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
