Final Stretch to Winter Break!

In this sandwich of weeks before break, we have been doing lots of fun things!

While we have been MAP testing every day, we also squeezed in Hour of Code today!

The students made movies, video games, and used their knowledge of coding to do all of it! It was fantastic! Here are some pictures:

This week we have also been full swing into Christie City! I am EXTREMELY excited about this because the students will be able to run their very own city! They will have jobs that they applied for, to make money and buy things! They will have to keep up with their balance, as well as help their business make a profit. This real world, hands on approach to financial literacy is so exciting and we are very fortunate to get the opportunity!

I will also start adding links that you can access from home to help with academics and fun ways to practice the things we are learning at school!

<3

Mrs. Amini

Two Weeks Left!

I can't believe there are only two weeks left in the semester! This year has flown by!

We have been working very hard on our math MAP test this week, while still working on 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication and perfect squares.

In reading, we worked on making inferences. For this we use the formula TC+BK=I (text clues+background knowledge=inference). We read one of my favorite stories "Dear Mrs. LaRue." Ask your child about this story, it is silly! Next week in reading, we will be taking the reading MAP test. Make sure your child is getting a good night's sleep and eating a good breakfast.

In social studies, we learned about different battles during the Texas Revolution. 

Science has been very explorative this week. For Engineering Expo, we had touched a little bit on circuits. This week the students learned more vocabulary for circuits, while experiment with simple circuits and making them more complicated.

I first put the students in groups and asked each group what they needed to build a circuit with one light bulb.

Here is what I got: 

The next day, I challenged them to add a light bulb to their circuit:

Lots of love from Mrs. Amini :)

<3

Mrs. Amini

Student Blog Post Edition

In math this week we have been working on division and the different methods that you can use. In science we have been working on our sports board challenge for engineering expo [held in learning commons] and learning about circuits. In social studies we have been learning about Texas regions and history. As for L.A. we have been working on writing stories and revising and editing. That’s what we have been working on this week in school.

By: Maycey 

Inspired by: Kayley Amini/Pults

Field Day Update

Christie Families,

After much deliberation we have decided to postpone Field Day until late spring. With the forecast of heavy rain this afternoon, as well as a high ranging between 54-57 degrees during the morning Field Day events; we don’t feel it would be a safe environment for our students. As many of you know, Field Day often includes water games as well as other fun activities that would not be able to take place with tomorrow’s weather. We want to thank you for understanding, and we look forward to having this event later on this year!

Christie Elementary 

Important Information

Dear Christie Families, 

We want to thank you for your flexibility as we moved to a blocked specials schedule for the first part of the school year. The instructional planning time gained by teachers during the blocked schedule was used to plan ahead and review the larger picture of the school year. As the first nine weeks has come to an end, we are excited to share that beginning November 1st, we will be returning to the traditional schedule where specials takes place each day. 

As always, thank you for your continued support!

Christie Elementary 

Fall Frenzy!

This week we have been doing an extremely fun Design Challenge:

Decorating pumpkins like a book character!

In math we are diving head first into multiplication! We have learned four different ways to multiply. Remember: The student must know those multiplication facts up to 12x12!

In reading this week, we learned about poetry and made our own poetry books. We glued them into their Reading Notebooks, so check them out!

Science has been all about mixtures and solutions. The students can tell you what each is and examples! We extended these to creating a habitat for our gecko because we went and collected items from outside in a bag and mixed them all together. Since the things inside could be taken apart, it was a mixture and not a solution.

Here is the gecko habitat we built:

Can't wait for next week's adventures!

<3

Mrs. Amini

October!

This year is going by so quickly I can't even believe it!

***REMINDER***

Conferences are going to be starting on Monday. Please contact me if you have not yet signed up!

We started today watching Ms. Unmuth's I.E. class perform a wonderful play!

We are jumping head first into multiplying in math! Your child should be able to tell you about breaking apart to multiply, standard algorithm, and the distributive property.

In Reading we have been learning about Author's Purpose and all of the students should know that from our  "PIEE" that we made! :)

In writing, we are almost finished with our whole expository pillar. This week we have been working on getting supporting details and main ideas.

In science we have learned all about properties of matter! This includes the three states of matter. The students were to write a story about a liquid that really wants to be a solid. I am so impressed with the creativity that went into these stories! There were so many fun ones to read. Here is one:

In Social Studies, we dipped our toes into the tribes of Texas, but will dive right in next week!

Back at it!

Yay! I am back and I am married!

My new last name will be Mrs. Amini, but it has not been legally changed yet. I am waiting to get all of that sorted out before I plan to make everything into Amini :)

The students have come back and hit the ground running!

In math, we have been diving into addition and subtraction. 

Writing has been getting very in depth and we are close to being finished with writing Expository essays! Yay! They should know how to SPLAT, find three main ideas, write a lead, and write  topic sentence. We LOVE writing!

Science has been all about experimenting with physical science. We have answered the TESTABLE questions: "Does air have mass?" with our very own experiment. We have also started looking at the properties of matter. We learned about liquids using water displacement.

UPDATES:

October 9th- The deadline to order the amazing $12.99 AVID shirts (designed by our very own Mr. Ramos) has been extended to October 9th! These shirts are very stylish and we are trying to get as many students to own them and wear them every Monday to show their AVID pride! To order go to: www.barefootathletics.com/cof and enter the code: COF107847 

Follow the instructions from there.

October 12th-  Parent Teacher Conferences! I have created a web based sign up on signupgenius.com. It was sent via email, so make sure and check to sign up. If this is not received or does not work for you please email me right away so we can get a time that works for you!

October 23rd- Report cards will be coming home! 

October 26th- Picture retakes, if you would like them.

October 30th- Field day! We are so excited for field day and there might be a cameo from my lovely husband ;)

<3

Miss Pults

(unofficially Mrs. Amini)

Next Week

Parents and Students:

It is VERY important that I share with you that I will be outWednesday, September 16^th all the way until Friday, September 25^th to get married!

I will have a substitute teacher in class for those days. Homework and class will continue as normal.

I will miss everyone and be ready to be bombarded with pictures and stories of my trip!

<3

Miss Pults

Adventures: Weeks 1 and 2!

I can't believe it is only the end of week 2! We have already learned so much and gotten to know each other so well!

In week 1, we did an amazing paper table activity that all of the kids initially groaned "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Only to find out that it could fit not just one textbooks, but SEVEN!

Now in week 2 we went to the Outdoor Learning Center! It was such an amazing experience and I know the kids learned so much! Ask your child what animal they researched.

Check back to see what adventures week 3 has!

********REMINDER: MONDAY 9/7 IS LABOR DAY HOLIDAY AND THERE WILL BE NO SCHOOL**********

<3

Miss Pults

First Week

Wow! Two days down!

This week has just begun and it's already almost hump day! 

We have started talking about S.T.E.A.M. The students should be able to tell you that it stands for "Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math." You may be familiar with S.T.E.M., however including "Art" also incorporates more creativity and imagination!

We have also started discussing place value in math- going from the hundredths place all the way to the hundred billions place! Ask your child to tell you a pattern they see in our number system!

In writing, we have started talking about nouns and adjectives. This helps each student write a better, more descriptive paper.

In reading, we have been learning about genre. We have played a "Mystery Box Challenge" game that helps distinguish between fiction and nonfiction. Today we had a great debate about what genre we should put the "I Spy" books in. What do you think?

****DO NOT FORGET****

This Thursday from 6-7 is Open House night. We will meet with all the parents of fourth grade to go over what to expect from this fourth grade year! We can't wait to see all of you there!

<3 

Miss Pults

17 Day Countdown

I cannot believe summer is wrapping up and only feels like it just started!

I want to start this post with upcoming dates since the beginning of the school year is so important and busy:

• Friday, August 21st is meet the teacher night from 5-7 pm.
• Monday, August 24th is the first day of school!
• Tuesday, August 25th is open house for kinder and 1st grade families only from 6-7 pm.
• Thursday, August 27th is Open House for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade families from 6-7 pm.
• Tuesday, September 1st is open house for 5th grade families from 6-7 pm.
• September 16th-25th I will be in another country getting married!

This 2015-2016 year is coming up so quickly and I am so excited. Not only am I getting married, but I have so many plans for this school year to make it amazingly awesome! :)

This year, my goal will be to really focus on the collaboration between the students, as well as freedom and creativity to highlight the individualism in each student. I don't know my kids yet, but I already know and truly believe each one is special and unique. The most exciting part to me is getting to know each student as an individual and appreciating them for being their own person. 

That being said, please please please come to Open House night on Thursday, August 27th to see our classroom and the memories it holds and is yet to hold.

<3

Miss Pults

P.S. Please keep an eye out for any changes about my name. I am getting married soon and will then be Mrs. Amini :)

Last Week of School!

I can't believe we are this close to summer!

So much happening this last week of school:

June 2nd and 3rd is Maker Space Camp (aka Christie Enrichment Academy)

June 4th- spirit assemblies at 9 and classroom parties at 1:30

June 5th- last day of school and early release at 12

We will also be presenting lessons that the students have made. The students have read through the list of 5th grade math TEKS and picked one to become experts on. They have to present a lesson, make an activity, and give an assessment. All of this is being done using the design process! I am so impressed so far! 

<3

Miss Pults

The Final Countdown

Holy moley! The year is so close to being finished I can't believe it!

We had been looking so forward to Engineering Expo and now it's over. Let me just say-- IT WAS AMAZING! I was so impressed with all of the prototypes the students came up with and how they could explain the energy they used so well! Proud teacher right here!

The only thing left this year is Makers Camp (formerly Christie Enrichment Academy). Which will be the last week of school. 

I will be so sad to say goodbye to these kids! I truly feel so attached and care so much about each and every one of these kiddos!

Also, enjoy this long weekend, we have Monday off for Memorial Day!

<3

Miss Pults

May Events

There are so many fun things coming up in May to wrap up the school year!

May 15th- School dance!

May 18th- 4th grade music performance!

May 21st- engineering expo!

And before we know it, your baby will be a fifth grader!

<3 

Miss Pults

Fun Things Happening!

I am so excited to announce that on May 21st we will be having an Engineering Expo at Christie!

The students are in groups and will have to engineer something to help in their everyday life involving a source of energy!

There are so many great ideas floating around this room, it's amazing!

Also, Christie's Got Talent will be coming up on May 29th. Permissions slips will be sent home May 11th and due by May 15th. There are also four rehearsals on May 19th, 20th, 26th, and 28th. Students must attend at least three of these rehearsals to participate.

This week we are working on picking a math lesson to teach, write a script, and record a video. Here is a sneak peak at a few of the videos:

Video 1

Video 2

More to come, so keep checking back for yours!

<3

Miss Pults

Homework Help- Common Denominators

As promised, I created a video to help with tonight's homework. Hope it helps!

Here's the link:
http://youtu.be/JBgPQ-JshiU

Have fun!

<3
Miss Pults

Passion Projects

Last week, we started a broad activity that we've come to know and love as "Passion Projects."It is based off of Genius Hour, which is based of off Google's 20% rule. Google requires their workers to spend 20% of their time at work working on a passion of their choice. 

I went into it extremely nervous to give the students an open ended idea. It is transforming into things I never thought would happen.

Here's how it began:

I started by asking the students to think about something they are passionate about. I had them write it on a yellow post note and stick it on the board, as shown below.

After this, I showed them this video about Genius Hour to explain a little about what I was expecting.

There were two expectations:

1. You had to have a driving question that would be the base of your research.

2. You had to have some sort of product or presentation to be able to show and discuss what you've learned with the class.

With that we started generating questions. Each student had to come up with something they wanted to learn about their passion and generate multiple questions. These had to be driving questions, which meant something they cannot simply google and be done. They must be able to do research. I talked through and had to drag a few good questions out of the students, but I was very happy with the results. For example, a student said his passion was football. One question he wanted to use was who invented football. I pulled out my phone, Googled "inventor of football" and replied, "Walter Camp. There I did your project for you." I think it was a good nonexample that kind of made everyone understand what a driving question meant. We eventually came up with great questions!

The next thing was to do research. We created journals with two pieces of cardstock and notebook paper stapled together to make a book. They got to decorate the cover however they wanted! Here is a good example of a creative cover:

(I'll take pictures of others to show the range of covers that were created)

The students had to keep their research inside these and write down anywhere they found the research to site their sources. They started research and were so into it!

The final products are starting to come together and I will be so excited to post them! 

Stay tuned!

<3

Miss Pults

RockSTAARs

Woo! We are done with STAAR! These kids have worked so hard and made me so proud! 

I made smartie pants for my smarty pants:

We are now starting our passion projects! Ask your child what theirs is. We are so excited to research and learn about something of their choice.

April is Crazy!

Writing STAAR has come and gone! Yet all too soon, reading and math are right around the corner! I am so excited for the tests because the students can show all of their knowledge and hard work from throughout the year. 

April 13th to 17th- STAAR Cruise (fun way to review STAAR)

April 21st- Math STAAR

April 22nd- Reading STAAR

<3 

Miss Pults

Angles, Triangles, and Lines- Oh My!

For awhile now we have been working on angles and lines. This week we started learning about different types of triangles.

There are two ways to classify triangles. You can classify them based on their angles or on their sides. 

I wanted the students to have to problem solve and think about how to create these triangles and lines- with their bodies!

It was crazy and fun!

Here a few pictures:

Equilateral triangles- all three sides are equal

 Right triangles- one angle is right or 90 degrees

 Parallel lines- two lines that will go on forever, but never intersect

(notice the pointed toes and fingers- that means arrows for lines continuing forever!)

<3

Miss Pults

Finding Missing Angles

Happy day-after-STAAR!

We did a math lesson today and we are definitely going work more on it. I think a few were still pretty confused, so I haven't had time to make my own video for you guys. I did want to post a video, so I found a helpful one on YouTube. I hope this helps!

Missing Angle Help

<3

Miss Pults

Weathering breaks it down, erosions carries it away...

This is a song my class should be able to sing! "Weathering breaks it down, erosion carries it away, deposition drops it leaving it there to stay!" 

We did an amazing activity in order to demonstrate weathering, erosion, and deposition. 

The students were divided into three groups-- weathering, erosion, and deposition.

The students who were weathering each got one piece of paper. The paper was representing a rock. The weatherers then "broke" or ripped the "rock" or paper. They could not do anything with it until the erosion groups picked it up to take it somewhere else. They would then hand it over to the deposition students who would deposit it in the beach (blue construction paper), the desert (brown construction paper), or the mountains (black construction paper). Here are a few pictures to demonstrate the activity:

It was so fun and the students were begging to continue to play even though it was time to go home!

<3

Miss Pults

Post Spring Break Craziness

I hope everyone enjoyed their lovely week off! We have been swinging back into full gear!

Writing STAAR is right around the corner. Less than a week away- Monday, March 30th and Tuesday, March 31st! 

Another important date: report cards go out this Friday, March 27th.

Open house was such a fun experience and I am proud to say I had the most parents in all of fourth grade! I truly appreciate the willingness and dedication to helping each and every student grow to be such amazing young people. 

I also wanted to include one silly video about angles, which is what we are currently learning in math. 

<3

Miss Pults

Conversion Help- The Metric System

Here is a video to help with converting in the metric system! I hope this helps answer questions and review!

Let me know if there are any specific requests.

<3 

Miss Pults

Snow Daze!

I hope this find you relaxed and ready to get back to school!

After these TWO unexpected days off, our schedule will probably be extremely funky this week.

First off, this week is supposed to be Book Fair week. It will still happen, but now there are only three days to get in and grab everything you want! 
Don't want to leave the comfort of your home?
That's okay! You can order books online through the scholastic website, that will be delivered to your child at school! Follow that link! 

Secondly, I stated in an earlier post that there will be a math test this Thursday. This will be postponed to a later date, that I will know once the other teachers and I reconvene  and discuss. Sorry about any inconveniences this causes! 

Lastly, in order to help review for the test, I will post helpful videos on topics I see struggles. Make sure to check back!

Enjoy the rest of your day off and (hopefully) see you tomorrow!

<3 Miss Pults

Important February Dates

Here is a quick update about important February dates :)

2/23-2/27: Book Fair
2/26: Bring Grandparents to lunch day at 12
2/26: COM Assembly at 2
2/26: Measurement Math Test

<3

Miss Pults

February is My Favorite Month!

My goodness! Last week was so eventful.

First off, my birthday was made amazing by every single student in the class. Scratch that: in the fourth grade! I  received so many kind words, happy birthdays, gifts, and countless other amazing gestures! I feel so incredibly thankful to be along this journey with these wonderful children.

Next, there was such an amazing atmosphere in building friendship between the students. We played a "musical chairs" type game. However, instead of finding a chair, the students  had to find a student's desk to write a compliment on his or her paper. It was heartwarming to see the things students said about each other and responses from the students. For instance, many students said "this made me feel good" or "that was really fun!" Here are a few examples:

This led to an amazing friendship party! It could not have been a success without the help from our absolutely amazing parents that volunteered! 

This next week is, yet again, extremely busy. Despite it being a short week, there are lots of happenings. Wednesday, February 17th will be our field trip to the symphony. Although it is not required, it is recommended to dress nicely. This is a very lucky experience for our children, thanks to the music teachers! 

Other than that, I can't wait to make this week amazing and filled with learning! 

<3 Miss Pults

Simplifying Fractions Help

I have been hearing about simplifying fractions being something very confusing for both parents and students. Sometimes the students can do it perfectly at school and go home to find they forgot everything. 

To counteract this "phenomenon" I will try to post videos that explain the method of solving problems we learned in class. 

This video is specifically for simplifying fractions. I hope it helps! :)

http://youtu.be/8JrORrjqLWs

<3 

Miss Pults