We Have So Much to Do Together Yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello wonderful parents and brilliant students,

First, I want to thank all the dedicated parents and friends that made Biztown a reality for our kids! With just one exception, all of the kids loved the experience and found it a real life valuable experience. Junior Achievement has additional opportunities for learning and the 4th graders just started working with a financial analyst (Crystal), who will be joining our class every Tuesday for the next five weeks working with them on designing their own companies. The kids and I have met her for our first lesson and she is just great with the kids. They were so excited when they were able to put their business ideas on a map of the United States in the region they may be interested in working. I'll keep you updated on this learning opportunity. Please, ask your children about it?
I will also be receiving the $300.00 grant for a recycling program or start of a program (I haven't checked prices on materials yet)! I have two students in particular who are passionate about recycling. Our goal would be to cut our school's (or part of the school's) waste by 50%. I have no idea at this point if this possible. Is there a parent volunteer that would be willing to do some research and help the students with implementing this program. One of my ideas is to take a picture of one week's worth of trash before and then after we put the program in place. Please contact me ASAP if you are willing to help or possibly do some additional fundraising if needed.
Since Biztown is officially over and we are down to about seven weeks of school, your students have the opportunity with their next (and final) project to study, write, and create a presentation
called the "Passion Project". In other words, they will develop work based on guidelines that will help them learn and teach about their greatest current passion or interest. At this point, we have Avatar, history of the Mustang, the universe, wolves, J. Adams, and army captains' projects started. I sent home an overview of this project with your children. If your child has not shared it with you yet, please contact me as I would like all families to be "on board" to help their children create this "dream" project.
STAR testing begins next week on May 4th. Your children will test from 10am-11:30am that day as well as on May 5th, May 11th, andMay 12th. Please be sure your child has plenty of rest the night before and that they eat breakfast. Many of the students are starved by 10am. I will make time before testing for them to have a snack if they are hungry; however I prefer they don't reach that exhausted/hungry stage. Thank you for helping.
On Friday, May 28th, teachers have a professional day, so there is no school for your children!
In addition, we are out of school on May 31st, Memorial Day! Enjoy your four-day weekend!
I believe that is it for now!
Kim

CURRENT UPDATES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Families,

I hope everyone is doing well and happy! I want to apologize for missing some of my blogging this month. Many school items have kept me busy and away from my computer. Although it has been a few weeks, first and foremost I want to thank all the wonderful parents and students who made our "Family Night" a big success. We raised almost $600.00 - Yeah! I've already refreshed some of our art supplies and will be purchasing science supplies.

As you know, Biztown is this Thursday, April 17th. Just as a reminder, all parent volunteers are required to be at JABiztown at 8am for training. Students will arrive at Biztown by 9:30am via San Diego Trolly. Passes for the trolley have already been purchased and the cost covered from our class funds. VERY IMPORTANT - I am at the school by 8am each morning. All Biztown students need to be at school by 8:15am with a packed lunch. If, for some reason, making these arrangments is difficult and you need to drop your student off before 8am in order to keep your volunteer committment for the JABiztown training, keep in mind that we have child care starting at 7:10am every morning. Please let me know if you will be using child care for this day, so I can let the child care workers at the school know.

Our daily schedule in school is much the same as the last time I blogged; however, in math we will be moving into division and fractions soon after. In science, we will be starting a unit on Life Science with our primary focus on plants as a primary source of matter and energy within food chains, producers and consumers, decomposers, and ecosystems. We will start on Friday and continue until students have a good grasp of these concepts.

I attended the Earth Day celebration at Balboa Park yesterday for Innovations Academy. During the time I was there, I was fortunate enough to meet a woman representing an organization giving away grant monies to schools. I completed her paperwork and found out last night that we will be receiving funds to start a better recycling program at school. I'll update you all as I receive more information.

I think that is it for now!
Kim

Just back from Spring Break!!!!!

Dear Parents,

Did Spring Break go by fast for anyone else? I can't believe it's already Sunday night! Hope you all had a chance to relax and get recharged, 'cause school starts again bright and early tomorrow morning.

I spent some of the break getting materials ready for leveled reading groups. All students were tested and reading was chosen for them based on the results of that testing. I have a wide range of readers in this 4th grade class. In other words, I will be working on decoding, sight words, and basic comprehension skills with some groups while others will be engaging in more of a literature study. In any case, my objective is to help students to continue improving as readers. We start that program tomorrow.

Biztown studies are going great! We still need more volunteers and students need to bring in their money for this trip ($18) and also the one coming up on April 13th. A science field trip is on our class calendar for that day. We are going to the Ruben H. Fleet to study electromagnatism and to tour the museum in general. After, we will head over to the Automotive Museum where we will see electricity in action as we will see an electric car. The cost is $10.00. This will be a full-day activity and all students need to bring a packed lunch, snacks, and beverages. Help!!!!!!!!!!! Drivers are needed and there is no cost for volunteering adults.

This Thursday, April 8th is our monthly scheduled Family Meeting. I have been fortunate enough to have all the pizza and salad donated - tickets will be on sale every morning. For $4.00 you will receive two pieces of yummy Mona Lisa's (located in Little Italy) pizza, salad and a drink. Parents, I am counting on your participation to help bring items listed on Leslie's (Quinlan's mom) list such as paper plates, cups, utensils, baked goods, etc...please let her know as soon as possible how you can assist! The money raised from the dinner will help pay for classroom items such as the novels I just purchased for our literature study. Please help!!!!!!!!

In the classroom we are still working on how to write a good summary, in math we are focusing on partial sums multiplication, in science I would still like to include an additional lesson on erosion (this one requires quite a few materials - again our fundraiser will help with this!), and of course Biztown. We are only three lessons away from finishing 4th grade vocabulary and the students had a choice to move to other 4th grade word activities or move onto 5th grade vocabulary. Ask which one they picked? We are also reviewing California STAR test release questions and practicing test taking strategies. Whew! Your kids work hard at school.

This Tuesday, there will be a substitute in class as I am attending a training on differentiated instruction. She's already been provided with extensive plans for the day, so I'm sure all will go well.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me via email or in person.

Kim