May/June 2013 Newsletter

Dear Families of Room 209 Students,

My how the spring has flown by!  I can’t believe that I can count the weeks of school that are left on less than two hands.  I’ve so enjoyed this class that I can’t believe our time will be coming to end before we know it.  We still have lots of learning to do so please do everything you can to ensure that your child knows that summer vacation doesn’t begin until June 18^th.  Read on to learn about what’s in store for May and June. J

Math: For the remainder of the year, we will be working with measurement, graphing, and probability and reviewing to make sure we are solid in our fourth grade skills and ready for fifth grade.  Please check in with your child daily about their math understandings as quick checks for understanding along the way ensure strong understanding and help your child to avoid huge misconceptions about math concepts.  Some students aren’t able to 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 move into more integrated studies for reading as we research about pioneer life and westward movement.  Students will also participate in a book club group where they will read a historical fiction novel that focuses on pioneer and Native American life and have periodic meetings with their classmates to discuss the book.  We will use our synthesizing skills to bring all our learning together from multiple texts.

Writing:  The students did an excellent job with their Cave Stories.  Thank you for your support in getting them typed up.  Our writing for the remainder of the year will be integrated into social studies and science.  In social studies, students will write a CBA essay (read more about this in the social studies section).  Students will also write pioneer journal entries from the viewpoint of a pioneer person.  In science, students will write about their understandings as they learn about magnetism and electricity.

Social Studies:  After MSP testing, students will learn about pioneers and life on the Oregon Trail as we read about that time period through lots of resources.  Students will participate in a Pioneer simulation where they will take on the persona of a pioneer person and endure certain fates that befall them as they move their wagon train (table group) along the trail (a map on the wall in our classroom).  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.  We will also be learning about the regions of Washington and why people would want to move to each region in order to create a Washington State Brochure.

Science:  Our science kit this trimester is magnetism and electricity.  Students will learn about how magnets attract and repel one another and why.  Students will also learn about electricity and how it flows in a circuit.  Students will construct an electromagnet, series circuits, and parallel circuits.  Most students find that this is their favorite science kit of the year.  

Important Dates Coming Up:

Early Release for Assessments: Friday, May 17^th at 1:15 pm

Oregon Trail Presentation with speakers from the Oregon Trail Museum: May 22^nd from 9:45-10:45 am

Track Meet: June 4 at 4:00 pm

Memorial Day: NO SCHOOL- May 27^th

Volunteer Tea: May 29^th at 11:00 am

Multicultural Night: May 30^th 6:00 pm

Recorder Concert: June 6th 7:30 pm

Field Day- June 13^th at 9:30 am

Early Release for Teachers to work on Report Cards- Friday, June 14^th at 1:15 pm

PTO Carnival- June 15^th 5-8 pm

Last day of school: June 18^th from 9:15-11:15 am

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

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

Check out these three Winter Book Report Samples from Previous Years!

January Classroom Newsletter

Dear Families,

            Thank you so much for all the generous gifts and cards.  I appreciate each and every one (and the thought behind them) and thank you card went home.  I hope you saw the thank you as I was very overwhelmed with such kindness.  The true gift is having the opportunity to work with such fun kids each day. 

As we return from winter break, here’s what we’ll be up to!  As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Writing:  As a class, we are deep into learning how to add elaboration to our stories by stopping to describe.  The winter stories are turning out nicely.  We will finish editing them this week and then they will be typed up for display.  Typed stories should be printed and will be due to Mrs. Allen by January 22^nd.  I want to ask that you please read through your child’s finished story to check for typos and errors before printing.  Please have your child use Century Gothic, Arial, or Times New Roman as their font and have them use size 14 font.  We will display them once they are written in a finished copy format.  The students will complete some artwork to go with this finished piece.  Next in writing, we will be writing a fun Haiku Poem about winter as a soft landing back from the break and then we will be learning about expository writing.  Students will learn that expository writing is when we write to teach, share information, or explain step by step.  Students will learn that expository writing has DEARFD (details, examples, anecdotes, reasons, facts, and definitions) used to support their ideas.  Student will learn how to add each of these kinds of support to their writing to accurately explain their topic.  As always, 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. 

Math: We will be finishing up our unit on multi-digit multiplication the week back from winter break and we will have an end of the unit test on these skills on Tuesday, January 8^th.  Then we will be moving into learning about division concepts.  Of course, knowing your math facts for multiplication is vital for learning to solve for division and higher level fraction concepts (coming in late January) so students who have not “passed” their facts through their 12s by February 6^th (the last Wednesday with math fact volunteers before winter parent conferences) will need to stay in one recess each day after that to practice their facts in partners.  Please ensure that your child is practicing their multiplication facts each day for at least 10 minutes.  I can’t stress enough that knowing these facts are instrumental to learning more advanced concepts and feeling confident in math (and the sooner, the better). Thanks again to Mrs. Kotrlik, Mrs. Harding, Mrs. Hansen, Mr. Carlson, and Mrs. Gehrmann for their help with math facts each week. 

Reading:   Our reading focus this month will be finishing up our study on Stone Fox and summarizing/main idea.  Then we will move into learning about 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 will explore inferencing in our reading groups and read aloud.  Our next book report and book is well under way.  It should be a chapter book (100-200 pages) at your child’s reading level that tells a story.  The book should tell about a part of northwest history.  Some ideas could be a story about a Native American, Early Sea Explorer, or a Pioneer heading west.  The students should have already chosen a book and be actively reading the book.  Check in with your child about the book they selected and make sure they are making progress on it.  The organizer for the rough draft was sent home before the break and there will be samples posted in our class for the students to see.  I will also post sample book reports on my blog.  I will send home the final draft paper after I have seen each student’s rough draft filled out.  The rough draft of the book report is due Friday, February 22^nd.  The final copy poster is due Friday, March 8^th.  Encourage best writing on the book report including strong supporting details, excellent spelling and punctuation.  Students are to trace over words with BLACK pen for final copy.  We are continuing our High Five Book Club winter trimester.  The challenge to the students is to read chapter books at their own level to total 500 pages read by the end of winter trimester.  Each time they finish a book; they complete a summary of the book and turn it in.  They receive a star shaped punch for their High Five Reading card for each 100 pages read and once they reach the goal of five punches for the trimester, they receive a prize.  Check with your child about their progress toward this goal.  High Five Book Club summaries are due by March 15^th.

Social Studies/Science:  In Social Studies, we will be learning about famous Northwest explorers who discovered Washington State.  We will focus most on Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea and their contributions.  As part of this learning, students are to create a possible bag- a bag that an explorer or fur trapper/trader might have carried as they traveled.  The directions for this project came home before winter break.  The directions are on the front side and the pattern is on the back side.  The possibles bag is due on January 14^th and the students will present their bags to the class and share the items in their bags with the class that day. In science, we will begin learning about environments.  We will closely study how animals live together with their environment as we move into February.

POW (Problem of the Week):  You may have already seen POWs (Gray Whales in Winter was one) coming home and Human Calculators will be coming home soon.  These are released WASL and MSP items that are used to give students an opportunity to build confidence with the MSP (Measure of Student Progress) test and practice important skills.  Students complete most of the POW in class and most of the time I will check and ask students to correct missed problems.  I will have parents sign the POW so that you are informed as to how your child is progressing toward state standards.  Please keep an eye on how your student is progressing with these practice passages.

Conference Days in February:  There are two half days set aside in February for parent conferences: the 12^th and 14th. I will conference with students and parents for which I have special concerns. If you would like to request a conference with me for that time, you are welcome to.  I will contact you with days and times if I feel like it is necessary at this point.  The end of our winter trimester grading period is March 15th. 

Thank you for your support and I will talk to you soon!  Have a wonderful 2013!

Warm Regards,

Karri Allen