Week of April 28th

 This is our first week of ISATs! We have worked so hard to prepare for this and I am excited to see how they do. Please help your student get to bed early each night over the next week so that their body is well rested for the upcoming tests. We will have our ELA Performance Task portion of the test tomorrow morning. 

We will have our Math ISAT next week with the CAT part on Tuesday and the PT portion on Wednesday. I always provide healthy snack options with little notes that encourage them, so don't feel like you need to send in anything extra. I also provide gum and water. The school provides crackers, cheese sticks, and mints so they have everything they need to be successful! Today they had breakfast cookies waiting for them with a note that said "You are one smart cookie!" :)

Mrs. Burton has offered to take all of 4th grade roller skating if EVERY student makes their ISAT goal this year! This will be so much fun and I am confident that we will get to go because these kids are AMAZING and I know they will all make their goals! We worked together to come up with their "Smart Cookie Goal" to go along with our bulletin board in the hallway. 

Both this week and next week will be low key and there will likely not be many, if any new assignments over this week or next. I try to keep things really light so that students can rest up and focus on their test.

Wagons Ho:

We are so blessed to get to have Wagons Ho come to our school this year. The Clevengers have told me that as they get closer to retirement, they are going to be taking on less schools. However, they love working with our school and have mentioned how wonderful, polite, and respectful our students are and so we are one of the lucky few who still have this opportunity! We also have an AMAZING PFSA who are paying for them to come to our school! 

We will have Wagons Ho on Wednesday, May 14th. This is an all day event here at the school. Students are welcome to dress as a pioneer, but they need to be dressed appropriately. That means that they need tennis shoes or boots and layers that they can easily take off and put on. Last year was a surprisingly cold day and many students did not bring jackets or coats and we were raiding teacher closets and the lost and found to make sure everyone stayed warm. Please make sure your student is prepared. Hats and sunscreen are also a great idea! 

I still need a few more parent volunteers if you are able to join us. If you want to volunteer please know that you will need to be here from about 7:45-3:30 to help set up and tear down. You will also be running stations as groups of students rotate around. They also ask that students bring in some firewood and a large button. I have extra if you don't have access to either of those. Please just let me know if that is the case. 

ISAT Incentives:

This year is unique in that students have the opportunity to earn two different rewards for doing their best on ISATs. My ISAT party will be on Thursday, May 22nd. This allows for scores to be released so that I can determine who has gotten that invitation. Remember, students who have many missing assignments will need to use that time to work on missing work, so they will not be attending that party so that they can work on missing work in another classroom. 

Mrs. Burton has also offered to take all of 4th grade roller skating at the Roller Drome in Nampa if EVERY student in the 4th grade meets their goal. I sat down with each student individually and we looked at their 3rd grade score and came up with their goals from that. Because these goals are based on growth, each student should be able to meet their goal! This will be on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 21st. I will be sending out more information o this as soon as we know if 4th grade will be able to go. 

Week of April 21st

 I hope you all had a wonderful Easter yesterday! I loved the weather this weekend and we all spent a lot of time outside enjoying it. :)

ELA:

My students will be finishing up their Native American research paper today in class, if they have not already. I am so proud of how they are doing in writing, these essays look amazing!

We will spend the majority of our class time this week preparing for the ISATs that we will be taking next week. IXL has put together a skill plan to help students prepare for ISATs and I have it pinned for my students. I would encourage students to spend their monthly reading time this week, working on mastering those skills so that they are as ready as they can be for next week. :)

Math:

This week we will continue plugging away on our math skills. If your student is absent, please help them remember to complete the IXL skills for that lesson to a Smart Score of at least 80 before they complete the Quick Check. Often times in class we will do that together, so your student may not have that Smart Score because we do it in a game format whole group. Absent students will need to either take a screen shot that shows those skills have an 80, or show me their screen when they come back to class. 

RAD:

I want to give a HUGE shoutout to the kids who performed in RAD on Thursday. Out of all of the years I have watched this performance, this year's really stood out as exceptional! I was able to get some pictures and will be putting them in a Google Folder that I will share with all of you. :)

Enrichment:

Our last Enrichment session begins this Thursday and will run from 12:20-1:20 each Thursday. The last day for this session will be on Thursday, May 15th. Students who have any missing work will not be allowed to attend Enrichment until it is all turned in. 

Science Fair Project:

Your student should be working on Step 3: Testing your Hypothesis right now. This step is due next Monday, April 28th. Your student is welcome to turn in that work whenever they get it done. I strongly encourage my students to hang on to each step and take lots of pictures as they go. They will need these for the final step which is creating their presentation board. 

I have included all of the steps in Infinite Campus. This is because at this point projects may progress at different rates. If your student is able to finish Step 3, they are welcome to look at Step 4 and begin putting things together. I would caution to  not make anything permanent on their board yet because they may want to make changes as we talk about them in class. 

Your student will be presenting their presentation to the class starting on Monday, May 12th. Please do NOT send in their boards before that day, I don't have enough room to safely store them for long periods of time. Bringing them in on Monday will allow them to present to the class and then take it to the Aux Gym for the Science Fair.

The Science Fair will be on Thursday, May 15th from 5:30-7:00. This is a drop in style event and your student is welcome to take their project home at the end of the evening. 

ISAT Testing:

We are coming up on state testing time. I wanted to make sure I let you know the dates of testing so that you can plan ahead and make sure your student is here for that. Also, it helps to make sure your student is getting consistent good sleep leading up to testing. There are two parts to both the ELA and Math ISATs. They are the Performance Task (PT) and the Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT). We will give these on different days so that they kids aren't overwhelmed. That means we will have 4 days of testing total. 

ISAT Dates:

4/29: ELA CAT

4/30: ELA PT

4/6: Math CAT

5/7: Math PT

ISAT Party:

Each year I throw an ISAT party for my students to celebrate all of their hard work after they have taken the ISATs. This is different than other class parties because students have to earn an invitation to this party. They can earn an invitation in one of two ways. 

1. By scoring a 3 or 4 on the ISAT or moving from one level to the next. For example if they were a 1 in 3rd grade but scored a 2 in 4th grade, that is moving one level.

2. By working really hard leading up to ISAT testing to do their best. I understand that test anxiety is a real thing. Those students who work really hard and don't keep their classmates from succeeding by being a distraction, can also earn an invite to the party even if they don't get the score that they want. Students with a significant amount of missing work, may not get to attend because they aren't meeting this requirement.

Students who do not earn an invitation to the ISAT party will spend that time completing work in another classroom. I will let you and your student know if they are at risk of not earning an invitation to the party while they still have time to turn things around. :)

House Colors Thursday:

Now that I know students all have something in their house color because I have gifted it (hat and socks) or they have gotten a shirt, I am offering a house point for each student who wears their House Color on Thursdays! I am still making shirts for students as they bring them in. I also had some amazing donations from parents to buy vinyl and had one parent send in vinyl so if your student already brought in a sweatshirt and would like a t-shirt (or vice versa), they are welcome to bring in the other while the vinyl lasts. :) Again, if your student would like a house shirt but it is not within your budget right now, please let me know and I can help out with that! 

I also had a parent donate extra shirts for students who may not be able to afford one! Thank you so much! If your student would like one of those, please let me know! It will be a first come, first served basis. :) I have 1 Rêveur shirt left!

Week of April 14th

 I don't know about you, but I feel like this year is slipping away faster and faster and I am not ready! I have enjoyed this class of students so much and I am just not ready for them to move on in a few short weeks! Thank you for entrusting your children to me, they are incredible and you should all be proud!

ELA:

This week we will be working hard to finish our essays on our Native American Tribes. The current plan is that rough drafts will be due by the end of class on Wednesday. We will be editing them on Thursday and submitting the final draft at the end of class on Thursday. 

We will not have any more quizzes before ISATs. I try to lighten the testing load as much as possible before testing so that students can put all of their focus there. 

Math:

This week in math we will be moving to Topic 16, but it is still covering geometry. We have been talking in class a lot about thinking critically about the math problem. Often times when students see complex problems, they freeze up and feel they cannot solve the problem. I have been encouraging them to start by asking themselves "What do I know?" This gives them a starting point and often from there they are able to work through the problem, rather than feeling defeated. :)

Science Fair Project:

Today your student will be bringing home Step 3: Testing your Hypothesis for their science fair project. This is where the fun really happens! Students need to be sure to take pictures of the process and take notes as they go. This will insure they are ready to go for the final step, which is creating their presentation. 

I have included all of the steps in Infinite Campus. This is because at this point projects may progress at different rates. If your student is able to finish Step 3, they are welcome to look at Step 4 and begin putting things together. I would caution to  not make anything permanent on their board yet because they may want to make changes as we talk about them in class. 

The Science Fair will be on Thursday, May 15th from 5:30-7:00. This is a drop in style event and your student is welcome to take their project home at the end of the evening. 

ISAT Testing:

We are coming up on state testing time. I wanted to make sure I let you know the dates of testing so that you can plan ahead and make sure your student is here for that. Also, it helps to make sure your student is getting consistent good sleep leading up to testing. There are two parts to both the ELA and Math ISATs. They are the Performance Task (PT) and the Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT). We will give these on different days so that they kids aren't overwhelmed. That means we will have 4 days of testing total. 

ISAT Party:

ISAT Dates:

4/29: ELA CAT

4/30: ELA PT

4/6: Math CAT

5/7: Math PT

Each year I throw an ISAT party for my students to celebrate all of their hard work after they have taken the ISATs. This is different than other class parties because students have to earn an invitation to this party. They can earn an invitation in one of two ways. 

1. By scoring a 3 or 4 on the ISAT or moving from one level to the next. For example if they were a 1 in 3rd grade but scored a 2 in 4th grade, that is moving one level.

2. By working really hard leading up to ISAT testing to do their best. I understand that test anxiety is a real thing. Those students who work really hard and don't keep their classmates from succeeding by being a distraction, can also earn an invite to the party even if they don't get the score that they want. Students with a significant amount of missing work, may not get to attend because they aren't meeting this requirement.

Students who do not earn an invitation to the ISAT party will spend that time completing work in another classroom. I will let you and your student know if they are at risk of not earning an invitation to the party while they still have time to turn things around. :)

House Colors Thursday:

Now that I know students all have something in their house color because I have gifted it (hat and socks) or they have gotten a shirt, I am offering a house point for each student who wears their House Color on Thursdays! I am still making shirts for students as they bring them in. I also had some amazing donations from parents to buy vinyl and had one parent send in vinyl so if your student already brought in a sweatshirt and would like a t-shirt (or vice versa), they are welcome to bring in the other while the vinyl lasts. :) Again, if your student would like a house shirt but it is not within your budget right now, please let me know and I can help out with that! 

I also had a parent donate extra shirts for students who may not be able to afford one! Thank you so much! If your student would like one of those, please let me know! It will be a first come, first served basis. :) I have 1 each of Amistad and Rêveur.

Week of April 7th

Tonight is the very last Elementary Parent Math Night for the year! I will be hosting this in my classroom at 6:30. We will be closing and locking the doors to the school at 6:40, so please make sure you are on time so that you don't get locked out. :) Tonight I will be covering math games and games that you can easily modify to make them math games. I hope to see you all there!

ELA:

This week in ELA we will continue working on our Native American research project. Each student has been assigned a tribe that is native to Idaho. Right now we are busy researching those tribes and annotating as we research to help with writing the paper that is the next step. 

Math:

This week we are jumping ahead to Topic 15 which covers geometry. There is a LOT of vocabulary for geometry so I like to jump ahead to give students a little bit of extra time to learn that vocabulary before ISATs. 

I had two more students pass all of their multiplication facts this morning! I am so pumped about that! Please keep practicing with your student so that they will master these as quickly as possible as well. 

Science Fair Project:

Today your student will be bringing home Step 2: Research and Hypothesis for their science fair project. I explained to my class today that this project is really less about the results of their project and more about practicing and understanding the scientific process. We have been talking a lot about how their research should be about the TOPIC of their question, and not the question itself. Anyone can Google the answer to the question, but this step is about learning everything we can about the topic behind the question. 

For example, we dissected a Mystery Science lesson today as they do an excellent job following the scientific process. We talked about how the question was "How can I send a secret code?" so they researched and thought about everything they knew about codes, which led them to relate codes to a language. This led them to think about the need for a translator which guided them to more research.

After your student has researched their topic, they will form a hypothesis. We talked about how just like an estimate isn't a wild guess but an educated guess, so is a hypothesis. They need to take what they already know about the topic and what they researched and form an opinion on what they think the answer to their question will be and why they think that.

ISAT Testing:

We decided to push back testing dates to give us an extra week to prepare. We will do the ELA ISAT on Tuesday, April 29th and Wednesday, April 30th. The Math ISAT will be on Tuesday, May 6th and Wednesday, May 7th. 

We are coming up on state testing time. I wanted to make sure I let you know the dates of testing so that you can plan ahead and make sure your student is here for that. Also, it helps to make sure your student is getting consistent good sleep leading up to testing. There are two parts to both the ELA and Math ISATs. They are the Performance Task (PT) and the Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT). We will give these on different days so that they kids aren't overwhelmed. That means we will have 4 days of testing total. 

ISAT Party:

Each year I throw an ISAT party for my students to celebrate all of their hard work after they have taken the ISATs. This is different than other class parties because students have to earn an invitation to this party. They can earn an invitation in one of two ways. 

1. By scoring a 3 or 4 on the ISAT or moving from one level to the next. For example if they were a 1 in 3rd grade but scored a 2 in 4th grade, that is moving one level.

2. By working really hard leading up to ISAT testing to do their best. I understand that test anxiety is a real thing. Those students who work really hard and don't keep their classmates from succeeding by being a distraction, can also earn an invite to the party even if they don't get the score that they want. 

Students who do not earn an invitation to the ISAT party will spend that time completing work in another classroom. I will let you and your student know if they are at risk of not earning an invitation to the party while they still have time to turn things around. :)

House Colors Thursday:

I just wanted to remind you that students are welcome and encouraged to wear their house color on Thursdays. I am still making shirts for students as they bring them in. I also had some amazing donations from parents to buy vinyl and had one parent send in vinyl so if your student already brought in a sweatshirt and would like a t-shirt (or vice versa), they are welcome to bring in the other while the vinyl lasts. :) Again, if your student would like a house shirt but it is not within your budget right now, please let me know and I can help out with that! 

I also had a parent donate extra shirts for students who may not be able to afford one! Thank you so much! If your student would like one of those, please let me know! It will be a first come, first served basis. :) I have 1 each of Amistad, Isibindi, and Rêveur.

Week of March 31st

Welcome back from Spring Break! I apologize for not getting this out yesterday. Even though I came in a couple times over break, I was still slammed yesterday. :) 

ELA:

This week in ELA we will begin a research project about the five Native American tribes in Idaho. Students will be assigned a tribe and work together in a group to read about the tribe, write an informative essay, create a presentation, and flip books. This is a pretty big project and we will be working on it each day over the next couple of weeks. 

March Reading Calendars are due today! I will be sending home the calendars for April today as well. 

Math:

We will be continuing our work on Topic 13 which is working on customary and metric measurements. If your student has not mastered their multiplication facts, please make sure they are working extra hard to have those down. The more that they have mastered, the easier things will be from here on out. :)

My last Parent Math Night is next Monday, April 7th at 6:30. I will be going over games to play with your students to encourage math concepts as well as ways to modify games to work on specific math skills. I hope to see you there!

Science Fair Project:

Your student should have brought home their letter and work for Step 1 of their Science Fair Project. I attached all of that to the assignment in Infinite Campus so that you can reprint them if you need to. Step 1 is due next Monday, April 7th but students are welcome to turn them in before then. I will meet with each student and approve or rework questions as necessary. Questions need to be in one of the three formats given in the packet. This will help insure they are able to follow the scientific process for the whole project. Our science fair is on Thursday, May 15th. I accidentally put Wednesday in the letter, sorry about that!

Family Movie Night:

 

ISAT Testing:

We decided to push back testing dates to give us an extra week to prepare. We will do the ELA ISAT on Tuesday, April 29th and Wednesday, April 30th. The Math ISAT will be on Tuesday, May 6th and Wednesday, May 7th. 

We are coming up on state testing time. I wanted to make sure I let you know the dates of testing so that you can plan ahead and make sure your student is here for that. Also, it helps to make sure your student is getting consistent good sleep leading up to testing. There are two parts to both the ELA and Math ISATs. They are the Performance Task (PT) and the Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT). We will give these on different days so that they kids aren't overwhelmed. That means we will have 4 days of testing total. 

ISAT Party:

Each year I throw an ISAT party for my students to celebrate all of their hard work after they have taken the ISATs. This is different than other class parties because students have to earn an invitation to this party. They can earn an invitation in one of two ways. 

1. By scoring a 3 or 4 on the ISAT or moving from one level to the next. For example if they were a 1 in 3rd grade but scored a 2 in 4th grade, that is moving one level.

2. By working really hard leading up to ISAT testing to do their best. I understand that test anxiety is a real thing. Those students who work really hard and don't keep their classmates from succeeding by being a distraction, can also earn an invite to the party even if they don't get the score that they want. 

Students who do not earn an invitation to the ISAT party will spend that time completing work in another classroom. I will let you and your student know if they are at risk of not earning an invitation to the party while they still have time to turn things around. :)

House Colors Thursday:

I just wanted to remind you that students are welcome and encouraged to wear their house color on Thursdays. I am still making shirts for students as they bring them in. I also had some amazing donations from parents to buy vinyl and had one parent send in vinyl so if your student already brought in a sweatshirt and would like a t-shirt (or vice versa), they are welcome to bring in the other while the vinyl lasts. :) Again, if your student would like a house shirt but it is not within your budget right now, please let me know and I can help out with that! 

I also had a parent donate extra shirts for students who may not be able to afford one! Thank you so much! If your student would like one of those, please let me know! It will be a first come, first served basis. :)

Wagons Ho:

A huge thank you to our PFSA for paying to bring in Wagons Ho for our 4th grade students this year! We will be doing this on Wednesday, May 14th. We always need parent helpers so if you would like to help out please let me know. I will write your names down on a first come first served basis. As we get closer I will confirm with you if you are still able to help and then will work my way down the list as needed. This is an all day commitment so please plan to be at the school from 7:45-3:30. I will send out more specific times as I have it. :)