Deat Families,
Firstly, just a quick reminder that we are petitioning for prop 39 school sites. The school site that was given to us is in an undesirable location and is virtually unusable for our current needs. We are encouraging all staff, parents, and students to sign a form letter stating our wish to be offered a more suitable site. We are also going to encourage parents and students to be present at the official board meeting on Tuesday, March 23. It will be held sometime in the evening. I am not sure of the exact time as of yet.
Next, I want to congratulate the fourth graders on the wonderful job thay did for our "Wax Museum" last Thursday. They were all so excited about being experts on their California figures. The entire school visited our classroom and asked questions of each student. They were all tired afterwards. Go fourth graders!! Biographies will be sent home soon!
Also, if you don't know already, some of the fictional narratives written by students and their
illustrations will be published in Frye Lights, Donna Frye's newsletter. When it is finished, I will have copies in the classroom for all to enjoy. I would also like to publish all narratives and illustrations in a class book. Is anyone willing to take the writing and drawings to a printer and get an estimate of cost?
In science we are studying crystals and rocks. Students have engaged in hands-on activities to make crystals, igneous and sedimentary rock, and this week they will make metamorphic rock. Shortly there after we will be taking a look at weathering. We will also be taking a field trip in mid-March to the Ruben H. Fleet museum to look at electricity and later the application of electricity at the Automotive Museum where we will view an electric car! The cost will be $10.00. I will let you know the date as soon as I have it.
Learning about California in Social Studies continues as we read our adventurous book, "By the Great Horn Spoon". Students have compared prices during the gold rush period to costs now. When do you think things cost more? Ask your child. I think you will be surprised. They are involved in answering review questions, drawing, and will be looking at the diseases of that time starting this week. We are also starting to read about California Indians. My goal is for groups of students to prepare posters identifying the differences between indian tribes as well as write a legend. I am looking for donations of books that are specifically legends to give students' examples.
In writing, we are just beginning to study the elements of writing a summary, a fourth grade standard. If their summaries are like the rest of their writing, I plan to look for excellent results.
The math unit we are studying is all about decimals and so far so good. I thought it would be more challenging, but most students have grasped the lessons. We have been using concrete representations (base-10 blocks and money), visual representations, and trying three strategies to add or subtract decimals.
Please stop by to see your child's beautiful oil paintings of the California poppy. I would like to make a quilt for the srtist who came in to teach. We need fabric, batting, embroidery and regular thread. Who can help???
Also, the fourth grade is responsible for the meal on the family night in April. This is an area I would like to get some input and help on. What are your ideas for the meal? Anyone know where we can get it donated from? Are you willing to set up a game night to go along with that night. We will be charging $3.00 for the meal and $0.50-$1.00 to play the games and we need prizes! Help!!!!!
That's it for now!
Kim
Arriving at Smith Ranch
Arriving at Smith Ranch!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Let the Good Times Roll!
Dear Families,
I hope you all had sufficient time to bond with your children over our latest holiday weekend! I did some maintenance, like brakes all around, plumbing repairs in the bathroom, etc...I live in a very old house! GRrrrrrrrrr!
In math most all of the students in class are really "getting it" (decimals). Wow, it seems like such a difficult subject to me, but they are flying. We will be continuing with decimals/fractions/percentages for awhile. But at this rate, it may go faster than I thought!
All of you must come into the classroom to view your child's incredibly beautiful oil paintings. Each painting is rich with the vision your child saw in the flower. Last year we made a quilt from the paintings that were transferred to fabric. "Sewing Bee" anyone? I have the quilt from last year, but this year I would love to put one together for the artist who donated her time for free to teach the children how to mix colors, express themselves, and create. This means we will need someone to take pictures of each painting, transfer them onto fabric, and help with purchases of materials like batting and diverse fabrics that will compliment the paintings. Any takers?
Also, fictional narratives are being posted on our bulletin board outside the classroom. On Friday, February 18th, Donna Frye's writer, Chet will be speaking to your children about writing, the process, and the final piece. He and Donna also offered to print some of the students' pieces in Frye Lights, her news letter. Yipee!
The Wax Musuem will be scheduled for Thursday, February 25th from 1pm-3pm. This means it is time to create costumes for your child's character. On that day they can just bring their costumes to change into at lunch time or they can be in character all day.
Lastly, we finally started science and are looking at minerals and the creation of crytals that we will be observing tomorrow and discussing what we see and why we think what we did made a change. Next, we will be looking at and defining rocks. Don't be surprised when your child tells you they ate some rocks that spewed out of a volcanoe.
As usual, email or call anytime.
Love,
Kim
I hope you all had sufficient time to bond with your children over our latest holiday weekend! I did some maintenance, like brakes all around, plumbing repairs in the bathroom, etc...I live in a very old house! GRrrrrrrrrr!
In math most all of the students in class are really "getting it" (decimals). Wow, it seems like such a difficult subject to me, but they are flying. We will be continuing with decimals/fractions/percentages for awhile. But at this rate, it may go faster than I thought!
All of you must come into the classroom to view your child's incredibly beautiful oil paintings. Each painting is rich with the vision your child saw in the flower. Last year we made a quilt from the paintings that were transferred to fabric. "Sewing Bee" anyone? I have the quilt from last year, but this year I would love to put one together for the artist who donated her time for free to teach the children how to mix colors, express themselves, and create. This means we will need someone to take pictures of each painting, transfer them onto fabric, and help with purchases of materials like batting and diverse fabrics that will compliment the paintings. Any takers?
Also, fictional narratives are being posted on our bulletin board outside the classroom. On Friday, February 18th, Donna Frye's writer, Chet will be speaking to your children about writing, the process, and the final piece. He and Donna also offered to print some of the students' pieces in Frye Lights, her news letter. Yipee!
The Wax Musuem will be scheduled for Thursday, February 25th from 1pm-3pm. This means it is time to create costumes for your child's character. On that day they can just bring their costumes to change into at lunch time or they can be in character all day.
Lastly, we finally started science and are looking at minerals and the creation of crytals that we will be observing tomorrow and discussing what we see and why we think what we did made a change. Next, we will be looking at and defining rocks. Don't be surprised when your child tells you they ate some rocks that spewed out of a volcanoe.
As usual, email or call anytime.
Love,
Kim
Sunday, February 7, 2010
WEEKLY UPDATE!!!
Dear Families,
Family Night is this Thursday, Feb 11th at starting at 5pm. At 5pm, a chili or hot dog dinner is being sponsored by the Kinder class. Please sign at the front desk and pick up a schedule of the nights events. You may also pay for your meals at the front desk. The price is $3 per dinner. Tickets are on sale all week during drop off and pick up, or you can purchase them from Donna. Yummy baked goods (two) will also be available for sale in the exploratorium for $1. Families are encouraged to come and have dinner with their child's teachers in the classrooms. This is a great time to interact, see how well your children are progressing and to get all of your class questions answered. You don't have to buy a chili dinner to participate. You are welcome to bring a dinner from home. It's important that you and your child take part in this interaction time. For information we'll have an open forum discussion on facilities, fundraising, and other school happenings to begin at 6:15pm sharp upstairs in the Commons Room. You'll need to be there to be kept up to date on the latest on our school. Children will be able to do crafts in the kinder room during the parent meeting. $1 for larger crafts like kaliedescope, pinwheels, bead necklace/bracelet, or 3 monster magnets. There will also be free crafts. Each child can make a free book mark.
What's new in our classroom? I know you are all waiting for the "Wax Museum" to be scheduled. Students are almost done with their biographies and then a little more work on dioramas needs to be done. I'll give you a date as soon as we are almost finished - hopefully by the end of this week. Most of the fictional narratives are being edited or in final draft mode. As they are finished, they will be displayed outside our classroom on the bulletin board. Please take the time to stop and read them as I think you will be surprised at the level of creative ability and writing skills. Go 4th graders!!!
We will be reading chapters 6 &7 this week in By the Great Horn Spoon! Students have been learning about the experiences of gold-seekers that traveled around the Horn in South America. They have been locating places from the story on the map, answering comprehension questions, drawing pictures, and finding locations based on longitude and latitude. This week they will write about the life of miners. After we finish this particular book, we will no longer be reading as a whole group. I will be reading with small groups so I can serve the needs of students at their reading levels.
In math, we are starting to learn about decimals. Last week, students looked at money and the decimals in money, we placed decimals on number lines, looked at a hundreds chart and how decimals relate, and looked at the relationship between thousands, hundreds, tens, ones, tenths, hundredths, and thousanths. This week I will be using Base 10 to further support learning about decimals and we will just begin to compare decimals to fractions.
On Tuesday of this week, I have scheduled with an artist to come in at 1pm to begin teaching the students to oil paint. Thank you to all the parents who brought canvasses and other supplies into the classroom so that your children have the wonderful opportunity to learn from a professional artist. We will be painting the California poppy.
On Thursday, we will be starting science and beginning to look at crystals and rocks. Yippee!
In history, along with reading, By the Great Horn Spoon, we recently read about the Mexican-American War, which is so important in California's statehood. We also had our wonderful field trip up to Julian to visit Smith's ranch where Mr. Smith was a well-informed resource for the time period in history we are studying. Through him we also had the opportunity to see a primary source document. That spurred a conversation in the classroom about primary and secondary resources in research. Thanks to all of the parents that drove to Julian. Stopping on the way back to touch snow and have snow-ball fights was another highlight of our trip.
I want to mention a special thanks to Leisa Mitchell who donated book bags to all 4th graders and also to Cheryl Geck for modifying the bags so they can actually hang on the back of the chairs. I like the desks to look uncluttered.
I will be sending home some unfinished work with students this week. In some cases students have had as much as two weeks to turn in some work and still have not. When it comes home, if you could have your child finish the work as soon as possible and return it to me, I would appreciate it.
That's it for now!
Kim
Family Night is this Thursday, Feb 11th at starting at 5pm. At 5pm, a chili or hot dog dinner is being sponsored by the Kinder class. Please sign at the front desk and pick up a schedule of the nights events. You may also pay for your meals at the front desk. The price is $3 per dinner. Tickets are on sale all week during drop off and pick up, or you can purchase them from Donna. Yummy baked goods (two) will also be available for sale in the exploratorium for $1. Families are encouraged to come and have dinner with their child's teachers in the classrooms. This is a great time to interact, see how well your children are progressing and to get all of your class questions answered. You don't have to buy a chili dinner to participate. You are welcome to bring a dinner from home. It's important that you and your child take part in this interaction time. For information we'll have an open forum discussion on facilities, fundraising, and other school happenings to begin at 6:15pm sharp upstairs in the Commons Room. You'll need to be there to be kept up to date on the latest on our school. Children will be able to do crafts in the kinder room during the parent meeting. $1 for larger crafts like kaliedescope, pinwheels, bead necklace/bracelet, or 3 monster magnets. There will also be free crafts. Each child can make a free book mark.
What's new in our classroom? I know you are all waiting for the "Wax Museum" to be scheduled. Students are almost done with their biographies and then a little more work on dioramas needs to be done. I'll give you a date as soon as we are almost finished - hopefully by the end of this week. Most of the fictional narratives are being edited or in final draft mode. As they are finished, they will be displayed outside our classroom on the bulletin board. Please take the time to stop and read them as I think you will be surprised at the level of creative ability and writing skills. Go 4th graders!!!
We will be reading chapters 6 &7 this week in By the Great Horn Spoon! Students have been learning about the experiences of gold-seekers that traveled around the Horn in South America. They have been locating places from the story on the map, answering comprehension questions, drawing pictures, and finding locations based on longitude and latitude. This week they will write about the life of miners. After we finish this particular book, we will no longer be reading as a whole group. I will be reading with small groups so I can serve the needs of students at their reading levels.
In math, we are starting to learn about decimals. Last week, students looked at money and the decimals in money, we placed decimals on number lines, looked at a hundreds chart and how decimals relate, and looked at the relationship between thousands, hundreds, tens, ones, tenths, hundredths, and thousanths. This week I will be using Base 10 to further support learning about decimals and we will just begin to compare decimals to fractions.
On Tuesday of this week, I have scheduled with an artist to come in at 1pm to begin teaching the students to oil paint. Thank you to all the parents who brought canvasses and other supplies into the classroom so that your children have the wonderful opportunity to learn from a professional artist. We will be painting the California poppy.
On Thursday, we will be starting science and beginning to look at crystals and rocks. Yippee!
In history, along with reading, By the Great Horn Spoon, we recently read about the Mexican-American War, which is so important in California's statehood. We also had our wonderful field trip up to Julian to visit Smith's ranch where Mr. Smith was a well-informed resource for the time period in history we are studying. Through him we also had the opportunity to see a primary source document. That spurred a conversation in the classroom about primary and secondary resources in research. Thanks to all of the parents that drove to Julian. Stopping on the way back to touch snow and have snow-ball fights was another highlight of our trip.
I want to mention a special thanks to Leisa Mitchell who donated book bags to all 4th graders and also to Cheryl Geck for modifying the bags so they can actually hang on the back of the chairs. I like the desks to look uncluttered.
I will be sending home some unfinished work with students this week. In some cases students have had as much as two weeks to turn in some work and still have not. When it comes home, if you could have your child finish the work as soon as possible and return it to me, I would appreciate it.
That's it for now!
Kim
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