Week of September 21st

It definitely is feeling like fall is in the air! I am loving the crisp mornings but still warm days. With the change in weather brings the end of 1st quarter and I can hardly believe that. 

End of Quarter 1 and Parent/Teacher Conferences:

The end of Quarter 1 is next Thursday, October 1st. That means that students have until that day to turn in any missing work for partial credit. After the end of the day that Thursday, students will not be able to turn in any missing work for credit. 

Parent/Teacher Conferences are coming up on Wednesday, October 6th from 4:00-7:00 and Thursday, October 7th from 3:45-6:45. I will send out more information on conferences later this week so be on the look out for that email. 

ELA:

This week we will be working on really understanding subjects and predicates. Today we did a page in our Interactive Reading Notebooks that students can use as a tool throughout the year to help them. We will also be working on reading comprehension through our novel study and through reading non-fiction text on a program called ReadWorks. 

Math:

This week in math we will be finishing up Topic 2 and moving into Topic 3. Students will take the online assessment as a review again. I tend to not test the first couple Topics as they are more of a review of what students have learned in 3rd grade. Topic 3 is about multiplication and students will begin to delve deeper into that concept to prepare for multiplying larger numbers. 

I have several students who are super close to passing all of their multiplication facts! Students need to be practicing these at home 5 days a week and this is their math homework grade right now. 

October Book Celebration:

If you are new to Vision you may not know that we do not celebrate Halloween, instead each grade level reads a classic novel and then we do a Book Celebration. Students are invited to dress up as a character from the book if they want to. I encourage my students to create their costumes from things they have on hand at home and be creative! We will be doing this on Thursday, October 29th. I wanted to give you lots of time to plan ahead for that if your student would like to dress up. In 4th Grade we read Alice in Wonderland so students may choose a character from that book to dress up as if they would like. 

Student Chromebooks:

Our school offers our old Chromebooks, as they become available, to students who need one to be able to complete homework at home. Since we do require to complete unfinished work as homework, this can be a huge benefit to families. If your student would benefit from them, I just need an email from a parent letting me know and I will add your student's name to the list. 

*Please note that these Chromebooks are given as is and no tech support is offered for them.*

Week of September 14th

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! It seems like the weather is cooling off and fall is really on the way. I have been reminding my students to wear layers since it is cooler in the morning and warmer in the afternoons. We also have pretty big temperature fluctuations as part of our HVAC system so layering is a good idea for class as well. :)

English Language Arts:

This week we are beginning to work on learning morphemes. Morphemes are the smallest chunk of a word that has meaning. If you have ever thought to yourself that the English language doesn't make sense, it is probably because we use morphemes from different languages! 

Math:

Last week we reviewed concepts from Topic 1 again. Students need to have a firm understanding of place value to build on for the rest of the year. This week we moved into Topic 2 which is all about addition and subtraction. 

Infinite Campus:

All of my students should now be able to access their Student Portal through Infinite Campus. They know how to check for missing assignments and they are going to do a grade check every Thursday that they will write in the "Friday" column of their agendas. Ask your student to show you how to do this at home, they are pretty good at it! :)

To access their work, they need to either be signed into their school account on a Chromebook or signed into their Gmail account using the email and password on their red login card. From their they just need to click on the little Bitmoji image of me that is in the signature of every email I send and everything should work like it does at school. :)

House Shirts:

I apologize to those students who have brought in a shirt. My computer at home broke and I haven't been able to get them done. I am hoping to be able to do them tonight though! 

Week of August 31st

We are easing into September and into an awesome routine here at school. I am so pleased with how my class is doing! They have been so awesome they have unlocked the flexible seating options I have available to my students in the classroom today! Students can use flexible seating options during quiet work time as long as it is helping them be more productive. 

Reading:

This week we are going to keep reading our novel, Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing. We will be using this story to practice writing complete sentences that include part of the answer in our question. We are also going to be focusing on annotating as we read to help us improve our reading comprehension. I have been talking to my class about how in kindergarten through 3rd grade the focus is on learning to read. When students get to 4th grade we shift and start reading to learn. This can be a difficult adjustment for some students, but I am confident these kids will be successful!

August Reading Calendars are due tomorrow for full credit!

Weekly Assigned IXL Skills:

I have also assigned IXL skills this week for Language Arts. Each week I will assign 4 skills for both Language Arts and Math. The goal is for students to work through one Language Arts skill and one Math skill per day. These are skills that support what we are learning in class and should be a review. Your student needs to get an 80 Smart Score on each skill to get full credit each week. If your student receives special education support in one or both of those subjects, I would still like them to practice the skills but they only need to get it to a 60 Smart Score. 

Students can access these on the Dashboard of their IXL home screen or through the links in Infinite Campus if they are in their Student Portal. You will also see the links in the Parent Portal, but they won't work for you since you do not have a student IXL account.

Writing:

We have begun the process to write our first essay! We are working on a narrative story and working to set the stage for the story this week. Your student will be learning to write three different types of writings in 4th grade, narrative, opinion, and informative. 

Math:

This week in math we are going to continue working through Topic 1 which is all about Place Value. Students should be able to access all assignments through the Google Class as long as they are on a Chromebook or signed into their school Gmail account. 

Today was also the first day your student needed to turn in their Multiplication Fact Practice Homework sheet. If they forgot, they can turn it in tomorrow but they will lose 25% of their score since it is late. I know that sounds harsh, but I have found it is easier overall on my students if I start out the year with the expectations I will have all year. :)

Week of August 24th

It is hard to believe we are already into the 3rd week of this school year! We have finished up with our first two weeks where we are really working on procedures and expectations while reviewing 3rd grade concepts. This class is amazing and did so well we got through more than I expected! 

Reading/Writing:

This week we will begin our first novel study, Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing. It is a funny story and students every year love it! We will use this to work on our reading comprehension as well as vocabulary. 

We also started learning about narrative essays today. In 4th grade students will learn to write three essay types: narrative, opinion, and informative. At the end of the year I would like to see my students writing 5 paragraph essays and today we discussed how that is our goal. 

Math: 

Today we will start our first lesson through our math curriculum which is Savaas Realize. Students will access the assignment online and their score on that part will make up half each assignment grade. They other half of that grade comes from showing their work. It is the expectation from here on out at Vision Charter School that students show their work in math. Each assignment is work 10 points total. So if a student gets an 80% on the online portion that is 4 points of their total, if they show their work for the whole assignment (even the problems they got wrong) they get 5 points for that part which gives them a 9/10 on the assignment. Tests and quizzes are graded the same. 

Homework Expectations:

Students at Vision Charter are required to read as homework per our charter. That is where the monthly reading calendars come from. In 4th grade students also need to master their multiplication facts so I have made this part of their homework as well. However, once they have mastered them, I will send home a certificate of completion and it is  NOT homework anymore! They will start bringing this home today. It is just a half sheet of paper that you will initial next to the day they practices their multiplication facts. This will be worth 5 points per week, one point per day. 

These are the only two things your student will have as consistent homework. The only other homework they may have is if they do not complete work in class. That work will need to be finished at home. I always allow plenty of time for students to get work done in class and if they are on task and working hard, they should be able to get it done and not have extra homework. 

Infinite Campus:

If you have not yet logged in to your Parent Portal on Infinite Campus, you will need to do that ASAP. Please contact Mrs. Welch at biancawelch@visioncsd.org to get that set up. I teach my students how to find their missing assignments in Infinite Campus and how to check their grades. Each Thursday morning I ask them to do a grade check and write their grades down in the Friday column of their agenda. You can download the IC Parent Portal app to your phone and it will update you every time I enter something in my gradebook for your student. I have it for my own kids and I LOVE it. I would not be able to keep up with their grades otherwise. 

I also use Google Classroom for my students to access anything we do online. This eliminates the need for logins and passwords for a lot of the sites we use. I do NOT update grades as missing or turned in in the Google Class. It is just a platform I use to make things easier on my students. If your student has an assignment marked missing in Infinite Campus, I will include the link in that assignment for them to be able to access whatever they need. 

IXL:

In 4th grade we use IXL to help reinforce concepts we are learning in class. So I will assign 4 skills for Language Arts and 4 skills for Math that go along with what we are learning in class. These will be assigned Monday morning and students have until Thursday afternoon to get them to an 80 Smart Score or higher to participate in Thirsty Thursday. This won't start until next week. If your student is on an IEP, I ask that they still do the assigned IXL skills but only require them to get to a 60 instead of an 80. If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to reach out to me! 

Picture Day:

Picture day is Wednesday, the 26th and we are scheduled for 9 am. This schedule usually changes depending on how quickly they are able to get through the younger grade levels. I sent home the picture packet last week and you can use that to order pictures by either sending in money with the envelope or ordering online. 

Week of August 17th

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I was excited to be back today with this lovely class! 

Sorting Day!

Tomorrow is a big day for 4th grade, it's SORTING DAY for our new students! Normally we wear house colors on Wednesday, but I have invited students to wear their house color tomorrow for Sorting Day. 

August Reading Calendar:

Your student is bringing home their monthly reading calendar today. Usually they will need 500 minutes per month for full credit. However, since your student is getting it more than half way through the month, they only need to read 200 minutes for full credit. I encourage students to keep it in the back pocket of their Home Folder so that they don't lose it. They will also have it here at school if they get done with all of their other work and have time to work on their homework! This is due on Tuesday, September 1st. 

Picture Day:

Elementary student picture day is on Wednesday, August 26th. Your student is bringing home the picture packet today. You can fill that out and send it back with money, or you can order online. That information should also be on the picture packet.

Math Fact Homework:

In my class students have weekly math fact homework until they pass all of their multiplication facts 0-12 in under 3 seconds per fact. Students will start bringing home a paper for that next Monday. Once they have passed those, they will get a certificate from me and it will say they don't have to do that as homework anymore. We will still practice in class, but they won't have that as homework anymore. I encourage students to work to master them as quickly as possible so they don't have to worry about it! Practice can be flashcards, songs about the multiplication facts, games, or Xtramath.com.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns! 

Week of August 11th

We had an AMAZING first day of school today! I was so impressed with these kids, we are going to have a fabulous year. They worked so hard today and followed directions so well. 

This week and next week are focusing on learning expectations and procedures. I have found that when we spend the time to really learn these, the rest of the year is smooth sailing! 

Our agendas that were ordered are not here yet, but hopefully they will be here this week so we can start using them. I am planning on starting homework expectations next week to help students settle into the routine of being back at school this week.

Water bottles and a snack are really good for your student to have at school each day. I let them keep their water bottle at their desk so they stay hydrated, especially in this hot weather. We also have Snack and Track each day where they go out side and eat a snack while getting some wiggles out. Please no sugary treats, we want to fuel our brains not rot our teeth. :)

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to email me!