on another day during our literacy this week, I'm going to jump on it. (We can sign up for any open sessions on the current day, if they are still open.)

Bowdoin hoop practice is done until the 26th.  I'm so glad not to be in college taking finals right now. I'm counting my blessings.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Hello again

Busy week. The indoor recesses are piling up as well.  I hope we can get outside for some fresh air tomorrow.

I was happy with our day today considering all of the possible reasons for cabin fever.  We jumped right in to the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.

In our study of government, I am going to have everyone in the class memorize this. I think it is important to learn how to memorize passages, and this one explains the purpose of our government, which can be tough to grasp for a ten year old.  We went over all of the vocabulary today.  I showed them the School House Rock! version twice.  That animated song is how I learned it in the 70's.  You can look for it on youtube if you're interested in seeing it. It went along well with our afternoon discussion in getting the kids to understand the words of the preamble.

We got into the computer lab this morning.  I think half hour sessions will work well for awhile. Just like in reading and writing, the kids need to develop a stamina to work in there for very long. Our first attempt at typed dialogues went very well.

Our long division work is going along very well. It is difficult to wrap your brain around so we will keep at it, but I don't remember a fourth grade class getting it any quicker.

Our read aloud, Wonder, is a book I recommend to all of you. I'll give you some of the great discussion topics as they come up.

Sorry about this week's shortage of blogs. I was just getting back on track and... oops. We only have a couple more hoop practices this semester, so I'm hoping to get caught back up on my work.  Anyway, I got back late from Farmington last night and am once again falling asleep at the computer.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Snow Biz

Hello,

Brief blog.  The kids performed Snow Biz for the whole school this morning. Well done by all.

We met for math long enough to do Rocket Math, but only three passed, our lowest total yet.  Keep working the facts!

The cute streak ended when the walrus beat the lynx in WWF adoption voting.  Our president spoke on behalf of the walrus, which surely helped its cause. The penguin chick pictures got huge "Aaaaahhhhs" however, and cuted their way past the kangaroo.

I started using to kid names on the blog this week. That is because I saw the list of kids who I have permission to put their name on here, unaccompanied by a pic, of course. Almost everyone checked that it was okay in your school paperwork. Contact me if you are unsure of your previous reply.  I will never use last names.

Our House of Reps and Senate both passed our first Supreme Court Justice today.  Congrats Elly.

Our Roald Dahlathon is off and running. Ask your child what Dahl book they are reading first.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Cute wins

Hello,

I hope everyone was able to scrape their way into their vehicles this morning and get where they needed to go safely. It was a quick day, but at least one that we don't have to do in late June.

In WWF voting, the trend continued: the cutest animal has won every contest. You may not think moose are cute, but next to a hammerhead shark, they are like Shirley Temple, albeit with a potbelly and antlers. Today the red panda crushed (Aiden's favorite word) the anaconda, 18-4. In the koala vs. red-eyed tree frog match, the tree frog fans begged me not to show a koala picture because of the cute factor. They were then very happy that I showed it after seeing the close-up of the koala because it looked like an unshaven version of my Uncle Frank with a big schnozz. Uncle Frank lost 17-5. I'd like to believe that today's winning animals won because Kipp and Morgan got up in front of the class and taught us a little about these animals, but the fact remains: cute is undefeated.

Wonder, our read aloud, is bringing up lots of good topics for discussion. The kids brought in some fantastic precepts, some funny, some very serious. We talked about the effect of report cards. I told them about getting my first B in science, and from then on believing that I wasn't good in science. I was very clear with the class that I don't want to have that type of influence on them. They can become or do whatever they want in life, it will just take hard work. I hope they feel safe to come to me with any questions on their grades, which are just my opinion on where they are right now. I hope you all dare to question me as well.

We learned today that Snow Biz, the musical, will be performed for the whole school tomorrow at 9:30.  I look forward to seeing the performances, but we will have another no math day.  There is always a trade off.  Ms. Feigner and I are going to try to squeeze in twenty minutes for the students not part of the production. On a side note, I've been singing, "There's no business, like snow business..." but apparently that song isn't part of the show.

I've got a basketball game to get to.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Choose kind

Hello,

I feel badly that I missed the Snow Biz musical tonight.  My practice went long. Unfortunately, because of the Bowdoin game tomorrow, I'm not going to get to see it. I try very hard to see my students when they are performing in different activities important to them, and I feel awful to be missing out on the results of their hard work. I'll find out tomorrow how the first performance went. We had many kids with spoken/sung lines tonight.

Our new read aloud is Wonder by R.J. Palacio. It is a fantastic book that I have wanted to reference many times this year, so I'm getting to it. It gets into many issues that fourth and fifth graders have to deal with, including school pressures and bullying.

The main character of the story, and current narrator, August, is a fifth grader starting at a new school. August has a face that is extremely abnormal. People stare at him. Wonder is his story, but told from many different points of view.  I did it as a read aloud last year, and I will read it to each class because of the lessons that it teaches.

Tonight's homework is related to August's English class. His teacher, Mr. Browne, writes a new precept on the board every month.  His beginning of the year precept is: When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.

We talked about that for a while today. It is an important lesson, and a theme that runs through the book. Choose kind.

In our WWF matchups, the moose and the ocelot were victorious over the shark and the gibbon, respectively. Both won by 13-8 votes. Tomorrow the koala goes up against the tree frog and the red panda takes on the anaconda.

I've started one on one conferences in writing. This should happen with each child once a week. Now we can start really buckling down on the specifics that your child need to work on. Ask your child when their conference is scheduled.

I corrected yesterday's spelling test. I'll be breaking up the class into small groups to focus on where their greatest spelling needs are. Interesting results. I keep relaying info on this as I get it.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

I'm back!

Hello,

It's 7:00.  Practice over. School over. I'm going to try to be more consistent. That can be translated as more blogging, but briefer.

Every year, as my holiday gift to the class, we adopt an animal from the World Wildlife Federation's symbolic adoption program. Kids nominated animals from the WWF guide last week. Now we have a giant bracket of animals from around the world.  Each day we will have one or two matchups. Tomorrow the ocelot will go against the white-cheeked gibbon and the moose will face the hammerhead shark.  Students are allowed to speak up on behalf of the animals as long as they have done some research and have some facts. After hearing from the supporters, we will vote. Winner moves to the next round, loser is out. Last year's winner was the three toed sloth. Ask your child which animal they are supporting.

We took our fairy tale, legend, myth, fable quiz today. I'll know how it went after I grade it tonight. Tomorrow is our fairy tale, legend, myth, fable jeopardy game.  The class has been working in three teams. The winning team based on their skits, quizzes and jeopardy score will get to watch a movie of a fairy tale during lunch times in the classroom.

We took a spelling test today.  It wasn't the traditional Sitton program, but a new program that will be more differentiated to where each individual is as a speller. More to come on the new spelling Words Our Way program soon. I have high hopes.

Snow Biz musicals are on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 6:30. I have practice tomorrow until 6:30, but will catch most of it. Bowdoin vs. USM in basketball at 7:00 on Wednesday, so Tuesday is my only chance. Good luck to the cast and crew.

I hope you all had a good mini break.  14 more days of school before 16 more off.  Keep up the reading and math facts please.

Thanks,

Mr. Shea

Conference sign up link

Hello,

I just created a page to let you sign up for conferences on line.  I'll send a letter home on Monday for those without internet access.  My schedule is tight this year.  I have to go late on a Friday and had to offer lots of early slots.  If you are flexible, I'd ask you to go for the 25th or 26th. That would just give me a little more time to get my stuff together.  Thanks so much. Here is the info:

Dear Parent,

You are invited to sign up for Parent / Teacher Conference with Mr. Shea.

            DATE:  November 20, November 21, November 24, November 25 and November 26.
            PLACE:  Room 120. 
            REGISTRATION DEADLINE:  End of day before each conference day

To pick a time slot, enter this link in your internet browser:

             www.ptcfast.com/reg1

At that link, you will be asked for your Entry Code, where you should
enter P6L182450

I look forward to meeting with you.

Best Regards,


Mr. Shea

If you are having any trouble with the above directions, here are the time slots available. You can give me a couple options and send a note in with your child.

Time Blocks     Thursday, Nov 20, 2014        5:00 PM - 7:00 PM       30 minutes         Friday, Nov 21, 2014        7:00 AM - 8:30 AM       30 minutes                  3:30 PM - 8:00 PM       30 minutes         Monday, Nov 24, 2014        7:00 AM - 8:30 AM       30 minutes         Tuesday, Nov 25, 2014        7:00 AM - 8:30 AM       30 minutes                  1:30 PM - 2:30 PM       30 minutes         Wednesday, Nov 26, 2014        7:00 AM - 6:00 PM       30 minutes

Have a great weekend.  I'm off to Maine Maritime in the morning, back Sunday night at 8:00.  I'm going to attempt to come in to class as soon as I get back to campus, but I might just go with a 6:00 am start on Monday.  Staying late on Friday has never been my thing, but there's a lot of changes this year. Long bus rides should mean more correcting done, so that should be good.   

Good night,

Mr. Shea

Hoop practice again

Hello,

I've got to figure out when I can do this blog thing.  Right now I just don't have time.  I'm running from school to practice. All of my school meetings are scheduled around my practice times, so I usually don't get a chance to blog until after 7:00 or sometimes 9:00.  I think I'll just get the homework on the homework calendar during the day and then shoot a quick blog out when I can. It may be at night sometimes, but at least you'll get some updates so you can choose what to mention or discuss with your child at a later time.  Sorry. New schedule. New challenges.  We'll make it through as best we can.

Thanks,

I'm off to practice again.

Mr. Shea

New government and panning for gold.

Hello,

I'm sure if the big Harry Potter event wasn't lurking, your kids would either have come home and talked about our new government, or what their assignment is for the class paper, or that they got to try panning for gold.

I bought some bags of sand from a retired geology professor. He buys them from a mine in Georgia and usually about half of them have a small piece of real gold in them. He demonstrated to me how to pan for the gold and has always given me free bags of sand if I don't find gold in at least half of them. It takes a lot of patience and a steady hand to do correctly, so despite not finding any of the three bags that we emptied, I'm not going to try to get a free bag. I thought it would be a nice thing to try as we wind down our rocks and minerals unit. We might try again during chemistry next year. Another year to mature may be the trick to finding the gold.

The president signed a law today granting me the power to fine anyone interrupting a class discussion two dollars from their weekly paycheck. I like it. The law yesterday about blurting out being a ten dollar fine lasted less than two minutes. I collected forty bucks from one senator though.  We'll see if this new law works or if it will even last the week.

Okay, I've got the sorting on my mind. Thanks for all of the help so far. We still have work to do.  I really need to have volunteers for:

Putting up banners in the music room
Stringing and hanging the floating candles
Ordering and picking up pizza around five.
Making a river out of desks in the hallway
Helping me with the sound system
Helping with the lighting
Assisting in the creation of a cardboard boat or two
Keeping our kids calm enough to pull this off.
Hanging up the stone walls of the castle and the brick wall of the train station.

Plenty to go around. If anyone has any battery operated lanterns, we could use those as well.

I hope to see some of you after 3:30 tomorrow.  I'm off to get some more tea lights.

Thanks,

Mr. Shea

Busy busy

Hello,

Sorry for no blog last night.  We had homework club until five.  The last pick-up was at 5:30 and I had to race over to Bowdoin for a basketball practice that went until 8.  The Bowdoin practice schedule is the reason I'm switching over our homework club nights to Thursdays starting next week.

The Harry Potter Sorting Ceremony is in the music room on Friday at 6:30. We still have a lot to do. I hot-glued some tea lights onto tubes after school for our floating candles. Big thanks to Pat for making the tubes look like melted wax has dripped down the sides. Pat is also tackling the chocolate frog production.

With so much still to do, kids can stay after tomorrow (Thursday) until 5:00 to help with prep. It is a bit of a homework club, but I'll have real tasks to get accomplished after the homework is complete. Parents are welcome to come help. Same drill on Friday. Students can stay after, parents are welcome too. I'm hoping to get a volunteer to go on a pizza run around five fifteenish so the kids don't drop before the ceremony.

We had a nice walk to the polls yesterday. I've never seen such a long line to cast ballots. Good for Brunswick. We had our own class elections. We have a new congress and a new president and vice. Ask your child if they ran for office and bravo to them if they did.

We've moved our seating around to get the house, senate, and white house officials together.  All remaining citizens are gainfully employed by the class newspaper.  An editor in chief and an assistant was chosen to lead our reporters and writers.

I've got to run.  Thanks for reading.  And thanks for pushing the blog over the 16,000 page view mark! We've come a long way from my first year of class blogging where I hardly got anyone to read it. I stopped typing it that year after I requested anyone who read a post to email me to let me know if it was worth my time.  I got one email... and it was from a teacher.

Have a good night,

Mr. Shea

Election Day tomorrow

Hello,

We talked about the election. We will have our own elections tomorrow afternoon after we visit the polls at the Jr. High and hear from our candidates.  We will be electing a president, three senators and five representatives. There was lots of buzz about this at bus time.

I think the first referendum vote drew the most comments. I stayed as neutral as I could on the bear hunt regulations vote, but had to cut their comments short. It seems everyone in the class has an opinion on hunting and whether or not #1 should pass. The other items on the ballot are all about whether or not to spend money. I explained how these votes have a direct correlation with our tax bills. Research, clean water, help for businesses etc. all sound great, but voters always have to think about the increase in their taxes. It often makes for tough decisions.

I asked the class to speak to you about the election. I don't want to know who or what anyone is voting for, but it may lead to some good discussions with your child.  Maybe you can explain an issue to your child so they could bring back some more info for us tomorrow.

We ended the day working on posters explaining the rock cycle.  Ask your child what that is tonight. They should know.

Tomorrow is the last Tuesday homework club.  We will start on Thursdays next week.

Have a great night.  I have Bowdoin Women's Hoop practice.

Mr. Shea

Field Trip Tuesday

Hello,

Just a quick note about our walking field trip to the election polls at BJHS on Tuesday. We will leave at 10:40 and be back by 11:30. We will still have lunch at school. If a couple parents would like to volunteer to go along, that would be great. You could vote while you are there, if you'd like.  A permission slip went home tonight, which I realized was not a great idea, sending it home on Halloween weekend, but it snuck up on me.  (Please don't ask how election day could have possibly snuck up on me.)

Have a safe Halloween.

Mr. Shea

Bad teacher day

Hello,

It wasn't an overly impressive day for me. One of the great things about teaching this age is the immediate feedback. We were attempting to classify minerals and many things went wrong. Mineral kits were incomplete, Mineral info card packs differed from pack to pack. I thought I had set up a fool proof system with the minerals, so I didn't do a very effective check of all the moving parts before passing everything out to the class. I'll make sure the next teacher is given a better launching point, which is me not taking the responsibility that I should, but I'm still mad about it. I should have checked every kit like I did with our rock identification, but I didn't. And it was a bit of a mess. My patience grew short. Everything took longer than it should have. Just not good.

I also messed up on the homework. At the end of math class, I handed the homework to a student and asked if they would please pass it out. At the end of the day, kids were approaching me and asking if I was going to pass out the math homework. The child that I gave the task to, said "I thought you said to take one and pass it."  Somewhere there is a stack of math sheets that never found their recipients.

I became aware of the math mess up as we were writing down our homework in our assignment books. Suddenly my mind loss track of the other assignment I was planning on giving them. My mind was a complete blank. I'm sure it was something that connected their learning from prior days... yes, it had to have been fantastic. I just couldn't think of it.  And the clock was ticking. "AAAuuuugh!" I yelled. "No other homework because I can't think straight right now!" At least that got most of them smiling.

We did play an eventful game of Androscoggin. It is a game where you make up words using the letters of another word or words. I'd played the game for years, before finding its description in a 1908 book of games. The book titled the game Androscoggin.  I usually introduce the game, using that title as the word that we use letters from, but we kept with the geology theme and used METAMORPHIC as our word. We built on our homework from Monday night.  I play it as a four team game, but I may change it to five, due to the size of our class.

My busy season has definitely started. I've got to get more organized (and plan better for my lessons) if I'm going to make it through with flying colors. I've also got to make sure I get enough sleep. I woke up at 3:00am last night and couldn't make it back to sleep. I was thinking about all our missing objects in class and my suspicions that some items were also stolen from CREA. We need some maturing to happen quickly in our class. It is difficult to have several groups running at once without trust and independence. I put some more things in motion to help speed up that process.

I'll be asking for some help with next Friday's Harry Potter Sorting. I may need some help with some wizardy snacks and some sewing of some black material into robes. More to come.

Mr. Shea

CREA

Hello,

As usual, the people at CREA were knowledgeable, friendly, and provided a great field trip experience for the kids. The class was split into two groups as soon as we arrived. One group walked to a quarry and discussed the mining of Topsham feldspar. After much discussion about the bedrock of our planet, we walked to the Cathance River where we noticed many examples of weathering and erosion.  We took a soil sample and talked about the make up of soil.

The other group sat before some beautiful mineral samples and learned about the three minerals that make up granite, the most plentiful rock in our state. They learned about the variety of places that we find and use minerals in our day to day lives.  A major highlight for most of the kids came after this discussion, when they were able to get a cup of crushed rocks and search for their own minerals. Most students came away with muscovite, feldspar, tourmaline, quartz and a garnet. After the first session, both groups switched and got to experience the other session.

Upon returning to school, the energy was low and I think we all felt like a nap. We ended our day with silent reading, art class and some CREA reflection/thank you notes. Energy ramped right back up when it was time for free play for the kids staying after for homework club.  For the kids, anyway.

Thank you to our chaperones and the CREA staff for making it a successful day. Our kids represented themselves well, except for a line dispute as we were getting back to the bus.  If only the trip ended at 12:44!  We talked it out.  We'll do better next time.

I'm once again falling asleep at the computer.

Until tomorrow,

Mr. Shea

Field Trip tomorrow

Hello,

We have our field trip to the Cathance River tomorrow.  We will leave around 9:15 and get back around 1:00.  I'm hoping we can be singing our Rock Cycle Song as we get off the bus.  They do a great job at CREA and I always look forward to seeing their friendly and knowledgeable staff.

We started making flash cards for our multiplication facts today. There should be some nightly practice starting soon. I'll go over some of the better strategies on how to use the cards in our next math class.  That will be on Wednesday due to the field trip.

On Friday in math we used the Dragon Box app.  This is a great free app that teaches algebraic principles through a mini-game.  You start an easy game and the next thing you know, you are solving for x in a complex equation.  We'll do it from time to time and suddenly they will be amazed at how much they have learned.  I'll introduce several games this year and will make note on the blog. Games are a fantastic way to practice and learn math. I credit my ability to add quickly to all the games of "99" and cribbage I played as a child. I hope you will encourage these games at home.

We grouped up this afternoon to try to classify minerals.  Students tested many properties of minerals, including color, feel, streak, hardness, light, luster and shape. We'll finish up with this activity tomorrow. I bet many will change some of their answers tomorrow after visiting the feldspar mines of the Cathance River. They will know the three minerals that make up granite very well after tomorrow's session in the outdoors.

I've got my Bowdoin Women's Hoop practice schedule for November and December. Based on the schedule, I think Tuesday, Nov 4 will be our last Tuesday homework club.  We'll move it to Thursdays that next week.  Thursday the 13th of November will be the first Thursday homework club.  Thursdays will work for both Nov and Dec.  I'll decide about Jan and Feb when I see my coaching schedule for those months.  Sorry for the inconsistency.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Ms. Hill's last day

Hello,

Tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to our student teacher, Ms. Hill.  As strange as it was to start the year with another adult in the room, now it will be strange to not have her here.  We wish her the best in her next placement at the sixth grade in Yarmouth. Students gave her cards this morning and we'll have some kind of farewell tomorrow to give the kids some closure. She mentioned tonight how great they are and how much she will miss them. They are definitely the reason that we all do this job.

The rain kept on coming today, so I adjusted our plans a bit to fend off the four walls closing in. Kids read little mini-skits in front of the class. They were all quite humorous with jokes like, "Waiter, there is a fly in my soup."
"Would you prefer a spider?"

Good stuff.  Ask your child about their skit.

We also did some rock classifying.  Each group of two or three students was given twelve rocks to classify as igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary.  This is a very difficult task and I was pleased with their efforts.  Tomorrow they will get those same twelve rocks along with twelve rock identification cards. They need to match up the rocks and cards. Remembering today's information will be a big help with tomorrow's task.

In math, we will be making multiplication flash cards tomorrow.  Progress in Rocket Math has slowed. Extra time now needs to be spent at home before we will see the major progress.

I'm hearing that some parents are enjoying the weekly challenges.  Remember to let your kids struggle with them. I can send an extra copy or two every week if you would like.  I have some good ones up my sleeve coming up.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Go away rain

Hello,

We worked with cuisenaire rods in conjunction with learning LCM (Least Common Multiple). Many students had trouble making the connection. We'll be back at it tomorrow.

We had a discussion about bullying. This was spurred on by news that I recently received about a family friend being mistreated by her junior high classmates. It is such a sad story that I may have dropped a tear or two in front of the class. Very few things make my blood boil more than seeing behavior that is just downright mean.

Ms. Hill continued to conference with students about the personal narrative unit, while I met with groups about the common elements of fairy tales. We have a bunch of loose ends to tie up as we near the end of Ms. Hill's stay with us. Friday will be her last day. Kids wrote notes and cards to her yesterday under the guise of "Algebra" homework. They passed in their "Algebra" to her today.

We introduced the Rock Cycle Song.  (See below)

Rock Cycle Song
(Sing to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

SEDIMENTARY rock
Has been formed in layers
Often found near water sources
With fossils from decayers

Then there's IGNEOUS rock
Here since Earth was born
Molten Lava, cooled and hardened
That's how it is formed

These two types of rocks
Can also be transformed
With pressure, heat and chemicals
METAMORPHIC they'll become.

Our class will be learning to identify these types of rocks in the coming days.  I showed examples of each today, but we will be getting back to the hands on geology unit tomorrow.

The Harry Potter Club voted to have a night time sorting dinner for new members from other classes. Like me, they want to do it up big. I will need some parent volunteers for this. The night is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 7 in the music room. We only have eight from the class in the club, so I'm hoping our big plans get more kids interested. More to come on this.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Potluck tonight

Hello,

I'll make this quick.  The fourth grade potluck dinner is in just 30 minutes.  It is tonight (Tues) at 6:00.  Maybe I can score some mac and cheese.  I honestly had forgotten about it until I saw the reminders to go home with students tonight.  I quickly put it on the homework calendar.

Ms. Hill completed both her lead teaching and her personal narrative unit today. Teaching is exhausting enough, but she finished up her day with a meeting with her professor and then came back to help out during homework club.  She should sleep well tonight. I hope your child knows what a personal narrative is after her week long unit.

We have our first continents and oceans test on Friday.  We'll add more to the map every month.  At this point, it is bare basics: seven continents, five oceans, and an equator.  I literally just fell asleep at the keyboard after I wrote five continents.  Since I've fallen into a bad habit of not proof reading my blog and just hitting publish, the falling asleep was a mini-blessing.

I just fell asleep again.  I need to end this.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Ms. Hill's lead teaching

Hello,

Ms. Hill was lead teacher for the entire day.  I felt that it went well.  She had them doing a variety of activities throughout the day.

In math, I took our new students from Miss Feigner's class and worked on number lines and estimation.  Miss Feigner had taken her class in a different direction when we worked on this in our homeroom.  Miss Hill worked with the rest of the students on using a T-model to find factors.  Miss Feigner's class had already covered this.  Tomorrow we will split them up again.  This allows Miss Hill to lead teach, and at the same time we can try to get all of our math students on the same page.

After phys. ed, recess and lunch, our class had our 90 minute literacy block.  Miss Hill has been working with them on writing personal narratives.  It is nice to see how much more understanding that they have in just a few short days.  Their writing stamina has also increased.  While we still have a few stallers and pretenders, it is getting better every day.

Despite being interrupted by a fire alarm, Miss Hill's afternoon lesson on artist Andy Goldsworthy was still successful.  Mr. Goldsworthy is an artist who uses the natural world as his canvas and materials.  Miss Hill showed a couple of clips of his work and some pictures from one of his beautiful books.  I tried to cut and paste the clips here, but it isn't working.  They paste, they just don't work. Sorry.  Here are some images.

 

 

The kids went out and tried their hand at art with nature.  I'm hoping that they will try this at home too.  We had some really cool ideas and results.

I like introducing the class to Andy Goldsworthy before taking our annual fall field trip to the Cathance River. That would be a great place to do some work inspired by Mr. Goldsworthy.  Our field trip is next Tuesday. A permission slip went home tonight.  Two parents have already asked if they could chaperone.  I'll try to give everyone a chance before the year is out.

Finally, I sent a note home to students staying with me for math, or new students coming to us from Miss Feigner's class.  It is cut and paste below.

Thanks for reading.  Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Hello,

          My name is Mr. Shea and I am your child’s math teacher.   The fourth grade team did our best to place your child in a math class where they will be challenged and yet have a good chance for success.  Changes can be made, and if we feel there may be a better fit at a later time, we won’t hesitate to make those changes.  You are welcome to provide input at any time for this process.  I’m hoping to start some math procedures that will become regular habit for both you and your child.

          Fourth grade has always been a year where the math work is ratcheted up a few notches.  This is especially true since we have started the Math in Focus program.  It goes at a quicker pace than our old program.  For example, the program includes long division and multiple digit multiplication in the first couple of chapters.  Many fourth graders don’t have their facts down, let alone have a solid concept of what multiplication and division means. 

Because many students are not automatic on their basic facts, we will be doing Rocket Math every morning.  We are currently working on our multiplication facts, but will be hitting division, addition, and subtraction before the year is out.  I like Rocket Math because everyone can be learning at their own level.  Each child has their own test, with their own goals, based on their writing speed.  You’ve probably seen some of these come home.  It is important that they learn these basic skills before heading to fifth grade.

We will have math homework every night, except on weekends.  The homework will be a review of what we have done in class.  That said, your child should always have a good idea of what to do, and shouldn’t need too much assistance from you.  Your child is responsible for bringing work home, completing it, and then bringing it back to class the next day.  You may want to review with your child how they plan on making this happen.

          Each Monday I will also give out a weekly challenge.  This isn’t due until Friday, and this will be work that they may be a bit unfamiliar with.  I will introduce the challenges to get them started, but they are designed so that most students will struggle a bit on them.  These challenges are graded on effort only.  I am much less concerned in the right answer than I am in how students react when they don’t immediately find the solution.  I want students to come in on Tues, Wed, and Thursday and keep asking questions.  I will gladly help those who are putting in the effort.

          I hope you will help them as well, but please don’t just give answers.  Allow them to try different methods.  Allow them to struggle a bit.  Ask what they have tried out so far.  If they can show you what they have tried, then you can help, but “I don’t know what to do!” or “I don’t get it!” shouldn’t cut it.  Judging from the first couple months of school, these challenges are sorely needed.  Many students have learned to yell help at the first sign of confusion, often before reading any directions.    

         

          I give these challenges for a reason.  I subscribe, in part, to Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion that this is largely cultural.  He states, “Asian culture has a profoundly different relationship to work. It rewards people who are persistent. If you take a random group of 8-year-old American and Japanese kids, give them all a really, really hard math problem, and start a stopwatch, the American kids will give up after 30, 40 seconds. If you let the test run for 15 minutes, the Japanese kids will not have given up. You have to take it away.” 

          Research shows that there is validity to Gladwell’s tests.  A more recent test showed that American ten year olds give up within ten seconds!  This is a major problem.  A country’s math ability ranking so closely correlates with the time its students will give to a problem before giving up, that the assessment tests are hardly needed.    

          So what can we do to get them to be more persistent?  I think that many kids are never allowed to struggle.  Many American adults, including teachers, do what they can so their children are never uncomfortable.  I’m asking you to let them be uncomfortable on these challenges.  Make them come in and ask for help.  If we can get them to achieve a bit of success after struggling, they won’t be so averse to it the next time. 

          One last thing that you can do is play games with your kids.  Dice games and Card games are great for their addition skills and number familiarity.  I am always surprised at how many fourth graders have to count the dots on dice.  I will be introducing games throughout the year and will send directions home.  So please, have fun and help them learn at the same time. 

          I promise to do my best to prepare your child for the math challenges of fifth grade and beyond.  I post the homework every night on my daily blog at www.mrsheasclassblog.blogspot.com.  Please email me at sshea@brunswick.k12.me.us , call 841-2599, or drop in if you’d like to speak to me about anything.

Thanks,

Mr. Shea  

Thursday

Hello,

Sorry about no blog yesterday.  I was on a bus going to a funeral up to Bar Harbor and while my assumption that the bus would have wifi was correct, the signal was so weak I couldn't get my blog page to come up.

Here's the daily rundown: We worked on multiples in math.  Students colored in multiples on hundreds charts to notice patterns.  Most students need to finish this work at home.

We learned more factual information about Columbus from a picture book by Demi.  Late in the day we got a Taino perspective from Jane Yolen's book Encounter.  The Taino were the tribes people that Columbus and his crew first encountered.  Jane Yolen speculates what they might have thought and writes a book through the eyes of a Taino boy.

We finished the day separating the class into four tribes.  Each tribe was given a strange language of gestures, a goal, and some pattern blocks which represented different things to each tribe.  Some tribes had goals to make friends.  Some tribes had goals to try to find servants.  I let them loose, no oral language allowed.  There was lots of frustration.  No tribe could understand what the others were saying or why they wanted them to do what they were trying to get them to do.

In the end, the tribes with friendly goals went along much more willingly with other tribes' requests. The tribes with sordid goals, refused to cooperate with any other requests, including the ones from the friendlies. I hoped to give the kids a glimpse into the difficulties of those first meetings and I also wanted to give them a sense of the plethora of false assumptions that were made.  In our case, most behaviors and assumptions were based on a simple goal that I gave each group.  In each case, they made assumptions that all tribes had similar goals.  Ask your child what silly things they were doing in their tribe, but also ask to see what they got out of it.

Book orders go in this Sunday.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

short posts today and tomorrow

Hello,

Homework club just ended and I'm late for a meeting so this will be short.  I have a funeral to go to tomorrow afternoon so that post will be short as well.

Five students from our class will be going to Mrs. Feigner for math.  Ask your child if that involves them.  We added five students from her class to ours.  Mrs. Feigner gets more RTI support in her room, so were moving some of the students who could benefit from that added help.  My math class will go a little deeper into the concepts.

Ms. Hill started her unit on personal narratives.  Ask your child what that is.

We will be reading about Columbus this week, as well as doing a few activities so students will understand the difficulties of two completely different cultures coming together for the first time.

Sorry to have to run.

Good night

Mr. Shea

Islands all over

Hello,

A colorful archipelago sprung up in our class today.  Islands are on every desk.  I was pleased to see some fiords, arches, caves, lagoons, swamps and deltas.  It was a high energy day.  Thanks to everyone who made dough. I left my phone and batches of clay at home. I wasn't a happy camper upon arrival at school. All of you and your extra batches saved me.  Thanks so much.

Students met my mentor teacher from when I student taught back in Portland over ten years ago.  Pat Whitney worked with students on telling time today. I think some students said they needed help so they could get a chance to go out in the hall and be part of a small group. Pat will be joining us for a couple days a week for the whole year, and hopefully next. It is great to have such a knowledgeable and trusted partner.

Students did more map work with real DOT Maine maps with Ms. Hill.  This was a continuation of yesterday's work.  I also introduced another strategy for their writing idea books.  Between Pat, Ms. Hill and I, we had literacy covered.

We estimated volume in math.  Students cut out paper and taped and folded them into rectangular solids.  Then they estimated the number of cubic centimeters that would fill the prisms.  Finally they filled them up with plastic cubic centimeters. They did a nice job of estimating and I felt like it was a good intro to volume as we head into multiplication.

No school tomorrow.  I'll write a blog up on my professional development day if anyone is interested.
That was a joke.

Have a great weekend.

Mr. Shea

Island building tomorrow

Hello,

Sorry about no blog yesterday.  My wife and I are staying down in Georgetown this week and I had to get home to see friends from Maryland. We were also celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday.  I rushed out of here when I realized that it was close to 7:00.

Our island plans are made.  We currently have eleven batches of play dough made.  I'm hoping for at least 23, so any and all is welcome.  Thank you to everyone who has donated thus far or is planning on making a batch or two tonight. The recipes are on Monday night's blog.

Book order notices went home yesterday with a special five dollar book voucher. I bought these last year, but between my lack of organization skills, summer birthdays and overall incompetence on my part, over half of the vouchers expired without being handed out. My solution to that is to not wait around for birthdays and to use them before I lose them. So "Happy Birthday!" to everyone in the class. Don't expect anything later. The voucher is for one book, five dollars or less, and cannot be used as a coupon for a more expensive book. Our next book order will be made next Sunday.

I want to remind you that this is a four day weekend for your child. No school on Friday due to a teacher's workshop.  No school on Monday due to Christopher Columbus.

Idea books were passed out today in literacy. These are blank books that many authors, including past visiting author Jack Gantos, highly recommend for all writers. Ask your child some of the ideas that they wrote in their books today.

We spent a math class estimating area.  Yesterday we spent more time estimating distances. Tomorrow we'll add the third dimension and do some volume estimation.

The homework tonight is a dot to dot. It is a unique one in that it reinforces some of our map skill work. Each dot is a coordinate.

Tomorrow should be a fun day of creation. It is time to show off what they have learned. If all I see are mountains and volcanoes, I won't be impressed.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Two four day weeks in a row

Hello,

I wanted to remind you that Friday is a professional development day for teachers. Students will not have school while teachers are developing. Monday is a holiday, Columbus Day.  No school on Monday either.

We estimated inches and feet in math today.  Students were coming up with strategies that were more accurate than guessing. We made lines of chalk on the playground and then came inside to work on the shorter distances. There is some estimation homework tonight.  Multiplication is on the horizon.

We finished up our geography picture dictionaries.  Island making starts on Thursday.  A note went home that I'll cut and paste below:


Dear Parents,

We will be making islands in class this week to show off our knowledge of landforms.  I am hoping that some of you will be able to donate your time and effort (and some household supplies) to provide our class with the necessary playdough.  I am providing you with two different recipes.  They both have their merits.  Thank you for providing our class with a batch or two.  Don’t worry about adding color.  We will be painting our finished products. 

You may send your dough to school in Ziploc bags starting on Tuesday.  We will begin our island making on Thursday.

Thanks in advance.  I know it is a bit of a pain.  I’ll be making some too. 

Mr. Shea

 

Traditional Play Dough Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups of baking soda
1 and a half cups of water
1 cup of corn starch
Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and boil over medium heat. Once doughy, remove from heat.  Takes about ten minutes.

Cream of Tartar Play Dough Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups of plain flour
2 cups of colored water
1 Tbsp. of cooking oil
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup of salt
Directions:

Place all of the ingredients in a medium size or large pan. Cook slowly on medium-high and stir it until the play dough thickens.  This recipe takes less than 10 minutes.

Mr. Weafer was nice enough to bring in his slide projector.  We looked at many examples of erosion from Death Valley National Park, Arches NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Grand Canyon NP, Yosemite NP, and Antelope Canyon, among others.  I tried to skip many of the stories that the pictures remind me of, but I failed a couple of times.

Book orders came in today.  We'll get another round of flyers out tomorrow. You can always order online at scholastic.com/readingclub using class code J36TM.  I generally order every two weeks. The next order will go out a week from Sunday.  I have received a class listening center with eight headphones that I was able to get using book order points from this year and last. Thanks for supporting your child's reading habit and our class library.

Have a great night.  Homework club tomorrow.

Mr. Shea

Erosion, take two

Hello,

We had some nice erosion experiment proposals which led to some interesting set ups this afternoon. One tray had clay obstacles and random coins placed in the dirt. A big mountain of dirt had a narrow canyon go through it with a quarter jammed in the canyon to dam up the flow of water. The sides of the canyon didn't last long and the quarter went down fast.

The other tray had a giant mound with its sides shaved down, Lego walls and some random Lego men, along with a unique hole in a cup way of dispensing the water onto the tray. While most students predicted the Lego guys to go down, they actually got their legs stuck in more dirt as the river passed. It was like standing on the shore of a sandy beach as waves bring sand in and the water loosens sand beneath your feet causing you to sink deeper in.  Very cool and quite interesting. Thank you to our experiment proposal writers. I was also happy with the class participation. Every new prediction gave us something more to look for and/or think about.

We started estimating addition problems in math.  For example 483 + 1234 is about 500 + 1200, so about 1700. We talked about knowing when our estimate may be high or low. A majority of the class did these exercises with me, while students still working to grasp the rounding concept worked with Ms. Hill on those skills. Our fire alarm/bus evac drill, (They get on the buses and get instructions, but don't actually go anywhere,) cut into our math time significantly. I was disappointed that our class didn't go out our proper exit. Since this is our third drill of the year, I had a talk with them about "just following" and speaking up when you know the people in front of you are going the wrong way. I'm all about speaking up.

Our silent reading time was fantastic today. At one point, I caught the eye of Ms. Hill, our student teacher, and gave her a very satisfying "take a look at this" wave of my arms. Good stuff.

We had a long union meeting tonight. I joined the union last spring. This was my second meeting ever. It was nice to meet with so many colleagues.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Erosion experiments

Hello,

We filled a couple of trays with a few different types of dirt, put them on a slant, and poured water on the high ends. The result was some winding rivers.  Deltas of silt and the smallest dirt particles formed pretty quickly. The grassy patch kept all of its soil, the sandy parts weren't so fortunate. The water carved canyons and ate away at the "mountains." Lots of predictions and questions made it an enjoyable lesson. We were joined by a couple of teachers from the visiting Chinese contingent. The language barrier made it difficult for me to understand whether they were able to take in all the facets of the lesson, but I think they got the main point.

We had a there/their/they're mini lesson today.  If they're there, ask your child if they're able to remember some of what their teacher taught them about their, they're and there. They may ask you if they are your heir.

More rounding was covered in math.  The math sheet that went home was the easy half of the intended two-sided sheet.  I was pleased with the progress today and I'll take a group that is ready to move on tomorrow and do just that.

Reading teams met today. Your child is on a team with the goal of reading a learning about fairy tales, legends, and fables. Coming up with team names was a bit of a chore this afternoon. It made me suspect that some of them might want to take the whole reading period to come up with a name, rather than reading. Hmmm.

We've been doing capitalization sheets and yoga for our morning work. I can say with 100% certainty that the yoga is more popular than the capitalization.

Thanks for reading,

Mr. Shea

A castle is coming?

Hello,

The homework club worked on various projects including K'nex and Lego compositions, but the biggest group worked on a castle for our front entryway. We have two towers, plans for a styrofoam arch, and the makings of a giant drawbridge. This fits in perfectly with our fairy tales, fables, and legends unit.  I look forward to a finished product.  For want of a glue gun, it might be finished already.

Our planned mini unit on erosion and weathering started with a fizzle today. My slide projector blew a bulb, the replacement didn't quite fit, my slide carousel didn't fit the library projector, once I transferred my slides into the library carousel, the mechanism to advance the slides stopped working. It was a debacle. I've been using that word too much lately. Does anyone know where I should go to find a bulb for a 15 year old slide projector? A bit of a dinosaur, they probably stopped making the projectors as soon as I bought this one. I had planned on showing some of my pictures of many of our country's greatest national parks. Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, White Sands, Death Valley etc. are a result of some extraordinary erosion. We'll try again another day.

Our rounding estimation pretests went very well.  Most everyone bombed. "Why am I so happy about that?" I asked the class with a huge grin."

"Because we're all going to learn something," someone answered.

"That's right!" I replied. "Isn't that great?"

They weren't so excited about it.

We'll be getting into when and why we estimate as well as some estimation strategies. Rounding will be one of the strategies.

It was picture day today. Everyone looked nice. No one got too sweaty at lunch recess.  Teachers always hope for morning pictures. No such luck for us this year.

I forgot to write that our school counselors, Mrs. Farrand and Mrs. Rubio joined us last week. They introduced themselves to our new students, explained their jobs and what they will be doing with our classroom this year. We have four planned visits covering a variety of topics.

My eyes are getting heavy.  Homework club days are long day. Fun, but exhausting. I'm going to go eat and sleep.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

School pictures tomorrow

Hello,

It is spirit week at HBS.  Today was hat day. We made hats this morning out of construction paper. Tomorrow is dress up day (due to picture day).  Wednesday is school color day (blue and green). Thursday is stripes and polka dots day. Friday is Black and Orange day to help celebrate BHS Homecoming Weekend.

We had our first school assembly of the year this afternoon. Safety, respect and responsibility were talked about. Bobcat awards were explained and handed out. Students were also reminded of the daily themes of our spirit week.

We made islands of paper and then dripped water on them.  The water was dyed with some blue food coloring so we could see it better. The goal was for us to learn where water runs (downhill), and where streams, rivers and lakes would form. Our droppers were the "rain clouds".  We will be making play dough islands in the near future and inaccurate placement of rivers and lakes is a common mistake.  Water erosion experiments start tomorrow.  These are some of my favorite lessons. Light bulbs will come on tomorrow.

We're going to jump into some fairy tales, legends, myths, fables and tall tales in reading class.  Ask your child what a genre is. I'll be bringing in many of my fifty year old Illustrated Classic Juniors for the unit. I will trust everyone to keep my collection intact. I think the kids are going to be very excited about our reading and science the next few days couple of weeks.  More info to follow.

We took the chap 2 pretest in math.  I'll correct that tonight and see where we need to begin in rounding and estimation. Less fun than the science, but I've got some unique ways to teach it.

Homework club tomorrow.  I wonder if our K'nex machines will grow another foot.  Should be fun.

I've still got a tickle in my throat and some watery eyes.  It is definitely allergy related.  Just in time for school pics. I'll wear my best bags under my eyes tomorrow.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Friday

Hello,

There will be no more Friday blogs.  I'm exhausted.  I can't think straight.  I type poorly.  I go home quickly.  I fall asleep early.

Thank you for understanding.

Mr. Shea

Cornhuskers

Hello,

You never know what you might do at this job. Our class got the opportunity to husk some corn for tomorrow's lunch. Each child husked 2-4 ears. Many first-timers, so thank you to the HBS cafeteria to putting it out there.

We took the first math test of the year.  19 of 21 met the standard, which makes me confident that we can move forward as a math class without grouping. Most mistakes were based on a lack of test-taking skills. We need to learn to check our work, read carefully, answer all questions and make sure our answers make sense.

We made some three dimensional land features using clay this afternoon. This was another step toward our island creations, which we will do next week.

We practiced our spelling words.  Test tomorrow. I noticed how many students wrote words incorrectly to study. Next week, I'll recheck words and sign off on the assignment book.

I developed a sore throat during the day. I'm going home early and sleeping. I need to nip this quickly.

Thanks for reading,

Mr. Shea

Math test tomorrow

Hello,

We had a good day. We ended with a challenge to get my thousands of cuisinaire rods into five bins with equal numbers of each size in each bin. Every student in the class had to participate. After a little debating about strategies, the class started sorting and counting, and occasionally complaining. While not completely finished, I saw a lot of great communication, teamwork, and problem solving. They should finish the challenge tomorrow morning, but I felt like some major lessons were being learned. There were many possible ways to go about solving the problem. Did the loudest get their way? Was there two way communication? Was everyone's input heard? Good stuff.

Our heroine in The City of Ember heard from the mayor about possible "slushuns." It is just like me to pick a book about corrupt leaders. I'm a sucker for the dystopian novels. This one keeps getting better. Ask your child about the box that was found.

We spent some time writing the alphabet four ways this afternoon. You would have thought I was torturing them. I asked for alphabets printed and in cursive, in both lower case and capitals. For the majority, writing cursive was a huge struggle. Well, now we have a starting point.

Math test tomorrow. Ms. Hill put together a Jeopardy! game for us today to review the chapter. It was a spirited contest that came right down to final jeopardy.

The fourth grade team met after school. I decided that our class will not be grouping for math. Tomorrow's test results may make me want to go back on that decision, but I feel like I can challenge everyone who currently stays in our class for math. We have twenty students from our homeroom of twenty-three. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns about that decision.

I just got a text from my wife with a picture of my usually white dog covered in raccoon crap. Wonderful. That's when it becomes my dog.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

First Lego club of the year was a success

Hello,

We had eleven of twenty three stay.  Everyone got their written homework finished.  Many also finished their 20 minutes of reading.  We only spent 30 minutes (of the usual 45) on homework so I could set a few ground rules on how the "fun" part of the club would go. The kids really wanted to do their own thing, so there was very little structure. Four kids worked with Knex, a roller coaster and five foot big ball machine should be finished in a few weeks.  Many kids built with Legos, opting for free building rather than sets. One child worked with the Master Builder Set.

All in all it was successful. It is helping to build our classroom community. The kids are interacting with each other and problem solving at the same time. There was a great vibe in the room, and even the homework time held no tension. I offered pretzels up for an extra snack and eight kids partook. Any parent willing to occasionally donate a bag of pretzels, a jug of fruit juice, or anything along those lines, is welcome to contribute.  Thank you so much.

We had an interesting discussion during school today. What started out as a "Why we pledge allegiance to the flag and what that means talk," turned into much more. HBS no longer announces the pledge over the intercom in the morning. I thought that we should talk about that as a class and discuss whether we should keep the tradition. I personally think we should.  I read a picture book titled I Pledge Allegiance by Bill Martin Jr. It led to a multi-faceted discussion about our freedoms, our military, ISIS, September 11th, veterans, why we go to war, etc. The interest was very high. At one point, half of the class had their hands up for comments or questions. Your child may ask you some questions tonight and it would be nice for you to give them your perspective. Heavy topics, but ones they are highly interested in, and I handled as straight forward, but as delicately as I could. Feel free to ask me about it as well.

I'll be instituting a current events reporter job soon, which goes to a different child every night. They will get a bonus on their next paycheck for bringing in a news item that can be local, national, global, or special interest.  I can see that this class will be highly interested in this.

Tuesday was already my favorite day of the school week, because we get a full two hours of instruction in the morning. Homework club makes it even better. I need to build up strong relationships to get them to buy into the hard work that is coming down the pike. I enjoy that process immensely. (It's easier than getting them to do the hard work.)

Math jeopardy tomorrow, with the Chapter 1 test on Thursday.

Spelling test on Friday.  Your child should have eight words in their assignment book that will be on their individualized test. The words came from words that they have missed earlier this year, or words from our geography unit.

I got a huge box at the very end of the day that was getting recycled. Now I just need to figure out how to incorporate that into a lesson tomorrow.  It is refrigerator sized if anyone has any ideas.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

First bonuses paid

Hello,

Students meeting the reading log required minimums of five days, twenty minutes a day, with parent signature, got their bonus pay today.  When the banks open later in the week, they only need to deposit their reading log like a check.  Hard work pays, just like in the real world.

We are reviewing the first chapter of the math book in preparation for the test later this week. Review days tend to be boring so we kept switching off between 10-15 minutes of review and two minutes of dance music.  Most kids didn't dance, but enjoyed the mind breaks and stretch out times.

We took the NWEA Map test for reading this afternoon. It once again seemed very heavy on the poetry questions. Most students finished in an hour, but five went back at the end of the day to finish.

We are working hard on our geography picture dictionaries. Ask your child what an archipelago, atoll or butte is. They should know, but if not, it will be a good thing for them to check back up on tomorrow.

Information slips for the homework club went home today.  It starts tomorrow, Tuesday the 23rd. I need a note if you would like your child to stay. Here is the note that went home:

Hello Parents,

            Our Homework/Lego/Building Club begins tomorrow!  Every Tuesday, from now until the end of the school year, we will be staying after school and doing our homework.  Homework time will be from 3:30 to 4:15.  From 4:15 until 5:00 we will be building, creating and having fun.  While I appreciate 5:00 pick-ups, I realize that not all parent schedules allow for that.  I will be at school at least until 6:00, so as long as you are here by then, I’m good with that.

The purpose of this is for your child to get their homework done in a timely manner, for me to get some more one on one time with students, and for us to have some fun as a reward for getting our jobs done.  I think you would be surprised to know how little instructional time that there is in an average day.  The homework club gives me a little more time with your kids to make sure they get everything that they need. 

This club is completely optional.  If your child doesn’t want to attend, that is his/her right.  They are welcome to come some Tuesdays and skip others.  I had as little as six last year and as many as eighteen.  While past homework club themes have varied, I’ve decided on a Lego Club this year due to the overwhelming response from the class. 

Interactive play helps kids with their social skills, sportsmanship, rule following, and logical thinking.  We will be building using a variety of materials including Legos, K’nex, Erector sets, Tinker Toys, blocks, straws etc.    

            Any Tuesday that your child has permission to stay after school, please jot it down on a note for them to bring in.  You can give a blanket permission slip if you think your child might want to come every Tuesday.  Again, this starts tomorrow, Sept. 23, and will continue on the 30^th, Oct 7^th, 14^th, etc.  Any questions, just let me know.

            I almost forgot, but you may want to send in an extra snack.  (For them, not me.) 

            Thanks,

            Mr. Shea

I hope a lot of kids can make it. I have found that it helps build our classroom community better than anything else that I have done.

Thanks for reading,

Mr. Shea

Have a good weekend

Hello,

Four digit playing card war was the highlight of math. Lina is lost in the dark in The City of Ember. We did our usual writing and sharing in literacy. First paychecks were handed out in our classroom economy. Bankers finally had something to do. Our geography picture dictionaries were begun. Have a great weekend. Thank you so much to all of you attending open house. Showing our kids that their educational lives are important to us is essential for them to see.

Friday blogs are brief. My Friday afternoon mind is mush.

Mr. Shea

No blog tonight due to open house.

Hello,

If you needed to know about the day, you needed to come to open house.

Sorry,

Mr. Shea

Open House tomorrow night

Hello,

We played a game called "200" in math class today. It involved dice and adding. The kids liked it and it gave me a chance to peruse their addition skills in a non-testing way.  Some will need to stay with some manipulatives to fully understand regrouping. Most are ready to roll on.

The homework tonight is a little more number identification, but we should be moving out of chapter one by next week.

I think a few students were motivated to get more of their Little Miss or Mr. stories completed when faced with the question of, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a finished writing piece on your desk for open house tomorrow night?" I now have some story covers to laminate. We haven't done any big projects with big trophy pieces to show for it, so you may be disappointed in that regard. Our class will look like it usually does. Your child should be able to show you around and talk about what we do.  I'm looking forward to meeting all of you, so I hope you can find the time.

Our class had our second library class of the year today. We are lucky to have library mid-week. With our every other week schedule for library, the Monday and Friday library goers tend to lose many more opportunities than us midweekers.

I read Me On the Map by Joan Sweeney this afternoon. It is an easy picture book about a girl in her room drawing a map of her room, then a map of her house, then of her street, her town, her state, her country, and finally, her world. We'll do a little activity tomorrow where everyone will place themselves in a series of concentric circles representing many of the geographical areas they live in.

Our crystals are growing nicely. Not as much excitement about them today, but I'm sure that will change when it is time to give them away.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Bit late again

Hello,

I'm noticing a pattern. Despite my best efforts to get this out by 6pm, I seem to be starting it after that time.  Part of the problem is that I feel completely brain dead at the end of the school day, so I put off a bunch of tasks. I will try to do better. The single space after punctuation attempt is more difficult than I imagined as well. I'll keep trying.

I've decided that our first homework club will be a Lego club, based on overwhelming support. We will start next Tuesday.  It will run every Tuesday after school, unless I have an IEP or some other immovable meeting.  I will send an information and permission slip home. The regular Tuesday dismissal is at 3:20. Lego club members will get free time to chill out or play until 3:30.  Then we will get our homework done, including our twenty minutes of reading.  The plan is to start our Lego activities no later than 4:15. We'll go until 5:00. This schedule has been successful in the past. If your child can only stay for part of it, that is fine. It is a completely optional club, on a week to week basis. They can choose to stay any Tuesday they wish. For anyone with 5:00 ride trouble, I stay at the school until at least 6:00, and as long as you can get there by then, I have no problem with it. I will start my own work at 5:00, but I have no issue with continued work or play in the classroom for those waiting for rides. As I said, a note will go home soon. You may also ask questions at open house on Thursday at 6:00.

We grouped up for our Math pre-test review this morning. Anyone scoring between 20 and 25 was in one group, 11-19 in another, and ten or less in a third.  The idea is always to meet them where they are at. The groups were solely for the review and next activity. I'll be doing more and more of this in the class to keep everyone challenged. There is quite an array of skill levels, and it doesn't make much sense for much whole class instruction with such a disparity. Feel free to question your child and myself on how things are going.

We enjoyed School House Rock during our in class lunch. I'll be offering those up a minimum of once a week. It is a break from the lunch room and a good way to learn some grammar (among other things).

We played our first rounds of showdown this afternoon. It is one of my favorite off their feet activities. I've got a few others we'll be introducing soon. It's all about getting them out of their chairs and thinking on their feet.

I need to run.  Thanks for reading. Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Half way through Sept already?

Hello,

Week three has started.  The first book orders are coming home.  The easiest way to order is by going to scholastic.com/readingclub and entering our class activation code: J36TM.  The code is on one of the book orders and I gave all students a sticker of the code to put in their assignment notebooks for future reference.  You can also order the old fashion way with a check or cash in an envelope with the order form.  Any orders help the class earn free books.  Thank you for supporting your child's reading interests and our class library.  Students wrote down their top choices for me so I could get a sense of what they would like to see more of in the classroom.

We drew number lines outside on the sidewalk in math today.  I had them draw line segments with definite endings, then announced what numbers were on those endings.  For example, I would yell out, "Start with a ten and end with a fifteen."  Then they would have to place the other numbers in their proper place.  Keeping the numbers equidistant apart was the hardest part.  We talked about midpoints and differences.  I was most impressed with how many of them would mess up, but immediately try something new.  We are trying hard to instill perseverance in our learners.  It is essential to learn from our mistakes to be successful, and that is easy for them to see in many areas of math.

In physical education class they got to run around a bit more, but also found time to review proper use of playground equipment.

We once again worked on short and long vowel sounds.  Still more difficult than I would have anticipated, but much better than earlier.  It's coming back.

I started the process of growing crystals in science.  We discussed solids dissolving in liquids, what happens when water boils, and how and why our sugar powder should grow back into larger crystals. It will be much neater if they work.  Some years, these kits don't do as they're told.

I put up the Harry Potter Club sign up sheet.  Only five names thus far.  Oh, if they only knew the clamoring to get in that usually happens after our first couple of sessions!  And all males so far. Usually the numbers sway the other way.  Well, if we have low numbers, I'll be able to take more from other classes.  Not my first choice, but... oh well. I'll sell it a bit in the morning, but I really hope we can get more from our class.  

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Have a great weekend

Hello,

Our first full week is behind us. We need work on our full day stamina, but I'm not seeing a huge dip just because it is Friday.

We worked on human number lines in math.  I gave them a pre-test afterwards.  It covers most of the place value stuff that we have reviewed over the past few days.

While the class was in music, I met with Ms. Hill's professor about Stephanie's student teaching.  She is going to be lead teaching for five consecutive days in about a month.  We will have to work her up to that quickly.  Four weeks will go fast.

Lina, the main character in The City of Ember, worked her first day as a messenger.  We will read about Doon's first day of work on Monday.  

Friday is sharing day for writing.  Six students took advantage and shared something that they have been working on with the class.  I hope to see that number grow in the coming weeks.

We started our study of crystals.  I hope to start growing some on Monday.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Left early

Hello,

I left shortly after lunch today for a funeral of a family friend.  The class was in the capable hands of our substitute, Mrs. Doring, and our student teacher, Miss Hill.  I'll find out all the details of how that went tomorrow.

During our morning we continued with place value work.  We have quite a range of student skill levels in the class.  We are still trying to iron out the levels of support needed.  The fourth grade team also voted to put off any grouping until we can get a handle on what our new inclusion model will look like. Let me know if you have any concerns.

We are almost ready to start our classroom economy.  Jobs placements were announced today.  Our job training has begun, and as soon as everyone is up to speed, work will commence.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Staff meeting

Hello,

We had our first after school staff meeting of the year.  It sure leads to lots of discussions afterwards. Once again, I apologize for getting this out late.

Our class had a pretty good day. We used place value chips in math.  I asked questions like, "What does 23 tens equal?"  We have quite a span of skills in the class, but I'm confident that we'll all be improving.

It was our off library day, so we only had a quick book exchange.

In our read aloud, The City of Ember, (extra copies available if parents want to read along) we met Lina's grandmother and sister.  This book gets good fast.

We read an article on volcanoes in our National Geographic Explorers.  The Explorers come in different reading levels, so students could choose where they felt comfortable.  We wrote a few vocabulary words in our notebooks, including geology.  Does your child know what that means?

We have a class continent song champion.  I'll play it as we arrive in class every day for a couple of weeks and that will be all it takes.  Continents taught. Thank you to all contenders.

I told a little story about chucking food behind the refrigerator when I was a kid. I don't remember how it came up, but I thought I should give you a heads up in case your child finishes dinner quicker than usual.

I'm going to be out tomorrow afternoon. I will be going to a funeral, but won't be leaving until 1:00. It will give our class an opportunity to be responsible for a substitute.  I hope they rise to the challenge.  I worked on the lesson plans with Ms. Hill, our student teacher.  Ms. Hill will be here to assist during the afternoon as well.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Sorry for the late post

Hello,

The day went pretty well.  Lots of volcano talk. Classroom job talk.

You'll see the math workbook come home for the first time tonight.  The assignment is to do problems 1 - 10 starting on page 3.  I couldn't get that on the homework calendar without google rewriting it as taking place between one and ten pm.

A little job application went home as well. This is more informal than I have done in past years, but hopefully easier for them to do. You may give some suggestions for references.

We had our first official Rocket Math tests.  Good to get them going.  Everyone is starting with addition.  The idea is to get our addition facts down cold. The tests go from A to Z.  Everyone started between A and J, depending on their pretests.

Art class seemed to go well again.  I don't know Mrs. Crosby very well, but I have been nothing but impressed with our music and art programs here at HBS.  I'm sure that she is continuing the excellent instruction that seems to be the norm in their departments.

I am running late and when I start dishing out compliments, I figure I'm getting light-headed.

Thanks for reading this brief blog. I figure with the fifty four pounds of student mail, you've read enough tonight. (That sounds more like me.)

Mr. Shea