Hello to all of our 4H families! We are looking at the last days of January already, and find ourselves immersed in such a wide variety of topics and activities. It surely does make our days fly by. In math, all 4th graders took the Unit 5 test by week's end. You should see the results coming home in the next week for your signature and return of the test papers back to school, so we may keep them organized in folders for conference time in March. Your support with extra practice on multi-digit multiplication has made a difference with this new skill, and if you could continue to throw some problems like these in front of your student regularly during the coming weeks, that will grow their comfort level and efficiency (as well as provide the needed extra practice with basic facts - still very important for most!). I have been thrilled with the renewed enthusiasm by many of our kids for reaching their goal of correctly answering 100 basic facts in each of the operations within 3 minutes. Bringing home their first semester statistics and seeing their numbers graphed out on a plot line made it very clear that some extra effort is needed by many. The payoff for those who did put in the extra practice was evident this week in a big way for several students - we had some exciting rises in scores! Woohoo! We can't emphasize enough how important proficiency in all the basic facts will smooth the way for success in math classes for the coming years in school. On one extra note, you should notice a new blue sheet of 100 division facts in your student's take home folder sent home Friday. We had been using a sheet with 80 division facts up to this point, and it always bothered me that we weren't using a full selection of facts like the other three operations. So I did raise the bar with use of the new sheet this week, and it did force many students who had proudly achieved their 'perfect 80' to adjust to a new goal (not without some groans and complaints). We discussed it together and ended up with mostly good natured resignation to Mrs. Hannam's 'adjustment' - and a few students found they were able to reach well over 80 facts in 3 minutes with the first try on Friday! A few more weeks, and I know many others will have reached their new goal level.
In social studies and science, the current news about a significant 'solar storm' on the sun and the resulting effect on earth with the aurora borealis gave us a chance to see some spectacular video and still shots through our computer and smartboard setup in the classroom (the perfect intro to our study of the solar system). Closer to home, we have been back to our maps of Wisconsin, now identifying five distinct regions of our state, comparing and contrasting their features, and learning more about the Great Lakes. We could spend all day on these topics and the related subjects and questions that come up in our study and discussions. We were still able to carve out quality time to write this week - each student has begun a writing project creating a family who 'lives' on the Fantasy Island they mapped out this past month, and the adventure this family experiences on their own island. Jotting down some notes and details before beginning the rough draft made it easier to get started on the story writing.
The results from this week's spelling test was a mixed bag. There are those in class who should be discovering that they are not spending enough time preparing and practicing their new words! Future lists will come with additional homework requirements to guide students' study! ;)
Art class is in our news this week! Mrs. Hyland taught our kids a Japanese artform involving handmade looms and yarns and a fancy way of braiding, and everyone just couldn't put these projects down once they started! To see what has our kids excited and to see some of our students being interviewed, please go to Mrs. Hyland's website: www.artsmarties.tumblr.com Also, in music, Ms. Bodell has brought in an artist-in-residence with expertise in drumming! The sounds coming from that classroom are amazing - ask your kids about that experience.
If you want to help our class with our next holiday celebration, we will be holding a Valentine's Party in our room on Monday, February 13th, from around 2:00pm till close that day. We have chosen this date because the following day on the 14th, we have a CRT Day, and students will be heading home by 11:00am already! Please let me or Sharon Pertzborn-Jensen know if you would like to contribute a snack, guide a game, or just come and hang with us and help out with serving. Students will be able to distribute valentine cards to each other during this time. I will send home with each student a class list of names - and please remember to include everyone if cards are given out.
One other news note: BOX TOPS are back!!!! The PTO is promoting one more collection contest for the entire month of February. It sounds like our class wants to hold on to our Championship status, soooo...... it is scrounging and begging time again! Thank you! The first contest netted $900 worth to go toward West Middleton's playground equipment goals.
I will be back in touch next week! Thanks for reading, and don't forget that the homework page on our classroom blog is updated every day right after school. Sincerely, Melanie Hannam
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
January 20, 2012 Weekly Update
Snowy, wintery greetings to you all! It was a very cold week with some indoor recesses, which the kids handled very well, but they were quite excited to get out into the new snow this afternoon for the last recess. On the first really cold day, we treated ourselves to some hot chocolate with marshmallows from my trusty old crockpot while we worked. Our Fantasy Island Maps are now laminated and will get displayed next week. We are now into tracing the path of the Ice Age Trail (did you know it crosses the whole state through 30 of Wisconsin's 72 counties!?), and digging deeper into glacial landforms. Wisconsin's neighbors, including the Great Lakes, are also on our agenda these days (some of us want to go kayaking along Lake Superior's gorgeous rocky shoreline! :) ).
Math classes forge ahead with Unit 5 and double digit multiplication and their first lesson in exponential notation. If you are able to give your student some extra problems with double digit numbers times two or three digit numbers, that would be a helpful boost. We expect to take the unit test by the end of next week. Most students can proudly say that this week saw many of their highest scores with their 3 minute timed basic facts practice. Please look with your student at the first semester's collection of facts sheets, along with the tally of their scores, and especially the graphs they made for each operation which reflects their progress most clearly. These papers all came home today, and they can remain at home. We will start a new collection for second semester beginning on Tuesday. Graphing their results quickly made it easy for them to see the rise and fall of their scores, and there was much excitement over some dramatically rising plot lines. Others saw some rather flat lines, which hopefully will prompt them to kick into some extra practice each day.
Over the last two weeks of shuffling descriptive words around and shaping them into lines of 5 and 7 syllables, our class produced dozens of Haiku poems! It was a very positive experience, as students found it easier with each session to write descriptive phrases and fit them into the Haiku format. I am so proud of the progress I witnessed toward more descriptive writing. I told the class that even if none of us ends up with a 'winning' Haiku in the Dane County contest, I definitely consider them all winners with the beautiful writing they have collected. Every poem, whether 'submitted' or not, is now typed and contained in a special section in their language binders to be saved.
With school back in session next Tuesday, January 24th, we welcome the second semester of 4th grade. Most of the kids say they can't believe we are halfway into the year already, and I agree! We have covered so many really interesting topics in all our various subject areas, and yet as we investigate new concepts and ideas, facts and places, each lesson leads us into numerous other avenues for new investigations and research. The joy of discovery and new knowledge is definitely alive in Room 117. So much to learn and so little time! Until next week, Melanie Hannam
Math classes forge ahead with Unit 5 and double digit multiplication and their first lesson in exponential notation. If you are able to give your student some extra problems with double digit numbers times two or three digit numbers, that would be a helpful boost. We expect to take the unit test by the end of next week. Most students can proudly say that this week saw many of their highest scores with their 3 minute timed basic facts practice. Please look with your student at the first semester's collection of facts sheets, along with the tally of their scores, and especially the graphs they made for each operation which reflects their progress most clearly. These papers all came home today, and they can remain at home. We will start a new collection for second semester beginning on Tuesday. Graphing their results quickly made it easy for them to see the rise and fall of their scores, and there was much excitement over some dramatically rising plot lines. Others saw some rather flat lines, which hopefully will prompt them to kick into some extra practice each day.
Over the last two weeks of shuffling descriptive words around and shaping them into lines of 5 and 7 syllables, our class produced dozens of Haiku poems! It was a very positive experience, as students found it easier with each session to write descriptive phrases and fit them into the Haiku format. I am so proud of the progress I witnessed toward more descriptive writing. I told the class that even if none of us ends up with a 'winning' Haiku in the Dane County contest, I definitely consider them all winners with the beautiful writing they have collected. Every poem, whether 'submitted' or not, is now typed and contained in a special section in their language binders to be saved.
With school back in session next Tuesday, January 24th, we welcome the second semester of 4th grade. Most of the kids say they can't believe we are halfway into the year already, and I agree! We have covered so many really interesting topics in all our various subject areas, and yet as we investigate new concepts and ideas, facts and places, each lesson leads us into numerous other avenues for new investigations and research. The joy of discovery and new knowledge is definitely alive in Room 117. So much to learn and so little time! Until next week, Melanie Hannam
Friday, January 13, 2012
January 13, 2012 Weekly Update
Hello again to all our 4H families. The kids were all very happy and excited to see that snow collect this week! Recess has become a whole new experience (and our hallway cubbies are stuffed with dripping snow clothes and boots). Many are finding out it is a good idea to pack some extra socks and an extra pair of shoes for back in the classroom, and extra dry gloves, a cap, a sweatshirt... This time of year also reveals some needs for students who do not have adequate gear for this weather. If you go through closets and storage containers and find outgrown winter coats, boots, snowpants, and any extra hats and mittens/gloves, our school could use these items to help some in need. Our social worker has discovered particular need for snowpants and coats in sizes 8, 10-12, 14-16. If you send any clothing in with your student, I will make sure it gets to the right place. Thank you so much!
Inside Room 117, we stay warm and busy as we spend our time investigating moraines, drumlins, eskers, and other glacial features in Wisconsin. We have been learning that we all happen to live in a unique and special area of Wisconsin, and we wish we could head out and follow the Ice Age Trail across our beautiful state. We have also spent our week during writing classes gathering up many long lists of descriptive words in nature, putting them together and gradually forming phrases into 3 lines of Haiku poetry. The first one took some real effort, but we noticed that each time we went back to our 'word-smithing' the ideas and words came together more easily, and by the end of the week, many students proudly had multiple poems printed out neatly on final draft paper. Next week we will get them typed up properly, and be able to submit our best ones in the Haiku contest being held for 4th graders in Dane County. Stay tuned. This week also saw very encouraging progress for a good number of our students in achieving their highest scores for 3 minutes of math basic facts testing - it is obvious some are kicking into extra practice time, and it is showing up already! We also took our next spelling test and we had the highest number of correct words we have had yet! Our Fantasy Island maps are turning out beautifully and most are now ready to be laminated and mounted in the hallway this coming week. It was an important week in math class as well, with our students learning and practicing double digit multiplication. We are giving them the opportunity to learn the partial products algorithm, as well as the lattice method, but we are expecting them to demonstrate their ability to use the traditional method on most assignments and the final unit test.
We spent an hour on Monday in the computer lab taking the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) Reading Assessment, and next week we will take the Mathematics Assessment. I am able to immediately receive a description of skills that each student has demonstrated are secure for him/her, skills that should currently be at their instructional level, and skills that are next to develop. There is much to analyze in these reports, and they will give me more direction for my instruction within these subjects.
We talked in class this week how amazing it is that next week's end will bring us to the halfway mark of our 4th grade year already! We can't believe it! Time surely does fly when we are having fun - and working hard! Thanks for all of your support from home with your student's efforts. It is such a joy to dig in to our work each and every day together. Till next week's note - (remember there is no school both of the next two Mondays, the 16th and the 23rd) - Sincerely, Melanie
Inside Room 117, we stay warm and busy as we spend our time investigating moraines, drumlins, eskers, and other glacial features in Wisconsin. We have been learning that we all happen to live in a unique and special area of Wisconsin, and we wish we could head out and follow the Ice Age Trail across our beautiful state. We have also spent our week during writing classes gathering up many long lists of descriptive words in nature, putting them together and gradually forming phrases into 3 lines of Haiku poetry. The first one took some real effort, but we noticed that each time we went back to our 'word-smithing' the ideas and words came together more easily, and by the end of the week, many students proudly had multiple poems printed out neatly on final draft paper. Next week we will get them typed up properly, and be able to submit our best ones in the Haiku contest being held for 4th graders in Dane County. Stay tuned. This week also saw very encouraging progress for a good number of our students in achieving their highest scores for 3 minutes of math basic facts testing - it is obvious some are kicking into extra practice time, and it is showing up already! We also took our next spelling test and we had the highest number of correct words we have had yet! Our Fantasy Island maps are turning out beautifully and most are now ready to be laminated and mounted in the hallway this coming week. It was an important week in math class as well, with our students learning and practicing double digit multiplication. We are giving them the opportunity to learn the partial products algorithm, as well as the lattice method, but we are expecting them to demonstrate their ability to use the traditional method on most assignments and the final unit test.
We spent an hour on Monday in the computer lab taking the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) Reading Assessment, and next week we will take the Mathematics Assessment. I am able to immediately receive a description of skills that each student has demonstrated are secure for him/her, skills that should currently be at their instructional level, and skills that are next to develop. There is much to analyze in these reports, and they will give me more direction for my instruction within these subjects.
We talked in class this week how amazing it is that next week's end will bring us to the halfway mark of our 4th grade year already! We can't believe it! Time surely does fly when we are having fun - and working hard! Thanks for all of your support from home with your student's efforts. It is such a joy to dig in to our work each and every day together. Till next week's note - (remember there is no school both of the next two Mondays, the 16th and the 23rd) - Sincerely, Melanie
Saturday, January 7, 2012
January 6, 2012 Weekly Update
Happy New Year to all of you! I hope your holiday vacation time was a memorable one for your family. My family created some wonderful memories together by going to the Playa del Carmen area of Mexico, and the time we spent having fun with our daughters was precious. I was also very happy to get back together with my "4H" kids back at school on January 3rd! I missed them! We filled our first week back with lots of activity, that's for sure!
They are enjoying their 'Fantasy Island' map project, and final drafts are being perfected. We should be able to mount them on the hallway wall next week! It was actually suggested by some of the students that we should write a story about the communities they've created! Well, I jumped right onto that idea! What a great way to extend this map skills activity into a new writing experience! We are also transitioning to the study of how Wisconsin's landforms have been influenced by glaciers, and that leads us to comparing and contrasting the different regions of our state. Somewhere with all this investigation going on, we will also begin our new science unit centering on the planets, sun, moon, and stars. Hmm, maybe we need to add an extra hour to our school day!
It's been a week since we've begun practicing the current spelling list, and we are scheduled to take that test on Tuesday of next week. Many of our students could use some extra practice and quizzing at home to be better prepared for this. I have instructed them to keep the printed list of words in their Take Home Folder, so that it is always with them at home and at school. In math, we began Unit 5 upon returning from the Break, and so far students seem to be grasping the new concepts of extending large numbers in order to add and multiply them. This unit is where it will hit hard if students are still shaky on their basic multiplication facts. I have noticed some students have been putting in some extra effort to practice their basic facts, and it shows! Others need to kick into some extra practice as well, and it will make a very big difference with all their math work. If families could manage to set up a regular 10 to 15 minute time most evenings to use flashcards or the 100-Facts sheets that were sent home (you can ask for more from class if you need them), it would be SO helpful. This is the year to nail all basic facts skills down for quick recall.
The West Middleton Geography Bee will be held next Friday, January 13, at 8:40 am in the multipurpose room. Representatives from each of the upper grade rooms have been announced, and our representative is David Pertzborn-Jensen! Congratulations to him, and we will all be there to support him and cheer him on. Another academic contest is coming along, and that is one involving the writing of Haiku poetry. We have begun our preliminary introduction to this Japanese form of poetry, which involves descriptions of topics in nature! These are great poems with which to begin a study of poetry and writing in general, because skill with description is important, and these poems are only 3 lines long, with each line allowed only 5 syllables, then 7 syllables, and then 5 syllables again. So you may await some beautifully descriptive writing coming home during this month.
You should have found a letter from Mr. Rykal in Take Home Folders this past week describing the MAP Assessments (Measures of Academic Progress), which all district students in grades 2 through 5 will be participating in the next two weeks. We will be taking these assessments in the areas of Reading and Mathematics, with each test taking a maximum of one hour. Our class will go to the computer lab for each of these multiple choice tests, and each student chooses the correct answers by a click of the mouse. What makes these assessments unique and especially helpful is that they are adaptive - meaning that once students start answering, the computer adapts each subsequent question in response to how accurately the students answers the previous question. If they respond correctly, difficulty of questions eases upward. If they respond incorrectly, difficulty will ease down. Eventually a skill level is reached which is considered 'instructional' meaning they are at a level where they are likely to get about half the questions at this difficulty correct. As teachers, we are able to immediately receive a report that lists actual skills in reading and math which identifies what our students are secure with, which skills are currently appropriate to be teaching them, and which skills would be next to come. We can better target instruction for each child - since the test is customized (we have described it to the kids this way: "The computer builds the test just for you."), we can then design our instruction for the particular needs of each student. We really like how the results are immediate, so we can start with this information right away. The information is saved, so that when we do this again late in April/early May, we can track their growth, and on through the next years. If you have any further questions about MAP, just let me or Mr. Rykal know. The plan is to begin this winter, and by next school year, this assessment will take place three times per school year, able to track skill growth and progress over the years through middle school.
This past Friday, our classroom enjoyed a PIZZA lunch in our room, compliments of the WM PTO! We had earned this treat by winning the Box Tops contest, and I must say - pepperoni pizza tastes a lot better than soggy cream pie running down my face! :) We hear that another contest will take place later this year, so our students are excited to keep collecting. Keep your eyes open for Box Tops, and your scissors handy! (We have begun our new 'stash' in my desk drawer!)
A housekeeping note: Would you be so kind as to send in more Kleenex boxes and possibly, more Chlorox Wipes? We have run out of the supply with which we started our school year. Thank you for your donations to keeping our classroom as healthy as we can make it! Until next week - enjoy clear, dry roads like I am (though I know some kids with new snowboards and sleds aren't so happy!) Melanie Hannam
They are enjoying their 'Fantasy Island' map project, and final drafts are being perfected. We should be able to mount them on the hallway wall next week! It was actually suggested by some of the students that we should write a story about the communities they've created! Well, I jumped right onto that idea! What a great way to extend this map skills activity into a new writing experience! We are also transitioning to the study of how Wisconsin's landforms have been influenced by glaciers, and that leads us to comparing and contrasting the different regions of our state. Somewhere with all this investigation going on, we will also begin our new science unit centering on the planets, sun, moon, and stars. Hmm, maybe we need to add an extra hour to our school day!
It's been a week since we've begun practicing the current spelling list, and we are scheduled to take that test on Tuesday of next week. Many of our students could use some extra practice and quizzing at home to be better prepared for this. I have instructed them to keep the printed list of words in their Take Home Folder, so that it is always with them at home and at school. In math, we began Unit 5 upon returning from the Break, and so far students seem to be grasping the new concepts of extending large numbers in order to add and multiply them. This unit is where it will hit hard if students are still shaky on their basic multiplication facts. I have noticed some students have been putting in some extra effort to practice their basic facts, and it shows! Others need to kick into some extra practice as well, and it will make a very big difference with all their math work. If families could manage to set up a regular 10 to 15 minute time most evenings to use flashcards or the 100-Facts sheets that were sent home (you can ask for more from class if you need them), it would be SO helpful. This is the year to nail all basic facts skills down for quick recall.
The West Middleton Geography Bee will be held next Friday, January 13, at 8:40 am in the multipurpose room. Representatives from each of the upper grade rooms have been announced, and our representative is David Pertzborn-Jensen! Congratulations to him, and we will all be there to support him and cheer him on. Another academic contest is coming along, and that is one involving the writing of Haiku poetry. We have begun our preliminary introduction to this Japanese form of poetry, which involves descriptions of topics in nature! These are great poems with which to begin a study of poetry and writing in general, because skill with description is important, and these poems are only 3 lines long, with each line allowed only 5 syllables, then 7 syllables, and then 5 syllables again. So you may await some beautifully descriptive writing coming home during this month.
You should have found a letter from Mr. Rykal in Take Home Folders this past week describing the MAP Assessments (Measures of Academic Progress), which all district students in grades 2 through 5 will be participating in the next two weeks. We will be taking these assessments in the areas of Reading and Mathematics, with each test taking a maximum of one hour. Our class will go to the computer lab for each of these multiple choice tests, and each student chooses the correct answers by a click of the mouse. What makes these assessments unique and especially helpful is that they are adaptive - meaning that once students start answering, the computer adapts each subsequent question in response to how accurately the students answers the previous question. If they respond correctly, difficulty of questions eases upward. If they respond incorrectly, difficulty will ease down. Eventually a skill level is reached which is considered 'instructional' meaning they are at a level where they are likely to get about half the questions at this difficulty correct. As teachers, we are able to immediately receive a report that lists actual skills in reading and math which identifies what our students are secure with, which skills are currently appropriate to be teaching them, and which skills would be next to come. We can better target instruction for each child - since the test is customized (we have described it to the kids this way: "The computer builds the test just for you."), we can then design our instruction for the particular needs of each student. We really like how the results are immediate, so we can start with this information right away. The information is saved, so that when we do this again late in April/early May, we can track their growth, and on through the next years. If you have any further questions about MAP, just let me or Mr. Rykal know. The plan is to begin this winter, and by next school year, this assessment will take place three times per school year, able to track skill growth and progress over the years through middle school.
This past Friday, our classroom enjoyed a PIZZA lunch in our room, compliments of the WM PTO! We had earned this treat by winning the Box Tops contest, and I must say - pepperoni pizza tastes a lot better than soggy cream pie running down my face! :) We hear that another contest will take place later this year, so our students are excited to keep collecting. Keep your eyes open for Box Tops, and your scissors handy! (We have begun our new 'stash' in my desk drawer!)
A housekeeping note: Would you be so kind as to send in more Kleenex boxes and possibly, more Chlorox Wipes? We have run out of the supply with which we started our school year. Thank you for your donations to keeping our classroom as healthy as we can make it! Until next week - enjoy clear, dry roads like I am (though I know some kids with new snowboards and sleds aren't so happy!) Melanie Hannam
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