Valentine's Day

Here's a special announcement brought to you by Herme from Zoobe:
http://d.zoobe.com/bS5DeP

Making Plant and Animal Cell Models

Here are some pictures and Zoobe videos of the THINKsters during our plant and animal cell activity. You will need to download Zoobe to see the videos.

http://d.zoobe.com/bSMagK

http://d.zoobe.com/bSDEHd

http://d.zoobe.com/bSDQ2K

http://d.zoobe.com/bSDUwV

http://d.zoobe.com/bSDZC

http://d.zoobe.com/bSDiTs

http://d.zoobe.com/bS5XuE

Class Dojo

There have been several requests from parents to receive notifications when students are 
missing assignments or coming to class unprepared. Though students are responsible
 for writing assignments in their planners each night to help prepare them for middle 
schooI, (I model how to do this every day) some students still need extra reminders.

To help keep everyone informed, we will start using Class Dojo to help keep track of student 
preparedness and behavior. Students will receive points for having their planners signed, 
being prepared for Book Club, completing homework on time, completing classroom jobs,  
and good behavior. 

Students will lose points for not having planners signed, incomplete or late assignments,
 poor classroom behavior, not doing classroom/CARES cadet jobs,  and being off-task.

Check out the link below to find out more about this handy classroom tool:
http://www.classdojo.com/about

I will be sending home activation codes next week to enable parents and students to 
track progress from home.

Ms. G

Other helpful GBBC links

Here are some other links to the Great Backyard Bird Count:


http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/kids

http://gbbc.birdcount.org/birding-apps/

http://gbbc.birdcount.org/2014_video_and_slide_show/

http://gbbc.birdsource.org/gbbcApps/checklist

http://gbbc.birdcount.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2014GBBC_DataForm_Final.pdf

http://gbbc.birdcount.org/learn_about_birds/

http://gbbc.birdcount.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2014GBBC_poster.pdf

Happy birding!
Ms. G

Why Food Education Matters

Here is an interesting article about how our diets have changed over the past century.

http://www.edudemic.com/why-food-education-matters/

This next link has some great recipes from the folks at Dig In At Home.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/digin_athome.pdf

GBBC

Gadwalls, and kestrels, and cormorants, oh my! What is GBBC? The Great Backyard Bird Count! For four days every February, bird watchers young and old record all of the different species of birds that they see. This information helps scientists to track bird species, identify population growth or reduction, and see how diseases (such as West Nile virus) are affecting regional bird populations. 

It doesn't matter whether you see only five different birds, or bird-watch for only 15 minutes a day--it all helps! Species tracking sheets for your area are available at http://gbbc.birdsource.org/gbbcApps/checklist.

Check out the Great Backyard Bird Count website.

We will be participating the GBBC in our classroom on Friday, February 14th throughout the day and I encourage families to participate at home as well. I will be sending home a local bird species checklist for your convenience. For students who choose to participate, we will share our checklist results with the class on Monday, February 17th. 

Happy birding!

Ms. G

Helpful Links for Math Homework

I will be putting together a series of video lessons to help you with math homework. 
Due to technical difficulties with my iPad, I haven't been able to complete the podcasts,
 but I hope to resolve this issue shortly.

In the mean time, here are some links which will help with fractions:

http://www.mathsisfun.com/fractions_division.html

http://www.mathsisfun.com/fractions_division.html

http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/fractions-division-whole-numbers.html

http://www.mathsisfun.com/fractions_multiplication.html

http://www.mathsisfun.com/fractions.html

Ms. G