Greetings to our 4H Families! I look forward to meeting with you and your student next week, as we look over together projects, papers, and progress during our conferences. In the meantime, it sounds like quite a number of you may be able to meet me at the UW Arboretum on Sunday afternoon from 1 to 3:00. I have as much to learn from the naturalists there about effigy mounds as the students do, so we will all learn together, and get in a beautiful walk as well. Remember that it looks like we are to meet at the Arboretum Visitor Center, 1207 Seminole Hwy. I have made my first sightings of robins this week! Here's hoping any rain holds off on Sunday.
The news of a major solar flare/storm this week was so well timed for the final week of our Space science unit. We viewed some more breathtaking video from the news online and from NASA. We are all keeping an eye out for any chances of seeing some Northern Lights as well. Our student teams gave their planet presentations this week, and we filled ourselves to the brim with amazing facts about our solar system. This unit has been so much fun for all of us - we kind of hate to see it end. But we must move on! Until we are ready to tackle our Rocks and Minerals unit, we are progresssing in social studies to the next stage of our Wisconsin history with the arrival of the first European explorers.
This coming Monday will be a very full day. Everyone will want to eat a healthy breakfast before coming to school. We start off our first hour math class with the Unit 7 Test on Fractions and Probability. After a short break for a snack, all the 4th graders will board buses around 10:15 for a trip to the MHS PAC where they will have their dress rehearsal with Mrs. Bodell and Mr. Rykal for that evening's choral concert. Just a reminder: Families can arrive around 6:15pm, the concert begins at 6:30, lasts for 30 to 45 minutes, and all students are to wear jeans, their WM Tie Dye T-shirt, and tennis shoes. This is always such a heartwarming show to watch for parents and teachers alike. An early "Bravo!" to Mrs. Bodell for making this all possible and memorable! When our students get back to school, it will be time for Gym Class, and then Lunch from 12:30 to 1:00! This is a big change from our usual schedule, with a later lunch by a good hour - hence the need for a good breakfast and a snack after math.
Speaking of 'breakfast' - today we had a pizza breakfast at 8:30 in math class! The kids have all worked hard the last three weeks to master several new and challenging skills with fractions, so we figured we deserved to 'practice' dividing several whole pizzas into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, eighths, and even twelfths and sixteenths! It was fun and delicious - and even educational! :).
We can fill you in with more details of our work in 4th grade when we meet next week, so until then... Melanie Hannam
Friday, March 9, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
March 2, 2012 Weekly Update
Hello! Thank you for sending in your time preferences for our upcoming Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences on March 13, 14, 15th. This coming week I will send home the master schedule so you can confirm the date and time and get it on your calendar. I look forward to seeing you all again, and giving your 4th grader the chance to show you his/her work over the last months.
The second Box Tops Contest ended with this week, and we will see how it all turns out. Our class has ended up with 675 Box Tops collected over the last 5 weeks - a proud and healthy total (though a first grade and a second grade really walloped us this time, so we will be excited to hit a hopeful third place finish). The kids never lost their enthusiasm, and it has been so much fun to see their spirit. Thank you, families, for your patient support!
This past week, designated Literacy Week at West Middleton, ended with an exciting visit on Friday afternoon by three Badger football players and Bucky Badger himself, all there in support of the value of READING. It was quite the sight to see these 'tough' big football players sit in front of our kids reading Dr. Seuss out loud to all of us.
Back in Room 117, we kept ourselves very busy all week with teamwork on Planets Research. Our teams will be ready in the next week to present their posters and reports, and displays of their efforts should make it up on the hallway wall outside our door just in time for your conference visit. This project has proven to be an effective way for this group of students to learn. They are so motivated to dig into research and have done a wonderful job of working together.
In Social Studies class, shifting into the study of the early people of Wisconsin and how hard they worked to stay alive has provided all of us with some new perspectives. I think it has been an eye opener for our students to consider the comparative ease of our daily lives as we read and discuss what it took to live in the earliest days of the Paleo, Archaic, Mississipian, Woodland, Oneota, and Objibwe Native American tribes. Our class read-aloud, The Birchbark House, ties in so perfectly with the pages of our new social studies textbook. Yesterday, for instance, we marveled at what it took to 'tan' moose hide just to make a piece of soft leather for clothing, shoes, or their houses. Ask your student about that one!
Math class this past week has had us jumping into new territory for everyone as we practice computation with fractions with like and unlike denominators, finding equivalent fractions, reducing fractions, and comparing sizes of fractions. It takes several lessons to get these skills near the secure level, so I encourage everyone to hang in there and keep trying. The kids are discovering that what seems confusing the first day often becomes so much more clear the next day, and even better the third day. Those students who use their time well to work on lessons and come to me during resource time to ask for more practice are the ones who are finding the most success at mastery. Way to go!
Melanie Hannam
The second Box Tops Contest ended with this week, and we will see how it all turns out. Our class has ended up with 675 Box Tops collected over the last 5 weeks - a proud and healthy total (though a first grade and a second grade really walloped us this time, so we will be excited to hit a hopeful third place finish). The kids never lost their enthusiasm, and it has been so much fun to see their spirit. Thank you, families, for your patient support!
This past week, designated Literacy Week at West Middleton, ended with an exciting visit on Friday afternoon by three Badger football players and Bucky Badger himself, all there in support of the value of READING. It was quite the sight to see these 'tough' big football players sit in front of our kids reading Dr. Seuss out loud to all of us.
Back in Room 117, we kept ourselves very busy all week with teamwork on Planets Research. Our teams will be ready in the next week to present their posters and reports, and displays of their efforts should make it up on the hallway wall outside our door just in time for your conference visit. This project has proven to be an effective way for this group of students to learn. They are so motivated to dig into research and have done a wonderful job of working together.
In Social Studies class, shifting into the study of the early people of Wisconsin and how hard they worked to stay alive has provided all of us with some new perspectives. I think it has been an eye opener for our students to consider the comparative ease of our daily lives as we read and discuss what it took to live in the earliest days of the Paleo, Archaic, Mississipian, Woodland, Oneota, and Objibwe Native American tribes. Our class read-aloud, The Birchbark House, ties in so perfectly with the pages of our new social studies textbook. Yesterday, for instance, we marveled at what it took to 'tan' moose hide just to make a piece of soft leather for clothing, shoes, or their houses. Ask your student about that one!
Math class this past week has had us jumping into new territory for everyone as we practice computation with fractions with like and unlike denominators, finding equivalent fractions, reducing fractions, and comparing sizes of fractions. It takes several lessons to get these skills near the secure level, so I encourage everyone to hang in there and keep trying. The kids are discovering that what seems confusing the first day often becomes so much more clear the next day, and even better the third day. Those students who use their time well to work on lessons and come to me during resource time to ask for more practice are the ones who are finding the most success at mastery. Way to go!
Melanie Hannam
Saturday, February 25, 2012
February 24, 2012 Weekly Update
Hello to all of our 4H families. Every week we try to make 'every minute count' because there is so much to do and learn in all our subjects, and I feel like this past week we especially packed our schedule as full as we ever have! This was mainly driven by our kids' enthusiasm for getting started on their team projects in researching the planets of the solar system. We have discovered so many mind-boggling facts in our study of space over the last weeks, that by this point they were actually pleading to get started on digging into their own planets and preparing posters and presentations. So we did! We fit in our first class periods given over entirely to research and teamwork, and I am so proud of how everyone is working together. They are planning out their roles on the team and uncovering so much information that the room is fairly humming!
We jumped in with both feet to our new unit in math - fractions! This week laid the groundwork for understanding the whole concept of what fractional parts of the whole actually mean and how we can compare seemingly different fractions. We've also worked on some lessons in chance and probability. We will be ready to add, subtract, and multiply fractions next, and many have already picked up on spotting equivalent fractions and reducing fractions. More than ever, we wish we had two hours a day to do math! It does help that the number one item on our 'To Do..." list for Resource Time at the end of day is usually Math Work, and many get much of their homework done during this time, working with me and in teams. I still tell the kids that they should take their two journal books home even if they think they are done, so they can show you their work and explain to you what they are learning. This reinforces their new learning, and may help keep motivation high for completing every item and doing their most careful job. Thank you for your support with this. Remember that every day after school, the classroom blog's Homework Page gets updated with assignments and reminders.
In Social Studies we are progressing through time in the years "BC" studying the earliest native people of our state. We have also begun a new classroom read aloud book, "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich. She based her story on research into her own native American ancestors who had settled on Madeleine Island in the Apostle Islands! She uses Objibwe words throughout the story, which has turned out to be fun for us to learn! I printed out a copy of the glossary of words we found at the end of her book for every student, and we refer to those whenever a new word comes up. Our new signal for attention in the classroom has become: "bekayaan" ( beh-KAH-yahn: be quiet) and the kids respond with: "ayah!" (ah-YAH!: yes!). It has been fun - and effective! :)
Next week is West Middleton's Literacy Week. Every day will hold a special event to do with reading and enjoying books. On Monday, the entire school will experience the same 15 minutes of DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read). On Tuesday, we will all wear some clothing with words on them! On Wednesday, there will be a time set aside for every student in the school to "swap teachers" - to hear a read aloud book in a different classroom by another staff member. Thursday is our "dress like a favorite book character" day, and in the morning we will parade around our halls and take some pictures. Friday will give us a special assembly in the afternoon with surprise guests - and we should all wear RED! Our classroom door has been wallpapered with titles of everyone's favorite books.
I have received many of the parent conference sign-up sheets back - thank you! If I haven't received yours yet, would you please send it back as soon as you can? Once I have all the time slots figured out, I will send out the master schedule to everyone to confirm our times. Other upcoming events include: The last day of the second trimester is March 6th, and on the evening of March 12th at 6:30pm, the West Middleton classes will all sing for their families at the Middleton High School Performing Arts Center. This annual program is always among the most heartwarming events of the school year. In the meantime, next week we experience "Leap Day" on Thursday, February 29th! Melanie Hannam (Oh, and next week is the LAST week to collect BOX TOPS for the school contest - hint, hint.)
We jumped in with both feet to our new unit in math - fractions! This week laid the groundwork for understanding the whole concept of what fractional parts of the whole actually mean and how we can compare seemingly different fractions. We've also worked on some lessons in chance and probability. We will be ready to add, subtract, and multiply fractions next, and many have already picked up on spotting equivalent fractions and reducing fractions. More than ever, we wish we had two hours a day to do math! It does help that the number one item on our 'To Do..." list for Resource Time at the end of day is usually Math Work, and many get much of their homework done during this time, working with me and in teams. I still tell the kids that they should take their two journal books home even if they think they are done, so they can show you their work and explain to you what they are learning. This reinforces their new learning, and may help keep motivation high for completing every item and doing their most careful job. Thank you for your support with this. Remember that every day after school, the classroom blog's Homework Page gets updated with assignments and reminders.
In Social Studies we are progressing through time in the years "BC" studying the earliest native people of our state. We have also begun a new classroom read aloud book, "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich. She based her story on research into her own native American ancestors who had settled on Madeleine Island in the Apostle Islands! She uses Objibwe words throughout the story, which has turned out to be fun for us to learn! I printed out a copy of the glossary of words we found at the end of her book for every student, and we refer to those whenever a new word comes up. Our new signal for attention in the classroom has become: "bekayaan" ( beh-KAH-yahn: be quiet) and the kids respond with: "ayah!" (ah-YAH!: yes!). It has been fun - and effective! :)
Next week is West Middleton's Literacy Week. Every day will hold a special event to do with reading and enjoying books. On Monday, the entire school will experience the same 15 minutes of DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read). On Tuesday, we will all wear some clothing with words on them! On Wednesday, there will be a time set aside for every student in the school to "swap teachers" - to hear a read aloud book in a different classroom by another staff member. Thursday is our "dress like a favorite book character" day, and in the morning we will parade around our halls and take some pictures. Friday will give us a special assembly in the afternoon with surprise guests - and we should all wear RED! Our classroom door has been wallpapered with titles of everyone's favorite books.
I have received many of the parent conference sign-up sheets back - thank you! If I haven't received yours yet, would you please send it back as soon as you can? Once I have all the time slots figured out, I will send out the master schedule to everyone to confirm our times. Other upcoming events include: The last day of the second trimester is March 6th, and on the evening of March 12th at 6:30pm, the West Middleton classes will all sing for their families at the Middleton High School Performing Arts Center. This annual program is always among the most heartwarming events of the school year. In the meantime, next week we experience "Leap Day" on Thursday, February 29th! Melanie Hannam (Oh, and next week is the LAST week to collect BOX TOPS for the school contest - hint, hint.)
Friday, February 17, 2012
February 17, 2012 Weekly Update
Hello! Our first day of the week on Monday ended with a flurry of hearts and treats. We had a really nice last hour exchanging valentines, playing games, and sharing some very delicious (both healthy and sweet!) food in celebration of our friendships. Thanks so very much to the 'moms' who were able to plan, to contribute, or to be there to help us and join in the fun: Tammy Bursac, Lori Anderson, Jennifer Deptula, Beth Graf, Anne Lindblom, and Laura Lynch.
Somehow between that event and the early release the following day (and maybe because of those), we dug in and managed to make some quite satisfying progress with our classwork during the rest of the week. We completed the rest of our Wisconsin Regions study, and the opportunity to pore over our Wisconsin road maps following major highways to find cities, rivers, lakes, and other landmarks all over our state has definitely helped our students become more familiar with Wisconsin. Travel ideas weaved through our discussions - from the Apostle Islands and Bayfield, to the St. Croix River Valley and the northern highland forests and waterfalls, from Timms Hill and and the Wolf River to Sister Bay of Door County, the Kickapoo River Road, the Dells and Lake Winnebago, along the Ice Age Trail through the Kettle Moraine Forests... you may find kids coming home with family trip ideas!
We spent extra time with our Sun, Moon, and Planets unit this week also. We did some exploration online with space.com and there is so much there! The concepts of our Sun's influence on our solar system, what makes day/night, years, seasons, aurora borealis, eclipses, tides, and our country's history with space exploration have all provided much exciting discussion and reading. Some further study with each of the planets comes next.
Math classes were packed this week with nailing down our skills with long division, measuring and creating angles with protractors, brushing up on rounding off large numbers, plotting coordinate points on a grid, and inserting parentheses in equations. Our Unit 6 Test was Friday, and we will jump into the world of fractions next week. Unit 7 begins our NEW student journals (for many, just in time before Journal One was going to fall apart!). The unit tests will come home for your signature this next week, and then students should bring them back to school to add to their math folders for conference time.
A new spelling list was introduced this week, and the test date will be agreed upon on Monday. It is a delicious list - all foods that many adults might even misspell! :) We will begin next week to prepare for a building-wide celebration of Literacy Week, which is officially from February 27 to March 2. Every day will feature a special activity to highlight the love of reading and the appreciation for good books. We will take more time to read in class during the next weeks, both independently (students must have a chapter book ready to dip into at any time both in school and at home every single day!), and we will also read aloud together. Our social studies topics are transitioning to the early native people of our state, and we will be reading together "The Birchbark House" an award winning book written by Louise Erdrich.
Before the end of the month, I plan to send home a list of possible parent/teacher/student conference times, where you may sign up for a time slot to come into the classroom with your fourth grader to see his/her work and progress. After-school times will be available on March 13th, 14th, 15th, and if those don't work, we can always arrange a special time on another day. The second trimester ends on March 6th, so you will be able to take home your child's report card when you come to our conference. See you all soon! Melanie Hannam
Somehow between that event and the early release the following day (and maybe because of those), we dug in and managed to make some quite satisfying progress with our classwork during the rest of the week. We completed the rest of our Wisconsin Regions study, and the opportunity to pore over our Wisconsin road maps following major highways to find cities, rivers, lakes, and other landmarks all over our state has definitely helped our students become more familiar with Wisconsin. Travel ideas weaved through our discussions - from the Apostle Islands and Bayfield, to the St. Croix River Valley and the northern highland forests and waterfalls, from Timms Hill and and the Wolf River to Sister Bay of Door County, the Kickapoo River Road, the Dells and Lake Winnebago, along the Ice Age Trail through the Kettle Moraine Forests... you may find kids coming home with family trip ideas!
We spent extra time with our Sun, Moon, and Planets unit this week also. We did some exploration online with space.com and there is so much there! The concepts of our Sun's influence on our solar system, what makes day/night, years, seasons, aurora borealis, eclipses, tides, and our country's history with space exploration have all provided much exciting discussion and reading. Some further study with each of the planets comes next.
Math classes were packed this week with nailing down our skills with long division, measuring and creating angles with protractors, brushing up on rounding off large numbers, plotting coordinate points on a grid, and inserting parentheses in equations. Our Unit 6 Test was Friday, and we will jump into the world of fractions next week. Unit 7 begins our NEW student journals (for many, just in time before Journal One was going to fall apart!). The unit tests will come home for your signature this next week, and then students should bring them back to school to add to their math folders for conference time.
A new spelling list was introduced this week, and the test date will be agreed upon on Monday. It is a delicious list - all foods that many adults might even misspell! :) We will begin next week to prepare for a building-wide celebration of Literacy Week, which is officially from February 27 to March 2. Every day will feature a special activity to highlight the love of reading and the appreciation for good books. We will take more time to read in class during the next weeks, both independently (students must have a chapter book ready to dip into at any time both in school and at home every single day!), and we will also read aloud together. Our social studies topics are transitioning to the early native people of our state, and we will be reading together "The Birchbark House" an award winning book written by Louise Erdrich.
Before the end of the month, I plan to send home a list of possible parent/teacher/student conference times, where you may sign up for a time slot to come into the classroom with your fourth grader to see his/her work and progress. After-school times will be available on March 13th, 14th, 15th, and if those don't work, we can always arrange a special time on another day. The second trimester ends on March 6th, so you will be able to take home your child's report card when you come to our conference. See you all soon! Melanie Hannam
Saturday, February 11, 2012
February 10, 2012 Weekly Update
Hello to our 4H Families. I am pleased to say that we had a very satisfying week in Room 117. We continue to make good progress with our skills in long division, and we've added practice measuring angles with full- and half-circle protractors, and creating our own angles. The kids have gotten so much work done in their two math journals, their poor teacher has had trouble keeping up with them! :) I love our Resource Time at the end of our school days, where students can dig into their assignments and I am able to answer each of their specific questions. They are using their time well. Motivation levels remain high to master all 100 basic math facts in each operation within 3 minutes - it is obvious who is kicking in with some extra practice on their own.
Most of the final drafts for our Fantasy Island stories have now been completed as well. We will enjoy adding them to our Language Binders, and sharing them with you at conference time. The kids have been asking for daily uninterrupted "read time" and we will be making that a priority for the rest of this month in particular, since there are fun plans in place to celebrate Literacy Week during the last week of February. This past week 4th grade teachers met with our reading specialist, Mrs. Smith, to report updated reading levels for our students at the midyear point, and progress is evident. Yay!
We are still examining the different regions of Wisconsin in Social Studies, and in Science, we are daily uncovering amazing facts about our earth, the moon, the sun, and our solar system. It has been so much fun to hear our students say with wonder, "I never knew that before!" NASA has some cool interactive sites online, showing the revolving and rotating planets, as does "space.com". I am learning almost as much as the kids!
I am happy to share with you, as I do with our students, that our class has been receiving some lovely compliments from their other teachers recently. After Art Class this week, Mrs. Hyland told me that she just loves how positive and motivated our class has been. After gym class, Mrs. Odgren said that she has noticed how our class has become like a close, helpful community. These words warm my heart. In celebration of our wonderful class 'family' of friends, we will be enjoying a Valentine's Day party on Monday, the 13th, for the last class period of the day. We have some creative moms who have been planning, and we are grateful for them. We decorated some bags on Friday which will be used to collect Valentine cards. On Tuesday, we will hold math class, and social studies/science classes - and then pack up for home by 11:00 am! It is one of our 5 CRT Days. The following Saturday, February 18th, the West Middleton PTO is running the annual WM Carnival from 2:00 to 4:30 pm in the school gym.
We are still collecting Box Top for Education - through March 2nd! Thanks for your support! The February Book Order will be mailed out this coming week (I got talked into extending the deadline till Monday, in case you are still interested in ordering.) Stay tuned for more details about Literacy Week, and also coming soon will be a sign-up list for parent/student/teacher conferences to be held in mid-March. The second trimester ends during the first week of March. Wow - time flies when we're having fun learning! Melanie Hannam
Most of the final drafts for our Fantasy Island stories have now been completed as well. We will enjoy adding them to our Language Binders, and sharing them with you at conference time. The kids have been asking for daily uninterrupted "read time" and we will be making that a priority for the rest of this month in particular, since there are fun plans in place to celebrate Literacy Week during the last week of February. This past week 4th grade teachers met with our reading specialist, Mrs. Smith, to report updated reading levels for our students at the midyear point, and progress is evident. Yay!
We are still examining the different regions of Wisconsin in Social Studies, and in Science, we are daily uncovering amazing facts about our earth, the moon, the sun, and our solar system. It has been so much fun to hear our students say with wonder, "I never knew that before!" NASA has some cool interactive sites online, showing the revolving and rotating planets, as does "space.com". I am learning almost as much as the kids!
I am happy to share with you, as I do with our students, that our class has been receiving some lovely compliments from their other teachers recently. After Art Class this week, Mrs. Hyland told me that she just loves how positive and motivated our class has been. After gym class, Mrs. Odgren said that she has noticed how our class has become like a close, helpful community. These words warm my heart. In celebration of our wonderful class 'family' of friends, we will be enjoying a Valentine's Day party on Monday, the 13th, for the last class period of the day. We have some creative moms who have been planning, and we are grateful for them. We decorated some bags on Friday which will be used to collect Valentine cards. On Tuesday, we will hold math class, and social studies/science classes - and then pack up for home by 11:00 am! It is one of our 5 CRT Days. The following Saturday, February 18th, the West Middleton PTO is running the annual WM Carnival from 2:00 to 4:30 pm in the school gym.
We are still collecting Box Top for Education - through March 2nd! Thanks for your support! The February Book Order will be mailed out this coming week (I got talked into extending the deadline till Monday, in case you are still interested in ordering.) Stay tuned for more details about Literacy Week, and also coming soon will be a sign-up list for parent/student/teacher conferences to be held in mid-March. The second trimester ends during the first week of March. Wow - time flies when we're having fun learning! Melanie Hannam
Friday, February 3, 2012
February 3, 2012 Weekly Update
This week we had to get used to starting on Monday again! We jumped right in with beginning Unit 6 in math, a large part of which teaches us long division. Each 4th grade classroom is staying with their own teacher for this unit, so we have all been able to arrange our daily schedules to include some extra practice sessions throughout the week for this new skill. We have a solid start, and you will see the numbers and problems grow in size and complexity over the next week or two as students gain confidence and ability. It will really help your own student to give him/her a few extra problems to practice each evening if possible. Thank you for the extra help and support! Ready knowledge of basic facts is really proving to be necessary here as well. We are continuing to see renewed motivation to conquer the 100 facts within 3 minutes for all operations, which is fantastic!
Another area where our students have seriously 'dug in' to their work is with their latest writing project. At this point we are in the midst of editing and conferencing over their Fantasy Island Story, based on the maps they created last month for social studies, and then rewriting them into neat final draft copies. These will be beautiful additions to their Language Binders. Other Literacy news: January Scholastic Book Orders were received and sent home this week, and the February order forms came home today. We will give it a week to 'shop', and would like to have all orders in by next week Friday, February 10. In Spelling, we spent all week (hopefully) practicing the latest list of words, and the spelling test will be given this coming Monday.
We have finally jumped into our new Science Unit: Earth, Sun, Moon, and Stars. We find new information and amazing facts that we never knew before during each lesson, me included! Such discovery going on! There are many 'Gold Star Research" opportunities getting listed on our board. Any student who is motivated to dig deeper on any related topic that comes up during class, can research on the Internet at home (with your approval), and explore any reference books available. We look forward to all reports that come back to class, and make special time for our researchers to present and teach us more! The reports, posters, and pictures go up on the wall, and our classroom is becoming 'wallpapered' with new knowledge! (Don't let the fire inspectors see!) The kids are really proud of our growing collection. In Social Studies, our students have been partnered into teams to find the unique features of the 5 Regions of Wisconsin, and they are working together so well! It is so rewarding for me to overhear the inquiring conversations buzzing all around the room during these work sessions. Very cool!
Yes, we are deep into another round of collecting Box Tops For Education! We have a very healthy start (410!) as we complete the first week of collection today. The contest at West Middleton will continue through the month of February. Thanks for your patience and your help - the competitive spirit of our group is strong!
After next week, there are some special events occurring: On Monday, February 13, we will take our last class period beginning at 2pm to have a Valentine celebration. This week students brought home pink sheets listing classmates' names for use in labeling cards for exchange, if desired. We will distribute them during our party, and would like to also share a refreshment or two, play a game or two, or do a small craft project. If any parent would like to plan one of these and/or join us, we would love that! Let me or Sharon Pertzborn-Jensen know what you'd like to do. Thank you so very much! The kids are due for a little extra party fun. Then the following day, Tuesday, February 14th, we have class only until 11:00 am, when buses will come to take everyone home - it is our next CRT Day. One more event is the following Saturday, February 18, when the PTO is sponsoring our Winter Carnival from 2:00 to 4:30 at West Middleton. I hope to see you all there! In the meantime, let's help our kids keep reading and keep dividing! :) Melanie Hannam
Melanie Hannam
Another area where our students have seriously 'dug in' to their work is with their latest writing project. At this point we are in the midst of editing and conferencing over their Fantasy Island Story, based on the maps they created last month for social studies, and then rewriting them into neat final draft copies. These will be beautiful additions to their Language Binders. Other Literacy news: January Scholastic Book Orders were received and sent home this week, and the February order forms came home today. We will give it a week to 'shop', and would like to have all orders in by next week Friday, February 10. In Spelling, we spent all week (hopefully) practicing the latest list of words, and the spelling test will be given this coming Monday.
We have finally jumped into our new Science Unit: Earth, Sun, Moon, and Stars. We find new information and amazing facts that we never knew before during each lesson, me included! Such discovery going on! There are many 'Gold Star Research" opportunities getting listed on our board. Any student who is motivated to dig deeper on any related topic that comes up during class, can research on the Internet at home (with your approval), and explore any reference books available. We look forward to all reports that come back to class, and make special time for our researchers to present and teach us more! The reports, posters, and pictures go up on the wall, and our classroom is becoming 'wallpapered' with new knowledge! (Don't let the fire inspectors see!) The kids are really proud of our growing collection. In Social Studies, our students have been partnered into teams to find the unique features of the 5 Regions of Wisconsin, and they are working together so well! It is so rewarding for me to overhear the inquiring conversations buzzing all around the room during these work sessions. Very cool!
Yes, we are deep into another round of collecting Box Tops For Education! We have a very healthy start (410!) as we complete the first week of collection today. The contest at West Middleton will continue through the month of February. Thanks for your patience and your help - the competitive spirit of our group is strong!
After next week, there are some special events occurring: On Monday, February 13, we will take our last class period beginning at 2pm to have a Valentine celebration. This week students brought home pink sheets listing classmates' names for use in labeling cards for exchange, if desired. We will distribute them during our party, and would like to also share a refreshment or two, play a game or two, or do a small craft project. If any parent would like to plan one of these and/or join us, we would love that! Let me or Sharon Pertzborn-Jensen know what you'd like to do. Thank you so very much! The kids are due for a little extra party fun. Then the following day, Tuesday, February 14th, we have class only until 11:00 am, when buses will come to take everyone home - it is our next CRT Day. One more event is the following Saturday, February 18, when the PTO is sponsoring our Winter Carnival from 2:00 to 4:30 at West Middleton. I hope to see you all there! In the meantime, let's help our kids keep reading and keep dividing! :) Melanie Hannam
Melanie Hannam
Saturday, January 28, 2012
January 27, 2012 Weekly Update
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
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
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