Week of January 29th

 Hopefully, you saw both blog posts that I posted last week. If you didn't, please take a moment to scroll down and read through the extra one I posted last week. There are some important updates. 

ELA:

This week in ELA we will continue reading The One and Only Ivan. We are working on comprehension, vocabulary, and summarizing. We are also talking about personification and how that affects the story and why the author may have chosen to use that. We will also be learning about adverbs and pronouns this week and adding new pages to our ELA Interactive Journal. 

We do NOT have a Morning Warm Up quiz this week. We DO have a spelling test on List Q on Thursday. 

Math:

This week we are continuing our work on Topic 8, which is all about fractions. We have been working to understand equivalent fractions. Your student's homework on IXL will be over these skills. 

Valentines Day:

We will celebrate Valentine's Day on Wednesday, February 14th. This party is different than our other parties as it mostly consists of passing out valentines and then reading them. Students are welcome to create a box at home to collect their valentines from classmates. They do not have to though. I will have a grocery sack for students who need something, it isn't fancy but it will do the trick. :)

I posted our class list in the virtual classroom and you can click on that from the whiteboard or click HERE. Bringing valentines is optional! Your student is not required to bring any. However, if they do, please have them bring one for every student or one for every boy or every girl. That way no one has hurt feelings. :) This is a day that we focus on love and friendship. We don't worry about boyfriends and girlfriends in 4th grade so please remind your student of that as well. :)

We will also be watching Because of Winn Dixie on this day. It is a great story that celebrates friendship and family. We will compare and contrast it to the book as well. This movie is rated PG. If you do NOT want your student to watch the movie, please email me and let me know and I will provide an alternate activity for them to do during that time. 

Extra Tidbits of Information :)

 I don't normally do blog posts in the middle of the week, but we have had some changes that I feel are important enough to warrant one. :)

Class Rule Change:

As a class, we have been talking a lot about being a "baby bird learner" versus a "golden eagle learner". A "baby bird learner" is like a baby bird sitting in a nest waiting for someone else to "feed" them the information. This is very different from a "golden eagle learner" who actively participates in the learning and finds answers to things they don't know. 

Yesterday we pushed all the desks out and sat in a circle and talked about getting rid of our old class rules and coming up with a set of "guidelines" that will help us create a class that will encourage each of us to reach our full potential. I wrote four words across the board to help guide us. Those were DO, FEEL, SOUND, and LOOK. Then we brainstormed words that addressed those. Students then had the opportunity to vote for the five they liked best in each category. The words that had the most votes became our new guides. I will include pictures of what we came up with below. I am so proud of these kids, they really put a lot of thought into this!

I am going to be creating posters like this that will go on our wall. I will include a picture of what that looks like once it is done!

Math Extra Credit:

We have moved on to Topic 8 so I am sending home the volume 1 math workbook. Students can complete one page (front and back) showing their work of course and receive 5 extra credit points. I talked to my students about this today. For those points they have to complete the actual assignment pages and not the first-look pages that don't have much on them. This is optional, but a great opportunity for students to review their learning or work on things they struggle with. 

Vision Screening:

Your student is bringing home a permission slip today for a vision screening that will be offered by the Lions Club. It says "Vision and Hearing Screening", however, we are only doing the vision screening. If you would like your student to participate, please sign it and have them bring it back to me. If I don't have a signed permission slip from you, they will not get the screening. These will be happening on February 8th. 

Week of January 22nd

 Well, last week was odd! Only coming to 2 days of school in 8 days felt really weird. I have made some adjustments because of last week. One of those is that there was some confusion on IXL math homework. I told my class to work towards 40 minutes of IXL on Friday, meaning just for that day before moving on to the next Must Do. Several of my students misunderstood and only did 40 minutes total for the week. I didn't feel like it was fair to count that against them so I made last week's homework grade extra credit. :)

ELA:

This week in ELA we are going to continue reading The One and Only Ivan. This book is told from the perspective of Ivan, the gorilla. We talk a lot about the author's use of personification in this novel as we read. We will also be talking a lot about animals in captivity and the ethical treatment of animals. This will lead to learning how to write an opinion essay. 

Your student should have brought home their January Reading Calendar last week. Again I apologize for sending those home late. 

This week is a quiz week so we DO have a Morning Warm Up quiz on Thursday. We also have a spelling test on List P. This is another adjustment from the crazy last week since we didn't take our spelling test last week. 

Math:

This week we are finishing up our work on factors and multiples. We will begin our introduction to fractions (Topic 8) on Wednesday. We WILL have a Math 4 Today quiz this week as well. 

Red Robin Dine and Donate:

PFSA will be doing a fundraiser this Friday the 26th with Red Robin. Red Robin will donate 20% of your order to our school! Please consider supporting them and eating there that day! More details on this can be found in the school newsletter. 

Valentines Day:

We will celebrate Valentine's Day on Wednesday, February 14th.This party is different than our other parties as it mostly consists of passing out valentines and then reading them. Students are welcome to create a box at home to collect their valentines from classmates. They do not have to though. I will have a grocery sack for students who need something, it isn't fancy but it will do the trick. :)

I posted our class list in the virtual classroom and you can click on that from the whiteboard or click HERE. Bringing valentines is optional! Your student is not required to bring any. However, if they do, please have them bring one for every student or one for every boy or every girl. That way no one has hurt feelings. :) This is a day that we focus on love and friendship. We don't worry about boyfriends and girlfriends in 4th grade so please remind your student of that as well. :)

We will also be watching Because of Winn Dixie on this day. It is a great story that celebrates friendship and family. We will compare and contrast it to the book as well. This movie is rated PG. If you do NOT want your student to watch the movie, please email me and let me know and I will provide an alternate activity for them to do during that time. 

Week of January 16th

 What a crazy weekend with all that snow! I hope you were all safe and enjoyed it. Now it seems like we are going to get that really cold weather. It seems like Idaho wavers on that though so please make sure your student has all of their cold weather gear just in case we can go outside. Today we stayed inside all day so your student may be extra wiggly when they get home. :)

ELA:

Today we read an article in ReadWorks about Martin Luther King Jr. and why we honor him each year. We talked about the history of what was going on and I encouraged my students to talk to parents about it if they were feeling uncomfortable because I know it's a lot to take in. 

Tomorrow we will begin our new novel The One and Only Ivan. We finished up Because of Winn-Dixie last week. I am hoping to be able to watch that movie with my students to compare and contrast the two. Right now I am thinking maybe on Valentine's Day. 

January Reading Calendars are going home today. I apologize for not getting those out last week. They kept slipping my mind. 

Also, just a reminder that we will NOT have a Morning Warm Up quiz this week. We DO have a spelling test on Thursday still. You will also start seeing a weekly grade for cursive starting this week. Now that we have some of our issues with print handwriting under control, we will start 

Math:

This week we are reviewing what we know about factors and multiples. I have found this to be a great refresher as we start fractions. We will begin our Topic on fractions next week. 

Reminder, we do NOT have a Math 4 Today quiz this week. 

NAEP Testing:

Last week your student brought home a letter about NAEP testing that we have to participate in this year. This is a federal mandate that we are required to comply with. It is a random selection of students from each class. Our class will be testing starting at 8:15. Those students not selected for the NAEP testing will be working in class on updating diagnostic scores on IXL. 

School on Friday:

Because we had yesterday off, we WILL BE in school this Friday the 19th. Please plan on your student being here this Friday. 

Red Robin Dine and Donate:

PFSA will be doing a fundraiser on Friday the 26th with Red Robin. Red Robin will donate 20% of your order to our school! Please consider supporting them and eating there that day! More details on this can be found in the school newsletter. 

Week of January 8th

 Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Break with family. My family had a fantastic break. We surprised our kids with a trip to Disneyland and it was magical! It was so wonderful to come back this morning to see all of my students, I really missed them! 

It's hard to believe but today is the start of the last half of our school year together. I can't believe that this year is already halfway over. This is one of the best parts of 4th grade though. Now that we have mastered expectations and most of the new concepts introduced in 4th grade, we will really start applying them and going deeper with them. This is usually the time of year when I see the most growth in my students, and I think that's why it's my favorite.

ELA:

We will be finishing up Because of Winn-Dixie this week. We will also be taking a spelling test and a Morning Warm Up quiz on Thursday. After this week we will only be doing the Morning Warm Up quizzes every other week. 

December Reading Calendars were due today. If your student forgot, no biggie! Just have them bring it in tomorrow or send me an email letting me know how many minutes your student read for December. 

Math:

We are starting Topic 6 today. I really like it when everything lines up and we get to begin Topic 6 after Christmas Break. This topic is a review of all of the operations we have worked on so far. It's a great refresher to get our brains thinking about math again!

We will have a Math 4 Today quiz this Thursday, but this will also move to an every-other-week thing like the Morning Warm Up quizzes after this week. 

Students need to keep practicing those multiplication facts. They will really need them as we begin working with fractions, which is what is happening next after Topic 6. 

Study Skills:

You may have noticed your student is getting an actual letter grade for Study Skills now. This grade is based on your student bringing their Home Folder every day as well as keeping track of their supplies and materials. It has been something this class has struggled with as a whole and we have spent quite a bit of class time this year finding our things. I am hoping that since it is a letter grade, it will encourage my students to come prepared and put their supplies and materials away where they belong. This will also set them up for success as they continue in their academic journey. 

Children's Museum of Idaho:

We received the following email from the program director at the Children's Museum of Idaho. You can click HERE to see the flyer they included in the email. 

Hello,

We have received a grant from the Idaho STEM Action Center to offer camps to students who don't have school on Fridays. To qualify the student must attend public school and be 6-9yrs old. These are drop-off camps at the museum and the kids are with me the entire time of camp.  Registration is at cmidaho.org. They will need to sign up for the class they want and pay $20 to hold their spot. After they attend the camp, the $20 is refunded. No-shows are not refunded. I know some of you are a distance from the museum, but I thought if a family was over our way, their student could join us for 2hrs. Would you please share this information with your communities?  Please call or email me if you have any questions. I have attached our flyer.

Thank you

Erin Brown

Program Director

Children's Museum of Idaho

208-345-1920