Mrs.Smits' Classroom Blog

Hello Everyone! I have moved my blog site... I will no longer be updating this site... Check my blog out at the following link. You can even sign up to get email updates! http://mrssmits.edublogs.org/

We took a trip today... Yes, we went across the street to see the Intermediate School. The wonderful 5th graders took the Holmes and Jeffers fourth graders around the building, introduced them to the teachers, and give them the "lowdown" on life in 5th grade. Mr. Lewakowski was...

Our class won the fourth grade battle of the books. We read the most books at at least fourth grade level or higher and received the most points. We celebrated with a pizza party! Go Fourth Graders!

WOW! You either were impressed or would have been impressed if you came to the Michigan Antique Road Show. The kids looked great and they did a fantastic job. I was so proud and the kids should be proud too! Great job to everyone!

We have had many visitors this year, but today we had Mr. Lewakowski, the principal from the Intermediate School, come to talk with us about life at the Intermediate Building. The fourth graders were great listeners and found out that it will not be as "scary" as some of them think....

Our Michigan Antique Road Show is coming to the Holmes Gymnasium on Thursday, May 15. It starts at 7:00! Don't be late... Here we are practicing away. You will learn SO much from these fourth graders.

Today our fourth graders used their Bocce Ball skills in a tournament set up by Mr. Robinson. Not only did they get to compete in the tournament, they were given bruschetta and cannoles to eat! Here are the fourth graders in action! Bocce Ball Tournament 5/9/08

The kids were bedazzled with the talent of Scott Pellegrom. He is a local drummer (Spring Lake Graduate) that has an amazing amount of talent for playing the drum. He has worked in many different places and has experienced working with many different artists as well. The kids were excited to...

We headed over to Jeffers today and had a chance to meet with some amazing people that work in our community! The students rotated around to hear different people speak about their jobs and what it takes to do those jobs. A big thanks to all of our presenters! We learned so much. Here we...

Did you know that May 17-23 is Michigan week? Check out this website. It is so informational... Click on the link below to check it out! Michigan Week

We had a great assembly today that had us look at the character traits in an entertaining way. The kids heard songs, saw a play, and had a great time! Check it out below... Character Assembly

Here are some websites that you might find interesting... Earth Day Pledge Learn more about reducing waste and conserving Lorax Game Earth Day Hangman Earth Day Tic Tac Toe

I am SO excited to introduce to you our new and official podcasts. The class wrote personal narrative stories about some of their spring break experiences and we recorded four of them for your listening pleasure... Look for more to come soon. These kids can write! Just click on the link and...

We finished reading, Stone Fox and the students showed their understanding of the story with group projects. I was SO impressed at all of the wonderful things they included in their cereal box projects. They included all the parts of a story, objects from the story, and book recommendations....

What a great day we had on Thursday! Sheepshank Sam came to teach us all about the lumbering camps in Michigan of long ago. He spent the whole day here showing us what it was like and we even got to try our hand at sawing, loading the sleds, and practiced being horses! For lunch we got to...

Have a wonderful, safe Spring Break! See you all on April 14!

We had some great presentations today to help us with the "grown" part of our, "Found, Grown, and Made" unit in science and social studies. We learned all about the apple crops, getting corn from the crops to our tables, and the process that milk goes through from the cow to...

We are studying garbage and how it affects our world. To do some investigating, we collected our garbage for a day, then sorted, and talked about our findings. We then discussed how important it is to be "Earth Protectors" and to start by recycling!...

We had more "pigs" come to visit! Check out these furry friends! Their names are Peppers and Sarah. More pictures... Guinea Pigs

Rachel is student of the week for this week. She brought "Penny" in for the day. Isn't she cute?

I turned the fourth graders into geologists for the afternoon. We investigated rocks and minerals. It was so interesting to see if they were hard, soft, left streaks, or not and if they had luster. We also checked to see if they were attracted to magnets. What an interesting study. Check us...

YEA mom and dad! Thank you for being the reason we won ANOTHER Marco's pizza party. The pizza is a great treat. Here we are eating our pizza. Keep on buying pizza. We don't mind eating it!

Mrs. Buchanan came to visit us today to kick off our rock and mineral study. She had a large map of Michigan and LOTS of rocks and minerals. We talked about them and placed them on the map. It was so informative. Thank you Mrs. Buchanan! More pictures... Rocks and...

I really enjoyed meeting with all of you last week at conferences. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss any other questions or concerns that may come up. Thank you for sharing your kids with me each day! They are the best!

We have had so much fun in the past week or so since I last blogged. I hope everyone is doing well. I am going to try to catch up in the next couple of blog posts. Check them all out! We took a trip to the Ottawa County Circuit Court in Grand Haven. Here are some pictures of our experience....

Last Friday was great! We made pasties and ate them for lunch. Ask your child about what a pasty is and where is originally came from... The kids were surprised that they liked them. We even had some kids tasting vegetables that they didn't even know they liked. Here are some pictures. To...

We are learning all about what mining in Michigan was like in the U.P. once upon a time. We had a fantastic presentation on Thursday that taught us SO much. We went back in time to the little town of Fayette, Michigan and became miners from all different countries. We learned all about pig...

We went down to Mrs. Berry's room today to see her classroom, "Wax Museum". The third graders had researched, wrote about, and "became" famous people from history. They dressed up and taught us about famous people in history. It was GREAT! We appreciate being invited to...

We had a wonderful time bagging groceries and taking good care of the customers at Orchard Market on Monday night. Thank you to everyone that came out and shopped in the snowy, snowy weather. Here are a few pictures of the teachers hard at work. Yes, we worked HARD!

We had a great day in fourth grade today! We were busy with the symphony coming to visit, library, GIGS, and then in the afternoon, a big Valentine's party. An extra special thank you goes to Sonja Denning for planning the party and a big thank you also goes to all the parents that came in to...

We had a special visit from Senator Wayne Kuipers last Friday. He talked to the students about his job, Lansing, and answered all their questions. Ask your child all about this visit. It was great for the students to get to meet him and talk to him.

I am still trying to figure out where time went, but yes, it is true... I am back! It feels good. The transition has been smooth and Mrs. Marcus will be missed by all. The good news... she is still at Holmes! She is teaching third grade until the end of the year. We ate brownies and made...

I just wanted you all to know that as of Friday, November 2, Mrs. Marcus has taken over room #12. My baby is due on Monday, November 5, but I had to bow out early to take care of my sick son. He has been fighting a virus and asthma this week. His grandmas took EXCELLENT care of him while I...

We had a great day today! It was so fun to see the kids in their costumes and just relax at a wonderful party thrown by our wonderful room 12 parents. A BIG THANKS to everyone that came in and helped and a BIG THANKS to Sonja Denning for organizing the festivities! Check out our pictures....

What a busy, but great day! We had our first "Gigs" today. We went to the gym and sang, sang, sang! At lunch, we had a celebration for our Janie's Cookie Co. top sellers. Congratulations and good job to Cameron and Brant! At the end of the day, we had...

Yesterday we went to the Grabinski field with the young 5s all the way through 6 grade. We focused on staying fit and putting exercise into our day. It was so good for us! Check out our photos! More photos... Workout Day at Field

Things here have been so busy! We are now back into a regular schedule after our MEAP test and conference week. It is good to be back to a regular schedule. Here are some pictures of us at an assembly on Tuesday. Carol Johnson came and sang some really great songs about caring for each...

Here are some websites to check out. We are working hard at multiplication and division at school. I am sure the kids would love to do some at home too! Multiplication - click on a link below... Multiplication baseball Timed "Math Magician" Multiplication Machine...

What a busy week we had! Last week was wonderful. We had Mrs. Marcus come and work with us. She will be taking over on November 5 for 12 weeks and she learned so much about our classroom. Mrs. Marcus and I also had a WONDERFUL time talking to all the hard working, supportive parents of...

October is Fire Safety Month! We had a visit from the Spring Lake Fire Department and they spent some time with us discussing fire safety and fire exit plans. It was a great day with some good reminders... Here are some pictures! Click here for more pictures... Fire Safety

We are finished with the MEAP test for fourth grade. The students did a great job and worked very, very hard. We are back to our regular schedule, starting tomorrow. Fantastic Job Fourth Graders! I want to make sure we thank the wonderful parents that sent in our MEAP snacks last week and...

What a wonderful day we had. No, I am not talking about the weather! It was cold and rainy, but besides that... It was a day full of learning interesting information from people who knew what they were talking about. The children had an opportunity to learn about fur trading, travel on the...

We had a great afternoon! Mrs. Mikesell asked us to help her with the book fair items after we had our library time today. The kids were such good helpers. They moved boxes, unloaded books, and help set up the book fair. When we were done, we were all rewarded with Klondike bars. Yum!...

We don't have much to report except that we are knee deep in the MEAP! The students are working so hard and concentrating each morning on their MEAP test. Thanks for making sure your child is getting to bed early each evening and eating a good breakfast in the morning. It does make a...

We had our free Marcos Pizza party today and boy did we have fun. The pizza and pop was GREAT! We also got to watch a movie while we snacked. A big thanks to all the parents that purchased pizza, bread, etc. on our Holmes Marcos Night. Our school earned over $300! We had so much fun at...

We had some visitors today from Nu Union Credit Union. They shared with us all about how the students can open their own accounts and can deposit money in them weekly at the bank-that will come to us each Thursday. We also had an opportunity to learn about the volunteer...

We worked hard today in word study and WOW the kids did a great job. We studied how the letter /h/ can change c, s, t, w, p to a new sound in words. The students got in groups and brainstormed some WONDERFUL words. I was so impressed... Here they are in action......

We learned so much and had such a good time at Standard Sand on September 27. Our class was split up with one group going in the AM and the other going in the PM. The kids were given hats, gems, and even hunted for GOLD! A big thanks to Standard Sand and to all of our drivers. We have such...

We are headed to Standard Sand in Grand Haven tomorrow. Please remind your child to bring a sack lunch and to wear socks and shoes. Our class is divided into two trips tomorrow. One in the AM and one in the PM. Check out their website: Standard Sand

We had a good day today. We wanted to show you some sorting that we worked on in our word study lesson today. Ask your child about all the ways that you can make the /k/ sound. The English language is SO interesting and fun to explore. We also had a great time...

One of the experiments we conducted at Hoffmaster on Wednesday was pulling magnetite out of the sand. It is black specked mineral that you can find in sand. To pull it out, we used magets. We took a couple of videos...check them out! Just click on the links below......

What a great day we had today at P.J. HoffmasterState Park! I have included so many pictures for you all to look at... We spent time with Mr. Peterson from the DNR and he shared some very interesting and fascinating facts about our dunes. We spent time checking out some animals...

We are off on another trip tomorrow. We are headed to Hoffmaster State Park to study the dunes and explore the question: Should the sand dunes be off limits for sand mining? We will leave school at 10:00 and return around 1:30. Everyone going with us needs a sack lunch....

I had to share this... Here we are at Dune Day! We are looking good, aren't we?

Many students in the class have expressed that they like to play "video" games after school or watch some TV. I would like to give an alternative to doing those things, but promise that what I am offering can be just as fun! Our focus is going to be multiplication and place value...

Make sure you come and check out Holmes Elementary and our classroom on Thursday, September 13 from 6:00-7:00 ! We look forward to seeing you!

What a wonderful day we had! After some weather that did not cooperate last Friday... We took a chance and headed out today to North Shore Beach. It was FUN! We had wonderful drivers and helpers at the beach. We could not have done it without them. The kids went on dune...

Can you believe that we are back to school already? Where did the summer go? I have to say that we are having a great time in fourth grade at Holmes school. All of the students, parents, and other teachers have made me feel so welcome. What a great place to be! Here are some pictures of the...

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