Bones

Enjoy your interior skeleton keeping your brain safe. See your brains on Monday!

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Positive Encouragement

Parents, ever appreciate when a boss or co-worker tell you about a great job you did?

Students, is it nice to hear the teacher say some positive ideas about your work?

Keeping it positive keeps everyone encouraged and motivated. Love and Logic suggests to be encouraging without giving away answers, problem solving strategies, or the solution to a problem

See how you can give some one some "noggin" today!


The turtles are also a reference to the text for this week's story "Emerald's Eggs." A class looks for turtle eggs hatching on the beach while learning about different turtles.


Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.

Wordle

Have you made a Wordle before? You can type, copy and paste text, or paste in a website and the Wordle site will combine the words into a Wordle!

Later this year we will be taking student writing and pasting it into the Wordle program to see which words are repeated most often (the larger font on Wordle) and how much variety in vocabulary students are using.

The Wordle above is of our classroom blog from the last few weeks! See what I've been talking about the most? Hint...it has to do with reading, books, railroads, and some pesky crocodiles!


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Encouraging Reading

Read! Read! Read!
Our class is participating in the book it program, our school's Accelerated Reader program, and our daily homework of reading 30 minutes each night.


Some nights are easier than others but here are some ideas about how to squeeze in some reading time without a fight.

• Make sure the book is on their level. Too easy is boring and they will quit, too hard and they're frustrated. AR levels at our library will help!
• Interesting books. Know what interests your child and encourage them to find books in that genre.
• Owning favorite books. Repetition is helpful to improve fluency and comprehension. Reread that favorite book again.
• Keep a supply on hand. Our school library paired with a home or public library selection should give your child several options when it comes to reading time.

When will we get all this reading done?

• While on the go. How much time is spent on a commute, running errands, driving to practice? Keep books in the car to always have one available. A milk crate or extra backpack of books will keep them safe.
• While waiting. Waiting for sister's soccer practice to be over, waiting at an appointment, waiting for dinner to be done. Reading while waiting fills in a wasted empty time and has a clear end mark - when dinner is ready!
• Evening routine. Every night after dinner set the timer for 30 minutes, read 30 minutes before bed time, 30 minutes before any TV time, 30 minutes while dinner is prepared. Have your child agree on a time and stick to it!

Keep it special

• 1 on 1 time. Spend time with your child individually as a special part of the day.

• Family book. Read a book together as a family and enjoy the exciting plot and adventure that many children's books have to offer.
• Location. Reading is much more enjoyable when you are comfortable. Find cozy places to encourage your child to read.

• Praise. Reading can be tough work. Giving your child verbal praise for their accomplishments.

• Rewards. Our goal is to have reading be a reward in itself. To help kids get there, programs like book it, lunch with the teacher, or rewards set up at home can help guide the way.

• Tracking progress. Keep a list of books read, hours read, minutes read, or something to help chart the progress your child is making.

• Ownership. Owning a book can be a meaningful connection to the characters, plot, and information in a book. Inexpensive ideas include thrift stores, garage sales, used book stores, Scholastic book clubs, or trading books with friends.

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Pikes Peak Plants

Alpine Tundra plants

Montane Forest

Lodgepole and Ponderosa Pine

Clouds in the Montane Forest

Aspen in the lower forest region

Check Out more plants and animals in the Colorado Life Zones here.

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Parent Teacher Conferences

Have you seen the note about Parent Teacher Conferences?

Have you sent it back?

Conferences are a critical time to communicate A LOT of information. Please double check your avaiability and confirm your conference time with me as soon as possible. If you have any special accomodations or questions ahead of time please let me know!

Here are some parent tips for making sure you get the most out of our conference!


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Colorado...The Beautiful

Want to sing along? Go to this post here!

click on the picture to zoom in

A line by line explanation of the poem by Katherine Lee Bates

Some Purple Mountain Majesties indeed!

A Cog Is...

So What is a Cog?

A cog, or rack, railroad uses a gear, "cog wheel", meshing into a special rack rail (mounted in the middle between the outer rails) to climb much steeper grades than those possible with a standard adhesion railroad.

See the middle part of the railroad track? Where there are 3 parallel lines instead of the standard two? That's where those cog's are. This helps climb the steep sections and keep a slow decent on the way down.

An adhesion railroad (regular train on flat distances) can only climb grades of 4 to 6%, with very short sections of up to 9%. This is measure as the number of feet in elevation gained for every 100 feet in distance. A "rack" railroad can climb grades of up to 48% (such as in Switzerland), depending upon the type of rack system employed.
Here is the explanation from the US Department of Transportation.

Q-2. What is the maximum grade hill a railcar can climb?
A. Railroad
grades are more or less determined by available locomotive horsepower and
traction efforts required to pull a specified number of railroad cars up a
grade, as well as the braking effort required to control the movement when going
down the grade.

Railroad grades are expressed in terms of the rise or fall of elevation
over distance. For instance, a 1 percent grade would be a one-foot rise or fall
of elevation over a distance of 100 feet.

The Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway Cog can travel at up to a 25% grade going up the mountain. It reaches a top speed of 9 miles per hour.

Above the clouds at the top of the mountain. There were 2 cog's running the day of our trip. There are sections where the two can pass on parallel tracks on the mountain.

Learn more by going to the Pikes Peak Cog Railway Site.
Pssst! Did you see the new pictures in the slide show on the left side of the blog?

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Name that Plant

Who can remember what kind of plant is in the picture from a hike I took this weekend?

Hint...state grass!

Invention Books

Thanks to the tremendous October Book Order our class each received a free book about Weird Inventions. Also, thanks to all the parent online orders I have coupons to order 5 free books with our next order! Wow!!!

Enjoy reading your new book! Maybe you'll become an inventor someday.

A problem is an opportunity to become and inventor! See some great inventions and their history here!

Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.

Up..up...and in the clouds

Our trip up the mountain

Above the clouds

Watching the wind whip the clouds off the ridge

Cog Railway Preview

Here is a video about the view from the Cog railway from the train during the spring and summer months. Hope you are ready for our trip!



Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.

StoryNory

Here is a great website that has audio of many classic children's stories. This week we are reading "The Three Cyberpigs" which is a retelling of the classic "The Three Little Pigs" story.

Check out Storynory.com to see this and many other audio books.

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America The Beautiful

Are you and your child excited about our trip up to 14,000 feet? Listen for some inspiration about the view from the top.


Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.

Orders Due Friday

Book Orders are Due FRIDAY

Friday October 7, 2010

Check here for details about how to order online and earn a FREE book for our class!

Pikes Peak Field Trip

We are preparing to take a field trip up to the top of Pikes Peak via the Cog Railway.

This field trip is to support our social studies curriculum in learning the different life zones of Colorado. Students will be able to observe the differences in the areas as we gain elevation toward the peak.

While on the train and hopefully at the top students will spend time writing and reflecting about the trip and the view. We will also be referring to Katherine Lee Bates "America the Beautiful" which was penned on the top of Pikes Peak.

Please refer to the field trip permission slip, information sent home, and me for any questions!

Give your child a few minutes to prepare background knowledge by letting them search the Cog Railway site and their educational materials!

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Biscuits for Dinner - Cooking with Kids

Not sure about dinner every night this week?

This week in our reading series we are reading "Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World"

Maybe try having biscuits for dinner, (and make your 4th grader help!!)

Cooking is a great skill, and uses math, reading, and problem solving with a delicious result.

Here is a recipe from the Food Network.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup buttermilk, chilled

DirectionsPreheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.)

Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.
Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round.

Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter (or the mouth of a drinking glass), being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

Book-It

Here is a video helping to explain the Book-It program.

http://www.bookitprogram.com/ReadLeague/videos/racetosavethewords_video.html

The Book-It program has been going for over 25 years encouraging students to read. If students in our class meet their reading goal they will get the free personal pizza certificate in addition to some other non-food related celebrations throughout the year. Food is one way we can celebrate but it is important for kids to know there are other ways to celebrate besides eating!!

Students will come home with a calendar each month and will try to meet their goal of reading 30 minutes EACH day. Parents, please hold your students accountable for this task as it is one of the most beneficial types of learning students can do at home without any extra help!

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Online Reading Materials

This morning my reading class worked on the reading website.

We looked at how to find the materials for each week's story, the vocabulary, and the focus skill for that week.

Please feel free to read, use and explore any of these materials at home!

Students do need their district user name and password to log in. My class has these in their planners on a label, so check it out!


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Preposition Poetry

We're working on learning about Prepositional Phrases and writing free verse poetry with a variety of prepositional phrases!

Posts on More Than the ABC’s may include links to external websites. Links to external sites are not under the editing control of the author of More Than the ABC’s. Please ask that children use adult supervision when visiting websites outside of this blog, especially YouTube. While there are many great videos, please considering the ability for the public to post and comment on videos on YouTube.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5

Check out our book order. Pre-order a paperback copy of the newest of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Books" book five coming out in November. Students who order it in the October book order will receive stickers and we will receive the books when they come out.

See all 5 books and a genre discussion on our blog here!