November 11 News...

Good Morning,



I just want to take a couple of minutes to update you on what's happening in our classroom...



Reading: We are actually covering two stories from our text this week. Marven of the Great North Woods and So You Want to be President are both great favorites of the class. I am doing two stories this week so that we can begin our novel From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler next week (and finish before holiday break). Each year, I read at least two novels with the students as they do comprehension, art, and other projects to go with the books. Mixed Up Files is the first of these, and a classic that the kids just love. The novel is about a brother and sister who run away from home to live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.



English: We are working on singular and plural possessives. We continue to work on paragraph writing.



Math: We have started basic multiplication - a great time to review those math facts. Ask your child what level he/she is on. If not yet at level "M", these should definitely be practiced more at home!



Social Studies: We will have a test on Thursday (tomorrow) on chapter 3. A study guide will go home with your child today. In our studies of the Eastern states, we are talking a lot about the great history of our New England states. We watched a movie on Ellis Island immigration this week, and will see one on Plymouth next week.



Science: We have moved from studying rocks to soil. We did an activity this week where we studied a soil sample with hand lenses and discussed what we found. The students have brought in some AWESOME rock collections! Thanks for sharing these with the class.



Religion: We have an open book test on Unit 1 tomorrow. Please feel free to go through the Unit with your child and mark important pages with post-it notes, bookmarks, etc. Students are also free to use any notes they might take. We have reviewed and discussed this in class. Father Hennen spoke to the children last Friday about some of our friendship issues. The class re-told his lesson to me the other day, which served as a great reminder to all of us about how to be a good friend. So far, it's been a pretty uneventful week. I'll take the "no news is good news" path here. However, if you hear of any struggles at home, please let me know if I can help!



Next week: I will be out of the building next Wednesday - Friday (yes, I will be back for conferences Thursday evening). I will be at the Academy of Sts. Peter and Paul in Loretto. I am serving on an accreditation team for that school, and am interested in bringing back any information I can to help our school go through this process over the next two years. You can still email me, as I will check this daily/nightly. Mrs. Sarah Seiling will be our substitute. She is the same sub the children had last Friday - I like to find someone good (like Mrs. Seiling) and use the same person whenever I am gone. This provides a certain sense of consistency for the class.



Conferences: I look forward to meeting with all of you. Unfortunately, we only have 15 minutes to discuss your child's progress at this time. We will need to keep on schedule as much as possible, as this is a really large group, and I have many of you back to back to back. Please don't be offended if I have to cut off our conference if it gets too long. We can always have a longer discussion/continuation at another time.



Have a great evening! Don't forget - no school on Friday as it's a teacher's workshop day (report cards).



Kristen

Classroom News: November 4

Good afternoon! I am writing this as the children are in music class. I really need to let you all know about the discussion I had with the students just before they left for music. We are still having many difficulties with friendships in the fourth grade (as I stated in my class newsletter last week). This seems to have branched out to include more girls, and even a couple of the boys now. In spite of all the time I spent at the beginning of the year on my "anti-bullying curriculum", many children are still not doing a very good job at applying all we talked about. I believe that part of the reason we are having this trouble is that these children are not used to being in a class this size. They were in smaller groups with a lot more individual attention for many years, and are having a difficult time with the adjustment. Many are not good at sharing friends or interacting if I am not constantly vigilant. Also, many "incidents" happen when children are at recess or in the lunchroom - so I am not there to monitor. I have had large class sizes in the past, but never with the "getting along" problems that we are having this year. I will continue to work hard on this at my end, but need your support at home. Please talk to your child about using words when they are upset (not pushing, pinching, etc - yep - I've seen pinching this week!). Also, talk about including others. Possibly, line up play dates with different children. I need these kids to be more inclusive and tolerant of one another. I did warn the children that report cards are coming, and their behavior toward one another will be reflected on these.

Also, just a reminder that there will be a math test on Chapter 2 tomorrow (addition and subraction - lots of regrouping, estimation, solving for variables), and a test of the 10 Commandments, as well. Please study a little at home tonight.

I will be out of the classroom on Friday. As one of the former Spanish teachers at St. Francis (and the person who wrote the curriculum we are currently using), I will be helping Mrs. Zumbusch get Spanish lesson plans in order for the substitutes we have teaching this class until a replacement for Mrs. Gramstad is found. I will still be in the building, though, so if anything comes up, I will be around. Feel free to email/call me as usual that day, if necessary.

Have a good evening!
Kristen