News & Notes:
- PTA Read a Thon - The readathon continues until the end of the month - so a few days left. We have been in the top five classes for having read the most minutes! Thank you for helping your child log in to the program. Our goal is 30 minutes - but even 20 minutes a day makes a big impact!
- Newbery Project - Just a reminder that we have reading time each day in Room 107. All Newbery books and chapter notes can be completed in class. Chapter notes are due on Thursday, April 7.
Upcoming Dates:
- March 26-April 3 - No school for Spring Break
- Mon, April 4 - School resumes
- Fri, April 8 - In school virtual field trip with the Michigan State Capitol tour guides
- April 18 and 20 - MSTEP testing in 4th grade
What we're Learning:
- Writing - As we work on narrative writing, the importance of our first sentence has been a focus. I've been really impressed with the creativity of some of our writing lately. Ask your child to tell you about a piece of writing they are proud of.
- Reading - "Book Club" books have been on hold during our Newbery Projects. All clubs will get new books after spring break.
- Brain Friendly Reading - I sent home a "syllables" chart for your child to tap at home. Understanding these patterns in the English language is helping students to grow both as readers and writers! Ask your child to tap the chart for you.
- Social Studies - We will end our unit on civics and government on April 8th. We will be participating in a virtual field trip to the Lansing State Capitol with all three fourth grade classes.
- Science - We wrapped up our investigation of how energy is transferred in a system with our water wheel engineering design experiment. Ask you child to tell you how many pennies they were able to get their water wheel to lift.
- Math - We have been working on comparing decimals and fractions as we continue to practice multiplication and division. If your child is struggling with basic multiplication, I sent home a set of unique multiplication flash cards for them to cut and use at home. Fluency with this math skill is critical to success in 5th grade math.
Ask Me:
- We are preparing to plant pumpkin seeds in the courtyard. Ask your child what they learned about harvesting seeds from a pumpkin and when can we put them in the ground. Also - ask them to tell you what we learned about what we found in our courtyard!
Weekly Highlights:
- Last week we were able to get out in the courtyard - look for fossils in our rock, bugs, and birds. We found lots of evidence of life in our courtyard habitat! Also, Miss Nicole surprised the kids as a guest reader.