Fantastic Friday

Dancing and teamwork are two ways we started this Friday!  We had our first school-wide assembly this morning to celebrate our first full week of school!  Everyone's spirits were up as we all headed up to the field.  Music was playing over the loudspeakers and classes began chanting "FAVE ROCKS!" as all the classes arrived on the field.  Once settled (and the 'wave' stopped) :) Mr. Roaden welcomed us to the field and we talked about how great it was to be a FAVE Falcon.  Next Ms. Newton told us what 2 things we needed to do to be Fave Falcons- 1. Learn and follow the IB learner traits and 2. Listen and follow directions.  She then introduced a fun activity incorporating our 10 IB Learner Traits.  We were so glad we have been learning about them because the activity was to identify the traits from large posters.  Nathan and Jukanie were our runners and they did a great job running from each poster back to the group to tell us about the images so we could decide the trait.  Nina did a great job as our recorder keeping up with all of the words being thrown around.  In the end... we WON!  We jumped around in excitement (and enjoyed fruit popsicles at lunch as a celebratory treat!).  After the game lots of teachers went up front to demonstrate 'listening and following directions'.  The teachers had to dance!!!  After the crowd settled all the classes spread out for the finale: a school dance party!  SO FUN!

Once inside, and cooled off, we got right to work on our Reading Workshop lesson today; the SLANT strategy. We practiced using the slant strategy as part of working with partners.  (Sit up, Listen, Ask and Answer Questions, Nod, Track the speaker).  We also read "Thank You Mr. Falker" by Patricia Pollaco.  We stopped throughout the story to practice our new strategy and ended the story discussing the IB traits we noticed throughout.  Some of us (Mrs. Porter included) were brought to tears by the sweet story.

Next we were off to the library for our orientation.  Armed with our iPads and reading levels we headed downstairs eager to check out our first books as 4th graders.  We signed up for Edmodo (more info to come) and checked out books.  On Monday we will begin setting goals for our reading as well as starting our daily reading logs.

Back in our room we took our spelling inventory pre-assessment then headed to lunch.  After lunch the day went quick.  Recess up on the field followed by the last 'Me Bag' presentations, a short math lesson/review, and the first drawing of CHANCE tickets.  Whew!  What a busy day!!!

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!


PS.  We are in need of a few more supplies:  Each child will need 2 more composition notebooks and 2 portfolio notebooks (the paper kind with 2 pockets and brads in the middle for inserting paper).  Thank you so much!

Also, we have snack time in our class around 9:30.  Please send a snack with your child if you intend for him/her to eat.  We eat lunch at 12:30.  Thanks!