Hello, dear 4H families! We have completed our second week of school (and we had some pretty 'tuckered out' kids by Friday afternoon!). I wish everyone a weekend of good rest, so we are all fresh to start out a new week on Monday. We did keep going at a steady pace this past week, getting into our first lessons in every subject area. I will bring you up to date on our work:
Math class has begun with a unit on Geometry. There are lots of new vocabulary words/definitions to learn, and you will see some helpful reminder sheets coming home next week so you can practice a bit more together. It's a fun unit because there is a good amount of sketching and drawing included - a good way to practice that vocabulary. Perhaps more pressing than this unit is our students' recall of the basic facts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Almost everyone is 'rusty' - and if you can even spend just 15 minutes most evenings reviewing facts, it really does make a difference in a hurry. Thank you for your support with this! We start out every class with a 3 minute opportunity to see how many problems we can answer correctly out of the 100 basic facts for each operation. We are keeping track of our scores so we can see them go UP with each passing week. Most weeks you can depend on the following: Mondays: Addition / Tuesdays: Subtraction / Wednesdays: Multiplication / Thursdays: Division / Fridays: We take a look at our progress and hand back the week's pages to put in Take Home Folders so you can see how the week went. I record the scores, and the students do, too - see the back of their Studylink booklet. During the 4th grade year, the math curriculum requires and assumes that students are proficient with all 4 operations - the new skills go SO much easier if our kids are not also struggling to recall their facts.
One more note about math class that is important for you to know: After we introduce and practice the new math skill each day together, our students get the chance to try out the lessons by working in their Journal and Studylink booklets. Most days there is time to begin this work in class. Sometimes they can finish it all in class - BUT I have announced to them that they must still bring home both books each day so you can see what they are working on - please ask them to show and explain it to you! This is another excellent way to reinforce the new concepts. If students cannot complete the items on their pages in class, the rest is to be completed at home. (It is rare for work time on this at home to go over 30 minutes! If it gets to be much longer than 30 to 45 minutes max, then please stop and let me know they worked this long, and I can help them finish in class the next day.) I have told the kids that I never 'grade' this work! I want them to feel ultra comfortable trying out new skills on these pages - the goal here is to try and practice every item, even if they aren't sure they are doing it correctly. You do not have to stress over making sure they are answering everything perfectly. I would like to see every item attempted with their best efforts. Then the next day in class, we take time to go over items together, self checking and correcting pages - which gives each student yet a third chance to practice/review/reinforce their knowledge.
On to our other subjects! In Readers' Workshop we have been happily building our stamina for sustained "pin-drop" quiet reading time - we love it! We are practicing good reading habits and using our Reading Logs to keep track, and our kids have been really enjoying Book Share Time. This gives them the chance to hear what other books classmates are excited about reading, and we have all begun a Wish List of books to keep in our purple reading folders. We should never run out of book ideas this year! We still have until next week Friday, September 19th, to order from the September Scholastic Book Club selections, either online (class activation code is MFRC8) or by sending me a paper copy of the order form with checks made out to Scholastic Book Club. Writers' Workshop has us digging into ideas for writing realistic fiction stories. Our ideas are coming from small moments in our own lives, and we are developing lists of ideas and expanding these ideas into possible story lines with each passing day. We have also begun to write entries into our Thoughtful Logs. These journals are giving each student a chance to reflect upon their own opinions and reactions to what is happening in the books they are reading. This exercise gives our kids more practice with writing skills, and best of all, it gives them practice expressing their thoughts on paper and reflecting more deeply about what they are reading. I really see the value in combining reading and writing whenever possible!
We have begun map study in Social Studies, centering mainly on Wisconsin. We will gradually transition into Wisconsin agriculture in the next weeks as we prepare for our first field trip! It was just confirmed this past week that we are able to attend the World Dairy Expo at the Alliant Energy grounds on October 1st! Permission slips will come home next week with all the details. We can take as many parent chaperones as are able to come (from roughly 11:00 am until 2:30 pm) -- so let me know if you can join us for this special trip! In the past, parents have carpooled from school and met us there, but this year with needing two buses for 4 classes, we think we should have enough room for parents to ride with us. Some parents may still want to drive themselves, and we will be receiving parking vouchers for anyone who does take their own car. I will keep you posted on all details.
Business notes: On Monday, we will be tie dying our new West Middleton T-Shirts! Look for them to come home in a plastic bag with washing instructions. We will all be wearing them for our October Field Trip. Another Picture Day is scheduled for this coming Friday, September 19th, with yet another makeup day to happen in October. On October 3rd in the evening, the PTO is hosting our annual Fall Dance and Pumpkin Sale! Flyers about this event have come home. Please check daily with your student and their Take Home Folders. We've had a lot of mail come home so far this year!!
Thank you for your support at home with good breakfasts and school snacks, gym shoes and socks, long and restful nights' sleeps (hopefully for all of us!), and your guidance with your student's keeping track of papers and assignments. Remember the daily update on the Homework/Reminders page of our classroom blog. I will be back in touch soon! Sincerely, Melanie Hannam
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