See you on Tuesday, January 3, 2012...

Happy Holidays to our Troops

During Social Studies last week, the fourth graders took part in a letter writing/card making project to wish our troops a happy holiday!  This idea came from the month-long "Season of Service" to give back to the New Jersey community.  The holiday letters/cards will be delivered to US Service Members stationed overseas and in the United States.

November Book Reports

The students read Historical Fiction novels for their November book review and completed a 'book report in a bag' project.  The students included 4 items that relate to their novel inside the bag. 

I am Thankful for...

Check out the booklets the fourth graders made for their classmates... they are in the Friday Folders...
Happy Thanksgiving!

Stall Day

4th Grade Stall Day Money!

Our first Stall Day was such a success! Our fourth graders brought in over $100 in change and bills.  The OCS Student Council will be donating our school's total of $760.94 to provide less fortunate Oxford families with Thanksgiving dinner.  Congrats to our 4th graders and all of our Oxford students!

Math Games

We had a number of requests during conferences for math games the students could play online to practice "fast facts" and other topics.
Click the links below to play some fun games!
multiplication.com - interactive games
multiplication.com - online quizzes
multiplication.com - printable flash cards
multiplication.com - for printable multiplication fact practice

Halloween and Oct. Book Report Masks

Pumpkin Carving

Today our 4th graders, with the help of some amazing parents, carved pumpkins!  We used the pumpkins for 2 lessons in math: estimated & actual circumference and estimated & actual number of pumpkin seeds.  The students will be writing stories by 'pumpkin light' this week and will share them on Halloween!

Red Ribbon Poster

The fourth graders came up with a
spectacular list of better things to do than drugs!

RED RIBBON WEEK

*Monday – “A Drug Free Life Rocks”

- Wear school-appropriate rock/music shirts OR red shirts

 
*Tuesday – “I’m a JEAN-ius – I’m Drug Free”

- Wear jeans

*Wednesday – “Say Peace Out to Drugs”

- Wear ties or tie-dye

*Thursday – “Staying Drug Free in Jersey”

- Wear jerseys or sports shirts

 
*Friday – “Partnering Up to be Drug Free”

- Wear school colors

Spooky Movies

Spooky movies are a great way to get into the spirit of Halloween! Some of our students have been telling us about the spooky movies they have been enjoying at home or at friend's houses. Even though some of these movies have been edited for television, the Motion Picture Association of America has reviewed them and found them to be unsuitable for children.

Here are some websites that list appropriate Halloween/spooky movies for kids:
Halloween Movies - About.com
Halloween Movies - Kaboose
Kids TV Movies

CBS News - Halloween Movies for Kids

October 16th is Dictionary Day!

Watch a BrainPop movie about Dictionary Day!

Click the picture below!

September and October Class Pictures

Making angles in Math

Using microscopes in Science

Using chopsticks as a multidisciplinary activity connecting
 a Language Arts story with a Math estimation lesson

4th Grade Celebrates Week of Respect!

What does respect mean to YOU?

Arlene-to me it means to treat others the way you want to be treated.

Kayla W.-I think it means that when somebody is talking, you should be listening and not talking.

Anthony- It means to be nice to someone and treat them kindly.

Phoebe-To me, respect means to appreciate someone.  It means to think before speaking and taking care of other people’s belongings.  It also means to be able to trust someone and to be all right with other people’s decisions.

Stephanie- It means to not be rude, and to not make a person feel bad. It also means to help other people too.

Steven-It means don’t destroy their properties, don’t tell someone their secrets and don’t hurt them.

Gerianna-It means to be kind, respectful, and have responsibility.

Sarah- It means to treat others how you want to be treated. Respect also means to treat it or them nicely.

Maddy-  What  respect means to me is like being kind to one another.

Megan-    It means you should be kind and be friendly to one another. For example, you should be respectful of not touching their desk.

Cameron- to be kind.

Toni- Well what respect means to me is like if you are borrowing something like a toy you should treat it like it is your toy.  You should treat someone the way you want to be treated.

William- Respect means to treat other people’s things the way you want them to treat yours

Kameron -  Respect means to respect everyone

Julie- to treat everyone kind and equally

Anna- respect means to be kind, nice, helpful and if you have something of someone that is not yours give it back and do not break it.

Tony- have good manners not taking when someone else is taking.

Alexandra- I think respect means to be nice, loyal kind and caring to one another.

Lorelai-It’s the opposite of disrespect, it means obey any one like your friends or any one you meet or see. 

Michael-To me respect means to be thoughtful but not scare people.

Isa - respect means don’t call people names and treat others how you want to be treated.

Alyssa-You should be respectful and listen to what they are saying instead of fooling around.

Michele – To me it means to have manners. To be nice.

Ryan –  Like if you listen to someone that means you have respect

Alexis –  respect means that you do what your parents tell you to do.

Kayla N. –What respect means to me is that you should be kind and loving. Or respect things you have. Also treat others way you what to be treated.

Science

The Vascular and Non Vascular booklets (which were started in class on Tuesday) are due tomorrow.  Please be sure that there are 3 examples of Vascular and 3 examples of Non Vascular included in the booklet.

Enjoy the day!

Miss Mazzeo & Mrs. Dowd

Picture Day Tuesday!

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Commercials

Last week we finished reading the novel, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume.  The students pretended a movie was going to be made to go along with this book.  They worked in groups to write a script, gather propts, and act out a commercial for the movie.   

Click on the picture of Peter and Fudge to view the commercials titled, "Tales Commercials"  :)

Constitution Day....

is September 17th!

Check out this link to see which Founding Father YOU are!

Have a great weekend!

Miss Mazzeo & Mrs. Dowd

http://www.constitutionfacts.com/?page=foundingFatherShort.cfm

Tuesday, Sept. 13th

The fourth graders will be visiting the Scholastic Book Fair on Tuesday, September 13th from 11:18-11:48. If you would like your child to make a purchase, please send in cash or a check in an envelope labeled "Book Fair' and your child's name on the envelope. The Book Fair will also be open on Back to School Night Tuesday evening.

We are looking forward to meeting you at Back to School Night on Tuesday evening. During our presentations, you will have a chance to sit at your child's desk in each classroom. Mrs. Dowd will review the content taught in Language Arts and Math and Miss Mazzeo will provide information on Science and Social Studies. Hope to see you then!

Red, White and Blue Day

Just a gentle reminder that tomorrow we are celebrating Red, White & Blue Day!  Help us celebrate our American spirit by wearing patriotic colors!

Have a great night!

Miss Mazzeo & Mrs. Dowd

Science Fun!

To start of our Science class for the year, the class was  broken off into groups and asked to draw a scientist.

To our surprise, the scientists all looked similar!  Each group explained to the class, that when they think "scientist." they think, crazy hair!

Fortunately for us, part of our Science program includes learning about different careers in science and we get to read interviews with people in those fields.  The students also learn, that any person can be a scientist, it is not a profession geared towards a certain type of individual!

Miss Mazzeo & Mrs. Dowd

Welcome Back!

Wow!  What a day!

The first day of fourth grade was officially a success!  Mrs. Dowd and I were very impressed with the wonderful behavior exhibited by all students!  It seems to be we are off to a great year!

Keep it up!

Miss Mazzeo

See you September 6th

Welcome to Fourth Grade!

Hello Fourth Graders!
Mrs. Dowd and Ms. Mazzeo can’t wait to see your smiling faces in fourth grade!  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 –  this will be your homework folder
• 4 jumbo sized stretchy book covers
• 1 zippered pencil case – to hold all of the supplies you will get in school
• 1 pair of scissors – child sized, preferably Fiskars brand
• 15-20 pencils –pre-sharpened – this should be enough for the entire year
• 1 glue stick
• 1 pack of 3x5 index cards
• 1 yellow pocket folder for Spanish

Donations of the following items can be sent in at any time during the year:

• Gallon or sandwich sized “Ziploc” or slider bags
• paper towels
• hand sanitizer
• baby wipes (used to clean desk tops)

A homework agenda book will be provided.  We 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.  We will have 'snack time' each day, so bring a small healthy snack!