Hello, again, 4th grade families!
We have all kinds of news to share with you. The next two weeks in particular bring all kinds of changes to our routines. As you know, we have full days on Monday and Tuesday, and then on Wednesday it is a CRT (collaborative release time) and all elementary students will be dismissed at 11:00 am. Those who reserved the school (sack) lunch will be picking them up before leaving and taking them along home that day. On Thursday and Friday there is no school.
Also next week, we are beginning the first testing sessions of the WKCE (Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination). For your own information, our class will not be holding regular math class on any of the three days of school next week. We will be taking the three 4th grade Math sessions during each of the regularly scheduled math times, first hour of the morning. Also on Monday and Tuesday, we will be taking a Reading session at 12:05 each day. That leaves, for the following week, one more Reading session, two Language Arts sessions, and one Science and one Social Studies session. These exams will be spread out across the first 3 days of the following week, October 29, 30, 31. You should have found a complete schedule on a white sheet in your student's Take Home Folder this past week. If you have any questions at all, do not hesitate to email me. I have encouraged our kids to make sure they get a good night's sleep each night, and eat a 'good' breakfast each morning.
This coming week is also a national recognition of Character Education. To emphasize that good "Character Counts!" West Middleton students can "Turn Your Back On Disrespect" on Monday by wearing a shirt backwards. On Tuesday, we can wear comfy PJ type clothing for "Follow Your Dreams Through Good Character" day, and on Wednesday, we are wearing a shirt with numbers or a numbered jersey for "Count On Character" day.
The week of October 29 through November 2 also has some special events in our own classroom. We will be having a "Harvest Party" in our room on October 31st beginning at 2:00 pm. Thanks to some creative moms who have volunteered, we will enjoy some spooky snacks, and have a game and activity to celebrate this festive time of year. Take note - West Middleton Elementary does not encourage the wearing of any kind of Halloween costume that day. In addition, our class is ready to celebrate ourselves, for our noticeable progress in following our behavior rules and to celebrate the hard work and progress we are making with our classwork. (Yes, Mrs. Hannam's head has 'exploded' with the collection of good reports and observations about our kids - you can ask your student about this!) As a result, we have all agreed that November 1st will be a good day to devote to some of our favorite things: We will have math class, music class, art class, lots of 'stamina' silent read time, "Ivan" readaloud time, and hopefully a pizza lunch in our room that special day.
This coming week marks the beginning of a new "BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION" contest at West Middleton. Our classroom envelope has already collected a nice pile of Box Tops, but we are greedy, and want LOTS more than 'nice'!! So parents, thank you in advance for your patience as our students scrounge in cupboards and pantries, and for keeping a lookout in the grocery aisles for Box Top products. Each Box Top is worth 10 cents! All proceeds from our classrooms will go to the PTO for equipment and items for our building and playground.
With so much going on, yes, we are still holding substantive academic sessions each and every day! :) The Unit 2 math tests showed excellent results for our group, and we dove right into Unit 3 this past week. Please look over with your student the Progress Report in their Take Home Folder which gives you a picture of their progress with automaticity in recalling their math facts. (5th grade math students practice these with their 5th grade teacher.) You will be able to see which operations your student needs more practice on. This coming unit dives deep into their understanding of multiplication factors.
In Literacy we are continuing our study of character traits and how that helps us comprehend more deeply, and our class reading and discussion of "The One And Only Ivan" is really enhancing those lessons! We also made time during one of our very last beautiful weather days to visit our school prairie last week, and with clipboards in every hand, we all wrote down what we experienced with our senses out there! Wow - the beautiful, almost poetic descriptions that came out of that exercise was so impressive. In fact, we all agreed we should take some of our sentences and highlight them in large print around our room - so we will! And in science class we have been experimenting with magnetism as a lead in to more experiments with electricity - very fun!
Whew, lots going on and lots to tell you. Thanks for reading! As always, check the classroom blog and the homework page for daily listings of homework assignments and other reminders and deadlines. After next week, I will be confirming with each of you about our parent/student/teacher conference times which happen in mid November. The first trimester ends November 30th, with report cards ready for viewing the next week. I'll keep you posted on everything!!
Melanie Hannam
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Saturday, October 6, 2012
October 5, 2012 Weekly Update
Happy October to our 4H Families!
We began our second month of 4th grade with our first field trip of the year, and luckily picked perhaps the last beautiful summerlike day on Wednesday to tour the World Dairy Expo. It was such a fun day and our students were all swept into a new world for a couple of hours. We will never find another place in which to see such a collection of the most pampered and cleanly groomed cows in the world - they were clearly treated like princesses! We learned about milking machines, and showmanship, and the dairy industry. A highlight for everyone was the chance to pet fuzzy Holstein calves curled up in crisp, clean straw beds. We met Alice in Dairyland and had a lesson in nutrition as well. Our kids were very well behaved, listened with good focus, and asked (for the most part!) intelligent questions of the many guides we encountered. Linley and I want to thank Trisha Pinka, Heather Bogner, Shaney Andler, Stephanie Reinke, and Vincent Pugliese for joining our group and keeping us all together as we wound our way through barns, tents, and the coliseum. We will have many good pictures to add to our classroom photo album.
Meanwhile, back in the classroom, we have continued with our progress in math class with place value, analyzing and creating tally charts and graphs, using data to figure the maximum, minimum, mode, range, and median values, as well as some substantial practice with carrying in addition. Next week, prepare for substantial practice with borrowing in subtraction. In another week we will be coming to the end of Unit 2 already. Please continue to examine your child's math books and work, ask them about these skills, and set aside time to practice basic facts as consistently as possible. I just heard of another study which reports that ability to accurately recall basic facts is one of the highest indicators of success in math. Both the 4th and 5th grade curriculums expect proficiency here, and all lessons are based on this expectation.
In reading class, we are developing our awareness of character traits and the influence this has on the entire story and our comprehension of the story. Our class read-aloud of "The One And Only Ivan" has been a perfect example of this - the better we get to know Ivan, the more we understand his story, and every aspect becomes so much more meaningful. The kids are responding to this so well - it's been really fun to share with them! In writing class this week, we celebrated how much writing we have produced so far, spreading all our projects across our desks, and organizing them into folders. We are in the process now of choosing our favorite piece to bring through the editing and publishing phases. I can tell many of our students are proud of their work. They ask to share their writing with the class, and that is also a valuable experience for everyone. We could spend half of every day just reading and writing - and some days, we just about do that! Also, the October Scholastic Book Orders went home on Friday, and we have until Monday, October 15 to turn in orders. The annual Scholastic Book Fair takes place in the WM Library all this coming week - flyers about this went home as well. I look forward to seeing many of you as you come to browse with your student.
We did make time to dig into developing our mapping skills this week. Everyone had chances to spread out their own Wisconsin State Road Map across their desks, and we have taken several 'trips' around our state, following each other's directions to find cities, rivers and lakes, highways, campgrounds and other landmarks. This is a perfect lead-in to our first chapter in our social studies books as we become experts on our state this year.
One last note: I will be leaving our classroom in the very capable hands of Linley Carlson and Shaney Andler on Thursday and Friday of this coming week, the 11th and 12th. I grew up in southern California, and It's tough to admit, but my 40th high school reunion takes place next weekend in Encinitas, just north of San Diego. I really debated about going, knowing it meant I'd miss a couple school days, but I decided I can't pass up the chance to see so many of my childhood friends and some of my all-time favorite places, all in one visit. I am even going to see one particular high school English teacher who was such a huge influence on my own writing and teaching journey. I can't wait to tell her how important her work with me became in my life (oh, what a taskmaster she was!!). I will catch up with you again the following weekend with my newsletter, and bring you all up to date again.
Thank you once again for tuning in to my notes, and for the privilege of working with your children.
Melanie Hannam
We began our second month of 4th grade with our first field trip of the year, and luckily picked perhaps the last beautiful summerlike day on Wednesday to tour the World Dairy Expo. It was such a fun day and our students were all swept into a new world for a couple of hours. We will never find another place in which to see such a collection of the most pampered and cleanly groomed cows in the world - they were clearly treated like princesses! We learned about milking machines, and showmanship, and the dairy industry. A highlight for everyone was the chance to pet fuzzy Holstein calves curled up in crisp, clean straw beds. We met Alice in Dairyland and had a lesson in nutrition as well. Our kids were very well behaved, listened with good focus, and asked (for the most part!) intelligent questions of the many guides we encountered. Linley and I want to thank Trisha Pinka, Heather Bogner, Shaney Andler, Stephanie Reinke, and Vincent Pugliese for joining our group and keeping us all together as we wound our way through barns, tents, and the coliseum. We will have many good pictures to add to our classroom photo album.
Meanwhile, back in the classroom, we have continued with our progress in math class with place value, analyzing and creating tally charts and graphs, using data to figure the maximum, minimum, mode, range, and median values, as well as some substantial practice with carrying in addition. Next week, prepare for substantial practice with borrowing in subtraction. In another week we will be coming to the end of Unit 2 already. Please continue to examine your child's math books and work, ask them about these skills, and set aside time to practice basic facts as consistently as possible. I just heard of another study which reports that ability to accurately recall basic facts is one of the highest indicators of success in math. Both the 4th and 5th grade curriculums expect proficiency here, and all lessons are based on this expectation.
In reading class, we are developing our awareness of character traits and the influence this has on the entire story and our comprehension of the story. Our class read-aloud of "The One And Only Ivan" has been a perfect example of this - the better we get to know Ivan, the more we understand his story, and every aspect becomes so much more meaningful. The kids are responding to this so well - it's been really fun to share with them! In writing class this week, we celebrated how much writing we have produced so far, spreading all our projects across our desks, and organizing them into folders. We are in the process now of choosing our favorite piece to bring through the editing and publishing phases. I can tell many of our students are proud of their work. They ask to share their writing with the class, and that is also a valuable experience for everyone. We could spend half of every day just reading and writing - and some days, we just about do that! Also, the October Scholastic Book Orders went home on Friday, and we have until Monday, October 15 to turn in orders. The annual Scholastic Book Fair takes place in the WM Library all this coming week - flyers about this went home as well. I look forward to seeing many of you as you come to browse with your student.
We did make time to dig into developing our mapping skills this week. Everyone had chances to spread out their own Wisconsin State Road Map across their desks, and we have taken several 'trips' around our state, following each other's directions to find cities, rivers and lakes, highways, campgrounds and other landmarks. This is a perfect lead-in to our first chapter in our social studies books as we become experts on our state this year.
One last note: I will be leaving our classroom in the very capable hands of Linley Carlson and Shaney Andler on Thursday and Friday of this coming week, the 11th and 12th. I grew up in southern California, and It's tough to admit, but my 40th high school reunion takes place next weekend in Encinitas, just north of San Diego. I really debated about going, knowing it meant I'd miss a couple school days, but I decided I can't pass up the chance to see so many of my childhood friends and some of my all-time favorite places, all in one visit. I am even going to see one particular high school English teacher who was such a huge influence on my own writing and teaching journey. I can't wait to tell her how important her work with me became in my life (oh, what a taskmaster she was!!). I will catch up with you again the following weekend with my newsletter, and bring you all up to date again.
Thank you once again for tuning in to my notes, and for the privilege of working with your children.
Melanie Hannam
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