Hello, dear families! It's time for an update here, and then in two to three weeks we will get to visit in person with your 4th grader about their progress. They have each brought home a bright orange sheet confirming your conference times, so hang on to that. Thank you for your prompt replies and flexibility!
A couple more special dates to keep in mind -- we will celebrate our next Reward Day on Friday, February 10th. The kids voted to wear comfy clothes, bring a small pillow/blanket to spread out for extra reading time, and have lunch together in our classroom. We also agreed on one hour of the day devoted to games, both board type and - with your permission and knowledge - they may bring in an Ipad or Ipod to play appropriate games. We will also be doing some art, watch a nature video, and treat ourselves to hot cider from my crockpot. It took some extra time this round to gather our required 30 Classroom Pride Paws to qualify for this day, so this is a hard won accomplishment for us. Also, on Tuesday, February 14th, we will take our last class period to exchange valentine cards - hopefully you saw the class list of names that came home during the past week. We have a couple of moms who have volunteered to bring us a healthy snack for this time, and we are centering our celebration particularly on KINDNESS, which is a special focus for all of our classrooms this month. Also, Monday, February 20th, is a Professional Development Day, and there will no classes for students that day.
In Writer's Workshop, we have completed authoring our own "How To.../Informational Books. To wrap up this unit, and to show how well each student has learned to impart organized and engaging information about a topic, our 4th graders will be writing an "on demand' piece of informational writing this coming Monday. They have 45 minutes to write on a topic of their choice, and they may bring in a source to help them with their information if they choose. Please look for a half sheet in Take Home Folders from Friday explaining this writing activity. If you can talk this over with your 4th grader to give them a chance to explain what they have chosen for their topic, and how they plan to explain 'how to' do an activity or task (such as how to play a certain game, or prepare a certain recipe, or create a craft item....), this will help them be ready. Thank you!
We are so wrapped up in our class Read Aloud book, Number The Stars, in Readers' Workshop, that we can barely stand to put the book down. The thoughtful discussions, questions, musings, and predictions from our students get deeper and richer as we go along, which is why these sessions are my favorite part of the day! Our students are also finding some of their favorite books to read independently in this Historical Fiction genre, and as they review them with each other, they are inspiring their classmates to line up to be the next one to read their book. So fun!
We are getting to the last week or so of Unit 4 in our Bridges Math. Our work has centered on subtraction strategies and also measurement (metric and customary) in the form of length, time, liquid volume, and mass/capacity. Some of our students are finding that they need extra practice with their 'borrowing' skills, so any help there at home would be so helpful. I would also like to put in a word again about spending time with your 4th grader in practicing their skill with the basic multiplication and division facts. As we have explored all the strategies of using these operations with fractions and decimals, and our increased exposure to word problems, it is discouraging for your student to discover they get the new concept but are held back or slowed down because they can't recall their basic facts. Your support at home can make such a big difference!
Some 'housekeeping': Monday will be Take Home Folder inspection day, so would you make time to go through papers that may have collected here WITH your 4th grader? While you are at it, may I suggest that this cleaning out activity also extend to backpacks? Hopefully, you don't discover any icky surprises, but from a little of what I've seen, you may be in for some! :) Also, the plan to include a clean, dry pair of extra socks would be a very good idea for many of our kids - after the noon hour recess, there are many wet and cold feet trekking back into the classroom. Some students also don't have a dry pair of shoes to put on if they came in boots and don't have an extra pair at school for gym. We have some messy, cold winter weeks still ahead. Thanks!
Sometime in March, we plan to take all of our 4th graders to tour our State Capitol building and visit the Wisconsin Historical Museum, so stay tuned for those plans. March will also bring you the second report card after the 2nd Trimester ends on March 10th, and the last week of that month is our Spring Break week.
I will continue to send home quick reminders and announcements in the meantime, but I look forward to gathering with you soon at conference time with you and your 4th grader. Sincerely, Melanie Hannam
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