You Are Invited to Room 18’s Recycling Night!

When: Thursday, May 13, 2010

Where: Pioneer Cafeteria

Time: 5:45 – 7:30

What to Bring?: We are having a Potluck (like at Back-to-School Night), please bring some food and/drinks to share with others!

Who Can Come?: Everyone in your family

Why: Students in Room 18 have been learning about recycling, composting, and the 4 R’s this year. For the past two weeks, students have been working hard making presentations, websites, songs, books and more. Student’s will unveil their projects to the world this Thursday, May 13th!

Dear Parents and Students,

Please enjoy your time off with friends, family, and fun! After we get back we have a couple of very busy weeks getting reading for the STAR test and our trip to Sacramento.

I have received money from all but 12 of you. If you can bring your money and permission slips back on Monday after vacation that would be very helpful!

Don’t forget to read a little each day on your vacation. Also, think about turning off your television, iPod, laptop, and DS and go outside, ride your bike, make and fly a kite, play soccer or basketball. Enjoy the sunshine and fresh air.

See you in one week!

Dear Parents,

Due to the short notice, Amtrak must have a complete passenger list by Friday afternoon at 3:00 pm. Therefore, if you are interested in being a chaperone for our Sacramento field trip, you MUST inform me by tomorrow, Friday, April 2. You can call, email, or send a note with your child. If I do not hear from you tomorrow I will be unable to purchase a discounted ticket for you (regular tickets cost about $50).

I apologize for giving such short notice, but Amtrak needs our final list for security purposes.

Thank you for understanding.

Mr. Callison

P.S. If you are going to chaperone, please let me know your T-shirt size too!

Here are a few quick updates for our classroom:

1. We had a great field trip to Coyote Hills today thanks to all the parent volunteers!
2. The upcoming field trip to Sacramento is on Tuesday, April 20th. I will accept payment starting today. If you are paying by check please make your check out to Pioneer Elementary School. If possible, it would be really, really helpful to have all the money collected by the end of this week. I need to put together a list of passengers and buy the tickets very soon.
3. We welcomed our 33rd student this morning in class! With such large classes I cannot over state the need for all our students to be responsible, independent workers at this point in the year.

Our class will be taking the train to Sacramento for our 4th Grade Field Trip on Tuesday, April 20th. Here are the field trip basics:

Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Time: 6:45 AM – 6:15 PM

Donation: $25, which includes round-trip train fare to Sacramento, T-shirt and a day of engaging activities. Every child will go regardless of how much they pay.

Train Station Location: Fremont Amtrak Station, 37260 Fremont Boulevard, Fremont, CA 94536

Volunteers: Each class needs a minimum of 7 parent volunteers. The suggested donation for parents is also $25 (includes T-shirt)

Meals: You need to eat breakfast before you come and bring a morning snack.  You also need to bring a sack lunch and an afternoon snack. There are snacks on the train and in Sacramento, bring $$ if you would like to buy something.

Download this flyer and this permission slip for more information. Also, stay tuned for more information about the field trip.

Quoting from a news article from NYDailyNews.com:

Researchers at the University of East London examined what effect drinking water had on the performance of five dozen girls and boys between the ages of seven and nine.

The research journal Appetite reported that half the kids drank a 250 ml glass of water (approximately 1 cup) and the other half didn’t. When the two groups took a test on visual attention and memory 20 minutes later, the drinkers scored 34 percent higher than the abstainers. The drinkers also did 23 percent better on a harder version of the memory test and 11 percent better on another test that called for them to delete certain letters from a sequence.

Just why water may benefit test performance isn’t clear.

The article goes on to say:

Of course all the water in the world isn’t a substitute for hitting the books to prep for a test. For young kids who find studying for long periods nearly impossible, Marotta has a suggestion.

“Study for shorter periods of time but over a greater duration,” he says. “Instead of an hour the night before, study for 10 minutes a night beginning on Monday night for a test that will be given on Friday. That way you’re not overloading the brain in one session.”

Read the entire (short) article here:

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/03/12/2009-03-12_drinking_water_linked_to_higher_test_sco.html#ixzz0iI8KcNsZ

Thanks for Snapr from Flickr.com for the photo in this post.

Dear Parents,

Starting Thursday, February 17th I will be holding a Homework Club every Thursday from 2:15 – 3:00.  Homework Club is a place for some (1) students to have a quiet place to work on homework and other classroom projects and (2) for selected students to receive additional help with the intense academic content of 4th grade.

If you are interested in having your child attend Homework Club, please download, print, and sign the form below.

Thanks,

Matthew Callison

Download the Homework Club Permission Form here.

At the top of the website there is a new link to our new Student Work Gallery. This page will offer examples and samples of student work.

These samples can help students improve their work and take it to the next level. Let these examples be your guide.

Here is an example of a well-written RRL. As I find other excellent examples, I will post them to our new Student Work Gallery. This new page on our website will highlight some of the best student work coming out of Room 18.

These examples can be used to guide everyone in their pursuit of excellence.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Dear Mr. C.,

Today I read the book The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket. I liked this book because the main characters, Sunny, Klaus, and Violet Baudelaire are so clever. In this book, the antegonist, Count Olaf is after the Baudelaire fortune! Throughout the story, the Baudelaire’s moved to Paltryville to live with a family member. First, Sunny kept on looking at the mold on the floor. When they arrived at Paltryville’s mill, they noticed all the workers there were frowning (That’s all I read because I just started this book).

While reading this book, I used the strategy “Tune into Interesting Words”. This strategy helped me collect interesting words. For example, when I was reading on one of the pages, I read across the word “mold”. However, after I used “ Tune into Interesting Words,” I put the word “mold” on a page, and next to it, the definition. The definition for “ mold” is: “ a hollow container used to give shape to molten or hot liquid material ( such as wax or metal) when it cools and hardens. This strategy made me a better reader because interesting words, I just want to write them down.

My reading goal last week was to read more slower, and I reached my goal! I met my goal because when we were reading yesturday, I was reading with a partner and read slow. So my steps this week are the same as last time.

Sincerely,
Nikki

Download this example with notes from Mr. C. Download this example with no notes.

There’s no getting around it, the learning expectations for students are higher than ever. I list below a free virtual tutor and some additional websites that offer support in math and reading. Click on the images to visit each site.

LearntoBe.com – free virtual tutoring

NeoK12.com – math video tutorials

IXL.com – Math practice

TicketToRead.com – Reading

Raz-Kids.com – Reading

LetsGoLearn.com – Reading and Math