Sunday, September 29, 2013

Homecoming Week

Here are some fun pictures from Homecoming Week. 
This week Hulet students got to dress up, too!



                                    

 We were SPORTY...


Wore CRAZY HATS...


 
Wore SPORTY HATS...


Sported CRAZY HAIR...






Some crazy beautiful ...
like a flower fairy. 
Some just CRAZY...
like a Dr. Seuss Character! 




Even the TEACHERS were CRAZY!! 
(well, more crazy than usual)








** You may notice a face blurred out here & there in these photos. This is because I don't have permission to post pictures of those kids on the blog, but they happened to be in the group photos.


Sunday, September 22, 2013

Beautiful Kids, Beautiful Cultures




The other 4th grade teachers were so impressed by my students' cultural posters they asked us if we'd share. So Friday we had a mini assembly that was presented by my class. My students all wanted to share, but there just wasn't enough time so I put them into groups by their cultures and let them share one or two things about their culture. A few of them happened to have traditional dress of their country so they even dressed up. Look how beautiful they are representing the cultures of India, Mexico and the Navajo people!

Tanisha

Dustin

Elena



 I just want to say how proud I am of ALL my students! It's not easy to get up in front of a group of 75 of your peers and speak, but they did a beautiful job. Seriously, after school the other teachers gave them so many complements I was almost in tears of joy. I have a beautiful group of kids this year and I can't wait to see what else they can do!  <3 nbsp="" p="">

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Cultural Posters: Part 1

After reading a story ("Pedro Puts on a Play")where a boy has to share his culture with his class, I decided since I have such a culturally diverse class, it would be a cool assignment for my kids to do.
I asked them each to make a poster representing the culture or country they came from. 

This is just a small selection of them, I don't have time to share them all today.
 I'll share some more next week.  :)

 Elena is of Mexican, Scottish, and Navajo heritage. 
I love how she included pictures of herself in traditional dress on her poster! 
The kids all thought Haggis sounded really gross, but I intend to try it this summer when I visit Scotland, just to say that I have. I'm brave like that. ; )



Nick created this poster about Native American Heritage Day, 
which is celebrated the day after Thanksgiving. Lots of great pictures on this one! 


Emely created this poster specifically on Mexico City which is where her mother is from.
The kids were very interested to learn about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and how people spend the night in the cemetery visiting their loved ones. Emely explained that it's very different in Mexico, cemeteries aren't scary and on Dia de los Muertos there are many people in the cemetery, making it seem almost like a picnic or party. She also brought in some Mexican money for them to see.

Tanisha shared with us the culture of India, a place I've always been fascinated with. She told us about a holiday that just passed called Raksha Bandan, where the sister ties a bracelet on her brother's wrist and feeds him sweets. Then he has to give her a gift.  The kids thought this was a cool tradition. She also told us about atraditional  Indian wedding where the girls get henna painted on their hands (she had just been to one and her hands were still painted), and the bride wears a red or pink sari. 



Eli shared his Finnish heritage. 
The kids thought it was really cool that "Angry Birds" was developed in Finland,
 and that it was kind of gross that Finns eat reindeer. 







Top Monster

Miss Emely has held the Top Monster trophy 3 weeks in a row! 


How does one earn the Top Monster trophy?

We use Class Dojo for behavior management in class. 
Class Dojo is an awesome app/website that lets me communicate with parents weekly regarding their child's behavior in class. I just input points as the kids earn them using my computer or phone and the website emails the parents a report every Friday. I think I've had more parent interaction this year so far than the last 2 combined, simply by using this program! If you're a teacher check it out! If you're a parent of one of my students and you haven't signed up to get email reports, contact me and we'll get you set up! 

Students can earn points for participation, teamwork, helping out, turning in their homework on time, returning signed papers, doing their class jobs, writing a weekly math story problem, doing extra credit, filling out their daily sticky note sharing what they learned, mastering skills, staying on task, being creative, and wearing their spirit shirts on Fridays. 

Students can also lose points for things like: not turning in their work, talking in line, being disrespectful, being off task, having a messy desk, being unprepared, not working quietly, and not getting along with others. 

Why Top "Monster"? Class Dojo uses monsters as avatars for the kids (and they can design their own monster) plus my door has a giant Minion ( from Despicable Me) on it, so I made it a Monster themed trophy. It's an honor, not meant to be demeaning and the kids love having that little Minion on their desk!

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Musical Fun

One of the fourth grade lessons in music is learning the notes from the treble staff (FACE). As homework Mrs. Self gives each 4th grader a paper plate to turn into a face. This year some of my students made some awesome faces! Check these out!


Made by Elena (Left) & Tanisha (Right)

Made by Kaitlyn.