Halloween Pictures

MASK MAKING



HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN CARVING






SAY 'HAPPY HALLOWEEN' :)

WE WROTE 'REVENGE OF THE PUMPKIN' STORIES DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF NOVEMBER...

Halloween Pictures coming soon...

Red Ribbon Week and Halloween Party

Red Ribbon Week
*Monday, October 25th: Sports Jerseys
*Tuesday, October 26th: wear red clothing
*Wednesday, October 27th: “Dress for Success” - skirts, dresses, pants, nice shirts & ties.
*Thursday, October 28th: “Silver Strong” - Red Ribbon week's 25th anniversary! Bring a canned good in so that we may give back to the community and wear something silver (or gray)
*Friday, October 29th: Halloween Costumes or Orange & Black - School wide pumpkin scavenger hunt in the morning. Mrs. Lunghi's class is our partner class. We will be reading some stories with them after our pumpkin hunt.
HALLOWEEN FRIDAY
Kids should wear costumes to school Friday morning over their clothes. If the costume needs to have any face painting, it should be done before school - kids will not be allowed to put on any make up at school. Kids may want to take costumes off before pumpkin carving.

From 1:00-1:45, we will be enjoying the Halloween treats that some of our families will be sending while we watch "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". We will go out for the parade from 1:45-2:00. Once we come back inside, we will work on pumpkin carving with the help of the parents that are coming in for the party. The parents will be carving the pumpkin that the students design. Kids will get to scoop out the seeds and watch their creation 'come to life'! We will put some battery operated candles inside and write some stories about the pumpkins during the first week of November.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Will you be a millionaire?
Play the Plant Parts Game!!!

Activities from the week of Sept. 27-Oct. 1

During one of our math classes, the students looked through newspapers to find sports scores, temperatures, money, etc.




After reading the story, "Yingtao's New Friend", the students practiced using chopsticks in Language Arts.

Animal Games

Click here Animal Games to play games!!! Yea!!! Fun!!!

September 13-17 Week in Review

*Language Arts: The students read a story called, “A Visit with Grandpa”. The students discussed how the story related to their lives. The main theme of the story was, "If you practice and put effort into something, things that seem hard now will be easier to do later."

*Social Studies: This week, we discussed the landforms that make up New Jersey. We celebrated “Constitution Day” on Friday and discussed how the Articles of the Constitution helped to form our nation. We watched a video featuring the National Constitution Center and the first woman Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. You can visit that website at: http://www.constitutioncenter.org/

*Science: We learned how animals and plants are classified. The students created a flip booklet with examples of flowering plants, conifers and ferns & mosses.
*Math: In Math class, we discussed quadrangles, polygons, and angles. The students worked in groups at different math centers. We read the book “The Greedy Triangle” by Marilyn Burns to review shapes. The kids took a quiz on lines, segments, rays, angles, and polygons. We spent some time using a compass to create circles. Next week we will be using a compass to create some cool designs.

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!