Harcourt Brace is the reading series used by the third and fourth graders. This series provides not only an experience in reading but also incorporates new vocabulary words, grammar, literature circles and a variety of other language arts mini-lessons. In addition to our reading series, the children are involved in D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read), "Read Alouds", where the teacher is reading stories to them and "Author Chair", a time during which children can read and share their writings with the rest of the class.

In addition to the language arts activities that take place with reading, the 3-4 grades are also involved in several different types of writing activities. They have time weekly to do free writing in their journals. At this time, they choose the topic to write about, giving the teacher the opportunity to work individually with students as they write. The children are also learning how to edit their work, write sentences, paragraphs and stories. Another feather in the "Wild Cat" room is our N.E.W. wall. N.E.W. stands for "No Excuse Words". These are words that are often misspelled in the English language, frequently because they are not spelled like they sound! We do many activities with N.E.W. words. If you ever see - New - next to a word on your child's paper, that means there is no excuse for spelling it wrong as the word is on the wall for them to see. The students correct all of these errors.

"Every Day Math" is the current series used for math. The series provides a lot of hands-on activities in order to learn math. On Tuesdays we watch a math video entitled "Square One" and then spend the rest of the math time playing various math games as suggested by the Every Day Math Series and also some developed by myself. It is a fun way to learn math!

This year we are doing some team teaching. The third graders go to the other third grade classroom for Science and Social Studies. A few of the things they learn about are maps, globes and Native Americans. The fourth graders learn about the above topics as well as focus on Wisconsin.

Science is usually done in units using the "Carolina Science Kits". Third graders study animals, weather and plants while the fourth graders study matter, electricity, rocks/minerals and also animals.

In the "Wild Cat" room we work as a team and value the spirit of team efforts. Together, the children earn marbles when the entire class exhibits good behavior. Once the marble jar is full, they will estimate how many marbles are in the jar and then we will have a "Marble Party" which could include playing games, watching a video, or whatever the class decides. And of course, no marble party would be complete without a marble cake!

Each week we also select one person to be the "Student of the Week". This person has special responsibilities for that week, such as being first in line, choosing the "question of the day", bringing a pet for show and tell, ringing the chimes when we leave the room and picking the next "Student of the Week".