November Newsletter

Here are our articles from our November newsletter. Enjoy!

Minute To Win It

                 

                On October 16, 2013 the GATE students got to do Minute to Win It. This took place in Mrs. Trevino’s room. It was so fun. We did lots of the games from the show. When we got inside, we sat down at a table. Then Mrs. Trevino numbered us off. Next she showed us which table to go to. I went to table 4 and Jaiden went to table 5. She did Ka-Broom and I did Back Flip. When you play Ka-Broom you have a plate that you place at the edge of a table. You drop a broom on the plate that holds a marshmallow and try to catch it in a cup. When you play Back Flip you have 12 pencils and you only put two at a time on the back of your hand. Then try to toss them up and catch them. When we all got a chance to try our activity once.  We went back to our original table and waited for Mrs. Trevino to give us directions. Finally, she told us to go to every other activity and try them. Then we ran out of time and had to go back to our table to clean up. Then, Ms. Feyk called up quiet, clean tables to grab a chocolate chip cookie, bunny grams, and a cup of orange juice. After our snack we were dismissed to go home.

By: Maddy and Jaiden

Gold Star

Gold Star is fun activity for people who work hard. This month’s reward was for math. From our class, Aaron and Ryder earned gold star for October. You are allowed to have up to two pieces of pizza and you get to pick your own drink. When you are done with your food and drink, you get to make a craft. October’s craft was a witch hat made out of chocolate. Aaron had two pieces of pizzas and root beer as a drink. Ryder said that he had two pieces of pizza as well, and had Sprite to drink. Now for the dessert, he had a cookie with chocolate strips, a Hershey kiss, and little bead candies. Aaron and I think that Gold Star is a fun activity for kids to work hard and get rewarded. 

By Aaron and Evan   

Read Aloud

                So you know how we always read My Weird School books? Well, now we’re going to change it up a bit. First, we had a debate to see which book we would read next. After that, we had to put our heads down and raised our hands for the ones we wanted to read for read aloud. Then we voted again and some of the books that won were Big Nate, Ramona and Beezus, Ramona Forever, Ramona the Brave, and 39 Clues. At the end, our teacher gave us post it notes and we all wrote down our books that we wanted. Finally, the teacher took our notes and tallied them up. Then she announced the books that won. The two that won were Big Nate and Ramona the Brave.

                Right now we are reading Big Nate Flips Out and then we might read Ramona the Brave. We are only reading My Weird School on holidays because they are related to the holiday. Then we are going to read the books that won. When we are done with those books we might do another vote.

We think that Big Nate is funny and cool because the book has a lot of comics that are related to the paragraph next to it.

By Kahleis and Izzy

Fundraiser

 Fundraisers are a way for our school to raise money for activities. Sometimes if you get a certain amount of money or items, you might get cool prizes.

            The last fundraiser we had was awesome!!! If you sell 4 items you get a small little monster that will go wherever you go. If you sell 8 items you get a secret can. (If you open the secret can/or teeny tiny toilet, it spray water in your face!!! If you want to get back at a family or friend, use the secret can! )

            12 items is a DJ PARTY. It’s awesome! 20 is a limousine lunch. You go to Shakeys. 35 items is a chitter chatter monkey. It copies what you say, but two times faster. And finally, if you sell 125 items you get (2) free tickets to Disneyland!!!

            These are all the items you could get. How many items do you think you can sell?        

By Ronald and Alex

Lunchtime with Friends... Yes or No??

You should be allowed to sit by your friends

       We should be allowed to sit with our friends at lunch. I think you should be able to sit by your friends because you have a better lunch and you get to chit- chat with your friends. They might want to sit with their friends so they can enjoy their kid life and have fun with their friends. They sit at the lunch tables outside. I think children should be able to move around to go sit with their friends. I think children will not mess around because when they are doing something wrong they get told and they won’t do it again.

by Nicole

J SHOULD NOT SIT WITH FRIENDS AT LUNCH J

            I think that people should not be able to sit next to friends at lunch. I think it’s okay to sit next to friends in your class. I think it’s a bad idea because people will goof off, play tag, or other stuff like that. They will also mix things together like green beans and yogurt and pour it all over the table and won’t pick it up.  They do these things because they think it’s funny, but it’s not. The proctors will have to keep making them stay a few minutes after but a lot of kids would still do it. All of the kids will talk nonstop and will not listen to the proctors when they say to stop talking. Kids can do this at the playground but not at the lunch tables where other people have to eat. I think people shouldn't sit next to their friends at lunch.

by Brielle 

Flag Assembly

For several weeks in October, the whole 5^th graders practiced a song called Wakko’s America in Mrs. Evans’s room. Wakko’s America is a song about states and capitals. Then Mrs. Evans asked the 5^th graders if they wanted to say a state and capital in front of the whole school. 50 students agreed to say one. So two days before the performance, we practiced the song and the kids saying a state and capital. Mrs. Evans wanted it quick so there was a long line and we took turns saying a state and capital into the microphone. When all the 50 students were done, we went on the risers and sang Wakko’s America. It was a long song. Everyone liked it. Finally, we came off the risers and sat in our chairs to watch the rest of the assembly.

by Bryanna and Sofie 

Halloween

On Halloween the students in our school paraded around the blacktop in their costumes. We walked from 8:15 to 8:30. We did this to celebrate Halloween and to show our costumes. We were dismissed by grade level, starting with TK and ending with 6th.

After the parade, the 5th graders rehearsed Wakko's America - In our costumes! The 4th graders had to change into school clothes and did a worksheet. Then we went inside and watched a video and did a word search.

After recess and lunch, we had a party. We painted rocks, played bowling, and colored sheets. We also had candy and cookies. We had Blow Pops at the very end of the day, and then we went home to Trick-or-Treat.

by Finbar and Damien

Our Class’s Costumes

                 We interviewed 4^th grade then 5^th grade. We are going to tell you what 4^th grade dressed up as for Halloween.

·         Brielle : football player

·         Maddy : disco dancer

·         Damien : dead man

·         Aaron : ninja

·          Even : football

·         Kahaleis : super women

·         Ronald : ninja

·         Jaiden : pirate

·         Izzy : goddess  women

·         Nicole : kitty cat

·         Katie : witch

·         Kayla : Minnie Mouse

After, we interviewed the 5^th grade we are going to tell you what they were for Halloween.

·         Louie : Sie

·         Amber : Zombie Alice

·         Mikayla : Pink lady

·         Sofie : Ghostbuster

·         Taylor : dream catcher cutie

·         Dean  : can of beans

·         Mason : nerd

·         Ryder : football player

·         Alex : Samsun

·         Kaitlyn : mad hatter

·         Bryanna : Alice

·         Emily : nerd

Happy Halloween!!!!

by Kayla and Taylor

A New Beginning

                The whole school has started a New Trimester!!! This new beginning has new goals: AR points are now boosted up to 35 points, a new patrol group called Watch D.O.G.S ( Dads of great Students), and Book Club (individual reading groups each with the same book) . This is the second trimester. This is when Parent- Teacher conferences are held; report cards come in, the Chorus Concert that’s on December 9^th  for the 4^th grade with December 10^th for the 5^th grade,  the Meet the Masters assemblies and art lessons, and the AR field trip. The 3^rd trimester starts in late February.

By: Katie

P.E

Every Thursday we play at P.E. Since I am in the 4/5 combo I go to P.E with 4^th grade. First we do our morning stretches and two laps. Then we play one sport for three weeks and then we rotate. The sports we play are: Frisbee golf, kickball baseball, and kickball basketball.

          The first sport is Frisbee golf. You have 3 or 4 people on your team and you try to hit the bucket in the least amount of times. At the end of the round if your team has the least amount of throws you get a lap off. Last week Ryder, Mason, Alex, and Miles tied with Alyssa, Madison, Kaitlyn B, and Collin. Frisbee golf is awesome.

          The next sport is kickball basketball. If you kick the ball and the other team catch it or make the basket before you get home, you’re out. But for every base you touch you get a point. If you make it all the way home you get five points. Kickball basketball requires a lot of skills.

          The last sport is kickball baseball. It’s just like baseball except you kick the ball and run. If the team gets three outs, the outfielders get to kick. You can get out by getting the ball thrown at you or tagging the base before the person gets there then you’re out. Kickball baseball is very fun.

          P.E is good for you because you get a lot of exercise. Just play every day and you’ll get in shape.

By Ryder Mitchell

TK Buddies

Our class has a little thing called TK buddies. We go to Mrs. Cook’s class every Wednesday to do an activity. One week we went outside and played with fox tails. It’s a long rainbow string, and there is a spongy ball at the end and you hold it by the string and swing it around and let it go, and it flies forward and then falls, and you have to try and catch it. One week they were learning how to cut with scissors, so we cut orange paper lanterns.

Here is a list of everyone’s TK buddies:

Taylor: Joseph, Giana

Ryder: James

Dean: Chloe

Amber: Kylee

Finbar: Dylan, Jackson

Kaitlyn: Haley

Mason: Hunter

Izzy: Mia

Evan: Andrew

Damien: Nathan

Sofia: Isabella

Briana: Helena

Aaron: Bryan

Kayla: Faye

Brielle: Brook

Nicole: Katy

Alex: Jack

Katy: Stifonia

Ronald: Colon

Kaleis: Alyssa

Jaiden: Marley

Maddy: Isabel

Louie: Emery, Gabriel

Mikayla: Hannah

       By: Louie & Mikayla

Trimester Awards

         Ms. Sanders hands out the trimester awards on November 18, 2013 in the cafeteria for our first trimester. The reasons we get the awards are for our grades and our excellent behavior.

          Principals Honor Roll, Honor Roll, Rising Star, Citizenship are the categories. If you what to hear about who we get these awards, read this paragraph! We can get Principal Honor Roll if we get straight A’s with no N’s or U’s!  For Honor Roll we have to have all A’s and B’s with no N’s or U’s. The Rising Star award is for kids who are struggling on class work in the trimester but are trying their best. If you have all Os outside on the playground and in class you can get the citizenship award! So have fun and…

Good luck

by Dean and Amber

Fish

The reason we got this tank is because we got the class to have all their parents join the P.T.A. We were given a $100 gift card to Pet Smart. The first 4 fish we got were named Oreo, Lightning, Zee Blue Bro, and Justice. After two of them died, Mikayla and her dad bought us 6 new fish named Sunset, Uncle Si, Bob, Oreo Jr., Pop Eye and Hiccup. Hiccup, Pop Eye, Bob, Zee Blue Bro and Justice are all neon tetras. Oreo, Lightning, Uncle Si and Oreo Jr. were all mollies. Then the last fish was Sunset, which was a guppy.

by Mason and Kaitlyn

Small things

So, of course, summer did not really go as planned. I spent a LOT of time arranging for all the work that needs to be done on our house, and now summer is almost over and I have little to show for it. However, in the little time I DID spend on my classroom, here are some pictures

Ice cream multiplication and division board... They get a scoop with each specified fact test passed. When they get all their scoops-- ice cream party! Yum :-)

Birthday board... I'm laminating these, and then I will be sticking Velcro on it so I can reuse it in the future. Pinterest idea. - take pictures of the kids holding signs with the number of their birthday sorted by month. And then posted on a bulletin board that's a pain to get to so I don't have to change it throughout the year. 

Decided to make my drawers a little prettier this year... I attached the paper with mod podge, but used my labelmaker for the outside labels so they are more easily changed.

Google Drive Portfolios

My 'genius' moment this summer was when I realized that I could easily save copies of everything online, yet still send them home. Duh. Now that we have iPads (at least temporarily) and I have an iPhone, I can take pictures of work and the put it in folders to be sent home. So to set this up, as far as I could because it is summer and I don't know who will actually be in my class, I created number folders in a 'Student Portfolios' section of my already established Google Drive. SO SIMPLE. If anyone needs a step-by-step on how to do this, please let me know and I'd be happy to share.

I also realized, after establishing the folders, I can make files available to parents! Another aha moment. And you pick and choose, so it's not like they have to see everything. Could be very useful! We'll see...

Welcome!

I have decided to jump on to what so many are already doing and start keeping track of what is happening in my classroom. I figure it's a great way to share ideas and to keep track of what I like and what I don't like. Now it's summer, so probably not the BEST time to start doing this, but whatever, the kids are napping and I had a few minutes to spare.

So this year my big goal is to reorganize my... Well, life, but let's say 'self' to keep it, uh, easier... So in the past three years, I've gotten married, had two (beautiful) children, switched grade levels, and changed classrooms.

My angel,Sophie, is 6 months old.

My baby boy, Daniel, is 2.

And my husband, well, he would kill me if I posted his picture right now, so I think I'll skip photos of us. :-) pics of my classroom to appear later....