October Chaos (aka FUN!)

Whew! It sure has been awhile since my last post, and a lot has happened in our classroom since then! The chaos of October ensued, and it became extremely difficult to find the time to sit down and write!

Here are some of the highlights of October:

Storybook Character Day: Oh my goodness, we had SUCH a great time! The kids loved dressing up as their favorite Storybook Character, and even though it rained that day, everyone was SO positive and I hear that a lot of you still got to go trick-or-treating! YAY!

Voting: Ms. Patterson and the Green Team got to cast our votes in the 2018 election. It is so important to stay involved in our country and in our community! I vote for my students!

Warrior Run: What a great day this was! Green Elementary raised $41,000! WOW! This money will be used for SO many amazing things to better our school... and the biggest thing...LEADER IN ME!

Outside Activities: We have so many Green Explorers that are involved in activities outside of school, and I always love to pop in and watch. If you are involved in anything outside of school, let me know! I would love to be involved and see you play/dance/sing/run...ANYTHING!

Student-Led Conferences: WOW. All I can say is WOW. I am SO extremely proud of each one of you for the work that you did at your student-led conference. I know this was the first year doing these, and I am so proud of the leadership and confidence that was shown throughout this entire day. I cannot wait to hear about your conferences next year!

Red Ribbon Week: We had so much fun dressing up for our theme days every year!

KC Club: KC Club has always been one of my very favorite things at Green. It teaches kindness and compassion to each one of our Explorers, and these are important life skills that carry with each one of you throughout the rest of your life. When you have a choice, CHOOSE KIND!

These are just highlights of some of the AMAZING things that are happening at our school. I love love my job so much and I love being your child's teacher. I cannot wait for another fun-filled November and December!

How to Log Into Google EVERYTHING at Home

We have started using technology within the classroom! Yay! With technology, comes a lot of awesome things. Also with technology, comes the occasional login problem. Between this classroom blog and our classroom Youtube channel that I will be adding to throughout the rest of the school year, I am hoping to get any and all questions answered for you!

Here is a cheat sheet for logging into Google: 

Here is the link to the pdf document if you would like to print out: http://bit.ly/2N9DzVQ

If your student needs to turn in an assignment on Google Classroom, here is a cheat sheet:

Here is a direct link if you would like to print it off: http://bit.ly/2R48Ix3 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Writing At Home

Your children will be learning to write in our class! Fourth Grade is heavy on writing, and we will be focusing more on the structure of writing throughout the school year. Even though we will be focusing specifically on writing forms (expository, narrative, personal and persuasive essays, nonfiction and fiction writing) it is important to practice with your student throughout the school year on writing fluency. Here is what they will be doing and how you can help them.

•They will be selecting a topic to write about. You can help them each morning by asking: What will you write about today?

•They will be revising and editing their writing. You can help by asking: Did you go back and make changes? What changes did you make to your paper? Did you add adjectives? Use sensory language? Elaborate on your topic?

•They will be writing imaginative stories that build a plot to a climax and contain details about the characters and setting. You can help by asking them to tell you about their characters and setting in their story. You can also help by reviewing with them the steps in a plot diagram, and asking them to identify where each part of their story falls on that diagram.

•They will be writing in a Dream Journals that will be due every Friday. In them, they will answer the prompt of the week, writing about their own personal experiences, hopes, dreams, etc. You can help by keeping an open communication about their writing, encouraging them to elaborate on each prompt, and talking to them about the things that are important to them. Dream Journals will be the only writing that comes home to work on. All other essays (expository/narrative/persuasive) will not come home with your child.

•They will be publishing some of their work. You can help by reading through their published writing if they bring it home and celebrating their accomplishment. Encouraging them and loving on them throughout the writing process will make a bigger difference than anything else.

•They will be writing letters to their friends/family members, focusing on the different parts of a letter. You can help by encouraging them to write things like thank you notes or letters to their friends and family.

•You can help your student broaden their imagination, improve their spelling and mechanics, and build on their vocabulary, by having your student read to you every night from a book on their reading level.

When you see their work, you can help by talking to them about the content, what it is about. Here are some comments and questions that help a young author:

I like this… (picture, label, letter, word)

Can you tell me more about……?

What else do you know about this?

What will you next piece be about?

You, their audience and readers, will need to bear with them as they learn their craft. Receive their writing in the same spirit of encouragement that you do their music, art, and sports performances. That will help them become the best that they can be. Attached with this letter is a glossary with terms included in it to help you better understand our Writer’s Workshop at school.

I hope all of this is valuable information for you, and I look forward to growing throughout the school year with your young author! Please feel free to email me at megan.patterson@allenisd.org with any questions you may have!

Meet the Teacher Fun

Wow! What an incredible night it was! Last year was not only my first year at Green Elementary, but it was my first year in elementary EVER! "Meet the Teacher" was not really a thing in secondary, so it looked COMPLETELY different. I remember walking out of my classroom at the end of last Meet the Teacher last year thinking, "Wow! I wasn't prepared for that!"

The thing is is that teachers (me included!) stress and stress EVERY YEAR about Meet the Teacher and making sure everything is perfect and ready to show their parents and students. Everything needs to be perfectly laminated, papers put in correct stacks, bulletin boards need to be completely straight, and everything needs to be flawlessly matching and "Pinterest worthy," right?

Wrong.

Yes, making sure our rooms are orderly and put together is important, but "perfect" is not what is most important.

Welcoming
Warm
Inviting
Loving
Home
Kind-hearted
Family

These are all words that come to mind when I think about how I want my room to feel like at Meet the Teacher and every day for the rest of the year. Building relationships with your babies is one of the most important priorities to me, and I hope that after Meet the Teacher, you know how much I care for them and value each one of their unique and special personalities.

I am so excited for an amazing school year with the best class in the world!

Welcome to 4th Grade!

Wow! It is already time for another FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL as a 4th Grade Green Explorer! Summer was wonderful and relaxing and magical, but I am so very ecstatic to start another amazing school year. I hope you all had a relaxing summer off and was able to spend quality time with family and friends. 

I had an awesome summer! At the beginning of the summer, I worked at a church camp for special needs adults and met lots of sweet people. This is one of my sweet friends that I made!

I have also been getting into volunteering more, so have met some great people through that! It is just so fulfilling serving others. My favorite thing! A couple of weeks ago, my friend, my mom, and I participated in a Meal Pack one Sunday night. We packed thousands of meals for children around the world that do not have enough food to eat. 

In July, I volunteered at a church camp for high school kids. I got to be a counselor with a lot of friends that have been camp counselors with me and we had so much fun on Fourth of July week!
                                     

My family and I went to Orange Beach, Alabama for a few days, and my sister and her (now fiancé!…she got engaged this summer!) drove down from Tennessee to meet us there. It was SUCH a great summer and it is such a happy time for my family!

I am so excited that I will be your 4th Grade teacher! You will be in my homeroom, and I will be your reading, writing, and social studies teacher. We will be switching classes with Mrs. Moussa for math and science.

I cannot wait to meet you! Please join me for Meet the Teacher Night on Monday, August 13th from 4:30-6:00PM to see our room and drop off your supplies. If you ordered school supplies, they will be waiting for you in our classroom. Otherwise, please bring your school supplies unlabeled since we will be labeling them together on the first day of school. Our classroom is in Room 105.

The FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL will be on Wednesday, August 15th. I will pick up students from the gym at 7:40AM and school will begin at 7:50AM. You may bring a water bottle and a healthy snack on that day, and every day thereafter. We are going to have an amazing fourth grade year together, and I look forward to seeing you soon!