Liberty Science Center Field Trip - Thursday, April 30

The fourth graders will be taking their class trip to Liberty Science Center on April 30th. Information will be sent home on Monday, April 20th. In the meantime, you can check out LSC online...
http://www.lsc.org/
We will see the IMAX film "Wild Ocean" while we are there! Get a sneak peek here:

Fun Electricity Circuit Website

http://www.andythelwell.com/blobz/

Cultural Feast

Thank you all for the wonderful Cultural Foods!
We had a spectacular lunch today!

Tricky Tray Basket and Family History Projects

Thanks to Mrs. McGuire for putting our Tricky Tray basket together! We really appreciate all the donations to our Family Movie Night basket!

I also want to thank everyone for sending in the Family History information this week. It was amazing to hear the stories of the journey to America. Here are a few students with items they brought in from their relatives...

Andrew with Grandpa's war jackets

Charlie with Grandpa's Scrapbook

Jackie with immigration papers

Ryan with Great-Grandma's needlepoint from Greece

St. Jude Math-a-Thon

We raised over $4,200 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!!!

There is only one more day left to contact relatives, friends of your family, and trusted neighbors to sponsor you for the St. Jude Math-a-Thon. Donation envelopes are due Wed. March 11th. Don’t forget to choose your prizes!

On behalf of the patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, thank you for your participation. Your donations will be used to improve the quality of life for the children affected by childhood diseases.

Tricky Tray Basket donations are due Friday, March 13th

I want to thank all of those that donated to our Tricky Tray Family Movie Night basket. We have received many snack items, such as popcorn and candy, and we have popcorn containers.
As for movies, we have:
*How to Eat Fried Worms
*Andre
*The Perfect Man
*Spiderman
*Dr. Doolittle
*Milo and Otis
*Wild Hogs
*Popeye
*Agent Cody Banks

If anyone would still like to donate, all donations are due this Friday, March 13th. Mrs. McGuire has offered to put our basket together for us. Thank you again for all donations!

Spirit Day tomorrow!

Twin day is tomorrow! If you forgot to find a friend to match for Spirit Day, you can always wear blue and yellow or an OCS t-shirt. Here's Mrs. Kantz and I from last year's twin day.Our Math Quiz on division will be switched to Monday.
See you tomorrow!

THE BABIES HAVE ARRIVED!

Our baby guppies were born this morning!
We are estimating somewhere between 25-50 little ones are now in our incubation tank.
Here are a few pictures of Momma with her fry.
You can see them at the top of the water.

Where did the last two weeks go?

The St. Jude Math-a-Thon is going strong! Over 1/2 of the students at Oxford are participating, thanks to our 4th graders! Please remember to gather donations, choose your prizes, and return your sponsor envelope to school by Wednesday, March 11th.
We are going to start our collection for the OCS Tricky Tray. Our classroom basket is "Family Movie Night". Donations can include any G or PG rated DVD's, movie tickets for local theaters, movie rental certificates, gift certicicates for local pizzerias or other take out restaurants (to have dinner and a movie at home), snacks, drinks, popcorn bowls, etc.
You can send in donations anytime before Friday, March 13th. Here is an example of what we are looking for:Progress Reports are being sent home this Friday. It seems really early since the 3rd Marking Period doesn't end until April 3rd, but ready or not, here they come!

St. Jude Math-a-Thon

I am so proud of our 4th graders for helping out with the Oxford Central School St. Jude Math-a-Thon 2009! Students will be going out to the K-8 grade classes to give a speech telling how the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital works to find cures for childhood diseases and provides care for children who have cancer or other illnesses.

Today, the students started preparing by reading over their part of the speech, watching the St. Jude video, and getting the parent letters placed into the sponsor envelopes.

Information will be sent home with your child on Friday so they can have permission to start the Math-a-Thon, and they can begin asking for donations. Students will receive their booklets on Wednesday, and can hand them in anytime they complete the math work.

For more information on St. Jude, visit www.stjude.org or www.mathathon.org/

Report Card Time

Report Cards for the 2nd Marking Period will be sent home on Friday.
Look for it in the Friday Folder.
:)

Super Bowl Sunday!

I hope you all enjoy the Super Bowl on Sunday!
Don't forget your 3D glasses for half time!

SNOW DAY!

I hope you are all enjoying the day off today!

We are going to push our Social Studies quiz ahead to Friday. We will review in class again tomorrow and you will fill in your notecards to bring home and study Thursday evening.

We will work on our Reader Response questions for "Marven of the Great North Woods" on Thursday and you will read with your family Thursday evening. The Reading and Spelling tests will be on Friday. We will skip our Grammar Quiz this week.

SCIENCE TEST RESCHEDULED!

The Science Test scheduled for Tuesday, January 26th will be rescheduled.
The new date for the test will be Tuesday, February 3rd, and will cover Units 2&3, Flowers for All Occasions and Plenty of Plants.

Thanks!
Heather Dowd

NEW EMAIL!

We found the answer to the email problem!

Oxford is changing over to a new email system. I was one of the first to be switched over, so the email messages I should have been receiving were being redirected to my new email.

Please update your address book with my new email address:

hdowd@oxfordcentral.org


Tim and his family donated 3 new fish for our class fishtank - thanks!


Our 4th Grade Spelling Bee Winners
1st Place Lily
Tie for 2nd Place Jeffrey & Andrew


Here is a picture of our Lenape Village drawings and descriptions. Check them out for yourself in the hallway across from our classroom!

EMAIL ISSUES

I realized today that I am having some email issues. Since January 16th, I have been unable to receive any emails to my school account, hdowd@warrennet.org Sending email out is not the problem; receiving YOUR email IS the problem.

I am sorry for the inconvenience that this may be causing. The "tech guy" is working on it and hopefully I will be able to receive your emails again soon!

If you need to contact me in the meantime, please send a note in with your child or call me at school or home.

:)
Heather Dowd

Monday, January 19th and Tuesday, January 20th

On Monday, January 19th, take a few minutes to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For information about his amazing life, click on his picture to the right:

We will watch the inaugration coverage on Tuesday, January 20th, in class. For information on Barack Obama and to play a game on "Mastering the Roles of the President", click on the Scholastic Link below:

Back on Friday!!!

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to thank you for all the positive emails during my husband's hospitalization with his herniated disk. He had the epidural cortisone injection Tuesday afternoon and was released from the hospital. It has been an adjustment to get comfortable back at home, and although his back pain has subsided a bit, he is still not feeling the best. It looks as though he will go through with the series of 3 injections, trying to avoid surgery.

The students made some get well cards for him during their snack the other day, and when I brought them home to him, he was extremely happy to read them! Thanks for all the kind wishes.

I will be in on Friday. I have missed everyone and look forward to seeing all their smiling faces again!

:)
Heather

Sorry I have been out...

Hello Parents and Students!

I am sorry I have been out of school the past few days. Mr. Dowd has been in the hospital since Saturday with a severely herniated disk in his lower back (L5-S1 for those of you familiar with back issues) and a bulging disk above it (L4). His pain has been unbearable even with medication, and I have actually stayed with him (sleeping in a chair) the past few nights. We finally saw an orthopedic doctor on Monday evening who gave us the option of having an epidural cortisone injection, which is a temporary solution, or having surgery to remove the herniated disk. We decided on the injection, which will be done Tuesday around lunch time. We will know within 24-48 hours after the injection if it is going to help or if he will still need surgery.

I really miss being with the kids, but I have to be with Mr. Dowd right now. I honestly couldn't think about leaving him alone in the hospital when he can't even sit up to eat or walk to the bathroom without extreme pain. I plan on coming in on Wednesday, but if I am not there, I am still at the hospital. I have been sending in lessons for the substitute to teach, so the students are learning the same information as if I was in school with them.

Thank you for being so understanding while I am out. If you do need to contact me, feel free to send me an email. I try to check it once a day when I run home to feed our cat and our fish.

Sincerely,
Heather Dowd

Glad to see you!

I noticed this evening that we have 5 "Followers" and our page has been viewed 94 times since January 1st! Amazing!

If there are any topics you would like me to post about, let me know!

Thanks for stopping in,

Heather Dowd