Newsletter, December 2, 2011

My December Newsletter

November 10th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I can't believe the first quarter is already over! I'm always surprised at how quickly the school year goes by! Report cards will be coming home on Monday and we'll have our school-wide awards assembly Tuesday morning at 9am. You are more than welcome to come to the awards ceremony. It'll be the band's first live performance of the school year!

I believe I told everyone during our parent teacher conferences about our classroom management plan, but wanted to reiterate it in case their were any families that I forgot to mention it to. When students are given an extra reminder of what respectful behavior is, their name goes on the board as a warning, the next reminder is a check and a chat with me a recess, the second check is a visit with the principal and the third check is writing a letter home to explain what happened and how's it going to be different the next time. Please keep in mind that being respectful could be as small as raising your hand instead of calling out or not chatting with your neighbor during silent reading. The kids have come a long way since the beginning of the year and are doing a really nice job. Mrs. Babcock observed one of our writing classes and complimented the whole class on how respectful and engaged they were!

I also wanted to remind all of you that our homework is posted weekly on our class website if you ever need to refer to it. My homework policy is that kids can choose to write down the assignment if they want to, but it's not mandatory. If the homework is not passed in on the day it is due, no questions are asked, but it is expected the following day. If on the second day it is still not passed in, then a note will come home that needs to be signed by you and returned with all of the completed homework. This is simply to keep you in the loop about missing work. If a student forgets to bring back the parent signed letter, then I will give you a call.

The kids are excited to start our ocean unit soon, which will be our last science unit before we switch to Social Studies. They have been very engaged with Literature Circles discussions. I look forward to having them again in the spring.

As always, please contact me with any questions, comments or concerns by phone (389-1514) or email (jbenn@rsu1.org).

Enjoy the weekend!

-Jenn

October 17th Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Can you believe the first quarter is almost over? We are starting this week with NECAP testing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The kids are reminded to get a good night's sleep and have a healthy breakfast to prepare.

Coming today is a sign up sheet for conferences next week. I have also attached some homework for you to do regarding your child's learning. Please return both of these as soon as possible. I will send home a confirmation on Monday, at the latest, with your conference time.

Our class has been focusing a lot on respectful behavior. We continue to have class conversations and reminders about what respect looks like. Please ask your child if they can give examples of what a respectful student would look like in action.

We start swimming next week! The kids are really excited. Please remember to send your child with a swimsuit and towel on Tuesdays.

We had an author come in last week to share a draft of her book. I was very impressed with the kids' attentiveness and thoughtful questions! It was great for them to see authentic writing and the process a writer goes through.

Ms. Phelps has arranged for community readers to come in once a month and read. We have a male reader coming in for the boys and a female reader coming in for the girls. We did this last year and it was great to see the kids involved in reading with a community member.

Please check out our classroom website for specific information on what we're doing in each subject area. Our daily homework is also listed.

I look forward to seeing all of you next week!

September 30th Newsletter

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Time is flying by here in fourth grade! The kids have been working hard and having a lot of fun at the same time! I hope they've been sharing all the neat things we've been learning.

In October we'll be reading Habit 2 from The Seven Habits of Happy Kids book by Sean Covey. This habit is “Begin with the End in Mind- Have a Plan”. The great thing about the seven habits is that it can be applied in school and at home. If you don't remember, the first habit was “Be Proactive- You're in Charge.” The kids and I have talked a lot this month about who is in charge of them. I explained that I am the teacher, but ultimately, they make their own choices and I am only here to guide them along the way. Their homework this weekend is to practice Habit 1 someway and be ready to report to school on Monday what they did.

We finished Unit 1 in EveryDay Math and have started Unit 2. The Unit 1 math assessment will be going home on Monday. Please let me know if you have any questions at all. I also want to remind you again, that homework is meant to reinforce the lesson, but it isn't meant to be frustrating or cause tears. If the homework seems difficult for your child, please write a note to me and I will go over it with them the following day.

We are still studying the first trait, “Ideas”. We are using a teaching model that can be described as, “I do it, We do it, You do it”. In other words, I model the skill, the kids and I do it together and then they do it in small groups, with the end goal of the kids doing it independently. The important part to understand is that it isn't simply going through the steps in order, but going back and modeling, going back and doing it together, as many times as it takes. Like writing, this model is a process.

The kids have been doing a great job writing letters to me about the books they're reading. I have enjoyed reading about their books and their thinking. We have focused on background knowledge to help us comprehend what we're learning through Chris VanAllsberg read alouds. The kids have really enjoyed his books and will be working on actively thinking about their prior knowledge while reading their own books. We'll be studying how to determine the main idea and identifying the supporting details in reading class next.

We'll be finishing up our first science unit, Force & Motion next week and moving on to our Space/Day & Night unit. The goals of this unit are the following:

• Students will see the pattern of the phases of the moon.

• Students will know the relationship of the earth, moon and sun.

• Students will understand the force of the moon to affect tides.

• Students will understand the sun affects the weather and life on earth.

• Students will understand that earth is part of a system in our galaxy.

I'm sure you heard about our trip to Morse Mountain! It was awesome! It was so great to see the kids playing games and getting along beautifully! They all stayed determined during the long hike in and out. It was an amazing team building trip!

Our field trip on Wednesday to see the Red Tail/Rise Above traveling exhibit was wonderful as well. The kids learned who the Tuskegee Airmen were and how they overcame so many obstacles to be allowed to train and fight as the first black U.S. Army Air Corps. The movie was on a 180 degree screen with great sound effects that really kept the kids' attention. Look on Facebook for pictures of the kids with different planes.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns at any time! I am best reached by email at jbenn@rsu1.org or by calling the school. Our class blog is also a great resource for you. Please check it out at http://fourthgradepes.blogspot.com/.

Enjoy the weekend!

September 16th Newsletter

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We have had a great first two weeks of school! We are settling into our routines and digging into some hard work. The first week we were very focused on establishing our classroom community. As many of you saw at Open House, we worked through some social scenarios in small groups. The kids enjoyed acting in both the “good” and “bad” versions of their scenarios.

We are reading The Seven Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey. Some of you may be familiar with Steven Covey's book/program called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The book I am using was written by Steven Covey's son and is specific to children. I will read one story a month that focuses on one habit. We will follow up with class discussions and action plans as to how we can develop each habit. The habit we are focusing on this month, is "Be Proactive: You're in Charge."

This week we started Unit 1 in EveryDay Math. HomeLinks will be assigned as homework, Monday through Thursday. We will have math on Friday, but it will be our day to review the week's lesson and cover any material that needs to be gone over again. I also want to remind you again, that homework is meant to reinforce the lesson, but it isn't meant to be frustrating or cause tears. If the homework seems difficult for your child, please write a note to me and I will go over it with them the following day.

We started studying the first of six traits in writing, the trait of Ideas. We revised a paper together and they also worked in small groups to score two different papers with a rubric. They've also been working hard each day on Daily Language Review. I have the first week's work corrected and will be sending it home next week.

We have focused our attention in reading on how to choose a “just right” book. I'm continuing to model for the students how I choose a book. We have also discussed author's purpose and will continue to do some more work next week in both of these areas.

Our science unit that we are starting with this year is Force and Motion. We did a fun experiment yesterday with gravity. Ask your child about why they were standing on chairs dropping coffee filters!

The kids did a great job on Thursday and today on their NWEAs. They stayed focused, took their time and did their best. I'll have those scores out to you soon. They took a test in reading and in math. This a great assessment because it allows me to see where kids are and measure their growth through the year and it is also tailored to each student based on how they answer each question.

All of you have signed the two permission slips that have gone home. I realized that I should have included more information with each of them to explain what we're doing- my apologies! We will be going to a senior luncheon next Wednesday, the 21^st, as a Community Service learning project. We will be singing three harvest-theme songs and serving dessert. The kids are really excited and have been working hard to learn the songs.

We will be going to Wiscasset on September 28^th because the Commemorative Air Force in conjunction with the Texas Flying Legends Museum is presenting the Red Tail/Rise Above traveling exhibit. The kids will learn who the Tuskegee Airmen were and how they overcame so many obstacles to be allowed to train and fight as the first black U.S. Army Air Corps. This will tie nicely into our Social Studies famous Mainer unit when we talk about character traits. Thank you for the offer to chaperone and although chaperones weren't needed for these trips, they will be in the future! If you would like to come into the classroom to help, please email or call me and we can discuss how you can best help us.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns at any time! I am best reached by email at jbenn@rsu1.org or by calling the school. Our class blog is also a great resource for you. Please check it out at http://fourthgradepes.blogspot.com/.

Enjoy the weekend!

Welcome to the first day of School!

I am SO excited for school! I'm not even kidding, I really am! I'm excited to get to know each and everyone of you! I'm excited to get to know your family! I'm excited to find out how well we're going to work together and how we're going to make a community!

I could go on forever, but here is a short list of a few of the things that I am looking forward to with all of you this year:

*Reading awesome books that get us excited
*Fabulous Writing
*Using technology (laptops, flip cameras, imovie, etc)
*Famous Mainer projects
*Learning about the ocean and all the amazing creatures that live in it

I could go on, but that's just a little bit about what's to come!!