Week of April 29th

 Hello! I hope you all have had a great weekend and fantastic start to the new week. My students came in ready to go and have worked SO HARD on ISATs today! I am so proud of how hard they have worked on both parts of the ELA ISAT today. 

Because we have two long days of testing this week, there will be NO new assignments given this week. Students are encouraged to work on any missing work that they have at home for homework. I will NOT be collecting a homework grade for math IXL this week either. I want my students to be able to get to bed early so that they are well rested and ready to go for our last ISAT on Thursday. 

Students had some treats and positive messages waiting for them this morning. :)

Science:

I know that today was the due date for part 3 of the science project. My students took much more time on their ISATs than I anticipated, which is wonderful! But that means that we didn't have time to go over Step 4. I will do that tomorrow with them and send home those papers tomorrow.

As students begin finishing projects, please do NOT send them to school until May 16th. I do not have room in the class to safely store them and they will  most likely become damaged over the next few weeks if they are here. I will send them back home with students if they come in before May 16th to make sure they are safe. 

Week of April 22nd

 I hope you all had a lovely weekend! We have a lot of things planned for this week. We start ISAT testing next week so we will be spending time preparing for ISATs this week.

ELA:

This week we will continue working on our narrative writing. Students had the choice between writing a personal or fictional narrative. Their rough draft was due today. I encouraged them to bring home their graphic organizer to finish their rough draft at home this evening if they did not have it completed by the end of class. This week we will be reviewing the different ELA ISATs and the tools that are available to them while they take the test. This is a great opportunity to review all the things we have learned this year!

Math:

This week in math we are continuing to work on geometry. Your student may have brought home the protractor I loaned them in class to finish up their math assignment. Please help them remember to get that back in their backpack tonight so that they will have it tomorrow. 

Science:

This is the final week for students to be working on their experiment for their project. Step 3 will be due next Monday, the 29th. If your student is finished with this step before then, they are welcome to turn it in early! I have posted the next step in Infinite Campus and students can access those documents there. They will also find the rubrics I will use to grade their project as well as their presentations attached to that assignment in Infinite Campus.

Social Studies:

We are working away on our Native American projects! Unfortunately, some of my students did not get their parts of the project done. This means they are going to have to work with their group during free times to get caught up. Please check in with your student to see if they are caught up on their project. I am hoping to finish these up in the next week or two. 

ISATs:

We will be taking our ISATs next Monday, April 29th and Thursday, May 2nd. Please make every effort to have your student in class every day until then. Attendance is always important, but it is even more so as we prepare for these tests. I spend class time talking about how to navigate the test, becoming familiar with the format, and doing practice questions to help alleviate some of the anxiety that can happen with the test. 

ISAT Party:

Our class has been talking about the ISAT party that we will be having after we complete our ISATs. Students can earn an invitation to the party one of two ways. The first way is their score, this means that they meet their goal on the ISAT by scoring a 3 or 4 or by improving one level from the practice ISAT they took in the fall. The second way they can earn an invitation is by working hard from now until ISATs showing that they are trying to do their very best. I offer this second option because I know test anxiety is a real thing and my goal is to take that off the plate for my students. I want them to feel confident in their knowledge and be able to show what they know. :) This party will be a lot of fun! I usually have pizza and root beer floats. If you would like to help out and send in supplies, let me know and I will let you know what we need. :)

Week of April 15th

 Hello, I am sending this post out a little early because I am going to be gone on Monday. Please remember to email the office with any transportation changes. You can always include me, but if I happen to be gone there is no guarantee anyone will see it. If you email me over the weekend or on Monday, I will do my best to get back to you by Tuesday. Mrs. Pratt will be my substitute and the kids will keep going as normal. :)

ELA:

We are continuing our book Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing. We will be writing newspaper articles, studying new words, and working on our reading comprehension. We will also be finishing up our opinion writing on Monday. We will begin our narrative writing on Tuesday. I am so proud of my students and the hard work they are putting into class! This is a quiz week so we will have a Morning Warm Up quiz on Thursday. 

Math:

This week we finish up our work on customary and metric measurements. We will begin working on geometry by the end of the week. I am so proud of their hard work and dedication to getting through our content before ISATs. They are working hard! I would also like to recognize those students who are finishing up assignments at home when they haven't been completed at school. Those kids are amazing and I am so proud of them! This week we do have a Math 4 Today quiz on Thursday.

Science:

Your student got what they need to start on Step 3: Experimenting last week. If your student still does not have a question approved by me, please make every effort to get that done over the weekend as they are running out of time.

Students will be presenting these in class starting Monday, May 13th. They will then be displayed in the AUX gym on Thursday, May 16th from 5:30-7:00 during our Science Fair. I am so excited to see what they come up with!

RAD Performance:

Our students have been working so hard on our RAD performance here at school. That will be on Thursday, April 18th at 7:00pm. Please plan to be here! You won't want to miss it!

ISATs:

We will be taking our ISATs on Monday, April 29th and Thursday, May 2nd. Please make every effort to have your student in class every day until then. Attendance is always important, but it is even more so as we prepare for these tests. I spend class time talking about how to navigate the test, becoming familiar with the format, and doing practice questions to help alleviate some of the anxiety that can happen with the test. 

ISAT Party:

Our class has been talking about the ISAT party that we will be having after we complete our ISATs. Students can earn an invitation to the party one of two ways. The first way is their score, this means that they meet their goal on the ISAT by scoring a 3 or 4 or by improving one level from the practice ISAT they took in the fall. The second way they can earn an invitation is by working hard from now until ISATs showing that they are trying to do their very best. I offer this second option because I know test anxiety is a real thing and my goal is to take that off the plate for my students. I want them to feel confident in their knowledge and be able to show what they know. :) This party will be a lot of fun! I usually have pizza and root beer floats. If you would like to help out and send in supplies, let me know and I will let you know what we need. :)

Week of April 8th

 Hello everyone! I hope you had a great weekend and start to your week. I apologize for getting this out late. I had a family emergency over the weekend and needed to be away yesterday. I am so proud of these kids and the progress they are making! 

ELA:

This week in ELA we are starting a new novel called Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing. This is a really fun story and we always laugh so much when we read it! We are continuing to use these to work on comprehension among so many other things. 

For writing we will be finishing up our opinion writings this week! We are cruising right along and I am so proud of the thoughtful, respectful, and insightful conversations your students have been having. 

Our very last spelling test is on Thursday! We do not have a Morning Warm Up quiz this week though. 

Math:

We are really making great progress in math. We finished up Topic 11 last week and are starting Topic 13 this week. This is all about units of measurement, both customary and metric. There is no Math 4 Today quiz this week. 

Science Project:

Step 2 was due yesterday. That step was researching the topic of your student's question. If your student has not turned in their question and had it approved by me, I did not accept step 2 for a grade. I have to approve the question first to make sure that it is one that an entire project can be built around. 

Step 3 went home yesterday, but we  reviewed it as a class today since I wasn't here yesterday. This is the part where your student gets to experiment. We discusses variables and how to identify what they are in a project. I encouraged my students to send me an email if they are home working on this and struggling to identify the different types of variables. The due date for Step 3 is Monday, April 29th. However, if your student is still in the middle of their experiment on that day, please send me an email and let me know. I planned this project with extra time so that if a project is taking longer than anticipated, we are still ok to get it all done before the Science Fair

Please help your student remember to take pictures and document each part of the experiment. This will come in handy when they start to put together their presentation. They need to also keep each step as that will become part of their presentation as well. 

RAD Performance:

Our students have been working so hard on our RAD performance here at school. That will be on Thursday, April 18th at 7:00pm. Please plan to be here! You won't want to miss it!

ISATs:

We will be taking our ISATs on Monday, April 29th and Thursday, May 2nd. Please make every effort to have your student in class every day until then. Attendance is always important, but it is even more so as we prepare for these tests. I spend class time talking about how to navigate the test, becoming familiar with the format, and doing practice questions to help alleviate some of the anxiety that can happen with the test. 

ISAT Party:

Our class has been talking about the ISAT party that we will be having after we complete our ISATs. Students can earn an invitation to the party one of two ways. The first way is their score, this means that they meet their goal on the ISAT by scoring a 3 or 4 or by improving one level from the practice ISAT they took in the fall. The second way they can earn an invitation is by working hard from now until ISATs showing that they are trying to do their very best. I offer this second option because I know test anxiety is a real thing and my goal is to take that off the plate for my students. I want them to feel confident in their knowledge and be able to show what they know. :) This party will be a lot of fun! I usually have pizza and root beer floats. If you would like to help out and send in supplies, let me know and I will let you know what we need. :)

Week of April 1st

 I hope you all had a lovely spring break! I was so excited to get back to class with my students. We have just a few weeks left before we start ISAT testing and I am so excited about the progress they are making!

ELA:

This week we will be finishing up The One and Only Ivan. We are also working on our opinion writing where students will be discussing how they feel about animals being in zoos or circuses. I enjoy doing this when we read The One and Only Ivan as students really have some amazing thoughts and insights as we read. 

This week we DO have a Morning Warm Up quiz along with our spelling test. We will take our pretest on List Z on Thursday and this is our last list for the year! After that students will be done with spelling tests!

March Reading Calendars were due on Monday, April 1st. Feel free to send me an email letting me know how many minutes your student read if they forgot to turn it in or it was lost. 

Math:

We finished up Topic 12 on Monday and are starting Topic 11 today. This is a pretty short topic that deals with interpreting data on line plots. We will be finishing it up on Thursday. To make sure I at least introduce everything before ISATs, we will be cruising through a few extra lessons for the next couple of weeks. 

Science Fair:

Your student brought home the first step of the Science Fair project yesterday which was coming up with a question that would guide their project. This will be a collaborative project where parts are done both at home and at school. For your student to be successful, they need to make sure that they are following the timeline for the project. This project makes up their whole science grade for this quarter. Yesterday, I sent home a calendar that outlines when each step would be assigned and when each step is due. I included the documents for Step 1 and Step 2 in the email I sent out about this blog post so that you can print anything that goes missing. :)

PFSA Bingo Night:

Our AMAZING PFSA is hosting a Bingo Night on Saturday, April 6th. They use the proceeds from these fun events to sponsor grants for classrooms, like the one they gave us to be able to do Wagons Ho! If you are able, please attend and have some fun while supporting our school!

ISAT Party:

ISATS are coming right up and we will be completing them the last week of April. I talked to my class yesterday about the ISAT party that we will be having after we complete our ISATs. Students can earn an invitation to the party one of two ways. The first way is the score, this means that they meet their goal on the ISAT by scoring a 3 or 4 or by improving one level from the practice ISAT they took in the fall. The second way they can earn an invitation is by working hard from now until ISATs showing that they are trying to do their very best. I offer this second option because I know test anxiety is a real thing and my goal is to take that off the plate for my students. I want them to feel confident in their knowledge and be able to show what they know. :) This party will be a lot of fun! I usually have pizza and root beer floats. If you would like to help out and send in supplies, let me know and I will let you know what we need. :)