Science Fair Information

Science Fair Information:

Science Fair Presentations will be on Thursday, November 15th in the Later Elementary cafeteria.

The project is worth 50 points (see point sheet that went home for details).

The projects need to include:

• Experiment - all projects must be scientific experiments, not just models.  This means the students should be testing something and the results must be measurable.  No volcanoes, sink/float, yes/no, or sweet/salty experiments, please.
• Log - The log is like a journal the student keeps throughout the entire project.  Every project must include a log with dated entries.  Anything the students thinks or does concerning the project must be written in the log with a date.  A simple folder with three prongs in the middle or a spiral or composition notebook would work well for the log. 
• Timeline - The project (log book and display board) is due November 9th.  A timeline of suggested dates went home to help keep students on track.  That schedule will help keep pace for a timely completion of the project.  

The Science Fair Presentation will be on Thursday, November 15th for students to show off and discuss their projects with fellow classmates, friends, teachers and family.  Our class time slot is from 9:30-10:00.

Ms. Neidlinger put together a great powerpoint presentation that might help with some of the steps and provides examples.  You can view the presentation here. 

Also, the "Science Fair Project Investigation Guide" that was sent home is also available online here. 

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Homecoming Spirit Week

This coming week is HOMECOMING!!  To help celebrate and get into the spirit, we have some special days next week.  Please do NOT go out and buy anything new or special for these days, just search for something you already have!

Monday, October 8th - Comfy Clothes Day (pj's, sweats or comfy clothes!)
Tuesday, October 9th - Mismatch Day (Do your best NOT to match today!)
Wednesday, October 10th - Dress like your favorite character (TV, movie, book...)
Thursday, October 11th - 4th grade wears as much WHITE as possible!!
Friday, October 12th - SPIRIT DAY!!  (Wear your Paw Paw gear; red, white or black colors!)

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Our Classroom Library

After the students helped me sort books for our classroom library, I spent the weekend at school putting it all together.  Putting together books I already had with our 300 new books as well as a move up two grade levels meant my system needed an upgrade!

I created bin labels for all our categories.  Then I took all the books, gave them each a matching label so it would be easy to know which bin they belonged in. (Theoretically making it a snap to return books to the proper bin.)

While the process was time-consuming, having an organized library full of new and classic titles is exciting not only to me, but to the students.  I was highly motivated to get this job done!

When all was said and done, our library took on a whole new feel!  Thanks to some donated money to help spruce up our corner, I added some beanbag chairs and brightly colored pillows to make reading more comfortable!

We will keep adding new books all the time to keep reading fresh, exciting and to address the specific reading interests and goals of the class!

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Bug Bites Monthly Newsletter

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The Buckaroo Book Barn Book Tasting Event

Welcome, pahdners to the Buckaroo Book Barn Book Tasting Event!

We had so much fun in Room 24 today with our wild west-themed book exploration event!

Each cowboy, cowgirl (or outlaw!) was given a "menu" with four books to sample.

They made a few quick notes while they looked through the books. They filled in information about each book such as the title, author and genre.

They also took time to read the first page or part of the chapter to see if they enjoyed it or not. 

Each student had their own selection of texts to sample so each one might find a few "good fit" books tailored just to his/her preferences and reading level.

The kids really loved the wild west theme!  Everyone had a cowboy/cowgirl name for the morning and we all did our best southern accent imitation!

After we were done sampling books, we took time to sample a little western fare!

Just like with the books, students were encouraged to try something new, whether that was queso, salsa, guacamole or a delicious bean salad!

They found things they liked and wanted more of...

...and gobbled up every bite!

It was a great way to wrap up our book "tasting"!

When we finished sampling, we had books to sort, of course!

Each classroom at the Early and Later Elementaries were given 300 new books for our classroom libraries! These books from Scholastic needed to be sorted along with all the books I brought over from my EE classroom!

This meant a LOT of sorting, decision making...

...and moving around the classroom.

The kids were a great help sorting, though and made my job for the weekend a little easier! 

Now, to just get the bins all labeled, the books all labeled and the reading corner put back together!

A HUGE thank you to our Curriculum Director, Matt Mayer, who purchased all these books for our classrooms!  New, diverse books attract readers and the kids and I can't wait to dive in - in fact, several kids were trying to tuck a book or two in their personal book bin already!!

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Turn and Talk

I had to snap this picture today because I just LOVE the way this class works together!

This is a great example of two students conferring about a math problem.  As I sat and watched, I saw a very polite, kind discussion about how they each solved the problem and then pointers from one to the other on where he went wrong.  It was FANTASTIC!!  Way to go, boys!!

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Winner!!

We put in our class book order today and so we drew our first FREE BOOK WINNER from all the reading coupons that students entered in to our raffle.  MIA was our first winner today and chose a great new book for her own personal library!! 

We are so excited for Mia!

Her new book will arrive next week with all the book orders!!

Thanks to all the orders this month, we were able to order three new books for our classroom, too!!

(New book orders will go home by Friday for October!)

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