December 12, 2014 Update

Hi, families.  As you may have noticed, this past week our 4th grade level math students have been introduced to multi-digit multiplication problems. We are taking some extra days just to get the steps practiced - over and over as much as we can.  (First, 1 digit times 2 digit numbers, then 1 digit times 3 or 4 digit, followed by 2 digit times 2,3,4 digit numbers - have your student show you in their journals and studylink pages).  This has been a big, new skill for most of our kids.  Any extra problems you can throw at them throughout the next days and weeks, the better!  They all need the practice! 

Here's a special note for all parents who may wonder about different ways these problems are solved:  You will see pages in their books practicing both "partial products" and "lattice" methods.  I have looked into 5th grade and beyond math curriculum, and after this year, these methods are not used any more.  Therefore, after reminding our students how these methods work (and some kids really like them and can find them useful), we are pretty much abandoning these alternative methods and sticking with the faster and more efficient "traditional" method to solve mult-digit multiplication problems.  If any parents feel 'rusty' with this, let me know - I have a step by step guide sheet illustrating the traditional, and can send one home. 

I must say here that for any 4th grader who has still not mastered his/her basic multiplication facts, this stage of math is very frustrating and difficult.  It is one thing to master the steps of new and longer problems, and then add to that the inability to recall the facts themselves, it makes doing this work incredibly difficult and tedious.  I urge all families to give special attention to your child's ability to know their basic facts with quick recall and accuracy - practice as often as you can together - even odd moments in the car, etc., ask what 6 x 9 is, 7 x 8......and so on!  Not being proficient with facts in all four operations will also be crucial when we will soon get to long division problems and fractions.  Like I tell the kids, this is not going away - they will need to use their facts all through their school years and lives, so it is worth the extra effort in 4th grade.  I think some of our kids hope this will all just sort of 'sink in' to them without having to work and practice!  THANK YOU for your extra support with this subject!!!

On a more triumphant topic, our classroom has won the West Middleton Box Tops for Education Contest!  Therefore, this coming Monday, December 15, there will be no need to send in lunches for our 4th graders!  The PTO is treating us to a pizza lunch, with juice boxes and cookies!  Woohoo!!  Thank you for your support at home - we collected 3,029, more than double the next place winners!

Report cards are coming home today!  Please remember to sign the envelope and send that back to school next week.  You may keep all the papers inside that envelope.

Next Wednesday at 12:30 is the Winter Tea.  Our time is 12:30, with the first 10 minutes of singing from our 4th graders, and the rest of the time to munch treats and have a visit with everyone.  All family members are welcome!  Students are asked to dress nicely that day, but also remember they do have one outdoor recess after lunch, too. 

We have earned our second Reward Day in Room 117 - having collected another 25 compliments from staff throughout the building for model behavior!  Way to go, 4H Kids!!  We will use the last day before Winter Break to have lots of reading time, some game time, a movie time, dress in comfy clothes, bring a pillow or small blanket, and have treats!!  Early next week, I will contact all parents who offered snacks for that day, and get organized.  Thank you!

Enjoy the weekend!  Melanie Hannam

December 5, 2014 Update

Warm December Greetings to our 4H Families!  I so enjoyed the chance to meet with each of you and your families during our conferences last month!  Please know that any time during the year that you feel like a sit down visit with or without your 4th grader would be helpful, we can do that! 

We have three weeks this month to see how much we can accomplish in Room 117!  We have made some excellent progress in new lessons about informational reading material in Readers' Workshop, identifying text features that grab our attention and help us learn nonfiction information.  Ask your student to point out the most effective text features in any info book/magazine you hand them, and they will likely be able to point out numerous features.  Next we will go on to the important skills of summarizing and notetaking within those pages.

In Writers' Workshop, our students have already written at least two essays!  They are learning to state strong thesis statements, and back them up with reasons and examples.  We will write several more essays about social issues and important people and places in our lives.  Our students are taking to this topic with great enthusiasm!  (It helped that we began together by defending 'ice cream'.  :)  )

I have introduced "Gold Star Researchers" to the class this past week.  This 'project' will last all the rest of the school year.  I want you to have the details, too, since most of this work gets done on our students' own time.  It happens just about every day that during our class discussions in every subject, some interesting, unusual, intriguing fact or question comes up that we all wish we knew more about!  We can't follow every side road to explore these ideas during class (though we wish we could!).  So I have presented to the students an opportunity to explore any topic that really piques their interest.  They may research that subject in more detail through books and/or the internet, and even through people in their lives who have the expertise. Then they may prepare any kind of report or presentation to us all in class whenever they are ready (no deadlines or due dates ever).  This may take the form of a written report, a poster or other project, a google presentation, bring in an expert....  Once a student has 'educated' all of us on his/her discoveries, he/she receives a GOLD STAR on our wall of stars! Their names are written on a special star, all of which will create a trail across our walls, and the windows, and the ceiling....!  It is fun to watch the trail grow with stars and names, students will receive extra credit in my grade book, they learn to do research (in their own words!!), they gain experience in presenting, and we all - including me - learn so much more about such a wide variety of topics.  I love that I become not the only teacher in the room! 

We all have a request to relay from our school social worker, Susan Sims-Mormino: 

WINTER BOOTS NEEDED: If you have any gently used winter boots that you no longer need, we would greatly appreciate your donation! We will add them to our winter clothing supply for students in need. These are also helpful for kiddo's who sometimes forget their boots at home :-) Please send donations to Susan Sims-Mormino, School Social Worker. Thank you!

Also, all of our 4th grade students are planning a special holiday art project, as a gift to their families.  On Friday morning, December 12, from 9 to 10 am, our own class will be working on this project, and it goes very smoothly if I could have the help of two or three other adults during that time.  If you are available (land like paint!), please let me know. I will confirm with the first three parents who respond.  Thank you so much - this project always turns out to be so awesome!!

On the last afternoon before Winter Break, on December 19th, I would like to let our class kick back and enjoy a movie connected to our literature/social studies units, and have a couple treats.  If you are interested in bringing in a goodie, or something to drink with that goodie, let me know.  Again, thank you for your support!

We will let you know next week, but our class has HIGH hopes of winning the BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION school contest for bringing in the most box tops!  So stay tuned for hopefully exciting news.  Also coming next week -- the first trimester report cards.  Look for them to come home on Friday, December 12.  The envelope needs to be signed and returned to me, but you may keep all the contents inside that envelope. 

Keep in mind that I will submit any book orders from our Scholastic December flyers on the evening of December 8th.  We should get our new books before Winter Break.  Also, make sure the West Middleton Winter Tea on Wednesday, December 17th, is on your calendar!  We will meet you in our "Winter Wonderland" lunchroom at 12:30 that day, first to sing to you and then to share cookies and hot chocolate and visit till 1:10. 

As more events and news flashes come to our attention at school, I will be sure to pass along all information and reminders to you!  Enjoy this busy and exciting month!

November 14, 2014 Update

Hello, again, to all of our families in "4H"!  Our days at school have been very full this month, continuing through all our lessons in our core subjects, along with fitting in 5 mornings with swimming lessons, two WKCE assessments, and a trip to listen to Beethoven symphonies at the Overture (I knew this trip had made an impression when I could hear students singing bits of "Ode to Joy" throughout the rest of the day!).

There are several reminders and upcoming events that I want to pass along to you:

*NO school on Monday, November 17th.  Please check your bright blue parent conference schedule for this Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday after school.  I am really looking forward to meeting with you and your 4th grader.  We have collected some good work to show you!

*The Scholastic Book Fair is all set up in our WM Library, all ready for students and families to browse!  The Fair will be open from 10am (T/Th) till 7:00pm, and 10am to 4pm on Wednesday. The book selection looks delicious!

*Speaking of books -- would you help your 4th grader check your own bookshelves, coffee table, car... at home for any of our classroom library books that may not have made it back to our classroom?  I do not have them all marked with my name, nor do I have a check out system, so I need to trust that my students will return the classroom books when they are done with them.  Thank you so much!

*The Lost & Found collection of clothing, etc. in our school's entryway is overflowing!  Please take time to look through these items as soon as you can - or when you come for conferences.  There are some brand new, nice coats, and other gear, not marked with names that students are not picking up.  All items will get delivered to Goodwill after November 25th!

*Mrs. Odgren has again requested that all students PLEASE bring in (and preferably keep at school) an extra pair of gym shoes for gym class days (which takes place 4 out of every 6 days!).  Students have been coming to class in boots and other inappropriate footwear for gym classes.

*We will have school the Thanksgiving Week ONLY on Monday and Tuesday!  That Tuesday, November 25th, marks the final day of our first trimester!  Wow!

In our classroom, we have been able to fill our 4th Grade Writing Binders with the final drafts of our big Realistic Fiction Story project.  We will next be moving on to writing Thesis Statements, getting practice on how to express our opinions on issues we care about, and clearly back these opinions up with evidence.  In Readers' Workshop, we are also making a shift - toward Informational reading material of all kinds, learning how resources are organized so we can most easily understand and get the information we want.  Your students may be coming home with some amazing information on all variety of topics!

Math class has us beginning work this week on decimal numbers.  This unit adds a whole new set of columns in the place value chart - behind the decimal point!  Please make it a regular habit to look through your child's two math journals together, so they may show you and explain what they are learning!  This is so valuable for them, to reinforce their learning, AND so you can see that they are putting in their best efforts to practice their skills.  Do not hesitate to point out items that you see they need to try again or finish - some of our students really need that extra prompting at home to at least attempt their best on all homework pages.  They know they do not ever have to worry about having these practice pages perfectly correct, but they do need to try their best on their own for every item assigned.  Your support with practicing their basic math facts continues to be a crucial part of homework as well.  Most students are making noticeable progress, but there is still a good way to go before mastery for many!

As more news and events happen, I will be sure to pass along the details to you!  I will see you all later this week - we'll have our class photo album out in our doorway 'waiting area' for you to page through if you have to wait a minute for your conference to begin.  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

October 27, 2014 Weekly Update

Hi, everyone!  I have a growing list of reminders, and a calendar getting full of special dates and activities, so I want to make sure you all know what is coming up each day and week!  Here goes (maybe grab your calendars) ....! 

Tuesday, October 28th:  Our school will be participating in a routine 'evacuation drill' during the first hour of the morning.  We will all walk out to the west end of our parking lot to practice orderly and efficient movement out of our school building. 

Wednesday, October 29th:  The school district transportation staff will be coming to WM to meet with each grade level group to review safe behavior on buses.  This session includes a video, discussion of safety rules and tips, and then actual practice with bus drivers on how to properly get off the bus in an emergency.  Also, on this day right after lunch, our class will be celebrating Autumn with a special treat, a game or two, and a creative project.  Many thanks go to Mrs. Pinka, Mrs. Comerford, Mrs, Engelke, and Mrs. Hull for coming up with fun ideas and providing the food and supplies.

Thursday and Friday, October 30th and 31st:  NO school for students!

Monday, November 3rd:  If you can, come to Culvers in Middleton for dinner or a snack!!  This is the fundraising night that Culvers is hosting to benefit West Middleton PTO!  AND, if you can come between 5:00 and 6:00 PM, Mrs. Hannam could very well be running your order and serving you!!  I hope I see you!  :)

Tuesday, November 4th:  Besides being Election Day, it is also Picture Retake Day.  This day is also the first day of SWIM class for all of our 4th graders.  They will board buses to the Middleton High School Pool at 9:00 am with Mrs. Odgren and return to school by 10:30.  Remember to pack a separate bag with swimsuit and towel.  The other days for swim class are:  November 6th, 10th, 12th, and 14th - mark your calendars!  

Tuesday, November 4th and Wednesday, November 5th:  Even though the annual Wisconsin State assessments (WKCE) have been replaced with Smarter Balance Assessments in Literacy and Math to be taken in Spring, 4th graders around the state are still required to take the WKCE Social Studies and Science tests.  Each test is a timed 45 minute session.  We will take the Science test on Tuesday afternoon between 12:15 and 1:15 pm, and we will take the Social Studies test on Wednesday morning between 9 and 10:00 am.  Please make sure your student gets an extra good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast! 

Monday, November 10th:  West Middleton will begin the great Box Tops for Education Contest!  Our competition between classrooms will last until December 5th, and the classroom that collects the MOST Box Tops will be rewarded with a pizza lunch from the PTO!  So start 'scrounging' now and raid all cupboards and pantries for Box Tops!  Each Box Top is worth 10 cents and can raise several thousand dollars for playground equipment, and other educational equipment and materials for our classrooms.

Tuesday, November 11th:  All 4th graders will be going to the Overture Center in downtown Madison for the morning (8:15 to 11:00 am) to attend the Symphony Youth Concert.

Monday, November 17th:  NO school!

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, November 18, 19, 20th:  Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences after school!  Please refer to your master schedule of appointments sent home last week on Friday (bright blue sheet), and I look forward to meeting together.  These are also the dates for the annual Scholastic Book Fair in our LMC!  You can shop for brand new books before and after your conference time!

Monday and Tuesday, November 24th and 25th:  The ONLY days of school this week!  NO school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday!  Also, this is the END of the first trimester!

**If any more helpful details come to light, I will be sure to pass them along to you!  Happy Autumn Season to all!  Melanie Hannam 

October 6, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello to all!  I want to thank you all again for the amazing response we had with our first field trip last week to the World Dairy Expo!  I am sure we broke a record with 13 parent chaperones joining us for a very special experience.  The kids all seemed to be pretty engaged with all the new sights, sounds, (and really quite pleasant smells, believe it or not) they encountered there. The new facilities reminded me of luxury hotel accommodations for milking cows!  I was very proud of our group - not only was everyone very well behaved and attentive, they knew the answers to many of the questions that our guides asked them!  It was just a great day, and I love knowing that we created new memories together.  I took over 60 pictures, and will be sharing them with you.  I like to keep a photo album each year, so there will be copies entered there, and you can page through the album when you come for conferences in November.

We have half of our permission slips returned for next week's trip to Pope Farm Park on October 15th.  If you would like to meet us there and chaperone, just send me an email.  We will be there from 11:30 to 2:00 that day - and naturalists and archeologists and gardeners will be our guides.  Park in the lot at the top of the hill.  Let's hope we are fortunate enough to hit a good weather day!  (Lunches will be eaten - hot or cold - as usual, but at 10:30 again that morning!(

I sent home the new flyers for the October Scholastic Book Orders on Friday.  These will be due by October 13th - either paper form to me, or done online.  In September we had enough orders that gave us bonus points to add 20 new books to our classroom library!!  Awesome!  The kids get so excited by our books - pretty much fun!

We are moving to history and landforms (Glacial Age) of Wisconsin in Social Studies, as well as continuing to practice writing accurate addresses and phone numbers.  In Writers Workshop, we have begun to draft our Realistic Fiction stories, and in Readers Workshop, we are reading with renewed attention and following our book characters with deeper understanding.  Today's discussion was so rewarding - on their own, our students commented on how what we are practicing with our reading is helping us be better writers as well!  I am so happy they are making these connections!!  Woohoo!

We are halfway through our second unit in Math, which involves more work with place value, organizing and reporting data, graphing, and more practice adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers.  Remember, whenever possible, to provide some practice and review of basic facts in all 4 operations - thank you, thank you!!

Toward the end of the month, I will send home a sheet of time slots where you can mark your first, second, third choices for parent/student/teacher conferences during the week of November 17th.  I really believe in including our 4th grade students in our conferences, so please choose times that your 4th grader can also attend the conference.

If any other news bits come up, I will continue to forward them to you as I have been doing.  I am happy to answer any questions that might come up, at any time!   (Looking ahead - I think I would like to hold a "Harvest Party" in class on the afternoon of October 29th - probably from 12:15 to 1:00.  We don't have school on October 30th and 31st.  If any parents would like to do a bit of planning for snacks and activities centered on Harvest/Halloween, I would so appreciate that, and just let me know.  I can put all interested parents in touch with each other.)   Till next note -- Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

September 19, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello to all!  We have completed our 3rd week of the new school year!  This weekend I will be ordering our first books from Scholastic Book Club.  Families will get the chance to order new books during every month of the school year.  Also, the annual Scholastic Book Fair will come to our LMC during the parent conference days in mid-November.  Speaking of books, the question came up over the last week in class about the use of electronic readers (Kindle, Nook, Tablets...) in school.   I am willing to give students the opportunity to use these devices during our daily reading time in class.  I have told them it will be up to parents, and that they should be stored at their desks during the day and that they are responsible for taking good care of them.  Also in Readers' Workshop this week, we have discussed and written out our personal 'Reading Resolutions' which means we are all identifying goals which will make our reading lives richer and more a part of our daily routines than ever before!  Thank you for your support at home in providing the time and space and priority to have 'nose in the book' chances whenever possible!

In math, all of our groups are completing Unit 1.  Within the next few days we will be reviewing the new skills and vocabulary and then taking our first Unit Test.  Once we have the chance to go over every item together after the test is returned, students will be taking them home for you to see and getting your signature.  They will also be instructed to RETURN these test pages back to school!  We save all reviews, tests, and special notes in our yellow math folders.  This folder becomes very important to look over during conference time, as well as provides an ideal collection during next summer for reviewing and brushing up on skills to avoid "rust" before 5th (or 6th) grade math classes!   The other special note about math:  Please continue to regularly help your 4th grader practice his/her basic facts in all 4 operations.  We are seeing improvement already, but many of our students need to work hard on mastering their quick and accurate recall of the basic facts.  At the end of each week, you should find in Take Home Folders the daily 3 minute drills we do in class, so you can keep track of your child's progress.  They also record their results on the back page of their Studylink books.  Learning their basic facts well is crucial to succeeding and progressing in math and is a real priority!  There is enough need in our groups this year that I am also working to take extra time during the school day to provide more instruction/practice time just for acquiring these skills.

In Writers' Workshop, we are getting closer to officially writing our realistic fiction stories by developing believable characters with realistic challenges to resolve - or not resolve!  In Science with Mrs. Bertz, our class is - literally - digging into rocks, discovering the properties of rocks and minerals.  Social Studies has us all making sure we know addresses and emergency phone numbers, as well as learning what 'agriculture' actually includes, especially in our state.  We will be digging deeper into the dairy aspect of agriculture now as we approach our first field trip on October 1st to the World Dairy Expo.  Thank you for returning your signed permission slip along with $1 for student admission.  I have heard from a couple of parents about chaperoning - remember, we welcome all who can come join us that day (11:00 to 2:30 total time if you ride with us from school and back).  Just let me know!  We'd like a parent for about every 5 students.  We will all wear our new Tie Dye Shirts that day as well!

Other business:  Orders for school pictures taken Friday can be done online, or envelopes can be returned to school by September 25th. Retakes are scheduled for November 4th.  Remember there is no school for students on Friday, September 26th (a professional development day for staff). Also, good for you to know is that we are in the midst of two sets of progress assessments.   On Monday morning, our class will be in the computer lab for at least an hour to take the math MAP (Measures of Academic Progress).  This past Thursday we did the reading MAP.  Over the next two weeks, I will also be meeting with each individual student to listen to them read a short leveled story and have a 'comprehension conversation' about what they have read.  Each of these assessments will take place 3 times over the course of the school year.  It is very helpful to your student if they can get a good night's sleep and a good breakfast.

As we say goodbye to summer and officially greet autumn, we are filling our days to the max with meaningful lessons and some deep conversation about being readers and writers, about being a helpful and caring member of our classroom and school, along with LOTS of needed practice with listening skills and organization!  Thanks for your teamwork on these endeavors!  More news again soon!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

September 12, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello, dear 4H families!  We have completed our second week of school (and we had some pretty 'tuckered out' kids by Friday afternoon!).  I wish everyone a weekend of good rest, so we are all fresh to start out a new week on Monday.  We did keep going at a steady pace this past week, getting into our first lessons in every subject area.  I will bring you up to date on our work:

Math class has begun with a unit on Geometry.  There are lots of new vocabulary words/definitions to learn, and you will see some helpful reminder sheets coming home next week so you can practice a bit more together.  It's a fun unit because there is a good amount of sketching and drawing included - a good way to practice that vocabulary.  Perhaps more pressing than this unit is our students' recall of the basic facts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Almost everyone is 'rusty' - and if you can even spend just 15 minutes most evenings reviewing facts, it really does make a difference in a hurry. Thank you for your support with this!  We start out every class with a 3 minute opportunity to see how many problems we can answer correctly out of the 100 basic facts for each operation.  We are keeping track of our scores so we can see them go UP with each passing week.  Most weeks you can depend on the following:  Mondays:  Addition / Tuesdays:  Subtraction / Wednesdays:  Multiplication / Thursdays:  Division / Fridays:  We take a look at our progress and hand back the week's pages to put in Take Home Folders so you can see how the week went.  I record the scores, and the students do, too - see the back of their Studylink booklet.  During the 4th grade year, the math curriculum requires and assumes that students are proficient with all 4 operations - the new skills go SO much easier if our kids are not also struggling to recall their facts. 

One more note about math class that is important for you to know:  After we introduce and practice the new math skill each day together, our students get the chance to try out the lessons by working in their Journal and Studylink booklets.  Most days there is time to begin this work in class.  Sometimes they can finish it all in class - BUT I have announced to them that they must still bring home both books each day so you can see what they are working on - please ask them to show and explain it to you!  This is another excellent way to reinforce the new concepts.  If students cannot complete the items on their pages in class, the rest is to be completed at home.  (It is rare for work time on this at home to go over 30 minutes!  If it gets to be much longer than 30 to 45 minutes max, then please stop and let me know they worked this long, and I can help them finish in class the next day.)  I have told the kids that I never 'grade' this work!  I want them to feel ultra comfortable trying out new skills on these pages - the goal here is to try and practice every item, even if they aren't sure they are doing it correctly.  You do not have to stress over making sure they are answering everything perfectly.  I would like to see every item attempted with their best efforts.  Then the next day in class, we take time to go over items together, self checking and correcting pages - which gives each student yet a third chance to practice/review/reinforce their knowledge. 

On to our other subjects!  In Readers' Workshop we have been happily building our stamina for sustained "pin-drop" quiet reading time - we love it!  We are practicing good reading habits and using our Reading Logs to keep track, and our kids have been really enjoying Book Share Time.  This gives them the chance to hear what other books classmates are excited about reading, and we have all begun a Wish List of books to keep in our purple reading folders.  We should never run out of book ideas this year!  We still have until next week Friday, September 19th, to order from the September Scholastic Book Club selections, either online (class activation code is MFRC8) or by sending me a paper copy of the order form with checks made out to Scholastic Book Club.  Writers' Workshop has us digging into ideas for writing realistic fiction stories.  Our ideas are coming from small moments in our own lives, and we are developing lists of ideas and expanding these ideas into possible story lines with each passing day.  We have also begun to write entries into our Thoughtful Logs.  These journals are giving each student a chance to reflect upon their own opinions and reactions to what is happening in the books they are reading.  This exercise gives our kids more practice with writing skills, and best of all, it gives them practice expressing their thoughts on paper and reflecting more deeply about what they are reading.  I really see the value in combining reading and writing whenever possible!

We have begun map study in Social Studies, centering mainly on Wisconsin.  We will gradually transition into Wisconsin agriculture in the next weeks as we prepare for our first field trip!  It was just confirmed this past week that we are able to attend the World Dairy Expo at the Alliant Energy grounds on October 1st!  Permission slips will come home next week with all the details.  We can take as many parent chaperones as are able to come (from roughly 11:00 am until 2:30 pm) -- so let me know if you can join us for this special trip!  In the past, parents have carpooled from school and met us there, but this year with needing two buses for 4 classes, we think we should have enough room for parents to ride with us.  Some parents may still want to drive themselves, and we will be receiving parking vouchers for anyone who does take their own car.  I will keep you posted on all details.

Business notes:  On Monday, we will be tie dying our new West Middleton T-Shirts!  Look for them to come home in a plastic bag with washing instructions.  We will all be wearing them for our October Field Trip.  Another Picture Day is scheduled for this coming Friday, September 19th, with yet another makeup day to happen in October.  On October 3rd in the evening, the PTO is hosting our annual Fall Dance and Pumpkin Sale!  Flyers about this event have come home.  Please check daily with your student and their Take Home Folders.  We've had a lot of mail come home so far this year!!

Thank you for your support at home with good breakfasts and school snacks, gym shoes and socks, long and restful nights' sleeps (hopefully for all of us!), and your guidance with your student's keeping track of papers and assignments.  Remember the daily update on the Homework/Reminders page of our classroom blog.  I will be back in touch soon!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

September 5, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello to all of our "4H" families!!  I send you this update hoping I am reaching all of our families - if you prefer additional email addresses or different ones, please do let me know, and I will adjust my contact list.  My updates will also appear on our classroom blog, and I encourage you to take a look there also for our Calendar of Events, our Daily Schedule page, and also The Homework Page.  Every day after classes end, I post everything we have written on our homework/reminders list in class (which our students are also copying into their planners).  It's a great way to double check assignments and reminders and upcoming activities.

At our class meeting during the last hour on Friday, we all pretty much agreed that we have begun an awesome year of Fourth Grade!  It was an action packed first week learning about each other, along with the expectations and routines that will make us efficient, organized, and working together for LOTS of exciting learning ahead. 

I want to thank all of you for the thorough and very helpful answers to my Parent Questionnaire about your child.  I loved reading your notes, and it makes such a difference in helping me know and understand my new students.  Please feel free to continue to email me or call whenever you want to fill me in on any circumstances that will help me work best with your child.  Another important part of our communication will be the routine of going through - with your child - their Take Home Folder every day after school.  It is divided into two sides - one side for items for you to see that stay home, and the other side for items you should see that need to come back to school.  I am encouraging each of our 4th graders to take the lead on this quick daily responsibility - I would like them to initiate sitting down together to go through papers AND their planners with you, explaining what they are doing and where they need your inspection, signature, etc.  Thank you for helping to 'coach' them into this habit - this is a great first step in developing their own responsibility and initiative.

Some business notes: 

-An extra pair of gym shoes to keep at school is highly encouraged, along with stashing an extra pair of socks in the bottom of backpacks for wet or messy days outside.

-Students may bring a water bottle to keep at their desks during the day.

 

-We do take time for a midmorning snack.  Students may bring a one serving bag or container each day (no large multi-serving bags, please).  Sometimes parents have purchased, through Lunch Express, a box of snacks to share with the whole class.  This is always a nice treat for the kids every once in a while.

-The best breakfast you can manage to give your child with our new early morning start time is SO important.  Our lunch time is at 11:30 this year, but even with fitting in our snack time halfway through our almost 4 hour long morning, the kids get pretty hungry. 

-We have almost 10 orchestra students in our class this year.  Orchestra whole group sessions will be on Tuesday mornings from 7:30 to 7:55.  The small group lessons with Mrs. Corey will also take place at rotating times throughout every Tuesday morning as well.  That should be easy to remember, with having to bring instruments to school those days.  The first day of lessons is this coming Tuesday, September 9th!

-The chance to order reading books through Scholastic Book Club will happen every month!  Yay!  The first order forms will come home early next week.  We usually give ourselves one to two weeks to get orders placed - and I will always post the due dates.  Every time students order books, our class gets bonus points for new books for our own classroom library, and that has been the biggest reason our classroom library has developed into something I am very excited about - we have a very rich reading library right in class!  You have two ways to order - by sending back to school the paper order form with a check (no cash) made out to the Scholastic Book Club, OR - my favorite way - ordering online!  Give it a try if you haven't already - I love it!  It is very user friendly and so fast!  You will need our class activation code:  MFRC8.  Let me know if you have questions about this.

In the coming weeks, I will send out more details about our first lessons in Readers' Workshop, Writers' Workshop, Spelling, Social Studies, and Science.  We have already begun to practice building our "stamina" for independent reading in class (a favorite part of the day for most of us!).  We will start switching for math groups on Monday.  For the first unit students will all stay with their homeroom teacher, except for those who do the 5th grade math curriculum with Mrs. Boles, our new Advanced Learning Specialist.  And big news -- our first Field Trip has already been scheduled!   On October 1st, all of our 4th grade classes will spend much of the day at the World Dairy Expo, which is held at the Alliant Energy grounds.  We welcome any and all parents who want to join us as chaperones!  I will send specific details very soon.  Right now, it looks like the time commitment will be roughly 11:00 to 2:30 that day.  This trip is a big hit with everyone who goes, and it is full of first time experiences, sights, sounds, (and smells!).  :)   Stay tuned for all details! 

This has gotten to be long enough for now!  There is so much to share!  We are off to an excellent start, and I look forward to talking with each of you again soon.  Whether you have already been in to visit the classroom, and especially if you have not, please do stop in to say hi very soon so we can meet!  Until next note.... Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

August 27, 2014 Weekly Update

WELCOME TO FOURTH GRADE!!!

Hello to all of our new "4H" families (Grade 4/Hannam)!  I am very much looking forward to meeting all of our new 4th graders and you, their families!  If we can't meet on the evening of August 27th, please do stop in after school one day very soon.  Remember, students can bring in their school supplies that they've collected so far, and choose a seat in our classroom during Back To School Open House Night anytime from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. 

This blog site will be one very good way to stay connected!  Each day I will be updating the homework list on the Homework Page, there is a page to view our Daily Schedule, and there is also a Google Calendar I will update with upcoming events.  The Home Page will provide you with my weekly newsletter, where you will be kept up to date on all our hard work - and fun together! 

On the Home Page of our classroom blog, you will find a space to type in your email address, and then hit "Submit".  Then whenever I post my newsletter, you will receive that notice in your inbox!  I will also send out emails for quick news notes or announcements, so I will want to collect any and all email addresses to which you would like such notices sent.  You in turn may always feel free to contact me by email or phone at any time.  You will receive a bright colored card with all of my contact info on August 27th (or Sept. 2nd).  The blog address will always be listed under my name when I send you emails, too.  (mrshannamsclass.blogspot.com)

There is so much to tell you!  We will take it one step at a time!  In the meantime, I will have a questionnaire to give you so I may learn more about your child, and other useful pages for you to keep at home for reference.  I hope we can all meet on the evening August 27th, or as soon as possible thereafter! 

Fourth Grade will be a year of much growth for your child, as well as a year filled with precious memories!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

May 30, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello, dear 4H Families! We started our week on Tuesday with our big trip to the Cave of the Mounds, and it was a beautiful day! We want to thank our parent chaperones for their fun company and their help in making everything go so smoothly: Mary Ozers, Tom Albert, Melissa Corrigan, Lisa Bote, Lorrie Carr, and Cindy Malcheski. We also owe a big thank you to our PTO for their generosity with all of our expenses that day. We have one more trip planned -- next week on Thursday, June 5th, our three 4th grade classes will be at Pope Farm Park from 11:45 to 2:15 to join local naturalists and geologists for six different activities around the Park. We would love to have as many parents meet us there as are able to make it, and join in on the fun and beauty of this gorgeous Park. Let me know if you can come! We can meet you with our bus at the upper level parking lot by 11:45. Our kids will be able to eat lunch as usual in the WM lunchroom before we go, so no special arrangements needed. Our students should, however, come prepared with a water bottle, sunscreen, and maybe a cap or sun visor. I hope you can join us!

Everyone in class has been very involved in creating their own Google Presentation about a special feature in the Western Region of our United States these last days of school. This week we all decided on a personal 'due date' - it will be one of the days next week, when each student will have the opportunity to present their topic to the class. Would you ask your student about their progress and give them the support they might need to meet their deadline? Since they are working in Google Documents, they can access their work at home as well. Thanks a lot! Be sure to take a look at what your child is creating! I am so impressed with their rapidly growing ability to find information and feature it all with such creative 'pages'.

This coming week, our 4th grade math students will be taking their final unit math test!! We are completing the last assignment pages this week, and we have already begun to congratulate ourselves on getting through the entire curriculum! Woohoo! A Unit Review will be started today, and I am projecting the Unit 12 test for Tuesday next week. By the end the school year, please look for both Journal 1 and 2, the Studylink booklet, and the yellow folder with all of their Unit Tests and Reviews to come home. I made a speech this week, in fact, about how all of these items should be saved, and NOT tossed into recycling baskets!!! These materials are excellent sources for refresher mini-lessons over the summer to keep from getting rusty before they start up again in 5th grade. This goes for our 5th grade math students who will begin 6th grade math next year as well! They have all learned SO much and come SO far this year - it is a great feeling of accomplishment!

We are still meeting daily with our Book Clubs and reading as many books as we can still get in before the last days of school. We may not be able to check out books from the school library any longer, but we have lots of amazing books right in our own classroom library to keep us happy and reading. Thank you for helping your student to find and return any last books that belong back at school, for either the LMC or our classroom library. I really appreciate your support in so many ways for all of your child's reading minutes throughout this year. I hope they can make visits to the public library a regular part of their summer routine, and keep those good habits going! It has been SO much fun sharing awesome books and stories with each other this year!

Stay tuned next week for details about the final week of school. I will let you know about special events and activities as the final details get organized. One thing I would like to ask you all about -- would anyone have a connection or know of a way we could get a strong, young tree (such as a maple, perhaps) donated or at a reduced cost? One thing we would like to do is to plant a tree as a lasting gift to West Middleton from our departing 2014 Fourth Grade Classes. We want to have a small dedication ceremony on the afternoon of June 11 as part of the planned special afternoon for our last class of 4th graders to attend our school. We have the approval and the location for this tree already chosen, and the lead I had been pursuing did not work out. Thank you for any tips or help!

I will be back in touch soon! Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

May 16, 2014 Weekly Update

Greetings to our 4H Families!  The list of reminders and events just keeps growing as we approach the last few weeks of school!  Here's an update:

Please look through your 4th grader's Take Home Folder together.  You will find pages that should be weeded out, as well as new sheets that require your attention. 

One new item is the May 27th Cave of the Mounds Field Trip permission slip.  Thank you for signing the bottom half and sending it back as soon as you can.  All the info you need about that day should be on the attached letter and top portion of the slip, which you can keep.  Students will have to let me know on Monday if they want to order a school sack lunch or not.  Let me know if you have any more questions.  We have a great crew of parent volunteers.  Now all we need is perfect weather!  :)

You will also find a sheet requesting that your student bring in a baby (or toddler, perhaps up to 3 years old) photo - by EARLY in this next week.  This is a fun tradition reserved for classes who are leaving the 'era' of West Middleton Elementary behind and are movin' on!  Some parents are creating a bulletin board in the front entryway with these past photos and current pictures - and it is SO fun to look this display over.  You'll have to see this before the end of the school year comes.  You will get all photos back - remember to put names on the back!

Our school librarian has sent out info about due dates for books.  She is also giving students notices of overdue books - please check with your child about this!  Also, the last day for book checkout in the school library is our field trip day, May 27th.  All library books are due back by June 4th.  My classroom library will be open for book checkout through the last day of school.  In fact, if we have anyone who is still reading any of our Room 117 books at the end, these books can be dropped off in the school office through the end of June.  Just put my name on it and Sue can put it in my mailbox.  Again, please check if you have any classroom books still hiding somewhere in your house.  Thank you!   Mrs. Dagitz, our simply amazing school librarian is transferring to Elm Lawn next year, and I am so disappointed to lose her.  She has been such a supportive and helpful colleague, and just an excellent teacher for our kids.

We have each begun to create google presentations on a special feature, location, or person connected with the Western Region of our United States in Social Studies class.  Thank you for your support at home if your 4th grader would like to work on this project outside of school hours.  I am requiring that at least one source of information for their reports comes from a "non- computer" source - like a reference book!!  All slides in their presentations must be written in their own words.  Our students have really taken off with their enthusiasm for creating these google presentations, on all variety of amazing and delicious subjects!  This is excellent preparation for their research efforts in future years of school.

Future events:  We are scheduled for a two hour exploration of Pope Farm Park on the afternoon of June 5th, with the naturalists again, though with an entirely new focus than we experienced on our fall trip there.  We will be there from 12:30 to 2:30 that day, and more info will come with a permission slip soon.  If you would like to join us for a pleasant hike, reserve this time period on your calendar!  Also coming later will be info about special days the last week of school including the West Middleton Hot Dog Picnic on June 10th, to which families are invited, and also a 'field' afternoon for our 4th graders on June 11th, being arranged by a group of 4th grade parents. 

When I get more news and details about any activity coming up, I will keep you posted.  My calendar for the coming week includes a Public Library presentation for our students this Monday in school, the Spring Orchestra Concert on Tuesday at 7pm at the PAC, and on Wednesday afternoon we have a parent special guest coming to present his experiences working at Yellowstone National Park - Mr. Corrigan!  We can't wait for that!   Another highly anticipated day is likely to occur on Friday of this week - we have earned our 4th Reward Day in our classroom for compliments and good behavior.  You will hear more about that day once we have our class meeting to work out the details.  Till next note - !  Melanie Hannam 

May 9, 2014 Weekly Update

Happy Mother's Day greetings to you all! 

We have a busy week ahead of us in 4th grade.  Here are some reminders:  On Monday, our final Scholastic Book Order is due - you may take all day Monday yet to enter any orders online, and then I will submit our order on Tuesday.  Because of your enthusiasm and dedication in buying good books for your children, our classroom library has grown by leaps and bounds this school year, due to the bonus points your orders have earned.  This is a win-win endeavor for us all!  Thank you so much.  It has been one of my most fun challenges this year to stay ahead of our many voracious readers in Room 117.  Our students have helped each other get fired up about all the great stories there are to read, and almost every day in our classroom, I have felt like I am a member of the best Book Club ever.

One more thing about BOOKS -!  Would you please do a search with your 4th grader throughout your own bookshelves and other good book places around your home, and see if you find any of our classroom books?  I do not have our room number or my name on many of them, but your 4th grader will remember if it is a book from school.  I appreciate your efforts - thank you! 

Wednesday, May 14th, we will be spending our day on the track and field at Middleton High School.  Feel free to stop by and try to catch your athlete during his/her events.  Remember to send along a completely disposable lunch.  Right now the weather forecast for that day looks dry but not all that warm - I saw a report of around 60 degrees - so students should come prepared by dressing in layers.  It will be very helpful if you could make sure names on marked on sweatshirts and jackets, etc. in case items get peeled and left on bleacher seats.

Thursday, May 15th, I will be out for the day.  Our youngest daughter, Abbie, is graduating with her Masters degree in school counseling from the U of M in the Twin Cities!  Her ceremony is on Thursday.  I am very happy to report that a favorite teacher from a few years ago (remember those Science Enrichment classes?) is coming to sub for me - Mrs. Montgomery! 

Friday, May 16th, is the last day our PTO will be collecting BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION, as well as food donations in the front entryway of our school.  Thank you for your generosity.  I am pretty sure we will be putting ourselves over the goal of 12,000 items, which means Mr. Macklem will be sporting pink hair one day in the near future!!

Looking farther ahead, keep Tuesday, May 27th, in mind - it is our Cave of the Mounds field trip.  Permissions slips for that day will be coming home this next week.  Also, Tuesday, June 10, is the annual School Hot Dog Picnic Lunch outside, to which family members are invited.  An info sheet came home this past week in Take Home Folders.  To purchase a lunch, the cost is $3.75.  Some plans are also cooking up among some 4th grade parent volunteers to hold a special day of activities during the last week of school for our entire 4th grade, and you will hear more news of that coming soon.

I had a very fun week last week during Staff Appreciation Days, and I thank everyone who showered me, and our classroom, with needed supplies, along with flowers and treats and lovely notes and cards.  Wow!  It warmed my heart - thank you so very much.  Being with your children this past year has been a very richly satisfying gift for me.  Most sincerely, Melanie Hannam  

May 2, 2014 Weekly Update

Happy MAY! Hope it will feel like May! As I look back on our April calendar, I realize just how much we accomplished! And the coming month is filling up fast! First of all, some reminders:

This Sunday, May 4th, there will be a second day to partner up with Novanta in a delicious fundraiser for West Middleton! They are open that day from 11 am to 8 pm. Last Sunday, they were doing a brisk business, and it is so generous of them to hold another day to benefit our school! I love it - two Sundays in a row without cooking a meal! (And I tried my first 'canoli' - luscious!)

Our 4th/5th grade Track Meet on May 14th will be upon us quickly, so thanks for sending in your permission slip soon. This meet has always been held for 5th graders from all 6 elementary schools on one day, but now that all of our current 4th graders will be at middle schools next year, the physical education department wants to give them a chance to participate in a future middle school activity as well. On the 14th, the schools that will be headed to Glacier Creek (West Middleton, Sunset Ridge, and Park) will hold their meet at MHS, while the other three schools that head to Kromrey will hold their track meet on May 7th. If you have any other questions about this day, please contact me or Mrs. Odgren, our gym teacher. The green info sheet with the permission slip gives you more details. We will be asking your student - probably today! - if they want to bring their own disposable lunch or order one through school for that day..

Just two weeks following this event, we will be heading to Cave of the Mounds on May 27th. You can still let me know if you are able to chaperone - so far, four parents from our room have said they can come. We welcome everyone who can fit this day into their schedule. We will leave school around 8:30 and be back by 2:30 or so. Remember, if you are able to join us, I would need your entrance fee of $15 (check to the Cave, or cash) by May 9th, since we must pay everything ahead of time. Our wonderful PTO is covering all of our other expenses.

This past week we began our second last math unit of the year. It involves measurements of weight and mass (both metric and customary), 3-D shapes, volume calculations, and subtracting negative numbers. In Readers' Workshop, we have been slowly evolving from Historical Fiction to Social Issues and meeting in Book Clubs over some shared books, along with reading individual books. We will be writing essays on our thoughts and opinions over some of these issues. Our kids are demonstrating yet again that they have been developing into some deep thinkers - our discussions and the ideas they volunteer have me very impressed! In Social Studies, we continue to roam around our United States, finding notable places to visit, and mapping them. Google Presentations continue to be a favorite project of many in our class, and we will be directing this great enthusiasm toward some reporting about special regions of our country. In the meantime, extra presentations of all kinds get recognized on our GOLD STAR RESEARCH wall - with our stars sweeping across the walls, windows, and across the ceiling! Stop in and see it if you can!

Watch for quick update notes in the coming weeks, as we approach special events and plans during these last weeks of 4th grade! Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

April 18, 2014 Weekly Update

Here's hoping you are all enjoying a beautiful, long spring weekend!  I want to keep you updated on upcoming events.  On Tuesday, April 22nd, West Middleton begins a BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION  and food donation drive (for Middleton Outreach Ministry) which will last until mid-May.  If our entire school collects 12,000 Box Tops and food items, we will get to see our Mr. Macklem walk through our halls with PINK hair!  There will be containers for Box Tops and nonperishable food in the school entry way, so send everything you can with your students in the coming weeks.  Thank you!   We are also looking forward to a delicious fundraiser through our PTO, thanks to Novanta, located on Old Sauk Road.  On two Sundays (April 27th and May 4th) from 11am to 8pm, they will donate a portion of sales to West Middleton!  I will forward a flier to you all.

Also beginning on April 22 and during the following 2 to 3 weeks, all of our classes will be scheduled for the third round of MAPS testing in the computer lab  - one session for reading skills, and one session for math skills.  Our own class will do one session on April 23rd, and the second session on April 29th.  I highly recommend a good night's sleep and good breakfast for those days!  On the morning of May 2nd, our 4th graders get their tour of the new 5th grade wing of Glacier Creek - that will be so exciting!  On May 14th, our 4th and 5th graders will take part in the annual elementary track meet at the high school.  Mrs. Odgren will be sending you more info about that day very soon.

I would like to remind everyone that our biggest field trip of the school year will be on Tuesday, May 27th, when we go to the Cave of the Mounds.  Our PTO is covering the cost for every student. If you would like to chaperone (and we can take every parent who volunteers!), the cost for the day is $15 (cash, or checks made out to the Cave of the Mounds - thank you!).  We do need your commitment and check or cash by May 9th because they require us to send everything in two weeks earlier than our visit date.  I do hope you can come spend the day with us - it is so much fun!  In addition to a 45 minute tour of the caves below ground, we get a guided tour above ground for signs of the caverns below, we 'pan' for precious rocks and minerals, there is a 'class' in a big old barn, and we picnic on a large, tree covered lawn.  You can carpool and follow the buses - we will leave by 8:30 and be back around 2:30 that day.  So let me know soon if you can join us!

In class, we are still being held spellbound by the drama and suspense of our class read aloud book, Number the Stars.  This is the mentor text to our Historical Fiction reading unit, and our 4th graders have been reading dozens of their own books as well - everyone is keeping a growing list!   History has come alive for our kids, and our reading discussions and journaling reflect some very bright and deep thinking!  We are all learning together, and I am very proud of our students!   In May, we will transition to Book Clubs using books that center on a variety of social issues, and write some literary essays in Writer's Workshop, which will pair together very nicely.

Many of you have probably noticed increased interest in creating Google Presentations on the part of your student.  This was introduced in Technology class when I told Mrs. Tofte of my plan to give everyone a chance to focus on one United States Region in Social Studies and teach the rest of us through a presentation.  Thank you for your willingness to share your home computers, because so many of our kids have just taken off with this method of presentation, and after even one Tech class, they have been motivated to create special reports for the rest of us on all variety of topics!  It has been so wonderful to have fellow 'teachers' in class, and they all get extra credit, with their names on our 'Gold Star Researchers' wall. 

Thank you for sending an extra pair of shoes to school now that we are truly in 'mud' season.  I will keep you up to date on information and reminders as we get to each event that is filling our calendars during these last two busy months of 4th grade!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam  

April 4, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello, families!  We are all back to our regular schedules and routines by now after a week off, and in Room 117, it was a very satisfying week of reading, writing, math, social studies, and science lessons.  Our students have shown they are ready to get involved in our discussions, and I am so impressed by the deep thinking revealed this week.  We have been reading "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry, as the mentor text for our Readers' Workshop Historical Fiction unit. It is a suspenseful story centered on a 10 year old girl and her family in Copenhagen during World War II.  This has opened up a whole section of history most of our kids have not yet studied, so there have been many good questions.  Everyone in our room is also expected to read several of their own choices in the historical fiction genre over this next month, and all have found books they are identifying with.  This is one of the main teaching point of this study - to be able to lose ourselves in a different time and place and experience how people were affected and changed by the events of their world then.  We are adding an important writing component as well, with journaling about our new thoughts and questions as we read.  Our fourth graders are also practicing the essential skill of note taking while they are listening to our Read Aloud book.  Good stuff!

In 4th grade math, we are close to the end of Unit 9, which involves changing between fractions, decimals, and percents.  This unit is giving us some hard work to do, but I must say I am very proud of our group for hanging in there and not giving up until they can say, "Oh, I get it now!"  (music to my ears).  Our unit test will take place later this next week after we review all the content one more time.  We jumped into a whole new focus in Social Studies this week!  We have moved from our studies of Wisconsin history to exploring our whole country!  The way we will make it 'do-able' is to divide the states into 5 main regions, explore geography, resources, special attractions, and notable people unique to each region, and compare what is similar as well.  We will be able to create some maps and at least one group project to help each other learn more about our breathtaking country.  Don't be surprised if your child comes home some day pleading to take a family trip to a national park or a coastline or mountainside somewhere in the United States!  In Science with Mrs. Bertz, our kids are deep into experiments with electricity!

Some extra notes to be aware of:  Take Home folders came home this weekend stuffed with past papers that needed to get cleaned out and now kept at home.  (Folder inspection will take place Monday morning!)  April Scholastic Book Order forms have been given out and our due date for orders (both online or turned in to me) is next week Friday, April 11th.  Also, I have been asking our fourth graders if they could all make a search around home (under car seats, etc....) for any stray and forgotten reading books that should find their way back to our libraries in school.  Thank you for helping out with this!   An event that is coming up: The 3rd grade classes are once again holding their annual Market Day, and our class will be able to 'shop' the week of April 14th.  I will forward a short flier about all the details.  Also, keep in mind that Friday, April 18th, there is no school, and on Monday, April 21st, students do not come to school again, due to our final district professional development day for teachers.

Trips coming up:  On the morning of May 2nd, all three of our 4th grade classrooms will get the exciting opportunity to go to Glacier Creek for one hour to tour the new 5th grade wing being built for them for next year!  We can't wait to see this!  On May 14th (rain date May 21st) there will a 4th/5th grade track meet at the MHS track all day - more details will be coming.  On May 27th, the day after Memorial Day, our 4th graders will all spend a full school day at Cave of the Mounds!  The PTO will fund our students' costs for this day.  We teachers are hoping many of you can join us for this highlight to the 4th grade school year, so let me know if you want to chaperone.  I must add that all of us adults will need to pay the cost of our participation that day which is $15 each, and we will need to know if you can come, and receive your admission fee, a full two weeks before May 27th.  We are signed up for three different guided tours throughout the day both above ground and below, as well as the chance to 'sluice' for precious rocks and minerals that students may keep.  We will have time built into our day to have a picnic lunch together at their park as well.  More specific details will come later, but I wanted to give you all plenty of time to look at your schedules and think about whether you are able to come along. 

As always, do let me know if you have questions about any of our activities, and I will be sure to keep you posted on details as each event comes closer.  I feel us slowly revving up into a higher gear as we approach the end of 4th grade in just two months.  In the meantime, we will take it one week at a time, and focus each day on getting in as much learning as we can! 

Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

March 15, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello, dear families.  I certainly did enjoy our visits at conferences over the last two weeks!  Thank you for coming.  I can't believe we have just one more trimester remaining in 4th grade!  We have one full busy week ahead now, and then we will be off on Spring Break until we come back together again on March 31st.  You will see second trimester report cards coming home this Friday, the 21st.  Please keep at home the reports that are inside, sign the envelope, and return the empty envelope to school so we may use it again for the last report of the year in June.

A few more notes about Friday, the 21st:  I handed out March Scholastic Book Order forms this past week, and we would like all orders to be placed, either online or sent in to me with a check, by the 21st.  When we get back to school after Break, our shipment might even be waiting for us already!  Also, we will be asking all students to take home all snow clothes and extra clothing (except gym shoes/indoor shoes) so that our custodians have clear hallways in which to do extra cleaning and polishing while we are gone.  Hopefully, we won't need snowpants anymore upon returning (though the boots would still come in handy for the muddy days that are a guarantee in April!).  For those wet, messy days ahead, it is also a good idea to stuff an extra pair of pants/socks into backpacks for this spring as well!  The last 'detail' about Friday, the 21st, is that we have earned our 3rd Reward Day (collecting compliments for our good behavior - yay!!) and we will devote this day to reading, reading, reading - and caramel corn and cozy clothes with slippers/blankets/pillows.... Ahhh....

Now, to back up a few days -- this coming Tuesday, March 18th, we will welcome a special guest to our room for the last hour of the day.  His name is Mike Welch, a well-known area karate instructor.  He will come to teach about the concept of Respect, combined with lessons about bullying mixed in with some of the coolest karate moves ever!  He has a powerful message!

You may have noticed a change in the spelling lists lately.  We are making sure we can all accurately spell the high frequency words identified by our school district for 4th and 5th grade level students, before we go back to our own (more difficult) student-generated high usage words.  We will test on the second of the three 5th grade lists this coming week, and finish up with the third list the week after Break.  In Writers' Workshop, we are wrapping up the typing of two Realistic Fiction stories.  This has been excellent keyboarding practice, as well as a great way to practice editing skills.  Thank you for your support at home if your student has been working on these final drafts at home.  We want both stories completely done by Friday, so please ask your student what his/her status is for this project!   

In Readers' Workshop, we have begun a very exciting and engaging new topic:  Historical Fiction.  Combining both our classroom collection of books along with another big bin collected from the school library, we have dozens of books to choose from.  Everyone will be reading more than one of this particular genre of story over the next weeks, in addition to continuing their own independent reading books.  We will be perfecting our comprehension skills with this genre as we find ourselves in different eras of the past, and we realize that we must take note of many important details for the stories to make sense!  Plus, our reading workshops are also becoming like a second social studies class, as we educate ourselves about important past events in history.  It is absolutely fascinating to hear all the discoveries and questions during our class discussions just in our first week on this new unit!  Our new class Read Aloud is titled "Number The Stars" by Lois Lowry, in case you have a chance to read this shorter chapter book yourself.  The kids are hooked already after just the first chapter!

I think that's all our big news for now!  If anything more comes up, I will send you all a quick email to keep you informed.  May your family enjoy a hopefully more relaxed schedule for the Break week coming up, and may we all return refreshed and ready to dig in for the home stretch of 4th grade!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

February 28, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello, 4H Families!  The last day of February already!  May March become the turning point in this difficult winter!  As I 'speedwalked' my way across the cold MHS parking lot back to my car after our choral concert tonight, I thought of how our West Middleton families filled that large theater to capacity, and felt so proud to be a part of it - we have a wonderful, supportive community of families, and we don't let these frozen Wisconsin conditions stop us. 

Yesterday, we had just a great day touring around the marble floors of our State Capitol Building - sitting in the padded chairs of our government leaders, and craning our necks to see the huge murals and priceless architecture covering every wall and ceiling, hearing the stories that make it all so meaningful.  Then we toured four floors of the Wisconsin Historical Museum, and it was like entering a time machine for our state's past.  Our students soaked up as much information as they could hold, and combined with our studies of the past several weeks, they have become 4th grade experts on Wisconsin's history and heritage.  I want to express many thanks to our chaperones for helping to make this day go as smoothly as it possibly could:  Mr. Sisk, Mrs. Pansegrau, Mr. Bernier, Mrs. Faucher.

I look forward to visiting with you and your 4th grader over the next two weeks as we meet for conferences.  The second trimester officially ends on March 7th, and we will then work on completing our grade reports and getting report cards ready to send home within the next two weeks after that.  Spring Break will end our month of March (3/24 to 3/28).  Next week as we begin the new month, we will all be celebrating Literacy Week!  You have hopefully seen the email I sent with the details of each day attached - Monday, March 3rd, will contain DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read) for our entire building at the same time - we will ALL be reading!  On Tuesday, we are planning an assembly which will bring some our students' writing to life - some of our teachers-turned-actors will be performing original student stories.  On Wednesday, we all hope to wear some clothing featuring WORDS, and on Thursday, plans are being made to swap teachers to read to other classrooms, and to swap books. If you have any books at home that you are ready to pass along to other readers, your student can bring them to school and then choose someone's else book to take home.  On Friday, we can dress up like our favorite book character, and we will start the day with a parade around the halls!

These activities will provide many great camera opportunities, and that brings me to the next reminder - West Middleton Yearbooks can now be ordered!!  The order form went home this past week, and we have until March 14th to send in our orders.  This will be the last West Middleton Yearbook for your student!  They will receive them on one of the last days of school in June, and we always give everyone time to sign each others' books.

We are almost ready to send out our second pen pal letter to our new high school friends in the National Honor Society.  This has been an excellent and motivating writing activity for our kids, and SO much fun to receive those replies!  We have been promised another return letter before Spring Break.  We are also finishing our rough drafts for our Realistic Fiction Stories, and will head into the computer labs next week to type up the final draft, giving everyone much needed keyboard practice.  In reading we have been researching and note taking in Informational Books about Wisconsin's history, and will now organize our information into a poster presentation.  Next on the agenda:  Literary Essays and Historical Fiction Book Clubs!  Math classes are all taking the Unit 7 final tests this week, and we all begin Unit 8 next week.  (Fourth graders get to divide up some real pizzas early next week in celebration of completing our unit on fractions - we will be sharing with our fifth grade math classmates as well...)  Mrs. Bertz has sent home your student's last Science Test recently, so take a look at that.

As more news and information comes around, I will be sure to keep you updated.  Remember to check your student's Take Home Folder for important notices - it seems like we have been sending more of these notices home lately!  Feel free to email me any time if you wonder about any details.  Jump Rope For Heart and the annual PTO Bowl-A-Thon are two more events that are coming very soon - see those details in the Folders as well.  See you all very soon!  Melanie Hannam

February 14, 2014 Weekly Update

Hi, families!  Happy Valentine's Day and Weekend!  Much to the disappointment of a few of our 4th grade friends, we did not replace our writing, reading, and math classes with a party all day!  :)   But we did have a really fun celebration the last 45 minutes of the day exchanging cards and treats.  We want to send many thank you's for Mary O's delicious brownies, Michele P's ice cold milk, and a Bingo game with prizes by Stephanie B and Betty S, along with the great help of these moms in our room to help out. 

Remember that this coming Monday is a Professional Development Day for school staff, so there will be NO school for our students.

By Tuesday of this coming week, I will be able to send home a confirmation sheet of our scheduled Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences to be held during the first two weeks of March.  Thanks for the quick responses, and for your flexibility with my adjusted schedule of days. 

We also have all of our permission slips turned in to attend our 4th grade Field Trip to Capitol Square on February 26th!  Yay!  So far, we have just two parents who have let me know they can join us for the day to chaperone.  I would really like about 3 more parents to come along, so if you are able to fit this day into your schedule, thank you for letting me know!

Our students have urged me to send along this link to you - it features numerous 5 minute video clips about the physics of many Olympics sports events.  We have been watching some of these in class when we can fit them into our days, and they show some amazing action, along with teaching some basic laws of physics! 

 http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/winterolympics/index.jsp 

During the school day on February 27th, the day after our field trip, every grade level will be traveling with classroom teachers and Mr. Yentsch, our music teacher, to the MHS Performing Arts Center for an hour's rehearsal.  This is in preparation for that evening's 6:30 pm West Middleton choral music performance (students should arrive at 6:15).  All students are to wear their WM tie dye t-shirts for the concert.  See you there!

Our Writer's and Reader's Workshops this past week have been filled with hardworking sessions, writing our realistic fiction stories, and digging deep into informational resources that are revealing some eye opening facts about our state's history - we are all learning so much, including me!  Our students have become both teacher and student during these research periods, and what a wonderful way for all of us to learn!  In 4th grade math, fractions are the new focus, and with each day, the new concepts have become more clear to our students - it takes time and patience on the part of students who are used to catching on quickly - it does get better each day!  Much of our work is a preview to more in-depth work later this year and in 5th grade. 

I will continue to keep you updated on all of our news, and I look forward to seeing all of you in person in March!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam 

February 7, 2014 Weekly Update

Greetings to our 4H Families!  Has your 4th grader shown you one of the coolest things to come out of his/her Take Home Folder all year yet??  On Friday, we received back the first letter from our Middleton High School Pen Pals!  What a delight!  Early in January we accepted the invitation from members of the National Honor Society to become pen pals with them, and we wrote our first letter to them.  Their replies are beautiful letters, and it was SO exciting to hand everyone their own personalized letter from a new high school friend.  This coming week we will answer them back and become even better acquainted.  Oh, what a fun time it will be at the end of school year when we can all meet in person!  For now, what a wonderful opportunity for some really motivating writing!! :)

In other writing news, in our Workshop we have been busy 'plotting' our realistic fiction stories.  It is probably the first time most of our students have done so much note-taking and list-making before they launch into a creative writing project - it will be so interesting for them to see how this affects their actual first draft writing experience.  My hope is that their stories become more focused and orderly and follow the 'story mountain' (ask your child for an explanation of what this is!).  We have been analyzing well thought-out characters, settings, and conflict development and resolution that makes real world sense! 

In Reader's Workshop, we have launched a new unit, reading Informational texts of ALL kinds, researching and grouping relevant facts for subtopics on the broad subject of Wisconsin Government!  This is perfect timing, since we are approaching this topic in Social Studies now, AND we will be going to the State Capitol Building and WI Historical Museum on February 26th.  Our students should be fully prepared with background knowledge by then!  You have received the permission slip for our trip, and please remember to return the bottom half of this slip along with $2.00 for the Museum entrance as soon as you can.  Thank you!  I would love to have any number of parents come along for these two tours, so do let me know if you can chaperone on this day.  You would need to bring along a lunch, and perhaps carpool together from school.  (Our three 4th grade classes fit just right on one school bus.)  I will divide our class into small groups for each of you for the day.  We are due by 10:00 am at the Information Desk on the first floor of the Capitol to meet our tour guide, will get to meet with Representative Dianne Hesselbein at 10:45, lunch at the Museum at 11:30, and then tour with another guide from 12 to 1:00, with an extra half hour to take our own small groups to other areas of the Museum before getting back on buses at 1:30.  Please see the top half of the permission slip for these details.  I hope you can come!  (If you are chaperoning, I would also need $2.00 for your Museum admission ahead of time, just like our students - thank you!)

In Math Class, our Unit 7 for 4th grade students deals with Fractions!  We do a lot of hands-on practice with pattern blocks to get a full understanding of the concepts.  Students should be bringing home their two workbooks every single day, even if they feel they have finished pages in class for their homework.  It would be SO valuable for them if you would ask them to explain what their lesson was about that day - the true sign they are understanding.  It may take a couple of days of work on some lessons before they fully 'get' it, but so far we are off to a solid start.  By this halfway point in the school year, we are also down to our last few students who have not been able to answer within 3 minutes the 100 basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  The first two operations should have been mastered long before this, and the last two should be at least 75 problems and more by now.  PLEASE give your student some extra practice help most evenings - just 10 to 15 minutes does make a big difference.  They should continually be recording their latest scores on a previously blank page in the back of their Studylink books, so do take a look! 

We will be able to share about your 4th graders progress in all subjects early in March. Coming home early this next week will be the sign up sheet for a time to conference with your student and with me in March.  Please mark your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices for a time, and return that paper just as soon as you can and I will reserve a spot for you.  When I have received all of your replies, I will send back a copy of the master schedule.  That will come in handy if you need to make a trade with another family - just let me know if that happens.  A heads up:  I am planning on after school times on March 3rd and 4th, and also March 10th and 11th.  (I must attend a workshop out of town all day on March 6th, which is one of our building conference dates - therefore the change in my schedule for our own class families).  Thank you!

One last note about upcoming events - Valentine's Day!  On Friday, the 14th, we will have a class party for the last 40 minutes of our day.  We have several moms coming in to help with a game, and some treats, and we are all set with plans for both.  The students may exchange cards at this time also (not a 'required' activity for every student).  We will be decorating some big envelopes beforehand. Also, February Scholastic Book Order Forms are coming home this week - stay tuned for the deadline to order online or through the paper catalog form.  Last month, the free books I was able to order for our classroom with our Bonus Points, thanks to your own orders, were so popular, I had to draw name sticks to decide who got to read the new books first!

I will continue to keep you informed through this very busy month!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

January 24, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello, dear families of 4H!  As we all struggle to get to our destinations of work and school each day in this terribly cold winter, we continue to be warm and productive at West Middleton and in our classroom.  We have all been working on completing our midyear assessments for reading and math and will have updated data to study on each student's progress after one more week.  In room 117, I have completed an evaluation of our last two big writing projects (our Essay writing and the Informational Booklets).  We are keeping the beautiful final drafts of both projects in each student's Writing Binder which goes home at year's end, but I did make a copy of their Essays to send home next week, so you will be able to read your child's efforts.  In many cases they are quite touching... enjoy.  Most of our Info Booklets turned out to be works of art!   We will be trying them out on one more audience next week - our first grade buddies!   We have now launched into writing Realistic Fiction!

Our 4th grade Math students have completed Unit 6 and will be taking the final unit test on Tuesday of next week. Please see the Review Sheets in your student's Take Home Folder for samples of the kinds of items which will be included on our test.  Any extra practice you can give with long division (and story problems using division) and measuring angles with a half circle protractor, will be helpful. On Monday, we will only have half of class time to do an additional practice and review of the material.  This is because staff members from Glacier Creek Middle School will be coming to visit both 4th and 5th grade classes that afternoon for a 45 minute info session to introduce "middle school" and answer some first questions from students.

I have also launched a new opportunity in our room for students to dig deeper into topics that spur their interest - and get extra credit for their efforts!  It is called "Gold Star Researchers".  During our discussions, readings, and lessons in every subject we cover, new questions from students come up, about which we all wonder and wish we knew more (including me!).  Since there isn't time to go exploring down every path our studies could lead us, I am giving extra credit to every student who chooses to take the time and effort to research more information, get it written (or typed) in their own words (or arranged on a poster, presented on a computer, made into a booklet - endless options....), and then presented to our class.  Their names get printed on a big "Gold Star" on our special "Star" wall in the classroom, and their work is saved and displayed in the room.  We want to see how many Gold Stars with which we can cover our walls!  There is no 'due date' for any project/presentation - whenever a student is ready to present their research, they can bring it in, and we will make special time for them to educate us all!  Thank you for your support and encouragement - and perhaps some extra computer time at home!

There are some events coming up that you will want to put on your calendar:  Next week Wednesday, January 29th, has been designated "Bright Color Day" at West Middleton - for a fun way to keep our spirits up during this difficult winter, we have all agreed to wear our brightest colors from head to toe!  On Thursday, we will have a guest teacher in our room, as I attend a conference on culturally responsive classrooms along with several other staff members.  On Friday, January 31st, remember that all of our 4th and 5th graders are attending a full day "Kindness Retreat" at the District Admin. Center's gymnasium, led by our counseling staff.  All students must either bring their own sack lunch, or have already reserved a school sack lunch for this day.  We will leave our building at 8:30 and be back to WM soon after 2:30 that day.

The next big event is our annual West Middleton Winter Carnival, set for Saturday, February 8th, from 2:00 to 4:30 pm at our school.  Ten dollars buys admission for each student and they earn tickets from the games and activities they enter to earn prizes, with refreshments included.  This is an important fundraiser for our PTO, which provides every classroom's field trip expenses each year along with many other helpful supports.  The PTO has asked staff to let all families know that they need more help with various stations at the carnival - so please look at the link in the PTO news you received earlier this week, and sign up, if you can!   (I will see you in the prize room!)  They also need more new or gently used items for the prize room.

Stay tuned for news about our February 26th Field Trip to the State Capitol and Wisconsin Historical Museum, and also parent/student/teacher conferences during the first two weeks of March.  If keeping busy is one way to beat the cold, then we've got that going on at our school, no doubt about that!  May you all stay cozy and healthy, and I will continue to keep you updated!    Melanie Hannam