A huge shout out to all of the families that participated in the Bike Path Clean Up last night! Great job!
Today the 4th grade took a field trip to Grand Haven 9 to watch “the Jungle Book” to celebrate Earth Day. We will be discussing the habitats presented in the movie and how the animals used their behavioral and physical adaptations throughout the movie. We will also be looking for ways that humans have modified the environment and will discuss whether these modifications had positive and/or negative effects.
This week in reading workshop we started a new nonfiction book club. Students read the same book and then had the opportunity to talk with their book club about what they learned. Next week we will switch back and have a Fiction book club. Book clubs give the students an opportunity to use all of the reading comprehension “tools” that they have learned throughout the year.
In Writing Workshop students are putting the finishing touches on their Animal Research projects. Students will be displaying their posters and will be taking a “Gallery Walk” to critique posters from the other 4th grade classes. Those that have completed their posters have been doing some fun story writing!
This week in Math students have learned how to classify triangles by their sides and by their angles. We listened to a couple of songs to help us remember! Students have also learned how to identify parallel and perpendicular lines (again we listened to a couple of songs to help us remember. Ask your child to show you their hand movements). We will be studying and classifying polygons next and should be wrapping this unit up near the end of next week!
The students have been hard at work learning about different economic terms in order to be ready for Market Day! We have read a picture book to help teach the different terms and have also sung a bunch of songs to help us remember what they are. So far we have learned about producers, consumers, goods, services, scarcity and waste! Ask your child if they can sing one of our economic songs to you! Market Day will be on May 6. Your child will need to turn in their “What Will I Make” sheet on Monday, April 25.
This week we also practiced logging on to the M-STEP testing site and using keyboards connected to our iPads. Once we were in the site I took students through a sample test so that they could practice using the different tools and see the different question types, we will have a couple more practice days so that students can familiarize themselves with the different types of questions and to get them comfortable with navigating within the test. We will begin our real M-STEP testing in May.
M-STEP TESTING DATES:
May 10, 12, 17, 18, and 19 – Please try not to schedule any appointments for those days.
Important Dates:
Tuesday April 26 – Cool School Day at Front Porch
Wednesday and Thursday, April 27-28 – Swimming (swimsuit and towel)
Friday, May 6 – Holmes Art Show 5-7pm
Wednesday, May 11 – Link Up Concert
Monday, May 16 – ALL library books must be returned!
Tuesday, May 31 – 4th Grade Bocce Ball Day
Thursday, June 2 – 4th Grade Chicago trip
Friday, June 3 – Be Nice Fun Field day
Tuesday, June 7 – 4th Grade Celebration 6:30-7:30 Middle School
Wednesday and Thursday, June 8-9 – Half days and June 9 Last day of school!
