Hello to all our "4H" families! We have had a satisfying week of work and fun. You probably heard about the 'fun' part pretty quickly after school today! We DID take first place in the four week contest to collect the most Box Tops For Education at West Middleton! The kids screamed and danced with excitement when the announcement was made this afternoon. Congratulations to our determined fourth graders who never slowed down in their quest to collect from every friend and relative they could find! I am so glad their efforts can be rewarded - even if it does mean a cream pie in my face next week! It will also mean a cream pie for Mr. Rykal's face, and a pizza party for the whole class. It will be a blast! Thank you to all of you who supported the kids' efforts. This contest coordinated by our PTO will result in some new equipment for our playground - and most likely some fun memories of their teacher and principal covered in cream pie!
We began our week on Monday with a trip for six students from our room (20 4th graders total from WM) and myself to the beautiful new Union South on the UW campus for OM (Odyssey of the Mind) Day Away. It was a day full of sessions where teams of 4th graders needed to team up and cooperate to succeed at tasks that required some thinking 'outside the box' along with good leadership skills and lessons in the value of collaboration. Our students will all get the chance to participate in this program again when they are seventh graders. Mrs. Andler was our guest teacher that day, and our class got started on making posters of all the Wisconsin State Symbols they could find. (There are more than you might think!) By the end of this week, all our students have completed colorful posters which now decorate the hallway near our classroom door. They are now experts at many symbols which identify important features of our state. We also spent an entire hour this week poring over maps of our state, giving each other tours and directions to favorite places all over Wisconsin. What a great way it's been to become more adept at giving and receiving directions (and all without a GPS, thank you!) and in learning where places are in our great state. This is only the beginning of our exploration and desktop travel.
In math, we began Unit 4, which covers decimal numbers - learning their place value, their equivalent fractions, ordering them, adding and subtracting them, estimating their value... We have a solid start. Please ask your student to show you their journals and explain what they are learning. This is a valuable way to reinforce the new lessons they are receiving, and will give purpose to my 'rule' that even if they have completed the assignments in school that day, they must bring home their workbooks so that they can demonstrate to you the new concepts. I believe this will give the clear message that this is important work for them, and that we all care that they do their best. Remember that you can check the Homework Page on our classroom blog for daily updates on homework assignments and all other reminders. Speaking of our blog site, did you catch the Electricity Experiment Video clip on the main page that I posted last week? I love how the students were so engaged and focused on their 'research'. They looked like serious scientists!
In Literacy, we have been practicing a list of 20 homonyms that I've collected after reading through writing journals the past several weeks. These lists should all be located within their take-home folders so it is accessible both at home and at school to practice. We will have a spelling test on these words next week on Wednesday. We have also begun short silent reading sessions with each student's current chapter book, and then writing several sentences to share with the class about 'what just happened'. It is giving us more writing experience, practice with comprehension skills, and also a great way to book share and give ideas to the rest of us for the next good book we want to read.
Looking ahead, next Wednesday from 12:35 to 1:00 pm, we would love to meet all of you in our West Middleton Winter Wonderland - the multipurpose room - for our annual Winter Tea. it will be a nice way to share some goodies, have some visiting time with each other, and take some pictures together, too. The PTO always decorates the room beautifully, and there will be live holiday music from MHS orchestra students. We all hope you can come! Another note: The first trimester report cards will go home on Friday, December 9th. Please sign the envelope and return them the next week. Thank you!
Wednesday, December 21, it will be our last day of school before Winter Break. Our class would like to celebrate the holiday and each other with a little party, beginning at 2:00 pm. If you are able to help out with providing a treat, planning an activity (game or small art project), or just being there to give a hand, we would love that! We have one volunteer to help out already, Mary Hoferle. Would you let me know how you can add to the festivities, if possible? Thanks so very much!
I will see many of you next week! Melanie Hannam
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