Weekly Update 1/7/15

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break and is getting back in to the swing of things for 2015! Some important information for this week: 

-We will have a quiz over the rock cycle on Friday. In addition to the notes that we have taken in our interactive notebooks, students can watch the following brainpop videos and the quizzes that follow.

https://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/rockcycle/

https://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/typesofrocks/

Data Notebooks will be sent home on 1/9/15!

Have a wonderful week! 

~Mrs. Taylor

Weekly Update 12/3/14

Important information for this week:

-Target Word packets were sent home yesterday, they are due Friday before the test. To study the words at home, use the packet or visit the spelling city website
http://www.spellingcity.com/morgantaylor1/

-We will have a Science quiz Friday over Earthquakes and Volcanoes. In addition to studying in their purple notebooks, students can also watch the following videos and take the quizzes that go along with them.

Brainpop Username: corbins Password: redhounds

https://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/volcanoes/
https://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/platetectonics/
https://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/earthquakes/

http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/rocks-minerals-landforms/volcanoes.htm
http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/rocks-minerals-landforms/earthquakes.htm

-For those of you wondering about accessing i-Ready on ipads and other devices, I found a way to make it work for now!! YAY!!! If you download the puffin app (free version) on your ipad or device,  you should be able to access i-Ready through the puffin browser without any trouble. I tried this on my classroom ipads and it worked. Hopefully this will help get some more students on i-Ready at home. Although we are pushing i-Ready on our students as a competition, this is a great way for our students to receive instruction in Math and Reading that is individualized just for them. Please help us by encouraging and allowing your child the chance to use this program at home if Internet access is available.

If there is anything I can do to help you or your child out, please let me know. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!! :)

~Mrs. Taylor

11/19/14

-We will have a short quiz over the layers of the Earth on Friday 11/21/14. Students can use the Earth Science section of their interactive notebooks to study for the quiz. They may also view the attached video on Earth's Structure on  Brainpop and take the quiz that follows. The username for brainpop is corbins and the password is redhounds

-All 4th grade students will be attending the career fair on Friday during their Science class. Students can dress up for the career of their choice as long as they let me know what they will be dressing up as.   

-Please allow and encourage your child to work on i-Ready Math and Reading if you have internet access at home. We are starting a school wide competition using the i-Ready program. The competition is actually a collaborative effort between Mrs. Thomas and myself as part of our leadership project as first year teachers. Students should have brought home a letter today about the i-Ready parent night on Monday, November 24, 2014. We have some great incentives in store for our students who are working hard on this program. Of course, I want my students to be at the top of this competition!! I have truly been amazed by how hard they have been working to complete lessons! If you are free on Monday, I would love to see everyone at the i-Ready parent night to share more information about the great things this program can do for our students. 

-For now, keep up the great work! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help anyone out! 

I hope everyone is having a great week!! 

~Mrs. Taylor 

Target Words and Science Quiz 11/13/14

Important Info for Friday 11/14/14 

- We will be having a quiz over the Life Cycle of a Plant. Students should study in their purple notebooks to be prepared. We played a review game today that also helped them prepare for the quiz. 

-We will also have a Target Words test. Our target words for this week are listed on the Spelling City website. http://www.spellingcity.com/morgantaylor1/ Students will need to know how to spell the word along with identifying the meaning of the word. 

***If internet is available at home, please encourage student use of i-Ready Math and Reading.
Listed below is the link for the student log in page. 
https://cainc.i-ready.com/

Weekly Update 10/27-10/31

Wow! Time is flying by! I can't believe we are already into our second 9 weeks of school! We are making a few changes in our 4th grade classes and are starting to incorporate more grammar and writing into our science class time. With this change, students will now have spelling during their time spent in my classroom. This includes students in my homeroom, Mrs. Henson's homeroom, and Mr. Smith's Homeroom. Our Common Core/Homeroom time will be used to review and expand on Math and Reading skills. We will continue to do Automaticity during this time starting back next week!

Important Info:
-We will have a SCIENCE quiz on Friday 10/31/14 over the life cycle of a plant and photosynthesis.
-No School Monday 11/3/14 or Tuesday 11/4/14!
-Quiz over editing marks and parts of a letter when we return on 11/5/14. This will be during Science class.

If you have any questions, please let me know! I hope everyone has a great week!

Morgan Taylor
morgan.taylor@corbin.kyschools.us

Lung Model Bonus Points

Students can earn 5 points on their lowest quiz grade if they bring in a homemade lung model on 10/9/14! Here are two examples of lung models that we viewed in class today and another that I have added that they can use to help.

Weekly Update 10/6/14-10/10/14

Science:
- In science this week we are covering body systems. Last week we learned about adaptations and created some of our own organisms with adaptations that helped them survive in their environment. On Friday (10/10/14), we will have a quiz over adaptations and life cycles!

Homeroom/Common Core:
-In common core time this week we are learning how to write a paragraph. We are also reviewing some of the things we have covered over the past several weeks. Our spelling words for this week are all about prefixes, they are listed on spelling city http://www.spellingcity.com/morgantaylor1/. We will have a spelling and automaticity test on Friday! 

Keep Calm... Next Week is FALL BREAK!!!! :)

I hope everyone has a great week! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!!  

~Mrs. Taylor