Hello, families! It was an unusual week, with a scheduled day off Monday, a surprise snow day on Wednesday, and our Read-In day on Thursday. We were still able to make some good progress with our work. In math, our 4th graders are mastering long division! They have come a long way in one week, and any extra problems you can throw their way is very helpful (one digit divisors, and up to 3 or 4 digit dividends). Next week we add practice with protractors, measuring angles, and coordinated grids on maps and graphs. Our students will continue with extra division practice throughout this unit, so you will see additional sheets coming home with their math books.
After many step by step lists and single paragraphs, our budding authors have begun to write their realistic fiction stories. We have gotten acquainted with our characters, developed our settings and scenarios, and created the problems and conflicts our characters must resolve in their stories. We've got these hills and valleys mapped out on our "story mountains" and many students are now teetering at the peak of their mountain where the problems appear to be at their most difficult. Next week, we hope to slide down the other side of the story mountain as we realistically resolve our characters' difficulties (there will be no "...and then he woke up and realized it was all a dream...")! :)
This next week your student will be bringing home the list of 75 "High Frequency Spelling Words" all 4th graders should know how to spell. Most of them appear to be quite easy, but we will see! We will be pretesting to see which ones are already mastered, and concentrate on the words each student must still practice, until all of our 4th graders prove mastery over the entire list. I believe we will also tackle the 5th grade words later this year - most of our students should have very little difficulty with them.
We are finalizing arrangements for February 22nd, when all of our 74 fourth graders will tour the Capitol Building and the Wisconsin Historical Museum. A permission slip will be coming home next week. Our WM PTO is covering the entrance cost to the Museum and our transportation - many thanks to them!
You will see the schedule of our day described on the permission slip, and you will need to send in the bottom portion of that page back to school with your signature and emergency contact. If you would like to volunteer to come along, we will have room on the buses for up to 4 parents per classroom, and your admission to the Museum will cost $2 - which you can give to me. Let me know if you would like to join us! We will all be bringing disposable lunches to eat in the lunchroom of the Museum. Our day away will last from 9:15 am until 1:45 pm.
In the meantime, thanks for sending warm and insulating snow clothing each day with your student. It looks like fresh snow coming almost every other day in the next week. An extra pair of dry socks in the backpack is a good idea, as well as a change of shoes for the classroom, while wet pairs of boots drip in the hallways! Melanie Hannam
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
January 25, 2013 Weekly Update
Hello, dear families, we have had a much healthier week than the previous week - in fact, pretty much perfect attendance! We worked hard to catch everyone up on our work and to keep going on our subjects. I felt moved to tell our students by the last hour on Friday that they should feel proud of how much they had done - the many pages read (several of our kids are really into their books!), the many lines written for their fictional stories, and the new math all groups have begun with the start of new units occuring for everyone this week. For our 4th grade math students, the big focus in this unit is learning the steps in long division problems, and we will be devoting extra time both in school and for homework to get in additional practice as we add steps each day.
In social studies we are winding up our study of Wisconsin regions, and with an eye toward our upcoming field trip, we want to explore our state's earliest people and settlers, along with some background on our government and capitol. We want to be prepared to understand and fully appreciate what we will see on (take note!) Friday, February 22nd, when all of our 4th grade classes will tour the Capitol building and also the Wisconsin Historical Museum. Very soon you will have a permission slip to fill out for this trip, and a chance to come along to chaperone -so think about it!
We said goodbye to our practicum student, Ms. Engel, on Friday, since it is time for her to return to college to continue her education classes. She quickly became a part of our 4H family over the past three weeks, and helped every single one of us in many supportive ways with our work. She got a thorough immersion into life in a 4th grade classroom, and we have another friend to add to our 4th grade memories. With one friend leaving us, I must not neglect any longer to introduce you to a new classmate who joined us this month. We have welcomed a new student into our room, Yessenia. It has been heartwarming to watch how kind and friendly our students have been to help her feel at home and comfortable in a new school and new group of classmates. We are now a class of 25!
As of the end of this week, we are now at the official halfway point of our school year! Along with academic progress, we are also focusing strongly in all of our fourth grade rooms on self control, respect for teachers and classmates, listening skills, and making sure we work to the BEST of our abilities. I will venture to say that these four areas go farther in developing a successful school year and career more than anything else. Please talk over what these behaviors mean to your student. There is much room for improvement, and as we get into the second half of our year, we expect to see some real growth. Thank you. Melanie Hannam
In social studies we are winding up our study of Wisconsin regions, and with an eye toward our upcoming field trip, we want to explore our state's earliest people and settlers, along with some background on our government and capitol. We want to be prepared to understand and fully appreciate what we will see on (take note!) Friday, February 22nd, when all of our 4th grade classes will tour the Capitol building and also the Wisconsin Historical Museum. Very soon you will have a permission slip to fill out for this trip, and a chance to come along to chaperone -so think about it!
We said goodbye to our practicum student, Ms. Engel, on Friday, since it is time for her to return to college to continue her education classes. She quickly became a part of our 4H family over the past three weeks, and helped every single one of us in many supportive ways with our work. She got a thorough immersion into life in a 4th grade classroom, and we have another friend to add to our 4th grade memories. With one friend leaving us, I must not neglect any longer to introduce you to a new classmate who joined us this month. We have welcomed a new student into our room, Yessenia. It has been heartwarming to watch how kind and friendly our students have been to help her feel at home and comfortable in a new school and new group of classmates. We are now a class of 25!
As of the end of this week, we are now at the official halfway point of our school year! Along with academic progress, we are also focusing strongly in all of our fourth grade rooms on self control, respect for teachers and classmates, listening skills, and making sure we work to the BEST of our abilities. I will venture to say that these four areas go farther in developing a successful school year and career more than anything else. Please talk over what these behaviors mean to your student. There is much room for improvement, and as we get into the second half of our year, we expect to see some real growth. Thank you. Melanie Hannam
Saturday, January 19, 2013
January 18, 2013 Weekly Update
Greetings to our 4H Families! What a different kind of week we have had! That flu virus certainly must be highly contagious - we were missing a full third of our students in Room 117 for three days in a row! By Friday, we still had one friend out ill, with everyone else making it back in varying stages of recovery, but with smiles all around - we are all glad to get most everyone back together, and hopefully over the worst of this 'storm'. We have gone through our room daily with Clorox wipes in hopes this will help - thank you to those who donated more of these containers to our room! We will keep up the extra wiping for awhile yet!
We tried our best to walk the fine line between progressing with our lessons, but not going so far that it would be overly difficult for our missing friends to catch up. We did an extra review in math today to make sure all felt ready for the Unit 5 Test, which will take place Tuesday. Fifth grade students will also be taking their unit test on Tuesday. The 4th graders should have their unit review sheets in their take home folders, and I encouraged them to use sample problems from those to refresh memories before coming back to school next Tuesday. Multiplying with two digit numbers and rounding off numbers in the hundreds and thousands are a big part of the 4th grade test.
We took several of our literacy class times this week to practice writing Haiku poetry, with the goal of identifying two best poems each student can submit to the Dane County Contest. I am so amazed and impressed with the creative writing our students produced - wow! Many of them really got the idea quickly, and enjoyed doing these - I think I may post some of their Haiku on our blog next week to give you a peek at their clever 'wordsmithing'. All poetry attempts are being saved to each student's writing binders. More work on writing this week included each student developing a complete fictional character in preparation for writing a realistic fictional story. They turned their lists of attributes into descriptive paragraphs, and we had lots of fun today sharing these new characters with the class.
We have had to stretch out our timetable for our current spelling list due to all our absences, but we hope that we will all be ready for the final test on these 21 words next week on Wednesday. All students should have their master lists in their take home folders, and these words need some time and attention before next Wednesday! Thanks for helping by giving some practice quizzing.
I wish all of you good health in the coming days as we are hopefully moving out of the worst of this flu season. Maybe an extra day's rest on Monday for many is well timed to get over coughs and headaches, etc. Sincerely, Melanie Hannam
We tried our best to walk the fine line between progressing with our lessons, but not going so far that it would be overly difficult for our missing friends to catch up. We did an extra review in math today to make sure all felt ready for the Unit 5 Test, which will take place Tuesday. Fifth grade students will also be taking their unit test on Tuesday. The 4th graders should have their unit review sheets in their take home folders, and I encouraged them to use sample problems from those to refresh memories before coming back to school next Tuesday. Multiplying with two digit numbers and rounding off numbers in the hundreds and thousands are a big part of the 4th grade test.
We took several of our literacy class times this week to practice writing Haiku poetry, with the goal of identifying two best poems each student can submit to the Dane County Contest. I am so amazed and impressed with the creative writing our students produced - wow! Many of them really got the idea quickly, and enjoyed doing these - I think I may post some of their Haiku on our blog next week to give you a peek at their clever 'wordsmithing'. All poetry attempts are being saved to each student's writing binders. More work on writing this week included each student developing a complete fictional character in preparation for writing a realistic fictional story. They turned their lists of attributes into descriptive paragraphs, and we had lots of fun today sharing these new characters with the class.
We have had to stretch out our timetable for our current spelling list due to all our absences, but we hope that we will all be ready for the final test on these 21 words next week on Wednesday. All students should have their master lists in their take home folders, and these words need some time and attention before next Wednesday! Thanks for helping by giving some practice quizzing.
I wish all of you good health in the coming days as we are hopefully moving out of the worst of this flu season. Maybe an extra day's rest on Monday for many is well timed to get over coughs and headaches, etc. Sincerely, Melanie Hannam
Sunday, January 13, 2013
January 11, 2013 Weekly Update
Hello to all of our 4H families! We had a full 5 day week back at school, and we were able to accomplish a lot in Room 117. Our students hung in there during two trips to the computer lab to complete their second of the three MAPS testing sessions for the year in Reading and Math. The new data will tell us details about progress in their learning goals, according to this one measure. Another day, I was also able to meet with a number of our students to administer a Rigby reading record, which tells me updated info on their reading level.
In addition, back inside our classroom, we are working hard to become proficient at multiplying two and three digit numbers. After presenting partial-products and lattice methods as alternative ways to multiply larger numbers, we are concentrating on the traditional method from here on out. The curriculum in future years does not require students to use these alternative methods, and if it works best for some, those methods are always available. We find out that the traditional method, in most cases, is the simplest and quickest way to come to our correct answers. This news should come as a relief to parents who want to help their child practice multi-digit problems! We have three remaining lessons in Unit 5, so by the end of the coming week, we should be in "review" mode, and please stay tuned for the exact date of our next Unit Test. Also, you should have found an envelope Friday in your 4th grade math student's Take Home Folder, which reports the current level of progress your child has made in mastering his/her basic facts. Some of our kids really do need to make some extra practice a regular part of their homework routine if they expect to make satisfactory progress!
Our literacy classes have been very satisfying and exciting for me as a teacher. This past week, I witnessed again the power of brainstorming and collective thinking and group discussion. Our very own students have come up with numerous inspired ideas together, and we are so proud of the lists we have created together. These lists are now written into our brand new Fiction Writing Notebooks, and will help us with ideas for coming up with creative story themes and deeper character development within those stories. This has been really fun. We are learning to create believable characters with personalities that match the story theme and setting, and this coming week we will use that information to realistically create the problem, conflict, or challenge facing each of our characters. What a wonderful and solid way this is proving to be in building our story writing skills.
The new spelling list given early this past week should be 'living' in each student's student's take home folder, and these words should be reviewed each day. The final test for this list of 20 (plus a bonus!) will be coming up later in the next week. Some students are not taking the time and effort they require to master these useful words. The words for each of our spelling lists come directly from the writing that our own students do - I take notes on frequently used words written by our fourth graders that I notice get misspelled, and it is these words that end up on our lists.
We will take some of our literacy time this week to dip into the art of writing Haiku poetry. Every year at this time, most of the 4th graders in all of Dane County have the oppportunity to submit their original Haiku in a contest. So we will all give it our best try! It is amazing to see what beautiful thoughts and descriptions our students can create, and some really get into it, creating several pages of them. Try it yourselves, parents! Haiku are comprised of three lines: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables, and usually describe topics in nature and/or relationships. Watch for some drafts to come home, and maybe you can all sit together to create some one evening!
I end this update with a request. We are trying very hard during this month in particular, to keep our room clean and as a germ-free as possible. We have run out of disinfecting wipes, and they are so handy to run over desks tops and other well used surfaces in the classroom. When you are out shopping next, would you keep Room 117 in mind and pick up a container for your student to deliver to school? Thank you so much!! May you all continue this winter to stay healthy and warm. Till next note, Melanie Hannam
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In addition, back inside our classroom, we are working hard to become proficient at multiplying two and three digit numbers. After presenting partial-products and lattice methods as alternative ways to multiply larger numbers, we are concentrating on the traditional method from here on out. The curriculum in future years does not require students to use these alternative methods, and if it works best for some, those methods are always available. We find out that the traditional method, in most cases, is the simplest and quickest way to come to our correct answers. This news should come as a relief to parents who want to help their child practice multi-digit problems! We have three remaining lessons in Unit 5, so by the end of the coming week, we should be in "review" mode, and please stay tuned for the exact date of our next Unit Test. Also, you should have found an envelope Friday in your 4th grade math student's Take Home Folder, which reports the current level of progress your child has made in mastering his/her basic facts. Some of our kids really do need to make some extra practice a regular part of their homework routine if they expect to make satisfactory progress!
Our literacy classes have been very satisfying and exciting for me as a teacher. This past week, I witnessed again the power of brainstorming and collective thinking and group discussion. Our very own students have come up with numerous inspired ideas together, and we are so proud of the lists we have created together. These lists are now written into our brand new Fiction Writing Notebooks, and will help us with ideas for coming up with creative story themes and deeper character development within those stories. This has been really fun. We are learning to create believable characters with personalities that match the story theme and setting, and this coming week we will use that information to realistically create the problem, conflict, or challenge facing each of our characters. What a wonderful and solid way this is proving to be in building our story writing skills.
The new spelling list given early this past week should be 'living' in each student's student's take home folder, and these words should be reviewed each day. The final test for this list of 20 (plus a bonus!) will be coming up later in the next week. Some students are not taking the time and effort they require to master these useful words. The words for each of our spelling lists come directly from the writing that our own students do - I take notes on frequently used words written by our fourth graders that I notice get misspelled, and it is these words that end up on our lists.
We will take some of our literacy time this week to dip into the art of writing Haiku poetry. Every year at this time, most of the 4th graders in all of Dane County have the oppportunity to submit their original Haiku in a contest. So we will all give it our best try! It is amazing to see what beautiful thoughts and descriptions our students can create, and some really get into it, creating several pages of them. Try it yourselves, parents! Haiku are comprised of three lines: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables, and usually describe topics in nature and/or relationships. Watch for some drafts to come home, and maybe you can all sit together to create some one evening!
I end this update with a request. We are trying very hard during this month in particular, to keep our room clean and as a germ-free as possible. We have run out of disinfecting wipes, and they are so handy to run over desks tops and other well used surfaces in the classroom. When you are out shopping next, would you keep Room 117 in mind and pick up a container for your student to deliver to school? Thank you so much!! May you all continue this winter to stay healthy and warm. Till next note, Melanie Hannam
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Friday, January 4, 2013
January 4, 2013 Weekly Update
Happy New Year to you all! It's been nice to have three days this week to ease back into our routine, and get warmed up again. It felt like we were away longer than two weeks. Everyone in the classroom has been pretty mellow, and all seem happy to be back together again. Our class discussed the fact that we didn't get our classroom Holiday/Winter Party which was to be held the last hour before Break, and we came to an agreement on a new plan. We are going to work toward earning ourselves a special day of favorite activities on the last day of January. We will make a list and a schedule for our day, and successfully following our PBIS good behavior rules will get us what we want to do. We will keep you posted on our progress, and if we might need a little help with a special treat to go along with our possible books and games that day. (By the way, I want to send many thanks to the parents who volunteered and began planning our winter Holiday party. Perhaps we can modify some of those plans for a Valentine's Day party...!)
We have jumped right into where we left off in math class. We are working on rounding off numbers and estimating answers, and next week we move into multi-digit multiplication. If any of our students are still struggling with knowing their basic facts, that will add an extra challenge for them. Ten to fifteen minutes each night practicing facts is still a very good idea!
I am very happy to see that our students continue to be well supplied with good books that they enjoy reading. The Class Reading Log has been passed around all week, getting updated with books read over the break. Next week we are scheduled to take the second round of the MAPS computer testing for Reading and for Math, and we have discussed how we want to see our scores improve over the ones we earned last September. Once we learn our new scores, I want to divide our readers into several "book clubs' where each group will read a common book and meet together to discuss it. I have been collecting multiple copies of appropriately leveled books, and I even read a couple of them over the break, and now I can't wait for our kids to dig into them! This will be lots of fun and will work toward deepening our comprehension skills. By the way, the January Scholastic Book Order Forms came home today, and we have agreed on a due date for orders being Friday, January 11th.
In Writer's Workshop, we were able to wrap up our unit on Essay writing with our last day in December. This week we are organizing all our past rough drafts, story ideas, character sketches, etc. into binders, and next week we will begin a new unit of writing: "Writing Fiction - Big Dreams, Tall Ambitions". This unit builds upon our previous work developing deep and believable characters, realistic settings, and also logical solutions to conflicts that make a story engaging. I am really looking forward to experiencing these lessons with our students.
Social Studies class this week gave us a chance to review our knowledge of glacial landforms, and we are also studying the importance of Wisconsin's waterways. Our state can be divided up into several regions with unique characteristics for each, and next week we will find out about those. For your information, by the end of our second trimester in early March, we want to have covered the early explorers and native people in Wisconsin's history and then study our state's government. Later in February, our three 4th grade classes have made plans to go on a field trip to our Capital building and the Wisconsin Historical Museum! Specific details will come in future newsletters, in case you'd like to join us!
The next two weeks are full 5-day weeks of school, and then we will have two Mondays with no school - the 21st and 28th. Also, beginning on Monday, January 7th and for the rest of the month, we will be welcoming a practicum student from Luther College in Iowa to our classroom. Her name is Colby Engel, her family lives in the Verona area, and she went to Middleton schools, including West Middleton! She will be a teacher in two more years, and being with us will give her more experience in the classroom. We are looking forward to getting to know Ms. Engel.
May you all enjoy a wintery but cozy weekend. Melanie Hannam
We have jumped right into where we left off in math class. We are working on rounding off numbers and estimating answers, and next week we move into multi-digit multiplication. If any of our students are still struggling with knowing their basic facts, that will add an extra challenge for them. Ten to fifteen minutes each night practicing facts is still a very good idea!
I am very happy to see that our students continue to be well supplied with good books that they enjoy reading. The Class Reading Log has been passed around all week, getting updated with books read over the break. Next week we are scheduled to take the second round of the MAPS computer testing for Reading and for Math, and we have discussed how we want to see our scores improve over the ones we earned last September. Once we learn our new scores, I want to divide our readers into several "book clubs' where each group will read a common book and meet together to discuss it. I have been collecting multiple copies of appropriately leveled books, and I even read a couple of them over the break, and now I can't wait for our kids to dig into them! This will be lots of fun and will work toward deepening our comprehension skills. By the way, the January Scholastic Book Order Forms came home today, and we have agreed on a due date for orders being Friday, January 11th.
In Writer's Workshop, we were able to wrap up our unit on Essay writing with our last day in December. This week we are organizing all our past rough drafts, story ideas, character sketches, etc. into binders, and next week we will begin a new unit of writing: "Writing Fiction - Big Dreams, Tall Ambitions". This unit builds upon our previous work developing deep and believable characters, realistic settings, and also logical solutions to conflicts that make a story engaging. I am really looking forward to experiencing these lessons with our students.
Social Studies class this week gave us a chance to review our knowledge of glacial landforms, and we are also studying the importance of Wisconsin's waterways. Our state can be divided up into several regions with unique characteristics for each, and next week we will find out about those. For your information, by the end of our second trimester in early March, we want to have covered the early explorers and native people in Wisconsin's history and then study our state's government. Later in February, our three 4th grade classes have made plans to go on a field trip to our Capital building and the Wisconsin Historical Museum! Specific details will come in future newsletters, in case you'd like to join us!
The next two weeks are full 5-day weeks of school, and then we will have two Mondays with no school - the 21st and 28th. Also, beginning on Monday, January 7th and for the rest of the month, we will be welcoming a practicum student from Luther College in Iowa to our classroom. Her name is Colby Engel, her family lives in the Verona area, and she went to Middleton schools, including West Middleton! She will be a teacher in two more years, and being with us will give her more experience in the classroom. We are looking forward to getting to know Ms. Engel.
May you all enjoy a wintery but cozy weekend. Melanie Hannam
Friday, December 14, 2012
December 14, 2012 Weekly Update
Greetings to our families of Room 117! How did we get to the last week before our Winter Break already?! It has been important for us to keep very busy in class to stay focused on our work - we have been successful most of the time! This past week we have been wrapping up our Unit 4 in math, with the unit test on Monday. Please see the review sheets in Take Home Folders to go over some of the items later this weekend to refresh memories.
We will complete our latest Holiday Spelling List early in the week with our final test on Tuesday. The students got in a fun, extra writing project by putting those words into original stories, and all seemed to enjoy it, even our most reluctant writers. We are also completing our last lessons in Essay Writing. This emphasis is new ground for almost all 4th graders, and I feel good about our first experiences with thesis statements, topic sentences, and descriptive evidence and reasoning.
In Reader's Workshop, we have been digging into a very wide variety of books to identify the clever and different ways authors grab our attention with the 'leads' to their stories. This has led many of our kids to find new books they want to add to their book boxes. We have even written our own leads, and I have typed them all into a collection for each student to include in their writing folders. Now they will have some fun new ideas for more writing projects.
Social Studies has us researching the glacial landforms that shaped Wisconsin 10,000 years ago. We have found some awesome examples online, and we have spent a couple sessions huddled in front of our Smartboard, oohing and aahing over the pictures of glaciers, moraines, eskers, and drumlins still found in Wisconsin and around the world. The Ice Age Trail is right in our own backyards, and the Ice Age Trail Alliance has short videos about the Trail in Wisconsin that have been really interesting. There is an office right in Cross Plains!
Next week we are looking forward to some special events. On Monday we have a secret project planned - (you will see the results perhaps under the Christmas tree). On Tuesday, we will welcome Emma's 'editor' father to our classroom to speak with us about writing and editing. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and first hand experience with us! On Friday afternoon we will wrap up our December in school with a Holiday celebration including some games and special treats.
I wish you all a warm and wonderful time with your family during our Break (we return to school on January 2nd). I am looking forward to having all three of our daughters home at the same time for a few days myself! Happy Holidays to you all. Melanie
We will complete our latest Holiday Spelling List early in the week with our final test on Tuesday. The students got in a fun, extra writing project by putting those words into original stories, and all seemed to enjoy it, even our most reluctant writers. We are also completing our last lessons in Essay Writing. This emphasis is new ground for almost all 4th graders, and I feel good about our first experiences with thesis statements, topic sentences, and descriptive evidence and reasoning.
In Reader's Workshop, we have been digging into a very wide variety of books to identify the clever and different ways authors grab our attention with the 'leads' to their stories. This has led many of our kids to find new books they want to add to their book boxes. We have even written our own leads, and I have typed them all into a collection for each student to include in their writing folders. Now they will have some fun new ideas for more writing projects.
Social Studies has us researching the glacial landforms that shaped Wisconsin 10,000 years ago. We have found some awesome examples online, and we have spent a couple sessions huddled in front of our Smartboard, oohing and aahing over the pictures of glaciers, moraines, eskers, and drumlins still found in Wisconsin and around the world. The Ice Age Trail is right in our own backyards, and the Ice Age Trail Alliance has short videos about the Trail in Wisconsin that have been really interesting. There is an office right in Cross Plains!
Next week we are looking forward to some special events. On Monday we have a secret project planned - (you will see the results perhaps under the Christmas tree). On Tuesday, we will welcome Emma's 'editor' father to our classroom to speak with us about writing and editing. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and first hand experience with us! On Friday afternoon we will wrap up our December in school with a Holiday celebration including some games and special treats.
I wish you all a warm and wonderful time with your family during our Break (we return to school on January 2nd). I am looking forward to having all three of our daughters home at the same time for a few days myself! Happy Holidays to you all. Melanie
Friday, December 7, 2012
December 7, 2012 Weekly Update
The first week of this busy month of December really flew by. Several special events this week added to the excitement of the coming holiday. Our annual Winter Tea on Wednesday was a highlight, and it was so much fun to have a quick visit with many of you. The PTO did an awesome job of decorating and organizing a beautiful setting and very yummy selection of treats for all of us. We have such dedicated and supportive parents at West Middleton! Today was another kind of celebration in our school - it was "Crazy Hair Day" in recognition of the remarkable improvement our hundreds of students have made with their hallway noise level and behavior. "Pride Paws" have been handed out by the dozens over the last weeks to emphasize and reward model behavior in our hallways, and our 'crazy hair' resulted from everyone's great efforts. We are very proud of how our crowded hallways look and sound these days.
Today was also a special day in Room 117, because we hosted Mike Welch, the owner and instructor at Infinity Martial Arts. He came for our last hour and taught us the first lessons of karate, which are very strong on teaching about self-respect and showing respect for others. Along with leading us all in some very cool karate moves, he also led a valuable discussion with our students about bullying and how to handle situations assertively but respectfully and responsibly as well. The kids were very attentive to his message and it was powerful.
We did also manage to make good progress with our reading and writing lessons this week. We are identifying different types of strong leads to stories, and then trying some of own - our students have made a truly attention-grabbing collection of leads. Now we are all tempted to turn those leads into new stories of our own! In Writer's Workshop we continue to expand our essay writing, making our stances more descriptive and convincing. I must say, and I did stop everything today to tell our kids, how sincerely impressed I am with the thoughts that have been coming out in their papers and journal writing as time goes on. I just wish I could take the time to get their descriptions and ideas and feelings typed out to save and highlight. It is precious work, and I am so proud of what I am seeing.
In math we are almost through with Unit 4 and our work with decimal numbers. The last three remaining lessons next week will have us practicing millimeters, centimeters, and meters, comparing and converting between these different measurements. We will make a decision on the date for the unit test early in the week, but we want to have most of the week to review and practice first. The test will probably happen no earlier than next Friday. One note for parents: You should find an updated Progress Report in your 4th grade math student's Take Home Folder today. It lists all the first trimester scores out of 100 problems done in 3 minutes' time for the basic facts in each of the four operations. Please examine these results with your student to decide how much time they still need to practice their basic facts each and every possible day! Many are definitely progressing, but many still need to put in more time and effort to become proficient. What a difference this skill alone will make with learning the new math concepts we cover in Everyday Math.
Monday morning is our West Middleton Spelling Bee among our 4th and 5th graders. We will all be there at 8:30 to support our brave spellers. Parents are invited to watch in the multipurpose room.
I want to send a quick reminder about our plans during the final week of school before Winter Break. On Monday, December 17th, at 2 pm, our class will be involved in a special (secret) project, and we have two moms coming to help. We could use one or two more, so if you like to do 'art' and have time, let me know! Also, on Friday, December 21st, also at 2 pm, we will be having a Holiday Class Party, and we have three moms who have let me know they can do some planning and helping. If you are interested in being a part of this, let me know as well, and I will put you all in touch with each other early next week. Thank you SO very much!
In the meantime, good luck to all of us as we juggle our work and school responsibilities along with hockey tournaments, other classes and practices, in addition to holiday shopping and planning - and still get enough time to read and sleep! Yikes! Stay healthy, please! More news soon from Room 117.
Melanie Hannam
4th Grade Teacher
West Middleton Elementary
608-829-9398
mrshannamsclass.blogspot.com
Today was also a special day in Room 117, because we hosted Mike Welch, the owner and instructor at Infinity Martial Arts. He came for our last hour and taught us the first lessons of karate, which are very strong on teaching about self-respect and showing respect for others. Along with leading us all in some very cool karate moves, he also led a valuable discussion with our students about bullying and how to handle situations assertively but respectfully and responsibly as well. The kids were very attentive to his message and it was powerful.
We did also manage to make good progress with our reading and writing lessons this week. We are identifying different types of strong leads to stories, and then trying some of own - our students have made a truly attention-grabbing collection of leads. Now we are all tempted to turn those leads into new stories of our own! In Writer's Workshop we continue to expand our essay writing, making our stances more descriptive and convincing. I must say, and I did stop everything today to tell our kids, how sincerely impressed I am with the thoughts that have been coming out in their papers and journal writing as time goes on. I just wish I could take the time to get their descriptions and ideas and feelings typed out to save and highlight. It is precious work, and I am so proud of what I am seeing.
In math we are almost through with Unit 4 and our work with decimal numbers. The last three remaining lessons next week will have us practicing millimeters, centimeters, and meters, comparing and converting between these different measurements. We will make a decision on the date for the unit test early in the week, but we want to have most of the week to review and practice first. The test will probably happen no earlier than next Friday. One note for parents: You should find an updated Progress Report in your 4th grade math student's Take Home Folder today. It lists all the first trimester scores out of 100 problems done in 3 minutes' time for the basic facts in each of the four operations. Please examine these results with your student to decide how much time they still need to practice their basic facts each and every possible day! Many are definitely progressing, but many still need to put in more time and effort to become proficient. What a difference this skill alone will make with learning the new math concepts we cover in Everyday Math.
Monday morning is our West Middleton Spelling Bee among our 4th and 5th graders. We will all be there at 8:30 to support our brave spellers. Parents are invited to watch in the multipurpose room.
I want to send a quick reminder about our plans during the final week of school before Winter Break. On Monday, December 17th, at 2 pm, our class will be involved in a special (secret) project, and we have two moms coming to help. We could use one or two more, so if you like to do 'art' and have time, let me know! Also, on Friday, December 21st, also at 2 pm, we will be having a Holiday Class Party, and we have three moms who have let me know they can do some planning and helping. If you are interested in being a part of this, let me know as well, and I will put you all in touch with each other early next week. Thank you SO very much!
In the meantime, good luck to all of us as we juggle our work and school responsibilities along with hockey tournaments, other classes and practices, in addition to holiday shopping and planning - and still get enough time to read and sleep! Yikes! Stay healthy, please! More news soon from Room 117.
Melanie Hannam
4th Grade Teacher
West Middleton Elementary
608-829-9398
mrshannamsclass.blogspot.com
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