May 2, 2014 Weekly Update

Happy MAY! Hope it will feel like May! As I look back on our April calendar, I realize just how much we accomplished! And the coming month is filling up fast! First of all, some reminders:

This Sunday, May 4th, there will be a second day to partner up with Novanta in a delicious fundraiser for West Middleton! They are open that day from 11 am to 8 pm. Last Sunday, they were doing a brisk business, and it is so generous of them to hold another day to benefit our school! I love it - two Sundays in a row without cooking a meal! (And I tried my first 'canoli' - luscious!)

Our 4th/5th grade Track Meet on May 14th will be upon us quickly, so thanks for sending in your permission slip soon. This meet has always been held for 5th graders from all 6 elementary schools on one day, but now that all of our current 4th graders will be at middle schools next year, the physical education department wants to give them a chance to participate in a future middle school activity as well. On the 14th, the schools that will be headed to Glacier Creek (West Middleton, Sunset Ridge, and Park) will hold their meet at MHS, while the other three schools that head to Kromrey will hold their track meet on May 7th. If you have any other questions about this day, please contact me or Mrs. Odgren, our gym teacher. The green info sheet with the permission slip gives you more details. We will be asking your student - probably today! - if they want to bring their own disposable lunch or order one through school for that day..

Just two weeks following this event, we will be heading to Cave of the Mounds on May 27th. You can still let me know if you are able to chaperone - so far, four parents from our room have said they can come. We welcome everyone who can fit this day into their schedule. We will leave school around 8:30 and be back by 2:30 or so. Remember, if you are able to join us, I would need your entrance fee of $15 (check to the Cave, or cash) by May 9th, since we must pay everything ahead of time. Our wonderful PTO is covering all of our other expenses.

This past week we began our second last math unit of the year. It involves measurements of weight and mass (both metric and customary), 3-D shapes, volume calculations, and subtracting negative numbers. In Readers' Workshop, we have been slowly evolving from Historical Fiction to Social Issues and meeting in Book Clubs over some shared books, along with reading individual books. We will be writing essays on our thoughts and opinions over some of these issues. Our kids are demonstrating yet again that they have been developing into some deep thinkers - our discussions and the ideas they volunteer have me very impressed! In Social Studies, we continue to roam around our United States, finding notable places to visit, and mapping them. Google Presentations continue to be a favorite project of many in our class, and we will be directing this great enthusiasm toward some reporting about special regions of our country. In the meantime, extra presentations of all kinds get recognized on our GOLD STAR RESEARCH wall - with our stars sweeping across the walls, windows, and across the ceiling! Stop in and see it if you can!

Watch for quick update notes in the coming weeks, as we approach special events and plans during these last weeks of 4th grade! Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

April 18, 2014 Weekly Update

Here's hoping you are all enjoying a beautiful, long spring weekend!  I want to keep you updated on upcoming events.  On Tuesday, April 22nd, West Middleton begins a BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION  and food donation drive (for Middleton Outreach Ministry) which will last until mid-May.  If our entire school collects 12,000 Box Tops and food items, we will get to see our Mr. Macklem walk through our halls with PINK hair!  There will be containers for Box Tops and nonperishable food in the school entry way, so send everything you can with your students in the coming weeks.  Thank you!   We are also looking forward to a delicious fundraiser through our PTO, thanks to Novanta, located on Old Sauk Road.  On two Sundays (April 27th and May 4th) from 11am to 8pm, they will donate a portion of sales to West Middleton!  I will forward a flier to you all.

Also beginning on April 22 and during the following 2 to 3 weeks, all of our classes will be scheduled for the third round of MAPS testing in the computer lab  - one session for reading skills, and one session for math skills.  Our own class will do one session on April 23rd, and the second session on April 29th.  I highly recommend a good night's sleep and good breakfast for those days!  On the morning of May 2nd, our 4th graders get their tour of the new 5th grade wing of Glacier Creek - that will be so exciting!  On May 14th, our 4th and 5th graders will take part in the annual elementary track meet at the high school.  Mrs. Odgren will be sending you more info about that day very soon.

I would like to remind everyone that our biggest field trip of the school year will be on Tuesday, May 27th, when we go to the Cave of the Mounds.  Our PTO is covering the cost for every student. If you would like to chaperone (and we can take every parent who volunteers!), the cost for the day is $15 (cash, or checks made out to the Cave of the Mounds - thank you!).  We do need your commitment and check or cash by May 9th because they require us to send everything in two weeks earlier than our visit date.  I do hope you can come spend the day with us - it is so much fun!  In addition to a 45 minute tour of the caves below ground, we get a guided tour above ground for signs of the caverns below, we 'pan' for precious rocks and minerals, there is a 'class' in a big old barn, and we picnic on a large, tree covered lawn.  You can carpool and follow the buses - we will leave by 8:30 and be back around 2:30 that day.  So let me know soon if you can join us!

In class, we are still being held spellbound by the drama and suspense of our class read aloud book, Number the Stars.  This is the mentor text to our Historical Fiction reading unit, and our 4th graders have been reading dozens of their own books as well - everyone is keeping a growing list!   History has come alive for our kids, and our reading discussions and journaling reflect some very bright and deep thinking!  We are all learning together, and I am very proud of our students!   In May, we will transition to Book Clubs using books that center on a variety of social issues, and write some literary essays in Writer's Workshop, which will pair together very nicely.

Many of you have probably noticed increased interest in creating Google Presentations on the part of your student.  This was introduced in Technology class when I told Mrs. Tofte of my plan to give everyone a chance to focus on one United States Region in Social Studies and teach the rest of us through a presentation.  Thank you for your willingness to share your home computers, because so many of our kids have just taken off with this method of presentation, and after even one Tech class, they have been motivated to create special reports for the rest of us on all variety of topics!  It has been so wonderful to have fellow 'teachers' in class, and they all get extra credit, with their names on our 'Gold Star Researchers' wall. 

Thank you for sending an extra pair of shoes to school now that we are truly in 'mud' season.  I will keep you up to date on information and reminders as we get to each event that is filling our calendars during these last two busy months of 4th grade!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam  

April 4, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello, families!  We are all back to our regular schedules and routines by now after a week off, and in Room 117, it was a very satisfying week of reading, writing, math, social studies, and science lessons.  Our students have shown they are ready to get involved in our discussions, and I am so impressed by the deep thinking revealed this week.  We have been reading "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry, as the mentor text for our Readers' Workshop Historical Fiction unit. It is a suspenseful story centered on a 10 year old girl and her family in Copenhagen during World War II.  This has opened up a whole section of history most of our kids have not yet studied, so there have been many good questions.  Everyone in our room is also expected to read several of their own choices in the historical fiction genre over this next month, and all have found books they are identifying with.  This is one of the main teaching point of this study - to be able to lose ourselves in a different time and place and experience how people were affected and changed by the events of their world then.  We are adding an important writing component as well, with journaling about our new thoughts and questions as we read.  Our fourth graders are also practicing the essential skill of note taking while they are listening to our Read Aloud book.  Good stuff!

In 4th grade math, we are close to the end of Unit 9, which involves changing between fractions, decimals, and percents.  This unit is giving us some hard work to do, but I must say I am very proud of our group for hanging in there and not giving up until they can say, "Oh, I get it now!"  (music to my ears).  Our unit test will take place later this next week after we review all the content one more time.  We jumped into a whole new focus in Social Studies this week!  We have moved from our studies of Wisconsin history to exploring our whole country!  The way we will make it 'do-able' is to divide the states into 5 main regions, explore geography, resources, special attractions, and notable people unique to each region, and compare what is similar as well.  We will be able to create some maps and at least one group project to help each other learn more about our breathtaking country.  Don't be surprised if your child comes home some day pleading to take a family trip to a national park or a coastline or mountainside somewhere in the United States!  In Science with Mrs. Bertz, our kids are deep into experiments with electricity!

Some extra notes to be aware of:  Take Home folders came home this weekend stuffed with past papers that needed to get cleaned out and now kept at home.  (Folder inspection will take place Monday morning!)  April Scholastic Book Order forms have been given out and our due date for orders (both online or turned in to me) is next week Friday, April 11th.  Also, I have been asking our fourth graders if they could all make a search around home (under car seats, etc....) for any stray and forgotten reading books that should find their way back to our libraries in school.  Thank you for helping out with this!   An event that is coming up: The 3rd grade classes are once again holding their annual Market Day, and our class will be able to 'shop' the week of April 14th.  I will forward a short flier about all the details.  Also, keep in mind that Friday, April 18th, there is no school, and on Monday, April 21st, students do not come to school again, due to our final district professional development day for teachers.

Trips coming up:  On the morning of May 2nd, all three of our 4th grade classrooms will get the exciting opportunity to go to Glacier Creek for one hour to tour the new 5th grade wing being built for them for next year!  We can't wait to see this!  On May 14th (rain date May 21st) there will a 4th/5th grade track meet at the MHS track all day - more details will be coming.  On May 27th, the day after Memorial Day, our 4th graders will all spend a full school day at Cave of the Mounds!  The PTO will fund our students' costs for this day.  We teachers are hoping many of you can join us for this highlight to the 4th grade school year, so let me know if you want to chaperone.  I must add that all of us adults will need to pay the cost of our participation that day which is $15 each, and we will need to know if you can come, and receive your admission fee, a full two weeks before May 27th.  We are signed up for three different guided tours throughout the day both above ground and below, as well as the chance to 'sluice' for precious rocks and minerals that students may keep.  We will have time built into our day to have a picnic lunch together at their park as well.  More specific details will come later, but I wanted to give you all plenty of time to look at your schedules and think about whether you are able to come along. 

As always, do let me know if you have questions about any of our activities, and I will be sure to keep you posted on details as each event comes closer.  I feel us slowly revving up into a higher gear as we approach the end of 4th grade in just two months.  In the meantime, we will take it one week at a time, and focus each day on getting in as much learning as we can! 

Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

March 15, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello, dear families.  I certainly did enjoy our visits at conferences over the last two weeks!  Thank you for coming.  I can't believe we have just one more trimester remaining in 4th grade!  We have one full busy week ahead now, and then we will be off on Spring Break until we come back together again on March 31st.  You will see second trimester report cards coming home this Friday, the 21st.  Please keep at home the reports that are inside, sign the envelope, and return the empty envelope to school so we may use it again for the last report of the year in June.

A few more notes about Friday, the 21st:  I handed out March Scholastic Book Order forms this past week, and we would like all orders to be placed, either online or sent in to me with a check, by the 21st.  When we get back to school after Break, our shipment might even be waiting for us already!  Also, we will be asking all students to take home all snow clothes and extra clothing (except gym shoes/indoor shoes) so that our custodians have clear hallways in which to do extra cleaning and polishing while we are gone.  Hopefully, we won't need snowpants anymore upon returning (though the boots would still come in handy for the muddy days that are a guarantee in April!).  For those wet, messy days ahead, it is also a good idea to stuff an extra pair of pants/socks into backpacks for this spring as well!  The last 'detail' about Friday, the 21st, is that we have earned our 3rd Reward Day (collecting compliments for our good behavior - yay!!) and we will devote this day to reading, reading, reading - and caramel corn and cozy clothes with slippers/blankets/pillows.... Ahhh....

Now, to back up a few days -- this coming Tuesday, March 18th, we will welcome a special guest to our room for the last hour of the day.  His name is Mike Welch, a well-known area karate instructor.  He will come to teach about the concept of Respect, combined with lessons about bullying mixed in with some of the coolest karate moves ever!  He has a powerful message!

You may have noticed a change in the spelling lists lately.  We are making sure we can all accurately spell the high frequency words identified by our school district for 4th and 5th grade level students, before we go back to our own (more difficult) student-generated high usage words.  We will test on the second of the three 5th grade lists this coming week, and finish up with the third list the week after Break.  In Writers' Workshop, we are wrapping up the typing of two Realistic Fiction stories.  This has been excellent keyboarding practice, as well as a great way to practice editing skills.  Thank you for your support at home if your student has been working on these final drafts at home.  We want both stories completely done by Friday, so please ask your student what his/her status is for this project!   

In Readers' Workshop, we have begun a very exciting and engaging new topic:  Historical Fiction.  Combining both our classroom collection of books along with another big bin collected from the school library, we have dozens of books to choose from.  Everyone will be reading more than one of this particular genre of story over the next weeks, in addition to continuing their own independent reading books.  We will be perfecting our comprehension skills with this genre as we find ourselves in different eras of the past, and we realize that we must take note of many important details for the stories to make sense!  Plus, our reading workshops are also becoming like a second social studies class, as we educate ourselves about important past events in history.  It is absolutely fascinating to hear all the discoveries and questions during our class discussions just in our first week on this new unit!  Our new class Read Aloud is titled "Number The Stars" by Lois Lowry, in case you have a chance to read this shorter chapter book yourself.  The kids are hooked already after just the first chapter!

I think that's all our big news for now!  If anything more comes up, I will send you all a quick email to keep you informed.  May your family enjoy a hopefully more relaxed schedule for the Break week coming up, and may we all return refreshed and ready to dig in for the home stretch of 4th grade!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam

February 28, 2014 Weekly Update

Hello, 4H Families!  The last day of February already!  May March become the turning point in this difficult winter!  As I 'speedwalked' my way across the cold MHS parking lot back to my car after our choral concert tonight, I thought of how our West Middleton families filled that large theater to capacity, and felt so proud to be a part of it - we have a wonderful, supportive community of families, and we don't let these frozen Wisconsin conditions stop us. 

Yesterday, we had just a great day touring around the marble floors of our State Capitol Building - sitting in the padded chairs of our government leaders, and craning our necks to see the huge murals and priceless architecture covering every wall and ceiling, hearing the stories that make it all so meaningful.  Then we toured four floors of the Wisconsin Historical Museum, and it was like entering a time machine for our state's past.  Our students soaked up as much information as they could hold, and combined with our studies of the past several weeks, they have become 4th grade experts on Wisconsin's history and heritage.  I want to express many thanks to our chaperones for helping to make this day go as smoothly as it possibly could:  Mr. Sisk, Mrs. Pansegrau, Mr. Bernier, Mrs. Faucher.

I look forward to visiting with you and your 4th grader over the next two weeks as we meet for conferences.  The second trimester officially ends on March 7th, and we will then work on completing our grade reports and getting report cards ready to send home within the next two weeks after that.  Spring Break will end our month of March (3/24 to 3/28).  Next week as we begin the new month, we will all be celebrating Literacy Week!  You have hopefully seen the email I sent with the details of each day attached - Monday, March 3rd, will contain DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read) for our entire building at the same time - we will ALL be reading!  On Tuesday, we are planning an assembly which will bring some our students' writing to life - some of our teachers-turned-actors will be performing original student stories.  On Wednesday, we all hope to wear some clothing featuring WORDS, and on Thursday, plans are being made to swap teachers to read to other classrooms, and to swap books. If you have any books at home that you are ready to pass along to other readers, your student can bring them to school and then choose someone's else book to take home.  On Friday, we can dress up like our favorite book character, and we will start the day with a parade around the halls!

These activities will provide many great camera opportunities, and that brings me to the next reminder - West Middleton Yearbooks can now be ordered!!  The order form went home this past week, and we have until March 14th to send in our orders.  This will be the last West Middleton Yearbook for your student!  They will receive them on one of the last days of school in June, and we always give everyone time to sign each others' books.

We are almost ready to send out our second pen pal letter to our new high school friends in the National Honor Society.  This has been an excellent and motivating writing activity for our kids, and SO much fun to receive those replies!  We have been promised another return letter before Spring Break.  We are also finishing our rough drafts for our Realistic Fiction Stories, and will head into the computer labs next week to type up the final draft, giving everyone much needed keyboard practice.  In reading we have been researching and note taking in Informational Books about Wisconsin's history, and will now organize our information into a poster presentation.  Next on the agenda:  Literary Essays and Historical Fiction Book Clubs!  Math classes are all taking the Unit 7 final tests this week, and we all begin Unit 8 next week.  (Fourth graders get to divide up some real pizzas early next week in celebration of completing our unit on fractions - we will be sharing with our fifth grade math classmates as well...)  Mrs. Bertz has sent home your student's last Science Test recently, so take a look at that.

As more news and information comes around, I will be sure to keep you updated.  Remember to check your student's Take Home Folder for important notices - it seems like we have been sending more of these notices home lately!  Feel free to email me any time if you wonder about any details.  Jump Rope For Heart and the annual PTO Bowl-A-Thon are two more events that are coming very soon - see those details in the Folders as well.  See you all very soon!  Melanie Hannam

February 14, 2014 Weekly Update

Hi, families!  Happy Valentine's Day and Weekend!  Much to the disappointment of a few of our 4th grade friends, we did not replace our writing, reading, and math classes with a party all day!  :)   But we did have a really fun celebration the last 45 minutes of the day exchanging cards and treats.  We want to send many thank you's for Mary O's delicious brownies, Michele P's ice cold milk, and a Bingo game with prizes by Stephanie B and Betty S, along with the great help of these moms in our room to help out. 

Remember that this coming Monday is a Professional Development Day for school staff, so there will be NO school for our students.

By Tuesday of this coming week, I will be able to send home a confirmation sheet of our scheduled Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences to be held during the first two weeks of March.  Thanks for the quick responses, and for your flexibility with my adjusted schedule of days. 

We also have all of our permission slips turned in to attend our 4th grade Field Trip to Capitol Square on February 26th!  Yay!  So far, we have just two parents who have let me know they can join us for the day to chaperone.  I would really like about 3 more parents to come along, so if you are able to fit this day into your schedule, thank you for letting me know!

Our students have urged me to send along this link to you - it features numerous 5 minute video clips about the physics of many Olympics sports events.  We have been watching some of these in class when we can fit them into our days, and they show some amazing action, along with teaching some basic laws of physics! 

 http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/winterolympics/index.jsp 

During the school day on February 27th, the day after our field trip, every grade level will be traveling with classroom teachers and Mr. Yentsch, our music teacher, to the MHS Performing Arts Center for an hour's rehearsal.  This is in preparation for that evening's 6:30 pm West Middleton choral music performance (students should arrive at 6:15).  All students are to wear their WM tie dye t-shirts for the concert.  See you there!

Our Writer's and Reader's Workshops this past week have been filled with hardworking sessions, writing our realistic fiction stories, and digging deep into informational resources that are revealing some eye opening facts about our state's history - we are all learning so much, including me!  Our students have become both teacher and student during these research periods, and what a wonderful way for all of us to learn!  In 4th grade math, fractions are the new focus, and with each day, the new concepts have become more clear to our students - it takes time and patience on the part of students who are used to catching on quickly - it does get better each day!  Much of our work is a preview to more in-depth work later this year and in 5th grade. 

I will continue to keep you updated on all of our news, and I look forward to seeing all of you in person in March!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam 

February 7, 2014 Weekly Update

Greetings to our 4H Families!  Has your 4th grader shown you one of the coolest things to come out of his/her Take Home Folder all year yet??  On Friday, we received back the first letter from our Middleton High School Pen Pals!  What a delight!  Early in January we accepted the invitation from members of the National Honor Society to become pen pals with them, and we wrote our first letter to them.  Their replies are beautiful letters, and it was SO exciting to hand everyone their own personalized letter from a new high school friend.  This coming week we will answer them back and become even better acquainted.  Oh, what a fun time it will be at the end of school year when we can all meet in person!  For now, what a wonderful opportunity for some really motivating writing!! :)

In other writing news, in our Workshop we have been busy 'plotting' our realistic fiction stories.  It is probably the first time most of our students have done so much note-taking and list-making before they launch into a creative writing project - it will be so interesting for them to see how this affects their actual first draft writing experience.  My hope is that their stories become more focused and orderly and follow the 'story mountain' (ask your child for an explanation of what this is!).  We have been analyzing well thought-out characters, settings, and conflict development and resolution that makes real world sense! 

In Reader's Workshop, we have launched a new unit, reading Informational texts of ALL kinds, researching and grouping relevant facts for subtopics on the broad subject of Wisconsin Government!  This is perfect timing, since we are approaching this topic in Social Studies now, AND we will be going to the State Capitol Building and WI Historical Museum on February 26th.  Our students should be fully prepared with background knowledge by then!  You have received the permission slip for our trip, and please remember to return the bottom half of this slip along with $2.00 for the Museum entrance as soon as you can.  Thank you!  I would love to have any number of parents come along for these two tours, so do let me know if you can chaperone on this day.  You would need to bring along a lunch, and perhaps carpool together from school.  (Our three 4th grade classes fit just right on one school bus.)  I will divide our class into small groups for each of you for the day.  We are due by 10:00 am at the Information Desk on the first floor of the Capitol to meet our tour guide, will get to meet with Representative Dianne Hesselbein at 10:45, lunch at the Museum at 11:30, and then tour with another guide from 12 to 1:00, with an extra half hour to take our own small groups to other areas of the Museum before getting back on buses at 1:30.  Please see the top half of the permission slip for these details.  I hope you can come!  (If you are chaperoning, I would also need $2.00 for your Museum admission ahead of time, just like our students - thank you!)

In Math Class, our Unit 7 for 4th grade students deals with Fractions!  We do a lot of hands-on practice with pattern blocks to get a full understanding of the concepts.  Students should be bringing home their two workbooks every single day, even if they feel they have finished pages in class for their homework.  It would be SO valuable for them if you would ask them to explain what their lesson was about that day - the true sign they are understanding.  It may take a couple of days of work on some lessons before they fully 'get' it, but so far we are off to a solid start.  By this halfway point in the school year, we are also down to our last few students who have not been able to answer within 3 minutes the 100 basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  The first two operations should have been mastered long before this, and the last two should be at least 75 problems and more by now.  PLEASE give your student some extra practice help most evenings - just 10 to 15 minutes does make a big difference.  They should continually be recording their latest scores on a previously blank page in the back of their Studylink books, so do take a look! 

We will be able to share about your 4th graders progress in all subjects early in March. Coming home early this next week will be the sign up sheet for a time to conference with your student and with me in March.  Please mark your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices for a time, and return that paper just as soon as you can and I will reserve a spot for you.  When I have received all of your replies, I will send back a copy of the master schedule.  That will come in handy if you need to make a trade with another family - just let me know if that happens.  A heads up:  I am planning on after school times on March 3rd and 4th, and also March 10th and 11th.  (I must attend a workshop out of town all day on March 6th, which is one of our building conference dates - therefore the change in my schedule for our own class families).  Thank you!

One last note about upcoming events - Valentine's Day!  On Friday, the 14th, we will have a class party for the last 40 minutes of our day.  We have several moms coming in to help with a game, and some treats, and we are all set with plans for both.  The students may exchange cards at this time also (not a 'required' activity for every student).  We will be decorating some big envelopes beforehand. Also, February Scholastic Book Order Forms are coming home this week - stay tuned for the deadline to order online or through the paper catalog form.  Last month, the free books I was able to order for our classroom with our Bonus Points, thanks to your own orders, were so popular, I had to draw name sticks to decide who got to read the new books first!

I will continue to keep you informed through this very busy month!  Sincerely, Melanie Hannam