Great Website

Check out http://www.hoodamath.com/ for great games and math practice.  Let me know what you think

Our Research about the Katydid

Birds and amphibians are the katydid's biggest preditors.
Katydids and leafbugs are the same.
Adult katydids DO fly.

Monday's Community Circle

Today we started the week having a community circle about bullying. We read the book Bullies Never Win and shared some past experiences.  We also learned about blogging and how to be careful on the internet from BrainPop. 

"I enjoyed reading the book."   C.G.
"The book told us about bullying and how to stand up to bullies."  A.H.
"The BrainPop video told us to NOT cyber bully."    J.B.
"The BrainPop video also told us to never use our full name on the internet."   J.A.
"We also learned to not give out our personal information: address, name, birthday, gender."   A.G.
"Bullies will not bully you forever."   C.G.

Our Observations of a Katydid

At the beginning of the school year, we reviewed how we observe objects in our nature. This morning a 4th grade student in Ms. Wheeler's class found this Katydid on the railing.  

Here are some of our observations:

Block I 

It is green. The bug looks like a leaf. It looks like a cricket and grasshopper. It camouflages on green grass and green leaves. It has long, skinny antennae. It's legs are bigger at it's body and smaller at the bottom.
It has a narrow body. It looks like it has wings, so it might fly. It has creases like a leaf. It is an insect.
We can tell it has eyes, but they blend in with it's body. It's antennae blend in with it's body. You cannot see it's mouth.  It's legs are long so we can infer that it probably jumps. They also bend. It's head is much smaller than it's body. It looks like it is sticking to the measuring cup (which uses the metric system because that is the unit of measurement we use in science.) We infer that it can climb. It has tiny claws that may help it climb and grip onto objects.

Block II
It looks like it has veins. At first it looks like a praying mantis.  It looks exactly like a leaf.  I can infer it has really good camouflaging attributes.  It looks like it can stick onto other objects because it has tiny spikes on it's feet.  It's green. It is long and narrow like some leaves.  Their legs look like stems.  It's wings look like they can spread out more. It looks like it can make music with it's wings or legs.  They have the same features as crickets which help them jump and fly.

Here are some questions we have about the leaf bug:

Block I

What eats the leaf bug? How long does the average leaf bug live? Do they have mates? What do they eat?

Is it a male or female? Where is it's natural habitat? How long can it survive out of it's natural habitat...without food and/or water? About how many eggs can a leaf bug lay? Can it swim? How big can it grow?

How much does the average leaf bug weigh? Does he have wings? Do they fly? How high can and old and baby leaf bug fly, jump? Where on Earth is their habitat?  In warmer weather or colder weather? What do they look like when they are born?

Block II

What does it eat? Can it swim? Can it turn different color to camouflage into different types of leaves? Does it fly? What is the average life span of a Katydid? Do they change colors by the seasons? What is it's most feared predator? What is it's habitat? What is it's life cycle? How big can they get? Which is bigger, the male or the female?  Do the male and female look different? How does it defend itself? Does it lay eggs? How far can it fly/jump? Do they have a specific time of year that they have their offspring? Is it related to the grasshopper? Are ants their natural enemies? Do they change colors when they get older?

We will update you with our research in a week.  Come back soon to see what we have in store for you!

Math Mondays

Today in math we reviewed subtraction with regrouping.

For example:
  234
-129

We also talked about using model drawing when solving subtraction word problems.  part, part, whole 
Here is the link for more information:
http://thesingaporemaths.com/Whymodf.swf


Here are a few words from the class:
Math is fun!   A.T.
I like doing part, part, whole.   L.V.
I like working on the "Morning Glory" assignment."   E.B.
We did a lot of review today.  K.P.

Lake Somerville, Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone had an ejoyable Labor Day weekend.  I have attached some pictures from our trip to Lake Somerville.  I was amazed at how dried up the lake looked.  Take a look!

Meet the Teacher

Meet the Teacher was so much fun!  It was great to see everyone. We have a great class and a lot to look forward to. 

See you Monday!

Get Ready!

We teachers have been working hard.  We have had two days of technology training to help us better understand what we need to do to provide you with global information.  SBISD is taking the initiative to incorporate technology into the classroom on all levels.  We as educators need to adjust our teaching to better fit the way our students learn today.

To learn more about this initiative, you can go to:

http://novemberlearning.com/

Happy Monday Here At School

The teachers are up here at school working on what we are going to do this year.  I hope you are excited, because I am.

Practice your math facts every night!

New Blog, New Year

I am very excited about the '11-'12 school year. Hopefully everyone had a wonderful summer. This was possibly the busiest summer I have had yet!  My husband and I had the opportunity to go to the Bahamas, and we had a great time. I will post pictures soon.