April 2013 Newsletter

Dear Families of Room 209 Students,

Happy Spring!  Here is what’s planned for the month of April.  Read on please J

Community Building/Issues:  April is Autism Awareness month and we have a few students who are involved in our school’s Students with Communication Program (SCIP) program.  We are working with the students to learn how to include these students in positive peer interactions.  Check in with your child about this idea and see what they can tell you about it. 

Math: After Spring Break, we will be moving into learning about decimals.  Students will learn about decimals to the tenths and hundredths place.  Students will learn what these decimals look like visually and which fraction they are equal to.  For example: 0.2 = two tenths, 0.20 = twenty hundredths, etc.  Later in the month, we will focus on going deeper with measurement concepts: length, weight, capacity, etc.  Mornings in the next six weeks will be dedicated to new math learning and afternoons will be used for practice and review skills as we prepare for the MSP (Measure of Student Progress) Test.  Please check in with your child daily about their math understandings as quick checks for understanding along the way ensure strong understanding and help the child avoid huge misconceptions about math concepts.  Some students don’t recognize when they don’t understand and then struggle as more learning is added to a shaky foundation.  Thank you for all your support in completing math homework so that it is correct and complete daily.  Please remember to keep math facts going so that they are strong and not forgotten.  This continues to be one of the most important skills fourth grade students need mastered.

Reading: In reading, we will be focusing on the thinking strategy of questioning and review summarizing.  We will also focus on comparing and contrasting texts in different genres/modes.  For example, a poem about owls compared to an informational magazine article about owls.  Much of our practice will be integrated with our learning about pioneers and the Oregon Trail.  We will be polishing up our skills needed for the MSP.  You will see Reading Problems of the Week coming home.  These are released items from previous testing years.

Writing:  We are continuing our work with writing in the imaginative mode.  We are specifically targeting improving our use of dialogue, similes, metaphors, and STOPPING to describe the main character and the setting with high-level word choice.  Right after Spring Break we will complete a story called, Under the Rug, and it will be completed in pretty short order as we pick up the pace now that we’ve learned a lot of the procedures we use when we are writing in our class. Then we will begin a new piece called, The Cave.   Students will be expected to type OR handwrite with best CURSIVE these stories.  Dates for typed or handwritten final drafts of both stories will come home soon so keep an eye on the planner.  Thank you so much in helping your child get their stories published.  They love having their work in such a professional format!  Then we’ll shift into polishing up our abilities to make plans for writing to a prompt quickly and effectively in the narrative, expository or imaginative mode.  This will build our confidence as we near the MSP testing window.  Students will be tested in the narrative and expository mode.  If you want to know more about the testing, please read the MSP Night presentation slides which I will post soon, which were shared at our MSP Informational Night here at Fisher’s Landing on March 19^th at our Pride Night/MSP Night.

Social Studies:  We will begin our pioneer simulation about the Oregon Trail later in the month of April.  The kids will thoroughly enjoy the experience of taking on a pioneer identity and the fates that affect them as their table group wagon trains move along the trail toward their final destination in Oregon.  Students will learn more about pioneers and life on the trail as we read more about that time period through lots of experiences.  After the MSP, students will be working on the Social Studies Classroom Based Assessment (CBA) People on the Move.  This assessment has the students complete an essay that they work on in class which will answer these guiding questions with regards to pioneers: 1) Where did this group start?  2) Where was their destination?  3) What route did they take? 4) Why did they leave? 5) Why did they choose that destination? 6) What were the costs of the trip?  7) What were the benefits? 8) How does the movement of this group help us understand why people move today?   Students will also create a map that shows this movement.

Science:  Will be on hold until after the MSP testing window.

MSP (Measure of Student Progress) Testing:  Attendance is vital in the coming weeks as we make our final preparations to show all that we’ve learned this year.  The testing window will be in.   Students may be excused from EXCEL the days they are testing.

Testing Schedule:  Mark your calendars please!

Reading: Tuesday, April 30th

Writing: Thursday, May 2^nd Narrative (Story mode)

Writing: Tuesday, May 7^th Expository (Essay/Explaining mode)

Math: Tuesday, May 14th

It is very important that students be in class during testing days.  Makeup tests are not done in class or with your child’s teacher as the proctor.  This is typically harder on the kids and their results are not often consistent when tested in an alternative environment from their normal class routines. In class we will be doing our best to prepare in each subject area we will be tested in.  We have a Successful Testing Packet that will give us mixed practice and review for math.  We have Released Problems of the Week for Reading.  Finally, for writing we are practicing designing plans for different kind of writing prompts. 

I am looking for donated nutritious snacks to be sent in to distribute on testing days.  Healthy snacks are items like apples, string cheese, red licorice, fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, carrot sticks, etc.  If you are willing to provide healthy snacks for one of the testing days, we would so appreciate it as we know that kids can do a better job showing what they know if they are not worried about having enough to eat.  Please email Mrs. Allen if you would like to support our class in this way and I will coordinate with you for the day the snacks will be needed.  I will send a sign-up via email after Spring Break.

Important Dates Coming Up:

Recorder concert:  June 6th

Thank you so much for taking the time read our newsletter to know what we’re up to.  Thank you for your support.  Please contact me with any comments, concerns, or questions.  I appreciate you,

Karri Allen

MARCH 2013 NEWSLETTER

Dear Parents/Families of Students in Room 209,

It’s been a hard working January and February in our class!  Let me tell you about what’s in store for March!

Field Trip to Fort Vancouver on Thursday, March 28th 10:25 am - 2:20 pm:  We will be heading to Fort Vancouver for a field trip to learn about the fort’s role in the early growth of our state and the city of Vancouver.  We will need at least 4 parent chaperones.  Want to join us?  Please email me, send a note in your child’s planner, or give me a call at 604-6650.  As always, you will need a cleared background check on file to head on this trip with us.  It takes about 2 weeks to get your background check cleared so please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to join us and do not yet have a background check filled out.  Permission slips for this trip will be coming home this week.  Students will need a completely disposable sack lunch and warm, weather appropriate clothing (we go rain or shine).  It is optional for the students to bring money (up to $20) to spend in the Fort Vancouver gift shop.

Writing: We’ve learned that expository writing has DEARFD (details, examples, anecdotes, reasons, facts, and definitions) and we are learning how to add those to our writing to accurately explain our topic.  We are working hard on an appreciation letter to someone special to explain three ways that person is appreciated or is special.  We will use DEARFD to help support our ideas in this letter.  These letters are basically our first five paragraph essays.  These letters will be sent out with students in a few short days.  After we complete the appreciation letters, we will use DEARFD to write a research report about a fur-bearing animal that we choose to research.  Please continue to reinforce the importance of good editing skills at home.  Encourage the use of dictionaries and checking ALL written work carefully after completion.

Reading:  This month will be continuing our focus on inferencing.  To make an inference, we use text clues and what we already know (our background knowledge) to make conclusions about what the author wants us to know or learn from the text.  Our reading equation for this is TC (text clues) + BK (background knowledge) = Inference.  We are focusing on inferring the big ideas the author wants us to know but doesn’t tell us directly.  The winter book report is due March 8th. Encourage best writing on the book report including strong supporting details, then erase any pencil marks that remain.  The book report should be final copy/published quality work with full coloring on any sketches.  Please keep encouraging your child to be reading their chapter books to reach their goal of reading at least 500 pages by the end of the trimester, March 15th. Their reading should be a mix of silent reading and reading aloud with some feedback from you.  Reading silently helps students think deeply and visualize the events in the book and reading aloud with feedback improves reading rate and fluency.  At the end of each book, your child should be filling out a High Five Book Club summary by writing a short summary of the book to demonstrate they have read the book entirely and then turning it into me for credit.  Ask your child where they are with this goal for the trimester.  Students are welcome to write up their book report book as well.  High five Book Club Summaries are due by March 15th.  Mid-March, we will move into learning about how readers ask questions as they read and that questioning pushes a reader through a text. 

Math:   We are working hard on understanding fraction concepts such as identifying fractions, adding and subtracting with like denominators, finding fractions on a number line and drawing them with pictorial representations, finding equivalents, writing and identifying mixed numbers and improper fractions, and moving interchangeably between decimals and fractions.  We are also moving into working with finding the area of irregular and regular shapes using an array/multiplication to solve for the total area.  Of course, knowing your math facts for multiplication is vital for learning more advanced concepts for fractions (simplifying and finding equivalents) and multiplying to find area so students who have not “passed” their facts through their 12s by March 15^th ( a revised date) will stay in one recess each day after that to practice their facts.  Students who haven’t learned their facts will study with other students who haven’t learned their facts (using flashcards and other means) to help both students improve.  Daily practice for 10-15 minutes is important to ensure progress.  I can’t stress enough that knowing these facts are instrumental to learning more advanced concepts and feeling confident in math. Thanks again to all math fact parent helpers for their help with math facts weekly. 

Social Studies/Science:  In Social Studies, we will begin to learn about fur trapping and trading’s role in the development of the Pacific Northwest.  Students will choose a fur-bearing animal to research more about.  In science, we have been learning about different environments and the factors that influence them.  We have also learned about Food Chains and the passing of energy through food chains.  Students will also learn about different biomes.

MSP Released Test Items:  These released items give our class important practice for the upcoming MSP (Measure of Student Progress) test.  These released test items are used to give students an opportunity to build confidence with the test and practice important skills.  Students will complete some of the released test items in class and some at home.  Most of the time I will check and ask students to correct missed questions/problems.  I occasionally have parents sign the released items so that you are informed as to how your child is progressing toward state standards. 

MSP (Measure of Student Progress):  The MSP testing window is April 24^th- May 16th.  Please do what you can to ensure that your child is well rested, relaxed, fed a healthy breakfast, and in school (please do not plan family vacations during the testing window) during those weeks.  Students who are not, have to make up the test on the alternate days in a different location in the building and often don’t do as well because they are testing in an environment that is not comfortable to them.  Thank you in advance for your support with this!  J

4^th Grade Pride/MSP Night:  Please join me with your fourth grader in our portable classroom (room 209) from 6:30-7:30 pm on Tuesday, March 19^th to see some of our best work, learn more about the expectations for the MSP this year, and engage in some activities with your fourth grader.   This is an event for fourth graders and their parents.

I so enjoy working with your students!  They are such a kind and special group! 

Warmest regards,

Karri Allen