Update from 8/31/18

Hello Families!

We seem to be getting into the swing of things and students are starting to get routines down!  It was wonderful to see some of you again at Curriculum Night. If you were unable to attend, we sent home the packet of information with your student on Wednesday.

MAP Update:

Due to issues at the main NWEA website, we were unable to take our MAP Math test as planned on Thursday of this week.  The website reported that the system was down and would be repaired over this weekend. Our new date for the MAP Math test is Tuesday, September 5th.

Planned Absences:

Due to the HB 410 the school is asking that all parents fill out a pre-arranged absence form if you know your student is going to be absent.  This form needs to be completed even if your student is only going to miss one day of school. It is not used for student illnesses. Below is a link for printing out the form.  You can also pick up a printed copy in the office.

https://www.napls.us/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=2166&dataid=1795&FileName=Preplanned%20Absence%20Form.pdf

Volunteer Update:

If you would like to volunteer this year, a sign up form was included in the Curriculum Night packet.  Please let Mrs. Mejia know if you need a new copy of the form. There are new instructions for background checks this year.  Please see the below information from the Administration Office.

You will no longer need to go to the AO for fingerprints, we now use an online system called Secure Volunteer. Please go to this page: https://www.napls.us/Page/2093.  You will pay with a credit card ($19.45), the AO will get the results, approve them, and then a badge will be mailed to you.

Math Update from Mrs. Anderson:

We continued with our first  Bridges unit this week. We are talking about strategies for solving multiplication problems and then using those same strategies to solve division problems.  I realize that many students know their multiplication facts and that is fantastic!! We are now taking the knowledge of those basic facts and starting to solve more complex problems.  Next week we will start looking at the difference between prime and composite numbers and building arrays to show their properties. Your student should have finished the Knowledge Check in ALEKS last Sunday.  Each week they will be required to complete 10 topics in ALEKS by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Even though we have a day off for Labor Day your student will still need to complete 10 topics that week. Also, I assign math homework almost every night Monday - Thursday.  It does not usually take very long and often they can get started here at school but, it is always due the following day. For a copy of last week's homework assignments please click here.  

Social Studies Updates from Mrs. Anderson:

This past week we have continued our unit on Ohio’s earliest settlers.  We are learning about the different tribes and where they came from, timelines (see below), artifacts, and the mound builders.  They will be doing an in class assignment where students will gather information on three different mounds in Ohio. They will be using Google Earth to see what it looks like, and searching the web for articles and videos to find 5 fascinating facts about each mound.  To go along with this assignment I have sent home an optional extra credit assignment with your student. They were given a list of mounds in Ohio and are asked to visit the mound then take a picture of themselves at the mound. Like I mentioned during Curriculum Night, these are optional and there will be several to choose from throughout the year. I will be accepting pictures for this assignment throughout the month of Septmeber.   I have included a link to the extra credit assignment here.

Upcoming Assignment

Personal Timeline: We have been learning about how historians use timelines to record significant events in chronological order and how primary sources can provide evidence of an event. Students will begin working on showcasing their understanding by creating personal timelines. These personal timelines will be due Wednesday, September 12. We will have some time in class for students to work on these, but I wanted to put this on your radar in case they need to do some work at home.  I recommend sorting through pictures or taking pictures of artifacts (trophies, ribbons, awards…) prior to creating the timeline. It is much easier to work around artifacts that you already have than to find an artifact to match an event that your student thinks of later. You may start sending in artifacts when ever you collect them and I will store them in a safe place.  Thanks for your help and support. The guidelines for the assignments can be found on the attached link.

Reading Updates from Mrs. Mejia:

This week we began work on our “Good Readers” chart.  This chart will be added to throughout the year as we learn the strategies that help readers the most.  We focused on the idea that good readers choose “just right” books which means that they will encounter new words as they read.  Because of this, good readers need strategies to figure out these new words. The chart below shows some strategies that we are using when we encounter new words.  We are also working on improving our reading stamina and are silent reading each day! A reminder that students should be done, or almost done, with the first side of their Reading Log.  This log is due on Tuesday, September 4th. If your 4th grader needs to print a new Reading Log at any point during this school year, you can find a new log on my portal in the Documents section.

Writing Updates from Mrs. Mejia:

This week we have been focusing on developing a character’s motivation, deciding how we will build suspense by constructing events that get in the way of what the character wants, and writing different story arcs.  Following that, students selected their favorite story arc and began using it to write scenes for their fictional narrative. We are using a writing strategy called Show, Don’t Tell. An example of this is in the picture below.

Word Study Updates from Mrs. Mejia:

We have begun our vocabulary work with learning about Prefixes, Suffixes, Base/Root Words, and Compound words.  While we will continue practicing these concepts at school, students do not need to bring the list back to school anymore.  Starting next week, the Reading Log will include a reminder to study your vocabulary list. It may be helpful to keep this list with the Reading Log to make it easy to find for the five minutes of Vocabulary Study.  Students can be on the look out for these word concepts all around them, and especially while reading. Students received a vocabulary packet for homework on Thursday. It is due on Tuesday, September 4th.

Some students have shared some fun weekend activities…

Rania's trip to Niagara Falls and Premila's Benihana Birthday

                      

Fox Update

As many of you know we have had a fox roaming around campus since the start of school.  On Thursday morning, before school, it was spotted taking a nap at the Primary Playground.  We were lucky enough to witness it getting rescued by Mrs. Sandy Reed. Here is an update from Mrs. Reed.

Hello All,

Just a quick update regarding the red fox seen here around the school district and community.

This morning I was able to trap the fox, humanely and legally, and transport it to the Ohio Wildlife Center. The fox will be kept at the center until it is healthy and can be released back into the wild. The Wildlife Center, our local police, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources,

,

the state Ohio Wildlife department, and our school district had been getting calls from parents in our community about the fox so it would be great to communicate to your students and parents that it has legally trapped, transported and is now being taken care of by wildlife experts.

Many students wanted to know if it was a boy fox or a girl fox. The answer is it is a boy fox. He will be given medicine and they do believe he will recover. I made a personal donation while there to support their work.

The fox has a patient ID # of 4922. If the students or parents inquire, they can make a donation for his care by going on line to ohiowildlifecenter.org . I will check on the fox over the next couple weeks and if anyone is interested in hearing what happens, just drop me an email.

I do believe this was the one and only fox seen throughout the community so fox sightings should now stop. Thank you for your patience and help.

Best,

Sandy Reed

As always, thank you for sharing your amazing 4th grader with us. We are loving getting to know these kids! We hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend!

-Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. DeFluiter, and Mrs. Mejia

Update from 8/24/18

Dear Families,

It has been a productive and fun first full week of school.  We have enjoyed getting to know your 4th grader, and we are looking forward to the rest of the year with them.

We wanted to update you with some of the topics we have been focusing on here at school while also providing you more information on upcoming events.

R.I.S.E. Assembly:

As an Intermediate building we have spent time this week talking about Eagles R.I.S.E. which stands for respect, integrity, safety, and empathy. Students have been brainstorming how to demonstrate these characteristics at school. We also had an assembly this afternoon to discuss R.I.S.E. with the other classes in our wing.  Please ask your 4th grader to share what they have learned about R.I.S.E., and we would also love if you could help us reinforce these characteristics at home.

MAP Testing:

Your students will be MAP tested next Wednesday for reading and Thursday for math. This is a baseline assessment for the year and there is nothing that students need to do to prepare ahead of the test.  Please encourage your 4th grader to get a good night’s sleep. Testing will take place first thing in the mornings. Each class will test in their homeroom and then have shorter switches between the classes in the afternoon.  The MAP test can be paused and resumed so recess, lunch, and specials classes will be on a regular schedule. Please email your homeroom teacher with any questions.

Agendas/Discipline Color Levels:

Still no agendas!!!  We are waiting for the agendas to arrive, but 4th graders will continue recording their homework daily on the temporary paper form that we have created.  We spent the first seven days of school practicing procedures and expectations and students will begin recording their discipline color level at the end of the day next week.  (Note - We are teaching students the definition of discipline that is equivalent to self-control.) Green is our highest color, so be sure to praise your student for all the green days that they have!  Please check the agenda regularly. We encourage parents to initial next to the teacher’s initials to help us know that information is being communicated.

ALEKS:

All of Mrs. Anderson’s math students have been started in ALEKS.  They have logged in and have begun their initial knowledge check. They are required to finish the knowledge check over the weekend and we will start with our ALEKS assignments next week.  Students will be required to complete 10 topics each week. They will earn 1 points for each topic with a maximum of 10 points per week.

Curriculum Night:

Curriculum Night for 4th grade is this Tuesday, August 28th from 6:00-7:00 pm.  Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. DeFluiter and Mrs. Mejia will be combining for one presentation in room 121, Mrs. Anderson’s room.  There will be additional school-wide information available as you enter the school, so you may want to plan time to pick up that information before our time in the classroom. We look forward to seeing you then.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. DeFluiter, and Mrs. Mejia

Update from 8/17/18

Good afternoon,

     It was a wonderful start to the school year!  We will begin our usual weekly updates next Friday.  However we wanted to share the below notes today. Thank you again for sharing your student with us!

  -Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. DeFluiter, & Mrs. Mejia

• Please reply to this email with your student’s name, so that we can verify which families we have the correct emails for.
• We do have a snack time at 2:35 in the afternoon.  Please send a healthy snack that would not create messy fingers.  We work during our snack time and need to have clean hands, especially with the daily use of our Ipads.  For this reason, students can not eat Doritos, Cheetos, or other similar items in the classroom. They may still be packed in lunches.
• Spiral-bound agendas will be used in fourth grade.  They were back-ordered and we anticipate that they should arrive around the end of next week.  We will use a similar paper we created for students to write down their homework until the agendas arrive.
• Students will receive their first reading log next Monday. The reading log is 2-sided (one side for each week) and will be due on Tuesday, September 4th.  The logs are usually due on Mondays, but we will be out of school on September 3rd due to Labor Day.