Newsletter April 8, 2011
Math – Unit 9 is over with and we now move on to review and the test is this coming Wednesday or Friday depending on how comfortable the kids feel. The next unit is all about shapes, translations, and rotations.
Social Studies – Wow, the heritage fair was an incredible event. Thank you so much for coming and being such a great audience. This event is definitely becoming a must-do for 4th grade. I know that many parents worked alongside their child to create an incredible poster; thank you. Lumberjack unit starts on Monday with the lumberjack breakfast on May 25th.
Science – Students have been busy at work on their independent earth materials projects. Many of them have chosen to do their experiments at home so the deadline for completion of the project is April 15th. On Monday, April 18th we will start in-class presentations of our research – this is what the final product will be for all students.
Reading – Fairy tales continue, one of my favorite units. We have discovered that besides being rather gruesome in the original version, they have been changed a lot in our time. Some cool elements we have discovered are: magic, love, non-descript time and place, as well as lots of evil women. We have also started “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen (he’s Danish!) and my mother, who happens to teach a class on him at UW will be skyping with us about him.
Writing –The next writing project will be to write a fairytale, however, we continue to write a lot in social studies and science, as well as our blogging challenges.
Special Notes –
* Talent show audition dates have been set for May 3rd and 5th with more information to come.
*Global connections: We posted our first blogging challenge specifically for Mr. Reuter’s 6th graders in Merton, Wisconsin who will become our mentors. They will be helping the students write deeper reflections and questions, so it adds one more layer to the writing process; writing for a specific audience.
* Update on New York project: Thank you for your donations to our care package, I am mailing it on Monday or Tuesday so if you have anything you would like to include for the kids in NYC, please send it in with your child. We are still looking for anything farm related. The video for this project is almost done, thank you all who have allowed their child to film around their home. We look forward to sending it all out there as well as skyping with this great class.
* We are going to the Engineering Expo on Thursday. If you have volunteered to go along on this great field trip, you should have received info from me about the duties of the day. If you have not received this, please email me.
* The Lumberjack Breakfast will take place May 25th 8:30 – 10:00 AM roughly. Mindy Sabol has graciously agreed to be my point person and will be helping me plan it. Please contact me or her if you are interested in helping prior to the event or during it.
* I have some dates for you to put on your calendars: Engineering Expo is April 14th all day, Book order due Friday April 15th, Science Olympiad Friday April 29th, Talent Show Auditions Tuesday May 3 and 5th right after school, and Innovation Day all day
