Try Edmodo

Edmodo is a communication tool for teachers and students. Miss Frank is trying it out along with the other teachers of Charlevoix Public Schools. To join her class, you need a code. If you haven't recieved it already, email her and she will send it on to you.

Remember, this is a school thing, so keep it appropriate and try not to get too random :)

Get Well Wishes

Last week I had surgery on my knee for torn cartilage. I want to thank the class for all the get well emails and pictures and for doing a good job for Ms. Arnott. I have had no pain, but I have to be on crutches for five weeks instead of the one or so originally thought. Luckily I know I have a great group of students who will help me out! Wednesday I go to the doctor again and will know more then.

Surgery seems to be a thing this month in our classroom. Welcome back to one student who missed last week for a procedure, and good luck to another who had to go in today! I am thinking good thoughts for both of you!

Thanks again for the notes, but how did you get them to print in color! :)

-Miss Frank

Great Lakes Energy Visit

Today the ambassadors from Great Lakes Energy came to Charlevoix to teach us about electricity safety. It was awesome! We will always remember safety first! Thank you to GLE and to Mr. Russell for letting us use the bus garage and giving us a ride up there.

Animal Reports

 To wrap up our unit on ecosystems, each student did a report on an endangered species. We researched each animal and gathered facts from the Internet. Students put the information in their own words and typed up a traditional report. Then came the fun part! Students recorded their voices with pictures of the animal talking! Here is the marine turtle report. Click below to see the other reports.

Polar Bear
Spectacled Bear
Black Rhino
Chimpanzees
Amur Leopard
Saola
Tiger
Eurasian Lynx
Penguins
Tree Kangaroo
Blue Whale
Monarch Butterfly
Vaquita
African Elephant
Bearded Vulture
Giant Panda

More Great Authors

Everyone did a great job on our aviation poems, but these students were chosen as Authors of the Month. Congratulations!

Khan and Kane

Yesterday students logged into Khan Academy. It is an online resource with math activities and instructional videos that can be accessed from school or home. Students can earn badges and assign teachers and parents as coaches. Coaches can view activities and progress. We all love it!

Thank you to Dani for finding Rick Riordan's web site for The Kane Chronicles. Miss Frank is reading from The Red Pyramid after lunch each day. Students can find out more about the Kane family and Egyptian mythology at the site.

Flat Stanley Goes to Grand Rapids

This week students colored a Stanley from the book Flat Stanley. In the book, Stanley was flattened by a bulletin board and was able to do many special things due to his flatness. One of the things was it made it easier for him to travel. Students can mail their Stanleys to friends far away or take him on Spring Break. If they put together a letter and some pictures of Stanley's adventures, students can win a prize from the prize box.

One student gave Miss Frank his Flat Stanley, and she took him to a technology conference in Grand Rapids. They learned about iPads and other great computer resources and even visited the museum.

Making Circuits

Yesterday Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus series would have been proud of us. She tells her kids to "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy," and that is what we did! From a few boxes of wires, batteries, and light bulbs, we experimented and made electrical circuits!

Leap Day, Snow Day!

I hope everyone enjoys their day off. You know Miss Frank misses you all, but likes to be in her pajamas in the morning hanging out with her dog Gregor! Unfortunately we are missing today's great BrainPop movie on why we have an extra day in February every four years. It not only has information that went with our Earth, Sun, and Moon science unit, but also talks about multiples from math. While you are home today, watch the Leap Year video, comment on this post something you learned, and get a prize from the prize box tomorrow!

The Wright Stuff!

We have been reading about the Wright brothers and their famous first flight. Guess what showed up while we were practicing typing?

Our Authors of the Month

Congratulations to our classroom Authors of the Month for their great work on their web pages. It was a hard to choose from everyone's great writing!

We Recommend

For the past few weeks students have been working hard on their own web pages. Each student chose a book they have read, wrote a recommendation, typed that up, created art work to go with it, and put it all together. You can check out the amazing web pages by clicking here!

Economics in Action

As part of our unit on Economics, students worked together to run virtual lemonade stands. Each group decided how to spend money on supplies and how much to charge depending on the weather.

Christmas Motions

This week in math we talked about congruent objects and how to tell if one of the objects was slid, turned, or flipped. To finish the lesson, we found holiday clip art in Microsoft Word. Students copied and pasted each clip, and used the drawing tools to slide, turn, or flip the copy. The class then used the text box tool to label each motion.

Clickers!

The official name is SMART Response Wireless Remotes, but we call them "clickers." Our class has been using clickers throughout the year for classroom discussions and assessments. The clickers look like a television remote, but have a readout screen. There are True and False buttons, letters for multiple choice, and numbers. Students can even enter text into the remote. Clickers are a great way to increase interest and are much more fun way to answer questions than pencils and paper!

WikiCES

A wiki is a website that allows contribution and editing by its users. To learn about wiki's, our class is going to maintain and add to a webpage about our school: wikiCES. The wiki was started by last year's fourth grade students and will get better and better.

Grandparents, Friends, and a Parade!

We had a great day here in Miss Frank's class! It was "Grandfriend Day" and everyone had guests for lunch. Some students even got to show off their computer skills and fill in a favorites chart with their grandparent or friend. Thank you to everyone who came and made this a special day for all of the kids!

After lunch, the entire school went downtown for the Charlevoix High School Homecoming Parade. It was fun and we showed our Rayder pride by cheering for everything!

Book Orders!

Our first book order of the year is due tomorrow! The more we order, the more points we earn for free books to go in our class library. Please send in completed forms with cash or a check made out to Scholastic Book Clubs. If you would rather order online, you can go to http://clubs.scholastic.com/. Enter code JFC6L and our class will still earn points!

When I think back to when I was in fourth grade, I remember being very excited for book orders. I remember they used to have posters, and there was a great debate between the girls over the CHiPs poster: who was cuter, Ponch or John?

BrainPop!

Each morning during snack the class watches a BrainPop video. The animated movies are "curriculum-based content that engages students, supports educators, and bolsters achievement." Topics cover all subjects and many current events. After each video the class works together to answer quiz questions. You can see the featured video of the day at the bottom of this blog.

Glub, Glub*

*Translated from fish: Welcome to the first day of school in Room B-4!

Thanks to recent Charlevoix graduate and current University of Michigan freshman Katie Mays we have two fish to greet us each morning, including this very important morning, the first day of school! They get to live in the coolest fishbowl ever, a converted Macintosh Classic! Now, what shall we name them? Write your suggestions in the comments and we will have a poll to decide.