Greetings to our 4H Families! Has your 4th grader shown you one of the coolest things to come out of his/her Take Home Folder all year yet?? On Friday, we received back the first letter from our Middleton High School Pen Pals! What a delight! Early in January we accepted the invitation from members of the National Honor Society to become pen pals with them, and we wrote our first letter to them. Their replies are beautiful letters, and it was SO exciting to hand everyone their own personalized letter from a new high school friend. This coming week we will answer them back and become even better acquainted. Oh, what a fun time it will be at the end of school year when we can all meet in person! For now, what a wonderful opportunity for some really motivating writing!! :)
In other writing news, in our Workshop we have been busy 'plotting' our realistic fiction stories. It is probably the first time most of our students have done so much note-taking and list-making before they launch into a creative writing project - it will be so interesting for them to see how this affects their actual first draft writing experience. My hope is that their stories become more focused and orderly and follow the 'story mountain' (ask your child for an explanation of what this is!). We have been analyzing well thought-out characters, settings, and conflict development and resolution that makes real world sense!
In Reader's Workshop, we have launched a new unit, reading Informational texts of ALL kinds, researching and grouping relevant facts for subtopics on the broad subject of Wisconsin Government! This is perfect timing, since we are approaching this topic in Social Studies now, AND we will be going to the State Capitol Building and WI Historical Museum on February 26th. Our students should be fully prepared with background knowledge by then! You have received the permission slip for our trip, and please remember to return the bottom half of this slip along with $2.00 for the Museum entrance as soon as you can. Thank you! I would love to have any number of parents come along for these two tours, so do let me know if you can chaperone on this day. You would need to bring along a lunch, and perhaps carpool together from school. (Our three 4th grade classes fit just right on one school bus.) I will divide our class into small groups for each of you for the day. We are due by 10:00 am at the Information Desk on the first floor of the Capitol to meet our tour guide, will get to meet with Representative Dianne Hesselbein at 10:45, lunch at the Museum at 11:30, and then tour with another guide from 12 to 1:00, with an extra half hour to take our own small groups to other areas of the Museum before getting back on buses at 1:30. Please see the top half of the permission slip for these details. I hope you can come! (If you are chaperoning, I would also need $2.00 for your Museum admission ahead of time, just like our students - thank you!)
In Math Class, our Unit 7 for 4th grade students deals with Fractions! We do a lot of hands-on practice with pattern blocks to get a full understanding of the concepts. Students should be bringing home their two workbooks every single day, even if they feel they have finished pages in class for their homework. It would be SO valuable for them if you would ask them to explain what their lesson was about that day - the true sign they are understanding. It may take a couple of days of work on some lessons before they fully 'get' it, but so far we are off to a solid start. By this halfway point in the school year, we are also down to our last few students who have not been able to answer within 3 minutes the 100 basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The first two operations should have been mastered long before this, and the last two should be at least 75 problems and more by now. PLEASE give your student some extra practice help most evenings - just 10 to 15 minutes does make a big difference. They should continually be recording their latest scores on a previously blank page in the back of their Studylink books, so do take a look!
We will be able to share about your 4th graders progress in all subjects early in March. Coming home early this next week will be the sign up sheet for a time to conference with your student and with me in March. Please mark your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices for a time, and return that paper just as soon as you can and I will reserve a spot for you. When I have received all of your replies, I will send back a copy of the master schedule. That will come in handy if you need to make a trade with another family - just let me know if that happens. A heads up: I am planning on after school times on March 3rd and 4th, and also March 10th and 11th. (I must attend a workshop out of town all day on March 6th, which is one of our building conference dates - therefore the change in my schedule for our own class families). Thank you!
One last note about upcoming events - Valentine's Day! On Friday, the 14th, we will have a class party for the last 40 minutes of our day. We have several moms coming in to help with a game, and some treats, and we are all set with plans for both. The students may exchange cards at this time also (not a 'required' activity for every student). We will be decorating some big envelopes beforehand. Also, February Scholastic Book Order Forms are coming home this week - stay tuned for the deadline to order online or through the paper catalog form. Last month, the free books I was able to order for our classroom with our Bonus Points, thanks to your own orders, were so popular, I had to draw name sticks to decide who got to read the new books first!
I will continue to keep you informed through this very busy month! Sincerely, Melanie Hannam
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