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. :)