Week of February 23rd

The last week of February is here and I can hardly believe it! That means that the end of Quarter 3 this next week! I told my class today that I am not ok with our year together being almost up. I have really enjoyed this group of kids and see so much potential in their lives. They are so kind to one another and I love it. The PE teacher emailed me last week to let me know how kind they were to one another they were while they were playing a game that can tend to be pretty competitive. She said they kept encouraging each other to keep trying and cheering others on when they did well! I love that!

We have a really big month coming up in March, so please read through this post so that you know all of the fun things headed our way!

Read Across America Week:

Next week is Read Across America Week and we have fun things planned each day! I will send home the flyer that has all of the details for each day tomorrow, but I will also include the days here.

Monday: Buddy Reader Day
Tuesday: Slip into a Good Book
Wednesday: Read my Shirt
Thursday: Cozy Up with a Good Book 

IditaRead:

Third and Fourth Grade students are going to be participating in the IditaRead and learning about the Iditarod Race. This will be a 2 week competition in March and students will be racing each other. This will replace our March reading calendar so students don't worry about having to track their minutes in two different places. I will be sending home more detailed information about this at the end of the week in your student's Home Folder so be on the look out for that!

Wagons Ho and the Banner Fundraiser:

Our amazing and wonderful PFSA has helped us again this year to bring Wagons Ho to our students! Unfortunately we are a little bit short still on our funding so we are asking parents to spread the words to businesses in the area. They can click the link HERE to be a part of our Banner Fundraiser. By donating to our school through this fundraiser they will get a banner with their name on it in our gym as well as a tax write off for their donation. They just need to designate their funding to the 4th grade option on that form and the money will be used for Wagons Ho.

We also need parent volunteers to help us run the day at Wagons Ho. We will be doing this on March 18th and it is an all day event at the school. If you would like to come and volunteer, please email me and let me know. I will confirm with you whether you are on the volunteer list or the wait list once I get your email. You cannot bring any siblings with you and you need to check in at the office. We would like parent volunteers to be at the school by 7:50 to help the Clevengers set up in the back. 

This is such an incredible day and I am so thankful my students get the opportunity. The Clevengers have been running this program for a long time here in Idaho, so long in fact I remember doing it as a 4th grader. :) As they near retirement, they have cut back on how many schools they are doing this with and Vision Charter is still fortunate to participate. :)

RAD Performance:

Our music program for 4th and 5th grade is also the month of March. This will be on March 17th. The kids and Mrs. Ellis put in so much work and I am always so impressed with the show! You will definitely want to make sure you are there to watch!

Parent Teacher Conferences by appointment only on 3/12/26 

We will be doing parent teacher conferences on Thursday, March 12th from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.  A title one meeting will follow from 7:00 pm to 7:30 pm in the AUX gym for anyone with questions on our support programs for struggling readers.  I will contact families that I need to meet with but if you do not get a personal conference request that simply means there is nothing I am worried about for your child to be ready for 4th grade. If you would still like to have a short conference anyway please let me know so we can schedule it in.  

Week of February 9th

We are already at Valentine's Day week! I know I keep saying this, but I feel like this year is just flying by so quickly! 

ELA:

This week we are not going to have a Morning Warm Up quiz or a Math 4 Today quiz. I figure with Valentine's Day being celebrated on Thursday, it might make testing a little rough. :)

We are going to continue reading Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing. We are also finishing up our informative writing about Seoul, South Korea. With the conclusion of that writing we will have covered all three writing types taught in 4th grade. We will still work on refining those skills over the next several months though. :)

Math:

We did our Topic 8 Celebration of Learning last week and overall I was really pleased with how these kiddos did! I am frustrated with our math program, they changed a lot of things over the summer and it turns out one of those things was the remediation skills it assigns when a student doesn't do well on a test. If your student didn't pass the test, I sent home the workbook pages from Topic 8 instead. I would like them to work through all of those and when they finish, they can retake Topic 8. I know that is going to take them some time so as long as it is within Quarter 3, they have the option to retake that test to bring their grade up to a 70%. 

IXL Skills:

Just a reminder that IXL skills are now a part of your student's grade. If they did not get them done, they can complete them for full credit at any time. They just have to show me when they get them done, I won't go check for them. :)

Enrichment:

This week we have our first enrichment class on Thursday. Just a reminder that work marked "missing" in the gradebook will keep your student from participating in enrichment. 

Snack Bin:

I would like to offer a snack bin for students to grab a snack from if they forget their snack for the day. If you would like to contribute to it, please send in healthy shelf stable snacks with your student. Some ideas are granola bars, whole grain crackers, dried fruit, or nuts. Please make sure they are individually wrapped as I am hoping this will just be a grab and go type situation. :)

Big thank you to the Faustino family for donating to our snack bin already!!

Valentine's Day:

In 4th grade we celebrate this holiday as a day of friendship. We do a small Valentine's Party that is mostly students passing out and enjoying their Valentines from each other. If your student would like to bring Valentines, but you are unable to get them any, please let me know and I will provide them! I sent home a list of student names last week as well as posting it HERE. 

We do not make anything to keep Valentines in here at school. If your student would like to make something at home, that's great! Please do not let them bring it in until Thursday, February 12th because we do not have space to safely store them all and I would hate to see their hard work be damaged accidentally. These do need to be small enough to fit on top of their desks, I know some of these kids are ultra creative, but we just don't have space for anything bigger. :)

On Thursday, February 12th we will have a normal day until the end of the day. Students will take time to pass out their Valentines and we thought it would be fun to watch "Because of Winn Dixie" since we have finished reading it and it is a story all about friendship! It is rated PG so if you do NOT want your student to watch it, please let me know and I will provide an alternative activity for them to do during that time. If students would like to bring a healthy treat to share with the class, they are welcome to! Since so many Valentines come with candy, and I know the kids are going to want to enjoy some of that, I would prefer non sugary treats be brought in. :)

Week of February 2nd

I cannot believe we are already in February! We are already about half way through Quarter 3 and that just seems wild to me. Time really does fly when you are having fun!

Math:

Tomorrow your student will be taking their Topic 8 Celebration of Learning. I have encouraged them to study tonight by making sure they practice those Topic 8 skills on IXL that they haven't mastered yet. We will be taking this test through the math program we use online, similar to a Quick Check. That means they won't have the chance to correct mistakes before it is graded. However, the program will assign skills for them to work on based on how they do on the test. If they fail their test and want to improve their grade to a 70%, they will need to complete the activities assigned for remediation. I know that is different than what we have done in the past, so feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

IXL Skills:

This week is the second week of assigned IXL skills that are part of your student's grade. If for some reason your student did not get that week's skills done, they can get them done at any time. However, if they want credit for them they need to show me when they get them done. 

Enrichment:

Your student is bringing home their sign up sheet for the last enrichment class for this school year. These are assigned on a first come, first serve basis so your student has a better chance of getting their first choice if they bring their form back signed tomorrow. :)

Boise Philharmonic Field Trip:

We will be going to the Boise Philharmonic this Thursday morning! Please make sure that your student is here on time so that they don't get left behind. :) Also, this is a nice event so if your student would like to dress up, that would be fun! 

Snack Bin:

I would like to offer a snack bin for students to grab a snack from if they forget their snack for the day. If you would like to contribute to it, please send in healthy shelf stable snacks with your student. Some ideas are granola bars, whole grain crackers, dried fruit, or nuts. Please make sure they are individually wrapped as I am hoping this will just be a grab and go type situation. :)

Valentine's Day:

It's hard to believe that Valentine's Day is right around the corner! We talked in class a bit about it last week and I reminded my students that in 4th grade we celebrate this holiday as a day of friendship. We do a small Valentine's Party that is mostly students passing out and enjoying their Valentines from each other. If your student would like to bring Valentines, but you are unable to get them any, please let me know and I will provide them! I will send home a list of names for your student today as well as posting it HERE. 

We do not make anything to keep Valentines in here at school. If your student would like to make something at home, that's great! Please do not let them bring it in until Thursday, February 12th because we do not have space to safely store them all and I would hate to see their hard work be damaged accidentally. These do need to be small enough to fit on top of their desks, I know some of these kids are ultra creative, but we just don't have space for anything bigger. :)

On Thursday, February 12th we will have a normal day until the end of the day. Students will take time to pass out their Valentines and we thought it would be fun to watch "Because of Winn Dixie" since we have finished reading it and it is a story all about friendship! It is rated PG so if you do NOT want your student to watch it, please let me know and I will provide an alternative activity for them to do during that time. If students would like to bring a healthy treat to share with the class, they are welcome to! Since so many Valentines come with candy, and I know the kids are going to want to enjoy some of that, I would prefer non sugary treats be brought in. :)