Showing category "Messages from Mrs. K" (Show all posts)

School's Out for Summer!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, June 14, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Hey, I have watched the class videos 5 times already since school got out. Do you guys miss me as much as I miss you? Tomorrow I have to go to school and clean up our room, put a copy of your report card in your permenant file, put copies of your Aims Web and MAP test scores in your permenant file. I also have to look through the files to make sure they are organized according to the district rules.

Tuesday the school I teach at called Summer Academy starts and I get 22 new students to te...
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Movie Premier Thursday!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, June 10, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Well, we got it burned and ready to go and the movie premier is going to be TOMORROW!! I can't wait to show it to you. It makes me sad to think this year is over. Where did the time go? I really love you, class, and I can't believe I have to pass you on to 5th grade but...you are all so smart, I can't keep you back. I would love to have every single one of you back again next year.

If you see this message blog me the time you think we should premier the movie--should it be at 9:30, 11:30...
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9 more days!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Saturday, May 29, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

This year went way too fast. Can it already be over?

I can't believe we had 8 kids gone on Friday. I think parents are already ready for summer. I hope everyone has a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend.

Today I mowed the front lawn and swept off all the decks and sidewalks. I pulled some weeds too. I really should be planting my annuals but I'm not sure I'm up for that. The boys shoveled out the dog run and put down fresh bark chips. They also helped John put up the screen porch and put al...

Mother's Day is Over, When is Children's Day?

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, May 11, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

When ever my kids say something like that I say, "Every day is children's day at our house." Does that sound familiar--no Friday fun cause every day is fun in this classroom. You get my point.

Tomorrow we will work again on our new lit circle book. The packets will be handed out and everyone will be reminded of how to work in proper lit circle style.

I am working hard cleaning John's room as he and Pam are moving into it for the summer. That should be interesting. Johnny is lots of fun a...
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Pi r good

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, May 4, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

You know the old pi r squared no pie are round joke? Try and explain that one to mom and dad tonight.

I am still accepting entries in the pi chain for 5 tickets a piece. We can keep doing that until we have all of pi typed in. When would that be? Blog me an answer to the question "How many digits is the real pi number" and if you are right you can have 10 tickets!!

Have fun searching for tonights secret number.

Mrs. K
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Search for the Hidden Number

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, April 30, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

There is a number hidden somewhere on this website. Mr. Kovacs hid it. There will be opportunities to earn tickets on Monday if you know what the number is that he hid and if you can tell what tab it was hidden under and where on the page it is. What color is it? Know as much as you can about it as 20 tickets are on the line!!

In other ticket news, everyone who participates in a pi chain this weekend will earn 5 tickets for every entry they make. I will start the chain right now with 3.1...
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MCAs are Over Over Over!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, April 22, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Yes! We survived. Everyone was here and all the tests are in and we are done done done.

Tomorrow it is back to the regular old grind. However, I am pretty excited because we are going to look at hereos for awhile and this week it's Lou Gehrig and next week we are all going to read a baseball book. There are some great hero stories in these books. Stories about guys like Shoelss Joe Jackson, Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth. Some kids are going to read about a small town hero, some about a bas...
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Mary Dahle named White Bear Lake Teacher of the Year

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, April 9, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Well, I didn't win. The High School Spanish teacher who has been teaching in the White Bear Lake School District for 36 years was named Teacher of the Year for 2010. Still, I got a cool pen thing with a magnet that I will show you tomorrow. I guess she has been nominated before but never won so she was just really thrilled to win. I am happy for her, I know she is a great teacher and has worked really hard for White Bear Lake Schools. Congrats Ms. Dahle. Lauren Clyne, the former student...
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Making Good Choices

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, April 8, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We are really trying to spend time talking about making good choices. From who to play with to behaviors we engage in to food we eat to doing our homework or not, we make a lot of choices every day. How can we remind ourselves to make good choices? What are the consequences of making NOT such great choices? We will work on this again tomorrow as some of us are taking our sweet time in catching on to this concept. Right? I think you know who you are.

We had a surprise visit today from the...
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Great Day of Learning People!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

For a first day back from spring break we had a GREAT day today. Nice job everybody.

This week we will wrap up our MCA prep during IE time. We will also be working on wrapping up Chapter 7 in math which is mean, median, mode, range and then time on non digital clocks. We will also do a bit of graphing and plotting on an x and y axis. Get the juices flowing, guys, next week is testing. No worries, we are READY. BRING IT!!

The yo-yo craze is amazing. Alec started this whole thing and is ...
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Spring Break and Spring has Sprung

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, March 29, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

I wrote a nice comment yesterday and when I went to save it it disappeared. Sometimes technology can be so frustrating and such a waste of time. Yikes.

Happy spring to all of us stuck at home in Minnesota. Lucky for us spring has arrived early and it is wonderful weather for biking, tennis, walking and being outside. Johnny is home for the week as his school in D.C. that he's teaching at is on spring break too. Poor Pamela had to stay home and go to law school--they already had their spri...
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I'm Back!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Saturday, March 20, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We are home!! We are all so excited to be back home. Vlad already has a new pair of Nikes and has had to take out the garbage and help clean up dog puke. Welcome to America. Welcome to family life.

Next week is our 4th grade recorder concert. There will be a practice on Monday and then a daytime show and evening show on Tuesday. You need to have dark pants and a white shirt for the programs.

I hear from Mrs. Vedoy that division is going pretty well. I know you learned some strategies and...
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Half Way Home

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Sunday, March 14, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

I keep getting good reports about how well my class is doing in my absence. Way to go kids! I am proud of you. Keep in mind that those troll books need to be published and ready to turn in by March 25 so I can grade them over spring break. Last year I graded them in the mountains of Colorado which seemed fitting somehow. Anyway, we need to read them to our first grade buddies before that so...work diligently on them. Don't hurry, quality is what we are after, but work hard.

I will be hom...
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Tomorrow's a Big Day!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, February 25, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Tomorrow is

    1. Read-a-thon day. We are doing something FUN!! Bring your sleeping bag, pillow and a good book.
    2. Hat day. Pay a buck and wear your hat--again!!
    3. Start your dummy book day. Let's get those Troll stories "mocked up".
    4. Double digit multiplication rocks day.

Voting for teachers to kiss a pig is coming soon. Watch for your ballot to come home tomorrow.

Thanks to my former IE kids who are blogging like mad. Way to go kids! Be sure and check back while...
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Big News!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, February 23, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Mr. Kovacs and I got an e-mail from our adoption agency on Friday asking us if we could leave for Latvia on March 6th and be in time for a court date on March 8th. We said, "Of course!" We will be gone roughly 2 weeks and will get to bring Vlad home with us.

Here's what that means for you. I will be here through our short week next week and be here for conferences on Thursday and Friday. Then on Saturday I will spend 15 hours flying to Latvia. On Monday when you come to school there wil...

Tricky Trolls are Everywhere!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, February 18, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We had 2 great shows today! They were very different but both were fun to watch and told a great story. I'm impressed.
The set is really cute and the costumes have been fun too. The kids have great prop ideas and some are even memorizing their lines. WAY TO GO!! There are 3 more shows tomorrow and then it's on to the white hard cover books.

I have also been very impressed with the glog social studies pages. Nice work kids. I think everybody has video on their glog page now. Check them o...
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Getting Ready for Monday

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, February 1, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We are facing a whole week of school. Yikes! It's been a while what with MLK day and end of the high school semester. Guess what, the kids at South Campus don't have school tomorrow because the all conference band, choir and symphony practice and concert will be at our school tomorrw. Cool, huh? Joe was in that last year when it was held at Stillwater school. It was beautiful music.

I updated the homework page tonight. Sorry, better late than never I guess. Parents, we will be wrapping...
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A Lonely Day at Oneka

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Saturday, January 30, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Did you have a fun day off? Working in the quiet classroom makes me really miss your smiling faces. You bring in an energy and force that I miss when you are not here. Glad you'll be back on Monday.

I am writing to you from Albert Lea, MN. We are here for Jake's hockey tournament. His team won their first game and play again tomorrow at 2:15. It's always good to win that first game and be in the winner bracket, don't you agree?

I forgot to post the Peek of the Week. Sorry. Parents, just...
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News about tomorrow

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, January 27, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Tomorrow morning I will be attending a planning session with other 4th grade teachers. It will only last until noon so I will be back half way through adding up the millions, in other words, math.

Thursday Mr. Kovacs and I get fingerprinted for the 4th time, this time by the FBI! We have to do this in order to get approval from immigration to adopt Vlad. I will be leaving school during specialist time, Ms. Stamson is going to be teaching math in my room and taking kids to recess and lunch a...
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Don't forget to "Glog On" to Glogster.

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Saturday, January 23, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We hare having so much fun glogging and blogging. Kudos to Jaide who already has the first two stanzas of her Troll poem on a glog page. By the end of next week we will all have a Troll Glog page. Anybody besides my husband have the video working yet? If you haven't see his glog page, check it out. He's such a techie guy and his page is cool.

The only homework is the math sheet 3-10 and getting your Troll poem finished and edited and ready for final copy and publishing on the web. Of cou...

Calling All Mad Glogsters!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, January 22, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

How's it gloging, I mean going? Did you make some more glog pages? I am working on scheduling some computer time so we can glog a Troll poem page complete with some Troll information and Troll pictures that you can down load from google etc. Should be fun!

Study hard. See you fellow glosters tomorrow. Hey Jenna--I saw your mom when I went out to eat tonight. I would have gone over and said HI but she was deep in conversation with a friend. Tell her HI from me.

Mrs. K...
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Blog It, Glog It, Feed it to the Dog It!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, January 21, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

What an exciting day we had today. Monday I learned about a cool glogster site where students can create pages that look like fun bulletin boards or scrapbook pages. Way cool! I went right home and handed the information over to my ever willing to learn new stuff IT guy who created a glogster site for me and my class. Yesterday we looked at Jake's glog and my glog and Zach R. [who gets the reward for checking the blog the most often] was our test piolet who set up his own glog space in my...

I'm Back!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Sunday, January 17, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Did you miss me? I really really really really really...you get my point, missed you guys. I can't believe I have to go to school Monday and you guys aren't going to be there. What's up with that? Who's idea was this teacher learning day, anyway?

So how was everybody for the sub? I will give you ONE ticket for EVERY sentence you blog about how you think you personally were for the sub. You need to be honest because if you're not, I'll find out anyway from the sub and your darling class...
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It Hurts!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, January 8, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

It actually hurt to get up early enough for school this week. The last of the college boys finally returned to school today though so maybe we can get some sleep now. They stay up until 3:00 a.m. playing video games and watching movies and the dogs bark and they dig around in the fridge and....they are back at school now!! I miss them but they really need to work on getting up in the morning and sleeping at night. I tried getting them up early (you know, like 10:00 a.m.) but then they are...
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Whatever shall we countdown to now?

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, January 6, 2010, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Well, the countdown is NOT on because we haven't decided what to count down to. There is a day off school on January 29. There is the Super Bowl coming up. There is Spring Break, Mrs. K's trip to Lavia and more. What do you think folks, what should we be counting down to now?

2 tickets to anyone who blogs a great idea for the countdown.

See ya all tomorrow. I'm quite sure it will be another IN day.
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VACATION!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, December 28, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

It's finally here!! Christmas Vacation. So, is it all you had hoped for and more? I love having a house full of kids and friends and family though it does get overwhelming and the occasional break is needed. We are having a wonderful time of sledding, eating, skating, eating, gift opening, eating, playing games, eating, you get my point. I will definitley need a workout program when this is all over.

I gave Vlad $10.00 and had Joe take him to the dollar store to buy gifts for everyone in ...

How did this happen to me?

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Sunday, December 20, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We finally got our tree (it's not up yet) but we still have much to do to be ready for Christmas. Yesterday (Saturday) was supposed to be my big day to get things done. And then it happened.

The phone rang, nothing unusual there. I answered it, nothing unusual there. Then the woman on the other end said, "Hi. I'm with the hosting program that Vlad came here on and...well...there is a set of brothers in Coon Rapids who are having a hard time. The family that is hosting them wants them ou...
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What a Week!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, December 18, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

My head is spinning--we did so much and have so much to do!

There will be no new story next week, no spelling words and no IE time. We wrapped up my IE "Keep in Touch" unit by going to the computer lab and blogging on this website. Oh my, we had to have a discussion about appropriate use of blog space, language, and even that this is a permenant written record of your ideas that ANYONE can log onto and read. One kid said, "How do you delete!" Trust me, some of them needed to know how to de...
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Oops! I went a little manic.

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, December 17, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

So many ideas, so little time.

Today we started Factorville, family Christmas gifts (I asked and everyone in our class celebrates Christmas so we are going to call it that since it shouldn't offend anyone), and worked on our reindeer art and story. It is crazy trying to get all this done by December 23. But it will happen.

Kids, go ahead and bring a few things for Factorville. We will work on it some more tomorrow. Ideas of fun stuff to bring include little trees, matchbox or smaller cars, ...
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It Won't Be Long Now

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Vlad is going to be here on December 13. It won't be long now! We practiced having him around tonight. I grabbed the ketchup out of Jake's hands at supper and said in a loud voice, "No no no ketchcup. You no like tomatoes. Ketchup many tomatoes. You no. No ketchup for Jake." My husband chimed in, "Why why why you take ketchup. You no like. No tomatoes, no ketchup. Why why why, Jake?" Then I held the ketchup far away from Jake who rolled his eyes and said he didn't think this was s...

Kennedy's in Florida and we're freezing our patoopies off!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, December 8, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

There really is no justice. How is it Kennedy gets to be in sunny Florida and I'm stuck here in cold old Minnesota. Oh that's right, I love the cold. Now if we just had some snow. Still, I love a vacation in Florida too. Kennedy--wish I was there!

Hey everybody, let's all blog comment to Kennedy so she sees how much we miss her. Miss you Kennedy.

Have a great night everyone. I'm too pooped to pop so I'm planning on heading off to bed by 10:00. I wonder if I'll make it. I usually don't....

Better Late than Never

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, December 4, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

I just got done putting the homework on the site. You should be good to go. Better late than never, I always say.

2 tickets to anyone who can tell me what the theme of last month's Marvin and Jessie play was.
2 tickets to anyone who can tell me what kind of animal is swimming behind the group of kids in the zoo photo (by the water,
a whole group of kids--not the bear and not the one with just Chance)

Have a great evening. I'm going to veg out on the couch now. This seems like it w...

Gotta Run!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, December 2, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

It's time for the Book Fair! Fun times.

I can't believe so many people knew that it was The Steve Miller Band that sang about time slipping into the future. Rock on! And thanks to the dad who reported this is a song from the 70's not the 80's. Honestly, it's all a blur--it was 30+ years ago! Wow, I must be a lot older than I feel (and look I'm sure you're thinking).

Gotta go. Oh, 5 tickets to anyone who comments on the blog tonight about how Tanya felt at the end of the Tanya's Reunion sto...

Cinderfella!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, November 18, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We saw the totally funniest version of Cinderella I've ever seen! The two guys (yes, you read that correctly and now understand so much more about the title of this comment) who played the ugly stepsisters were laugh out loud funny. It was a lot of physical comody and slap stick humor. Throw in audience participation, great sound effects and marvelous costumes and you've got yourself a show. Loved it!

Tomorrow we will spend some time comparing and contrasting the 3 Cinderella stories we no...
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Check It Out!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, November 16, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

My husband and I spend a good deal of time working on the website this weekend. Check out the Extra Credit Tab. There is a new game and a new countdown and a new survey. Mr. Kovacs added a movie at one point (the beagle and his great escape) but it crashed that page on the site and he had to delete it and rebuild it. Yikes!! Anyway, check out the new stuff, it's fun.

Also new is a frame that runs through some pictures from the day at the zoo. This is on the student tab.

Today just went to...
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Oops!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, November 13, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

I suppose I've missed most of you as it is already 10:00 p.m. I decided to write anyway as there are a couple of early morning risers who might check the website in the morning. If you check in this morning before school, make sure and write me a nice blog comment so I know you saw this. Oh man, I wrote a bunch of comments about 12 minutes ago and they all say they are from MR. Kovacs. Trust me, they are from me.

Hey, didn't Mica look marvelous today with her pearly white teeth showing and...
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Today was already "Hump Day" !

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

It's true, the week goes fast when you have Monday off and a field trip on Tuesday. Only 2 more days to go.

Only 2 more days to go until ALL independant reading projects are due. Brady, have you brought your's in?

This week we are doing another Bin book or two and since they are a never ending project, read on. I don't have all the Tub Books back yet. If you still have yours, finish what you need to be doing with it and get the packet into the IN BIN and the book to the front table.

We made ...
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Just Another Day at the Zoo

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, November 10, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Everyday can feel like a day at the zoo when you're working in fourth grade. Fourth graders certainly can be monkeys! But today we actually went to the zoo--the real zoo. It was a wonderful day. The weather was fantastic, the brown bear was in the mood to swim and the dolphins waved a wet hello. Thanks to Alec's dad who let us call him Alec's mom all day and to Jaide's mom who actually was a mom and let us call her Jaide's mom all day. They were both great group leaders and led their pac...
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Upcoming 4 day week for Kiddos! :)

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Sunday, November 8, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Last week brought a few issues in the classroom. We had to revisit the rules about talking when others are talking and how to work together in the classroom. There were some minor issues with getting along or getting along a little too well. It will be good to get a little space from each other on Monday and then have a rip roarin trip to the Zoo on Tuesday and then not get back to facing eachother in the pods until Wednesday. The week will fly by.

There were 3 math sheets that came home. ...
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Bossy Betty Steals the Show

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

The Oneka Showtime Players put on another Marvin and Jessie show yesterday. The theme was patriotism and covered things like showing respect for the flag and having the right to vote. Since today was the voting day, it fit right into real world stuff. Two very well trained boy scouts acted as the color guard and presented the flags at the show. They did a great job. Marvin and Jessie were great again but as usual the actress who played Bossy Betty stole the show. She is just so funny in...
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Boo!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, October 30, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

With Halloween behind us we are ready to move on to November. We had a fun day. We watched the little kids parade around in their costumes which is always fun. Then we played some games with our 1st grade buddies. They fed us some witches brew that included blood drops and chicken toe nails. Yikes. We made our own witches brew for the afternoon and we watched Scooby-Doo. I won the most frightful laugh contest and scared the kids silly with my scream. I thought Kennedy had a heart-atta...
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All Things Halloween

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Teacher's had a meeting tonight after school that went until 6:00 so I couldn't get the homework up any sooner than this. Sorrry!! Remember, some of the homework is written in your planner and your planner needs to be marked by your parents in 3 places.

We are working on our descriptive writing in connection with creating our own Halloween Stories for the big day Friday. Congratulations to Alec who came in with the most oxymorons today. He had some great ones. He said they are on the comm...
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Freaky, Frightful, Fun Fall Festival

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Saturday, October 24, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Did you get a load of that pumpkin at the front of the school! Can you believe it said Oneka on it? Wierd! How much do you think that bad boy weighed? I forgot to get a picture of it. If any of you have one, could you e-mail it to me or bring a hard copy to school?

Jaide and I have made a list on the comment part of this blog that lists all the kids who we saw at fall festival. Hey Jaide, how about James? Maybe you didn't recognize him since he had all his blond hair covered up. Anyway...
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Buddies Big and Small

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, October 23, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We had a great day meeting our buddies and hanging out in first grade. We are the BIG buddies of some pretty cool 1st graders who worked hard to write interviews about us and then draw our pictures. We helped with spelling and the drawing. Turns out there's a very tall 1st grader and he is taller than his buddy, right Mica? We are getting together with them again for a Halloween activity which should be fun.

Remember that tomorrow night is the fall festival. Bring your costume and come re...
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In Day

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, October 21, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

IN days are painful for everyone. They are painful for the kids because they are cooped up IN their classroom during recess time. They are painful for the teachers because recess time is usually part of the teacher's lunch time and now they have to stay IN the room with the cooped up kids and entertain them. It just makes for a long afternoon. Luckily, we had star lab this morning and pictures right before the recess time. Still, let's hope tomorrow the kids can go out to play.

Our next s...
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The Mile Run and Lots More Fun!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, October 20, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We can't believe Dylan missed running the mile. Oh well, that gave other kids a chance to win!! Hope Dylan and James are feeling better and back with us soon.

We are loving the new reading story Finding the Titanic. It goes back and forth between two time periods--movies sometimes do that. It's called a flashback. Anyway, in this story some modern day treasure hunters are looking for the Titanic. In the flashbacks we follow the story of a girl who was on the Titanic and read about how ...
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The Flu Hits 2505

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, October 19, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We have 2 students out with the dreaded H1N1 flu. Please be sure to wash your hands and keep your cough covered with your elbow.

Mid-terms are going home by Friday. Please please please warn your parents if they do not know what to expect. It will only make matters worse if they are unpleasantly surprised. With that said, many of you are doing wonderfully and I am sure your parents will be very happy with your report.

I was discouraged this weekend as I corrected things. There were so many...
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The Countdown's Over, Happy MEA!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, October 13, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Alaria named today Fruesday as it is Friday + Tuesday. Trust me, it felt way more like a Friday!! The kids were wound, we had a ticket drawing, there was the excitement of a fire drill and we had ART connected to our Haikus which we worked on to the sounds of music so...it was a bit much. We need to all calm down, relax and recoup over the next 5 days--or at least I do. I prefer to think of the kids as resting rather than rejuvenating!

Happy Birthday to Isaiah. We had to sing twice becaus...
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Tuesday = Friday

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, October 12, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

That's right boys and girls, tomorrow is the last day of school for you kiddies. Of course the teachers have to work on Wednesday but come Thursday I will be sleeping in, just like you. Well just like everyone but Zach R. who gets up way way too early at the crack of dawn!

1 ticket for blogging a note to Matt about his name being drawn on Friday for the ticket drawing. Let him know he gets to pick a prize when he gets back.

1 ticket for blogging the name of the next classroom birthday kid.

Fi...

Snow?! Weird!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Saturday, October 10, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Could you believe your eyes this morning when you woke up to snow? It is so weird to look out and see the white stuff covering green stuff. Usually by the time the snow falls the grass is dead, the leaves have fallen, and my ferns have disintegrated for another year. I wonder what will happen to all that stuff now. Mati--how are the pumpkins and the gourds holding up? Are they all out of the garden already?

How about that Matt! Did you read his comment that it's HOT in Florida so he's go...
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The Tutor Who Tooted the Toot

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, October 8, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

In IE time my group worked on alliteration today. If you're not in my group now, no worries--you will be at some point. Alliteration is the repeating of a sound in a sentence to make it fun, fabulous and fantastic. It can be at the begining of a word but it can be at the end too--like "Leaves are swirling, falling, blowing, to the ground, their final resting place." Anyway, I recited my husband's famiy's favorite:

The Alliteration Poem The translation

The t...
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Hard at Work or Hardly Working

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, October 7, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Which one describes you in the classroom? Mid term reports are going home next week and anyone who is missing work or not doing very well on things will be getting a report home. I hope it's not YOU!! Be sure you are hard at work when you are in this room and then you should have no worries.

I can't believe the Twins just made the playoffs late last night and already have to play the Yankees today! They are hard at work!

2 tickets to anyone who comments on the blog about what you did in phy...
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Another Blustery Day

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, October 6, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Things are moving right along in 2505. Yesterday we had our second Marvin and Jessie Show that featured the one, the only, Jamie L. Kovacs in a starring role as blue pig. Blue pig had a thing or two to learn about resolving conflicts and at one point even lashed out at a poor, little girl scout telling her her uniform was ugly. Shocking, really. Still, in the end blue pig learned that the best way to resolve conflict is to talk it out, state your postition calmly using "I" messages, and th...
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The Week Flew By

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Saturday, October 3, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Where did this week go? It flew by.

Congratulations to our 2 student councel representatives, Jaide T. and Bailey Perron.

The personal narrative is due on Tuesday. Final copy paper has been handed out and the rest of the writing and editing needs to be done at home. Katalin already has her paper written, she just needs to do the illustration. Be working on it so you don't have the whole thing left on Monday night.

A couple of math things went home--explain a factor triangle to someone ol...
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A Load Off My Mind, A Relief To My Heart

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, October 2, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Great news everyone! Joe is going to be fine. After spending all day having tests, we met with 3 doctors. They all agree that although Joe's heart is leaking, it is not major at this time. He has a minor leak in his aortic valve and some day, probably way off in the future, he will need the valve replaced. But for now, he's good to go! He may even be an old man when this happens. We are so happy and so relieved. He will need to go to the Minneapolis Heart Institute every year to have ...
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School with no Mrs. K

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, October 1, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

You are about to arrive at school but I won't be there to say Hi. I am going to miss you. No worries, though, I'm planning to be back tomorrow. I hope you have a great day. I left the sub some fun things to do with you and in the afternoon you get to work on your personal narrative some more and read Bin Books. The only bummer is it looks like it will be an IN DAY. If I was there we could watch last years class video. I hope you just visit nicely, build things with the math cubes and m...

Tried and True, Tired and Blue

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, September 29, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

What do you think 'tried and true' means? You can ask your parents or grandparents. Here, I'll use it in a sentence for you: Practicing math facts with flash cards is a tried and true method for improving your computational fluency.

If you blog me a pretty good definition of what 'tried and true' means then I will give you 3 tickets in the morning.

Now, about the tired and blue part. Partly, I was just trying to be poetic. See how a word repeats and there is rhyming? Partly I am tire...
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Another Whirlwind Day

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, September 28, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Today seemed to just blow by--literally as well as figuratively. Sometimes I feel like we can't even catch our breath.

A couple of reminders:    Get your planner signed every day!
                                    You should have your Akiak packet and math homework sheet 3 turned in. If not, they're late.
                                    Your Garden Packet work will be due soon. Be sure you are caught up--is your limerick done.

Parents--thank you so much for all the wonderful prizes you'v...
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Kovacs' Kids Rule--Win the BEAR WEAR Challenge!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, September 25, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We won! I'm not surprised, as we are a room just bursting with school spirit. We did have a few kids forget but Mrs. Kovacs had a couple of shirts to share and a couple of boys had on 2 things and could hand one off so we were at 100% participation in BEAR WEAR DAY!!

We watched the 2005 WBLHS football movie today. Go Bears!! The big homecoming game is tonight so if you go, cheer hard and stay dry. It's always a huge and very fun event.

It's Mikayla's birthday tomorrow so if you think o...
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The BEAR WEAR Challenge

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, September 24, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Don't forget that tomorrow is the BEAR WEAR challenge. We are in competition with Mrs. Barnett's class to see which class will have a higher percentage of people wearing BEAR WEAR tomorrow. Wear your White Bear t-shirt, sweatshirt, pants, shorts, jersey or whatever you can find. We've just got to win--there are tootsie pops on the line. I think the smart money is on our class because we had a GREAT turn out for orange and black day and a good turn out for button day. In fact, a coupl...
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Another Great Day in 2505

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, September 23, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

What a nifteroony day! We talked about poetry and the fun of making up coolisous new words. We talked about how fabulously fun and fantastic it is to fool around with alliteration. We played with some limmericks and discovered how really silleroony and hilarious they can be. Tomorrow we are going to start our own limmerick and in keeping with our Garden theme our favorite flowers will be the stars. Coolio!!

We worked on arrays in math (finally) and discovered the commutative property of mu...
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It's Homecoming Week!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, September 22, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Tomorrow we are kicking off our school spirit days in honor of homecoming week. Remember to wear Orange and Black tomorrow. Then on Thursday wear buttons (like the sports ones with our picture on it) and rec t-shirts. On Friday we will cap it all off by wearing BEAR WEAR. Hey, we'll do what we can to support our Bears--Go Bears.

We had a great field trip today. As a class, though, we really need to work on our listening skills and on NOT talking when being addressed by a teacher or leader....
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Here We Go Again

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Sunday, September 20, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Here we are, another Sunday afternoon with a big Vikings win under our belt. For 2 extra credit tickets, what big event is going on this week in White Bear Lake that includes a coronation, a parade, a football game and a dance? For 1 more ticket, what are we going to do in our classroom to get in the spirit of that event.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and a chance to check out the cute picture pages my husband posted under the student tab. Sorry to Katalin who was absent when all the pi...
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Disco King!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, September 18, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We had a great day in 2505. Ms. Stamson came in and joined in our math discussion. It's always fun to have Ms. Stamson in the room. We had a big skip counting circle where we skip counted by 2's, 5's, 10's and 9's. The 9's were pretty hard but we uncovered some very cool patterns that helped us pick up speed and do the math mentally. Remember what happens to the tens column and the ones column in the product/answer as you run through the multiples of 9. Over the weekend you get the ...
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Constitution Day

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, September 17, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Check in the extra credit tab as the School House Rock version of the Preamble to the Constitution is there. Do you remember what 'preamble' means? Do you remember what year the United States Constitution was signed?

Today in math we talked about the associative property of addition. Remember that you are supposed to explain the associative property of addition to your parents. I am just wondering, do you think subtraction has an associative property? This is for 5 tickets: Think about wh...
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It's a Late Night

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, September 16, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Sorry I didn't update this sooner but I am still at school getting ready for curriculum night tomorrow night as well as planning things for tomorrow. Hmmm...where should we go on our mini field trip? Planning can be so exhausting! Hey, you know what the best part of mini field trips is? They are free!!

I will put the homework on next but you probably didn't have anything new today. There will be math homework going home tomorrow but it won't be due until Monday.

Keep checking this space an...
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How to Sink a Sub

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, September 15, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Let me just say that I hope you guys did not sink your sub--substitute teacher that is. Mrs. Jans is like the second nicest person in the world--after me of course. So I hope you treated her with respect and did your work.

Secondly, I'll tell you that we didn't get good news at Joe's Dr. appointment. Don't worry, he's fine for right now. He has a bicuspid valve in his heart. Most people have 3 little flaps that open and close to let blood flow through their aorta. Joe only has 2. The pr...
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This Year's First Monday

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, September 14, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

First, I'd have to say that today was not too bad for a Monday, huh kids? I did find out some of you think 4th grade is hard. Well of course it is, that's why it's fun. Don't you just love a challenge?

Secondly, remember that tomorrow afternoon (after lunch) you are going to have a sub because I am taking my son Joe to the doctor for a heart murmur that was discovered when he had his baseball physical. Think about how your parents expect you to act when you are at your grandparent's house....
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The Monday Morning Scramble

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Sunday, September 13, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

It's Sunday and I'm writing this to help you avoid the dreaded Monday morning scramble. I hate the Monday morning scramble. You know how it goes: Mom's start yelling, kids start crying, things get forgotten and you come to school feeling nervous and probably without all the things you need. Coming from a person who knows--me, remember, I had 4 boys to get out the door in the morning--here are the TOP TEN TIPS for avoinding the Monday morning scramble:

1. If you haven't already done so, get ...
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The Very Exciting Day

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Friday, September 11, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

We had a lot of excitement in class today, almost too much!! First, we got our life journals and got to decorate the covers. Exciting! Then we had our mini field trip to the office where we learned how much work Mrs. Bailey and Mrs. Schmidt do. Exciting!! Next, there was the always exciting fire drill made all the more tricky by a broken leg and a wheel chair. But we all survived and did quite well. Exciting!!! Finally, there was the first ever ticket drawing for the 2009-2010 school ...
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The Coolest 4th Graders Ever!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Thursday, September 10, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Wow!! How cool are you guys! I must have the coolest students in the world. It was so much fun to get comments from you and to read the comments you are making to eachother. Remember, you have to click on the blue words that say there are replies to get the replies to show up. Last night I replied to all of you yet some of you didn't see my notes because you didn't know you had to click on that. We went over it in class so hopefully we're a go now!!

I am thrilled that some of you used th...
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2 days in and still having fun!!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Wednesday, September 9, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Today was a really fun day in room 2505. Kids--thanks for the smiles and hard work. We took a step back and spent some time exploring our planner and figuring out how that whole thing works. What do you think guys--is it more clear now? We worked on math strategies for addition and tomorrow we move on to subtraction. We read a fun poem and wrote it in cursive writing. We wrote a Hopes and Dreams book which we will look at again in December and then again in May. We had a great discussio...
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One day down, ? days left!

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Tuesday, September 8, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Wow! What a whirlwind of a day. It was so great to finally get the chance to have you kids in the room and spend some time getting to know you! I can't believe all the stuff we didn't get done and yet it seems like we were busy every single second. I bet we will all sleep good tonight. Come back ready to roll tomorrow!!

Good luck to the football teams that play tonight.

I'll see you all bright and early tomorrow morning! Remember to read for 20 minutes, practice your math facts, do the ex...
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Today

Posted by Jamie Kovacs on Monday, September 7, 2009, In : Messages from Mrs. K

Welcome to 4th grade. I just know we are going to have a great year. We are going to have a Marvin and Jessie assembly on the very first day of school. Fun!! I get to play the part of the popular, very cool teacher. That seems to fit, doesn't it?

You are going to be able to check this webpage every day to look for updates, homework, cool links, and more. Your mom and dad can check it too.

See ya tomorrow!!

Mrs.K

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All About Me

Jamie Lyn Kovacs

White Bear Lake, Mn

I am married to John Kovacs and have 5 sons, John age 33, Jim age 31, Joe age 26, Jake age 24, Vlad age 22. I also have 3 grandchildren, Jack and Lydia, who are the kids of my oldest son and his wife, and Baby Kennedy who is the newborn of my second son and his wife. The older kids are 5 and 2. My family lives in White Bear Lake. ____________My son John is married and lives in Turkey with his wife Pamela and son Jack and daughter Lydia. Hey, that makes me a grandmother--yikes! John is a teacher too. A couple years ago he taught at White Bear Lake but for the last couple years he's been teaching social studies to middle school kids at Hope Academy in Minneapolis. He also has taken classes at a seminary. He wrote a book called "The Historia" which you can buy on Amazon.com. He was a hockey player and played college hockey at Bethel. His wife is a lawyer worked at a big law firm in Minneapolis. Cool! Hey, guess what. I am a lawyer too!! This will be my 13th year teaching as I practiced law for over 15 years. Teaching is way more fun!! Now they are living in Turkey and simply trying to learn the language and make connections. This year my son will be teaching high school world history at an international school. __________My son Jim lives in Blaine with his wife Courtney. They both graduated from Winona State where they were star pitchers on their baseball and softball teams. Jim graduated from St. Thomas School of Law. He clerked for a judge and now he works for a law firm in Golden Valley. His wife graduated from Des Moines University Medical School where she studied to be a physical therapist. She works for Twin Cities Orthopedics. You can check out pictures of their wedding on the summer vacation tab. __________My son Joe graduated from Moorhead State. He, like his brothers was a good athlete and loved sports. He also is a great singer and performer and was Danny Zuko in Grease, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, and Curly in Oklahoma--all in WBL high school. He has a teaching license and did some long term subbing in WBL most recently at Hugo Elementary School. Next he worked at Infinite Campus training teachers on software that his employer makes. He got to travel all over the United States. He is married to Emily, and there are pictures of them you can check out on the vacation tab as well. Emily is a pharmacist for CVS in Targets. They just moved to Washington DC so he could attend George Washington University and get an MBA. __________My son Jake graduated from University of Minnesota with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science. He is a superstar in math. He was a TA for a professor in the computer science department. He really likes to golf and was on the White Bear Lake golf team. He worked at Gem Lake so if you ever golf there, you may have seen Jake. Do you like golf? As soon as he graduated he started working full time at a company that writes online computer games. He spends his day writing code to create games. He loves that kind of writing, do you? He taught many of my students to write code in Scratch. _________Vlad officially became our son in June of 2010 although we have loved him since we met him a couple years before that. We traveled to his homeland, Latvia, 3 times to make him ours. He has been living with us since March of 2010. He graduated from WBL High School too. He traveled to China with the high school a couple years ago and wants to go back. Can you believe that you can travel with your classmates and friends when you are in high school? He is currently a senior at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. He spent a semester in Seoul, S. Korea in a study abroad program through River Falls. We will officially be empty nesters. _________My husband John works for Collins Electrical Company as a project manager but he is amazing with computers. He set up this web site for me!! Thanks John. He is the IT guy for my mom, his parents, and our whole family!! My husband and I have a cute teddy bear puppy who is 1 and a half years old. He is very spoiled.

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