Week of November 2nd!

 Whoa - its already November! So happy to be still in the classroom with your kiddos!

Last week we spent the short week reviewing much of the content that was taught during the week I was out. Reviewing the lessons seemed to really help students therefore we will be moving along on Monday, Nov. 2nd!

It was so awesome to see the students in their costumes on Wednesday. We had a fun day! The students took their Math Quick Quizzes (which will be graded and sent home next week), we wrote Halloween opinion pieces, discovered the topic and main idea of nonfiction Halloween related articles, and celebrated in the afternoon with snacks and the movie Onward.

Here's some of the students as they were writing on Wednesday: 

HOMEWORK UPDATE: Students will NOT be using a paper calendar to write down their homework from now on. All homework is now listed on Google Calendar. Parents, you should've received an invitation to the calendar on Thursday, October 29th. If not, please let me know asap. 

Daily Health Screening: Please see this link for daily health screening. Parents should go through each of these questions with their child before the start of each school day.

Upcoming Events:

November 3: Red, White, and Blue Day

November 11: Picture Retake Day

November 12: Parent Teacher Conferences (4:00pm - 7:30pm)

November 17: Parent Teacher Conferences (4:00pm - 7:30pm)

November 25: No School

November 26: Happy Thanksgiving! No School

November 27: No School

Curriculum Update:

Reading: We are continuing with our nonfiction unit. Last week we reviewed previous minilessons and focused heavily on identifying the main idea and topic of nonfiction texts. Students spent some time reading a variety of articles and working in small groups to practice finding main ideas and topics. We will continue working on this as it is pretty tricky for most of the students. We will then launch into a whole class research project where students will work to plan, synthesize, read a variety of texts, and grow research based ideas.

Writing: We are finished writing opinion pieces our collections and will move on to reviews! Students will be writing reviews to persuade others. They will learn how to hook the reader, provide convincing reasons, interviewing, and making sure their writing is easy to read by others.

Math: Student's took their Quick Quiz 2 for Unit 2 on Wednesday, October 28th. These quizzes will be coming home early next week. We will begin the week by beginning to multiply two digits by two digits and continue throughout the week by practicing this multiplication using the models and methods we've already learned. The Quick Quiz 3 will take place on Friday, November 6th.

Word Study: We finished Unit 2 and took our Unit 2 test on Monday, October 26th. The students seemed to really grasp the content taught within the unit. The unit focused a lot on consonant and vowel suffixes and the exceptions within those. We will begin Unit 3 on Monday which will focus on the vowel-consonant-e syllable. This unit is very short and students will be taking the Unit 3 test by Friday, November 6th!

Content: We've been spending quite some time learning about the different types of energy. We will now move into inquiry groups where students will work independently and with a team to learn more about one type of energy. Students picked their top three choices of energy topics and were placed in groups. For three weeks students will study this topic and build up to a final presentation that they will share with their team to the class! I'm very excited for this!

Week of October 19th

 Hello Everyone!

What a week. I really miss your kids and cannot wait to be physically back in the classroom.

As you know, I am out until the 26th. I cannot tell you all enough how proud I am of your children and how thankful I am to be their teacher. I have received some incredible reports back from the staff members that have been covering for me during this time. 

Having classmates, teachers, and others in the school in and out so frequently can be really tough on the kids and I applaud them for how well they are handling it. This year has not been easy and they are truly handling it like champs! They are really trying to make the most of their fourth grade year and I love that I get to be apart of that!

I am still teaching while I am out. I log into our classroom's Google Meet link and am projected on the board to teach each subject. Of course, there is always a staff member in the room to supervise in person. The other staff have been really great at helping the students (and me!) as we adjust to this new way of learning for the time being. We began individual virtual conferences this week as well. I created a schedule that hangs in the classroom and lets the children know what day and time they will meet with me virtually to check in and conference on the work they are doing. The individual conferences have become my absolute favorite part of the day while working from home. I love being able to check in with how they are doing in general as well as academically and they love to catch me up on all that is going on while I am out. 😊

THANK YOU for all that you are doing at home to support your child during these times!

Please check in with your child and see if they have working headphones. It has been tricky to meet with students individually and to quietly conference with them if they do not have headphones that work. If your child does not have working headphones, I would please ask for you to send some to school with them if possible.

Daily Health Screening: Please see this link for daily health screening. Parents should go through each of these questions with their child before the start of each school day.

Upcoming Events

Dress up days for KASD Homecoming Week!

October 19: Pajama Day

October 20: Wear Purple Day

October 21: Crazy Sock Day

October 22: Hat Day or Crazy Hair Day

October 23: District School Spirit Day (Wear Kaukauna Gear)

October 26: (Red Ribbon Week) Teaming Up Against Drugs is No Sweat! - Wear Your Favorite Sweats and/or Team Apparel! 

October 27: (Red Ribbon Week) CHECK Yourself for Healthy Habits - Wear a flannel, plaid, or checkered clothing 

October 28: (Red Ribbon Week) Be United Against Drugs - Wear Red

October 29: No School

October 30: No School

November 3: Red, White, and Blue Day

November 11: Picture Retake Day

Curriculum Update:

Reading: Students began reading their nonfiction books this week! We've learned the importance of making connections with our books as well as all the components of a nonfiction book. Students were also assigned new reading partners and groups this week.

Writing: Students brought in their collections for our new opinion writing unit! We will begin this new unit on Monday by sharing our collections and writing our opinions on them!

Math: This past week we made it our classroom goal to master multiplying by 4, 5, and 6. Next week we will work towards mastering multiplying by 7 and 8. Many students shared that multiplying by 7 and 8 was tricky for them - we will work on this! We will begin next week by learning the various ways to multiply and students will identify which way is easiest for them! 

Content: We are a few days into our Energy unit. We will take a week to get our feet wet - then students will choose a "sub-topic" of Energy that they will want to study more. This sub-topic with guide their research project for the rest of the month.

Week of October 12th

 Hi Families!

We've had another great week! 

We're starting new units in reading and writing next week! To celebrate all the hard work we've done in reading, we each made Book Buzzes about a book we've read this past month! Check out your child's Seesaw account to watch their Book Buzz! Here are a few pictures from when we were filming them!

Our class is still doing morning announcements. I continue to be so impressed by how well the students are presenting morning announcements to the school!

Daily Health Screening: Please see this link for daily health screening. Parents should go through each of these questions with their child before the start of each school day.

Upcoming Events:

October 26: (Red Ribbon Week) Teaming Up Against Drugs is No Sweat! - Wear Your Favorite Sweats and/or Team Apparel! 

October 27: (Red Ribbon Week) CHECK Yourself for Healthy Habits - Wear a flannel, plaid, or checkered clothing 

October 28: (Red Ribbon Week) Be United Against Drugs - Wear Red

October 29: No School

October 30: No School

November 3: Red, White, and Blue Day

November 11: Picture Retake Day

Curriculum Update:

Reading: We finished up our fiction unit! Next week, we will begin exploring non-fiction texts. Each student let me know of a topic about something they like or something they would like to know more about. Thanks to our awesome school librarians, we found books that matched each and every one of the interests of the students.

Writing: Next week we will be finishing our narrative writing unit and moving on to opinion writing! We will begin by having students bring in a collection of something to write their opinion on. This collection can be anything! Scrunchies, Pokémon cards, rocks, books are all collections I foresee some kiddos may be bringing in next week! They will be keeping their collection at school for about a week.

Math: This week we started Unit 2! We also took our Quick Quiz 1 on Friday (10/8/20). This unit involves quite a bit of multiplication. As a class, we decided we will have a goal of which multiplication facts we should work on. As you may have noticed, multiplication games have been coming home for homework each night. This past week, our goal was to master multiplying numbers by 1, 2, and 3. Next week we will work towards the goal of mastering multiplying numbers by 4, 5, and 6. Each of your children have filled in their own multiplication chart to support them as we continue through this unit. 

Word Study: We are continuing to learn about vowel and consonant suffixes and all the exceptions that apply! We are also learning more about 1-1-1 Words. 1-1-1 Words are words that have only 1 syllable that is a closed syllable, 1 vowel, and only 1 consonant that follows the vowel. 

Content: We are a few days into our Energy unit. We will take a week to get our feet wet - then students will choose a "sub-topic" of Energy that they will want to study more. This sub-topic with guide their research project for the rest of the month.

Week of October 5th

 Hello Everyone! I hope you all have had a great week!

It feels like this week flew by!

This month, our class is responsible for giving NDLC's morning announcements. Some of your kiddos have already had the chance to do so. It can be pretty nerve wracking to have to give the announcements, but so far the kids that have done so have done AWESOME.

Please continue to talk to your child about the importance of wearing their mask, and correctly wearing it, while they are at school. I am still finding myself having to remind some students to keep their mask on and wear it so it is covering their mouth AND nose. I just want to make sure all the students are safe as possible so we can stay learning together in school!

Daily Health Screening: Please see this link for daily health screening. Parents should go through each of these questions with their child before the start of each school day.

Upcoming Events:

October 26: (Red Ribbon Week) Teaming Up Against Drugs is No Sweat! - Wear Your Favorite Sweats and/or Team Apparel! 

October 27: (Red Ribbon Week) CHECK Yourself for Healthy Habits - Wear a flannel, plaid, or checkered clothing 

October 28: (Red Ribbon Week) Be United Against Drugs - Wear Red

October 29: No School

October 30: No School

Curriculum Update:

Reading: This week we will be learning how to look closer at the details within our books and understand why the author included them. We will also learn how to outgrown our initial ideas about a text and asking more questions to see more in stories. We are almost finished with our fiction unit and are soon going to be reading non-fiction texts. Each of your children have let me know of a topic about something they like or something they would like to know more about. Thanks to our awesome school librarians, we found books that matched each and every one of the interests of the students.

Writing: Students finished their series and 'published' their writing. We will have a bin in our classroom library for student-made stories to be placed. It will be great to see students books alongside some of their favorite series and authors! We are finally working in our Writer's Notebooks! Students have been very engaged and loved adding more to their notebooks!

Math: We are headed on to Unit 2 in Math! We took our Unit 1 Math Test today!  Each student will have the opportunity to look over their test next week and make corrections.

As always, your child is welcome (and encouraged) to log onto Freckle and Xtramath at night or on the weekends to practice math skills. The students seem to like both websites. You have parent access to Xtramath too, if you would like to see their progress.

Word Study: We are continuing our conversations about consonant and vowel suffixes. We are also talking about the exceptions. The English language always seems to have exceptions!

Content: Last week, we had more conversations about continents, oceans, states, counties, and regions of the United States. We had class conversations, read books, and watched videos to help us better understand Geography. We also looked at a variety of maps and identified where we were in each of those maps! We will be finishing up our Geography unit soon.

Enjoy your weekend! 

Best,

Carly Burris