Weekend News 5-17-19

Hello Fourth Grade Families,
We had an awesome Field Day today! Thank you to all parents who helped with this fun end of year celebration.

The students worked very hard on the M-STEP this week. We will take the Math assessment next Tuesday and Wednesday. 

If you would like to place an order for our final Scholastic Book Order please do so by Wednesday! I originally planned to submit today, but many students requested a few extra days to place the order. Our online code is HB4N7. 

This week in fourth grade:

• We began writing our animal legends that we will share with each other on our Mackinac field trip.
• We concluded our math unit on perimeter and area. We will take our last unit assessment on Monday! Use the study guide this weekend as well as the reteach/enrich packet that came home today.
• We continued to research different subtopics on the American Revolution. Ask your child which topic his/her group is researching.  

Weekend News 5-10-19

Hello Fourth Grade Families,
It was fun to visit with many of you at the Wizard Walk and Family Fun Night. How incredible that as a school we raised $40,000! Thank you all for your donations, participation, and for organizing a fun event for all to enjoy. 

Tuesday will be our last day to check out library books for the school year! Thank you to our faithful volunteers Beth and Carmen for taking such great care of us this year. It has been fun to see you each week. 

Next week we will begin our session of M-STEP testing. On Tuesday and Wednesday we will take the ELA test. Please help your child arrive on time as we will begin first thing in the morning. It is always helpful to have a good night of sleep and big healthy breakfast to give your child maximum brain power. We will take the math M-STEP test the following week.

On Thursday May 16th we are having a Mackinac chaperone meeting. If you have been selected as a chaperone, it is necessary that you attend this meeting. I look forward to seeing you in the Learning Commons at 5:30 pm. 

On Friday May 17th we will participate in Field Day as the last TEAM celebration of the school year. Hopefully the weather holds out for us! Rain date is May 24. 

I will submit the last book order of the year on May 17th! 

This week in fourth grade: 

• We built electrical circuits and engineered a switch to open and close the circuit. Check out our Seesaw page to watch a video of this in action!
• We worked in research teams to study different subtopics on The American Revolution. We are learning that readers of history always think about the 3W's: who, where, and when.
• We found the perimeter and area of various shapes. We learned that it is sometimes necessary to break a shape into multiple rectangles to accurately find the area.

Weekend News 5-3-19

Hello Fourth Grade Families,

We are excited for the Wizard Walk next week! Please return your packet next week (regardless of if you have participated). We will be in the running to win a prize with 100% of packets returned!

Please take a few moments this weekend to review the two Mackinac packets with your fourth grader. We need the behavior packet returned to school by May 12^th! Thank you!

This week we completed online practice for the M-STEP assessment that students will be taking beginning on May 14th. To help ensure your child's success, please assist your child in getting a good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast prior to testing. Thank you for considering this small way to help your child be prepared to work hard!

We have had a fun and educational year with Pete the (bearded) Dragon as our class pet. Students were able to learn important lessons about caring for an animal and we really grew to love him! Because of this, we have decided that a classroom is not the best fit for our friend Pete. There are times when he'd really like to get out and play- right in the middle of a lesson. He spends most weekends alone in the classroom. He would not do well if there was a power outage at school and no one was here to help him. 

We are hoping to find a forever home for Pete with a loving family who would be able to enjoy him. He is close to 3 years old now, so you could have 7 or more great years with him! 
If your family is interested in adopting Pete, please contact me so I can give you more information. I will give first dibs to families from our class, but will open it to other fourth graders/students if we do not have interest.  

Important Upcoming Dates:
May 9- Wizard Walk and Family Fun Night (5:30)
May 14th- Last day to check out library books
May 14th- ELA M-STEP
May 15th- ELA M-STEP continued...
May 16th- Mackinac Chaperone Meeting (5:30)
May 17th- Field Day (pm)
May 21st- ALL library books due
May 21st- Math M-STEP
May 27th- No School, Memorial Day
June 4-5th- Mackinac Island field trip

June 6th- LAST DAY! Early release at 11:24

This week in fourth grade:

• We completed our poetry unit and had fun performing our poems for our classmates, a few parents, and reading buddies.
• We did the practice M-STEP tests to give ourselves an idea of what to expect later this month.
• We completed our math unit on measurement and will take the assessment on Monday. Look over the study guide that came home on Thursday with your student. The chapter review (coming home today) will give you a great idea of what to expect!
• We created electrical circuits in science using a battery, copper wire, and a mini light bulb. We are applying this investigation to our understanding of energy transfers.

Have a fantastic weekend! -SG