Hello to all! I must say, it was a special week of feeling appreciated! I came to our classroom Monday morning with a newly decorated door crawling with personalized little Pac Man ghosties - it was "a Maze ing". Thank you to the creative moms who put this all together - Trisha P. and Stephanie R. In addition, our staff was very well fed all week long with breakfast, desserts, and two incredible lunches. I love getting handwritten notes from our kids - they are precious. Thank you all!
Speaking of gifts, your son or daughter will need to do some explaining when Mom opens her decorated envelope for Mother's Day. We 4th grade teachers tried something new this year - and we will all have to wait and see if this is a successful venture. I can't explain any more now, in case you have to wait till Sunday to see what I'm referring to! I told the kids that an additional gift would be if they took responsibility for the 'care' of this gift... Let me know if anyone experiences any successful 'sprouting'!
We have already conquered Unit 10 in math, and took the final test today. Watch for the test next week to sign and return. We will begin Unit 11 on Monday. We will continue to meet in all of our math groups, 4th and 5th, through Friday, May 31st.
Our Writing Project for creating Informational Booklets on a topic of interest, in order to teach other classmates, has been a major activity this past week. We have been taking advantage of the new Chromebooks in our school, which are like small laptops. At the same time, everyone can do research for their topic and take notes, saving articles and pictures to their own Google Drive accounts. We cannot print from the Chromebooks, but by saving their material in Google Docs, they can access this material at computers in our computer lab, or at home, and get pictures printed from there. I have been encouraging our students to take time at home to research, take notes, and print pictures in addition to time at school. There is never enough time to do it all in class. The kids love working with the Chromebooks, and the time we have them goes way too fast. Next week we will have to decide on a deadline for note-taking, and get to the process of creating their booklets. Thank you for helping your student get time on a home computer, if possible, to gather information for their note cards. If any parent would like to come in for 45 to 60 minutes one or two days next week, to help some of our students gather information and take notes, that would be so very helpful. It is difficult for me to get to everyone who needs assistance with notes and printing. Just email me if you can help, and we can look at times and days. Thank you!
An update on upcoming field trips: We are all set to spend the full school day on Monday, June 3rd, at the Cave of the Mounds. Any and all parents who want to spend the day with us at this special place can do so, and follow our buses in your cars. Some of you have let me know you plan to come - please email me if you want to chaperone, too. Details with a permission slip are coming home soon. Our other outing was to be for the morning of June 4th at Pope Farm Park. That day needed to be rescheduled due to the conflict with the MHS Senior Class trip (no buses available for us!). However, we got rescheduled to June 3rd! At this time, I am trying to coordinate new plans with one of the naturalists with the Pope Farm Program, so I will let you all know as soon as I can if we can still make something work. As it is now, June 4th will be a regular day in class for us.
Our final Scholastic Book Order is due this Monday, May 13th. Another deadline is Friday, May 17th, the last day we collect Box Tops and Food Donations toward our building goal of 12,000 total items. We send Mr. Macklem to the West Middleton rooftop for a day if we succeed! Also, if you have a 4th grader interested in performing in a 4th grade (only) talent show on the afternoon of May 31st, the deadline for turning in audition/permission slips is Wednesday, May 15th.
May you enjoy family time this Mother's Day weekend! Melanie
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