Week of January 26th

We are cruising right along and making great progress this year! You should be so proud of your student and how hard they are working, I know I am! This is a great group of kids and I am enjoying my time in class with them each day. :)

IXL Assigned Skills:

The biggest thing that we have going on this week is that those IXL skills  that I have been assigning and using as extra credit will now no longer be extra credit. These are critical skills that I want my students to be practicing and becoming proficient with. Starting this week I will be assigning 4 language arts skills and 4 math skills that tie in to what we are learning in class. Students will have from Monday to Sunday to get those skills completed with an 80 Smart Score. This will be a grade in Infinite Campus and I will link each skill to the assignment in IC to make it easier for my students to find them. I am offering a House Point to students who get each of the assigned skills to a 100 Smart Score for the week! 

ELA:

This week we are starting our new novel study on the book Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing. We will continue to work on our reading comprehension strategies and answering short answer questions as we read this funny book. We will also continue to have a ReadWorks assignment about 1 time per week. This allows us to read a non-fiction text at grade level and answer questions about it. We are going to continue working towards being comfortable with those paired text assignments as well.

We finished up our opinion writing today on "Would you rather be a parrot or an octopus?" Your student created a "podcast" to come up with reasons to support their opinion and examples that supported their reasons. I am really proud of how well they did with this! We are going to move into an Informative Writing next. After that we will have covered all three essay types that your student will learn in 4th grade! We will keep practicing those different writing types as the year goes on so that students are really comfortable with all three types.

Math:

This week we will be finishing up Topic 8 which is our introductory unit for fractions. We will spend this week finishing up Topic 8 and then we will take the Topic 8 Celebration of Learning next week. I am really please with how well my students are doing with fractions! This can be tricky because it is such an abstract concept but I have seen my students really persevere and keep trying! I love that!

Valentine's Day:

It's hard to believe that Valentine's Day is right around the corner! We talked in class a bit about it last week and I reminded my students that in 4th grade we celebrate this holiday as a day of friendship. We do a small Valentine's Party that is mostly students passing out and enjoying their Valentines from each other. If your student would like to bring Valentines, but you are unable to get them any, please let me know and I will provide them! I will send home a list of names for your student today as well as posting it HERE. 

We do not make anything to keep Valentines in here at school. If your student would like to make something at home, that's great! Please do not let them bring it in until Thursday, February 12th because we do not have space to safely store them all and I would hate to see their hard work be damaged accidentally. These do need to be small enough to fit on top of their desks, I know some of these kids are ultra creative, but we just don't have space for anything bigger. :)

On Thursday, February 12th we will have a normal day until the end of the day. Students will take time to pass out their Valentines and we thought it would be fun to watch "Because of Winn Dixie" since we have finished reading it and it is a story all about friendship! It is rated PG so if you do NOT want your student to watch it, please let me know and I will provide an alternative activity for them to do during that time. If students would like to bring a healthy treat to share with the class, they are welcome to! Since so many Valentines come with candy, and I know the kids are going to want to enjoy some of that, I would prefer non sugary treats be brought in. :)

Week of January 12th

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had an excellent first week back after break. I was so proud of my students with how they came back excited and ready to go! I enjoyed being in class with them all again, I missed them over break!

ELA:

This week in ELA we are going to be reading some articles on ReadWorks to learn about MLK Day. We read an article last week called "Honoring King". Today we read and answered questions about an article called "Walking Tall". Tomorrow we will do what is called a paired text assignment but it will involve both articles we have already read. This is where two texts that have similar themes or content are read together and then the students are asked to answer questions about one article, the other, or both articles by comparing or contrasting the information. This can be tricky for students, so I like to ease them in by using this strategy of reading each article individually and then reading them as a paired text. :)

Math:

This week in math we will do an overview of Topic 7. Both Topics 6 and 7 are built in to be more of a review of skills as we progress towards fractions and how those skills will be used when learning about fractions. I was really pleased with my students' skills and perseverance last week in practicing those multi-step work problems. They did such a fantastic job! 

RAD Performance:

You will have seen those permission slips going home for your student to sign up for a lead role in the 4th and 5th grade RAD Program. This is a HUGE program that Mrs. Ellis puts on with our 4th and 5th grade students and so much work goes into it. She mentioned that she forgot to put the time and date on the permission slips and asked us to share that with you all. That program will be on Tuesday, March 17th at 6:00pm. I am impressed each year with our students, you won't want to miss it!

Week of January 5th

Welcome back from break! I hope you all had a wonderful time with family and friends. We stayed in town this year so it was a pretty low key break in the Martindale home. :) I am so excited for our second half of the year, it seems like this is when all of the foundational knowledge we have been working on really comes together!

English Language Arts:

This week in ELA we are going to be wrapping up our novel, Because of Winn Dixie. We won't be starting our next novel right away though. We are going to spend some time in ReadWorks working on thoroughly answering short answer questions. We are also going to begin working on our first opinion writing by creating a podcast! I love this unit, the kids always come up with some really creative ways to share their opinions!

I will be sending home your student's January Reading Calendar today. December Reading Calendars were due today as well. If your student forgot, no worries! I won't count it late until next week. :)

Math:

This week in math we are going to hit the ground running with Topic 6. This is a great unit to start with coming back from break because it is a great review of things we learned before break. 

If your student did not pass the Topic 5 Celebration of Learning before break, they have until Thursday of this week to retake that test. It will be similar to that test, but the numbers will be different. Your student needs to tell me when they are ready to retake the test, I won't give it to them until they do because I want to make sure they feel confident when they retake it. :)

House Points for On Time Work:

I am going to be offering a house point to each house that all members get their work turned in each day on time. Because this is one of our Essential 44, I really want to reinforce these habits. This is also an expectation from here on out at Vision Charter School. My own kids are now in high school here and it is something that they are expected to do and are held to. I want to help my students be successful, not just this year, but in life and this is one of those things that will help them do that. :) 

Please remember, your student should be in school on time every day. We start right at 8:00 in the morning and we have jam packed days. If your student is absent, it is their responsibility to get their work caught up. Even if they do the work, they are still missing out on the instruction, and there is no way to make that up. So please help your student be here every day. :)

Week of December 15th

Here we are at the end of Quarter 2 already! We have been working so hard to get all of our work done here at school. We have some fun things planned this week in the midst of tying up all of the loose ends for the end of the quarter. 

Missing Work:

I have been telling my students all of last week and this week that they have until the end of the day on Thursday to get in any missing assignments. That includes assignments that are missing due to an absence because all of those are available on Infinite Campus for them to do while they are gone. 

Students who have missing assignments by Thursday afternoon will spend the afternoon working on them in the hallway. They will still get to enjoy the tasty food from our class party, but they will have to do so while they work on missing work. This is because we are at the end of the quarter and there is no other time to do so. I am strongly encouraging my students to follow through on Essential #14 and get these assignments completed at home. 

Holidays Around the World:

We will be having our Christmas Party this Thursday, December 19th after lunch. If you have signed up to send in food or supplies for our party, please make sure they are at the school by 12:00 so that we have time to set up. :)

There are still some things needed for our class party! If you haven't signed up yet and are able, please click HERE to sign up! Thank you so much to those of you who have already signed up! A special thanks to my friends Rebecca and J'Cinda for asking if we needed any help and signing up to bring food from a couple of countries for us!!

ELA:

This week in ELA we are continuing to learn about Holidays Around the World. We will be covering our last four this week. If your student is missing any, remember the document is linked on Infinite Campus and you can print them from home if needed.

Math:

This week we will be taking our Topic 5 Celebration of Learning. Students will take the test today, and have the opportunity for test corrections tomorrow. If your student passes the Topic 5 CoL, I will include it in this quarter's grades. If they do not pass it, I will exempt them from it this quarter to give them time to study over break and retake it that first week back from break. That grade (or the retake grade if they do that) will go in the grade book for Quarter 3.

Week of December 8th

I can't believe how close we are to the end of the first semester! This year has flown by so quickly and I am hoping that the next semester slows down a little. :)

ELA:

This week we are going to continue studying how different countries around the world celebrate the holidays. I am so happy with my students and their progress in answering these questions fully. Please remember any work in this packet not completed at school needs to go home to be completed as homework. 

Math: 

We will be finishing up Topic 5 on long division this week! We will do a review of what we have learned on Monday of next week and then take our Topic 5 Celebration of Learning on Tuesday. I won't be putting these in the grade book until after break, unless I have 100% of my class pass. That way if any of my students don't pass, they will have time after break to study and retake that test. 

Christmas Party:

Our Christmas Party will be on Thursday, December 18th. We are going to be celebrating by enjoying food from the countries we have been studying in our "Holidays Around the World" unit. If you would like to sign up, we still need some food items and you can do that by clicking HERE. 

I am also going to link the recipes that parents have used in the past HERE. You are welcome to use the recipe from this book, or another recipe if you have one that you like! If you use a different recipe, please share that with me as soon as you know. I will change our book to show that since I make a cook book for my students each year with these recipes. :)

End of Quarter 2:

The end of Quarter 2 is next Thursday, December 18th. Students will have until the end of the school day that day to turn in any missing work. After the end of that day, whatever is missing will just be a 0 in the grade book. It is so important that students get their work completed on time so that they are able to keep up with the rigor at VCS. 

Week of December 1st

 I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break! I enjoyed a restful week with my family snuggling up and reading. :) Now we are headed into the final 3 weeks of Semester 1! It's so hard to believe our year is already about half way over, I am not ready!!

ELA:

These three weeks in ELA we are going to be changing from our novel study to studying how countries around the world celebrate the holidays. Each day we will study a new country and their traditions. We will be reading and answering questions as well as looking at maps. There are five pages per country that we will be working on together in class, if your student is absent they will need to make up all five pages. 

At the end of these three weeks we will have a celebration and get to try out all of the amazing foods from around the world! I am going to share the sign up today, please check it out by clicking HERE. :)

Math:

This week in math we will start working on dividing with 3-digit dividends. This always throws my students at first, but once they get it, they usually cruise on through! I have so many students who are close to completing their multiplication facts!! I had one more complete them today! Keep up the good work!!

End of Quarter2/Semester 1:

The end of this quarter is quickly approaching. I will be accepting late work up until the end of the day on Thursday, December 18th. After that any work not turned in will just be a 0 in the gradebook. Please take a moment to go over any missing work in Infinite Campus with your student each day to ensure they don't have anything missing. :)

Week of November 17th

It's hard to believe that this is the last week of school in November! We will be off for Thanksgiving Break next week. This will be an excellent time for your student to get caught up on any missing work for Quarter 2 as the end of the quarter is quickly approaching. When we come back after Thanksgiving, we will have 3 weeks left of Quarter 2, which ends right at Christmas Break. 

ELA:

This week we are going to really be focusing on how to answer short answer questions. I have noticed lately that my students do well with this when we practice it in isolation, but not so well when they are working on it in general. We will spend our time reading shorter passages and answering the questions fully. If your student gets their paper returned, they will need to erase the one marked wrong and redo it completely making sure they use RACE (restate, answer, cite, explain) and CUPS (capitalize, usage/understanding, punctuation, spelling). 

Math:

This week in math we will continue working on long division. Our math curriculum only has about 6 lessons total for long division and I just don't feel like that is enough for this abstract of a concept. We will continue working on it on our own using a packet I have created for my students. This will likely take us up to Christmas break, depending on how my students do with it. 

Thanksgiving Break Extra Credit:

Your student still will have reading homework for their reading calendar. However, they will have an opportunity for extra credit! If they complete 100 minutes of practice on assigned (or recommended skills if they complete all of the assigned skills), for both Language Arts and Math, they can get 20 extra credit points in each subject. 

Students are able to work for extra credit if they have no missing assignments. Any missing assignments must be completed before they qualify for extra credit. 

Week of November 10th

 We are cruising right through November and Quarter 2 so quickly! This is a great group of kids and you should all be proud of the wonderful young people you are raising. :)

ELA:

This week in ELA we are going to be reading non-fiction texts about Veteran's Day. We are also going to be interviewing a veteran tomorrow and learning about his time in the service. 

We finished up all of our suffixes last week in our Morpheme Lexicon. Today we started adding in prefixes. We will move through these quicker than we will the roots and bases since it is mostly a review for the students. 

Math:

We are continuing our work on long division this week. Students will be learning a few different strategies on how to solve these problems, just like with multiplication. The goal is for them to use the standard algorithm, but until their brains are developmentally ready for that they will have other strategies to use. 

Enrichment:

Your student had their first enrichment class last Thursday. We will have another this Thursday as well and it will go from 12:15-1:00. Students will have Enrichment classes on November 13th, 20th, December 4th, and 11th. To attend Enrichment, students cannot have any missing work. If they have work that is missing (including reading calendars and multiplication fact homework), they will use that time to get caught up in the hallway. 

K-5 VCS Food Drive:

Our food drive will be running from November 10th-13th. Elementary students need to bring items to the class. Please make sure the canned food that your student brings are non-perishable and not expired. The 3rd-5th grade class that brings the most will get a popcorn and juice party. Everything brought in will go to benefit our own VCS families in need!

Week of November 3rd

 We are firmly into the holiday season when things get busy! We have a lot going on at the school in addition to our regular academics. I will do my best to keep everyone updated here. :)

ELA:

We are working hard on our first essay which is a narrative essay. Students in 4th grade will learn how to write narrative, opinion, and informative essays. We are working on writing a 5 paragraph narrative that includes lots of details, actions, and dialogue! They are doing great so far and I am excited to see what they come up with!

We are continuing to work on how to write a short answer response as well. This can be tricky as it has several parts to it. We also are being careful to write things in our own words so that we aren't plagiarizing. 

Math:

I postponed our Topic 4 Celebration of Learning until today. With our book celebration on Thursday, I was worried students would be distracted and not show what they really know. That means we won't start Topic 5 until Wednesday. Topic 5 begins working on division. Again, students who do not have their multiplication facts down, really need to be working on mastering those!

Enrichment:

Your student should have brought home their Enrichment form on Thursday with the class they will be taken highlighted in yellow. If your student did not return a form they will be taking Mrs. George's Performing Arts class. 

Enrichment starts this Thursday and will go from 12:15-1:00. Students will have Enrichment classes on November 6th, 13th, 20th, December 4th, and 11th. To attend Enrichment, students cannot have any missing work. If they have work that is missing (including reading calendars and multiplication fact homework), they will use that time to get caught up in the hallway. 

Retro Roller Skate Night:

Tonight from 6pm-8pm our Middle School Student Government is partnering with the Nampa Rollerdrome to host our first skate night! Wear your best 60s, 70s, or 80s attire for a fun, FAMILY skate night! Admission is $8 and rentals are available for $3. VCS staff supervision is not provided so you need to plan to stay and have fun with your kiddos!

Guardian Gala:

K-5 VCS Food Drive:

Our food drive will be running from November 10th-13th. Elementary students need to bring items to the class. Please make sure the canned food that your student brings are non-perishable and not expired. The 3rd-5th grade class that brings the most will get a popcorn and juice party. Everything brought in will go to benefit our own VCS families in need!

Week of October 27th

 I cannot believe we are already in the final week of October! Time really does fly when you are having fun and I am having so much fun with this class. They make me laugh every day! We have a really busy week this week with it being a quiz week and our October Book Celebration week!

ELA: 

This week in reading we are really working on how to thoroughly answer short answer written response questions. We use RACE as an acronym to help us remember all of the parts that should be in our answer. RACE stands for restate, answer, cite, and explain. 

Math:

This week we will be finishing up Topic 4! We will take our Topic 4 Celebration of Learning on Thursday. Instead of calling it a test, we think of it as a way to show off all that we have learned and celebrate that! 

Like I told my class today, I do not expect them all to be able to use the standard algorithm to multiply multi-digit by multi-digit numbers by the end of the week. I want them to be able to solve them using the strategy that works for them! They will get to the algorithm when their brain is ready. :)

Alice in Wonderland Book Celebration:

We have been reading Alice in Wonderland each day this month and we will finish it up on Wednesday! Just in time to celebrate on Thursday! Your student is invited to wear their costume if it is a character from our book on Thursday, all dress code rules still apply. Your student does NOT have to dress up if they don't want to! The day is meant to be fun. Costumes don't have to be over the top either, just use what you already have on hand at home! 

Students are invited to bring in snacks to share while we watch the movie. Please don't send in junk food, we really like to encourage healthy habits. I will proved the sweet treat and the drink. If you would like to send in veggies, fruits, crackers, cheese and meat, those are all things that the kids usually go through first at parties. :)

We will be watching the 2010 Disney version of Alice in Wonderland and it is rated PG. If you would prefer your student not watch the movie with us, please email me and let me know. I will provide an alternate activity for them to do elsewhere during that time. 

Enrichment Forms:

Your student is bringing home their first Enrichment Sign Up Form today. It is a first come first serve type situation. So if they are really hoping to get a certain class, they need a parent to sign it and bring it back ASAP. To qualify for Enrichment, your student cannot have any missing work, including homework. This is meant to enrich their curriculum on top of regular curriculum, therefore they will need to get all of their regular work done before getting to participate in enrichment. This does take the place of Thirsty Thursdays on those Thursdays we have Enrichment. 

Enrichment takes place twice a year during the school day. :)

Guardian Gala:

Week of October 20th

 Welcome back from Fall Break! I hope you all had a wonderful break! My students seemed to have a lot to share this morning. :) It was wonderful to see all of their smiling faces, I missed them!

ELA:

This week in reading we are going to be  focusing on subjects and predicates. We will be working on a page in our Interactive Reading Notebook as well. This is NOT a quiz week, but your student is welcome to retake any quiz that they did not pass last week when they are ready. 

Math:

This week in math we are going to be starting Topic 4. This is all about multiplying two multi-digit numbers. Students will be working on a variety of strategies to use to help them understand the concepts and properties being used.

Book Celebration:

In 4th grade we read Alice in Wonderland as our classic book for our October Book Celebration. Students are invited to dress up as a character from the story on Thursday, October 30th. All dress code rules still apply to costumes. I encourage my students to create their costume using things they already have at home! 

We will be watching the newer Disney version of Alice in Wonderland and it is rated PG. If you would prefer your student not watch the movie with us, please email me and let me know. I will provide an alternate activity for them to do elsewhere during that time. 

Your student is also invited to bring in snacks to share with the class. We prefer all snacks that are brought in to be healthy snacks. Meat and cheese trays, fruit trays, and veggie trays are great options! I will provide drinks and a small sweet treat. Any extra sweets sent in will be put into goodie bags for the kiddos to bring home to enjoy. :)