Awards, Projects and more...

I can't believe it! Our "Daily Blog" has been nominated as one of only eight classroom blogs in the country for the prestigious Edublog awards! In the field of education, this is very big. This remindsme that we have to remain consistent with our posts (oops!) but the kids love it and I'm glad this reinforces their hard work. Please go to this site to vote for our class to win!

Second, our California History projects (missions and such) are due on Monday. Remember that EVERY student needs to give a brief oralpresentation. I suggest that they practice and become familiar with 5 simple facts about their topic, nothing too intense.

Lastly, if you have read this far (and hopefully voted for a blog to win) please send a Post-it or other note with your signature and the word "VOTE" on it to school with your child (along with the Weekly Review). Your child will receive a free gift! The purpose of this is simply to give incentive for parents (and kids) to read this newsletter.

Veteran's Day weekly update

A few short notes:
We began our new math curriculum this week. We were using Houghton Mifflin and now we are using Saxon Math. I am piloting these math programs to see which one we will use next year. Thanks to the students for being flexible! One difference you will notice is that students will use paper folded into 15 sections to complete their 1-30 homework problems. They will usually receive 30 problems a night and they must show any work. Don't worry, most of these problems are pretty easy ;)

There is a holiday "party" after school on December 3 for all 4th and 5th graders. Please email Samantha Holt of Armed Services YMCA at sholt@camppendletonasymca.org for more info.

Remember, there is a 4 day weekend, so keep your kiddies until Wednesday!

Multiplication

As we progress through our conference week, I thank all parents for being so punctual. It's tough fitting in 32 conferences and it makes it easier when everyone is on time. I also thank parents for their patience if they have to wait outside for a minute or so while I wrap things up with a previous conference.

Some common themes I see with fourth grade students are math facts and reading fluency. Multiplication facts are the basis for many, many math skills in fourth grade. The term for this is scaffolding, as we can't build higher math skills if we don't have a solid foundation in the basics. How can we divide or reduce fractions if we don't know how to multiply?

To practice our math facts, specifically times tables, we have been studying one group at a time, such as 4 times tables this week. After every group (a week or so), we take a large quiz (100 questions on all facts). I chart the student's progress and tell them how they improved.

Our usual routine is to use triangle flash cards or play a multiplication game, then take a 100 question quiz on that specific times table. Sometimes I will ask students to think of 2 to 3 facts to make sure they know, as it's easier to focus on a few then 100!

Ask your child about triangle flash cards. Students love to use them because they are more dynamic than traditional flash cards and they get to make them themselves.

Stay tuned for the next post about reading fluency!

Image courtesy of www.newmanagement.com

Weekly update- mid October

A reminder about a few things:

This Friday is our Fall Festival (4-7pm). This is always one of my favorite MFP events! I will be hosting a game along with some dedicated parent volunteers. Please stop by to say hi or even help out. In addition, we are in need of donations for our class gift basket. Our theme this year is "Car Wash" (car care). If you can donate any new products that go along with this them that would be great. Car soap, protectant, sprays, brushes, sponges and other things would be perfect. Anything will help though.

Please remember that next week we have half days for parent/teacher conferences. Please be on time for your conference, as there will be other parents waiting for the next conference. Also, if something comes up please let me know.

Thanks to all the parents who check their student's homework every night (although it is only required to sign them over the weekend). Please make sure you are also checking the work that comes home with your child. Most of our work comes home on Friday and includes graded tests and quizzes. You can double check these things online at www.engrade.com

Field Trip, library books and classroom update

We have several events coming up this week, including our field trip to see Sleepy Hollow. This is on Thursday, so please remember if you have preordered a lunch. If not, remember to bring your own from home. We are sorry that we are unable to accommodate parent chaperones, but space in the actual theater is very limited. In the future, we would love to have parents join us. Please see the Pendleton Press for additional events, such as Photo Day and fundraiser deadlines.

This week, we continued with adding and subtracting numbers, including rounding to certain place values first. One area where students usually have difficulty is in subtracting across zeros. For example, 1000-872. Students need to know when to borrow and which number become 9 and which have 10 added to them.

Some students are learning how to create ToonDoo educational cartoons, which yuo can view on our Creativity Blog. The students are still studying plant sin Mrs. Moore's science class. They need to make sure they study for these tests and take all of their homework seriously. Remember to view your child's grades online and discuss positives and negatives with him or her.

What story did we read in language arts this week? What story will we read this coming week? Ask your child; get engaged.

Lastly, Thursday will be our library day and all book sneed to come back that day. If a student wants to check a book out again it must be RE-checked.

Update for Sept 18, 2008

Happy Wednesday! From a teacher's perspective, these minimum days go by way too quickly. There are so many things to teach in fourth grade and truly so little time. Please review the daily activities with your child and check over their homework. Also, remember that grade are online, so hold the kids accountable. If they received a poor grade, why? What can they do better next time?

I am always being asked if there is anything we need in class and I have an idea. I have a pot for a plant, but no plant to go into it. Its a small pot, maybe one that could be filled with a little guy from the dollar store or something. Something hardy would be best. If you can donate a small plant that we can pot at school ( we have soil) that would be great. We only need one, so if you can do it, please just post a comment to this post so others will see and know it has been taken care of.

Our blogs are up and running. Many students have already written their own post for our Daily Blog and some are working on projects for our Creativity at Work blog. YOUR JOB: read them over and post a short comment at the bottom. This is very inspiring for the students. Please see this link to learn more about blog comments.

Update for Sept. 12, 2008

Many thanks to all the parents (and students) who visited for Back to School Night. Additional thanks to those parents who joined us on our Sept. 11 Freedom Walk.

If you missed the presentations, one of the newest additions is the availability of grades online. You can visit Engrade.com and enter your username and password to view the grades. Please note that the grades there may not be the exact grades your child will receive on his/her report card because there is an element of subjectivity, as well as other factors that play a part. Small slips of paper with individual access codes will be coming home. If a student loses this they will have to pay classroom money to receive another.

Please email me with any other questions, comments or concerns.

Weekly Update 1

Week one complete. So now we know what fourth grade is like. Well... kind of. This week was pretty easy. We spent a lot of time on rules, expectations and procedures. Homework was light, but my expectations for how it needs top be done were laid out. Next week we should be more on track, despite it being only four days long.

Please check your child's planner every evening and look over any work. This really helps them to succeed and also shows that you take a sincere interest in what they are doing. On Fridays, work from the week and papers from the office will be handed out and sent home. Please get in the habit of checking your students work that is sent home, as this will include graded tests. Your child's homework on Friday is to have you sign the bottom of his or her planner when it comes home on Friday. You are not required to sign it every day (for now), but you are encouraged to look at it.

Our Daily Blog is up and running for this year. Check it out!

This next part is very important. Parents need to be aware that some procedures may change throughout the year. I am trying a few new systems in the classroom and they may need to be modified to best serve everyone. Thanks for being flexible.

Parent letter from the first day

I thought I may as well post the letter that went home. I copied and pasted it, so the formatting may a bit off.

Dear Parents and Caregivers,
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as your child’s new 4th grade teacher. I’ve taught in this district for 6 years, and this is my third year teaching 4th grade at Mary Fay Pendleton. I sincerely hope the coming year will provide a positive learning experience for your child. I look forward to meeting you at Back to School Night. In the meantime, I hope this letter will answer many of your questions. You may reach me at (760) 731-4073- my direct line in the classroom, or 731-4050- school office. Please be advised that the classroom phone will go directly to voicemail during the day. My preferred method of communication is email, as I do not check voicemail very often.
Thanks in advance for being flexible with classroom assignments. Your child’s placement is subject to change as our enrollment fluctuates. Please understand that this is equally difficult for our school staff as it is for students and parents.

Homework:
Your child will have a weekly planner. I ask that your child bring the planner to school with them daily along with a notebook they were given. These items are to be treated like gold. They are very important to student learning and there will be consequences for loss. In terms of homework, I will not assign any homework without teaching the concept first. Please help at home by supporting your child as he/she does homework by providing him/her with a quiet and undisturbed time and place with undivided attention from you. Your child is encouraged to bring home any textbooks (especially math), but it must come back the next day! We are fortunate to have our entire math book online this year.
A new math concept is taught daily in our state aligned math curriculum, and your help is crucial in reviewing each day’s lesson that evening. Your child will likely have math homework 4 days a week, which re-teaches that day’s new math concepts. We use similar practice pages for our classwork.
Don’t panic too much at the math, because most of everything they will be exposed to this year is a repeat of all that they were introduced to in 3rd grade. Each concept is generally expanded or taken up a notch in 4th grade. If we are to have a math test that week, I’ll try to include practice materials in the homework. The best thing your child can do to increase math proficiency is learn multiplication facts (times tables). Please, please, please focus on this!
If children have difficulty with the practice/homework materials, make sure they understand the material because that is what the test will be about. Use the textbook, class notes and online resources!
Some evenings your child may bring home a workbook for that night’s Language Arts homework assignment. We work out of that same book in class, so it is important that your child remember to return these workbooks to school each day. Try helping them get into the habit of returning homework and workbooks into their backpacks as soon as homework is finished each evening. I appreciate your help in familiarizing your child with this routine. I will not accept excuses and there are indeed consequences for non-compliance.
In addition to the homework that is typed in the grid, your child may have unfinished classwork to do as well. This should be written in the planner as well and completed for the next morning. Your child will likely need some time to get used to doing all classwork in class. This may result in more homework than expected some nights. After a month or so, students will learn how to manage their time better. Students who have a “ton” of homework at night are likely not using their class time wisely.
Homework will be checked first thin gin the morning when we arrive. If homework is incomplete, done poorly, rushed or eaten by the dog the students will miss recess that day and be ineligible for HOT time (see below).


Supplies:
Suggested supplies for your child are:
• 1- 3 ring binder with hard cover. 2 inch is preferred. Doesn’t need to be fancy.
• Pencils, erasers, and a hand-held silent pencil sharpener with a catch for pencil shavings. I have a limited amount of pencils for them to use, but students love to bring their own. I do not allow noisy sharpeners in class, so their options are to use one of mine or use their personal sharpener. However, students do not need to have their desks look like Office Depot. Bring to school what you need and reserve the surplus for when it is needed.
• Clear pencil pouch with 3 holes to put in notebook. This is not mandatory, but will certainly help.
• I would also love to have little trinkets and gifts for our prizes and drawings. These can be little things like erasers, pencils, small things form the dollar store, Oriental Trading items…

Snacks:
Students will have a snack break every morning at 10:30. Their lunch is not until 12:20, so if you decide to send a snack, please send a nutritious one, such as fruit, yogurt, vegetable sticks, crackers, unsweetened dry cereal, nuts, pickles, hard boiled eggs, half a sandwich, healthy granola bars or dried fruit snacks. No desserts or soda, please! No drinks are allowed in the classroom except water, but please do not freeze the water bottles as water condenses on the desks and creates a mess. I encourage students to keep a water bottle on/ by their desk.

Volunteers:
I look forward to having volunteers help with some things in the classroom or taking certain tasks home. It may take some time to get a volunteer system going though. Please send me a note if you can help out in that way, or sign up at Back to School Night.


Discipline (www.kootmansclass.com/behavior):
Our classroom rules are as follows:
• Speak in quiet whisper voices
• Respect each other and each other’s property
• Listen to and follow directions the first time
• Don’t stop others from learning
These rules are posted in the classroom. Respect for these rules should allow us to enjoy a well-disciplined class in which everyone can learn. Reward rather than punishment is stressed.
We have a card color system and all students start the day on green. If they turn their card to yellow or red, they will lose recess the next day. It may seem cruel and I know that students need their recess, but that consequence can be avoided by simply completely all homework in a sufficient manner.
One of the fixtures of our classroom that I love the most is our “Above the Line Chart.” Ask your child what it’s about.
“H.O.T. Time,” is a 4th and 5th grade recess time every Friday at 2:00PM. Students look forward to this free time very much and it works as a huge incentive. A student will lose HOT Time for not turning in a completed homework assignment or Reading Log on any given day.
We have many routines and procedures which the students will get used to very quickly. We will customize these for our classroom environment to better suite the needs of everyone in room 40 as the year goes along. In other words, things may change in order to get the kinks out as I learn the specific needs of our students. I thank everyone in advance for being understanding and helpful. I always appreciate constructive feedback that will help us all.
There will be a simple and brief quiz tomorrow on rules and procedures. Please discuss this sheet with your child.
We have a classroom website that has lots of helpful information. Please take some time to visit and explore www.kootmansclass.com. There are several blogs that have frequent updates. In time you will learn what to expect and where to go to find resources to help. If you have a suggestion for a new section of the website or a tip I would love to hear it. For now, tune into the Classroom News blog for updates.
Please sign and return the next page so I know you have read these explanations with your child. Thank you so much for your involvement and support with your child’s education.

Respectfully,

How many trees did we kill?

Wow! There were a lot of papers that went home the first day of school. Please review them and return the six that need returning. These six include: white health form, white student info card, white email slip, white parent letter acknowledgment, green internet form, pink library permission slip and 12 Ginsu knives. Whew! If you call now, you'll also get ten free stain removal kits as our special gift...

Teacher Trainings and fourth grade team

I've been busy this summer. In early August I finished my masters degree in educational technology and shortly thereafter attended a five day AVID training in San Diego. This program focuses on study skills and organization for upper elementary students. I'm excited to implement some of the new strategies I learned.

I'm also piloting the new math program we will be using next year. This year I will be testing 2-3 different math programs. The one I will be using for the first eight weeks is Houghton-Mifflin. One feature I like already is that the entire textbook is online! Stay tuned for links.

Lastly, I'm excited to work with my new fourth grade team members. Mrs. Moore is teaching fourth grade this year (down from fifth) and Ms. Barone is joining us as a new teacher (she did her student teaching here 2 years ago). Sad to see Mrs. Polyascko and Mrs. Swanlund go, but I wish them luck in their new assignments.

School Hours

Just a heads up to those students/ parents who have attended Mary Fay Pendleton in the past. This year we are changing the school/ class hours. Take a look at the new schedule here. You'll notice that most of the start times are about 10 minutes earlier, which allows for shortened days on Wednesday. These Wednesdays will be used for staff development and planning. Ultimately your child will have the same number of instructional hours though. If you have never attended Mary Fay before...... well then you wouldn't notice the change anyway :)
~Mr. Kootman

Collections and donations

I want to remind everyone to collect as many Box Tops for Education as you can. They look like the picture here and are found on many products that you and your family probably already buy. Keep in mind that these little things are worth ten cents each to our school and that they really add up when we get enough of them. We also look for old cell phones and printer cartridges. Thanks for supporting our school!

A list of classroom/school donations will be posted in the coming month.

Introduction

Hi all and welcome to the latest of the Kootman’s Class blogs! I originally intended this blog to simply showcase the bi-weekly newsletters that I write for and about the class. However, I soon realized that there are many more opportunities for me to share things, such as classroom events, reminders, requests and even personal events that I am undertaking.

As with all the blogs my students and I maintain, feel free to leave comments below each post. Suggestions are always appreciated.


Here you will find the many of the newsletters from the 07-08 school year.

Temp posting

just a place holder