We have been studying the Civil War in class this week.  We are learning just how many supplies those soldiers needed in their tents.  Do you know what a haversack is?  We found out!

There is a 100 Monkey Moolah Reward Posted for Information Leading to the Capture of the Leprechaun who surprised us today.  At approximately 10 am Hillsboro Elementary time, the leprechaun made his way into the Elementary office to drop off a package of loot.  His only request…to leave his pot of gold alone!   While the class enjoyed their loot, we are still wondering….who are you sneaky little leprechaun?  We are on the case, analyzing handwriting, examining the box, and creating some REWARD posters to hang around the building.  You can run little leprechaun, but you can’t hide from these 4th grade detectives!

What does it look like outside YOUR window right now?  So far it looks like we have about 1/3 of a foot!  Does anybody know how many inches that is? Here’s a view from my window…

You know the routine… parents ask “What did you do in school today?” and kids respond, “Oh, nothing.”  Well, hopefully today, students went home and didn’t respond with a nothing.  We listened and watched carefully as astronaut Nicole Stott read a Dr.Seuss book to us in a live webcast from NASA.  The event was in honor of Read Across America and Stott shared information with us about how reading is important, no matter what your job in life may be.  We had the privilege of viewing the webcast from the SMARTBoard in our classroom. It lasted about one hour and Stott is about to head off to live on the International Space Station for 4 to 6 months.  What will she pack for this long trip?  Lots of books to read, of course.

On March 6th, parents and friends of our class will be getting an “inside” view of what it’s like in our classroom. Students will be showing the feature film “A Day in Mrs. Venosdale’s Class. Over the next few days, we’ll be taking pictures and video to put together this film. We hope that you will join us!

We have been hard at work researching the rainforest, reading “The Great Kapok Tree,” and students worked in teams to turn their research into a board game or PowerPoint presentation that answered the question “How does the destruction of the rainforest affect us?” In the board games, students had to use their knowledge of the rainforest to develop chance cards that related to real-life rainforest situations. These games are GREAT! Here are some of the fabulous student created board games below.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today we enjoyed gigantic ice cream sundaes at, when else? 9:30 in the morning! But, it was Valentine’s Day and well, it was also early out. After our delicious breakfast, we went to lunch. Thanks to everyone for the delicious toppings!

One of our favorite websites to visit in class is the eTHEMES Calendar.  We enjoy that it is updated every month and packed with sites that relate to holidays, special events, and history.  Check it out for yourself, and you’ll see why we like it so much!

I can’t believe it’s been a week already! It seems like we were just stacking tissue boxes on the floor and moving in our new supplies yesterday? You know that old saying, time flies when you’re having fun? Well, we ARE having fun in room 117. We’re not just a classroom, we’re a team!

This week we read “Because of Winn-Dixie” and brushed up on our addition and subtraction skills. I gave students several different puzzles and they were up for the challenge!

We are enjoying our wonderful new computers, the freshly painted walls, and in spite of the heat outside, we’re keeping really cool in our classroom.

The first day of school is just around the corner! Wondering how many minutes until the first bell?