Jen Phillips -- Blogmeister

For nearly two-thirds of our class, Wednesday was our first day blogging (eight of us did this in Kindergarten)! Check out the info coming home with your child about blogging from home as well as ways you, as our readers, can contribute to our blog!

We have spent nearly three weeks building up to this day... designing our own avatar (on Kid Pix), choosing our backgrounds, looking at blogs and now, here we are, ready to type!

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A picture slideshow by Smilebox

Welcome to our "Student" Blog... Home on the Web of the Weckies!

Throughout the year we will use this Blog for many different reasons. The Weckies have transformed into Bloggers and I'm eager for our parents, families and the rest of the blogosphere to hear from our kids.

Please use the Room 204 2011-2012 link on the right-hand side of this page to visit each child's individual blog via their "Magic Number". Remember, you can even leave comments on here (the main page run by Mrs. Weckie) or on your child's page! Every comment posted does come to me for review first :-).

Happy Reading!

In the next couple of weeks your child will become a BLOGGER!! Each Weckie has completed designing their blog page and will be writing on the computer soon. We'll keep you posted at home and even show you how you can blog with your child from home! :-) Happy Typing! Mrs. Weckie

We went out for recess in the morning. We got wet from the rain! Today we finished up a workstation from yesterday, we had to use a puncher to make the letters of our name. This morning we did a name puzzle. We had a puzzle for everyone. We also went to lunch. We also went outside for another recess. We also had to count numbers today for Mrs. Weckstein. It has been a fun and BUSY day! We did even earn a Free Choice today. We also had quiet time. We put a fish on the Big Catch! We only need two more fish.

Today we went outside for recess. We got to go to gym today to see Mr. Hohlbein. We also went to music today. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Kelsey today and we ate yummy cupcakes for our snack. We all got Halloween rings. We even ate lunch today. Today was a great day in Room 301 because we got to use our new Smartboard!

Today we came to the Computer Lab to work on our Blog! We also went to see Mr. Maple today. Mr. Maple is a tree! We are going to plant that tree this afternoon. This morning we also went to Music and saw Mrs. Cowell. We sang a fishy song. We went to the playground for an extra recess. We couldn't go to P.E. because Mr. Hohlbein was not at Dublin today. Today is Geneva's birthday. She is going to be 5 years old today!

Hi Weckies!! I bet you never thought you would have your own web page!! This year we are going to post articles on here as a class and keep a journal of all that we do. Below are the pictures I took during our first day of work stations. Everyone did such a great job! Love, Mrs. Weckstein :-)

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Here's a new way we can create a poster that can be filled with all sorts of neat things like photographs and links. We call it a "glog"! I wanted to give it a try... What do you think?

A BIG Room 204 THANK YOU to all of our March Mystery Readers! We enjoyed welcoming so many special readers to our classroom. :-)

Click to play this Smilebox photobook: March is Reading Month

Make your own digital photo album

http://www.storylineonline.net/
Here famous actors and actresses will read you some classic picture books. If you put your mouse over the book title, you will see which celebrity is going to read you the story!

http://www.plcmc.org/bookhive/zingertales/zingertales.asp
Go here to listen to stories and folktales by storytellers.

http://pbskids.org/clifford/stories/index.html
Here you can have some of your favorite Clifford stories read to you!

http://www.biguniverse.com/readkidsbooks
This one you'll have to do the reading...

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY from Room 204 :-)

Hi 204!! For the past few days I was fortunate enough to be in Grand Rapids to learn all about new technology that we can use in our classroom. :-)

Here's something I wanted to try right away! Click on the little play button to hear a special message!

Tonight I had a fantastic time on Skype talking to our long lost twins, Hannah and Ty! Here's a photo that I captured, it's called a "screen shot" while we were chatting!

The twins caught on quick that I was taking their picture along the way! Tonight I learned that their new house is on a MOUNTAIN!! People that live there keep telling their Mom that they will even have BEARS in their backyard! They gave me a tour of their new house and it looked AWESOME! Ty even has a loft bed that is way up high!

Keep our fingers crossed that we'll get to Skype with Hannah and Ty one day from our classroom... How cool will that be?!?

Hello 2nd Graders and extended Room 204 Family! I hope everyone is enjoying their mid-winter break. 2nd Graders, what are you doing over break? Comment to this article and let us know what you are up to! I'll post the first comment so you can see where I've been! Miss you bunches and see you soon! :-) Miss Phillips
P.S. Once you read my comment, you can try to find my red dot on the spinning globe (and the map up top of the page 24hours after this post)

Last Friday we went on our very first field trip to the Outdoor Center!! We had a blast learning about severe weather, animal survival and plants! Check out the video.... A special thanks to our chaperones and the Staff at the Walled Lake Outdoor Center for making our field trip such a special day!

P.S. A friend of mine, Mrs. Shoemaker was kind enough to play with this movie for awhile to get the quality to look really nice. On the bottom of the frame you will see a box with four arrows in the corner - click on that and select "original window". When you hit play it will look AWESOME!! Thanks Mrs. Shoemaker!!

There's been a new delivery at Dublin! We've added a paper recycling dumpster where anyone can come and dump their paper products to be recycled! Check out our first class trip to the recycling dumpster today.

P.S. We are having an all school contest to see which classroom can make the tallest stack of magazines to go into the recycling dumpster. Look how well we did after one day...

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Holiday Party 2009

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A special thank you to all of our parents and grandparents for making this such a special last school day of 2009! We look forward to an exciting 2010! :-) Miss Phillips

During the last week of school we met with our 4th Grade Buddies to create a holiday project! With donations of dozens of boxes of sugar cubes, spiced gum drops, skittles, twizzlers, suckers, etc. we had a VERY sweet afternoon together!

From Our Room 204 Family to Yours - We wish you a very happy and relaxing Thanksgiving Day!

The signing of our Reader's Workshop Contract was eagerly anticipated after spending the first 10 weeks of school learning about our "role" as a reader in Readers Workshop!

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Reader's Contract

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The writers in 204 have spent the week working on color poems... Thinking back to when I was little, I found and shared this fun song with the kids. They insisted that I put it up on the blog. Enjoy!

Last Tuesday we got into the computer lab and went to work on our first blog posts! Enjoy... be sure to turn on your speakers :-)

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Our 1st Time Blogging

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Today I was fortunate to go with two of my technology colleagues, Mrs. Stoll and Mrs. Ozminkowski to a conference in Clinton Township. This morning we attended different classes to learn about new things we can do in our classroom with computers - we got a LOT of neat ideas! This afternoon the three of us spoke to other teachers about our classroom blogs! We were thrilled to present our blogs to teachers who want to start their own blogs!

I hope you had an excellent Friday with Mrs. Jones in 204! :-) Miss Phillips

Here I sit at home, around 9:45pm on Tuesday night and my email box has finally stopped receiving messages titled, "You've received a new blog article from ... to be approved"! My second graders have gone to sleep!

Today the kids learned how to post articles onto their own blog pages. They were THRILLED to give it a try after spending the past few weeks designing a picture on KidPix for their page as well as picking out the background to their page. We talked about internet safety and we took a tour of our blog page. We spent time practicing logging on and logging off. Finally, the writers were set free on their own pages and they magically transformed into bloggers!

Today we officially became BLOGGERS! Please use the navigation menu on the right-hand side of the page (yellow bar) to select Room 204 2009-2010 to see a list of student numbers in our class. If you know your child's number, feel free to travel right to their page. If you are here to check out our blog, feel free to select the numbers to see if a new blogger published today!

Please also know that blogging is very new to us and many of the kids were unable to fully complete their article today. To solve this problem we practiced learning how to save articles so that next Tuesday when we return to the lab, we can complete those articles!

Enjoy! :-)

Last night I saw a link posted by a friend online about Noah Biorkman, a 5 year old boy suffering from Cancer with a terrible prognosis. Noah's family decided to give him Christmas early this year, in fears of him not making it until December 25th. To help Noah celebrate his very special Christmas, the "elves" of 204 sprung into action. After watching the video at this link: http://www.clickondetroit.com/seenon4/21522646/detail.html the kids of 204 decided that they HAD to help and instantly the red, green and white paper was flying in the air, stickers were everywhere and the sounds of scissors and marker caps filled the room.

Take a look at what I saw...

Room 204 had a fantastic afternoon Friday as we went on our first indoor Halloween Parade and then had an awesome party in our classroom. A BIG thank you to ALL of the parents that helped plan this special event! :-)

Today was the first day that the second graders of Room 204 got onto the blog and designed their own page. If you click on the lefthand side of our main blog page you can see Room 204 2009-2010. Clicking on that link will allow you to see each child's magic number and their blog page!

I'm so proud of the work our bloggers have done for their page including... they logged in for the first time,creating a kid pix picture of themselves for the page, and designing their own backgrounds. Next week we tackle posting articles!!

Welcome Aboard New Bloggers!! :-) Miss Phillips

This weekend I picked up a pocket video camera... I'm hoping to find many different ways we can use this in our classroom and for instruction!

Click this video to see how to make a "Ballpark Estimate for Subtraction":

Click the next two videos to see how to borrow for Subtraction:

Wow! Here we are back in the Computer Lab working on our new second grade Blog! From my perspective I see LOTS of eager typers and LOTS of red cups! We use red and blue cups to communicate in the Computer Lab. Blue cups tell me that everything is swell at a given computer. Red cups tell me that a blogger is in need of help!

I sure am excited to see the enthusiasm the kids have towards the Blog and I'm eager to show them all of the neat things we can do!

Keep up the super-duper work 2nd Grade Bloggers!! :-) Miss Phillips

We spent time in Room 204 talking about the future president of the United States. Have you ever wondered what would happen if a second grader was the next president of the United States? Watch our first web video to find out! :-) Miss Phillips

This story has an AWESOME message that I'll be sure to share with my second graders. Enjoy!

Today was an exciting day over at Dublin... we got 10 new teachers blogging today! Be sure to check out their blog pages!

Hey 401 -
Make sure you stop by my new room (204) and bring back your Math practice workbooks from the summer. I've got king sized candy bars waiting for you :-)!!

Hey 401!

I found this really cool web site that will let me post books on to our blog that you can read. All you need to do is click on the book and you can read along too. I figured this Gail Gibbons book was a great summer read because I'm sure we have all had LOADS of ice cream this summer. Happy Reading!

To see the pictures you can just click on the mini-book on our page. To actually read the book, click on the two eyes on the top right corner of the image. That will take you to the looky book web site.

Has anyone seen my missing fourth grade bloggers?? Are they too busy playing outside, going on trips and enjoying summer to drop in and blog? So far #2 is the only person to blog this summer - let's go 401 bloggers! Let me know you are out there!! :-)Miss Phillips

It is hard for me to imagine that we are on Summer Vacation! THANK YOU for being such fabulous fourth graders. :-)I sure am going to miss you over the next 10 weeks!

I hope that you will all continue to use the blog and keep us posted this summer where you go. If you go some where neat or do something you want to share be sure to post a new article and I will feature it on the front page of our blog.

Be safe, have fun, I love you all!! :-) Miss Phillips

Welcome to our Writing Celebration parents!

Today you'll have the opportunity to see LOTS that these 401 writers have been up to. Make sure to check out: the Blog, the Scrapbooks, the Poetry Collections, the Writing Portfolios, the Reader's Response Logs and the writing up all over our room.

Thank you for coming! :-)Team 401

The poets of 401 continue to AMAZE me!! Please check the student blogs to see some of their own original pieces as well as some great poems they have found from books or classmates! We are gearing up for our Poetry Celebration later on in May :-).

P.S. On a side note, GO WINGS=http://!

Here's an adorable kindergarten video that I found... Do you have any ideas of a video we could make?? Be sure to comment and let's hear it 401!!

Look at this, I've found a site that will let me post little videos to you. Soon enough, I'll have our own Team 401's magician up on the blog escaping from handcuffs.

Technology and computers sure are tricky! I'm still working to figure out why our 2nd grade buddies are struggling to get the blog to work in the computer lab at school. Have you all noticed we haven't been blogging lately? I am determined to figure this one out and get you all on soon!!
:-) Miss P

There's nothing like a proud teacher!! This past month in 401 we have been celebrating Random Acts of Kindness month (actually celebrated nationally in February). It all began when a new friend this year did a random act of kindness for me and gave me the book, "Thank You Mr. Hatch". In doing so, she gave me a book that I would share with my students and also explain that February was Random Acts of Kindness month. Throughout the month we have been working to fill our bulletin board with random acts of kindness hearts - notes thanking people who have done kind things for us. Students even got a "hand" from their parents recognizing them for their hardwork. As a random act of kindness, we made five batches of brownies last week and gave them out to students and staff at Dublin that we felt appreciative of and for. Essentially we flooded the building and busses with brownies.

To end the week I wanted to do something special for the kids as an appreciation for all that they do in our room for each other. Caron L., Jackson's Mom, got me in touch with a representative from the Plymouth Whalers, a semi-professional local hockey team. After a couple of emails, we were able to get the Whaler's to come visit us today! The kids went NUTS! They learned about the four players, asked LOTS of questions and even got four autographs on special Whaler's paper.

There's nothing like a proud teacher. :-)

Guess what 401?! Your learning buddies now have their very own Blog spot! We'll be helping them soon as they learn to blog just like you did in the beginning of the year. :-) Miss Phillips

Hey 401! What are you going to do today on your EXTRA day of school off? I bet you'd never believe me if I told you that even teachers LOVE having snow days! Last night I talked to Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Chapuseaux (and she just spoke with Mrs. Vackaro) and Mrs. McKendry and we ALL wanted a snow day today! Post your comments to this blog entry and let me know how you are spending your day off! :-) Miss Phillips

After practicing Christmas carols for days, creating gigantic paper chains, making cards and ornaments, 401 was ready to spread Christmas cheer to the senior citizens at Estabrooks Senior Center across the street from Dublin. It was truly a special afternoon for the students and the seniors. Enjoy the photos! Merry Christmas Estabrooks and Team 401! :-) Miss Phillips

Read more stories by #10 plus read other peoples stories by picking the #'s on the side of the front blog page.
If you like a story, click the comment button under the story. Then click add a comment. Then type your name. You don't have to type your email address or your URL. At the bottom, add your comment. But don't put a bad comment because after you put it it goes to our teacher. If she thinks it is appropiote, she will put it on the internet. "Wait!" Before you send it, you have to type crazy things to prove that you're a human when it asks you what letters and numbers are in the picture. :-)#10

Hello Blog Visitors!! Coming soon to our Blog you will notice each child has a published Writer's Workshop piece. In Workshop we have been talking about "Good Leads" and how we can create writing pieces that will invite the reader in and make them curious about our piece. As a class we set a deadline to have our work typed by Dec. 12th. After collecting several pieces with "Good Leads" each child selected one piece to take through the publishing process. We've been revising and editing independently, with our partners and in conferences with Miss Phillips. Then we began the publishing process of putting our work onto the Blog! Be prepared for some fantastic stories with even better leads!! :-) Miss Phillips and Team 401 :-)

Last week we went to the computer lab and worked with Mrs. Doyle on digital graphics. Each child created their own leaf off of a template Mrs. Doyle provided. We talked about blending colors to create a leaf that looked realistic. You can look at the pictures above of our leaf creations. Check out the student blogs so that you can see all of the different things that they are writing about their own leaf's and you can even see their leaf on the top of their pages! :-) Miss P

Hello from Blogging Central! These kids are obsessed! Do I have team 401 kids asking me daily to blog? YES! Do they ask if we'll get to go on the laptops daily? YES! Are we back on the laptops today? YES! Was there a loud chant when I mentioned going on the blog today? YOU BETCHA! Enjoy fans of the blog - you can look for new postings on the topic of Thanksgiving!
:-)Miss Phillips


What a fun and crazy kind of day! Our day began with a magician and ended with a parade and a classroom party! Thanks to everyone for wonderful donations and to our moms' who planned a fantastic time for all! :-) Miss P
Article posted November 6, 2007 at 08:59 PM GMT0 • comment • Reads 183

Friday's Writer's Workshop Share Time

Article posted October 20, 2007 at 09:25 PM GMT0 • comment (1) • Reads 175

Article posted October 20, 2007 at 09:25 PM GMT0 • comment (1) • Reads 175

Our First Time on the Laptops!

Article posted October 20, 2007 at 01:41 PM GMT0 • comment • Reads 164

A BIG perk of being a fourth grader is getting to use laptops!

Article posted October 20, 2007 at 01:41 PM GMT0 • comment • Reads 164

Extra Recess with our Reading Buddies last week!

Article posted October 18, 2007 at 05:54 PM GMT0 • comment • Reads 195

Create Your Own

Article posted October 18, 2007 at 05:54 PM GMT0 • comment • Reads 195

What do you think 401?

Article posted October 18, 2007 at 03:45 AM GMT0 • comment (17) • Reads 169

Hey Team 401 - I have a question for you! I need you to answer me about this email, by commenting to this blog posting! I received this email on Wednesday night and of course, have to ask your permission first!

Let's hear it...

Hi Miss Phillips!

My name is Julie Moylan and I'm also a 4th grade teacher.....however, I'm over on the west coast! I teach at Green Elementary School in Dublin, California. I was wondering if you and your 4th graders would be interested in being pen pals with me and my 4th graders this year?? The name of our city is Dublin, that's what made me choose your school site. Please let me know if this interests you. We would love to learn about your state, city, school, community, ect. This might also be another great writing motivator for our students??? I would love to hear back from you. Thanks so much for your time.

P.S. You can checkout our class website on teacherweb.com. Search California, then Green Elementary, and MrsMoylan. Hope to talk soon!

Julie Moylan
Green Elementary
Dublin Unified School District
3rd/4th Grade Multiage Classroom

Respond to me so I know if you want Pen Pals from California using the "COMMENT" link right below this blog post! :-) Miss Phillips

Article posted October 18, 2007 at 03:45 AM GMT0 • comment (17) • Reads 169

Big Changes

Article posted October 17, 2007 at 02:59 AM GMT0 • comment (1) • Reads 250

Hello 401 Bloggers!! Time to do some updating to our beloved Blogmeister site.. note the new colors, pictures, animations and more! Soon enough you'll be posting pictures, animations and more writing onto your own blog space. :-) Miss P.
P.S. Way to ROCK OUT on the MEAP these past few days - Only two more days to go and we are DONE!!! You're the BEST!!

Article posted October 17, 2007 at 02:59 AM GMT0 • comment (1) • Reads 250

So Goes Another Week

Article posted October 12, 2007 at 08:21 PM GMT0 • comment (1) • Reads 157

What a great week we have been having in 401! We began the week making applesauce with our Second Grade Learning Buddies. As we progressed into the week we went into MEAP mode and worked our best to complete the reading and writing components. We have one more section left of the language arts to do next week before we begin the math section of the MEAP. Also this week we've worked on our multiplication facts with a game of fact triangles, worked on a letter about Michigan in Social Studies, explored with stream tables in Science and spent time writing in our Writer's Notebooks. Have a fantastic fall weekend 401! :-) Miss P

Article posted October 12, 2007 at 08:21 PM GMT0 • comment (1) • Reads 157

M.E.A.P.

Article posted October 11, 2007 at 03:31 AM GMT0 • comment • Reads 176

This week we entered into the MEAP World!! I have been so proud of the hardwork our students have been putting forth and have to thank our parents for the great support you give your children. While it has seemed a bit strange to not be doing a lot of teaching during this MEAP blocks of the day, it has been rewarding to see how much our students have grown since the beginning of the year and how much confidence they have in their abilities to read and write well on this assessment. Keep on encouraging at home, we are almost done with the first of two weeks of the MEAP and the kids are still smiling! :-) Miss P

Article posted October 11, 2007 at 03:31 AM GMT0 • comment • Reads 176

Here we come!!

Article posted October 4, 2007 at 07:31 PM GMT0 • comment • Reads 178

That's right folks, we've entered into the blogosphere! Make sure to check your child's number out for articles coming soon. While some finished today, others will have time to finish their entry in the upcoming days. I'm also working on getting pictures loaded onto our blog so you can see our milestones along the way.

Article posted October 4, 2007 at 07:31 PM GMT0 • comment • Reads 178

Here we come!

Article posted October 2, 2007 at 04:03 AM GMT0 • comment • Reads 177

Hey Friends and Family of 401!
We are officially ready to begin our Blogs! Blogs are online journals that are becoming more and more of a popular writing style in this technological era. In order to better prepare our kids for the future, I thought this would be a really neat way for our students to practice writing, share their writing, as well as communicate with family and friends that can read their blogs and see what we have all been up to. The goal is that by the end of the week we will all have posted at least one blog onto the web site. Soon, once the students are familiar with this process, I'll send information home about how your child can blog with you from home! It's pretty neat that the kids can come on here from home and even write in about what they are up to (such as over a weekend or school vacation!).

Make sure to check back soon AND check with your child to find out their "Magic" number. Each child has a number in order to protect their names and identities. When you click on your child's number, you'll be able to go right onto their web page and see their blogs as well as respond.

:-) Miss P

Article posted October 2, 2007 at 04:03 AM GMT0 • comment • Reads 177

Happy Monday!

Article posted October 1, 2007 at 09:07 PM GMT0 • comment (1) • Reads 170

Today was a super day in Room 401! Not only did we accomplish A LOT, we also spent a great first afternoon with our 2nd grade Reading Buddies! The kids of Mrs. Brown's 2nd grade came up today and were paired up with our fourth graders. Then as buddies they spent time getting to know one another as well as filling out a series of questions about each other. Then they had time to share different things about themselves with each other. Next we we'll be going a step further with our buddies and tackling the making of homemade applesauce! :-) Miss Phillips

Article posted October 1, 2007 at 09:07 PM GMT0 • comment (1) • Reads 170

T.G.I.F.!

Article posted September 21, 2007 at 03:50 PM GMT0 • comment • Reads 205

What a busy week it has been... Can we say MEAP?? We have been doing a ton of prep work in order to really make sure we are ready for the upcoming MEAP. This is the last week we can prepare for the MEAP and we have really come a long way in the past few weeks.

Today we also began using our Writer's Notebooks. I read an entry from my notebook to the kids and they brainstormed ideas for their own Writer's Notebooks. This weekend they have the task of going home and finding magazine clippings of words, photos, and more to bring to school on Monday to decorate the cover of their own notebook. There was a buzz in the room when they heard that they could write about whatever they wanted in this book and that it was a private journal for their ideas, thoughts and more!

Happy Friday!
:-) Miss P

Article posted September 21, 2007 at 03:50 PM GMT0 • comment • Reads 205

Entering the Blogging World

Article posted September 14, 2007 at 06:06 PM GMT0 • comment (3) • Reads 151

So here we are, the second Friday of 4th grade, and we've decided to expand our technological abilities! Last Spring while working on a school committee I heard from a 1st grade teacher at Guest Elementary about her classroom Blog. Out of curiosity I explored her 1st grade Blog site and was instantly in shock that first graders could blog (no offense to any first graders reading our Classroom Blog!) and decided I would do a blog with my kids!

Today we finished up our writing for our DWA writing assessment. We wrote about special people in our lives (parents, siblings, teachers, grandparents and even coaches). We also did practice today for the MEAP writing as we wrote a "good" piece together as a class using a scoring rubric.

We hope soon to be posting individually on the Blog with each child having their own Web Page of writing!

Have a fantastic weekend 401! :-) Miss Phillips

Article posted September 14, 2007 at 06:06 PM GMT0 • comment (3) • Reads 151

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