Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

On December 21st/22nd there was a lunar eclipse. This is the first time there has been a lunar eclipse on the same day as the Winter Solstice (first day of winter) in over 300 years! It won't happen again (on that day) for another 84 years! Here are some pictures I took of the eclipse, just for you! :)










Want some extra credit? Find out what a lunar eclipse is and how/why it happens. Write a paragraph and turn it in to me at school!

I've missed you all over the break and looking forward to seeing you all again in the New Year! Guess what? The windows are done and we should get to move back into Room 12 next week! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Twas the day before Christmas Break and all through the school

Not a student was behaving, they broke every rule;

The stockings were all hung by the cubbies with care,

Hoping their teacher would soon be there.

The children were squirming all bored in their seats,

While Jonah danced around the room, and kicked up his feet;

And Arianna in her scarf, and Dylan in his cap,

And Bailey asleep, taking a nap.

When out in the hall there arose such a clatter,

Lacruz sprang up to see what was the matter.

Away to the windows Adam flew like a flash

Leanna tore open the blinds and knocked over the plants!

Daelyn and Braven wanted to know,

While Marcos and Nicole ran to and fro,

When what to Shilaine’s wondering eyes should appear,

But a mean, mean teacher, we all thought to fear.

She came closer and traveled much faster,

Tynen knew in a moment it must be Miss Jaster!

More rapid than cheetahs she snarled as she came

And whistled and shouted and called us by name:

Now Brett! Now Gavino! Now Katatrina and Sabrina!

Shush Aricca! Shush Kevin! Quiet Dallas and Carl!

Sit in your seat! Get out of the hall!

Now be quiet! Be Quiet! Be Quiet All!

Miss Jaster was mad, we didn’t know why.

She lifted her hands and let out a sigh,

She said we were too noisy, she said in a rush.

She made us sit down and told us to hush.

And then in a twinkling she let out a smile

She opened her bag and dumped out a pile.

The presents were scattered all over the ground.

We had the coolest teacher around!

She was dressed all in black from her scarf to her shoes,

We got sat quietly waiting to hear her good news.

A bundle of gifts she picked up from the floor.

She gave us each one, but we wanted some more.

Her eyes how they twinkled! Her smile how merry!

Her cheeks were like roses, her nose like a cherry!

Her amused little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And she let us outside to play in the snow!

We ran and we rolled, we tumbled and threw,

The snow was so fresh and practically new!

She got hit in the face and once in her toe,

Then she got us all back by throwing some snow.

She was funny and smiled, and wrote silly poems,

And we learned a lot from many different tomes.

A wink of her eye and a twist of her head

Soon gave us to know we had nothing to dread.

She spoke not a word, and we went straight to work.

She filled all our stockings; then turned with a jerk.

Laughing and smiling she looked at us small and tall

And told us we’d been the best class of all;

She sprang to her desk, to her class gave a grin,

“I can’t wait till next year when I’ll see you again!

I hope you enjoy my poem remake!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good break!”

Test Prep Vocab Jeopardy

Test Prep Vocab Jeopardy

Here's a link to the jeopardy game we played today to test our vocabulary skills.
Play at home to help you study for Friday's test!! Just click the link above!

News from Room 8

Just a few reminders...

Thanks to all the students who performed in the Christmas Concert last week, you did a beautiful job!!

December Book Reports are due on Dec 15. You may turn them in as late as Friday the 17th for full credit and your pizza certificate. You may turn them in after break, but you will lose 10 points and Your pizza certificate too. I am not allowed to give you your December Book-It certificate in January!

I sent home Scholastic Book Orders last week. They are due back to me or on Scholastic.com (our class code is GKMRN) by 8:30am on Thursday, Dec. 9th. Hopefully they will be here before we leave for break. : )

The Food Drive is still going on, it ends Dec. 16th. Donate if you can. Ask your family, neighbors, & family friends to donate cans or other non-perishable items. I think we can collect even more food than last year! Our class nearly has 200 items already! I think if we try really hard we could double that number by the 16th! Keep up the good work! You guys rock! :)

Santa's Giftshop will be open this week in the old gym. We will go as a class on Monday to preview items, and on Friday to purchase things. You may also go any day you like at recess or lunch.

~Miss Jaster

Scientist Links

Here are some helpful links for your scientist reports.

Famous Scientists
Famous Scientists 2

Famous Scientists for Kids
Wikipedia



Here's the footprint image for your scientist's mock birth certificate.

We've Moved!

We've moved! Just temporarily due to construction on the windows but you can now find us in ROOM 8. Yes, we've all been assigned to detention for a week! :) So excited for our new windows though! :) I'll post before and after pictures once we get to move back in!

Looks like we'll be in room for a while longer... they broke the wall when they pulled out the windows. :(

Bats!

Here's a cool video from the Cincinnati Zoo about Flying Fox Bats!

Tulips

On Friday we planted tulips for Red Ribbon Week. Every student in the whole school is planting one as a promise to be drug free. When they come up in April they will remind us of our promise.
Miss Jaster's dad came out to help us since he knows a thing or two about gardening.

First we had to dig a hole & fill it with soil and plant food.

Then we put our tulip bulbs as far down in the hole as we could,
covering them with more dirt and pant food.

Then we poured some water over them.

Then we added even more soil.

Maybe we just wanted to play in the dirt?

Sabrina scooping up handfuls of dirt for her tulip.

Dallas finishes filling up his hole with dirt.
All ready to grow now!

I think these guys were tired of digging!

GOING BATTY!!

We're learning about bats in science.
Here are some helpful links for your bat reports.


FLYING FOX

GREATER MASTIFF BAT

SPOTTED BAT

GHOST FACED BAT

If your bat is not listed above go to this page: ALL ABOUT BATS
The rest of the bats for this project can be found there.

RED RIBBON WEEK

Here's the schedule for this week's Red Ribbon Week activities.

Monday: Cowboy Day~ Dress Western Style
8:15 Assembly

Tuesday: Crazy Hair Day~ Do something daring with your hair!
8:15 Assembly

Wednesday: Wear Red Day, Drug Free Rally at Courthouse 7:45 am
Walk to School from the Courthouse*
{You MUST have your permission slip signed for this!}
2:15 Honors Assembly

Thursday: Sports Day~ Dress Sporty!
1:15 pm Soccer Game- 5th Grade vs. Faculty & Community

Friday: Black Out Drugs Day~ Wear all black.


PROUD TO BE DRUG FREE AT HULET ELEMENTARY!

Pig House Project

As an extension to the story in our reading book, "The Three Little Cyberpigs,"
each year we challenge the 4th graders to create their own house out of materials they have around. The house had to protect the 3 pigs from the wolf. Here are this year's submissions.

Jonah's House of Toast. This was a favorite of many.

Bailey used cardboard & tinfoil.

Marco's house had get-away cars!

Sabrina used wax covered paper cups.

Adam's house was camouflaged to hide it from the wolf.

Arianna's house had barred windows to keep that wolf out!
I really love the pop can tabs across the top!

Brett made the piggies a high rise apartment.

Katarina's pig house had a cool interior like a maze to confuse the wolf!

Gavino's house had a device at the door to "clothesline" the wolf if he tried to get in.

Dallas used fire to keep his wolf at bay,
see him trying to sneak down the chimney?

Bubble wrap and Styrofoam make the wolf bounce right off this house by Leanna.

Shilaine used leaves to camouflage her house form the prying eyes of the wolf.

Tynen covered his house with funny papers so the wolf will laugh himself away!

Daelyn made a tepee for her piggies, complete with a rug that she wove herself!

Nichole's house was made of wood and mud and was guarded by a fierce army of doggies.

BOOK ORDERS!

Online Ordering Information
Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: GKMRN
DUE BY WEDS. OCT 27

Dear Parent,

Now it’s easier than ever to find the perfect books for your child—shop our NEW online Book Clubs Web site. Choose from a much-wider selection of books than in the printed flyer. Plus, you can send your orders directly to me online and use your credit card to pay.

Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.

It’s so simple! Here’s how it works:

• SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, register by clicking click the “Don’t have a user name or password?” link. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me.
  
  
• SELECT the books you’d like to order—choose from thousands of titles—many more than in our monthly flyers.
  
  
• SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child’s books will be delivered directly to my classroom.

Ordering online is fast, easy, and secure.

Of course, you can still order using the form from the printed flyer. But why not see for yourself how convenient it is to order online?


Thank you,
Miss Jaster

Fire Prevention Fun

Last week was fire prevention week at school.



We all look so stylish in our fire hats.

We met Sparky...




We learned a few things too!






Do you remember E.D.I.T.H. ?

Exit
Drills
In
The
Home




Practice getting out of your house with your family.
Be sure to have a meeting place, and don't go back inside for ANYTHING!




If you ever do catch on fire...
STOP, DROP, COVER YOUR FACE, & ROLL




I hope you have smoke detector....
Did you remember to TEST them??
Do that once a month!!!
Replace the batteries once a year, whether they need it or not!
Make sure your family has a fire extinguisher too! :)

THANK YOU HOLBROOK FIRE DEPARTMENT FOR KEEPING OUR COMMUNITY SAFE!
(& for the awesome fire truck rides!) WE LOVE YOU! :)

For more fire safety tips visit SPARKLES THE FIRE SAFETY DOG!

Wordle

Here the link to Wordle from the Weekly Reader.
For extra credit put all your spelling words into a wordle and print it out! :)

The Book Fair is Coming!

Here's a preview of the book fair that will be at our school next week.
CHECK IT OUT HERE!



Our class will be visiting the book fair at 11:30 on Wednesday.

Game Links

Here are those 2 games we played in class this week that you all loved so much!

ANTONYM JEOPARDY

ANTONYM BATTLESHIP

Have fun practicing! :)

Starry Starry Night

Today in class we drew "Starry Night" in chalk. Tonight's homework was about the artist of the painting, Vincent Van Gogh. Here's a neat little video showing all of Van Gogh's self portraits.



Why did Van Gogh paint himself so much?
Was he vain? No. The answer is in his own words below.

I purposely bought a mirror good enough to enable me to work from my image in default of a model, because if I can manage to paint the colouring of my own head, which is not to be done without some difficulty, I shall likewise be able to paint the heads of other good souls, men and women.”

~ Vincent Van Gogh

Here's a link to an interactive Van Gogh Exhibit by The Metropolitan Museum of Art
where you can learn about Van Gogh's life & work and also try drawing a picture like him!

Red Tide Vs. Oil Spill

Oil Spill

Red Tide

This week in science we were reading about two interesting topics, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the natural phenomena of red tide. Each student wrote a paper comparing and contrasting the two.

Red tides and oil spills are alike in many ways. They both are hard to clean. Another reason why is they can make people sick. They can hurt and kill people. The oil spill and the red tide hurt a lot of animals, that is why they closed the oceans and beaches, so people won't get hurt. The oil spill and the red tide both spread very easy.
Oil spills and red tides are different in many ways. The oil spill is thick and brown. The red tide is algae and is different colors. Red tide is a natural disaster. The oil spill is a human caused disaster.

~ by Aricca



Images from: http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/redtide/general.html & http://www.skubble.com

Silly Bandz

If you're a kid or know a kid chances are you know what Silly Bandz are.
They're these groovy bracelets that are shaped like different things when they're not on your wrist, but on your wrist they look like a regular bracelet.
They can also be so distracting that some schools in the country have banned them.
Here's what a couple of your classmates had to say about that idea.

Should schools ban Silly Bandz? Here's what I think. I think schools should not ban Silly Bandz. They help kids express themselves. Also, you can see what they like. That's why I don't want them to ban Silly Bandz.
~ Brett

Should schools ban Silly Bandz? I think schools should ban Silly Bandz. Silly Bandz distract students from listening in class. Silly Bandz give you bad grades. Silly Bandz make teachers mad. That's why I think Silly Bandz shouldn't be at school. Kids don't listen and don't finish their work becuase of these bracelets.
~Nichole

Goodbyes : (

We were very sad to learn that Carl was moving away this week. : (
We'll miss you very much! We're very glad you were able to come say good bye to us and take a couple pictures to remind you of all your good times here.

Dennis also moved a few weeks ago, and we didn't even get to say good bye. We miss you too!!
You boys weren't part of our class for long, but you'll be part of our hearts for always!

BOTH OF YOU, if you're reading this...please contact Miss Jaster by email (kjaster@holbrook.k12.az.us) and give us your new address so we can write you lots of letters!!

School House Rock!

I bet some of your parents remember watching these videos when they were in school!
I know I do!




Here's a link to games about subject and predicate and more videos.
Types of Sentences Blog

True North

Last week in class we were learning about directions. We made Compass Roses in Art/Social Studies, and then created our own compasses with magnets in Science!

To Create Your Own Compass

First, rub a needle on a magnet 20 times, in the same direction to magnetize the needle.

Then, float the magnet on a piece of foam in a bowl of water.
It should turn and point North!
(It worked for all but one of our groups, because I think their foam got too wet.)

Bailey, ready to magnetize!

Brett & Katarina, watching their compass point North!



Here are a few of the compass roses we created!