This year, I will be utilizing Class Dojo for my communication between school and home.  Please be sure to sign up for your account ASAP.  If you have any trouble, please reach out and I would be happy to assist.

Please click the link below to access my school supply list for the 2019-2020 school year.

School Supply List

Also, if you’re a parent from the 2018-2019 school year, please feel free to unsubscribe from this blog.  Thank you for a great school year!

Today students received their Unit 5 math test back.  Scores on this assessment were all over the place.  We spent a very large portion of our day today going over each question and practicing how to solve those problems.  They were to bring home both their test and today’s review questions to help them study over the weekend.  They will take their make-up test questions first thing Monday morning.  Please encourage them to spend some time this weekend reviewing the material so that they are prepared to do their best.

4th grade begins M-STEP on Tuesday.  They will begin with the ELA test, and then will take the Math test next week.  There are sample questions that the students can use for practice on the M-STEP link on Clever.  All students have already accessed this site on Wednesday in class and should have no trouble navigating the site if they would like some additional practice over the weekend to calm the nerves.  Please help ensure that your child gets a good night’s rest, a good breakfast, and arrives to school on time both Tuesday and Wednesday next week for testing.

I also wanted to keep all of you in the loop on what is going on with baby Hawks.  At Thursday’s appointment, I was measuring 43 weeks, even though I am only 39 weeks.  Because of this, my doctor has decided to have me come in Monday night for induction.  This means that Mr. Kigar will officially take over class starting Tuesday morning, which also happens to be day 1 of M-STEP.  We have talked thoroughly about what I would like to have happen in class over the next few weeks, and I am confident that he will help your children end 4th grade on a positive note.  Your children are being left in great hands.  As of right now, this also means that I will return only for the last week of the school year.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know, but please also be aware that I will probably be out of touch starting Monday evening as I prepare to welcome the newest little love to our family.  Thank you all for your continued support throughout the school year.

Just a reminder that the 4th grade will be attending their 2nd field trip of the year tomorrow.

We will be leaving for Frauenthal Theater in Muskegon tomorrow morning around 9:30am.  Please ensure that your child comes to school with a sack lunch (unless they have already ordered one), a water bottle for the park afterwards, and wearing their Alward Champions t-shirt.  The plan is to return to school around 2pm.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.  Tomorrow should be a great day! 🙂

Important Reminders:

• Our next field trip is scheduled for Wednesday, April 24th to the Frauenthal Theater in Muskegon for our Link Up recorder concert with Ms. Baker.  If your child needs a school provided sack lunch, please email my today as I must submit those orders by tomorrow, otherwise students need to bring a sack lunch with them that day.  Hot lunch will not be an option as we will not be in the building during lunch.
• 4th Grade M-STEP starts in 2 weeks.  We will be testing Tuesday, 4/30 and Wednesday, 5/1.  We will also be testing the following week Tuesday, 5/7 and Wednesday, 5/8.  The plan is to assess from 9-12 those days, so please try your best to avoid appointments scheduled during those times, and ensure your child arrives to school on time and well-rested.

In math, we are wrapping up Unit 7 (Fractions and Decimals).  Students are taking their review test today, the will have those graded and returned tomorrow as a study tool after reviewing skills in class, and they will take their final test on Thursday.  We will begin the final math unit (Measurement) this afternoon.  It will take approximately 2 weeks to complete and therefore students will have been taught all 4th grade math skills before they begin their M-STEP testing.  As always, please check students’ purple folders for homework assignments and quick quizzes that are great study tools for at home.

In reading, we are reviewing vocabulary and ELA skills for M-STEP.  We will also be taking some practice test questions and completing essays prompts over the next two weeks to ensure students are comfortable with everything that might pop up on the assessment.

For writing, we are working on our literary essay unit.  Students are reading short stories, determining the lesson or theme that story teaches, and then finding evidence in the text that supports that lesson or theme.

As of right now, baby is still due in about 2 weeks, so I am looking forward to finishing M-STEP prep with your children, and I wish them best of luck with testing. I will keep you up to date with any changes that may occur.  If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.

We’ve made it to Spring Break!   I can’t believe how fast this school year is flying by, but we still have a lot of learning to do over these next couple months.

During morning math, we are transitioning into exploring the relationship between fractions and decimals.  We will be working with numbers that have one or two digits after the decimal point.  We will use money relationships to help students understand tenths (dimes) and hundredths (pennies).  When we return from break, we will begin continue exploring decimals, begin comparing decimals, and looking at decimals greater than one.  The plan is to finish decimals the week we return from break, and then test Unit 7 (Fractions and Decimals) the following week.

For reading, we are finishing up our unit on Historical Fiction today, and will move into ELA M-STEP review when we return from break.  We will review genres, elements of fiction, author’s purpose, and go through some test-taking strategies.  If you would like your child to do some extra practice, there are links on this blog under “M-STEP” that they can do at home.  By completing these, it might help eliminate some text anxiety.

For writing, we have wrapped up our informational writing and students should be bringing home their state books today.  They did wonderful jobs completing these books and really teaching their readers about their state.  This week students finished their final informational writing, which will be used to determine their report card grades for this genre of writing.  There are a few students who were unable to complete this task this week due to absences, so they are expected to complete this over break and bring it back the day we return.  When we come back from Spring Break, students will be working on Literary Essays, which is writing about books and stories they have read.

During afternoon math, we have wrapped up our Geometry lessons, but have not had time to assess this unit yet.  Students will have Spring Break to review Geometry skills, and practice those skills using the links I have posted on Clever.  We will spend the Monday we return reviewing skills, then take our test the next day.  We will then have a day to review any skills they’re still struggling with before moving to the final Geometry test that Thursday.  The following week we will begin our final math unit of the school year: measurement.

As you can see, we have a lot of material to still cover between now and M-STEP.  I know that there have been some nasty bugs going around, but I can’t stress the importance of attendance enough.  When students are out for multiple days, it is difficult for them to catch up as well as understand the new content being taught on a daily basis.  Please help remind your child to wash their hands often, not to share drinks with anyone else, and overall just try to keep their distance from those that are sick.  We want all of use to remain as healthy as possible to finish out the school year.

A Quick Reminder:

• Spring Carnival will be April 12, the Friday we return from break.  Our classroom basket is Gift Cards and we have only received one donation so far.  If you plan to donate, please send those in as soon as we return from break.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.  Enjoy your Spring Break!

Last call for ordering field trip sack lunches.  I must submit orders today, so unless I hear from you, I will assume you will be sending a disposable sack lunch with your child.

I will let all of our chaperone volunteers know tomorrow whether or not your name was drawn.  Thank you so much to all parents who volunteered.  I wish we could bring all of you!

Also, please get field trip money in as soon as possible so that we can ensure all students are paid for.  Thank you so much!

It’s conferences week!  I look forward to meeting with all of you tomorrow or Wednesday.  Please log in to Signup.com or email me if you cannot remember your conference time.

We are in the home-stretch before M-STEP, which means we are very busy during the day here at school.  Unless you child is ill, please help ensure they are in school every day.  We are trying to fit in as much as we can before testing, which is hard after all of those snow days.  Hopefully we have spring weather coming our way and this crazy winter can be left in the past.

During morning math, we are taking our Unit 6 (fractions) review test today.  Students will then have tomorrow to review and ask questions, and we will take the final test on Wednesday.  As a reminder, they only need to complete the questions missed on their final test, so they should be using the review test as a study tool.  They can also use the Big Idea 1-3 papers as review material as well.  On Thursday, we will begin Unit 7, which is another fractions unit.  This unit will focus on fractions on a number line, equivalent fractions, and operations with fractions that have unlike denominators.  This unit will take us through Spring Break and will be tested the week after we return from break.

In reading, we are digging into our read-aloud of Number the Stars for our historical fiction unit.  Students are also working in small groups to read an additional historical fiction novel that is on their reading level.  Ask your child about their book.  They seem to really be enjoying it.  The hope is to wrap this historical fiction unit up by Spring Break so that we can focus on M-STEP prep when we return.

For writing, students are finishing up writing their informational books on their state this week.  They will work on publishing them next week, and will be sent home once they’re finished.  They will then be given one week to work on a final informational essay on a topic of those choosing.  They are encouraged to pick a topic they’re already an expert on as they will only be given one class period to gather additional research.  The week before spring break they will work on writing this final informational piece.  After spring break, we will be focused on M-STEP prep.

During afternoon math, we are working on our geometry unit.  There are many links that have been added to the teacher page on their Clever accounts that will allow them to practice the skills being taught.  Our first quiz of the unit will be this afternoon, covering basic geometric terms (points, rays, angles, lines, etc) and measuring angles using a protractor.  This week we will focus on triangles: classifying them by their sides and angles, as well as finding unknown angle measures, and looking at using addition and subtraction to solve real-world problems using triangles.  Next week we’ll shift our focus to quadrilaterals, and then finally polygons and symmetry the week before spring break.  Unfortunately, this unit will not be able to be tested until after spring break, so I encourage students to utilize the tools on Clever to practice their skills while on spring break so that we don’t lose any momentum.  The plan is to assess this unit the Tuesday we return from break.

Field Trip: Our field trip to the Grand Rapids Science Museum is quickly approaching.  If you still wish to volunteer as a chaperone, I need to know ASAP as we plan to choose chaperones this week.  We already have 8 parents who have volunteered and we can only bring 5, so we will be drawing names.  I apologize if you are not chosen, but please know how much I appreciate the offer.  Some years I find myself begging for chaperones, so this is a nice change.  Also, if you haven’t yet sent in money, please do so as soon as possible so that I can get things squared away with the museum.  It is $7 per child.  If you cannot financially afford this, please let me know ASAP and we will make arrangements to cover your child.  We want every child to be able to participate.  Finally, all children will need a sack lunch for the day of our field trip.  If you do not want to deal with the hassle of packing a lunch, please let me know and we can order a school sack lunch for your child.

Yearbook: Yearbooks were delivered last week.  If you did not order one, but would like to, please use this link to order a yearbook online.

Baby Update:  As of right now, baby Hawks is due to arrive April 28th.  This is the weekend before M-STEP testing begins.  As long as baby doesn’t make a surprise early arrival, I should be here up until testing.  Mr. Caleb Kigar, a parapro who currently works in the building, will be my long term sub.  He is extremely capable and ready to jump in when needed.  I will keep you updated if anything should change.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.  I look forward to seeing all of you this week at conferences!

Hooray!  We finally made it through an entire week of school.  Here’s to hoping that we can keep this streak alive.  It is crazy to think that March will already be here at the end of the week, which means M-STEP is just around the corner.

In math, students have begun exploring with fractions.  We’re working on composing and decomposing fractions, adding and subtracting fractions, and converting between improper fractions and mixed numbers.  In order to get all of the math curriculum in before state testing, we will begin doubling up on math next week.  We will continue our exploration of fractions in the morning, but will be studying geometry concepts in the afternoon, in place of science.  Because science is not a tested area for 4th grade, we will put science on hold until after state testing and will then double up on the science in May.

In reading, we will finish up our study of the regions of the US this week and will take our test on Friday.  A study guide will be sent home with students on Wednesday in preparation.  This will be their last social studies grade of the school year.  Starting next week, we will begin our historical fiction unit.  We will be reading Number the Stars aloud, which is a book that takes place during the German occupation of Denmark during WWII.  This is always a favorite unit of students, even if the content it a little heavy.  They will also be reading a different historical fiction novel on their level during small group time.  Books for small groups will be chosen later this week.

In writing, we started our informational writing unit today.  Students explored the elements of an informational text and were shown an example of the type of informational writing they’ll be working on.  Students have completed their state research with a partner, and now they will be using that research to write an informational essay (book) about their state.  We will walk through the process slowly together, using Michigan as an example.  Once students have been walked through the process slowly together, and have had multiple opportunities for questions and feedback, they will be given one final topic and asked to write an informational piece on their own.

IMPORTANT:

Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming up quickly.  They will be held Tuesday, March 12 and Wednesday, March 13.  Please be sure to sign up for a time slot as soon as possible so we can discuss your child’s progress.

Our first field trip of the year will be to the Grand Rapids Science Museum on Thursday, March 21st.  A note will be coming home soon regarding chaperones and cost, but I wanted to let you know the date in case you’re scheduling appointments.  We also will be taking our Link Up Music Field Trip on Wednesday, April 24th, but no chaperones will be needed or allowed for this trip due to space limitations.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.

I’ve had a few parents reach out regarding a class list for filling out Valentines, so here it is.

Hopefully next week will be a little less crazy weather wise and we can get back on track. Thank you all for your patience as we navigate crazy last-minute schedule changes.  If you need anything, please do not hesitate to contact me.