I send warm Holiday Greetings to all of our 4H families! We kept particularly busy on projects this past week in Room 117, which was a good thing, since the rise of energy and excitement became more apparent as the week drew to a close :). After some preparatory lessons in mapping features, our students were finally ready to add those elements to their own large maps of Wisconsin. It provided for some productive and fun class periods during which they could be artistic with color, design, and printing - and at the same time, discover where to locate Wisconsin's major cities, rivers, state parks, even universities, airports, and some campgrounds! We are going to mount these maps in the halllway near our classroom door, so that will add some color to our entrance. Our next lessons will explore the natural landforms of our state, and how the last Ice Age influenced our present geography, with a detour to 'Fantasy Island' along the way (more about that later!).
We spent some time editing the Christmas Stories everyone had written (some students chose to write two stories!). We have some wonderful imaginations in our group, and it is so rewarding to see their growing ability to communicate their ideas with more description and clear story telling. That has been a goal - now on to the mysterious world (for most) of 'paragraphing' those great ideas and descriptions! We also practiced and tested on a list of holiday spelling words this past week - those stories highlighted the need for the proper spelling of 'ornaments' 'decorations' and 'sleigh', etc. We continue to encourage each other to keep reading, and looking out for that next great book, even when we might all be very busy with the other parts of our lives every day.
Math classes this past week involved wrapping up Unit 4, using our new skills with decimal numbers to convert measurements between millimeters, centimeters, and meters. This is a new skill for almost every 4th grader, and we have laid the foundation for future work on this concept in 5th grade. The conversion work is not presented as a required 'secure' skill at this point, but our exposure at this time will pay off with greater understanding the next time it is covered. Our Unit 4 test will be given next week on Tuesday, with Monday being a valuable review day. On Wednesday we will meet with our present groups one last time to discuss the test items.
Other activities this past week included seven preliminary class rounds for the district-wide Geography Bee. I will submit our scores to our GT teacher, Ms. Weber, and she will take the results from all participating students to determine the next step in narrowing down contestants. The kids loved doing these rounds, and I found that to be quite amazing, since the questions were REALLY hard, and I believe most adults would not have done much better with knowing the answers! Whew! Our classmates also wrote out rough drafts for their own short email note to send out to Tyler, our Chinese classmate who moved to Chicago around Thanksgiving time. Tyler has been able to email me and tell us about his new school, and so has become our penpal! This is proving to be a fun and valuable way to practice more writing - and as I have found out - to also practice newly developing keyboarding skills. Our tech teacher, Mrs. Stirn, has recently brought our students to the point where they have been exposed to all the keys and proper finger positioning on the keyboard. Now it is very important that our kids get consistent practice typing and using the proper fingers. If you are able to give your student time to type at home on a consistent basis - even 10 minutes most nights - that would help them develop their speed and accuracy. So many kids at this point have had several years already using computer keyboards with their own ways to find keys, and it makes it more difficult to switch habits to correct positioning. It is frustrating for many of them to adopt the 'new' way to type, but it is very important they keep trying and practicing it correctly. Thanks for your support with this.
Next week will go very fast. We will end the three days with a classroom holiday party the last hour of Wednesday. We have some wonderful moms who are planning some treats and even an art project! Thank you, thank you! On Wednesday, each student will be bringing home to you something special they made this past week - enjoy! I will write again once we gather back together in January. My own family has planned to do something we've never done before at this time of year - we are taking the week after Christmas to escape to Playa del Carmen in Mexico together. My husband and I have three grown daughters and one future son-in-law who all live out of town (two are out of state!), and we never get near enough time to spend with them. So we all managed to clear calendars and plan a getaway together. I am just hoping weather and flights cooperate! Until then, may you all enjoy memorable family time as well, and we can all recharge as we draw close to the midpoint of our year together. Best wishes to all of you! Melanie
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
December 9, 2011 Weekly Update
Dear families, as we get closer to Christmas and it gets colder outside, we have been keeping warm and busy inside Room 117. Our first hour math classes each day just speed by with our current work with decimal numbers. We all hope to be able to finish Unit 4 by the end of next week, tentatively planning the unit test on Monday, December 19th. That gives us a chance to wrap up all our work with these lessons before our Winter Break, and start fresh with Unit 5 upon returning in January.
In social studies, the Wisconsin maps have been unfurled, the dozen brand new globes from our school library have been rotating, and we are digging into our new social studies books to become familiar with landmarks all over the world, and particularly our state of Wisconsin. The concepts of latitude and longitude, equator and prime meridian, map legends, and compass rose directions have given us a chance to literally tour the world with our fingertips, and discussions have been lively. Soon we will be ready to create our own maps, and we can't wait.
We practiced descriptive sentence writing in our study of homonyms for spelling over the last week. That test has been taken, and next week we will have a list of holiday words to practice. Today we began writing some fantasy holiday stories in our continuing quest to become so descriptive that our stories play like movies in our heads. This morning we all attended the annual West Middleton Spelling Bee, and our four representatives (Cecilie, Buddy, Karsey, and Seth) did an outstanding job with some very tricky words. We are so proud of them! This week also included the beginning rounds in our classrooms for the annual Geography Bee as well! After seven preliminary rounds in each classroom, our GT teacher, Ms. Weber, will take everyone's resulting scores, and further narrow down the field of representatives. Stay tuned for more information about this endeavor in January.
Report cards came home today in white envelopes. These envelopes have a 'First Trimester' line where parents can sign, and then one day next week, would you please send these envelopes and report cards back to school? Thank you! It was fun to see many of our families at the Winter Tea on Wednesday. I got some very nice pictures to add to our classroom photo album, and will share copies with you as well. I should add that today was another photo 'opportunity'. In our celebration of taking first place in the West Middleton Box Tops Contest, we will now have some shots of Mrs. Hannam and Mr. Rykal covered in cream pie!! I randomly drew a name from our classroom name container to see who would be the 'pie thrower', and out came "Buddy L" !! He did a thorough job, I must say :), and it was loads of (goopy) fun. Our class also gets to look forward to a complete pizza party, compliments of the WM PTO, in January! Yay for us!!
Planning for our holiday classroom party on Wednesday afternoon, December 21, has begun, thanks to Beth Graf, Mary Hoferle, and Jane MacLean. If you have any ideas for an activity or want to send in a treat to add to the fun, just let one of them know - and many thanks from all of us!! I just cannot believe we are at this point in the school year already! We are working hard, but enjoying what we do together everyday, and the weeks are just flying by! It is such a privilege to work with your fourth graders! Most sincerely, Melanie
In social studies, the Wisconsin maps have been unfurled, the dozen brand new globes from our school library have been rotating, and we are digging into our new social studies books to become familiar with landmarks all over the world, and particularly our state of Wisconsin. The concepts of latitude and longitude, equator and prime meridian, map legends, and compass rose directions have given us a chance to literally tour the world with our fingertips, and discussions have been lively. Soon we will be ready to create our own maps, and we can't wait.
We practiced descriptive sentence writing in our study of homonyms for spelling over the last week. That test has been taken, and next week we will have a list of holiday words to practice. Today we began writing some fantasy holiday stories in our continuing quest to become so descriptive that our stories play like movies in our heads. This morning we all attended the annual West Middleton Spelling Bee, and our four representatives (Cecilie, Buddy, Karsey, and Seth) did an outstanding job with some very tricky words. We are so proud of them! This week also included the beginning rounds in our classrooms for the annual Geography Bee as well! After seven preliminary rounds in each classroom, our GT teacher, Ms. Weber, will take everyone's resulting scores, and further narrow down the field of representatives. Stay tuned for more information about this endeavor in January.
Report cards came home today in white envelopes. These envelopes have a 'First Trimester' line where parents can sign, and then one day next week, would you please send these envelopes and report cards back to school? Thank you! It was fun to see many of our families at the Winter Tea on Wednesday. I got some very nice pictures to add to our classroom photo album, and will share copies with you as well. I should add that today was another photo 'opportunity'. In our celebration of taking first place in the West Middleton Box Tops Contest, we will now have some shots of Mrs. Hannam and Mr. Rykal covered in cream pie!! I randomly drew a name from our classroom name container to see who would be the 'pie thrower', and out came "Buddy L" !! He did a thorough job, I must say :), and it was loads of (goopy) fun. Our class also gets to look forward to a complete pizza party, compliments of the WM PTO, in January! Yay for us!!
Planning for our holiday classroom party on Wednesday afternoon, December 21, has begun, thanks to Beth Graf, Mary Hoferle, and Jane MacLean. If you have any ideas for an activity or want to send in a treat to add to the fun, just let one of them know - and many thanks from all of us!! I just cannot believe we are at this point in the school year already! We are working hard, but enjoying what we do together everyday, and the weeks are just flying by! It is such a privilege to work with your fourth graders! Most sincerely, Melanie
Friday, December 2, 2011
December 2, 2011 Weekly Update
Hello to all our "4H" families! We have had a satisfying week of work and fun. You probably heard about the 'fun' part pretty quickly after school today! We DID take first place in the four week contest to collect the most Box Tops For Education at West Middleton! The kids screamed and danced with excitement when the announcement was made this afternoon. Congratulations to our determined fourth graders who never slowed down in their quest to collect from every friend and relative they could find! I am so glad their efforts can be rewarded - even if it does mean a cream pie in my face next week! It will also mean a cream pie for Mr. Rykal's face, and a pizza party for the whole class. It will be a blast! Thank you to all of you who supported the kids' efforts. This contest coordinated by our PTO will result in some new equipment for our playground - and most likely some fun memories of their teacher and principal covered in cream pie!
We began our week on Monday with a trip for six students from our room (20 4th graders total from WM) and myself to the beautiful new Union South on the UW campus for OM (Odyssey of the Mind) Day Away. It was a day full of sessions where teams of 4th graders needed to team up and cooperate to succeed at tasks that required some thinking 'outside the box' along with good leadership skills and lessons in the value of collaboration. Our students will all get the chance to participate in this program again when they are seventh graders. Mrs. Andler was our guest teacher that day, and our class got started on making posters of all the Wisconsin State Symbols they could find. (There are more than you might think!) By the end of this week, all our students have completed colorful posters which now decorate the hallway near our classroom door. They are now experts at many symbols which identify important features of our state. We also spent an entire hour this week poring over maps of our state, giving each other tours and directions to favorite places all over Wisconsin. What a great way it's been to become more adept at giving and receiving directions (and all without a GPS, thank you!) and in learning where places are in our great state. This is only the beginning of our exploration and desktop travel.
In math, we began Unit 4, which covers decimal numbers - learning their place value, their equivalent fractions, ordering them, adding and subtracting them, estimating their value... We have a solid start. Please ask your student to show you their journals and explain what they are learning. This is a valuable way to reinforce the new lessons they are receiving, and will give purpose to my 'rule' that even if they have completed the assignments in school that day, they must bring home their workbooks so that they can demonstrate to you the new concepts. I believe this will give the clear message that this is important work for them, and that we all care that they do their best. Remember that you can check the Homework Page on our classroom blog for daily updates on homework assignments and all other reminders. Speaking of our blog site, did you catch the Electricity Experiment Video clip on the main page that I posted last week? I love how the students were so engaged and focused on their 'research'. They looked like serious scientists!
In Literacy, we have been practicing a list of 20 homonyms that I've collected after reading through writing journals the past several weeks. These lists should all be located within their take-home folders so it is accessible both at home and at school to practice. We will have a spelling test on these words next week on Wednesday. We have also begun short silent reading sessions with each student's current chapter book, and then writing several sentences to share with the class about 'what just happened'. It is giving us more writing experience, practice with comprehension skills, and also a great way to book share and give ideas to the rest of us for the next good book we want to read.
Looking ahead, next Wednesday from 12:35 to 1:00 pm, we would love to meet all of you in our West Middleton Winter Wonderland - the multipurpose room - for our annual Winter Tea. it will be a nice way to share some goodies, have some visiting time with each other, and take some pictures together, too. The PTO always decorates the room beautifully, and there will be live holiday music from MHS orchestra students. We all hope you can come! Another note: The first trimester report cards will go home on Friday, December 9th. Please sign the envelope and return them the next week. Thank you!
Wednesday, December 21, it will be our last day of school before Winter Break. Our class would like to celebrate the holiday and each other with a little party, beginning at 2:00 pm. If you are able to help out with providing a treat, planning an activity (game or small art project), or just being there to give a hand, we would love that! We have one volunteer to help out already, Mary Hoferle. Would you let me know how you can add to the festivities, if possible? Thanks so very much!
I will see many of you next week! Melanie Hannam
We began our week on Monday with a trip for six students from our room (20 4th graders total from WM) and myself to the beautiful new Union South on the UW campus for OM (Odyssey of the Mind) Day Away. It was a day full of sessions where teams of 4th graders needed to team up and cooperate to succeed at tasks that required some thinking 'outside the box' along with good leadership skills and lessons in the value of collaboration. Our students will all get the chance to participate in this program again when they are seventh graders. Mrs. Andler was our guest teacher that day, and our class got started on making posters of all the Wisconsin State Symbols they could find. (There are more than you might think!) By the end of this week, all our students have completed colorful posters which now decorate the hallway near our classroom door. They are now experts at many symbols which identify important features of our state. We also spent an entire hour this week poring over maps of our state, giving each other tours and directions to favorite places all over Wisconsin. What a great way it's been to become more adept at giving and receiving directions (and all without a GPS, thank you!) and in learning where places are in our great state. This is only the beginning of our exploration and desktop travel.
In math, we began Unit 4, which covers decimal numbers - learning their place value, their equivalent fractions, ordering them, adding and subtracting them, estimating their value... We have a solid start. Please ask your student to show you their journals and explain what they are learning. This is a valuable way to reinforce the new lessons they are receiving, and will give purpose to my 'rule' that even if they have completed the assignments in school that day, they must bring home their workbooks so that they can demonstrate to you the new concepts. I believe this will give the clear message that this is important work for them, and that we all care that they do their best. Remember that you can check the Homework Page on our classroom blog for daily updates on homework assignments and all other reminders. Speaking of our blog site, did you catch the Electricity Experiment Video clip on the main page that I posted last week? I love how the students were so engaged and focused on their 'research'. They looked like serious scientists!
In Literacy, we have been practicing a list of 20 homonyms that I've collected after reading through writing journals the past several weeks. These lists should all be located within their take-home folders so it is accessible both at home and at school to practice. We will have a spelling test on these words next week on Wednesday. We have also begun short silent reading sessions with each student's current chapter book, and then writing several sentences to share with the class about 'what just happened'. It is giving us more writing experience, practice with comprehension skills, and also a great way to book share and give ideas to the rest of us for the next good book we want to read.
Looking ahead, next Wednesday from 12:35 to 1:00 pm, we would love to meet all of you in our West Middleton Winter Wonderland - the multipurpose room - for our annual Winter Tea. it will be a nice way to share some goodies, have some visiting time with each other, and take some pictures together, too. The PTO always decorates the room beautifully, and there will be live holiday music from MHS orchestra students. We all hope you can come! Another note: The first trimester report cards will go home on Friday, December 9th. Please sign the envelope and return them the next week. Thank you!
Wednesday, December 21, it will be our last day of school before Winter Break. Our class would like to celebrate the holiday and each other with a little party, beginning at 2:00 pm. If you are able to help out with providing a treat, planning an activity (game or small art project), or just being there to give a hand, we would love that! We have one volunteer to help out already, Mary Hoferle. Would you let me know how you can add to the festivities, if possible? Thanks so very much!
I will see many of you next week! Melanie Hannam
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
November 18, 2011 Weekly Update
Hello, everyone. In many ways, the past week was a very satisfying one. It seemed like the kids felt the same way I did - that it just felt good to get back into our routine after our testing from the week before. We settled right in and got busy on completing the Unit 3 material in math, we dug in with our science and reviewed the final concepts of our electricity unit, we wrote two stories (turkey, anyone?), and finally found time to begin exploring our brand new social studies textbook. We also decided to tighten up our general classroom behavior - we are back to a quick and quiet response for attention, and our lines are looking good! Oh, and twice this week we won the "Golden Shoe" award! Ha - ask your student about that one! Speaking of awards, we are all still hot on the trail in our search for BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION! After taking second place the first week with 300, we fell down in the rankings the second week with only 60, but this week we rallied to collect 292 box tops! We don't know where that puts us now, but other classes are right up there with us, so don't be surprised to find your child rummaging in your pantry at odd hours of the night! :) We hope family gatherings at Thanksgiving will yield more help from the relatives! Thanks for helping us out until December 2nd.
We took the Unit 3 math test on Friday. On Monday we will review those tests with our groups, and you can look for the tests to come home for your signature. I keep these tests for reference, so please return them right away - thank you! On Tuesday, we will all take the pretest for Unit 4, and by the next week, new groups will be formed with possibly a switch in teachers as well.
I must say how pleased I am at the initiative and motivation of a number of our students. When we explored our new social studies textbook about Wisconsin, we discovered some pictures and brief information from 1904 when our Capitol building burned down. I challenged the students to dig deeper if they chose to do so, and, on their own, find out more details and information to educate the rest of us. Within the week, several students brought in posters and pictures and typed up information on this topic. We have mounted these on the wall along with our extra information on ginseng, turtle eggs, dairy cows, sea life, geometric shapes, Norwegian culture... it is endless how much extra information we can fit into our curriculum when our students are fired up about a topic and take it down a new path that interests them. I plan to grow this aspect of our 4th grade education as the year moves along.
In preparation for the West Middleton Spelling Bee on December 9 at 8:40 in the multipurpose room, we began some classroom rounds this week to determine the four representatives from our room. We have conducted 6 rounds so far, and will have time for a few more before our deadline on November 30. The words are so random, with easy ones mixed in with tougher ones, so doing many rounds makes it as fair as possible to give everyone several chances to rise to the top. The kids all seem quite excited to do this, and plead for time for more rounds, so this endeavor has become quite motivating. I want to ride this 'spelling wave' and begin giving our class some weekly spelling tests. I have a growing collection of words I have found as we edit our writing projects that will be perfect for their weekly lists. These are words not chosen by a textbook publisher, but are words used by our fourth graders - words they want and like and need to use, but stumble on the spelling! Creative ways to practice these words will in turn be excellent opportunities to give our students more writing experiences as well! I can't wait! :)
I sent in the November Scholastic Book Order last Monday. I plan to give out the new December offerings this coming Monday, in order to give ourselves enough time to receive our new books before the Christmas Break. Therefore, I would like to make a deadline of November 29 for you to hand in all December orders. This time, you will see three sets of choices -- Arrow, Tab, and also a special Christmas edition with even more books! Good luck deciding!
It was such a pleasure to meet everyone's families at conference time! I thoroughly enjoyed our visits. Our first trimester ends on November 30, and you can expect to see your student's report card within the following week. Do check the classroom website for other updated calendar events coming up, and make use of the homework page, which I add to every day after school. Remember that the coming week is brief - we have full days of school on Monday and Tuesday, and then Wednesday's CRT day means buses will be taking kids home at 11:00 am that day. May your family enjoy a wonderful holiday weekend. Sincerely, Melanie
We took the Unit 3 math test on Friday. On Monday we will review those tests with our groups, and you can look for the tests to come home for your signature. I keep these tests for reference, so please return them right away - thank you! On Tuesday, we will all take the pretest for Unit 4, and by the next week, new groups will be formed with possibly a switch in teachers as well.
I must say how pleased I am at the initiative and motivation of a number of our students. When we explored our new social studies textbook about Wisconsin, we discovered some pictures and brief information from 1904 when our Capitol building burned down. I challenged the students to dig deeper if they chose to do so, and, on their own, find out more details and information to educate the rest of us. Within the week, several students brought in posters and pictures and typed up information on this topic. We have mounted these on the wall along with our extra information on ginseng, turtle eggs, dairy cows, sea life, geometric shapes, Norwegian culture... it is endless how much extra information we can fit into our curriculum when our students are fired up about a topic and take it down a new path that interests them. I plan to grow this aspect of our 4th grade education as the year moves along.
In preparation for the West Middleton Spelling Bee on December 9 at 8:40 in the multipurpose room, we began some classroom rounds this week to determine the four representatives from our room. We have conducted 6 rounds so far, and will have time for a few more before our deadline on November 30. The words are so random, with easy ones mixed in with tougher ones, so doing many rounds makes it as fair as possible to give everyone several chances to rise to the top. The kids all seem quite excited to do this, and plead for time for more rounds, so this endeavor has become quite motivating. I want to ride this 'spelling wave' and begin giving our class some weekly spelling tests. I have a growing collection of words I have found as we edit our writing projects that will be perfect for their weekly lists. These are words not chosen by a textbook publisher, but are words used by our fourth graders - words they want and like and need to use, but stumble on the spelling! Creative ways to practice these words will in turn be excellent opportunities to give our students more writing experiences as well! I can't wait! :)
I sent in the November Scholastic Book Order last Monday. I plan to give out the new December offerings this coming Monday, in order to give ourselves enough time to receive our new books before the Christmas Break. Therefore, I would like to make a deadline of November 29 for you to hand in all December orders. This time, you will see three sets of choices -- Arrow, Tab, and also a special Christmas edition with even more books! Good luck deciding!
It was such a pleasure to meet everyone's families at conference time! I thoroughly enjoyed our visits. Our first trimester ends on November 30, and you can expect to see your student's report card within the following week. Do check the classroom website for other updated calendar events coming up, and make use of the homework page, which I add to every day after school. Remember that the coming week is brief - we have full days of school on Monday and Tuesday, and then Wednesday's CRT day means buses will be taking kids home at 11:00 am that day. May your family enjoy a wonderful holiday weekend. Sincerely, Melanie
Saturday, November 5, 2011
November 4, 2011 Weekly Update
Happy November to all~~
Our week began with the last day of October and a wonderful classroom party at the end of that day. I felt we were not only celebrating the holiday, but also our special classroom 'family' that we have established over the last two months. Many grateful thanks to Sharon Pertzborn-Jensen for planning and preparing our games and activities and many of the goodies. We got new pencils, played Trivia, and did a Trick or Treat Word Find. Sharon wrote our class a personalized 'haunted' story where every one of us in class were the characters! We sat in a big circle and passed around the small pumpkins she gave us to the 'left' or to the 'right' every time we heard those words in the story - which was MANY times! Our confusion got quite hilarious! Michele Joslyn was also there to help lead our games and make sure we all got enough treats on our plates! Jane MacLean brought in some extra snacks, and we were well supplied with festive tableware thanks to Tammy Bursac. Thank you to all for contributing to a really nice time together. By the way, copies of "our" haunted story will be added to our Writing Binders as a keepsake.
NEWS FLASH: Another social event will occur on Wednesday, December 7th -- the annual West Middleton Circle of Love Winter Tea. It will be held in our school's multi-purpose room, and the time slot that our class is attending needed to be changed this past week. Put it on your calendars: All families are invited to join us to share punch, cookies, and conversation that day from 12:35 to 1:00 PM. The lunchroom gets transformed into a Winter Wonderland with beautiful decorations by our PTO, live music from Middleton High School Orchestra students, and a seemingly endless supply of cookies and bars to sample.
Another event that our students are quite excited about is the 4 week-long contest to see which class can collect the most BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION. We are proud to announce we collected 300 BOX TOPS by Friday, November 4th! Our students are searching and hunting down all they can find from every friend and relative near and far - so any help from you is much appreciated! Could it be that their enthusiasm is spurred on by the fact that the winning class gets to throw a cream pie at the faces of their friendly principal and 'beloved' teacher???!
Meanwhile, back at the classroom... This week our class was also treated to an enlightening presentation by one our own students, Cecilie. She brought in and explained many items that were meaningful to her Norwegian heritage, and educated us all about this country and beautiful culture. To top it all off, we were generously treated to creamy ice cream and luscious fresh raspberries - thank you so much to Cecilie and her parents! Another eye-opening contribution this week came from Seth's mother, Laurie Luetscher, which caused quite a stir with the whole class! See for yourselves by going to www.worldometers.info/ . On Monday, October 31, it was estimated that our planet's population reached the 7 billion mark! The website shows the live ongoing count, along with the ongoing counts of many other statistics, and it is all quite mind-boggling. We took a look more than once during the week in class, and the kids were mesmerized. Thank you, Laurie, for clueing us in!
Our science experiments this week gave the students plenty of chances to discover what components make a successful and complete electrical circuit and what does not! Listening to all the inquiring, surprised, puzzled, and triumphant comments coming from every investigative team was such a treat for me as a teacher. After we came together to share and compare what was learned, and time came to summarize new information and vocabulary, it was evident the new concepts had found their way into our 4th grade 'scientists' brains. Very cool! I did catch more of this on video, and will share it with you.
The coming week, as you know from my email this past week, will be a different week with a revised classroom schedule for WKCE testing. We went over some practice items this past week, and I believe the students are ready to just try their best on each item, be thorough in their thinking, and know they do not have to be nervous about these assessments. I have told them this gives our state a chance to compare all the 4th graders in Wisconsin and see what they have learned so far. A good night's sleep and good breakfast will help concentration, and we will give ourselves some relaxing breaks between sessions. We've already got a big bag of string cheese in my little refrigerator, as well as cracker boxes and bags of bubble gum ready. Thank you! I also look forward to talking with you at conferences this next week as well (do let me know if you need confirmation of your conference time). Your child will have a chance to share with you some samples of their work so far this year, and we can all talk over together good goals for the coming months. See you next week! Melanie
Our week began with the last day of October and a wonderful classroom party at the end of that day. I felt we were not only celebrating the holiday, but also our special classroom 'family' that we have established over the last two months. Many grateful thanks to Sharon Pertzborn-Jensen for planning and preparing our games and activities and many of the goodies. We got new pencils, played Trivia, and did a Trick or Treat Word Find. Sharon wrote our class a personalized 'haunted' story where every one of us in class were the characters! We sat in a big circle and passed around the small pumpkins she gave us to the 'left' or to the 'right' every time we heard those words in the story - which was MANY times! Our confusion got quite hilarious! Michele Joslyn was also there to help lead our games and make sure we all got enough treats on our plates! Jane MacLean brought in some extra snacks, and we were well supplied with festive tableware thanks to Tammy Bursac. Thank you to all for contributing to a really nice time together. By the way, copies of "our" haunted story will be added to our Writing Binders as a keepsake.
NEWS FLASH: Another social event will occur on Wednesday, December 7th -- the annual West Middleton Circle of Love Winter Tea. It will be held in our school's multi-purpose room, and the time slot that our class is attending needed to be changed this past week. Put it on your calendars: All families are invited to join us to share punch, cookies, and conversation that day from 12:35 to 1:00 PM. The lunchroom gets transformed into a Winter Wonderland with beautiful decorations by our PTO, live music from Middleton High School Orchestra students, and a seemingly endless supply of cookies and bars to sample.
Another event that our students are quite excited about is the 4 week-long contest to see which class can collect the most BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION. We are proud to announce we collected 300 BOX TOPS by Friday, November 4th! Our students are searching and hunting down all they can find from every friend and relative near and far - so any help from you is much appreciated! Could it be that their enthusiasm is spurred on by the fact that the winning class gets to throw a cream pie at the faces of their friendly principal and 'beloved' teacher???!
Meanwhile, back at the classroom... This week our class was also treated to an enlightening presentation by one our own students, Cecilie. She brought in and explained many items that were meaningful to her Norwegian heritage, and educated us all about this country and beautiful culture. To top it all off, we were generously treated to creamy ice cream and luscious fresh raspberries - thank you so much to Cecilie and her parents! Another eye-opening contribution this week came from Seth's mother, Laurie Luetscher, which caused quite a stir with the whole class! See for yourselves by going to www.worldometers.info/ . On Monday, October 31, it was estimated that our planet's population reached the 7 billion mark! The website shows the live ongoing count, along with the ongoing counts of many other statistics, and it is all quite mind-boggling. We took a look more than once during the week in class, and the kids were mesmerized. Thank you, Laurie, for clueing us in!
Our science experiments this week gave the students plenty of chances to discover what components make a successful and complete electrical circuit and what does not! Listening to all the inquiring, surprised, puzzled, and triumphant comments coming from every investigative team was such a treat for me as a teacher. After we came together to share and compare what was learned, and time came to summarize new information and vocabulary, it was evident the new concepts had found their way into our 4th grade 'scientists' brains. Very cool! I did catch more of this on video, and will share it with you.
The coming week, as you know from my email this past week, will be a different week with a revised classroom schedule for WKCE testing. We went over some practice items this past week, and I believe the students are ready to just try their best on each item, be thorough in their thinking, and know they do not have to be nervous about these assessments. I have told them this gives our state a chance to compare all the 4th graders in Wisconsin and see what they have learned so far. A good night's sleep and good breakfast will help concentration, and we will give ourselves some relaxing breaks between sessions. We've already got a big bag of string cheese in my little refrigerator, as well as cracker boxes and bags of bubble gum ready. Thank you! I also look forward to talking with you at conferences this next week as well (do let me know if you need confirmation of your conference time). Your child will have a chance to share with you some samples of their work so far this year, and we can all talk over together good goals for the coming months. See you next week! Melanie
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Magnetism Science Experiment
See what fun our students had in their discoveries of the properties of magnetism.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
October 21, 2011 Weekly Update
Hello, 4th grade families,
Our week began with digging in to a new unit in math and news about the annual Spelling Bee, continued with new experiments on magnetism in science and writing a ghost story with the lights off, tie dyed new WM shirts in Art class, and ended with viewing the DVD version of the book we just completed, Tuck Everlasting. The days fly by like a Halloween witch on a new high-speed broom!
Unit 3 in Everyday Math is centered on multiplication! This is the optimum time for our 4th graders to brush up on their basic facts! We are learning new vocabulary and concepts dealing with factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers, new strategies for solving number stories, open sentences with variables - all these skills require automatic recall of basic multiplication facts. This unit also lays the foundation for future lessons in 4th grade math - I've told the students that they will be SO glad they know their basic facts when we get to double digit multiplication and long division. Establishing a daily routine of 15 minutes at home practicing facts will go a long way toward your student's ease in grasping the work ahead of us.
We will be transitioning from magnetism in science to some experiments with electrical circuits in the next two weeks. Students also got the opportunity to write out their impressions of the characters and scenes from our class read-aloud after we finally got to the last word in the epilogue for the book Tuck Everlasting this week. The differences between the book version and the Disney movie production brought some surprised reactions on Friday. Pencils needed sharpening more than once (with a little ghostly help) as we continued in our writing mode to create an imaginative story about a friendly ghost. Each student has also received a "Spooky Spelling List" to practice over the next week (with no reminders from the head witch about studying! :) ) Speaking of spelling, our GT teacher, Ms. Weber, spoke to all the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes this week about the upcoming WM Spelling Bee, which will be held on the morning of December 9th. Each student was given a list of all the possible words that may be presented to our spellers. It is up to each student if they want to make it a goal to practice these words. The first round involves classroom rounds of trying these words over the next month to narrow it down to 4 representatives from each room to take part in the school bee on December 9th.
The Odyssey of the Mind competition for 4th graders was also introduced this week by Ms. Weber, which is an optional activity for anyone interested in submitting a project proposal as their 'audition' piece to qualify for the competition. Ms. Weber studies these projects to decide which 20 fourth graders will represent our school at the competition on November 28, to be held all day at the new Union South on the UW campus. An information sheet went home this past week with your student, and they have until next Wednesday, October 26, to submit them. Odyssey of the Mind involves group problem solving skills.
Other news includes the dates set for the three 4th grade classes to take the WKCE state assessments. Our three rooms will use most of the four days from November 7th through November 10 to take these exams. These are the days, therefore, where we will want particularly good attendance, and well rested students with a good breakfast in them each morning! The test sessions are timed, with breaks and extra good snacks in between! Several good No. 2 pencils with good erasers for each student is the only other material they will need. This is the same week I will be meeting with parents and their student for conferences, either after school on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday morning (no school on November 11). Thank you for checking that your conference time still works for you, and there are a very few families that still need to sign up for a time slot. The schedule went home this week, so please check that and let me know if one of those openings work for you, or if you need an alternative time.
We are planning on having an Autumn/Harvest/Holiday class party at 2:00 pm on Monday, October 31st. We have received a generous donation of festive plates, napkins, cups, plasticware from Tammy Bursac, and Sharon Pertzborn-Jensen is coordinating some treats and activities. Please let her or me know if you can come help, or do some planning with her. We'd love to have you stop in! Our classroom has become more decorated this month with a 'mystery' addition each day to add to the atmosphere (you can ask your student about that!).
Remember that next week is SHORT! We have full days of a regular schedule on Monday and Tuesday. A special note about Tuesday -- we are ALL wearing our new West Middleton tie dye T-shirt to school on Tuesday, October 25th! On Wednesday, it is our 2nd Early Release Day, when students will board buses for home at 11:00 am. There is no school on Thursday and Friday.
See you all soon! Melanie Hannam
Our week began with digging in to a new unit in math and news about the annual Spelling Bee, continued with new experiments on magnetism in science and writing a ghost story with the lights off, tie dyed new WM shirts in Art class, and ended with viewing the DVD version of the book we just completed, Tuck Everlasting. The days fly by like a Halloween witch on a new high-speed broom!
Unit 3 in Everyday Math is centered on multiplication! This is the optimum time for our 4th graders to brush up on their basic facts! We are learning new vocabulary and concepts dealing with factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers, new strategies for solving number stories, open sentences with variables - all these skills require automatic recall of basic multiplication facts. This unit also lays the foundation for future lessons in 4th grade math - I've told the students that they will be SO glad they know their basic facts when we get to double digit multiplication and long division. Establishing a daily routine of 15 minutes at home practicing facts will go a long way toward your student's ease in grasping the work ahead of us.
We will be transitioning from magnetism in science to some experiments with electrical circuits in the next two weeks. Students also got the opportunity to write out their impressions of the characters and scenes from our class read-aloud after we finally got to the last word in the epilogue for the book Tuck Everlasting this week. The differences between the book version and the Disney movie production brought some surprised reactions on Friday. Pencils needed sharpening more than once (with a little ghostly help) as we continued in our writing mode to create an imaginative story about a friendly ghost. Each student has also received a "Spooky Spelling List" to practice over the next week (with no reminders from the head witch about studying! :) ) Speaking of spelling, our GT teacher, Ms. Weber, spoke to all the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes this week about the upcoming WM Spelling Bee, which will be held on the morning of December 9th. Each student was given a list of all the possible words that may be presented to our spellers. It is up to each student if they want to make it a goal to practice these words. The first round involves classroom rounds of trying these words over the next month to narrow it down to 4 representatives from each room to take part in the school bee on December 9th.
The Odyssey of the Mind competition for 4th graders was also introduced this week by Ms. Weber, which is an optional activity for anyone interested in submitting a project proposal as their 'audition' piece to qualify for the competition. Ms. Weber studies these projects to decide which 20 fourth graders will represent our school at the competition on November 28, to be held all day at the new Union South on the UW campus. An information sheet went home this past week with your student, and they have until next Wednesday, October 26, to submit them. Odyssey of the Mind involves group problem solving skills.
Other news includes the dates set for the three 4th grade classes to take the WKCE state assessments. Our three rooms will use most of the four days from November 7th through November 10 to take these exams. These are the days, therefore, where we will want particularly good attendance, and well rested students with a good breakfast in them each morning! The test sessions are timed, with breaks and extra good snacks in between! Several good No. 2 pencils with good erasers for each student is the only other material they will need. This is the same week I will be meeting with parents and their student for conferences, either after school on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday morning (no school on November 11). Thank you for checking that your conference time still works for you, and there are a very few families that still need to sign up for a time slot. The schedule went home this week, so please check that and let me know if one of those openings work for you, or if you need an alternative time.
We are planning on having an Autumn/Harvest/Holiday class party at 2:00 pm on Monday, October 31st. We have received a generous donation of festive plates, napkins, cups, plasticware from Tammy Bursac, and Sharon Pertzborn-Jensen is coordinating some treats and activities. Please let her or me know if you can come help, or do some planning with her. We'd love to have you stop in! Our classroom has become more decorated this month with a 'mystery' addition each day to add to the atmosphere (you can ask your student about that!).
Remember that next week is SHORT! We have full days of a regular schedule on Monday and Tuesday. A special note about Tuesday -- we are ALL wearing our new West Middleton tie dye T-shirt to school on Tuesday, October 25th! On Wednesday, it is our 2nd Early Release Day, when students will board buses for home at 11:00 am. There is no school on Thursday and Friday.
See you all soon! Melanie Hannam
Saturday, October 15, 2011
October 14, 2011 Weekly Update
Hello, 4H Families,
How did we get to the middle of October already?! Right outside our classroom door this past week, the school's library was a hub of activity with the annual Scholastic Book Fair. It warmed the hearts of all of us teachers and Mr. Powers, our librarian, to see so many kids so excited about NEW BOOKS. It spilled through the doorway of our classroom - our 4H students couldn't wait to dive into their finds, including the new books that found their way into our growing classroom library. I send many, grateful thank you's to all who donated a new book to our collection. Wow, I felt like the kids - all I want to do is dig into a new story! This week has inspired several in our classroom to help out organizing our bookshelves as we find room to include every book, and as they work, they are collaborating on best ways to organize, as well as discovering books they hadn't seen yet, sharing with each other about them - it is very cool to listen to these conversations. I see a few more reluctant readers are getting swept into the enthusiasm, too. I am so proud of all our readers in Room 117! Also, we have hit the highpoint of action in our class read-aloud book, "Tuck Everlasting" and we are all now in a state of suspense until next week to see how it all turns out and comes to an end. I have promised the students the chance to view the movie version made a few years ago, so we may compare that with the book (they are in for some surprises).
All 4th grade math groups took the Unit 2 post-test this past week. During the coming week, parents will see these tests coming home for a signature, as well as a summary sheet attached that lists each skill/concept and how your student responded to each one. I would like to receive these signed assessments back after you have seen them, so that we may collect a record of your child's progress in his/her folder. We can discuss them at conference time. Keep in mind that these assessments have two parts: Part A contains skills that should be 'secure' (mastered) in 4th grade. This is the only part that receives a grade. Part B contains skills that are taught and practiced so that students get their first exposure to them, but these are not required for mastery until later in the year or in 5th grade. Many of our 4th graders do demonstrate mastery now, but even if they don't, they will have the groundwork laid for when those skills are presented again in the future (the 'spiral' philosophy of Everyday Math). On the summary sheet, each skill will have the designations: S (for secure), D (for developing), or B (for beginning). Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks for sending the assessments back to school promptly. I like using them as guides for more instruction. We are all noticing many students who do not feel confident yet with borrowing across 4 digits (numbers into the thousands), and basic facts with adding and subtraction need more practice for better accuracy. Thank you to all families who help their child make it a priority most evenings by providing time to brush up on the basic facts for all operations. This will make all their other math work go so much more smoothly. On Monday, our students will be divided into new groups for Unit 3 (according to scores achieved on Friday's pre-test), and they may have new rooms and teachers for this unit.
We eased our way out of our Wisconsin Agriculture unit in social studies by 'researching' such products as ginseng, edamame, craisins, and cranberry juice. We sampled the last three of these, and students either added to their list of foods they like - or not! :) We have jumped into three different days of science experiments with magnetism! We have budding scientists in our room, as excited students made their own discoveries about the properties of magnetism. We are easily accessing new vocabulary and understanding about this property, and our work sets the stage for our discoveries about electricity. I took some video of our magnetism discovery days and will share this on our blog soon.
This month our Guidance classes, led by our school counselor Mrs. Hellenbrand (2nd and 4th Thursdays for 35 minutes each), are discussing "Character". This next week is "Character Counts" Week, and in recognition of the traits of good character, each day is designated as the following: Wear purple on Monday for Citizenship, wear green on Tuesday for Responsibility, wear yellow on Wednesday for Respect, wear blue on Thursday for Honesty, and wear red on Friday for Caring. Wearing these colors is, of course, optional.
On Friday we welcomed a new student to our room. We are happy to introduce Markees Johnson to our "4H" family. He comes to us from Illinois. I am so proud of our kids, who easily and naturally included him in their activities and helped him out with all there is to know about our busy room. We now have 21 students in Room 117.
Upcoming events later this month: The window for WKCE (Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam) is October 24 through November 25. Our 4th grade classes will be holding testing sessions during the first two weeks of November. More specific details will follow soon, but I just wanted to give you all a heads up on the time frame, so that all can plan for particularly good attendance, good nights' sleep, and good breakfasts during those weeks. On a much lighter note, Halloween occurs on a Monday this year. Our school does not encourage wearing costumes that day, but our class does have their first opportunity for an Autumn/Harvest/Holiday party that afternoon from 2:00 to 2:40! :) If you are a parent who would like to be part of a small group who would like to plan a couple of activities/games/art projects and/or provide some treats for that time period, would you please let me know? I will put any who let me know of their interest in contact with each other, and you can coordinate your plans. All of us in Room 117 will be so grateful, and this wonderful class is due for a little party time.
Enough news for this time! Soon it will also be time to confirm times for our parent/student/teacher conferences (after school times on November 8, 9. 10, and Friday morning, November 11 - no school that day). Many of you signed up for time slots on September 1st, and I will confirm those with you, as well as contact everyone else about best times you and your student can come. Thank you to all for an inspiring week of learning in 4th grade - it was a week of diligent work but full of fun learning as well! Melanie Hannam
How did we get to the middle of October already?! Right outside our classroom door this past week, the school's library was a hub of activity with the annual Scholastic Book Fair. It warmed the hearts of all of us teachers and Mr. Powers, our librarian, to see so many kids so excited about NEW BOOKS. It spilled through the doorway of our classroom - our 4H students couldn't wait to dive into their finds, including the new books that found their way into our growing classroom library. I send many, grateful thank you's to all who donated a new book to our collection. Wow, I felt like the kids - all I want to do is dig into a new story! This week has inspired several in our classroom to help out organizing our bookshelves as we find room to include every book, and as they work, they are collaborating on best ways to organize, as well as discovering books they hadn't seen yet, sharing with each other about them - it is very cool to listen to these conversations. I see a few more reluctant readers are getting swept into the enthusiasm, too. I am so proud of all our readers in Room 117! Also, we have hit the highpoint of action in our class read-aloud book, "Tuck Everlasting" and we are all now in a state of suspense until next week to see how it all turns out and comes to an end. I have promised the students the chance to view the movie version made a few years ago, so we may compare that with the book (they are in for some surprises).
All 4th grade math groups took the Unit 2 post-test this past week. During the coming week, parents will see these tests coming home for a signature, as well as a summary sheet attached that lists each skill/concept and how your student responded to each one. I would like to receive these signed assessments back after you have seen them, so that we may collect a record of your child's progress in his/her folder. We can discuss them at conference time. Keep in mind that these assessments have two parts: Part A contains skills that should be 'secure' (mastered) in 4th grade. This is the only part that receives a grade. Part B contains skills that are taught and practiced so that students get their first exposure to them, but these are not required for mastery until later in the year or in 5th grade. Many of our 4th graders do demonstrate mastery now, but even if they don't, they will have the groundwork laid for when those skills are presented again in the future (the 'spiral' philosophy of Everyday Math). On the summary sheet, each skill will have the designations: S (for secure), D (for developing), or B (for beginning). Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks for sending the assessments back to school promptly. I like using them as guides for more instruction. We are all noticing many students who do not feel confident yet with borrowing across 4 digits (numbers into the thousands), and basic facts with adding and subtraction need more practice for better accuracy. Thank you to all families who help their child make it a priority most evenings by providing time to brush up on the basic facts for all operations. This will make all their other math work go so much more smoothly. On Monday, our students will be divided into new groups for Unit 3 (according to scores achieved on Friday's pre-test), and they may have new rooms and teachers for this unit.
We eased our way out of our Wisconsin Agriculture unit in social studies by 'researching' such products as ginseng, edamame, craisins, and cranberry juice. We sampled the last three of these, and students either added to their list of foods they like - or not! :) We have jumped into three different days of science experiments with magnetism! We have budding scientists in our room, as excited students made their own discoveries about the properties of magnetism. We are easily accessing new vocabulary and understanding about this property, and our work sets the stage for our discoveries about electricity. I took some video of our magnetism discovery days and will share this on our blog soon.
This month our Guidance classes, led by our school counselor Mrs. Hellenbrand (2nd and 4th Thursdays for 35 minutes each), are discussing "Character". This next week is "Character Counts" Week, and in recognition of the traits of good character, each day is designated as the following: Wear purple on Monday for Citizenship, wear green on Tuesday for Responsibility, wear yellow on Wednesday for Respect, wear blue on Thursday for Honesty, and wear red on Friday for Caring. Wearing these colors is, of course, optional.
On Friday we welcomed a new student to our room. We are happy to introduce Markees Johnson to our "4H" family. He comes to us from Illinois. I am so proud of our kids, who easily and naturally included him in their activities and helped him out with all there is to know about our busy room. We now have 21 students in Room 117.
Upcoming events later this month: The window for WKCE (Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam) is October 24 through November 25. Our 4th grade classes will be holding testing sessions during the first two weeks of November. More specific details will follow soon, but I just wanted to give you all a heads up on the time frame, so that all can plan for particularly good attendance, good nights' sleep, and good breakfasts during those weeks. On a much lighter note, Halloween occurs on a Monday this year. Our school does not encourage wearing costumes that day, but our class does have their first opportunity for an Autumn/Harvest/Holiday party that afternoon from 2:00 to 2:40! :) If you are a parent who would like to be part of a small group who would like to plan a couple of activities/games/art projects and/or provide some treats for that time period, would you please let me know? I will put any who let me know of their interest in contact with each other, and you can coordinate your plans. All of us in Room 117 will be so grateful, and this wonderful class is due for a little party time.
Enough news for this time! Soon it will also be time to confirm times for our parent/student/teacher conferences (after school times on November 8, 9. 10, and Friday morning, November 11 - no school that day). Many of you signed up for time slots on September 1st, and I will confirm those with you, as well as contact everyone else about best times you and your student can come. Thank you to all for an inspiring week of learning in 4th grade - it was a week of diligent work but full of fun learning as well! Melanie Hannam
Saturday, October 8, 2011
October 7, 2011 Weekly Update
Hello to our '4H' families!
Our busy week was highlighted by our field trip on Tuesday afternoon to the World Dairy Expo. We were treated to warm sunshine, a friendly and knowledgeable guide named Mitch, and the chance to get up close to the cleanest, most pampered collection of cows we are ever going to see! We watched part of the championship judging in the Coliseum, saw how the milking machines were used - and how they felt on our fingers! - how the milk ran through the lines into massive steel tanks, all monitored by computers, met Alice in Dairyland, who taught us about the many nutrients in milk (and how much sugar is in a soda!), and ended with a welcome cold carton of milk to drink ourselves. Our students were very well behaved, interested in everything, asked excellent questions, and were lots of fun to tour around with! It was great fun to have our chaperones with us as well, and many thanks again to Tad Renfert, Jay Weatherford, Beth Graf, Laura Lynch, Angie Williams, Renee Dahlk, and Doug Rykal, for coming along and helping to keep track of us all! Our fourth graders have come a long way in their knowledge of Wisconsin's dairy industry. Next on the agenda: Wisconsin geography and mapping, along with our first science unit which is all about magnetism and electricity.
This past week also had us digging deeper into Unit 2 of Everyday Math, where we are plotting data and determining the maximum, minimum, range, mode, median, and mean. We are also securing skills with carrying in addition and borrowing in subtraction. This week our class began keeping track of their individual progress with the basic facts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Each student established a baseline score of how many correct facts they could answer within 3 minutes for each operation. Every week they will try to improve their past score - with the ultimate goal of answering 100 basic facts correctly in 3 minutes for each operation. Every morning they try a different operation - this weekly practice will help them become more automatic with their responses. Of course, any extra practice they can put in at home with flashcards, etc. will help them improve more quickly! Multiplication and division, in particular, needs some extra attention.
We are over halfway through reading Tuck Everlasting, and the 'plot thickens', as do the discussion topics that this book always leads us into! Our students are also keeping track of their own reading by recording the titles and authors of all the books they finish on a Reading Log. We proudly reached our goal this week with successfully sustaining a focused, silent reading session of 20 minutes. This goal has actually been a pleasure and not a very difficult challenge at all for this class of avid readers. Many students plead for a time like this everyday, and we talk about how cool it is that we are able to get so deeply into our reading that we forget where we are, and how we can get lost in the stories we are reading. This practice of developing reading 'stamina' is already serving us well as we strive for the same focus during our writing times. Journal entries are becoming more descriptive with each attempt, and we are beginning to share with each other some of our more creative written ideas. We admire each other's attempts, and we are motivating each other to try more. Today we just had to take advantage of our beautiful fall weather, and the fact that we have an exceptional prairie right in our 'backyard'. Everyone carried out their journals and pencils, found their own little spot to sit along the winding path that cuts right through the middle of five foot tall wild grasses and flowers, and wrote for 15 minutes in silence. We tried to record all we could hear, see, feel, and smell among the waving stalks that scratched against each other in the wind, baking in the sun. We will be sharing our observations next week, and already most agree that we should try this during each season and compare the experiences.
The annual West Middleton Scholastic Book Fair will take place next week in the LMC, with Family Night on Tuesday after school. I hope to see you there! Melanie Hannam
Our busy week was highlighted by our field trip on Tuesday afternoon to the World Dairy Expo. We were treated to warm sunshine, a friendly and knowledgeable guide named Mitch, and the chance to get up close to the cleanest, most pampered collection of cows we are ever going to see! We watched part of the championship judging in the Coliseum, saw how the milking machines were used - and how they felt on our fingers! - how the milk ran through the lines into massive steel tanks, all monitored by computers, met Alice in Dairyland, who taught us about the many nutrients in milk (and how much sugar is in a soda!), and ended with a welcome cold carton of milk to drink ourselves. Our students were very well behaved, interested in everything, asked excellent questions, and were lots of fun to tour around with! It was great fun to have our chaperones with us as well, and many thanks again to Tad Renfert, Jay Weatherford, Beth Graf, Laura Lynch, Angie Williams, Renee Dahlk, and Doug Rykal, for coming along and helping to keep track of us all! Our fourth graders have come a long way in their knowledge of Wisconsin's dairy industry. Next on the agenda: Wisconsin geography and mapping, along with our first science unit which is all about magnetism and electricity.
This past week also had us digging deeper into Unit 2 of Everyday Math, where we are plotting data and determining the maximum, minimum, range, mode, median, and mean. We are also securing skills with carrying in addition and borrowing in subtraction. This week our class began keeping track of their individual progress with the basic facts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Each student established a baseline score of how many correct facts they could answer within 3 minutes for each operation. Every week they will try to improve their past score - with the ultimate goal of answering 100 basic facts correctly in 3 minutes for each operation. Every morning they try a different operation - this weekly practice will help them become more automatic with their responses. Of course, any extra practice they can put in at home with flashcards, etc. will help them improve more quickly! Multiplication and division, in particular, needs some extra attention.
We are over halfway through reading Tuck Everlasting, and the 'plot thickens', as do the discussion topics that this book always leads us into! Our students are also keeping track of their own reading by recording the titles and authors of all the books they finish on a Reading Log. We proudly reached our goal this week with successfully sustaining a focused, silent reading session of 20 minutes. This goal has actually been a pleasure and not a very difficult challenge at all for this class of avid readers. Many students plead for a time like this everyday, and we talk about how cool it is that we are able to get so deeply into our reading that we forget where we are, and how we can get lost in the stories we are reading. This practice of developing reading 'stamina' is already serving us well as we strive for the same focus during our writing times. Journal entries are becoming more descriptive with each attempt, and we are beginning to share with each other some of our more creative written ideas. We admire each other's attempts, and we are motivating each other to try more. Today we just had to take advantage of our beautiful fall weather, and the fact that we have an exceptional prairie right in our 'backyard'. Everyone carried out their journals and pencils, found their own little spot to sit along the winding path that cuts right through the middle of five foot tall wild grasses and flowers, and wrote for 15 minutes in silence. We tried to record all we could hear, see, feel, and smell among the waving stalks that scratched against each other in the wind, baking in the sun. We will be sharing our observations next week, and already most agree that we should try this during each season and compare the experiences.
The annual West Middleton Scholastic Book Fair will take place next week in the LMC, with Family Night on Tuesday after school. I hope to see you there! Melanie Hannam
Saturday, October 1, 2011
9/30/2011 Weekly Update
Hello to our '4H' families!
September has gone by so fast, yet it has been so full! In the last month we have all added at least two dozen new, very important people to our lives, including each of our precious students along with several very wonderful support staff who join us daily in Room 117. It is so heartwarming and inspirational to be together every day. One day this week we welcomed a guest visitor who filled our brains with amazing dairy information and our stomachs with delicious (ha - mostly!) cheese! Vivian's mom, Renee Dahlk, came in carrying a picnic basket full of mozzarella sticks, two kinds of cheddar, pepperjack, and limberger cheeses. The kids were so receptive to trying the different kinds, more than we expected were willing to sample the limberger, and even liked it! She spread award winning butter ($400 per pound??!!) on saltines, and we finished up with a few m&m's each (they contain whey - so there!). It was a highlight in our week, and thanks again to Renee for coming and leading such a great lesson as well. We are all definitely set up and ready to go visit these cows we've been studying! We have six parent chaperones all signed up to go with us to the Dairy Expo on Tuesday afternoon, October 4th. Weather sounds like it will cooperate! Send your student to school in jeans and shoes you won't mind possibly getting a little 'soiled'!
This past week the fourth grade rooms shuffled our students around to work on Unit 2 in Everyday Math. Each day has become smoother, as students learn a few different expectations from new teachers, and we become acquainted with new 4th graders. Our classroom blog homework page will always post assignments from all three teachers daily. This unit has begun with place value and reading/writing/expanding large numbers - especially up to the 100 millions. You can give your student some extra practice by having them write and recite some numbers that go this high, and asking them what place each digit represents. Page 32 in the student journal has a helpful chart. This is a skill that needs to be secure in order to understand future concepts. We are off to a solid start. It will help you to know that I consider the student journal and studylink pages to be learning workbooks - where students can practice the concepts and skills, and not be afraid to try everything, even items they aren't sure they understand. I've told them I won't be 'grading' these problems - the items are used to experiment with new knowledge, and we discuss in class the correct way to solve them. When I believe they are ready to demonstrate their mastery, they receive small 'exit slips' with one or two problems for each new concept to show me if they need more instruction on any skill. Feel free to contact me at any time if you have questions or concerns about your child's math work.
We continue to read chapters daily in Tuck Everlasting, finally getting to learn some big secrets that Winnie, the main character, still isn't so sure she believes! It has led to some thought provoking discussions about the pros and cons of 'living forever' - and we have posted our blog comments on this topic with our partners in California again this week. Take a look! I love seeing how our students are considering some ideas deeper than they have before. They also had the opportunity to stretch their imaginations this week in their journal writing, when we picked one of our rainy days to write about "what if it rained CANDY all day?" Upon reading their writing, they are giving me all kinds of lessons to prepare for them regarding sentence and paragraph structure, basic writing mechanics, as well as idea development. We also began recording all the books we are reading in a Reading Log. It will be impressive for them to see how many and what kinds of books they will have read by the end of 4th grade. We have such readers in our room - and I must confess that I have some catching up to do to become acquainted with some popular series and authors that I see them very excited about! (Fourth grade isn't about Caddie Woodlawn anymore!) And thank you for the donations of books for our classroom library that some of you have sent to us. I am close to asking Mr. Jerry for one more bookshelf so we can better organize our beautiful collection. One more note about literacy: I will be sending home Scholastic Book Order forms once per month - usually the first week of each month. We received our September order this past week, and on Friday I handed out the October forms. They will be due back by next week Friday, October 7. We've learned it takes a week and a half for our order to come back. The students can't wait to get their new forms and then see that box get delivered with shiny new books.
Until next note, GO Badgers, Packers, and Brewers!!! What a time to be a Wisconsin sports fan! Melanie Hannam
September has gone by so fast, yet it has been so full! In the last month we have all added at least two dozen new, very important people to our lives, including each of our precious students along with several very wonderful support staff who join us daily in Room 117. It is so heartwarming and inspirational to be together every day. One day this week we welcomed a guest visitor who filled our brains with amazing dairy information and our stomachs with delicious (ha - mostly!) cheese! Vivian's mom, Renee Dahlk, came in carrying a picnic basket full of mozzarella sticks, two kinds of cheddar, pepperjack, and limberger cheeses. The kids were so receptive to trying the different kinds, more than we expected were willing to sample the limberger, and even liked it! She spread award winning butter ($400 per pound??!!) on saltines, and we finished up with a few m&m's each (they contain whey - so there!). It was a highlight in our week, and thanks again to Renee for coming and leading such a great lesson as well. We are all definitely set up and ready to go visit these cows we've been studying! We have six parent chaperones all signed up to go with us to the Dairy Expo on Tuesday afternoon, October 4th. Weather sounds like it will cooperate! Send your student to school in jeans and shoes you won't mind possibly getting a little 'soiled'!
This past week the fourth grade rooms shuffled our students around to work on Unit 2 in Everyday Math. Each day has become smoother, as students learn a few different expectations from new teachers, and we become acquainted with new 4th graders. Our classroom blog homework page will always post assignments from all three teachers daily. This unit has begun with place value and reading/writing/expanding large numbers - especially up to the 100 millions. You can give your student some extra practice by having them write and recite some numbers that go this high, and asking them what place each digit represents. Page 32 in the student journal has a helpful chart. This is a skill that needs to be secure in order to understand future concepts. We are off to a solid start. It will help you to know that I consider the student journal and studylink pages to be learning workbooks - where students can practice the concepts and skills, and not be afraid to try everything, even items they aren't sure they understand. I've told them I won't be 'grading' these problems - the items are used to experiment with new knowledge, and we discuss in class the correct way to solve them. When I believe they are ready to demonstrate their mastery, they receive small 'exit slips' with one or two problems for each new concept to show me if they need more instruction on any skill. Feel free to contact me at any time if you have questions or concerns about your child's math work.
We continue to read chapters daily in Tuck Everlasting, finally getting to learn some big secrets that Winnie, the main character, still isn't so sure she believes! It has led to some thought provoking discussions about the pros and cons of 'living forever' - and we have posted our blog comments on this topic with our partners in California again this week. Take a look! I love seeing how our students are considering some ideas deeper than they have before. They also had the opportunity to stretch their imaginations this week in their journal writing, when we picked one of our rainy days to write about "what if it rained CANDY all day?" Upon reading their writing, they are giving me all kinds of lessons to prepare for them regarding sentence and paragraph structure, basic writing mechanics, as well as idea development. We also began recording all the books we are reading in a Reading Log. It will be impressive for them to see how many and what kinds of books they will have read by the end of 4th grade. We have such readers in our room - and I must confess that I have some catching up to do to become acquainted with some popular series and authors that I see them very excited about! (Fourth grade isn't about Caddie Woodlawn anymore!) And thank you for the donations of books for our classroom library that some of you have sent to us. I am close to asking Mr. Jerry for one more bookshelf so we can better organize our beautiful collection. One more note about literacy: I will be sending home Scholastic Book Order forms once per month - usually the first week of each month. We received our September order this past week, and on Friday I handed out the October forms. They will be due back by next week Friday, October 7. We've learned it takes a week and a half for our order to come back. The students can't wait to get their new forms and then see that box get delivered with shiny new books.
Until next note, GO Badgers, Packers, and Brewers!!! What a time to be a Wisconsin sports fan! Melanie Hannam
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Where to find our Tuck blog posts:
We are using the Kidblog set up by the classroom with whom we are communicating in Cupertino, California - a 4th grade classroom taught by Miss Weiss at Stevens Creek Elementary. To view our postings go to www.kidblog.org/MissWeiss. Then click 'log in' in the upper right hand corner, select Ms_Hannam and type in the password: tuck Click on 'Tuck Everlasting Discussion and read our posts!
9/23/2011 Weekly Update
Hello to our 4H families!
This past week held several 'firsts' for us in Room 117. We had completed Everyday Math Unit 1 - Geometry, and after two class periods spent reviewing and giving ourselves more practice on all that new vocabulary, students took their first unit test. Most everyone said they felt prepared, and results reflected that - yay! After checking the tests, I made time for every student to review their test answers with me by having a brief one on one conference to celebrate their strengths and understand where and how improvements could be made for next time. This proved to be a valuable learning opportunity - these assessments are another important way to reinforce their learning. Next week we will take a pretest for Unit 2 to see how much we might already know about the new concepts coming up, and then begin the new set of lessons. All three 4th grade teachers will be meeting early in the week to look at pretest results to decide how we can organize our students into groups that reflect the different levels of background knowledge needed for this unit. Therefore, your student may be receiving their math lessons and assignments from any one of the three of us (Mrs. Bertz, Mrs. Zeitlin, or myself) for Unit 2. If this proves effective in helping us meet everyone's learning needs more thoroughly, we will follow the same process for each unit. We will keep you informed.
You should have seen a two sided blue sheet come home today in your student's take home folder. It gives you directions on how to access the Everyday Math material, activities, and GAMES online for each unit. The small white slip attached to this sheet gives your child his/her login name and password - I have established an account for each of our students. I tried it out, and it appears to be user friendly. It could be a great way to get extra math practice in a fun way. Let me know what you think!
This past Monday was a wonderful opportunity for me to become much more familiar with each of my student's reading abilities. While a substitute teacher conducted lessons in the classroom, I was across the hall meeting with each student one at a time, listening to them read aloud, answer some comprehension questions, and conference about their preferences and any difficulties with reading. These conferences and the assessments have given me valuable information and direction for their reading instruction this year.
Speaking of reading, we began "Tuck Everlasting" this week! We have read aloud together the first 6 chapters by week's end, and it has given us much food for thought and lively discussion! Not only that, we posted our first blog entries, communicating with another 4th grade class at Stevens Creek Elementary School in Cupertino, California. They have established a Kidblog, where it has proven to be easier to post all our comments back and forth than if we were to use my classroom blog site (so this is a change from what I first intended to do). Our class first wrote out their responses to the prompt: "If I were Winnie (the main character) and I had the freedom, where would I go and what would I do?" After editing, we all got into the computer lab, and entered our first posts to the other classroom. It was quite exciting to see our writing get posted. It will be even more exciting to see what our new friends will post in return! Parents, this book is filled with thought provoking ideas and situations - maybe you'd like to read it yourself! Don't give away any secrets, though! Here are the directions to the Kidblog, if you would like to keep up with all the writing and commenting: www.kidblog.org/MissWeiss Then you must click on 'log in' (upper right hand corner) and select: Ms_Hannam and the password: tuck . Go to the page titled "Tuck Everlasting Discussion" - and you should see what we wrote today. (What motivation I witnessed today to make sure spelling and punctuation were all correct - another bonus to this whole process of communicating with new friends!)
This past week also included the chance for our students to write their first journal entries. The composition books you purchased from the supply list are being used for this purpose. These journals will never be shared with other students - this will be a place for each student and me to write back and forth. Sometimes they will receive a writing prompt about which to express their ideas, and they also have the opportunity to free write anything else on their minds, and to make up stories in here as well. I have written each student back in their journals twice already, and this has really been fun for all of us. I have a feeling this journal could be one of those things they may want to save as a keepsake to read later in their lives.
In social studies we continue to explore Wisconsin agriculture - it has given us some very interesting class discussions this week! Next week on Wednesday, Vivian's mom, Renee, is coming with cheese samples and some information about different kinds of cheese! Today we talked about how much milk it takes to make a gallon of ice cream, and there is a strong suspicion that Mrs. Hannam is just going to have to work in some sampling of that delicious Wisconsin dairy product sometime soon! :)
Due to the math test, homework has been minimal this week -hence, no new entries on the homework page of our classroom website this week as I'd promised! Time (20 minutes minimum) to read each evening is a standing 'assignment' as always. The assignment notebook should also come home containing other miscellaneous reminders about materials and papers that need returning, etc. Be sure to take a look at papers coming home almost every day in the take home folder. It seems that every time I check my office mailbox, there is another page that needs to go home with students. I have kept our blog calendar up to date with upcoming events, so check it out. This coming week includes Friday's Hawaiian Back-To-School dance party in the school gym from 6 to 8:00 (Sept. 30). October 4th is fast approaching for our first field trip of the year, and it would be great if we could have at least two more chaperones to go with us. We have three so far, and groups of about 4 students per adult would be ideal! So let me know if you can come - our bus will leave at 11:20 that day (we'll eat our lunch before leaving school), and come back by 2:30 or so. Parents can carpool from the WM parking lot, and follow the bus to the Alliant Energy grounds. Thank you!
Our days are so full of activity and learning - they are just flying by! We are all enjoying each other's company in room 117 - and it gets more fun and interesting every day as we get to know each other better. With great pleasure, Melanie Hannam
This past week held several 'firsts' for us in Room 117. We had completed Everyday Math Unit 1 - Geometry, and after two class periods spent reviewing and giving ourselves more practice on all that new vocabulary, students took their first unit test. Most everyone said they felt prepared, and results reflected that - yay! After checking the tests, I made time for every student to review their test answers with me by having a brief one on one conference to celebrate their strengths and understand where and how improvements could be made for next time. This proved to be a valuable learning opportunity - these assessments are another important way to reinforce their learning. Next week we will take a pretest for Unit 2 to see how much we might already know about the new concepts coming up, and then begin the new set of lessons. All three 4th grade teachers will be meeting early in the week to look at pretest results to decide how we can organize our students into groups that reflect the different levels of background knowledge needed for this unit. Therefore, your student may be receiving their math lessons and assignments from any one of the three of us (Mrs. Bertz, Mrs. Zeitlin, or myself) for Unit 2. If this proves effective in helping us meet everyone's learning needs more thoroughly, we will follow the same process for each unit. We will keep you informed.
You should have seen a two sided blue sheet come home today in your student's take home folder. It gives you directions on how to access the Everyday Math material, activities, and GAMES online for each unit. The small white slip attached to this sheet gives your child his/her login name and password - I have established an account for each of our students. I tried it out, and it appears to be user friendly. It could be a great way to get extra math practice in a fun way. Let me know what you think!
This past Monday was a wonderful opportunity for me to become much more familiar with each of my student's reading abilities. While a substitute teacher conducted lessons in the classroom, I was across the hall meeting with each student one at a time, listening to them read aloud, answer some comprehension questions, and conference about their preferences and any difficulties with reading. These conferences and the assessments have given me valuable information and direction for their reading instruction this year.
Speaking of reading, we began "Tuck Everlasting" this week! We have read aloud together the first 6 chapters by week's end, and it has given us much food for thought and lively discussion! Not only that, we posted our first blog entries, communicating with another 4th grade class at Stevens Creek Elementary School in Cupertino, California. They have established a Kidblog, where it has proven to be easier to post all our comments back and forth than if we were to use my classroom blog site (so this is a change from what I first intended to do). Our class first wrote out their responses to the prompt: "If I were Winnie (the main character) and I had the freedom, where would I go and what would I do?" After editing, we all got into the computer lab, and entered our first posts to the other classroom. It was quite exciting to see our writing get posted. It will be even more exciting to see what our new friends will post in return! Parents, this book is filled with thought provoking ideas and situations - maybe you'd like to read it yourself! Don't give away any secrets, though! Here are the directions to the Kidblog, if you would like to keep up with all the writing and commenting: www.kidblog.org/MissWeiss Then you must click on 'log in' (upper right hand corner) and select: Ms_Hannam and the password: tuck . Go to the page titled "Tuck Everlasting Discussion" - and you should see what we wrote today. (What motivation I witnessed today to make sure spelling and punctuation were all correct - another bonus to this whole process of communicating with new friends!)
This past week also included the chance for our students to write their first journal entries. The composition books you purchased from the supply list are being used for this purpose. These journals will never be shared with other students - this will be a place for each student and me to write back and forth. Sometimes they will receive a writing prompt about which to express their ideas, and they also have the opportunity to free write anything else on their minds, and to make up stories in here as well. I have written each student back in their journals twice already, and this has really been fun for all of us. I have a feeling this journal could be one of those things they may want to save as a keepsake to read later in their lives.
In social studies we continue to explore Wisconsin agriculture - it has given us some very interesting class discussions this week! Next week on Wednesday, Vivian's mom, Renee, is coming with cheese samples and some information about different kinds of cheese! Today we talked about how much milk it takes to make a gallon of ice cream, and there is a strong suspicion that Mrs. Hannam is just going to have to work in some sampling of that delicious Wisconsin dairy product sometime soon! :)
Due to the math test, homework has been minimal this week -hence, no new entries on the homework page of our classroom website this week as I'd promised! Time (20 minutes minimum) to read each evening is a standing 'assignment' as always. The assignment notebook should also come home containing other miscellaneous reminders about materials and papers that need returning, etc. Be sure to take a look at papers coming home almost every day in the take home folder. It seems that every time I check my office mailbox, there is another page that needs to go home with students. I have kept our blog calendar up to date with upcoming events, so check it out. This coming week includes Friday's Hawaiian Back-To-School dance party in the school gym from 6 to 8:00 (Sept. 30). October 4th is fast approaching for our first field trip of the year, and it would be great if we could have at least two more chaperones to go with us. We have three so far, and groups of about 4 students per adult would be ideal! So let me know if you can come - our bus will leave at 11:20 that day (we'll eat our lunch before leaving school), and come back by 2:30 or so. Parents can carpool from the WM parking lot, and follow the bus to the Alliant Energy grounds. Thank you!
Our days are so full of activity and learning - they are just flying by! We are all enjoying each other's company in room 117 - and it gets more fun and interesting every day as we get to know each other better. With great pleasure, Melanie Hannam
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Dear Families: The students all wrote in their journals yesterday about "what makes a good friend". I collected the different observations onto a list, and thought you'd like a peek into the thinking of 4th graders. I am impressed~~ (Mrs. H.)
Good Friends...
~~can tell each other everything
~~are honest, kind, and funny
~~have lots in common
~~know each other for a long time
~~spend a lot of time together
~~help me with homework and games
~~do not bully
~~are nice to me
~~like me!
~~are fun to play with
~~can email each other
~~are good to talk to
~~laugh when I say something funny
~~like to play the same games
~~help me ‘stay on track’
~~make me laugh!
~~like to talk
~~care about me
~~trust me
~~never exclude me
~~never tell my secrets
~~let me play
~~don’t cheat or complain
~~like what I like
~~laugh at the same things
~~never pick me last for games
~~can count on each other!
Good Friends...
~~can tell each other everything
~~are honest, kind, and funny
~~have lots in common
~~know each other for a long time
~~spend a lot of time together
~~help me with homework and games
~~do not bully
~~are nice to me
~~like me!
~~are fun to play with
~~can email each other
~~are good to talk to
~~laugh when I say something funny
~~like to play the same games
~~help me ‘stay on track’
~~make me laugh!
~~like to talk
~~care about me
~~trust me
~~never exclude me
~~never tell my secrets
~~let me play
~~don’t cheat or complain
~~like what I like
~~laugh at the same things
~~never pick me last for games
~~can count on each other!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
9/16/2011 Weekly Update
Dear 4th Grade Families,
We have completed our first 5 day week of school! We are all appreciating the extra 10 minutes we have added to our daily math hour - more time to work on assignments (meaning less homework!) and more time to practice and ask questions. We completed the first unit - Geometry - today, and next week we will spend some days reviewing the new concepts and vocabulary (we have collected 23 new geometric terms on our whiteboard!) before we take the unit test. The students are proud of their improving ability to manipulate a compass (but we also learned that it wasn't a good idea for Mrs. Hannam to buy the cheapest compasses from the school supply catalog!).
You missed out if your student didn't share with you a few new and kinda icky, yet amazing, facts about cows this week! This information provided an effective kickoff to our dairy unit - everyone dove enthusiastically into a little research project identifying the characteristics of 6 different kinds of cows. They should be well prepared to see the real thing up close when we go to the Dairy Expo at the Alliant Energy grounds on October 4th. Remember to let me know if you would like to join us as a chaperone. Three parents from our room have volunteered already, and all are welcome (with carpooling, we have no limit on this trip). We will be expanding our dairy unit to include some delicious cheese tasting soon, and explore other Wisconsin agricultural products and practices in the coming two weeks. Our first science unit is starting soon - electricity and magnets. My homework is to test a couple dozen batteries and untangle yards of wire in preparation for our first experiments - aauughh!
There was excitement this week when I announced that our class will be taking part in the second annual Global Read Aloud. Starting next week, for four weeks, our class will be reading aloud together and discussing the award winning book, "Tuck Everlasting". We will be joining over 4,000 other 4th and 5th graders from around the WORLD who will be reading the same book and the same chapters in the same time frame! Not only that, I have made a connection with another 4th grade teacher and her class in Cupertino, California (just south of San Francisco), and our two classes will be 'discussing' their predictions, ideas, questions, and impressions of this thought-provoking book with each other. We will do this through our classroom blog. You will see that we have added a page to our blog just for this book, and you will be able to read the comments that our students will post as the weeks go on. Today we started with their predictions about what this book might be about, with just a very few hints to get their thoughts going. See the Tuck Everlasting page on our classroom blog, and read what our 4th graders predicted. There are several in our room who know the story, and they have been sworn to secrecy not to give away the surprises in this book. This is a first attempt to stretch our classroom walls outward into the world a little farther, and we will see how it enhances our 4th graders' thinking, reading, and writing skills. It has definitely already spurred their enthusiasm!
Today we had the honor of being the LAST class in the whole school to get our pictures taken, but shiny hair and colorful clothing survived the wait. If you want to order a package, you have one week to return your order form to school, and if you want to have pictures retaken, hang on to your proof envelope which came home today, and there will be a retake day in October.
Next week on Wednesday, we have our first CRT (collaborative release time) day. There will be 5 such days throughout the school year. Students will board buses for home again at 11:00 am. They have the option of ordering a sack lunch as their 'hot lunch' if they want, but must take it home and eat it there if they do (so our brief instructional time that day is not further reduced).
With the coming week, my goal is to post daily on the blog's HOMEWORK page, for parents' information and for students to double check their assignment notebook page. We have eased slowly into the serious responsibility of doing and returning homework on time. The students are learning that their assignment notebook is for THEM to use as an important tool for organization and memory. Just ask them about how Mrs. Hannam uses lists everywhere to stay on top of reminders, jobs, and assignments! This assignment notebook is their most important 'list'. In addition to a longer math class, we are making good use of our 'resource time' at the end of the day to get caught up on unfinished work as well as take time to ask questions and practice new concepts again. If students make good use of this time, the homework load will stay minimal. This will give students time to READ each evening, which appears to be a great pleasure for most everyone in our book loving class! At this time, the expectation is to read at least 20 minutes at home each day.
I will post news, events, and updates on the blog's appropriate pages (and the calendar) as they occur, while continuing to send out this weekly update by email (do let me know if any email addresses need to be adjusted or added). As always, I appreciate any contacts from you by email or phone (or a visit at school) whenever you need and want to keep me informed about anything at all. It is such a pleasure to come to school each day and learn together with this exceptional group of 4th graders. They are demonstrating daily kindnesses and helpfulness, offer some awesome thoughts and ideas in our discussions, and best of all, their enthusiasm for our work blows me away - and keeps me inspired!
Mrs. Hannam (my phone message system is now in working order!)
We have completed our first 5 day week of school! We are all appreciating the extra 10 minutes we have added to our daily math hour - more time to work on assignments (meaning less homework!) and more time to practice and ask questions. We completed the first unit - Geometry - today, and next week we will spend some days reviewing the new concepts and vocabulary (we have collected 23 new geometric terms on our whiteboard!) before we take the unit test. The students are proud of their improving ability to manipulate a compass (but we also learned that it wasn't a good idea for Mrs. Hannam to buy the cheapest compasses from the school supply catalog!).
You missed out if your student didn't share with you a few new and kinda icky, yet amazing, facts about cows this week! This information provided an effective kickoff to our dairy unit - everyone dove enthusiastically into a little research project identifying the characteristics of 6 different kinds of cows. They should be well prepared to see the real thing up close when we go to the Dairy Expo at the Alliant Energy grounds on October 4th. Remember to let me know if you would like to join us as a chaperone. Three parents from our room have volunteered already, and all are welcome (with carpooling, we have no limit on this trip). We will be expanding our dairy unit to include some delicious cheese tasting soon, and explore other Wisconsin agricultural products and practices in the coming two weeks. Our first science unit is starting soon - electricity and magnets. My homework is to test a couple dozen batteries and untangle yards of wire in preparation for our first experiments - aauughh!
There was excitement this week when I announced that our class will be taking part in the second annual Global Read Aloud. Starting next week, for four weeks, our class will be reading aloud together and discussing the award winning book, "Tuck Everlasting". We will be joining over 4,000 other 4th and 5th graders from around the WORLD who will be reading the same book and the same chapters in the same time frame! Not only that, I have made a connection with another 4th grade teacher and her class in Cupertino, California (just south of San Francisco), and our two classes will be 'discussing' their predictions, ideas, questions, and impressions of this thought-provoking book with each other. We will do this through our classroom blog. You will see that we have added a page to our blog just for this book, and you will be able to read the comments that our students will post as the weeks go on. Today we started with their predictions about what this book might be about, with just a very few hints to get their thoughts going. See the Tuck Everlasting page on our classroom blog, and read what our 4th graders predicted. There are several in our room who know the story, and they have been sworn to secrecy not to give away the surprises in this book. This is a first attempt to stretch our classroom walls outward into the world a little farther, and we will see how it enhances our 4th graders' thinking, reading, and writing skills. It has definitely already spurred their enthusiasm!
Today we had the honor of being the LAST class in the whole school to get our pictures taken, but shiny hair and colorful clothing survived the wait. If you want to order a package, you have one week to return your order form to school, and if you want to have pictures retaken, hang on to your proof envelope which came home today, and there will be a retake day in October.
Next week on Wednesday, we have our first CRT (collaborative release time) day. There will be 5 such days throughout the school year. Students will board buses for home again at 11:00 am. They have the option of ordering a sack lunch as their 'hot lunch' if they want, but must take it home and eat it there if they do (so our brief instructional time that day is not further reduced).
With the coming week, my goal is to post daily on the blog's HOMEWORK page, for parents' information and for students to double check their assignment notebook page. We have eased slowly into the serious responsibility of doing and returning homework on time. The students are learning that their assignment notebook is for THEM to use as an important tool for organization and memory. Just ask them about how Mrs. Hannam uses lists everywhere to stay on top of reminders, jobs, and assignments! This assignment notebook is their most important 'list'. In addition to a longer math class, we are making good use of our 'resource time' at the end of the day to get caught up on unfinished work as well as take time to ask questions and practice new concepts again. If students make good use of this time, the homework load will stay minimal. This will give students time to READ each evening, which appears to be a great pleasure for most everyone in our book loving class! At this time, the expectation is to read at least 20 minutes at home each day.
I will post news, events, and updates on the blog's appropriate pages (and the calendar) as they occur, while continuing to send out this weekly update by email (do let me know if any email addresses need to be adjusted or added). As always, I appreciate any contacts from you by email or phone (or a visit at school) whenever you need and want to keep me informed about anything at all. It is such a pleasure to come to school each day and learn together with this exceptional group of 4th graders. They are demonstrating daily kindnesses and helpfulness, offer some awesome thoughts and ideas in our discussions, and best of all, their enthusiasm for our work blows me away - and keeps me inspired!
Mrs. Hannam (my phone message system is now in working order!)
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Daily Classroom Schedule (as of 9/09/2011)
Math Class: Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 9:40
Social Studies/Science: Monday through Friday, 9:40 to 11:00
Lunch Time: Monday through Friday, 11:10 to 11:40
Literacy Class: Monday through Friday, 1:00 to 2:20
Recess: Monday through Friday, 1:30 to 1:45
Resource Time: Monday through Friday, 2:20 to 2:45
Gym Classes: Monday,11:50 to 12:30 / Wednesday,12:20 to 12:40 / Friday,12:20 to 1:00
Music Classes: Tuesday, 12:20 to 1:00 / Thursday, 10:00 to 10:30
Art Class: Wednesday, 10:00 to 11:00
Library Class: Wednesday, 11:45 to 12:15
Computer Lab: Tuesday, 11:40 to 12:20 / Thursday, 12:30 to 1:00
Guidance Class: 2nd/4th Thursdays, 10:30 to 11:10
Orchestra Practice: Fridays, 7:30 (small group lessons: Fridays, 10:30 to 11:00)
**If any family would like a printed diagram (full week view) of our schedule, let Mrs. Hannam know.
Social Studies/Science: Monday through Friday, 9:40 to 11:00
Lunch Time: Monday through Friday, 11:10 to 11:40
Literacy Class: Monday through Friday, 1:00 to 2:20
Recess: Monday through Friday, 1:30 to 1:45
Resource Time: Monday through Friday, 2:20 to 2:45
Gym Classes: Monday,11:50 to 12:30 / Wednesday,12:20 to 12:40 / Friday,12:20 to 1:00
Music Classes: Tuesday, 12:20 to 1:00 / Thursday, 10:00 to 10:30
Art Class: Wednesday, 10:00 to 11:00
Library Class: Wednesday, 11:45 to 12:15
Computer Lab: Tuesday, 11:40 to 12:20 / Thursday, 12:30 to 1:00
Guidance Class: 2nd/4th Thursdays, 10:30 to 11:10
Orchestra Practice: Fridays, 7:30 (small group lessons: Fridays, 10:30 to 11:00)
**If any family would like a printed diagram (full week view) of our schedule, let Mrs. Hannam know.
Friday, September 2, 2011
First day of class!
Dear families!
What a very busy day we had for our first full day together in 4th grade! We had so much to tell each other - we got better acquainted, we learned some of the new routines, toured about HALF of our room, dug into some new books.... I am so pleased over how motivated our group is about their favorite books. They are already giving each other good ideas about what to read, and discovering new gems in our classroom library!
We all realized that except for one new friend who has recently moved here from China (!), everyone has been in each other's classrooms at some point since kindergarten! I saw some very heartwarming displays of friendship and caring and helpfulness throughout the day - what a special group of 4th graders I have the privilege to teach and learn with this year. I can't tell you how happy I am that we have all landed in Room 117 together for the next year.
Please check the homework page for a few reminders - and more reminders have been written on the first page of the assignment notebook. I will also be updating our blog's calendar. We start our first math class first thing Tuesday morning! In the meantime, may everyone enjoy a three day holiday weekend!
Your happy teacher, Mrs. Hannam
What a very busy day we had for our first full day together in 4th grade! We had so much to tell each other - we got better acquainted, we learned some of the new routines, toured about HALF of our room, dug into some new books.... I am so pleased over how motivated our group is about their favorite books. They are already giving each other good ideas about what to read, and discovering new gems in our classroom library!
We all realized that except for one new friend who has recently moved here from China (!), everyone has been in each other's classrooms at some point since kindergarten! I saw some very heartwarming displays of friendship and caring and helpfulness throughout the day - what a special group of 4th graders I have the privilege to teach and learn with this year. I can't tell you how happy I am that we have all landed in Room 117 together for the next year.
Please check the homework page for a few reminders - and more reminders have been written on the first page of the assignment notebook. I will also be updating our blog's calendar. We start our first math class first thing Tuesday morning! In the meantime, may everyone enjoy a three day holiday weekend!
Your happy teacher, Mrs. Hannam
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Dear 4th Grade Families...
Hi, on the right side of our HOME page you will see a place to type in and submit your email address. This will allow you to receive an email every time a new post has been entered into our classroom blog! It should be a great way to stay informed of news and announcements from our classroom. Stay tuned...! Mrs. Hannam
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
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