Math with K'Nex

Today in class, the students created lines, line segments, rays, angles, and quadrangles using K'Nex. Here are some pictures of the students while constructing their figures:

Our First Friday

With only three days this past week, who would have thought we would have gotten so much accomplished? Today your child will be coming home with his/her first Friday Folder of fourth grade. Included in the Friday Folder will be a "cover sheet" with a review of our weekly activities and some reminders for next week. You will also find three Scholastic Order Forms ~ Lucky, Arrow, and Click ~ with an information sheet on how to order. Please send in orders by Thursday, or if you wish to order online, you can go to:
Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: GTGQX


Here are some of my "Picks of the Month"

LUCKY
Diary of a Wimpy Kid #5 ~preorder and it will arrive November 10th
Beesus and Ramona
Geronimo Stilton novels
101 Freaky Animals
100 Things You Should Know About Explorers
Adventures in Cartooning
Fudge Collection

ARROW
Percy Jackson & the Olympians~The Lightning Thief~ and others in the series
Ripley's Believe It or Not 2011
Children's Thesaurus
National Geographic Kids World Atlas
Slightly Odd United States of America
Dear America novels
Mad Libs

CLICK
If you order from this catalog, you will receive a $5 coupon for the October Click Order!
Kid Fit Island Resort (WII & compatable with balance board)
National Geographic Dog Town (CD Rom)
World Championship Spelling (Nintendo DS)
Type to Learn 3 (CD Rom)
Video Game Tycoon Gold Edition(CD Rom)
Think Smart (Nintendo DS or WII)

Wonderful first day!

We had a wonderful first day today! This morning, I collected all of the summer math packets and summer reading posters. I gave a tour of the classroom and went over the school/classroom rules. We gathered on the carpet to read the story Math Curse, about a student that sees everything is related to math. After lunch, the students had a chance to introduce themselves by completing an "All About Me" informational paper. To share stories about "Our Summer Vacations", we wrote postcards and 'sent' them to Oxford Central School. At the end of our day, the students worked with a partner to complete a "First Day" puzzle, which we will complete tomorrow. I'm looking forward to an exciting year!

September 1, 2010

Back to School 2010

Hello Fourth Graders!

The summer is coming to an end, but it is a time of great excitement! I am starting to set up our classroom so it is ready for September 1st.

Oxford is providing most of the supplies you will need for the school year. The following is a list of the supplies that you will need to bring to school with you on the first day:
 1 pocket folder – pick a “fun” design for your homework folder
 1 jumbo and 3 regular sized stretchy book covers
 1 zippered pencil case – to hold all of your school supplies
 1 pair of scissors – child sized, preferably Fiskars brand
 4-5 pencils –pre-sharpened – NO mechanical pencils
 1 glue stick
 1 pack of 3x5 index cards

Donations of the following items can be sent in at any time during the year:
· sandwich sized “Ziploc” or slider bags
· gallon sized “Ziploc” or slider bags
· paper towels
· hand sanitizer
· baby wipes (for cleaning desks)

A homework agenda book will be provided. I have markers, crayons, and colored pencils, but you may bring small packs if they fit in your pencil case. Please DO NOT bring in Trapper Keepers or any other type of binder. They are too large to be stored in your desk.

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions: hdowd@oxfordcentral.org

:)
Mrs. Dowd

2009-2010 YEAR IN REVIEW

First week of school

Halloween party

Mitten sewing

Canal projects

Liberty Science Center

10th anniversary of Bill Sloan visiting our class

Ocean floor models and oil spill clean-up

Field Day

Last week of school - NJ t-shirts and Agriculture Feast

Bill Sloan's Visit 2010

Our truck driver friend, Bill Sloan, came for a visit today all the way from his home in the state of Washington. The kids asked Bill some questions in the classroom, then we went outside to see his truck and Mr. Shorty, his Jack Russel Terrier. Since this was the tenth anniversary of Bill visiting our school, I presented him with a scrapbook of pictures from our visits from the last 10 years. Mr. Shorty!

Dylan 'driving' the truck

The fourth grade class

Mr. Shorty 'driving' as Bill and I hang on!

Mrs. Dowd's fourth grade class with Bill Sloan

Tenth Anniversary Cupcakes

Bill autographing Joel's water bottle

Winter's Tail

Today we read a book called "Winter's Tail" about a dolphin who was caught in a crab net when she was a baby. Through the help of the Clearwater Aquarium, Winter was rehabilitated and was able to get a prosthetic tail.

Here's the video we watched about Winter:
http://www.scholastic.com/winterstail/

This is the site where you can watch the webcam of Winter and play games!
http://www.winterstail.com/

You can order the Winter's Tail video game for the Nintendo DS at the Scholastic Click Ordering page:
www.scholastic.com/parentordering
class user name: mrsdowd
password: 4ocs

Happy Mother's Day!

Liberty Science Center

Seeing the Statue of Liberty from the bus The boys working in the Skyscraper area
The girls next to a beam from the Twin Towers
The IMAX theater for the Hubble movie
Mr. and Mrs. Hahn - thanks for getting us the free tickets from J&J!!!
The girls making water graffiti
The boys building cars and racing them
On the observation deck with New York City in the background
Building in the watershed area
Reading about core sampling
Ms Mazzeo inside the diabetes area
Climbing the rock wallLab boysHow long can you hang on?
Ms. Mazzeo selling tickets Mrs. Nyman in the health area
The 2009-2010 fourth grade class with
Mrs. Nyman, Mrs. Hahn, Mrs. Dowd and Ms. Mazzeo

Spring Pictures

Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, April 26th!

Tricky Tray

I had so much fun at the Tricky Tray! Our Movie Night basket looked great!
My sister in law actually won it and was thrilled with the variety of movies, movie tickets, candy, and popcorn containers. Thanks to all who donated and organized our basket :) I won a cute luggage set with butterflies on it!


It was so nice to get to see so many class parents at the Tricky Tray - an overall fun night!

Tricky Tray Basket donations - UPDATED 3/22

Our Tricky Tray Basket donation letter was sent home last week in the Friday Folder. Our class theme is "Family Movie Night". We are looking for donations of movies - G and PG rated, popcorn, popcorn bowls, snacks, candy, ice cream toppings, and movie tickets.

We had a $40 Clearview Cinema donation! Thanks for such a generous contribution towards our basket!!!

For warming up with your loved ones, we have an ivory cozy wrap (similar to snuggy)

Our donated DVD's include:
*Madeline
*Bedknobs and Broomsticks
*The Perfect Man
*The Adventures of Milo and Otis
*Kicking and Screaming
*Big Fat Liar
*Underdog
*Fantastic 4
*The Nanny Diaries

We have two boxes of Microwave Popcorn, Twizzlers, Swedish Fish, Milk Duds, Junior Mints, Whoppers, Good & Plenty, Jujyfruits, Sour Patch, a box of Twixels, and a bag of Trail Mix. We also have 4 individual plastic pop corn holders!


Thanks to Mrs. Reece and Mrs. Pierro for offering to organize the basket!
Donations are due by Friday, March 26th.
Thanks!

Protractor practice

Here is the link to the protractor website we have been practicing on in class:
Protractor