January 25, 2013 Weekly Update

Hello, dear families, we have had a much healthier week than the previous week - in fact, pretty much perfect attendance!  We worked hard to catch everyone up on our work and to keep going on our subjects.  I felt moved to tell our students by the last hour on Friday that they should feel proud of how much they had done - the many pages read (several of our kids are really into their books!), the many lines written for their fictional stories, and the new math all groups have begun with the start of new units occuring for everyone this week.  For our 4th grade math students, the big focus in this unit is learning the steps in long division problems, and we will be devoting extra time both in school and for homework to get in additional practice as we add steps each day.

In social studies we are winding up our study of Wisconsin regions, and with an eye toward our upcoming field trip, we want to explore our state's earliest people and settlers, along with some background on our government and capitol.  We want to be prepared to understand and fully appreciate what we will see on (take note!) Friday, February 22nd, when all of our 4th grade classes will tour the Capitol building and also the Wisconsin Historical Museum.  Very soon you will have a permission slip to fill out for this trip, and a chance to come along to chaperone -so think about it! 

We said goodbye to our practicum student, Ms. Engel, on Friday, since it is time for her to return to college to continue her education classes.  She quickly became a part of our 4H family over the past three weeks, and helped every single one of us in many supportive ways with our work.  She got a thorough immersion into life in a 4th grade classroom, and we have another friend to add to our 4th grade memories.  With one friend leaving us, I must not neglect any longer to introduce you to a new classmate who joined us this month.  We have welcomed a new student into our room, Yessenia.  It has been heartwarming to watch how kind and friendly our students have been to help her feel at home and comfortable in a new school and new group of classmates.  We are now a class of 25!

As of the end of this week, we are now at the official halfway point of our school year!  Along with academic progress, we are also focusing strongly in all of our fourth grade rooms on self control, respect for teachers and classmates, listening skills, and making sure we work to the BEST of our abilities.  I will venture to say that these four areas go farther in developing a successful school year and career more than anything else.  Please talk over what these behaviors mean to your student.  There is much room for improvement, and as we get into the second half of our year, we expect to see some real growth.  Thank you.  Melanie Hannam