Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Fourth Grade Families,
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a wonderful holiday with your families.
I am so thankful to have your children in my life! Thank you for all that you do as parents to support the children and our school.
Kids Food Basket Donations
Below is a list of the items each grade level is asked to bring for this year’s collection. We’d love every child to participate by either donating, if able, or decorating a paper bag for the Sack Suppers. Items may be sent in with your student to the classroom teacher anytime from December 2 - 12. Once all items are received, students will assemble the Sack Suppers on Friday, December 13 for pick-up by KFB on the following Monday. Thank you for Making a Difference!
     Sack Supper Packs
     Kindergarten: Pretzel or Cheez-It Bag (1.5 oz or smaller)
     First Grade: Pudding Cup
     Second Grade: 0.28 oz meat sticks
     Third Grade: 0.28 oz meat sticks
     Fourth Grade: Fruit Strips or Raisin Box
     Fifth Grade: Quart Sized Ziploc Bags

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Weekly Update 11-20-19

Hello Fourth Grade Families,
I hope you've had a nice week! Next week we take some time to reflect on what we're thankful for and spend time with family. There will be no school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

Students have been pushing themselves as researchers to read and learn about natural disasters. They presented their impressive posters last week and have recently switched topics with another research team. Students will be creating interactive nonfiction books with their team as a culmination project to this unit. Stay tuned to see their creativity shine!

We took the division assessment this week. Most of the students did a fantastic job! If your child is still struggling with division, please continue to use the study guide at home. Let me know if you need additional materials. I am happy to send home review or extension material. We have begun our new unit on factors. This is a quick unit that we will be able to complete the week after Thanksgiving. Please continue to encourage your child to work on their homework page each night. If we do not have homework on a given night, it is helpful to review past concepts on IXL or Zearn. Use the Clever Portal to log in at home!

In science we learned how to plot location on a map using latitude and longitude. We used the USGS website to find the most current earthquake data. This is a fun website to explore! We noticed that most earthquakes take place near the Ring of Fire. Have your 4th grader show you around. It was exciting to watch earthquakes appear in actual time on the map as we were plotting!

It has been fun to see Flea Market advertisements begin to appear around school! Your child is allowed to use time during recess or after school (with supervision) to hang their signs. Don't forget to bring your own tape!

SG









Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Weekly Update 11-13-19

Hello Fourth Grade Families,
I hope you're enjoying all of the delightful SNOW we've received this week! It has been a fun week of navigating all of the new gear we now require to go outside for recess. Your child is welcome to leave his/her snow pants in their locker during the week. I will do my best to remind them to take them home on Friday to wash. It might be helpful to keep an extra hat, pair of socks, and pair of gloves into your child's backpack if there is an especially wet recess.  Being comfortable and warm helps learners to do their best! The temperature in our classroom varies from too warm to too cold throughout the day. Some kids have benefited from bringing a sweatshirt to keep in their locker to help with the fluctuation.

I will be submitting the November book order on Friday afternoon. Please place your order before then! Our class code is HB4N7. Access the digital flyer here.

We celebrated Veteran's Day on Monday with a beautiful assembly. Thank you to all relatives of our students for your service.

I will send a separate communication very soon about Kids Food Basket donations!

If you ordered a wreath from the fourth grade sale, orders will arrive on Monday, November 25th. The wreaths will be delivered behind Pioneer Auditorium. You can park or pull up near the curb to pick up your order. We will hang around until close to 4 pm to allow time for everyone to pick up. The wreaths are freshly made, but will need to be taken out of their cardboard boxes as soon as possible to look their best.

The Flea Market is coming soon! Join us in the gym on December 13th from 12:30-2:30 to shop from our amazing vendors. Your fourth grader should have turned in his/her plan to Mrs. Tinholt and should soon begin preparations for this fun event. If you have not had the pleasure of attending in the past, you do not want to miss this!

We will be wrapping up our division unit this week and reviewing Friday and Monday. Our plan is to take the Chapter 4 assessment on Tuesday. Please take some time over the weekend to go over the study guide (coming home Friday) with your student. This is a challenging test, but we are ready!

We have been researching natural disasters in teams during reading workshop. Students are working with their groups to create a poster to teach about their topics. The students have done a great job researching and have learned SO MUCH! They are truly becoming experts. We will be presenting these to the class on Friday.




Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Weekly Update 11-5-19

Hello Fourth Grade Families,
I hope you are having a great week! We are enjoying watching the snow flurries outside of our classroom window this morning. I recently sent home the November Scholastic book order. I will submit our class orders on Friday, November 15th. Our class code is HB4N7 if you're interested in placing an order. Access the digital flyer here.

We have a few weeks of normalcy before the excitement of the holiday season arrives! 
Upcoming Events:
11/8- Kids Have Rights
11/11- Veterans Day Assembly at 2:30 pm
11/15- Sciencepalooza at 2:30
11/27 through 11/29- No School! Thanksgiving holiday
12/13- Flea Market
12/16- Gerald R. Ford Museum field trip

Division help links:
Homework tutorials
Interactive Student Edition (Chapter 4, select our lesson)
4th Grade Math ebook
This week in fourth grade:

  • We voted on Election Day for the Movie Night selection. Aladdin won!
  • We learned more strategies for division. Please check in with your student on homework. This is a challenging topic and is not coming easily for everyone. A few moments per evening could make a huge difference in your child's confidence!
  • We continued to research and gather information on natural disasters with our research teams. We will present our findings to the class at the conclusion of this unit.
  • We did a cool inquiry lesson on chemical weathering in science.





Friday, November 1, 2019

Weekly Update 11-1-19

Hello Fourth Grade Families,

A huge thank you goes out to all of the parents who planned, volunteered, and attended our Halloween party yesterday! What fun! The kids and I appreciate your commitment.

Suddenly it is November and we seem to be flying through this year. Next week we will have our Kids Have Rights program on Friday from 10:25-11:25. Please return the form to school if you would NOT like your child to participate.

We are working hard on our math unit on division. This is challenging work! We are learning new strategies and working to relate multiplication to division. Take some time over the weekend to check in on division and math homework with your student. Also, take advantage of Mr. Saunders Math Tutorials to assist with challenging lessons. We are learning long division next week...get ready!

In reading we are working to identify the text structures of our nonfiction texts. We learned this week that it is helpful to match our note taking to the structure of the text we're reading. We will launch a fun group research project next week!

Enjoy this well deserved weekend with your family!
SG