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 

Weekly Update 9/22-9/26

Science: 

-In Science this week we are learning about life cycles, life spans, incomplete metamorphosis, and complete metamorphosis. We are in the process of creating some beautiful metamorphosis mobiles that show the stages of the life cycle of a butterfly. I plan on hanging these around my classroom for my students to see! We will have a quiz Friday over what we have covered this week. Students should study their vocabulary and notes over metamorphosis in their interactive notebooks. 

Homeroom/Common Core: 

-In Common Core this week we are learning about sentence fragments, and run-on sentences. In our centers, we are covering spelling, main idea, and creating patterns. Our spelling words for the week cover Long O and are posted on spelling city  http://www.spellingcity.com/morgantaylor1/. We will have a Spelling, Grammar, and Automaticity test on Friday. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! 

Weekly update 9/15-9/19

Science: 

-In Science this week we will be reviewing Invertebrates and Vertebrates. We will be taking a quiz over everything we have covered about Invertebrates and Vertebrates on Friday. Students should study all of the pages in their interactive (purple) notebooks that cover these topics. We will also play a review game in class to help them be prepared. Studying these notes at home a little each night is a great way to be prepared to get a 100 on the quiz on Friday! :) 

Homeroom/Common Core: 

-Our spelling words for the week are listed on spelling city. They can be found at the following link:  http://www.spellingcity.com/morgantaylor1/ Note: This link will remain the same throughout the year. 

-Automaticity papers were sent home and should be on the keep side in the red folder. If a student did not pass, their test can be a source to practice from. Students can also continue to practice on math magician or any app that tests multiplication facts. 

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns! Have a wonderful week!! 

~Mrs. Taylor 
morgan.taylor@corbin.kyschools.us

Weekly Update 9/8-9/12

-In science this week we will be studying all about vertebrates! 

-For common core/homeroom, we have a new spelling list. You can view the list and have your child practice on spelling city. This version is different than what they have used in the past because we are using the free version instead of the purchased version. I will post the list each week on this website so that students can view and practice spelling words at home. http://www.spellingcity.com/morgantaylor1/ 

-To practice automaticity at home students can visit Math Magician from a desktop computer. This website will not run on an ipad or iphone. Any app that has students practice multiplication facts would also suffice. 

Looking forward to a great week in 4th Grade!! 

~Mrs. Taylor 

Amazing Arthropds!!!!

I hope you will take a moment and check out the amazing arthropods we created in class. The students loved working on them and did an amazing job coming up with some very creative projects. They are currently on display near the front office along with the rest of the 4th grade science classes completed arthropods. Have your child show you which one they created! Have a great week!

Mrs. Taylor 

Invertebrate Project

Dear Parents, 

On Wednesday, September 3, 2014 our science classes will be creating a model of a spider or insect to go along with our arthropod unit! This will be an in-class project. I am asking that you please gather materials that you may have from home, to help your child build a model with their classmates. We will all be working on these projects in class on Wednesday and Thursday. Please have all of your materials brought in by Wednesday. Below, I have listed examples of items that will be useful when creating these projects. 

-paper towel holders 
-toilet paper holders
-aluminum foil
-pipe cleaners
-paper plates
-cotton balls
-q-tips 
-tissue paper
-google eyes
-washable paint
-liquid glue(craft)
-newspaper
-balloons
-foam 
-fabric scraps
-Styrofoam balls

Anything that you can send will be greatly appreciated! Thank you for all of your help! 

Mrs. Taylor 

Hello Everyone!

I am looking forward to an exciting week in science class! This week we will be dissecting earthworms and the highly anticipated squid! I am so excited to share these experiences with my students. Based on how much fun we had when we dissected gummy worms last week, I know we are going to have a blast! On Friday, we took our first quiz over the scientific method. The quiz consisted of 6 matching questions. The grading scale is as follows:

90-100 = 4
70-89 = 3
50-69 = 2
49-1 = 1
0 = 0

Due to the nature of the quiz and the grading scale, if students missed one they inevitably missed another and ended up with a low score. For example, students who got 4/6 correct (67%)  received a 2. If your child scored a 2 or below, I wrote on their paper to study and re-take the quiz. I will give them another opportunity to retake the quiz tomorrow. I wanted to clarify the grades, since this is a new system we will all be adjusting to. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. With that being said, please encourage your child to study their scientific method foldable on pg. 4 tonight if needed.

Homeroom/Common Core (8/25/14-8/29/14)

This week we will begin spelling in our homeroom. Our spelling test will be on Friday and the words are as follows:

1. sum
2. flat
3. plum
4. bell
5. grim
6. plot
7. band
8. bluff
9. dock
10. blot
11. odd
12. left
13. cash
14. mill
15. past
16. shelf
17. wealth
18. crunch
19. hint
20. build
Challenge Words
21. hypothesis
22. character
23. setting
24. period
25. value

Again, if you need anything from me please let me know! Thank you and have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Taylor

morgan.taylor@corbin.kyschools.us

Week of 8/18-8/22

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to check in and let everyone know what is going on in our classroom this week. We are diving straight into content! We will begin by learning about the scientific method, something we will use very often throughout the year in our classroom. We have several fun things planned that I know everyone will love. I originally thought that I would use this website to update nightly with homework. However, after talking with the other teachers on our team, we will use the website to keep you updated about what we are doing in class and use it for important reminders as needed. In addition, we will also send out remind101 text if it is very important. 

In regards to homework assignments, students will keep track of homework assignments on their planner sheet. The planner sheet is located on the back of the weekly discipline sheet and is kept on the back side of the red folder. Whenever students have a homework assignment, they will be required to write it down on their planner sheet and will be given the time to do so in class. This will be a great way for students to become more responsible. I hope you will encourage them to reference their planner sheet at home. 

Also, every Friday the weekly discipline sheet will be sent home with students and will need to be returned the following Monday with a parent signature. You may notice that your child still has his/hers in their folder tonight. Since I was out on Friday, I gave students the opportunity to take them home again tonight to get them signed. I will take up all of the signed papers tomorrow.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me and I will help you in any way that I can. 

Thank you and have a great week! 

Mrs. Taylor

First Week Update

Hello again!

 We have been working in our homeroom classes this week getting to know each other and going over important procedures for the school year. Tomorrow (Thursday), we will practice switching classes and will go to each of our block classes for around 30 minutes each class so that students can meet the rest of our team and become familiar with their daily schedule. On Friday, we will follow our normal class schedule all day long so that we can start out on Monday the way we will every day this year. 

Unfortunately, I will not be in class on Thursday and Friday. I recently lost my brother in a freak accident and will be out of town attending a memorial for him at his military base. I'm sad that I have to miss in the first week of school, but know that my students will be in great hands with plenty of fun things that I left for them to do while I'm away. I look forward to getting back on Monday and seeing their smiling faces. I consider each of them as a blessing to me during such a difficult time in my life. I can wait to watch them grow and progress throughout the year. Based on the last three days, I know great things are in store for each of them! If you need anything before Monday, send me an email and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you and have a wonderful day! 

Mrs. Taylor

Hello Everyone!

We had a great first day a Corbin Elementary! I hope you and your child had a great transition this morning and this afternoon. The only thing that needs to be completed for tomorrow is the brown bag assignment that I sent home with students today. If you have not sent back the paperwork that was sent home along with the $30 supply fee, please send them when you have the chance. If you need to contact me you can call or e-mail me at morgan.taylor@corbin.kyschools.us and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Also please make sure your child has their red folder and brings it to school each day. Here is a video that I shared with the students today from the kid president. I hope you enjoy!