Hello to all of our 4H families! We are looking at the last days of January already, and find ourselves immersed in such a wide variety of topics and activities. It surely does make our days fly by. In math, all 4th graders took the Unit 5 test by week's end. You should see the results coming home in the next week for your signature and return of the test papers back to school, so we may keep them organized in folders for conference time in March. Your support with extra practice on multi-digit multiplication has made a difference with this new skill, and if you could continue to throw some problems like these in front of your student regularly during the coming weeks, that will grow their comfort level and efficiency (as well as provide the needed extra practice with basic facts - still very important for most!). I have been thrilled with the renewed enthusiasm by many of our kids for reaching their goal of correctly answering 100 basic facts in each of the operations within 3 minutes. Bringing home their first semester statistics and seeing their numbers graphed out on a plot line made it very clear that some extra effort is needed by many. The payoff for those who did put in the extra practice was evident this week in a big way for several students - we had some exciting rises in scores! Woohoo! We can't emphasize enough how important proficiency in all the basic facts will smooth the way for success in math classes for the coming years in school. On one extra note, you should notice a new blue sheet of 100 division facts in your student's take home folder sent home Friday. We had been using a sheet with 80 division facts up to this point, and it always bothered me that we weren't using a full selection of facts like the other three operations. So I did raise the bar with use of the new sheet this week, and it did force many students who had proudly achieved their 'perfect 80' to adjust to a new goal (not without some groans and complaints). We discussed it together and ended up with mostly good natured resignation to Mrs. Hannam's 'adjustment' - and a few students found they were able to reach well over 80 facts in 3 minutes with the first try on Friday! A few more weeks, and I know many others will have reached their new goal level.
In social studies and science, the current news about a significant 'solar storm' on the sun and the resulting effect on earth with the aurora borealis gave us a chance to see some spectacular video and still shots through our computer and smartboard setup in the classroom (the perfect intro to our study of the solar system). Closer to home, we have been back to our maps of Wisconsin, now identifying five distinct regions of our state, comparing and contrasting their features, and learning more about the Great Lakes. We could spend all day on these topics and the related subjects and questions that come up in our study and discussions. We were still able to carve out quality time to write this week - each student has begun a writing project creating a family who 'lives' on the Fantasy Island they mapped out this past month, and the adventure this family experiences on their own island. Jotting down some notes and details before beginning the rough draft made it easier to get started on the story writing.
The results from this week's spelling test was a mixed bag. There are those in class who should be discovering that they are not spending enough time preparing and practicing their new words! Future lists will come with additional homework requirements to guide students' study! ;)
Art class is in our news this week! Mrs. Hyland taught our kids a Japanese artform involving handmade looms and yarns and a fancy way of braiding, and everyone just couldn't put these projects down once they started! To see what has our kids excited and to see some of our students being interviewed, please go to Mrs. Hyland's website: www.artsmarties.tumblr.com Also, in music, Ms. Bodell has brought in an artist-in-residence with expertise in drumming! The sounds coming from that classroom are amazing - ask your kids about that experience.
If you want to help our class with our next holiday celebration, we will be holding a Valentine's Party in our room on Monday, February 13th, from around 2:00pm till close that day. We have chosen this date because the following day on the 14th, we have a CRT Day, and students will be heading home by 11:00am already! Please let me or Sharon Pertzborn-Jensen know if you would like to contribute a snack, guide a game, or just come and hang with us and help out with serving. Students will be able to distribute valentine cards to each other during this time. I will send home with each student a class list of names - and please remember to include everyone if cards are given out.
One other news note: BOX TOPS are back!!!! The PTO is promoting one more collection contest for the entire month of February. It sounds like our class wants to hold on to our Championship status, soooo...... it is scrounging and begging time again! Thank you! The first contest netted $900 worth to go toward West Middleton's playground equipment goals.
I will be back in touch next week! Thanks for reading, and don't forget that the homework page on our classroom blog is updated every day right after school. Sincerely, Melanie Hannam
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
January 20, 2012 Weekly Update
Snowy, wintery greetings to you all! It was a very cold week with some indoor recesses, which the kids handled very well, but they were quite excited to get out into the new snow this afternoon for the last recess. On the first really cold day, we treated ourselves to some hot chocolate with marshmallows from my trusty old crockpot while we worked. Our Fantasy Island Maps are now laminated and will get displayed next week. We are now into tracing the path of the Ice Age Trail (did you know it crosses the whole state through 30 of Wisconsin's 72 counties!?), and digging deeper into glacial landforms. Wisconsin's neighbors, including the Great Lakes, are also on our agenda these days (some of us want to go kayaking along Lake Superior's gorgeous rocky shoreline! :) ).
Math classes forge ahead with Unit 5 and double digit multiplication and their first lesson in exponential notation. If you are able to give your student some extra problems with double digit numbers times two or three digit numbers, that would be a helpful boost. We expect to take the unit test by the end of next week. Most students can proudly say that this week saw many of their highest scores with their 3 minute timed basic facts practice. Please look with your student at the first semester's collection of facts sheets, along with the tally of their scores, and especially the graphs they made for each operation which reflects their progress most clearly. These papers all came home today, and they can remain at home. We will start a new collection for second semester beginning on Tuesday. Graphing their results quickly made it easy for them to see the rise and fall of their scores, and there was much excitement over some dramatically rising plot lines. Others saw some rather flat lines, which hopefully will prompt them to kick into some extra practice each day.
Over the last two weeks of shuffling descriptive words around and shaping them into lines of 5 and 7 syllables, our class produced dozens of Haiku poems! It was a very positive experience, as students found it easier with each session to write descriptive phrases and fit them into the Haiku format. I am so proud of the progress I witnessed toward more descriptive writing. I told the class that even if none of us ends up with a 'winning' Haiku in the Dane County contest, I definitely consider them all winners with the beautiful writing they have collected. Every poem, whether 'submitted' or not, is now typed and contained in a special section in their language binders to be saved.
With school back in session next Tuesday, January 24th, we welcome the second semester of 4th grade. Most of the kids say they can't believe we are halfway into the year already, and I agree! We have covered so many really interesting topics in all our various subject areas, and yet as we investigate new concepts and ideas, facts and places, each lesson leads us into numerous other avenues for new investigations and research. The joy of discovery and new knowledge is definitely alive in Room 117. So much to learn and so little time! Until next week, Melanie Hannam
Math classes forge ahead with Unit 5 and double digit multiplication and their first lesson in exponential notation. If you are able to give your student some extra problems with double digit numbers times two or three digit numbers, that would be a helpful boost. We expect to take the unit test by the end of next week. Most students can proudly say that this week saw many of their highest scores with their 3 minute timed basic facts practice. Please look with your student at the first semester's collection of facts sheets, along with the tally of their scores, and especially the graphs they made for each operation which reflects their progress most clearly. These papers all came home today, and they can remain at home. We will start a new collection for second semester beginning on Tuesday. Graphing their results quickly made it easy for them to see the rise and fall of their scores, and there was much excitement over some dramatically rising plot lines. Others saw some rather flat lines, which hopefully will prompt them to kick into some extra practice each day.
Over the last two weeks of shuffling descriptive words around and shaping them into lines of 5 and 7 syllables, our class produced dozens of Haiku poems! It was a very positive experience, as students found it easier with each session to write descriptive phrases and fit them into the Haiku format. I am so proud of the progress I witnessed toward more descriptive writing. I told the class that even if none of us ends up with a 'winning' Haiku in the Dane County contest, I definitely consider them all winners with the beautiful writing they have collected. Every poem, whether 'submitted' or not, is now typed and contained in a special section in their language binders to be saved.
With school back in session next Tuesday, January 24th, we welcome the second semester of 4th grade. Most of the kids say they can't believe we are halfway into the year already, and I agree! We have covered so many really interesting topics in all our various subject areas, and yet as we investigate new concepts and ideas, facts and places, each lesson leads us into numerous other avenues for new investigations and research. The joy of discovery and new knowledge is definitely alive in Room 117. So much to learn and so little time! Until next week, Melanie Hannam
Friday, January 13, 2012
January 13, 2012 Weekly Update
Hello again to all our 4H families. The kids were all very happy and excited to see that snow collect this week! Recess has become a whole new experience (and our hallway cubbies are stuffed with dripping snow clothes and boots). Many are finding out it is a good idea to pack some extra socks and an extra pair of shoes for back in the classroom, and extra dry gloves, a cap, a sweatshirt... This time of year also reveals some needs for students who do not have adequate gear for this weather. If you go through closets and storage containers and find outgrown winter coats, boots, snowpants, and any extra hats and mittens/gloves, our school could use these items to help some in need. Our social worker has discovered particular need for snowpants and coats in sizes 8, 10-12, 14-16. If you send any clothing in with your student, I will make sure it gets to the right place. Thank you so much!
Inside Room 117, we stay warm and busy as we spend our time investigating moraines, drumlins, eskers, and other glacial features in Wisconsin. We have been learning that we all happen to live in a unique and special area of Wisconsin, and we wish we could head out and follow the Ice Age Trail across our beautiful state. We have also spent our week during writing classes gathering up many long lists of descriptive words in nature, putting them together and gradually forming phrases into 3 lines of Haiku poetry. The first one took some real effort, but we noticed that each time we went back to our 'word-smithing' the ideas and words came together more easily, and by the end of the week, many students proudly had multiple poems printed out neatly on final draft paper. Next week we will get them typed up properly, and be able to submit our best ones in the Haiku contest being held for 4th graders in Dane County. Stay tuned. This week also saw very encouraging progress for a good number of our students in achieving their highest scores for 3 minutes of math basic facts testing - it is obvious some are kicking into extra practice time, and it is showing up already! We also took our next spelling test and we had the highest number of correct words we have had yet! Our Fantasy Island maps are turning out beautifully and most are now ready to be laminated and mounted in the hallway this coming week. It was an important week in math class as well, with our students learning and practicing double digit multiplication. We are giving them the opportunity to learn the partial products algorithm, as well as the lattice method, but we are expecting them to demonstrate their ability to use the traditional method on most assignments and the final unit test.
We spent an hour on Monday in the computer lab taking the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) Reading Assessment, and next week we will take the Mathematics Assessment. I am able to immediately receive a description of skills that each student has demonstrated are secure for him/her, skills that should currently be at their instructional level, and skills that are next to develop. There is much to analyze in these reports, and they will give me more direction for my instruction within these subjects.
We talked in class this week how amazing it is that next week's end will bring us to the halfway mark of our 4th grade year already! We can't believe it! Time surely does fly when we are having fun - and working hard! Thanks for all of your support from home with your student's efforts. It is such a joy to dig in to our work each and every day together. Till next week's note - (remember there is no school both of the next two Mondays, the 16th and the 23rd) - Sincerely, Melanie
Inside Room 117, we stay warm and busy as we spend our time investigating moraines, drumlins, eskers, and other glacial features in Wisconsin. We have been learning that we all happen to live in a unique and special area of Wisconsin, and we wish we could head out and follow the Ice Age Trail across our beautiful state. We have also spent our week during writing classes gathering up many long lists of descriptive words in nature, putting them together and gradually forming phrases into 3 lines of Haiku poetry. The first one took some real effort, but we noticed that each time we went back to our 'word-smithing' the ideas and words came together more easily, and by the end of the week, many students proudly had multiple poems printed out neatly on final draft paper. Next week we will get them typed up properly, and be able to submit our best ones in the Haiku contest being held for 4th graders in Dane County. Stay tuned. This week also saw very encouraging progress for a good number of our students in achieving their highest scores for 3 minutes of math basic facts testing - it is obvious some are kicking into extra practice time, and it is showing up already! We also took our next spelling test and we had the highest number of correct words we have had yet! Our Fantasy Island maps are turning out beautifully and most are now ready to be laminated and mounted in the hallway this coming week. It was an important week in math class as well, with our students learning and practicing double digit multiplication. We are giving them the opportunity to learn the partial products algorithm, as well as the lattice method, but we are expecting them to demonstrate their ability to use the traditional method on most assignments and the final unit test.
We spent an hour on Monday in the computer lab taking the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) Reading Assessment, and next week we will take the Mathematics Assessment. I am able to immediately receive a description of skills that each student has demonstrated are secure for him/her, skills that should currently be at their instructional level, and skills that are next to develop. There is much to analyze in these reports, and they will give me more direction for my instruction within these subjects.
We talked in class this week how amazing it is that next week's end will bring us to the halfway mark of our 4th grade year already! We can't believe it! Time surely does fly when we are having fun - and working hard! Thanks for all of your support from home with your student's efforts. It is such a joy to dig in to our work each and every day together. Till next week's note - (remember there is no school both of the next two Mondays, the 16th and the 23rd) - Sincerely, Melanie
Saturday, January 7, 2012
January 6, 2012 Weekly Update
Happy New Year to all of you! I hope your holiday vacation time was a memorable one for your family. My family created some wonderful memories together by going to the Playa del Carmen area of Mexico, and the time we spent having fun with our daughters was precious. I was also very happy to get back together with my "4H" kids back at school on January 3rd! I missed them! We filled our first week back with lots of activity, that's for sure!
They are enjoying their 'Fantasy Island' map project, and final drafts are being perfected. We should be able to mount them on the hallway wall next week! It was actually suggested by some of the students that we should write a story about the communities they've created! Well, I jumped right onto that idea! What a great way to extend this map skills activity into a new writing experience! We are also transitioning to the study of how Wisconsin's landforms have been influenced by glaciers, and that leads us to comparing and contrasting the different regions of our state. Somewhere with all this investigation going on, we will also begin our new science unit centering on the planets, sun, moon, and stars. Hmm, maybe we need to add an extra hour to our school day!
It's been a week since we've begun practicing the current spelling list, and we are scheduled to take that test on Tuesday of next week. Many of our students could use some extra practice and quizzing at home to be better prepared for this. I have instructed them to keep the printed list of words in their Take Home Folder, so that it is always with them at home and at school. In math, we began Unit 5 upon returning from the Break, and so far students seem to be grasping the new concepts of extending large numbers in order to add and multiply them. This unit is where it will hit hard if students are still shaky on their basic multiplication facts. I have noticed some students have been putting in some extra effort to practice their basic facts, and it shows! Others need to kick into some extra practice as well, and it will make a very big difference with all their math work. If families could manage to set up a regular 10 to 15 minute time most evenings to use flashcards or the 100-Facts sheets that were sent home (you can ask for more from class if you need them), it would be SO helpful. This is the year to nail all basic facts skills down for quick recall.
The West Middleton Geography Bee will be held next Friday, January 13, at 8:40 am in the multipurpose room. Representatives from each of the upper grade rooms have been announced, and our representative is David Pertzborn-Jensen! Congratulations to him, and we will all be there to support him and cheer him on. Another academic contest is coming along, and that is one involving the writing of Haiku poetry. We have begun our preliminary introduction to this Japanese form of poetry, which involves descriptions of topics in nature! These are great poems with which to begin a study of poetry and writing in general, because skill with description is important, and these poems are only 3 lines long, with each line allowed only 5 syllables, then 7 syllables, and then 5 syllables again. So you may await some beautifully descriptive writing coming home during this month.
You should have found a letter from Mr. Rykal in Take Home Folders this past week describing the MAP Assessments (Measures of Academic Progress), which all district students in grades 2 through 5 will be participating in the next two weeks. We will be taking these assessments in the areas of Reading and Mathematics, with each test taking a maximum of one hour. Our class will go to the computer lab for each of these multiple choice tests, and each student chooses the correct answers by a click of the mouse. What makes these assessments unique and especially helpful is that they are adaptive - meaning that once students start answering, the computer adapts each subsequent question in response to how accurately the students answers the previous question. If they respond correctly, difficulty of questions eases upward. If they respond incorrectly, difficulty will ease down. Eventually a skill level is reached which is considered 'instructional' meaning they are at a level where they are likely to get about half the questions at this difficulty correct. As teachers, we are able to immediately receive a report that lists actual skills in reading and math which identifies what our students are secure with, which skills are currently appropriate to be teaching them, and which skills would be next to come. We can better target instruction for each child - since the test is customized (we have described it to the kids this way: "The computer builds the test just for you."), we can then design our instruction for the particular needs of each student. We really like how the results are immediate, so we can start with this information right away. The information is saved, so that when we do this again late in April/early May, we can track their growth, and on through the next years. If you have any further questions about MAP, just let me or Mr. Rykal know. The plan is to begin this winter, and by next school year, this assessment will take place three times per school year, able to track skill growth and progress over the years through middle school.
This past Friday, our classroom enjoyed a PIZZA lunch in our room, compliments of the WM PTO! We had earned this treat by winning the Box Tops contest, and I must say - pepperoni pizza tastes a lot better than soggy cream pie running down my face! :) We hear that another contest will take place later this year, so our students are excited to keep collecting. Keep your eyes open for Box Tops, and your scissors handy! (We have begun our new 'stash' in my desk drawer!)
A housekeeping note: Would you be so kind as to send in more Kleenex boxes and possibly, more Chlorox Wipes? We have run out of the supply with which we started our school year. Thank you for your donations to keeping our classroom as healthy as we can make it! Until next week - enjoy clear, dry roads like I am (though I know some kids with new snowboards and sleds aren't so happy!) Melanie Hannam
They are enjoying their 'Fantasy Island' map project, and final drafts are being perfected. We should be able to mount them on the hallway wall next week! It was actually suggested by some of the students that we should write a story about the communities they've created! Well, I jumped right onto that idea! What a great way to extend this map skills activity into a new writing experience! We are also transitioning to the study of how Wisconsin's landforms have been influenced by glaciers, and that leads us to comparing and contrasting the different regions of our state. Somewhere with all this investigation going on, we will also begin our new science unit centering on the planets, sun, moon, and stars. Hmm, maybe we need to add an extra hour to our school day!
It's been a week since we've begun practicing the current spelling list, and we are scheduled to take that test on Tuesday of next week. Many of our students could use some extra practice and quizzing at home to be better prepared for this. I have instructed them to keep the printed list of words in their Take Home Folder, so that it is always with them at home and at school. In math, we began Unit 5 upon returning from the Break, and so far students seem to be grasping the new concepts of extending large numbers in order to add and multiply them. This unit is where it will hit hard if students are still shaky on their basic multiplication facts. I have noticed some students have been putting in some extra effort to practice their basic facts, and it shows! Others need to kick into some extra practice as well, and it will make a very big difference with all their math work. If families could manage to set up a regular 10 to 15 minute time most evenings to use flashcards or the 100-Facts sheets that were sent home (you can ask for more from class if you need them), it would be SO helpful. This is the year to nail all basic facts skills down for quick recall.
The West Middleton Geography Bee will be held next Friday, January 13, at 8:40 am in the multipurpose room. Representatives from each of the upper grade rooms have been announced, and our representative is David Pertzborn-Jensen! Congratulations to him, and we will all be there to support him and cheer him on. Another academic contest is coming along, and that is one involving the writing of Haiku poetry. We have begun our preliminary introduction to this Japanese form of poetry, which involves descriptions of topics in nature! These are great poems with which to begin a study of poetry and writing in general, because skill with description is important, and these poems are only 3 lines long, with each line allowed only 5 syllables, then 7 syllables, and then 5 syllables again. So you may await some beautifully descriptive writing coming home during this month.
You should have found a letter from Mr. Rykal in Take Home Folders this past week describing the MAP Assessments (Measures of Academic Progress), which all district students in grades 2 through 5 will be participating in the next two weeks. We will be taking these assessments in the areas of Reading and Mathematics, with each test taking a maximum of one hour. Our class will go to the computer lab for each of these multiple choice tests, and each student chooses the correct answers by a click of the mouse. What makes these assessments unique and especially helpful is that they are adaptive - meaning that once students start answering, the computer adapts each subsequent question in response to how accurately the students answers the previous question. If they respond correctly, difficulty of questions eases upward. If they respond incorrectly, difficulty will ease down. Eventually a skill level is reached which is considered 'instructional' meaning they are at a level where they are likely to get about half the questions at this difficulty correct. As teachers, we are able to immediately receive a report that lists actual skills in reading and math which identifies what our students are secure with, which skills are currently appropriate to be teaching them, and which skills would be next to come. We can better target instruction for each child - since the test is customized (we have described it to the kids this way: "The computer builds the test just for you."), we can then design our instruction for the particular needs of each student. We really like how the results are immediate, so we can start with this information right away. The information is saved, so that when we do this again late in April/early May, we can track their growth, and on through the next years. If you have any further questions about MAP, just let me or Mr. Rykal know. The plan is to begin this winter, and by next school year, this assessment will take place three times per school year, able to track skill growth and progress over the years through middle school.
This past Friday, our classroom enjoyed a PIZZA lunch in our room, compliments of the WM PTO! We had earned this treat by winning the Box Tops contest, and I must say - pepperoni pizza tastes a lot better than soggy cream pie running down my face! :) We hear that another contest will take place later this year, so our students are excited to keep collecting. Keep your eyes open for Box Tops, and your scissors handy! (We have begun our new 'stash' in my desk drawer!)
A housekeeping note: Would you be so kind as to send in more Kleenex boxes and possibly, more Chlorox Wipes? We have run out of the supply with which we started our school year. Thank you for your donations to keeping our classroom as healthy as we can make it! Until next week - enjoy clear, dry roads like I am (though I know some kids with new snowboards and sleds aren't so happy!) Melanie Hannam
Saturday, December 17, 2011
December 16, 2011 Weekly Update
I send warm Holiday Greetings to all of our 4H families! We kept particularly busy on projects this past week in Room 117, which was a good thing, since the rise of energy and excitement became more apparent as the week drew to a close :). After some preparatory lessons in mapping features, our students were finally ready to add those elements to their own large maps of Wisconsin. It provided for some productive and fun class periods during which they could be artistic with color, design, and printing - and at the same time, discover where to locate Wisconsin's major cities, rivers, state parks, even universities, airports, and some campgrounds! We are going to mount these maps in the halllway near our classroom door, so that will add some color to our entrance. Our next lessons will explore the natural landforms of our state, and how the last Ice Age influenced our present geography, with a detour to 'Fantasy Island' along the way (more about that later!).
We spent some time editing the Christmas Stories everyone had written (some students chose to write two stories!). We have some wonderful imaginations in our group, and it is so rewarding to see their growing ability to communicate their ideas with more description and clear story telling. That has been a goal - now on to the mysterious world (for most) of 'paragraphing' those great ideas and descriptions! We also practiced and tested on a list of holiday spelling words this past week - those stories highlighted the need for the proper spelling of 'ornaments' 'decorations' and 'sleigh', etc. We continue to encourage each other to keep reading, and looking out for that next great book, even when we might all be very busy with the other parts of our lives every day.
Math classes this past week involved wrapping up Unit 4, using our new skills with decimal numbers to convert measurements between millimeters, centimeters, and meters. This is a new skill for almost every 4th grader, and we have laid the foundation for future work on this concept in 5th grade. The conversion work is not presented as a required 'secure' skill at this point, but our exposure at this time will pay off with greater understanding the next time it is covered. Our Unit 4 test will be given next week on Tuesday, with Monday being a valuable review day. On Wednesday we will meet with our present groups one last time to discuss the test items.
Other activities this past week included seven preliminary class rounds for the district-wide Geography Bee. I will submit our scores to our GT teacher, Ms. Weber, and she will take the results from all participating students to determine the next step in narrowing down contestants. The kids loved doing these rounds, and I found that to be quite amazing, since the questions were REALLY hard, and I believe most adults would not have done much better with knowing the answers! Whew! Our classmates also wrote out rough drafts for their own short email note to send out to Tyler, our Chinese classmate who moved to Chicago around Thanksgiving time. Tyler has been able to email me and tell us about his new school, and so has become our penpal! This is proving to be a fun and valuable way to practice more writing - and as I have found out - to also practice newly developing keyboarding skills. Our tech teacher, Mrs. Stirn, has recently brought our students to the point where they have been exposed to all the keys and proper finger positioning on the keyboard. Now it is very important that our kids get consistent practice typing and using the proper fingers. If you are able to give your student time to type at home on a consistent basis - even 10 minutes most nights - that would help them develop their speed and accuracy. So many kids at this point have had several years already using computer keyboards with their own ways to find keys, and it makes it more difficult to switch habits to correct positioning. It is frustrating for many of them to adopt the 'new' way to type, but it is very important they keep trying and practicing it correctly. Thanks for your support with this.
Next week will go very fast. We will end the three days with a classroom holiday party the last hour of Wednesday. We have some wonderful moms who are planning some treats and even an art project! Thank you, thank you! On Wednesday, each student will be bringing home to you something special they made this past week - enjoy! I will write again once we gather back together in January. My own family has planned to do something we've never done before at this time of year - we are taking the week after Christmas to escape to Playa del Carmen in Mexico together. My husband and I have three grown daughters and one future son-in-law who all live out of town (two are out of state!), and we never get near enough time to spend with them. So we all managed to clear calendars and plan a getaway together. I am just hoping weather and flights cooperate! Until then, may you all enjoy memorable family time as well, and we can all recharge as we draw close to the midpoint of our year together. Best wishes to all of you! Melanie
We spent some time editing the Christmas Stories everyone had written (some students chose to write two stories!). We have some wonderful imaginations in our group, and it is so rewarding to see their growing ability to communicate their ideas with more description and clear story telling. That has been a goal - now on to the mysterious world (for most) of 'paragraphing' those great ideas and descriptions! We also practiced and tested on a list of holiday spelling words this past week - those stories highlighted the need for the proper spelling of 'ornaments' 'decorations' and 'sleigh', etc. We continue to encourage each other to keep reading, and looking out for that next great book, even when we might all be very busy with the other parts of our lives every day.
Math classes this past week involved wrapping up Unit 4, using our new skills with decimal numbers to convert measurements between millimeters, centimeters, and meters. This is a new skill for almost every 4th grader, and we have laid the foundation for future work on this concept in 5th grade. The conversion work is not presented as a required 'secure' skill at this point, but our exposure at this time will pay off with greater understanding the next time it is covered. Our Unit 4 test will be given next week on Tuesday, with Monday being a valuable review day. On Wednesday we will meet with our present groups one last time to discuss the test items.
Other activities this past week included seven preliminary class rounds for the district-wide Geography Bee. I will submit our scores to our GT teacher, Ms. Weber, and she will take the results from all participating students to determine the next step in narrowing down contestants. The kids loved doing these rounds, and I found that to be quite amazing, since the questions were REALLY hard, and I believe most adults would not have done much better with knowing the answers! Whew! Our classmates also wrote out rough drafts for their own short email note to send out to Tyler, our Chinese classmate who moved to Chicago around Thanksgiving time. Tyler has been able to email me and tell us about his new school, and so has become our penpal! This is proving to be a fun and valuable way to practice more writing - and as I have found out - to also practice newly developing keyboarding skills. Our tech teacher, Mrs. Stirn, has recently brought our students to the point where they have been exposed to all the keys and proper finger positioning on the keyboard. Now it is very important that our kids get consistent practice typing and using the proper fingers. If you are able to give your student time to type at home on a consistent basis - even 10 minutes most nights - that would help them develop their speed and accuracy. So many kids at this point have had several years already using computer keyboards with their own ways to find keys, and it makes it more difficult to switch habits to correct positioning. It is frustrating for many of them to adopt the 'new' way to type, but it is very important they keep trying and practicing it correctly. Thanks for your support with this.
Next week will go very fast. We will end the three days with a classroom holiday party the last hour of Wednesday. We have some wonderful moms who are planning some treats and even an art project! Thank you, thank you! On Wednesday, each student will be bringing home to you something special they made this past week - enjoy! I will write again once we gather back together in January. My own family has planned to do something we've never done before at this time of year - we are taking the week after Christmas to escape to Playa del Carmen in Mexico together. My husband and I have three grown daughters and one future son-in-law who all live out of town (two are out of state!), and we never get near enough time to spend with them. So we all managed to clear calendars and plan a getaway together. I am just hoping weather and flights cooperate! Until then, may you all enjoy memorable family time as well, and we can all recharge as we draw close to the midpoint of our year together. Best wishes to all of you! Melanie
Friday, December 9, 2011
December 9, 2011 Weekly Update
Dear families, as we get closer to Christmas and it gets colder outside, we have been keeping warm and busy inside Room 117. Our first hour math classes each day just speed by with our current work with decimal numbers. We all hope to be able to finish Unit 4 by the end of next week, tentatively planning the unit test on Monday, December 19th. That gives us a chance to wrap up all our work with these lessons before our Winter Break, and start fresh with Unit 5 upon returning in January.
In social studies, the Wisconsin maps have been unfurled, the dozen brand new globes from our school library have been rotating, and we are digging into our new social studies books to become familiar with landmarks all over the world, and particularly our state of Wisconsin. The concepts of latitude and longitude, equator and prime meridian, map legends, and compass rose directions have given us a chance to literally tour the world with our fingertips, and discussions have been lively. Soon we will be ready to create our own maps, and we can't wait.
We practiced descriptive sentence writing in our study of homonyms for spelling over the last week. That test has been taken, and next week we will have a list of holiday words to practice. Today we began writing some fantasy holiday stories in our continuing quest to become so descriptive that our stories play like movies in our heads. This morning we all attended the annual West Middleton Spelling Bee, and our four representatives (Cecilie, Buddy, Karsey, and Seth) did an outstanding job with some very tricky words. We are so proud of them! This week also included the beginning rounds in our classrooms for the annual Geography Bee as well! After seven preliminary rounds in each classroom, our GT teacher, Ms. Weber, will take everyone's resulting scores, and further narrow down the field of representatives. Stay tuned for more information about this endeavor in January.
Report cards came home today in white envelopes. These envelopes have a 'First Trimester' line where parents can sign, and then one day next week, would you please send these envelopes and report cards back to school? Thank you! It was fun to see many of our families at the Winter Tea on Wednesday. I got some very nice pictures to add to our classroom photo album, and will share copies with you as well. I should add that today was another photo 'opportunity'. In our celebration of taking first place in the West Middleton Box Tops Contest, we will now have some shots of Mrs. Hannam and Mr. Rykal covered in cream pie!! I randomly drew a name from our classroom name container to see who would be the 'pie thrower', and out came "Buddy L" !! He did a thorough job, I must say :), and it was loads of (goopy) fun. Our class also gets to look forward to a complete pizza party, compliments of the WM PTO, in January! Yay for us!!
Planning for our holiday classroom party on Wednesday afternoon, December 21, has begun, thanks to Beth Graf, Mary Hoferle, and Jane MacLean. If you have any ideas for an activity or want to send in a treat to add to the fun, just let one of them know - and many thanks from all of us!! I just cannot believe we are at this point in the school year already! We are working hard, but enjoying what we do together everyday, and the weeks are just flying by! It is such a privilege to work with your fourth graders! Most sincerely, Melanie
In social studies, the Wisconsin maps have been unfurled, the dozen brand new globes from our school library have been rotating, and we are digging into our new social studies books to become familiar with landmarks all over the world, and particularly our state of Wisconsin. The concepts of latitude and longitude, equator and prime meridian, map legends, and compass rose directions have given us a chance to literally tour the world with our fingertips, and discussions have been lively. Soon we will be ready to create our own maps, and we can't wait.
We practiced descriptive sentence writing in our study of homonyms for spelling over the last week. That test has been taken, and next week we will have a list of holiday words to practice. Today we began writing some fantasy holiday stories in our continuing quest to become so descriptive that our stories play like movies in our heads. This morning we all attended the annual West Middleton Spelling Bee, and our four representatives (Cecilie, Buddy, Karsey, and Seth) did an outstanding job with some very tricky words. We are so proud of them! This week also included the beginning rounds in our classrooms for the annual Geography Bee as well! After seven preliminary rounds in each classroom, our GT teacher, Ms. Weber, will take everyone's resulting scores, and further narrow down the field of representatives. Stay tuned for more information about this endeavor in January.
Report cards came home today in white envelopes. These envelopes have a 'First Trimester' line where parents can sign, and then one day next week, would you please send these envelopes and report cards back to school? Thank you! It was fun to see many of our families at the Winter Tea on Wednesday. I got some very nice pictures to add to our classroom photo album, and will share copies with you as well. I should add that today was another photo 'opportunity'. In our celebration of taking first place in the West Middleton Box Tops Contest, we will now have some shots of Mrs. Hannam and Mr. Rykal covered in cream pie!! I randomly drew a name from our classroom name container to see who would be the 'pie thrower', and out came "Buddy L" !! He did a thorough job, I must say :), and it was loads of (goopy) fun. Our class also gets to look forward to a complete pizza party, compliments of the WM PTO, in January! Yay for us!!
Planning for our holiday classroom party on Wednesday afternoon, December 21, has begun, thanks to Beth Graf, Mary Hoferle, and Jane MacLean. If you have any ideas for an activity or want to send in a treat to add to the fun, just let one of them know - and many thanks from all of us!! I just cannot believe we are at this point in the school year already! We are working hard, but enjoying what we do together everyday, and the weeks are just flying by! It is such a privilege to work with your fourth graders! Most sincerely, Melanie
Friday, December 2, 2011
December 2, 2011 Weekly Update
Hello to all our "4H" families! We have had a satisfying week of work and fun. You probably heard about the 'fun' part pretty quickly after school today! We DID take first place in the four week contest to collect the most Box Tops For Education at West Middleton! The kids screamed and danced with excitement when the announcement was made this afternoon. Congratulations to our determined fourth graders who never slowed down in their quest to collect from every friend and relative they could find! I am so glad their efforts can be rewarded - even if it does mean a cream pie in my face next week! It will also mean a cream pie for Mr. Rykal's face, and a pizza party for the whole class. It will be a blast! Thank you to all of you who supported the kids' efforts. This contest coordinated by our PTO will result in some new equipment for our playground - and most likely some fun memories of their teacher and principal covered in cream pie!
We began our week on Monday with a trip for six students from our room (20 4th graders total from WM) and myself to the beautiful new Union South on the UW campus for OM (Odyssey of the Mind) Day Away. It was a day full of sessions where teams of 4th graders needed to team up and cooperate to succeed at tasks that required some thinking 'outside the box' along with good leadership skills and lessons in the value of collaboration. Our students will all get the chance to participate in this program again when they are seventh graders. Mrs. Andler was our guest teacher that day, and our class got started on making posters of all the Wisconsin State Symbols they could find. (There are more than you might think!) By the end of this week, all our students have completed colorful posters which now decorate the hallway near our classroom door. They are now experts at many symbols which identify important features of our state. We also spent an entire hour this week poring over maps of our state, giving each other tours and directions to favorite places all over Wisconsin. What a great way it's been to become more adept at giving and receiving directions (and all without a GPS, thank you!) and in learning where places are in our great state. This is only the beginning of our exploration and desktop travel.
In math, we began Unit 4, which covers decimal numbers - learning their place value, their equivalent fractions, ordering them, adding and subtracting them, estimating their value... We have a solid start. Please ask your student to show you their journals and explain what they are learning. This is a valuable way to reinforce the new lessons they are receiving, and will give purpose to my 'rule' that even if they have completed the assignments in school that day, they must bring home their workbooks so that they can demonstrate to you the new concepts. I believe this will give the clear message that this is important work for them, and that we all care that they do their best. Remember that you can check the Homework Page on our classroom blog for daily updates on homework assignments and all other reminders. Speaking of our blog site, did you catch the Electricity Experiment Video clip on the main page that I posted last week? I love how the students were so engaged and focused on their 'research'. They looked like serious scientists!
In Literacy, we have been practicing a list of 20 homonyms that I've collected after reading through writing journals the past several weeks. These lists should all be located within their take-home folders so it is accessible both at home and at school to practice. We will have a spelling test on these words next week on Wednesday. We have also begun short silent reading sessions with each student's current chapter book, and then writing several sentences to share with the class about 'what just happened'. It is giving us more writing experience, practice with comprehension skills, and also a great way to book share and give ideas to the rest of us for the next good book we want to read.
Looking ahead, next Wednesday from 12:35 to 1:00 pm, we would love to meet all of you in our West Middleton Winter Wonderland - the multipurpose room - for our annual Winter Tea. it will be a nice way to share some goodies, have some visiting time with each other, and take some pictures together, too. The PTO always decorates the room beautifully, and there will be live holiday music from MHS orchestra students. We all hope you can come! Another note: The first trimester report cards will go home on Friday, December 9th. Please sign the envelope and return them the next week. Thank you!
Wednesday, December 21, it will be our last day of school before Winter Break. Our class would like to celebrate the holiday and each other with a little party, beginning at 2:00 pm. If you are able to help out with providing a treat, planning an activity (game or small art project), or just being there to give a hand, we would love that! We have one volunteer to help out already, Mary Hoferle. Would you let me know how you can add to the festivities, if possible? Thanks so very much!
I will see many of you next week! Melanie Hannam
We began our week on Monday with a trip for six students from our room (20 4th graders total from WM) and myself to the beautiful new Union South on the UW campus for OM (Odyssey of the Mind) Day Away. It was a day full of sessions where teams of 4th graders needed to team up and cooperate to succeed at tasks that required some thinking 'outside the box' along with good leadership skills and lessons in the value of collaboration. Our students will all get the chance to participate in this program again when they are seventh graders. Mrs. Andler was our guest teacher that day, and our class got started on making posters of all the Wisconsin State Symbols they could find. (There are more than you might think!) By the end of this week, all our students have completed colorful posters which now decorate the hallway near our classroom door. They are now experts at many symbols which identify important features of our state. We also spent an entire hour this week poring over maps of our state, giving each other tours and directions to favorite places all over Wisconsin. What a great way it's been to become more adept at giving and receiving directions (and all without a GPS, thank you!) and in learning where places are in our great state. This is only the beginning of our exploration and desktop travel.
In math, we began Unit 4, which covers decimal numbers - learning their place value, their equivalent fractions, ordering them, adding and subtracting them, estimating their value... We have a solid start. Please ask your student to show you their journals and explain what they are learning. This is a valuable way to reinforce the new lessons they are receiving, and will give purpose to my 'rule' that even if they have completed the assignments in school that day, they must bring home their workbooks so that they can demonstrate to you the new concepts. I believe this will give the clear message that this is important work for them, and that we all care that they do their best. Remember that you can check the Homework Page on our classroom blog for daily updates on homework assignments and all other reminders. Speaking of our blog site, did you catch the Electricity Experiment Video clip on the main page that I posted last week? I love how the students were so engaged and focused on their 'research'. They looked like serious scientists!
In Literacy, we have been practicing a list of 20 homonyms that I've collected after reading through writing journals the past several weeks. These lists should all be located within their take-home folders so it is accessible both at home and at school to practice. We will have a spelling test on these words next week on Wednesday. We have also begun short silent reading sessions with each student's current chapter book, and then writing several sentences to share with the class about 'what just happened'. It is giving us more writing experience, practice with comprehension skills, and also a great way to book share and give ideas to the rest of us for the next good book we want to read.
Looking ahead, next Wednesday from 12:35 to 1:00 pm, we would love to meet all of you in our West Middleton Winter Wonderland - the multipurpose room - for our annual Winter Tea. it will be a nice way to share some goodies, have some visiting time with each other, and take some pictures together, too. The PTO always decorates the room beautifully, and there will be live holiday music from MHS orchestra students. We all hope you can come! Another note: The first trimester report cards will go home on Friday, December 9th. Please sign the envelope and return them the next week. Thank you!
Wednesday, December 21, it will be our last day of school before Winter Break. Our class would like to celebrate the holiday and each other with a little party, beginning at 2:00 pm. If you are able to help out with providing a treat, planning an activity (game or small art project), or just being there to give a hand, we would love that! We have one volunteer to help out already, Mary Hoferle. Would you let me know how you can add to the festivities, if possible? Thanks so very much!
I will see many of you next week! Melanie Hannam
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