Time to Type!

One of the Utah state goals for fourth graders is to type 20 words a minute. This is the technology grade on their report cards. Our fourth grade team really pushes this because it will be so important for the kids to be able to type quickly and accurately as they go through school. As with most things, practice makes perfect. 

It is very important for the kids to be using all their fingers and to avoid looking at their hands. Fingers on the home row!

The following is a list of practice programs and games you can access on the internet.

Cup Stack by Typing!

Dance Mat Typing

Typer Shark - One of the favorites from the computer lab

More Games - Tons of different games we use at school

Christmas Websites

Merry Christmas everyone! I arrived safely in Washington and will spend the break with my parents and sister. I hope you all have a wonderful vacation. Thank you for all your generous gifts. Merry Christmas! Don't forget to read!

Track Santa! He'll be at your house soon! NORAD Santa Tracker

Here's the website we looked at in class. Northpole.org

And the Chanukkah website. 

Winter Break!

Tuesday is the last day of school before our break. The kids will be excused at 1:25. School starts up again on Monday, January 5. 

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Christmas break. While I'm not sending homework home, I do want the kids to continue reading. This can include family reading of Christmas stories! 

Please, please, please help your child review multiplication facts. I'm finding a lot of the kids do not know their facts. We will be doing longer multiplication and long division when we come back and if the kids don't know their facts, it will be very difficult for them to do well.  There are some worksheets here and there are games here.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Christmas break. While I'm not sending homework home, I want the kids to continue reading. This can include family reading of Christmas stories. Reading calendars are due when we get back. 

Halloween Pictures

Playing Halloween Bingo

Chyentel and Keeley make a mummy!

Hailey and Mina have a turn

Taryn and Mia (aka Cruella De Vil)

Girls playing Bingo

Jaydan and McKay

Kaitlyn and Sam

Daniel and Matthew

Outside before school

Our whole wonderful class!

Winter is here!

Welcome back! It has been a great week.

Looks like we have a big storm coming through this weekend. Please make sure your child wears warm clothes and proper shoes next week. We will be outside in the mornings and at recess unless it is snowing heavily. 

We will be doing some projects in class next week. If you have any small decorations to donate to the class, we'd be happy to have them. I'm looking for craft type things like beads, buttons, puffy paint, lace, ribbon, yarn, etc. Please send them to school Monday or Tuesday. Thank you!

Symphony Dress-up

Each year the fourth graders get to attend a performance of the symphony. We always ask the kids to dress nicely and so I try to get pictures of the handsome and beautiful results.

Our Handsome Boys and Two Beautiful Girls

The Beautiful Ladies

The Beautiful and Silly Ladies

The Handsome and Silly Kids

Elephant Toothpaste

Mia's parents came to Discovery Day to present some neat science experiments.

Elephant Toothpaste!
Always wear safety equipment when doing experiments!

Adding the safe ingredients.

Is it going to work?

Film canister explosives and egg transformations

GeoDome Pictures

Finally! I think I've finally been successful in posting some pictures. These are from our Discovery Day when we made GeoDomes from toothpicks and gumdrops.

How much weight can it hold?
Three GeoDomes and lots of Magic Tree House

The Middle Table Working Hard

Jeff is builds a sturdy base.

Jaydan builds one handed!

David inspects other GeoDomes.

Katye, Ammon, Kori, and Andrew are hard at work.

Off-Track!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are enjoying your off-track time. I don't give homework during this time but I do expect you to be reading and writing it down. Remember - this is part of your grade, helps you earn dog tags, and can earn you a free pizza from Pizza Hut! 

Your off-track time is also a great time to work on memorizing those math facts. You can even do this in the car when you're traveling with your family!

My goal for this time is to post some pictures of our class from the first part of the year. 

See you Monday, December 8!

New Book Orders!

Books make great Christmas presents! By ordering through the book orders, you can get some great deals and no shipping charges! You can now order books online!

1. Go to the Scholastic Book Clubs website and use the info below to log in.

2. Browse the titles with your child and place your order with your credit card. (It is safe and secure).

3. Your order will come to the school and your payment goes directly to Scholastic. You don't need to send any money to school.

4. Books will be here when we get back in December. 

Website: www.scholastic.com/parentordering

Class Username: ThompsonsBearcubs

Password: Jordan

Book Report Instructions

I hope I have discovered a way to give you access to some of my documents. As you know the next book report is due November 3. If you need instructions, please visit Book Report Instructions. 

If you look to the right, I have a new area to post links to other documents. Since everyone has been signed up for a conference time, I have a complete list posted. I have also posted a copy of the class policies each of you reviewed and signed at the beginning of the year. Please let me know if you have problems viewing this.  Have a great weekend!

Reflections Contest!

The deadline to enter the PTA Reflections program is coming up. This year's theme is "Wow!" Taking part in the Reflections contest is not required but it is part of the Distinguished Cub Award. Please visit www.pta.org/2033.htm for rules and entry information. Good luck!

What's a blog? and Security

A blog is a quick and easy way to share written ideas and pictures with other people on a website. It is so easy that I know of at least one student in our class who has her own blog to write about the books she enjoys. www.blogger.com is a great site to set up a blog for your family or self. (Kids, ask your parents first!)

Just some info about our blog. This blog was set up as unsearchable by Google so it shouldn't be available to the public but I still want it to be safe. I will not be posting last names of students or identifying details as a safety precaution. If you want to share this blog with family members, please feel free to do so. 

I'm looking into posting things like book report information and spelling lists, but haven't found an easy way to do it yet. Hopefully, this will be coming soon. If you have any suggestions to make this blog more useful to you, please let me know.

Election Info

In class today, we looked a really cool website. www.brainpop.com
It has mini videos about lots of different topics. We looked at a couple of election videos, which are all FREE! Some of the other videos do require a subscription but there are quite a few free ones.

Welcome to our class blog!

Hello Students, Family, and Friends!

I hope this blog will be a way for all of us to stay connected throughout the school year. I will be writing to let you know what is going on in our class and posting some pictures of our adventures. Sometimes the students will get to add entries as well. Please check back to see what we are up to in our class.

Miss Thompson