4B with Miss Gibbons

Hello everyone! A couple things: thanks to everyone for your work in google classroom! I know it was confusing for a lot of people, but once the account is created, it gets much easier after that! The best thing you can do is download the application for google classroom on your child’s tablet and login WITH THE PASSWORD SAVED! If they have a regular computer, just ask the website to remember username and password. This way they can access google classroom anytime (like at school) and you don’t need to give them them the password every time. Then you don’t have to worry about it and they can take charge of their own account! Trust me, it’s works great once they get the hang of it.

SPELLING AND VOCABULARY: I am going to publish a weekly spelling and vocabulary list on the blog. We will practice in class and then EVERY FRIDAY we will have a spelling quiz! I have created a page on the blog (it should be on your right –> over on the side…or if you’re on a phone/tablet it’s all the way at the bottom ⬇️) that is titled ***Vocabulary & Spelling*** Please check that weekly. I will also publish the words on the main page too. Every week the words will have a theme (double letter, gh, i before e, etc.) and the word list will also include challenge words for those of you who have more advanced students. It will also include a book title where the words come from. It’s not required but feel free to make your students read this book!

For today we won’t have a spelling quiz because I realize a lot of people weren’t aware, as I didn’t make it clear in the previous blog post. No worries! But next Friday we’ll have then spelling test on our “gh” words. Check the Spelling & Vocabulary page for the list. It’s also here too.

Hey parents! Just a quick note. We haven’t gotten to the lesson on “Rounding to the nearest Thousand” in Math yet because we had computer class today. Therefore, the math homework I assigned for tomorrow just needs to be brought to class so we can work on it. Students can attempt it, but no need to have it finished. We’ll work on it in class. However if they do not finish it in class tomorrow, then it’s homework!

We started typing our PenPal letters today. I’ve noticed that several kids are having problems with Microsoft Word, or using something to type a document. I created a “Google Classroom” to help the kids organize their documents and use google drive. Here is a video to join the class. The class code is qcg2u4 

Once you have joined the class, you can click on the PenPal assignment I created. Select “Create” then “Doc”. Now your student can write their letter and I can see it to edit it! They can also create something on paper as well if they would like, but I want it here so I can see their progress and edit it.

Let me know if you have questions! Hopefully my use of technology isn’t overwhelming for anyone! Feel free to contact me if you’d like a little help in working with the different platforms I use. I showed the kids how to use the Google classroom as well, so ideally they would be able to do it on their own! But that depends on how well they were listening to my instructions 😉

Again, thanks for all you do! Hopefully my excessive communication is helpful and not overwhelming!

Miss Christina, 4B

First I want to say thank you to all the parents who came by for Parent-Teacher conferences! It was so good to meet you in person! I had such a positive experience with all of the parents, and I am so grateful for all of your words of encouragement! You all have wonderful kids and I feel so privileged to be able to teach them.

Today we started working on our Vertebrate & Invertebrate posters. Check out Classdojo for some pictures of everyone working. (if you are still unable to access Classdojo, please let me know and I can send the invite and code again!)

We are also getting started on our PenPal letters to Minnesota! I had the kids write down ideas for what to include in their letter in their English notebook today. They can start working on it at home, or in class. I want them to bring me a rough draft by WEDNESDAY in  order to fix any spelling/grammar mistakes before I send the letters.

Hope everyone is having a lovely Monday!

Miss Gibbons, 4B

P.S. Don’t forget to check the vocabulary & spelling page for the new words this week!

 

Hi Parents!

I’m excited to meet some of you tomorrow. Although this has been a short week, we’ve accomplished a lot. We’ve worked on spelling, ordinal numbers, animals, countries, and states. Ask your kid to sing you some songs that we learned 😉 If you haven’t seen the picture I posted on classdojo, I attached it to this blog post as will. It’s for kids to reference and have in their notebook for our current science unit. We’ll be working with it more in the classroom next week.

MAGAZINES OR PICTURES! If you have any magazines or pictures of animals, sea life, or anything related to our current science unit, please send it to school with your child! We are going to be making a big poster as a class, and I would like for everyone to contribute!

Also, here is a kahoot challenge for kids who are interested in practicing ordinal numbers over the weekend.

Challenge link:  https://kahoot.it/challenge/0902047

Challenge PIN:  0902047

As you can see from classdojo, today was great and we all worked hard! Hopefully we can have more days like today!

Thanks for all you do!

Christina Gibbons, 4B

Hi Parents,

Some of you may have noticed that I set up a ClassDojo account for 4 Bilingual. Hopefully this helps you and I stay in contact about how every day is going! I think the kids are responding well to it. You’ll see that today we had a fantastic morning, and then kind of struggled in the afternoon. That’s all part of the work-in-progress! On the Right-Hand side of the blog you’ll see a link to find ClassDojo (as well as links for the calendar, and the vocab list of the week).

Hopefully I’m not making things too complicated for everyone. My goal is for it to be as simple and easy as possible!

ANNOUNCEMENT! Kids will now need to bring their computers to school every TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, and THURSDAY. This is because Tuesdays they are now taking computer class with our lovely computer teacher, Mariel De Jesús. Here blog is here: https://compulabasr.wordpress.com/ 

Because we had computer class today, we didn’t have time for Math. So I sent home an assignment for them to work on.

Can’t wait to meet everyone on Friday!

Miss Gibbons, 4B

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’re enjoying your day off! I’m working on some ways to help our classroom. I’ve noticed a lot of kids are struggling, and I’ve talked to a few parents. But I want to make sure that we all have success in 4th grade this year! I’m creating some documents to share with you that would be great if you could take a look at while at home. The first is flashcards. I’ve made some flashcards of some commonly used phrases I say in the classroom. I know this will seem super easy for some kids, but for others it may be a bit of a challenge. Chances are if you review this with your student and they don’t understand, they are not understanding my direction in the classroom! I’ll be updating and adding to this document frequently, so check it often!

These are some basic phrases that are foundational for our classroom:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WotbF2br9Ngx4b5KY36_2bJye0lP5ZPE-N20T7injks/edit?usp=sharing

I will also be going through weekly vocabulary and spelling with the kids. Here is the list for this week! You’ll see some challenge words (for those kids maybe more advanced) and then the title of a popular book that uses these words. If you have an advanced student, feel free to have them start reading that book! It’ll be a good challenge for them!

I know we all want our students to do well, so I’m working on the balance of slowly reviewing the information without getting too far behind. I’m trying to provide material that suits all learning levels – because our classroom has a lot of different levels! Please let me know your feedback! I’m looking forward to meeting with you all this Friday!

Christina Gibbons, 4B

First I want to say thank you to all of the parents who have sent me messages, supplies and been so helpful to me these past couple weeks! I appreciate the support you are giving me. To let you know what is going on, here are some updates:

English: We are working on reading proficiency. The English language is pretty difficult and the students are all at varying levels. Here is a link for some practice reading at home. There are audios for each passage so you can hear a native English speaker reading and practice pronunciation and vocab. I know it might seem basic, but reading and hearing the pronunciation is so important! The website includes other difficulty levels as well if you’d like.

https://www.eslfast.com/kidsenglish/index.htm

Math: We are working on place value. I’m sending home an assignment that is due Friday. The kids can definitely bring any work they have done tomorrow for me to look over. The assignment is worth 50 points. I know it seems like a lot, but it’s really not! The repetition will help re-enforce the concept and it’s less daunting than a quiz.

Science: We took our assessment today. I had them try without notes, and then use their notes for any doubts. Most of us were able to do it without notes! It’s was good for them to reference their notes as well in order to see how well they are doing paying attention and note-taking in class. Later this week we will start our unit on animals

Social Studies: We are reviewing for the re-take. I made the Introduction available for download on Edusystem. The retake will be Friday.

Sorry if this is information overload! Please let me know if you have questions!

Ms. Gibbons, 4B

I’m sharing a link for a Kahoot Game that kids can play at home to practice math!

https://kahoot.it/challenge/0946828

0946828

Play, have fun, and learn!

Hi parents! I’m looking for a few items for the classroom. If anyone has plastic sleeve protectors or dry erase markers sitting around at home, we want to use them in 4B! They make great (cheap) ways to “laminate” a page for using over and over again for practice. I attached a couple images of what I’m looking for. If you have some, please send them with your kiddos! Thanks so much!!

I apologize for the late post. We have had a lot going on this week! It was my first week with the students. I’m already seeing their personalities and mannerisms develop! It’s fun getting to know them more. We have been working through reading proficiency in English, place value in Math, Plants in Science, and the Solar System in Social Studies. We had our first quiz on Friday. It was a bit rough for some, but I think that’s too be expected. It was our first quiz together, so we’re still figuring things out. I honestly think some of the wording on the quiz was too advanced for 4th graders who don’t speak English as a native language. Therefore, I’m going to give every student a chance to re-take the quiz on Monday. I’ve modified the quiz with new questions that are hopefully easier to understand. It also helped me see that we need to work on some vocabulary! You’ll see this next week that I’m going to send a vocabulary list home for each of the subjects. Don’t worry, not all at the same time! But words that are important to know so when we’re going through the lesson everybody can focus on the concept rather than translating the words.

I’m also learning how the Edusystem works. It seems I haven’t been doing it right! I’ve learned that I have to assign a lesson in order to be able to download it. I’ll try to do it the correct way this week for Wednesday and hopefully it will go smoother!

As always, feel free to contact me regarding any questions or concerns you might have.

Tambien, muchos padres me han preguntado si hablo in español. Claro que si! Pero solo llevo 4 anos hablando español, así que mi español no es perfecta y hay que tener paciencia conmigo. Hablo con los niños todo el rato en ingles, pero entiendo que algunos no me entienden todo el tiempo. Por eso vamos a trabajar en vocabulario, y también a veces doy direcciones a algunos personas en español para asegurar que me entienden.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Ms. Gibbons