4B with Miss Gibbons

Hey Parents!

We’ve had a pretty exciting week here in 4B! The field trip was fantastic, all the kids behaved super well! Make sure to check out ClassDojo for the pictures and updates!   We’ve been working on our Social Studies projects – which some of them are antsy that we haven’t had more time to do, which is awesome! I love it when they get excited about learning! They’ve also really been enjoying their ClassDojo prizes. Although we haven’t made it to 95% yet as a class, each individual has been doing well and almost everyone has gotten their 15 point reward!

Couple of things:

1. Prodigy – Please have your student take the placement test (if they haven’t already). This is super valuable information that I need to know so I can help them where they are struggling! Once everyone has a placement test and is able to enter and play Prodigy, I can design some challenges that are covering the materials we are learning in class, so the material is more targeted. When you log in this weekend you will see an “Assignment” about rounding and subtracting, which is what we’re currently covering in Math. It is not homework! It is just practice.
2. Computers – Now that the internet works and the kids are getting used to the platforms I use (google classroom, prodigy, etc.) It is super important that your student comes with their computer FULLY CHARGED OR SEND THEM WITH THE CHARGER! I totally forget to plug my computer in as well, so no worries if you forget, just send them with the charger! (side note: if anyone has some power strips they could share, we are seriously lacking outlets in the classroom! haha)
3. Stickers and Candy – I would love to be able to give the kids stickers and the occasional sugar treat. Please let me know if you are OK with that. I asked the kids about allergies and they claim they don’t have sugar allergies, but please advise me if they do! Also! If you happen to have stickers or candy at home, send it with your student! I would love to use it here! I don’t have a car, so “simple” tasks like that are kind of hard for me. I can’t just “run to the store” quick because public transport here is so slow! Which also explains why I’m often late 😉 so sorry about that!
4. Science – Since we’ve finished our “Extinction Is Forever” unit, I’m planning a Science quiz for next week (it will have to be Friday since we don’t have school Tuesday or Wednesday). But here is the kicker: the kids are going to make the questions! I created a forum on Google Classroom for “Science Quiz” and there they can write a question (and the answer) for what they want to see on the quiz! Hopefully this way they will feel more prepared, less anxious, and there won’t be anything on the quiz they don’t know. Also, then as parents you can use the forum on Google Classroom as a study guide!
5. Spelling – We did not have time for the spelling quiz this Friday due to the morning prayer event. We will have the quiz on Monday. And because we have such a short week next week, we won’t do another quiz on Friday. It’s just too much! So we’ll do the spelling quiz Monday and that will be the only thing for Spelling next week. I’m sure the kids won’t mind. 😉

ALSO! Because next week we only have school Monday, Thursday and Friday – PLEASE HAVE YOUR STUDENT BRING THEIR COMPUTER EACH OF THOSE DAYS! So next week we will use computers Monday, Thursday and Friday!

I realize this post is a lot of information and I’m sorry about that! I hope it all makes sense! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns! And again, thanks so much for all your help and patience! I appreciate you as parents so much!!!

Miss Gibbons, 4B

Some updates for this week:

1. The field trip.
   • We will be leaving from the school first thing in the morning. We will return in time for the kids to have lunch here at the school. Then we will have our normal Science and Religion classes in the afternoon. (Science will mostly be a review of what we learned on our field trip.)
2. Print if possible!
   • If you are able, please print Activity 2 from the Science unit “Extinction is Forever” – It is the activity that starts with “Observe the Illustrations”
   • If you are not able, I have some extra copies here at school.
   • This is the activity we are going to work on following our field trip. It will be due Friday (you can see that in the calendar).
3. We are talking about conservation in Social Studies! We did a lot of brainstorming of ideas and things we can do to help our world. See ClassDojo for some pictures!
   • If possible, send some supplies with your student. Things such as seeds, soil, gloves (for picking up trash), empty milk/juice containers (for planting seeds), markers or paint (for making signs), etc.
   • It is not necessary to bring everything! Just whatever you have on hand!
   • See Google Classroom for more details on what we’re doing!

Sorry for the overload of information! But we have a lot going on in 4B!

Take care!

Miss Gibbons

We have a field trip Wednesday. Hopefully you were able to sign the field trip form over the weekend. Please send it to school SIGNED with your student. The field trip will be in the morning so we’ll be back in time for lunch at school.

Here are this weeks spelling words!

Hello parents! So I’ve noticed several kids struggling with organization, and I myself have been struggling. I’m used to every kid having an agenda (for writing homework assignments, tests, important dates, etc) and I feel somewhat lost without that. SO! Would you as parents be willing to buy your child an agenda? We can write in them every day at the end of the day to make sure we are all on the same page and that can help you as parents know what’s going on! I have been told the “sons” brand is good. This is a picture of the agenda that would be appropriate for 4th graders. I think this would help us all AND teach the kids responsibility (bonus!). Let me know if you are unable to buy an agenda for your child and we can try and figure something out!

THANK YOU!!!!

Hi Parents! You may have noticed I’m using google classroom more. Now that the internet is working it’s such an amazing resource! We did some English and Math work in class yesterday. My intention was NOT to give them homework, but some of them weren’t able to finish their work in class.

English: I am still missing some sentence booklets. We have had almost 2 weeks of class time to work on this so students should not have needed to work on it at home. But life happens 🤷🏼‍♀️ The google classroom item “Making Sentences with the Present Progressive tense” was also something we worked on in class that may have become homework if they didn’t finish it.

Math: We had a paper titled “homework” from edusystem that we worked on in class. But if they didn’t finish it in class it became homework. Same for the google classroom “adding 4 digits”. Both things we worked on in class but they may need to finish at home.

Science: We are working on the packet of extinct animals (Activity 2) in class.

Social Studies: We worked on a paper titled “Water and Soil” that they should have given to me once they finished.

Moving forward I’m going to try to use google classroom for all homework assignments. It may not be possible for everything, but as much as I can. I will still tell you if you need to print things from Edusystem – but I’m kind of a treehugger 🌳 so I’ll try not to print if we don’t have to. 😉

In math we have been working on adding 4 digit numbers. Also giving ESTIMATES when adding. The kids seem to have a pretty good grasp and I want to move on, but I don’t want to move on too soon. So, I’m going to give a SMALL QUIZ on Friday to assess if we are ready to move on. Just a small quiz, maybe 30 pts. Just on adding 4 digit numbers and estimating when adding. I am trying to reinforce with them to SHOW THEIR WORK. So as always, I will give them partial credit if they show their work, even if they get the answer wrong. This is my standard for grading in all subjects, they always get credit if they show they tried.

Let me know if you have questions or concerns!

Miss Gibbons, 4B

Sorry for the double post! Maybe your kids have mentioned this already, but I’m planning a little field trip! We are studying extinction in science, so we’re going to see the Manatee Conservatory at the InterAmericana University here in Bayamón. It’s not far, and the tour isn’t very long so we will only be gone for the morning. Which the kids were disappointed about 🙄 haha. But like I told them, we will see how this first trip goes for half a day, and if they can show they are responsible and behave well, we can have a full day trip. I don’t have a ton of details yet, but we will go Wednesday, October 24. So next week Wednesday. The entrance is $10 per student. I’m assuming we will go by bus, but I haven’t been told for sure yet. I’ll be in touch as I know more details! I’m sorry I don’t know all the details yet but I wanted to let you know with as much advance notice as possible! Stay posted for updates!

Miss Gibbons, 4B

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Here are the spelling words for this week. Our theme is PLURAL WORDS! Sometimes in English, when a word ends in “y” the plural form changes, and becomes “ies” – you might notice that in some of our words this week! But be careful! It’s not ALWAYS going to change! English is a pretty tricky language!

Hey everyone! We’re off to a good start today in 4B, using our brains to practice critical thinking. We’ve also been studying for the Social Studies exam tomorrow – hopefully you saw that I posted a game for review in google classroom.

In English class: we’ve been working on our sentence booklets. About half the students have turned it in to me. Some are still working. If they are missing pages I have posted the document in google classroom for you to print at home. If you’re unable to print at home, please let me know!

Your student may have told you, but they earned a prize for this Friday!!! Last week their behavior report on ClassDojo was 99%!! So they voted on which prize they wanted and the winning prize was WATCH A MOVIE! So we’re going to turn our classroom into a movie theater! They can bring candy, snacks, or popcorn – BUT PLEASE DO NOT SEND MICROWAVE POPCORN! You can send popcorn in a bag, already popped. But we won’t have time to use the microwave so microwave popcorn won’t work. They can bring blankets, or towels to sit on too! We’re going to make it the full experience!

I’m going to have to ask for your help too…does anyone own the movie “Inside Out”? I own it but I left it in Minnesota 🤦🏼‍♀️ Otherwise I have Netflix so we can watch “Coco”, “Moana”, “Sing”, or something along those lines. But I’d really like to watch “Inside Out” with them because the main character is from Minnesota! 😉

Let me know if you have the movie and would be willing to let me borrow it!

Thanks for all your help and work you do as parents! The kids and I appreciate you so much!!!!

Miss Gibbons