Week of February 26th

 Welcome back! This week should be a much more normal week than last week as far as quizzes and daily activities. I will be gone on Wednesday and Thursday though. I am headed to Georgia for a training opportunity and I am so excited to bring back what I learn and share it with the rest of our amazing staff here at Vision! Mrs. Pratt will be my sub and since she is with us each day, she knows what to do so that allows my class to move forward as usual. If you have any transportation changes, please make sure you send those to the office on those days to make sure they are made. I don't anticipate that I will have much time to check my email while I am gone, so I appreciate your understanding if you email me and it takes a bit for me to respond to you. It will likely be next week. 

ELA:

This week we will continue work on reading comprehension as we read through The One and Only Ivan. We will also continue our work on paired texts with ReadWorks. We WILL have a Morning Warm Up quiz as well as a Spelling Test on Thursday.

February Reading Calendars are due next Monday, March 4th. Next week is also the end of Quarter 3. That means that any missing assignments need to be turned in by next Thursday, March 7th. 

Math:

We WILL have a Math 4 Today quiz this week. We are going to be wrapping up Topic 9 this week as well. We are going to take our test on it next week, but I will put them in the grade book for Quarter 4 so that if any students need to retake it, they will have time to do that. I don't want to put it off until after the end of the quarter because we are coming down to the wire. Please make sure your student has mastered skills from Topic 9 on IXL. This is an excellent way to study for our test. 

Social Studies:

We jumped ahead to our Oregon Trail unit in our binders so that we were more prepared for Wagons Ho! We will finish up the activity we started there and then head back to our research project on the five main Native American Tribes after that. 

Read Across America Week:

Read Across America Week is next week. I will include the flyer here so that you can plan ahead and I will print them and send them home as well. 

Week of February 20th

 I just want to thank each of the parents who came yesterday and helped make it such a success! Our group did such a great job that we got to experience something I have never seen before in all the years I have done Wagons Ho! We got to learn how to make a rope! It was gifted to me and I will be displaying it in our classroom for everyone to enjoy. The parents who helped out yesterday were Mrs. Bell, Mrs. Navarro, Mr. Daltow, Mrs. Quiroz, Mr. Hogan, Mr. Duffel, Mrs. Hodges, Mrs. Phillips, and Mrs. Grandma Phillips. My dad, Mr. Ryan, even came and helped out and taught the kids how to rope a calf! I went home exhausted and smelling like campfire smoke, but happy. It was a great day! I uploaded all of the pictures that I took to a Google Drive folder that you can access by clicking HERE. If you also took some pictures, please email them to me and I will add them to the folder. 

ELA:

This week in ELA we will NOT have a Morning Warm-Up quiz, even though it is our week to do so. With Wagons Ho! yesterday I don't feel like it would be fair. So that will just be a daily work grade for the week. We DO have a spelling test on List T on Friday still. 

February Reading Calendars will be due soon, just an FYI so you can make sure your student has those up to date. 

Roaring Readers are due back by March 21st. As soon as your student has those minutes completed they are welcome to turn them in. Just a reminder that those minutes are supposed to be in addition to school work, so please make sure your student is turning in their reading calendars. :)

Math:

We are continuing our work on fractions in Topic 9 this week. Please check in with your student each evening and have them show you that they have completed their IXL math homework over the assigned skills. I have many that are not completing any each week and it is affecting their grade and their learning. We are coming up on the end of our time together in 4th grade and I keep encouraging my students to finish strong. 

TEXAS ROADHOUSE DINE & DONATE Thurs, Feb 22nd 3-10PM:
Help Vision Charter School PFSA raise funds for our students by telling the waitress that you are from Vision Charter School when ordering and they will donate back 10% of the total purchase back to Vision Charter School. If they ask for a flyer, pull out your phone and show them the post on the school instagram page at vision_charter_school or facebook at https:///www.facebook.com/VisionCharter

Our PFSA completely funded our Wagons Ho! experience which we would not have been able to have without. Please take every opportunity you have to support their fundraisers. They do incredible things for our school!!

Week of February 12th

 We have a busy next couple of weeks in 4th grade! Please make sure you are reading carefully through this blog so that you are up to date. 

ELA:

This is a week with NO Morning Warm-Up quiz. Students will have a grade in the grade book based on completion and correcting their daily work accurately. We DO have a spelling test on List S on Thursday. 

January Reading Calendars were due 2 weeks ago. If your student hasn't gotten that turned in, please help them remember to turn that in. An email from you letting me know the total number of minutes read for January works as well. 

Math:

We took a quiz on Topic 8 last week. Over all my students did great on that quiz! We are moving into Topic 9 this week which deals with adding and subtracting fractions. Their homework will be on those skills as well. Please remind them to work on the assigned skills at home and not other, easier 4th-grade skills. There will NOT be a Math 4 Today quiz this week. They will get a daily work grade for completion as well as correctly correcting their daily work. 

Social Studies:

Because we will be doing Wagons Ho! next week, we are going to jump ahead to our Oregon Trail unit before we continue working on our Native American research project. That way students will have a better foundational understanding of those events before we do Wagons Ho! which will hopefully make that day a little more meaningful. 

Wagons Ho! will take place on Tuesday, February 20th and it is an all-day event. I do have the parent volunteers needed, but if you would like to be on my back up list, please email me and let me know.  Students will need to bring the following:

*a water bottle

*a bundle of wood

*a large 2 or 4 hole button

*be dressed appropriately for the weather including a hood or hat (Western Wear is optional)

*pictures of artifacts or family brands

NAEP Testing:

Students brought home letters about NAEP testing mid January. 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 tomorrow starting at 8:15. Those students not selected for the NAEP testing will be working in class on updating diagnostic scores on IXL. 

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 basket for students to collect their Valentines in and then a grocery sack for students to take them home in, 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. If you would like to send in HEALTHY snacks like fruits, veggies, meat and cheese trays, etc. that would be great! Please no cookies or anything like that since they will have candy from their Valentines. 

We did a quick writing activity for Valentine's Day last week where we talked about character attributes that are admirable rather than physical attributes. We have been discussing Dr. Martin Luther King a lot this month and we discussed his "I Have a Dream" speech and how he wanted his kids to be judged by the "content of their character". We brainstormed things that would make good character content and wrote all of those ideas on the board. Students then got a heart with a classmate's name on it that said "I love ___ a latte because ___." and they wrote something they loved about that classmate. It was a lot of fun and I was so impressed with some of the things they came up with. I also wrote one for each student and put those on our bulletin board as well. I will include a couple of pictures for you to see. Be proud of your kiddo, I know that I am!

Week of February 5th

 We are well on our way to halfway through the 3rd quarter already if you can believe that! I find myself trying to put the breaks on and slow the year down a bit, I am not ready for it to be over. I have truly enjoyed getting to know each of my students this year. Trust me when I say with confidence, this class has an INCREDIBLE amount of potential and I cannot wait to see what they do! 

We have been talking a lot about what it means to be a Golden Eagle Learner vs. a Baby Bird Learner and identifying different behaviors we may default to. It has brought on some fantastic discussions and I am so proud of them. Keep encouraging your student to be a Golden Eagle Learner who goes after their learning rather than just sitting and waiting for someone to bring them the answer (like a baby bird). We watched a funny video of a baby bird who had just left its nest. It was holding its little mouth open to a worm waiting for it to jump into its mouth. We talked about how just sitting and waiting for someone to give us the answer, do the right thing, or lead us to the answer, is similar to the baby bird and how ineffective it is. 

ELA:

This week in ELA we are continuing to work on reading comprehension with The One and Only Ivan. We DO have a Morning Warm Up quiz on Thursday along with our spelling test on List R. 

January Reading Calendars were due last week on the 1st. If your student forgot, please help them remember to turn it in or just send me a quick email letting me know how many minutes they read. Also, if they don't have the total minutes read written on their calendar when they turn it in, I will hand it back to them to total it up. If you thought your student had turned it in but it's still marked missing, that may be why. :)

Math:

We are going to be finishing up Topic 8 this week. We have been working to understand fractions, equivalent fractions, and how to compare fractions. We have done several Interactive Math Journal pages on this that your student is welcome to use when they are working on assignments at home or on their homework. 

I have noticed a signification decrease in math homework since we have been back from Christmas break. Please ask your student to show you how many minutes they have completed for each skill each evening, even if they say they got it done in class. This does affect their grade as well as their learning when they aren't spending time practicing those 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. If you would like to send in HEALTHY snacks like fruits, veggies, meat and cheese trays, etc. that would be great! Please no cookies or anything like that since they will have candy from their Valentines. 

Vision Screening:

Your student brought home a permission slip 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.