Happy Holidays Parents!

We've had a busy week! Thursday was our field trip to Billings Farm for the annual 4th grade 1890's Christmas Program. The students were split into two groups and did a variety of activities from making candles, cookies and ornaments to learning about primary and secondary sources through old letters to santa.

Today we had the pleasure of visiting the Lebanon Operahouse and seeing Amahl and the Night Visitors. It was wonderful to see a student from our school up on the stage and the students shared that they enjoyed the music and dancing in the play. Be sure to ask your 4th grader what their favorite part of the show was.

We have just 4 days left of school before the holiday break. We will be busy next week continuing to work through our opinion writing unit and geometry unit. Students are learning about the attributes of different shapes and can be encouraged to look for these shapes and angles in things at home. They will also have a chance to use their persuasive writing skills in a letter to santa!

Next week we will celebrate the holiday on Thursday with fruit kabobs and a Christmas movie. We will also use our Think3d! math skills to make some more holiday cards. Please send in a container of your child's favorite fruit to add to our kabobs.

Below I've attached some links to some websites for extra math work at home. Some parents requested these. We hope this is helpful!

Math Resources:

SBAC Practice Tests:

• https://www.nthurston.k12.wa.us/Page/16883
• http://www.rcoe.us/educational-services/files/2013/11/asmt-sbac-math-gr4-sample-items.pdf
• http://sbac.portal.airast.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Grade4Math.pdf
• http://www.lumoslearning.com/llwp/resources/common-core-practice-tests-and-sample-questions/practice-test.html?btn=start&cur=1074&cookieSelect=true

Challenge Problems:

• http://www.insidemathematics.org
• http://www.k5learning.com/free-math-worksheets/fourth-grade-4/word-problems
• https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-4/multi-step-word-problems

Math Games and Practice Facts

• http://www.varsitytutors.com/aplusmath/matho

Enjoy your time with family and friends!

Best,

Kelley & Cindy

December 11, 2016

Happy Holiday Season, Parents,

We hope you have enjoyed the picture posts that give you some insight into the activities of this energetic class.  We do try to integrate physical breaks into our academic blocks to give children a chance to release and recharge for the next subject.(See yoga and nerf fencing posts.)

After our conferences with you and asking students for suggestions on rewards for good behavior, we settled on an extra 10 mins. of P.E.  We keep daily tallies of good behavior and those with a set amount for the week are able to participate.  This is helping those, who are frustrated by some of the negative behaviors, to feel acknowledged for cooperating. Of course, having everyone achieve this reward is the hope. 

This week will have two events of which you should be aware:  a notice went home last Tuesday telling you that we will be celebrating an 1890's Christmas at Billings' Farm from 9:00-1:30 on Thursday, December 15th.  We will be walking from school so no permission slip is required but students need to be dressed to be outside and bring a bag lunch.  On Friday, we will be going as a school to a performance at the Lebanon Operahouse, called Amahl and the Night Visitors.  We will leave by school bus at 9:30 and be returning by 12:30 in time for lunch. For more on this family friendly holiday classic look here: Amahl and the Night Visitors.

The entire class is still reading Green Mountain Hero in guided reading groups.  Many of the children are taking responsibility for their assignments and will bring their books home if they feel they are not prepared for the next meeting.  This shows that they are getting ready for fifth grade!  Our goal is to finish before Christmas and squeeze in individual leveled testing required by the WCSUVisitors.

Our Social Studies unit on Vermont history is taking the shape of 100 acre plots.  Small groups of students are working together to show their understanding of what is necessary for survival in the Vermont "grants" in the 1700's.  Be aware that artifacts from home will be hot glued to the plot so may not return in the same condition as they were brought.

For acknowledgement of the quickly approaching holidays, we would like to make fruit totem poles like we did for our Potluck last year.  Please send chopped fruit or small fruits on Thursday, December 22nd.  We prefer that any gifts you wish to give us be donations to the food shelf or supplies for the class.  There will be no exchange of gifts for the students.  (Look for "Simple Gifts" celebration after the vacation.)

Merry Thoughts,
Cindy and Kelley

Updated Book Talk

You can find the updated book talk here:

Book Talk Form

The 4th graders enjoyed making pop-up creations on our last Think3d! day. We are brainstorming ways to continue fun Fridays in math! You can look forward to some more great holiday cards ;)

You can look forward to seeing your child's Topigraphical Vermont maps. This was a great way for them to understand Vermont geography and the variety of mountain formations.

Students practiced partner yoga poses during brain break this week as a way to get their bodies moving and transition into math.

During morning meeting we played "Foam Fencing" for our daily activity. This was a big hit!

Hello Parents,

Thank you all for coming to our parent teacher conferences this past week. We really enjoyed sharing all of the progress your children have made this past quarter. We appreciate all your feedback and are working hard to make sure our 4th grade classroom is a happy, healthy and safe learning environment for your kiddos.

We began our new unit in opinion writing last week. Students brainstormed ideas for their topic sentence as well as reasons and evidence to support their ideas. We are using the format below to help structure our writing. Be sure to ask your student about their topic and challenge their reasons!

Today the 4th graders took a break from opinion writing and participated in Windshield Poetry. A movement that began in Colorado Springs and has now been brought to WES. The students wrote small haiku poems that were placed on the windshields of WES employee cars. We hope to do this again and spread the joy and hope around the whole town of Woodstock! See a few examples below :)

Our multiplication and division unit is finishing up next week. Below are the family letter and related activities for the next Geometry unit, Size, Shape & Symmetry.

Family Letter for Unit 4: Size, Shape & Symmetry

Unit 4: Related Activities to Try at Home

Here are all of the strategies we have been utilizing to solve both multiplication and division problems!

Thank you again for making time to meet with us and we are looking forward to an even better 2nd quarter with the 4th graders!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving break!

Best,
Kelley & Cindy