Monday, July 9, 2018

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 1:50 PM
Happy July to all my B.U.G.S!!  Whether you are a recent BUG, a much older BUG or a new BUG who doesn't even know you ARE a BUG yet - I hope you are all having a GREAT summer so far!! I miss you all and thought I'd share a little about the life of a teacher over the summer!  I'd love if you'd leave some comments and tell me what YOU are up to this summer, too!!

So far this summer, my family has come to visit.  Mr. James' family has come to visit.  Jacob and his girlfriend came to visit.  Whew!  That's a lot of visiting! We have also had friends over for BBQ's!!  As much as I love all of those things, I have also loved spending time with Trudy and of course...(wait for it...) READING!!  I have been reading like crazy!  I've read in bed, on the couch, in the hammock, on the floor with Trudy, in the waiting room for the doctor (because I've also had bronchitis on my summer vacation!) on the porch with Charlotte...I think the only place I haven't read is in the pasture with Elliott, but there's still lots of summer left for that!!

I have been trying to find some great read alouds for fourth grade.  So far, I've read some GREAT books, but none have been great read aloud books.  YET!!  So far, I've read: Ruby Holler; Hound Dog True; The Great Unexpected; Freak the Mighty (which MIGHT be a read aloud),;The Fourteenth Goldfish; Looking for Alaska; Turtles All the Way Down; Love, Sugar, Magic; Half Upon  a Time (Remember, that was one that Ms. Turner was reading this past year?); and Love, Ruby Lavender.  Amazon just delivered more books to my house today, including a couple of Jacob's favorites from when he was younger.  I can't wait to get to those! I have a bag of used books I bought at a garage sale and I have a stack of books from the library to return tomorrow so I can get more!!  OH HOW I LOVE BOOKS!!

The last book I read, My Life as a Book was really cool for two reasons: first, it's a book about a boy who really struggles with his reading.  That reminded me of a lot of students I've had over the years!  Another reason why I loved this book is because the illustrator is FIFTEEN YEARS OLD!!  How cool is THAT?!?!  (A third reason is because it has a dog in it and I LOVE stories with dogs!!)

Of course reading and hanging out with family aren't the only things I've been doing.  I went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned.  I love how my teeth feel after being at the dentist!! (I even splurged and bought myself a new toothbrush, too!)

Most importantly, I've been working on my new classroom!  I have everything moved to the Later Elementary and almost everything is unpacked.  I've spent a lot of time already working on my math lessons on the iPad.  I'm learning a LOT about math and a LOT about the iPad, too!

So tell me what you have been up to!!  What books are you reading?  Which books have you enjoyed and which have you not?  (I've only read two so far that I didn't really love.)  What else are you doing with your time?  Send me an email, post a comment, let me know what you are up to!!

Enjoy July!!
Mrs. Koehn

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 11:05 AM


Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 4:30 PM

Water World was amazing!  Mrs. Castellanos does the most amazing job of planning, organizing and facilitating this celebration for us each year!

I think the pictures speak for themselves!










Monday, June 11, 2018

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 11:15 AM
As our year winds down and we finish our reading stories and our math lessons, it opens up time for some much needed science lessons!!  We have been working on our unit about Earth, specifically learning about landforms and bodies of water. 
We created our own worlds with as many landforms and bodies of water that we could make.

If you look closely, you'll see continents, glaciers, oceans, islands, deserts, gulfs, peninsulas, bays and more.

But we just couldn't make all the landforms with construction paper.

So, we decided to make salt dough!!  

Who knew science could be so fun!?

It took a long week for our salt dough to dry, but then we got out the paints and got to work creating our landforms!

We painted mountains...

...we painted hills...

...we painted plateaus...
  
...but maybe most fun of all, we painted VOLCANOES!!


Not only did we have a blast, we really learned a lot.  Making a plateau really solidifies our learning about what is the same between a mountain and a plateau and what makes them different.  
The kids had great conversations about what colors mountains would be, or hills, or volcanoes.  







When the paint dried, we place our landforms on our Earth models and took time adding in the bodies of water we hadn't already created.  We drew rivers, lakes and ponds.  We labeled our landforms and bodies of water.  We toured the classroom to look at everyone's model and we celebrated our learning of these science concepts!

Friday, June 8, 2018

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 11:17 AM
On Friday we walked to the Paw Paw Public Library where Ms. Whitney told us all about the summer reading program!

Oh my goodness we got so excited about all the prizes we could choose from!

Ms. Whitney always has great stories to read to us! 

Thank you, Ms. Whitney for taking the time to talk with us about the summer reading program! 
We can't wait to sign up!

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 2:07 PM
Paw Paw Public Schools Food Service Program announces the sponsorship of the Summer Food Service Program for Children. Free meals will be available to children 18 years and younger or persons up to age 26 who are enrolled in an educational program for the mentally or physically disabled as recognized by a state or local public educational agency.  The meals will be provided without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex or disability and there will be no discrimination during the food service. Meals will be provided from 11:00am-1:00pm at Paw Paw Middle School and the Cedar Street Campus.  


I know these flyers are difficult to read, but copies will be coming home soon! 
This is a wonderful opportunity for our students over the summer!! 
Please let me know if you have any questions!!







Friday, June 1, 2018

Posted by Mrs. Koehn On 10:18 AM