There Once was a Daisy

All of my Fourth Grade Science classes performed a wonderful reader's theater titled "There Once was a Daisy" for 14 classrooms and even Mr. Schindewolf and the office staff watched us!  The students did a wonderful job and should be very proud of their hard work and efforts!  We learned about food chains, food webs, and the cycle of life while working on our fluency with the reader's theater portion.  It was a great time and we appreciated all the support we received from our audiences!  Thanks, Shreve Elementary!

Performing for Kindergarten

More Kindergarten!

 

Performing for second graders

 

We had fun in Kindergarten classes!

 

Fifth graders enjoyed our show!

More Kindergarteners!

We made outstanding props!

We even went to perform for sixth graders!

 

More sixth graders!

 

We had an awesome time learning! 

A visit from Honest Abe

We were lucky enough for Abraham Lincoln to come by and visit us!  We were able to enjoy a speech from him about what his life was like as he was growing up.  We learned a lot from him and enjoyed our afternoon with him.  Thank you, Mr. Lincoln for taking time with us!

Listening to Mr. Lincoln speak to us.

Mr. Lincoln was a tall man!

Thank you for a great day of learning!

Mystery Readers Return

First of all, I need to apologize for the lack of posts lately!  As many of you know, my son, Reid, had surgery to repair his palate.  This was his 5th repair, and much of my time and dedication has been to him over the past month.  The classroom blog definitely took a backseat!  I also have to apologize to Mrs. Esselburn.  She came in to mystery read to our class when I was caring for Reid, and we did not get a picture!  I have put that on my things to do list and will add her to our blog when I get a picture of her!  So, thanks, Mrs. Esselburn for reading to our class, and we will get you pictured super soon!

Thanks to Ms. Schemrich for coming to be our Mystery Reader last week!  We enjoyed having you, and loved hearing a story from when you were young!  Thanks for coming in!  We loved it!

Fall Room Party 2011

We had a great time with our Fall Room Party on Friday, October 28.  A big thank you to Mrs. Gress, Mrs. Miller, and Mrs. Sigler for all your time and help!  We appreciate you!

Getting ready for the fun!

                    Hat day and our Fall Festivities fell on the same day!

                                 Enjoying our time together!

                                              More fun!

                          Gracie enjoying the cookie she decorated!

             Sierra looks pretty fancy in her hat she choose for the day! 

Spencer is not in my homeroom, but is a Science student of mine, and I had to showcase his wig for funny hat/wig day!  I thought Spencer made quite the statement!  Thank you all for the fun! 

A great website for getting into the fall spirit for kids!

http://spookathon.com/halloween/pumpkin-carver.php

Another Mystery Reader!

Well, we were stumped again!!!  Our Mystery Reader was someone who we never expected to come visit us!  My daughter, Ellie, came and shared her favorite book with us, and we enjoyed our time with her!  She had the day off school today, so it worked out great for her to come and surprise us all!  Thanks, Ellie for the mystery!!!

Mystery Reader #4

Thank you, Kaden, for sharing your mom with us as our Mystery Reader on Friday, October 6!  Mrs. Campbell, you were a mystery to our class, and we thank you for the time you took out of your own classroom to be with us in our classroom!  We loved your time, and welcome you back again soon!

Mystery Reader #3

Thank you, Robert, for sharing your mom with us as our Mystery Reader guest!  We enjoyed your story, Mrs. Miller, and thank you for taking time out of your day to mystery read to us!!!!

The Faithful Little Cupcake

What a great afternoon we had!  We were lucky enough to have friends from The Faithful Little Cupcake come in and work with us this afternoon.  Our whole class was able to decorate 4 different cupcakes with help from some great leaders!  The goal of this project was to pay it forward to someone else. We learned that by giving to others, we really come out ahead!  Our class was able to eat one of the cupcakes that each student created, but the other 3 cupcakes had to be given to someone who really may need a pick-me-up (a parent, friend, neighbor, staff member). We appreciated the lesson taught today, and we all had a fabulous time working together.  

Our leaders!

Some of our creations

Some more creations

Sidney making cupcakes

Thank you to our parent volunteers today!

Kaden making some awesome cupcakes!

Thomas and Zach enjoying their time together.

Everyone worked hard and showed respect by listening and working together!

Summer making some great creations!

Kyle enjoying his time today!

What an awesome day it was!  Remember to pay it forward to someone you know this week!

Mystery Reader #2

We were lucky enough to have another mystery reader come to our classroom on Friday afternoon.  Our class was stumped by this Mystery Reader!  It wasn't a parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle.  It was our own mayor!  Mayor Jacki Chamberlain came to share her love of reading with us!  Thank you so much for your time, Mayor Chamberlain!  It was a pleasure to have you with us!

Mystery Reader #1

Thank you, Makenna, for sharing your mom with us!  Our first Mystery Reader was Mrs. Sigler, and everyone was very surprised!  Even Makenna!  We had a great time listening to I Ain't Gonna Paint No More and had fun with an activity afterwards!  Thanks again, Mrs. Sigler for being our Mystery Guest Reader!

Scholastic Book Order

Our class book order has been sent home.  If you would like to order books for your child, please have orders sent in to school by Friday, September 9.  I appreciate if you please pay by checks made out to Scholastic Book Clubs.  You may also order online if you would like.  By doing this, you help build our classroom library by giving our room free books from Scholastic.  Our online code is F29NK.  Feel free to let me know if you have any problems when ordering this way!  Thanks for supporting reading for your child!

Helpful Spelling Site

I would like to encourage my parents to have your child use the website highlighted below to help with spelling words.  I understand that studying spelling words can get "boring" to students who always practice their words the same way week to week.  Spelling City is a website that will allow you to log on as a student in my class and practice the weekly words in fun ways.  You can print the words, play games, make flashcards,  and practice handwriting just to name a few skills.  If you have computer access to the Internet, I urge you to check out Spelling City with your child!  It's a super way to practice!!!

All you will need is to log on as a student.  Use my name as the teacher name (Janeen Shemenski) and Shreve Elementary as the school.  If you have log on problems, please let me know! 

Happy learning!
www.spellingcity.com

Great First Day!

We had a great first day at school on Monday!  This class seems excited to learn and ready to dive into a great year!  We read one my favorite poems together today, which got us all laughing and ready to begin our year together!  I would like to say thank you for sharing your kids with me each day!  It's going to be a wonderful year together!!

The First Day of School

by Judith Viorst

Will they let me go when I need to go to the bathroom?

And what if I get lost on my way back to class?

And what if the other kids are a hundred, a thousand times smarter than I am?

And what if we have a spelling test or a reading test, or an...

anything test, and I'm the only one who doesn't pass?

And what if my techer decides she doesn't like me?

And what if, all of a sudden a tooth gets loose?

And what if I can't find my lunch, or I sit on my lunch,

or I (oops) drop my lunch someplace like the toilet?

Will they let me starve or will somebody lend me a sandwich?

A cookie? A cracker? An apple? Some juice?

And what if they say, "Do this," and I don't understand them?

And what if there's teams and nobody picks me to play?

And what if I took off my sneakers, and also my socks,

and my jeans, and my sweatshirt and T-shirt,

And started the first day of school on the second day?

Thanks for a great first day, Fourth Graders!

WELCOME TO FOURTH GRADE!

I'd like to welcome you to our classroom website!  I am so glad you are here.  My name is Mrs. Shemenski, and this is my 15th year of teaching fourth grade.  I am excited to begin a fun-filled school year that will be packed full of learning and excitement.  I am thrilled that you are joining us on our journey!  May the adventures begin!