10/13/11

This blog will SOON be moving to my classroom page on the NEW Okoboji Community School District website.  For the next few days, I will post my blog both here and on that new site.  Starting next week, everything here will be officially moved to my classroom page!  I still have a homework section, weekly Joke/Trivia section, and basically all the information that you are used to seeing here.  You should have received some information in the US mail earlier this week about joining the classroom page(s) for your child's/children's teacher(s).  Let me know if there is anything I can help you with in this transition!  Click here for Mrs. Duvall's Classroom Fusion Page

What a great day in 4th grade!

Math - We took a test over some of the basic math facts.  Students are currently working on different strategies to help them learn the multiplication combinations that they are struggling with.  For example, if 11x11 is a tricky fact for me, I might think to myself, "Well, 11x10=110 and then I just need to add one more group of 11 to that, so the answer is 121."  We have also talked a lot about factors, multiples, and products, so see if your student can tell you what each of those is!

Science - We have a few groups left to share nutrition projects, and we are also just beginning our unit on digestion.  We will talk about the route that food takes through our body when we eat it, and what each part of the digestive system does to help the process of digestion.

Social Studies - We are beginning our inquiry unit on why people move and travel places.  This unit will include lots of research on US states and lots of new vocabulary as well.  This is our year-long unit on US states and regions.

Language Arts - We are wrapping up our "Journeys" unit, and next week we will move on to "American Stories."  Students will also be starting a new small group book next week.  Some students will have a new small group reading teacher next week, while most will keep their current small group reading teacher for another book.

Reminders:
* October 17-21 - Character Counts Week - note to come home tomorrow with Friday papers
* October 17-21 - Food Drive for Upper DesMoines - bring in canned and boxed goods!
* October 26 - story map book report due
* October 27 - Pioneer Parents Fall Festival at 6:00
* October 28 - No School - Teacher Inservice

Have a wonderful evening!!

10/7/11 - PiONEer Spirit!

(Yes, the football players were refusing to smile for our picture today.  They thought they should look "tough!")  

We've got spirit, yes we do!  We've got spirit, how about you?  We had another 100% participation day for spirit day today!  For showing such great school spirit, and since it is homecoming week, I gave each student a maroon and white Okoboji Pioneer bracelet to match their spirit gear!  Let's not just have school spirit this week, but all year long!

Homework:
* Math - page 15 in packets
* Science - Final draft of nutrition paragraphs due Tuesday
* Social Studies - None
* Language Arts - Story map book report due October 26
* Mrs. Duvall's Guided Reading - None
* Word Journeys - None
* Music Reports due Monday

Reminders:
* Music reports due Monday
* October 26- Story Map book report due
* October 27 - End of 1st Quarter
* October 27 - OES Pioneer Parents Fall Festival @ 6:00
* October 28 - No School - Teacher In-service

Have a fabulous weekend!!

10/6/11 - Our Pioneer Pride Shines Bright!

100% our class wore yellow today!  I'm so proud that we are showing our school spirit!  Of course, students have also found that we like to give treats to those participating in our Pioneer Pride days, making it just a bit easier to remember what color to wear each day!  :)

Homework:
* Math - page 13
* Science - None
* Social Studies - None
* Language Arts - Story map book report due October 26
* Mrs. Duvall's Guided Reading - None
* Word Journeys - study for test tomorrow

Reminders:

* Wear maroon and white tomorrow for spirit day!

* OHS Homecoming Parade at 2:30 tomorrow!

Enjoy your evening!  See you tomorrow in maroon and white!

10/5/11 - The Grass is Greener on the Pioneer Side!

We had another day of 100% participation in our school spirit day!! 

Tomorrow, the theme is Shining Bright with Pioneer Pride!  Wear YELLOW!

Homework:
* Math - page 9 and 10 in packet, as well as the Multiplying by 0 and 1 worksheet in the multiplication packet.
* Science - rough draft paragraphs due tomorrow
* Social Studies - None
* Language Arts - Story Map book report due October 26
* Mrs. Duvall's Guided Reading - Chapter 8 summary
* Word Journeys - 10 sentences due tomorrow

Reminders:
* Wear YELLOW tomorrow!
* October 7 - Wear maroon and white for spirit day!
* October 7 - Homecoming parade at 2:30

Have a wonderful evening!

10/4/11 - We're Red Hot with PiONEer Pride!

We had 100% participation for Red Day today!  Good job 4th graders!  Way to show your school spirit!  Tomorrow's theme is: The grass is greener on the Pioneer side!  Wear GREEN!

Homework:
* Math - None
* Science - None
* Social Studies - None
* Language Arts - Story map book report due October 26
* Mrs. Duvall's Guided Reading - Chapter 8 summary
* Word Journeys - 10 sentences due Thursday

Reminders:
* Wear green tomorrow
* Answer the new joke on here by Friday!
* October 5 (tomorrow) - Walk to School Day
* October 6 - Wear yellow
* October 7 - Wear maroon and white!
* October 7 - OHS Homecoming Parade at 2:30

Have a GREAT evening!  See you tomorrow in green!  I'm walking to school tomorrow...are you?

10/3/11 - Orange You Glad to be a PiONEer?

Happy Monday, and Happy Homecoming Week!  We had lots of kids show their school spirit today by wearing ORANGE!  Tomorrow is: We're red hot with PiONEer pride!  Wear RED!

We had a busy day with our curriculum work as well!

In math, we are getting into our multiplication unit and working with arrays.  Today, each student received a number, and their job is to come up with all of the arrays that go with that number in order to find all of the factors (eg; for the number 8, the arrays would represent 1x8, 8x1, 2x4, 4x2, and therefore the factors of 8 are 1, 2, 4 and 8).  We will continue this project tomorrow and learn some new vocabulary as well!

In Science, we are wrapping up our nutrition unit this week!  We are finishing up our food posters and will present them to the class on Friday.  I will try to take some pictures of our final products and post them here on the blog.  We are also writing a paragraph this week to go with our nutrition unit.  We did some sentence work today and filled out our paragraph hands, a graphic organizer to help us organize our thoughts before we begin writing paragraphs.

In Language Arts, last week we read a story about the Titanic.  This week we are going to do some more research on the who, what, when, why/how of the Titanic and then we are going to make Glogs with our information!  A Glog is an on-line, interactive poster.  When we are finished making them, I will post links to them on this site! 

We are not having Social Studies this week in order to fit in the rest of our Science projects and our Titanic Glogsters for Language Arts.

Homework:
* The only homework I assigned is in Science: paragraph hands - due tomorrow!

Reminders:
* Wear RED tomorrow!
* Answer the new joke on here by Friday!
* October 5 - Walk to School Day
* October 7 - OHS Homecoming Parade at 2:30

Have a GREAT evening!  Go out and support the Pioneer football team tonight if you get a chance!

School Spirit Days for Homecoming Week!

Don't forget to wear ORANGE tomorrow to show your school spirit!

Since this week is OHS Homecoming week, we decided we would like to show our school spirit at the elementary, too! We will be wearing a different color each day this week.

* Monday - Orange you glad to be a Pioneer (wear ORANGE)
* Tuesday - We're red hot with Pioneer pride (wear RED)
* Wednesday - The grass is greener on the Pioneer side (wear GREEN)
* Thursday - Pioneers shine bright (wear YELLOW)
* Friday - Spirit day (wear MAROON and WHITE)

I am posting a new joke to the blog tonight!

See you tomorrow!