A New Year!

Kristen came and helped me tackle the set up of a new room. Man, there is just so much to d but I am excited
I am teaching 6th grade this year, in a new room...so much to do!
I will feel better tomorrow after a team meeting and a few more hours in my room...maybe I'll even get some pictures of the "punk rock" bulletin board we created: purple, yellow and black and white checks!

Cross Age Tutoring

This year my class participated in our school's Cross Age Tutoring program. We worked with a second grade class for nearly six weeks. My fourth graders listened and guided as the second grade tutees read. They asked their tutee comprehension questions and practiced Fry Phrases. The program is successful in more ways than increasing reading skills, namely building up the community spirit at our school. Our classes look forward to a kickball & popsicle party to celebrate all of their hard work together!

Rock on!

The rock art that has been preserved all over Southern Utah is spectacular! When studying the Native Americans of Utah my class created "rocks" out of crumpled newspaper that was taped in place then covered with paper mache. Once dry, we painted the rocks to look like the rocks we could find in Utah. The final step in this project was to paint characters to tell a story. My students really got into the this project. This took us a number of sessions so we worked a little every day at the end of the day. This is one of those projects a student remembers for life. They were so proud to bring their rock art home!

County Flags

These Social Studies projects were created for our upcoming Utah County Fair! Each student will be creating a series of assignments after researching information about their county. This project is my favorite for it allows for so much creativity. First, we studied the Utah state flag and discovered and discussed all of the symbols on the flag. Next, we discussed symbols that might represent our individual counties (crop, mineral, animal, landmark, etc.). Finally, the students went to work creating flags to represent their counties.











I have some very talented artists in my class! (Of course I choose their art work to share...you would too...just look at them! They make this teacher tear up a bit.)

Math and Art

Math instruction naturally leads to art instruction...especially when learning about geometric shapes and patterns! This year my class enjoyed creating tangrams and tessellations.
Here are a few samples of tessellations created by my fourth graders.
medium: oil pastels and pencils
time to complete: 2 art periods