Dear 4th Grade Families ~ Happy January to everyone!
It felt good to gather back together as a class last week after our two week break, even if we all felt rather 'rusty' at first. We all said our brains felt 'smooshy'! We eased back into our routine as gently as we could, sharing about our books and getting updated with adding new ones to our collection. We have begun one of my most favorite Readers' Workshop units - Historical Fiction. All our kids are gradually moving toward choosing their own independent reading book in this genre, and we are starting our Class ReadAloud book, Number The Stars, by Lois Lowry. This captivating story brings us into learning about WWII and what happened in Germany and Denmark with the Nazi's and Jewish people, etc. The good thing about reading this story is that it introduces this heavy subject to our children through the eyes of a child, and so a gradual realization of what different groups of people went through during this historic time is handled carefully. I highly recommend that our parents read this book as well. I have collected at least 6 bins of HF books by now for our fourth graders to read, which cover many different eras of history, so it will be a very enlightening time for us - that's why it's one of my favorite reading times of the year!
We began our math classes this past week reviewing the very 'meaty' Unit 3 skills. This unit was our most involved unit yet with new skills (fractions and decimals!). After three days of review, we took the final test, and wow! We ended up with the best set of scores overall as a class so far this year! I have to admit I didn't expect that, since during our lessons and our review sessions, many of our kids expressed doubt that they were getting some of it - it was a lot of new material! I took that opportunity (more than once/several times/ okay, whenever I found the chance!) to point out to our hardworking kids that "see, when you keep trying, when you don't give up, when you keep asking questions and practice - it pays off and you learn more than you realize!"). Yay! We probably built up our stamina in math class during this unit! Next week we dive into Unit 4 - I will keep you updated on those skills after we get started, and how you can help and support at home. When pages do come home, take a look and ask your 4th grader what it's about - having to explain what they are doing is a great way to learn the material more thoroughly.
In Writers' Workshop, we spent the week wrapping up our persuasive essay project. We have been typing this second essay project right on our Chromebooks, loving how easy it is to compose and edit this way. Plus, we are working on our keyboarding skills as well! We will be phasing into a unit on Informational Writing next - practicing writing with clear descriptions and instructions so that our readers can follow the steps easily. We will be teaching others about something that we, as the authors, are 'experts' on already - can we explain it in a way that someone who does not know about this subject can still understand it? By the way, I hope you enjoyed those colorful copies of the personal essays our students brought home in December about a special person in their lives. I thought they were so precious!
Social Studies has us beginning to explore with the first non-native people to come to this area of Wisconsin. How did this affect the native people who lived here already? Why did these new people come here in the first place? How does this area and the people change as more and more discover what an amazing place this is in which to live? It's great stuff!! We plan to take all of our 4th graders to a State Capitol tour later in February/early in March, as well as tour the State Historical Museum. After we cover this time in Wisconsin history, these visits are so very meaningful! In Science with Mrs. Bertz, they are delving into the Unit on Magnetism and Electricity.
The January Scholastic Book Orders came home Friday in Take Home Folders. We set a deadline for ordering at January 13th - this coming Friday! I have found several books I want to add to our collections in the room with the bonus points we earn through your orders. Please also take a look at the information and permission slip that came home explaining the new Math 24 Club - six weeks on Thursdays after school with Mrs. Boles and Mrs. Schelitzche - a very fun way to play around with numbers (and get better at all basic math facts without feeling like it's work at all!).
Upcoming dates to keep in mind: On two Mondays there will no classes - January 16th and 23rd. The 23rd marks the halfway point of our school year already! Our second trimester ends in early March, and we will be holding parent conferences again during the last week of February and first week of March. I will be getting to you a schedule on which to sign up by early February.
In the meantime, I hope we can all stay healthy during this cold stretch of winter. It is great to see all the warm winter gear coming in for our outside times (though this past week we were not even able to get out there for three days! Augghhh!). I would like to advise everyone to throw an extra pair of warm socks into backpacks. The kids are coming in with sometimes wet and always cold feet - so a dry pair of socks to pull on after a recess is very nice! I will keep you posted on items/events/reminders big and small!
Sincerely, Melanie Hannam
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