THANKSGIVING and CRAZINESS

I hope you all had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving Break! The kids seemed well rested and excited to be back at school! I missed them and am happy to be back as well!

Wouldn't you know that the day we get back to school we are told that we have to move rooms due to the air conditioner being replaced. Moving 21 kiddos into a room they are unfamiliar with without all of their things was just a little crazy! :) Regardless, school goes on and we are still busy in our temporary classroom! 

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

BOOK FAIR AND THANKSGIVING LUNCH!

It's an exciting time at ILE!!!!

The Book Fair starts tomorrow and will go through the 16th! This year the librarian has started something new! For every $10 a student buys at the book fair, my name will be entered into a drawing. After the book fair, there will be a drawing for a teacher to receive $200 or 2 teachers to receive $100 to buy books for her classroom! Sounds exciting! :)

Also, the Thanksgiving lunch is tomorrow!!!!! You are welcome to come and eat with your child! Lunch starts at 12:05! After that, parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and all other family members are welcome to go to the book fair and shop with their student!

Let's have a great day tomorrow!

Halloween!!!

Wow! What fun we had at the Halloween parade and party! Despite freezing and some rain, everything  was a huge success! Thank you to all the parents and family members that came and helped us to enjoy our day!

Here are some pictures of the Mummy Game! If you don't recognize your child, he or she may be wrapped! :)

Constructed Response Test & Other News!

Today we had our first Constructed Response Test. It was over fractions and the kids were terrified! I tried to assure them, as I will assure you, that this first one is just for practice and to get the kids used to seeing what kinds of questions will be on the future tests. I kept repeating my motto, "It is okay not to know, but it is not okay not to try." Needless to say, after 55 minutes of being tested on things they haven't learned yet, the class was a little frazzled. :)


This week is our canned food drive. We need to collect as many canned food items as possible! Please bring any cans that you can. (Pun intended :) )


Also, tonight is Skating Night for Indian Lake at Sumner Skate Zone from 6:30-9. (Across from the new Kroger Marketplace between Gallatin and Hendersonville.) The kids should have little advertisements about it in their take home folder today.

Our Halloween parade and party are THIS Friday, October 26. I have been asked many questions about this. The kids CANNOT come to school in their costumes. The parade starts at 2:00. I am welcoming parents to start showing up around 1:15. This is when we will start putting our costumes on and getting ready for the parade. The party is to follow the parade. Check your emails for the Room Moms' email.

Here are some reminders that we have been asked to pass along to you:

Students are not allowed to leave the school building until the bell rings unless they have been checked out by a parent.

If students are late, they must be signed in by a parent. This is a safety issue, and we need to know that the parent is aware that the student is tardy.

Thanks so much for your support and all that you do! Hope to see you Friday!

Science Vocabulary!

Organ System A group of organs that work together to carry out a job.	Organ A group of tissues that work together to carry out a job.	Tissue A group of similar cells that work together to carry out a job.
Competition The struggle among organisms for the things they need to survive.	Habitat The place an organism lives in an ecosystem.	Cell The smallest unit of living matter.
Ecosystem The interactions among biotic and abiotic factors in an environment.	Community All the populations in a habitat	Population All the members of a species that live in a habitat.
Producer An organism that makes its own food.	Prey An animal that is hunted by other animals.	Predator An animal that hunts other animals for food.
Omnivore An animal that eats both producers and consumers.	Herbivore An animal that eats only producers.	Consumer An organism that gets energy by eating other living things.
Food web The paths energy can take through multiple food chains.	Food chain The path energy takes as it flows from one organism to another in the form of food.	Carnivore An animal that eats herbivores and omnivores.
		Energy Pyramid A model that shows the amount of energy at each level of a food chain.

Daniel Smith Days!

I thought that some of you may interested in this!  If you have not yet visited Rock Castle, it is a FABULOUS treasure that we have right here in Hendersonville   

             

DANIEL SMITH DAYS!

Join Us! for this fun, family friendly weekend event on September 15 and 16!
Kick off the fall season by enjoying some 18th century Music, Native American Dance, Militia Reenactment, 18th century Fashion Show, Colonial Children’s Toys and Games and History Hunt Activity just to name a few.
For more information and to view a video of the 2011 Daniel Smith Days please visit our website at www.historicrockcastle.com
We’ll see you there!

Short Week!

I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend! I was in Georgia all weekend for my nephew's wedding. (Crazy to have a nephew only a few years younger! :) ) As I tried to think of all of the things I needed to do over the weekend, I forgot the newsletter! AHH! I'm so sorry! I will get it home tomorrow, I promise! Hopefully you will forgive me! :) We have had a great couple of weeks and I am so excited about our class and all the wonderful things to come!

Author's Purpose PIE

Today we learned about the Author's Purpose PIE! You should definitely ask your child about this! The author's purpose is why authors write. The PIE stands for persuade, inform, and entertain. These are the three main types of writing that we will be talking about this year.

I know that we all have busy schedules, whether it be dance or football or soccer, but I would really love to have your help and support when it comes to AR Reading at night. If there seems to be a constant issue getting this done, please do not hesitate to talk to me about it, and we will see what we can work out!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

If you ever have any concerns or questions, please email me!

kathleen.mckinney@sumnerschools.org

Assignments, Up and Running!

YAY! I got the assignment board to go to the correct place today! It will be under the "Now Showing" tab on the home page! Great week so far! Keep it up!

Assignments 8-20

I've been trying to upload the picture of the assignment board, but I haven't been having the best of luck. Sorry! So I will just post the assignments here!

Reading -- Read 20 minutes in AR book. (Parents need to write page numbers and initial.)

Spelling- Workbook page 1 (most finished this in class)

Bring picture forms back before Thursday!

That's it for today! Have a great night!

Day 1.... CHECK!

YAY!!!! What a great first day! I am so glad to have such a bunch of superstars in my class! We had a great time today getting to know each other, learning the procedures, and making the rules! Some kids have checked out my classroom library books. Please make sure that they know they need to check them back in tomorrow and they can check them back out over the weekend!

No homework tonight!

I am so very excited about this year! We had a wonderful first day and I can't wait until tomorrow!

(You should definitely ask your kids to sing to you what 7x12 is! :) )

Have a wonderful night!!!!

Delay of School, Yet Still at Work!

Wow, I could have never imagined that my first full year of school would start out like this! I am still extremely excited to start school and I hope that you and your children are as well! 

I have been going up to school and making sure that everything is perfect in the classroom and I feel more comfortable now, knowing that when the students come in, we will all be completely ready! 

Don't forget that your child will still need to be able to tell me about the BEST thing that they did this summer! (Can't be this week :) haha!) 

I really hope that we will start school ASAP. Let me know if I can do anything for you or help you in any way! Thank you for all of your support! I hope to see you very soon! 

Welcome!!

Welcome to our classroom website!  We have a lot of "stars" this year!  I will be updating this website weekly, so don’t forget to check it often.  Check under the “Peek at the Week”  tab to see what we will be covering in class in each subject area for the upcoming week.  Also, check the “Spelling Words” tab to see this week’s spelling list!  I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you this year 


Be sure to explore my site and look at the exciting links I have posted!

Mrs. McKinney

4th Grade... Watch out!

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be back in 4th grade! Well... this time I'll be in front of the room rather than in a desk. Still, so exciting! I have been working like crazy in my classroom trying to get everything together. Although I have done 7 interims and worked pretty much an entire year and a half as a long term sub or a day-to-day sub, this whole room-to-myself-I'm-the-one-responsible-for-about-20-kids'-learning is kind of   really making me nervous! I know the content, I know how to teach, it's just still somewhat nerve wracking.  


So, my mom (who taught 6th grade --blech :)  for 35+ years) came this past weekend to help me in my classroom.  (Remember that I have already been working in there and had worked probably for about 10 hours in there..) The first thing she says when she walks in is, "Well, I see why you needed help." Great, what an encouragement! :) We worked really hard for about 6 hours and then 2 hours on Saturday, and it's safe to say that I feel much better after her being here and straightening out my brain.. and my classroom. Thank goodness for my retired teacher mother! 


Anyways, there will be many more posts to come... I am ecstatic about being a teacher and as daunting as the task seems, I can't wait for this upcoming school year!