Character Traits Introduction with Ormie the Pig

Characters are the reason we fall in love with books and movies!  We learn so much about their character traits through not only what they say, but what they do.  Today we started exploring the character traits of "Ormie the Pig."  He is quite possibly the most endearing, cutest pig I have ever seen.  I love his perseverance, drive and creativeness!  We will continue to develop this skill in our reading and writing this trimester!



Check out the quick padlet we did with the character traits of Ormie and some evidence of these that we observed through his actions.

Created with Padlet

Want smart kids?!? Here's the secret to it!

Thanks for joining us at curriculum night tonight! Here is the article I mentioned during the presentation! I'm so looking forward to a wonderful year working together! 

"The Secret to Raising Smart Kids" is a great article by Carol Dweck that explains growth mindset in more detail and gives tips for parents. Please take some time to read this article! Let me know what you thought of it!

Happy First Week!!

What a fun first week of school! I am loving the quality of work and the effort I am seeing from these kiddos! It really makes Mrs. Chrystall smile!  It has been so wonderful getting to know all of these great personalities in our classroom through Mystery Bags, Bio Poems, Flying Disks, The Best Part of Me, and so much more (ask your child about these first week of school activities and writing pieces). I am so looking forward to seeing all the parents and showing off our classroom filled with our fabulous student work at Curriculum Night next week! Remember it is Thursday 9/10. There will be a "Classroom Open House" from 6-6:30 and then we will present as a team in the auditorium from 6:30-7. I hope you can all make it!  This year, we will be filming our presentation to post on our blog for those not able to make it! 

For MAP testing, I added a tab at the top of my blog that has our testing dates and times.  We will also write a note in our planners as a reminder the night before.    

First Day of School SELFIE!!  

Welcome Back: Whole School Assembly! 

The Fun 4th Grade Team

Thank you to our first fabulous mystery reader!  The kids loved the funny short story from Homer Price.  

The Word of the Day: Neuroplasticity

Today we watched two short, interesting videos: Neuroplasticity and The Learning Brain.  Parents, I suggest taking a few minutes to watch these videos and discuss them with your child!  This is powerful knowledge for the kids to get their hands on!

We also read a fantastic article, "You Can Grow Your Intelligence."  This article was involved in a rather interesting research study that I read many  years ago and it had marvelous effects on student effort and growth!  

Finally parents, if you have the time (this is a longer one), give this article a read: New Research: Students Benefit from Learning That Intelligence Is Not Fixed!  I find this all fascinating and I hope you do too! 


Thanks for your support from home :)

First Day of School... Is right around the corner!

Hello 4th Grade Families,

Welcome to the 2015/16 school year! I am THRILLED to be your child’s 4th grade teacher this year. It will be an engaging year for me and the students with high expectations and lots of learning. I am so looking forward to seeing everyone on our first day of school (and to seeing these dance moves from the parents as you drop off your kids on our first day- ha :)

Until we meet, here are a few things that you should know: 

• All fourth grade students will enter and dismiss from the 7 West Door. 
• There will be time for a snack while we work in the morning, so please send a healthy, nut free snack. It is recommended to label the snack with your child's name. Please note that fourth grade is scheduled to have lunch at 11:00am this year with recess following lunch. 
• It is recommended that each student have a water bottle labeled with their name at school, especially during the warmer weeks. Although, we have pretty exciting news in 4th grade... Each classroom received air conditioning units this summer, so we will be much cooler in the pod!
• Our classroom blog is updated frequently with class news and photos, be sure to check it often and follow the blog via email.  
• 4th Grade Curriculum Night is on Thursday, September 10th. More details and times will come out shortly.  
• I'm on Twitter!  Please follow me @MrsChrystall :) 

• Use this link to complete the iLearn iPad Program permission form online this year! We are asking that this be completed by Thursday, September 3rd. We are scheduled to begin iPad boot camp the following week and need these completed from all students to begin and to receive their iPads!  
• And finally, please complete my parent input form if you have not yet.  I will use this information to make our parent email list this year, and it is really helpful information about your child for me to start the school year with!  

Parent Input Form

Hello Parents!  Please take a moment to fill out my parent input form if you have not yet.  It is really helpful information for me to start the year with!  I will give horseshoe hoorays to your kid on the first day of school if you fill this out before Monday!!  Yay!!

Link to Parent Input Form



I hope to see everyone at the Back to School Picnic tonight!

Counting Down the Days to a Fabulous NEW School Year

Well hello to all my former and soon-to-be Mann families. I hope that everyone had a fun, fabulous, and refreshing summer. I know I sure did. :) I am so looking forward to meeting my new group of students and to seeing my Chrystall Miners who are now big-shot 5th graders. Hopefully everyone will be at the Back to School Picnic on Thursday, August 27 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the Mann Blacktop. 

I know I will soon hear about everyones summer breaks, but I thought I'd take a moment to let you know what Mrs. Chrystall has been up to this summer.....

Well just a few days after the school year ended, Mr. Chrystall and I closed on our first home. It is a semi-fixer upper in Chicago, so we have spent most of our summer days & evenings working on the house and more importantly enjoying our home. We love, love, love our new backyard!

Our first little home!  Chicago, IL

Where we spend almost all of our free time!  

I love getting my hands dirty! Mrs. Chrystall rototilling the front yard to get ready to lay sod!  That's my dad lounging on the steps!  Ha!  

For a few weeks in July, we boarded a plane and headed to Europe for a wedding. Mr. Chrystall's brother was getting married in Margate, a costal town in England about a 2 hours drive from London! After a wonderful week in England and a beautiful wedding, we headed to Croatia for a family holiday. I have to say Croatia is my new favorite country and we are already planning our next trip there! We also had a chance to briefly explore Helsinki in Finland.

LONDON!  The start of our European Adventure.

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace 

Croatia!  The most beautiful country!

Pula Arena!  

The beaches are remarkable!  Water, water everywhere you look!  

We rented a car and drove along the coast all the way from the north to the south of Croatia.  Everywhere we looked, our jaws were dropping over the stunning scenery.  This is at one of our many unplanned pitstops along the way.  

Helsinki, Finnland!  

To my new students and parents:

I have an "About Me" section on my blog that I wrote last year; it gives some information about me, personally and professionally.

Parents, you already have some homework! Please take a few minutes to fill out this parent input form. I will use this information to create a email group and to quickly find out more about your child! I will give a HORSESHOE HOORAY to any child whose parent filled it out prior to the first day of school!

The last thing I have to say to you, new 4th graders, is-- GET READY TO LEARN LIKE YOU'VE NEVER LEARNED BEFORE! This is going to be a year jam-packing with rigorous learning and really high-expectations. I am going to push you to grow as an individual, think outside of the box, and to put in more effort than you knew you had in you. It's going to be a fabulous year, kiddos!