Week of May 18th

Well, here we are, the final week of school for the 2025-2026 school year. I have loved having your student in my class this year. Watching them learn and grow and being a small part of their journey is a privilege I do not take for granted. There is so much potential in this room and I am excited to see where they go in life! Thank you for entrusting me with your precious child!

This week is going to be FILLED with lots of fun, trips down memory lane, and cleaning up the classroom! Please read through and let me know if you have any questions! 

Possible Movie Permission for "The Wild Robot":

We read this book together at the beginning of the year and my class was hoping to be able to watch it to do a book comparison. We haven't had time this year yet, but if I can squeeze it in this week, I would like to! It is rated PG so if you do NOT want your student to watch the movie, please let me know and I will provide an alternative activity for them during that time. 

House Color Days:

4th Grade was invited to attend the Kindergarten House Sorting Day on Tuesday, May 19th! This is an awesome privilege and it will be so much fun! I encouraged my students to go all out on their house colors for Tuesday. They can of course wear house colors on Wednesday too, but I understand that sometimes they may not have enough of that color. I don't want to cause any stress so if they have to pick just one day, make it Tuesday. :)

May Reading Calendar and Math Fact Homework:

Today is the last day that homework is due for the year! If your student forgot, you can shoot me an email and let me know how many minutes they read and how many days they practiced their math facts (if they are still working on that), or have them bring it in tomorrow. :)

School ISAT Incentive:

4th grade earned a bounce house pizza party from the school incentive! We will be spending 45 minutes in the bounce house on Thursday morning starting right at 8:00. Please make sure your student is dressed to play comfortably and has sunscreen on. We will enjoy our pizza later on in the afternoon. 

4th Grade Glo Crazy ISAT Party:

We are planning to have our Glo Crazy party on Thursday afternoon! It is going to be so fun and I do not want any of my students to miss out! Please help your student get caught up on any missing work so that they can participate in the party. If they have more than 3 missing assignments, they will get to enjoy their treats in the hallway while they work on those missing assignments. I will send home missing assignment reports tomorrow so you know what your student needs to turn in still. We have some fun things planned for this and your student won't want to miss out!

End of Quarter 4/Semester 2:

Students have until dismissal on Friday, May 22nd to complete any assignments from Quarter 4. That gives me time to get any last minute grading done and report cards finalized for the year. :)

Mrs. Nickel's Summer PE Bingo:

All elementary students will come home with a Summer P.E. Bingo Card this week. They can fill in one square a day until all the squares are filled in. Be creative and have fun! For example: if you don't have a pet try exercising with a stuffed animal; or if you can't go to a beach you can exercise by a sandbox. If you need to print out a new form I've included a link to the document. Please have your child(ren) bring their form back to me at Meet the Teacher Night or after school starts for a fun prize. If you are worried about misplacing you card you can email me a picture of the completed form at donellnickel@visioncsd.org  Have an enjoyable summer and I look forward to seeing everyone back ready to learn and move next school year!

Summer PE Bingo Card

Desk Cleanouts:

We will be cleaning out desks and sorting through supplies all throughout this week. Please make sure that your student brings a regular backpack each day this week to be able to carry it all home. If they need a backpack, let me know and I will give them one. :)

Last Day of School - Friday, May 22nd:

This Friday we do have school again and it is our last day of school. We have an early release day and students will be dismissed at 1:34. We will be eating lunch in the classroom this day, so microwaves WON'T be available. Please plan accordingly and if your student brings a lunch from home, it will need to be something they are ok eating cold. :) We will also be doing some fun things this day so your student should wear tennis shoes and comfortable clothing this day. 

Week of May 11th

We have entered into the last two weeks of school for this school year! There are a lot of things being crammed into these last two weeks so please read through carefully to make sure you and your student are prepared for everything. :)

School on Friday!:

We DO have school this Friday the 15th and next Friday the 22nd. This Friday is normal school hours with dismissal at the normal time. Next Friday, the last day of school, we have early release at 1:34. 

Science Fair Projects:

Science Fair projects are due in class tomorrow, May 12th. Students will have an opportunity to present their projects to the class over the next few days and then we will take them down to the Aux Gym to be set up for Science Fair which is on Thursday, May 14th from 5:30-7:00. Students are not required to be there, but they are strongly encouraged to come and share their project with parents who are there to see them. :) It is always fun to see the creativity from other students!

Field Day:

Our Field Day is the is Friday the 15th from 8:40-10:25. It is looking like it is going to be a warm sunny day. Please make sure your student comes with tennis shoes and comfortable clothing. I would also encourage them to put on some sunscreen that morning before school and bring a hat. :)

Class Library Books Due:

All books checked out from our classroom library are due on Monday, May 18th. This will give students a couple of days to either pay for lost/damaged books or do community service for lost/damaged books per the Library Permission that was signed at the beginning of the year. This helps to ensure that I have an awesome library for students next year and hopefully many years to come! I will send home a note with students on Friday if they still have books checked out so they can look for them over the weekend. 

ISAT Incentives:

Our 4th grade ISAT Glow Party will be on Thursday, May 21st. All my students earned their invitation from me, the only thing that could keep them from coming is missing work. :) If they have missing work, they will still get to get the treats and those things, but they will have to enjoy them in the hall while they finish up missing work. As soon as that is done, they can come join the party in class. :) If you would like to send in treats for the class, please click HERE to sign up for something. 

It is looking like the the school incentive will be next Wednesday, May 20th. I will share the details for that when I have them. :)

Last Day of School:

Our last day of school is on Friday, May 22nd. We will have an early release that day at 1:34. Please make sure your student brings a regular sized back pack every day next week as we will be going through desks and sending home supplies through out the week. 

Week of May 4th

We are officially in the last month of school and it seems crazy to think we are this close to the end of the year! We are officially done with ISAT testing, yay! We do still have a few other End of Year Assessments that I use to gauge student growth.

ELA/ Social Studies:

We are going to be using our ELA time to help get caught up on some Idaho History that we missed out on while we were in the midst of test prepping. Students will be learning about Idaho State Symbols and the Oregon Trail. We will continue to work on reading skills and comprehension while learning about Idaho History.

Math:

This week we will start Topic 17 that is called "Step-Up to 5th Grade". This topic works on helping students apply what we have been learning in 4th grade to 5th grade concepts. It's a great way to continue our learning and prepare for 5th grade at the same time!

ISAT Party and Incentives:

ISAT scores are slowly trickling in and we are doing great over all! I am working on a letter I will send home to you after going over it with your student to talk about growth and whether or not they met their goal. 

One of the things I offer my students every year is the opportunity to earn an invitation to our class ISAT party after testing is over. They can earn an invitation one of two ways. 

1. One is to meet their goal that I made with them one-on-one and this is based on individual growth. 
2. The second way is to work really hard leading up to testing and doing their best on their test. If your student has missing assignments, this will keep them from the party. Please work with your student to stay up on their work.

As someone who deals with testing anxiety, I never want my students to work really hard and then feel bad because they didn't do well on the test because they were anxious. The learning is what matters and the ISAT is just ONE way we see that growth. I have several different other measures of growth I look at to ensure my students are growing each year. :)

Our school is offering an incentive for students by grade level. This is in ADDITION to my ISAT Party Incentive. These goals may be a little different than the goals I came up with when I met with each student because they are determined by the state. However, if my students meet the goal they set with me they should be ok to meet the school's goal as well. This incentive is a tiered incentive and will be determined by the percentage of 4th grade students who meet their goal. 

Tier 1: 75% - extra recess and ice cream sandwich

Tier 2: 85% - extra recess, pizza, bounce house

Tier 3: 95% -  field trip bowling or zoo & park Mrs. Burton decide

Science Fair Projects:

Your student should be working their way through the packet I sent home just before Spring Break. All the parts of that packet are parts they will need for their final project. I also sent home the rubric for the project so that they can use it to guide them when they are putting together their display boards. All of those documents are attached to the assignment in Infinite Campus if they got lost and you need to reprint them. I know sometimes I get "toss happy" at my house and accidentally throw things away sometimes so I try to link everything for you in Infinite Campus. :) Science projects are due on Tuesday, May 12th.