Hello, 4H Families! The last day of February already! May March become the turning point in this difficult winter! As I 'speedwalked' my way across the cold MHS parking lot back to my car after our choral concert tonight, I thought of how our West Middleton families filled that large theater to capacity, and felt so proud to be a part of it - we have a wonderful, supportive community of families, and we don't let these frozen Wisconsin conditions stop us.
Yesterday, we had just a great day touring around the marble floors of our State Capitol Building - sitting in the padded chairs of our government leaders, and craning our necks to see the huge murals and priceless architecture covering every wall and ceiling, hearing the stories that make it all so meaningful. Then we toured four floors of the Wisconsin Historical Museum, and it was like entering a time machine for our state's past. Our students soaked up as much information as they could hold, and combined with our studies of the past several weeks, they have become 4th grade experts on Wisconsin's history and heritage. I want to express many thanks to our chaperones for helping to make this day go as smoothly as it possibly could: Mr. Sisk, Mrs. Pansegrau, Mr. Bernier, Mrs. Faucher.
I look forward to visiting with you and your 4th grader over the next two weeks as we meet for conferences. The second trimester officially ends on March 7th, and we will then work on completing our grade reports and getting report cards ready to send home within the next two weeks after that. Spring Break will end our month of March (3/24 to 3/28). Next week as we begin the new month, we will all be celebrating Literacy Week! You have hopefully seen the email I sent with the details of each day attached - Monday, March 3rd, will contain DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read) for our entire building at the same time - we will ALL be reading! On Tuesday, we are planning an assembly which will bring some our students' writing to life - some of our teachers-turned-actors will be performing original student stories. On Wednesday, we all hope to wear some clothing featuring WORDS, and on Thursday, plans are being made to swap teachers to read to other classrooms, and to swap books. If you have any books at home that you are ready to pass along to other readers, your student can bring them to school and then choose someone's else book to take home. On Friday, we can dress up like our favorite book character, and we will start the day with a parade around the halls!
These activities will provide many great camera opportunities, and that brings me to the next reminder - West Middleton Yearbooks can now be ordered!! The order form went home this past week, and we have until March 14th to send in our orders. This will be the last West Middleton Yearbook for your student! They will receive them on one of the last days of school in June, and we always give everyone time to sign each others' books.
We are almost ready to send out our second pen pal letter to our new high school friends in the National Honor Society. This has been an excellent and motivating writing activity for our kids, and SO much fun to receive those replies! We have been promised another return letter before Spring Break. We are also finishing our rough drafts for our Realistic Fiction Stories, and will head into the computer labs next week to type up the final draft, giving everyone much needed keyboard practice. In reading we have been researching and note taking in Informational Books about Wisconsin's history, and will now organize our information into a poster presentation. Next on the agenda: Literary Essays and Historical Fiction Book Clubs! Math classes are all taking the Unit 7 final tests this week, and we all begin Unit 8 next week. (Fourth graders get to divide up some real pizzas early next week in celebration of completing our unit on fractions - we will be sharing with our fifth grade math classmates as well...) Mrs. Bertz has sent home your student's last Science Test recently, so take a look at that.
As more news and information comes around, I will be sure to keep you updated. Remember to check your student's Take Home Folder for important notices - it seems like we have been sending more of these notices home lately! Feel free to email me any time if you wonder about any details. Jump Rope For Heart and the annual PTO Bowl-A-Thon are two more events that are coming very soon - see those details in the Folders as well. See you all very soon! Melanie Hannam
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