April 26, 2013 Weekly Update

Dear 4H Families - I told our 4th graders that I would start my note right off with an invitation for you to look into their Take Home Folders today to find the finished drafts of their "Memoirs".  Hopefully they have already presented you with their precious memory stories.  I was so touched by these stories, and where our students were able to express what these memories meant to them, it was quite special (thinking more like a parent here than a teacher, I must admit!).  These are definitely projects worth putting in the "save till they're grown up" box.  I told the kids that they may have the option of keeping these at home now, or if they do return it to school after you've read them, we will be putting them in our big lime green binders where we are saving all of their 4th grade writing projects to take home at the end of the year.  Enjoy this little window into what's important in your son or daughter's memory so far - maybe some of you are in for a surprise!

 

I hope you haven't minded getting a little tree taking up space first in your refrigerator, and soon hopefully, somewhere in your yard, this week!  Give the kids the job of keeping them watered and safe from lawn mowers this first summer, and may these roots and sprigs grow into beautiful evergreens as your children grow as well.  Well, this is certainly a sentimental beginning to this week's update!

 

On to other more businesslike topics:  We have completed Unit 9 in 4th grade math, so on Monday we will take the final unit test.  We went over the Review problems in class today, and I instructed everyone to take these home this weekend so that they can use them for more practice.  These examples closely match the items on our test.

 

Our Writer's Workshop has been all about Informational Writing since we finished Memoirs.  We have researched what inviting and engaging pages filled with info about a real topic looks like.  We have decided on a topic we are interested in learning more (and teaching others) about, and are deciding into what categories we will sort our facts and pictures, charts, diagrams, etc.  Some students have already found books and articles in our libraries, and they will be looking for more info at home this weekend (online sources, the public library, your own book/magazine collections... may we have your permission to print out some pages of facts and pictures at home for our note-taking sessions next week?).  Next week in class, we will be taking our notes and keeping all of our information organized.  When these projects are completed, our students will be 'teaching' their own classmates, and one or two classrooms of second graders!

 

For the last two weeks, our Book Clubs have been reading and discussing the events in their books during Club Meetings.  They have set their own reading schedule, and have kept to them very well.  Most of the groups were able to celebrate the completion of their book late this week, and the last group will be done next week.  Now everyone wants to switch books and read some of the others, so that will happen next.  This project has proven to be valuable not only with reading comprehension, but also for proper meeting protocol, respect, self discipline, compromise and negotiation, leadership skills...  lots of valuable lessons! 

 

Social studies has us exploring the upper Midwest states of our country, and led us to 'discovering' the remarkable story of Lewis and Clark's courageous journeys from St. Louis, along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, and all the way to the Pacific Ocean in the early 1800's.  We have also made the acquaintance of Sacajawea, and are reading stories of her important role in their exploration.  We've really enjoyed going back to this time period and imagining what it must have been like.  We will branch out into other regions of the U.S. in the coming weeks, and somehow we will find time to explore beyond our entire planet Earth for our final Science Unit on Sun, Moon, and Stars.  Yikes, and there's only 6 more weeks of school to do all this exploring!

 

This reminds me to let you know of our final two field trips, coming up during our last week of school.  Mark your calendars:  On Monday, June 3rd, all of our 4th graders will be spending the whole day at the Cave of the Mounds.  We get a special tour and meeting with the guides of the grounds above the caves, eat a picnic lunch there, go on our Cave tour, and also do some 'sluicing' for gold!  Think about whether you'd like to chaperone this fun day - a letter with all the info will come home in May!  All parents can follow our buses in their own cars to the Cave.  Then on the morning of Tuesday, June 4th, our 4th graders have been invited to take part in a special program of hands-on activities at nearby Pope Farm Park.  Naturalists, geologists, and historians will lead groups into exploring the evidence of the last Ice Age, and the history of this land.  Buses will take our classes there, and parents are again invited to attend with us - we'll want lots of adult help to be with our groups! 

 

Enough news for now - we certainly aren't slowing down as we come to our last month of school, by any means.  So much to learn, so little time....!   More news next week, Melanie Hannam

April 12, 2013 Weekly Update

All of these April 'showers' surely better bring lots of May flowers!  After a rainy week where our games cupboard saw lots of action during numerous indoor recesses in Room 117, we have survived!  During a couple of our classes, we all even stopped just to listen to the rain pounding the school roof, and counted seconds between lightning and thunder (which actually led one student to do a "Gold Star Research" extra report on this practice!). 

 

We began our Book Clubs this week!  First we discussed the expectations for respectful group talk.  Each of our four clubs has a list of questions to guide their discussion, encouraging deep conversation about the characters and events.  The clubs must make their own agreements on how much to read for their next meeting.  Every student has a supply of sticky notes to mark spots in their reading which they want to bring up in their meetings.  As I join each group to listen in, I can see that there is as much to learn about group dynamics, compromise, the art of respectful listening and speaking, and the ability to stay focused on the topic at hand as there is about deep comprehension.  I am pleased to see how enthusiastic the students are about reading their club book - and that's in addition to their independent reading book!  Next week we will be doing some written reflections about parts of their stories as well.

 

We are completing our Memoir writing in Writer's Workshop.  Next week we begin a unit on Informational Writing.  We will be analyzing the techniques used to make nonfiction books and articles clear and appealing to the reader who wants to learn and research about a topic of interest.  This will lead to our students creating their own informational booklet. 

 

In Social Studies, we have begun our study of the regions of the United States, beginning first with the most familiar for us - the Midwest Region.  We will be doing some mapping for each region, and much 'armchair' traveling as we uncover what makes each region special and important - landforms and natural resources, people, industry, sights to see...

 

We have completed our spelling work with both the 4th and the 5th grade high frequency spelling lists.  Our students did quite well with handling the responsibility to be prepared for assignments and tests.  A new list of words (and vocabulary) comes to them on Monday - this time the words are coming right from their own Book Club books!

 

Fourth grade math students will begin their new unit on Monday, which uses their knowledge of fractions and decimals to convert these values to percents.  Unit 8 final tests came home Friday, and we would like parents to sign these tests after they have been shared, and students should bring them back to school for saving in our yellow folders.  Thank you. 

 

Upcoming events include the final CRT Day of the year on Tuesday, April 23, when buses will come at 11:00 am.  Also, Earth Day is April 22, and Arbor Day is April 26 - in honor of these days, every 4th grader will receive a small tree seedling from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources that week.  It will come with instructions for planting, so maybe your family would like to do a little planning for where in your yard you might have room for an evergreen to grow!  My now-grown up daughters had each brought home a tree when they were in elementary school, and we took pictures of them in front of their trees as both they and the trees grew!  Even through a move from Fond du Lac to Middleton in 2000, we attempted to transplant them here at our new home, and two of the three of them survived!  These trees have now reached our second story windows in height!  Good luck with yours!  :)

 

Till next note - Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

April 5, 2013 Weekly Update

Greetings to our 4H families!  We have all returned from our Spring Break, and ready or not, we spent our first five days back becoming totally immersed in our subjects once again!  (It got easier after that first day!)

 

In Math class, we are over halfway through Unit 8 already, which, as you know, had us measuring our kitchens!  We are learning about and applying the formulas for perimeter, area, and the concept of scale.  I expect that we will be taking the unit test by Thursday or Friday of the coming week. Stay tuned to the Homework Page of our classroom blog (and your student's assignment notebook).

 

Our Writer's Workshop is all about - finally - writing those Memoirs that we had been preparing for over the previous two weeks.  I am so proud of our students!  They are writing some touching, beautiful, and descriptive stories of memorable experiences they think they may "remember even when I am 80 years old!".  The toughest part is explaining what the experiences have meant to them and why.  They are getting it, though, and it will be so much fun for you to read!  We should get two memoirs for each student 'published' by the end of next week. 

 

We have wound up our science unit on Rocks and Minerals.  Hopefully, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic are now part of our students' meaningful vocabulary.  They have been impressed with our own WM small mountain of rock and mineral samples, collected over many years by dedicated fourth grade teachers (notably Mrs. Bertz!).  We will be concentrating our time for the next few weeks on a study of United States Regions in social studies, and wind up the year researching our final science unit for Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets.

 

As you know, after mastering the 75 Most Frequent 4th Grade words, we decided to 'master' the 5th Grade list as well, and next week we will tackle the final 25 words on that list.  The students are doing well, and hopefully learning to take on more independent responsibility for being prepared on time to demonstrate their knowledge.

 

Readers' Workshop will look different in our room in the coming weeks.  I have collected multiple copies of several different books (adventure, sports, animal stories) for "Book Clubs" in our room.  Each Club will read their book in stages and meet during the week to discuss and analyze the events and the deeper meaning behind their characters' actions and words.  Our whole-class reading of books earlier this year, such as The One And Only Ivan and Stone Fox, brought out such rich discussion and deeper thinking, I am anxious for our students to experience more of that.

 

A couple of due dates are coming up.  By Friday, April 12th, any student who wants a WM Yearbook should send in their order form and payment.  I have extra forms in the classroom if needed.  Also due that same day is our April Scholastic Book Order forms.  We will send out one more order early in May, and that will be it for the year.  Your orders throughout the school year have resulted in dozens of new books for our classroom library through the Bonus Points earned, and I want to thank you heartily for that!  I think I will need to add another book shelf soon!  

 

Hopefully the change in our daily schedule by adding 4 minutes to each day has not caused any extra difficulty to your own schedules at home.  We find it nice to have some extra minutes for our resource time the last period each day - more math, etc. gets done in school instead of at home, which the students like!  Also, keep in mind that on April 23rd, our district will have our final CRT (early release) day, and students will be dismissed at 11:00 that day.

 

Until next week's update, enjoy the signs of SPRING!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam