September Reading Calendars

Don't forget that tomorrow is the first day of October already! Don't forget to turn in your September reading calendars. The new calendars will be out tomorrow.

Students do not get a Pizza Hut pizza for the month of September, but will starting in October.

Great and Great

Sub Wednesday

On Wednesday we had a sub while I tested the kids on benchmark assessments. I have been teaching few a long time now, and I'm not sure I have ever had such a good report. Mrs. Langfoss had nothing but nice things to say about the students' behavior and work ethic. I am extremely proud of them and feel very fortunate to have such a nice class this year. It makes for a great place to come to work and hopefully a great place to students to come to learn.

New Student

On Monday we will welcome a new student to our room. This is always exciting for the kids, and I know they will be very welcoming. She is leaving Mineral Point and will probably be a little sad to leave that school and their pretty art teacher. The class will do it's best to cheer her up though!

p.s. My wife is the elementary art teacher at Mineral Point, if you didn't know.

Upcoming Local Events

Handouts for these have also come home or will be coming home tonight.

Cobb Library

“LEGO Club”

Where: Cobb Public Library

When: Saturday, October 4 @ 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Who: All ages

LEGOs provided

FREE

Children 6 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

****************************************************************

MOVIE MATINEE

Where: Cobb Public Library

When: Wednesday, October 8 @ 2:00pm

(This is an Early Release day for Iowa-Grant Schools)

Showing: MUPPETS MOST WANTED

Rated: PG                  Running Time: 112 minutes

Children 6 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

Lands' End

Free Punt Pass and Kick

Where: Lands' End

When: Saturday, September 27th at 9:00

Preregister by calling Derek Hubbard at 608-935-6814

News and Notes

Homecoming Shirt Order

There is an order form that is coming home tonight for Homecoming t-shirts. If you are interested please return the order form and money by this Friday, Sept. 26. T-shirts are $15 each. The homecoming parade is the next Friday, Oct. 3. The theme this year is A Night Under the Harvest Moon.

Spelling City

This is just a reminder that students can study their spelling words at spellingcity.com. I will update their words each week. The login name is their first and last name with no space.

Schoolhouse Rock

Today we watched our first Schoolhouse Rock video. We were reviewing a sentences and the parts of a sentence. At the end of language arts we watched Mr. Morton, which talks about subject and predicate.

Here is the video if you want to go back in time a little:

Benchmark Assessment On Wednesday

On Wednesday the students will take the Benchmark Assessment test at some point during the school day. We will have a sub in the classroom and I will administer the test to each student individually. This has been a test that the students enjoy taking, as they get to read one-on-one with me. Each child reads a short book and then I ask them questions about what they read. This is also my favorite test of the year as it gives me great insight as to how each student is reading, where they struggle, and how we can improve.

Kindergarten Buddies!

The fourth graders have been super excited about doing kindergarten buddies and finding out who their buddies are. Today was finally the big day, and we got to spend a little bit of time with our new buddies. The kids in my class were very kind and appropriate as some of the kindergartners were a little shy still.

Today they did a little ice breaker activity to let each other know some of their favorite things. Many times we will spend time reading to our new buddy. The buddies activity will be each Friday during the year.

Here are a few pictures. You can click them to enlarge.

Lions vs. Packers

The Packers and Lions play this Sunday so I reminded all the kids to wear their Lions clothes or Lions colors on Friday! I'll have my lions t-shirt on for the big occasion!

Of course the kids can choose their own team colors or none at all. I think as they left a few thought I seriously wanted to them in Lions colors.


p.s. Oops, I sent this out to late and it didn't go into parent's e-mail inbox until Friday. I'm sure the Lions will lose and the kids can wear their Packers gear on Monday as celebration.

Spelling City

Students in fourth grade have access to the premium membership of spellingcity.com, which we purchase from our fourth grade budget. We went over how to use the page today and if students have Internet access they can work on it at school or at home. On Thursday we will go to the computer lab to get a chance to practice our words. If students don't have Internet access students still get a word list each Monday to work on.

There is a username and password for each student. Their username is the same one they use at school. I have shared the password with them, but if you have any trouble let me know and I can send it your way privately.  Here is the link straight to the login page:  Spelling City 

The login link will also be on the games page as well as at the right side of the page under helpful links. I hope your child is able to use it for practice.

Healthy Snack List

Thank you for your cooperation with following our wellness policy and using the list of approved snacks.  The purpose of this is to promote healthy eating habits and it also ensures that our students with health concerns will be able to participate in classroom celebrations.  Below is the list of approved snacks and beverages for snacks and celebrations:   

• Cereal and granola bars

• Fresh fruit and dried fruit snacks

• Single-serve fruit cups

• Graham and flavored crackers

• Baked chips

• Pre-packaged vegetables

• String Cheese

• Yogurt and yogurt sticks

• Popcorn

• Low-fat pudding snacks

• Trail mixes

• Whole grain cereals and bagels

• Mixed nuts

• Reduced-fat, low-fat or fat-free milk: white and flavored

• Bottled water and flavored water

• 100% fruit juice

• Low-fat yogurt beverages 

Friday Updates

Words Their Way - We took our first Words Their Way test today. The kids know how those work now and it goes very smooth. I will get those corrected and back to the kids on Monday morning. I like to look over them early in the year so they know where they made their mistakes and how to make corrections.

Things Coming Home - There are two different handouts coming home tonight and school pictures! One of the sheets is for youth bowling at Tower Junction and the other is for Boys Scouts.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - We will be finishing Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing in the next day or two. If is a classic that is very funny. I like to find books that lead the students into more books in either that series or from that author. It seems several kids are interested in reading the next book in the series.

I forgot the actual order of the series, so here it is:

1.  Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

2.  Superfudge

3.  Fudge-a-Mania

4.  Double Fudge

5.  Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great (not exactly a sequal as it focuses on Sheila and not Peter and Fudge)

Family Reading Night

The staff at IGEMS welcomes 4K-8^th grade students and families to a celebration of literacy!

September 23, 2014

6:30-7:45 p.m.

IGEMS Library

Refreshments **RIF books**Readers Theater by students and staff**Family Fun

Drop Everything And Read**Teacher Skit**Middle School Reading Cafe

Spelling Words and Homework

Spelling - You should see that the kids have spelling words and homework coming home now. We will have our first spelling test on Friday.

Homework - The homework will be coming mostly from math. Our math groups are split up this year so the homework won't always be the same. Depending on how far each teacher gets, students may get their homework on slightly different days. It should only be a day or two different.

PTC Newsletter - There is a Parent/Teacher Club Newsletter coming home tonight. It's got a couple of fund raiser notes and a place to order your Panther gear.

Early Release - One last reminder that we have an early release tomorrow.

News and Notes

Bus Information
There is a note going home tonight from the bus garage for parents. It says that if you are going to have a large number of kids ride a different bus, such as for a birthday party, to call to see if the buses can accommodate that request. The buses are running at capacity so too many changes can be an issue. The bus garage number is (608) 943-6781. The sheet coming home tonight has a bit more information too.

Early Release
Also, a reminder that next week Wednesday, September 10 we have an early release at 12:30. I will check with the kids to make sure that they know where they are going early next week. If you need to send a note on those days please send it or call in early in the morning. It's much easier to get the kids to the correct place that way.

First Week!
We made it through week one with ease. This has been a great start to the year and it is nice to get into the flow of classes again. We start our second lesson of math today and have started doing a couple writing journals in language arts.

Blog Sign-Up
I printed the blog off to send home this week. I know several of you have these messages getting sent to your e-mail, but if you haven't yet you may want to. It's a really easy way to get classroom updates and they come to you each night I send a post around 3:30 or 4:00.

So if you want to sign up here are the directions:

1. On the top-right hand side of the blog there a place to type your e-mail and click submit.
2. Fill in the security letters (random letters to make sure you are a real person).
3. Open your e-mail and find the message that is from FeedBurner. Open it and click on the link that will activate the account.
4. Wait for the next update and an e-mail from Van Clan Blog will appear in your inbox.

Homework and Spelling

Homework - We will not have homework the rest of this week. It takes a little time to get into the units and send home something that is meaningful. By next week we should be ready to roll though.

Reading Calendars - While they don't have homework this week, I did send home a reading calendar for September on Tuesday. Please initial that as they read each night.

Book Check-Out - Students have begun to check out books from my library, which is a great way for them to read at home as well. My books have a red "R" on the spine, so if ever see one laying around its from the classroom. Students in the past have done a great job of returning them, and I have lots of books in the library for them to read.

Spelling - We took our Words Their Way assessment today. We will have three different groups of spelling lists in the classroom this year. Starting next week your child should bring home a spelling list on Monday. We'll work on the words each day, and on Friday take a post test. Like last year, they will need to know how to spell the words and put them in the correct category.

Back to School - Picture Retakes

We have had a really good start to our first day. Of course, there are always a lot of directions on the first day, but we got through most of them this morning. This afternoon we'll have computers.

Picture retakes are scheduled for Thursday, September 4. If your child did not get pictures at open house they will be able to get the pictures at that time.