Tie Dye shirts came home with your 4th grader this evening. Instructions for how to wash and finish the shirts are inside the bag with the t-shirt. I have attached the same instructions here for your use. We will wear our shirts next Tuesday for the field trip, so please make sure to have them ready then!
I’m looking forward to seeing you today for first quarter’s Report Card Pick-Up. The 10 minute meetings do go very quickly and I do my very best to stick to the schedule. I ask for your help in being courteous to other peoples’ appointments. If there is anything you would like to discuss beyond our time today, we can always set up a follow up meeting. Thank you for your help!
November 21-Tie Dye Day (rescheduled)
Quarter 1 book report projects, originally due on Tuesday 11/12, will be accepted until Friday 11/15. While assigned simultaneously, the geography and reading projects were never intended to be due so close to “back to back”. I have already received a number of book reports for this quarter, but based on the number of students who seemed to need extensions for the geography project I wanted to offer a bit more work time here as well. The two weeks we lost are typically crucial times for me to meet one-on-one with students to help plan and execute their projects. I made sure that by today, I have met with every student to discuss their projects, and even have some follow up meetings scheduled for the next couple days. With Friday, Monday, and Wednesday being days of non-attendance for your 4th grader, I am highly encouraging them to plan ahead and use this time wisely. I will continue to hold “book report meetings” everyday until the day projects are due.
It was so great being back in school today with everyone. We took some time to go over logistics and questions, but really focused on being together and having some Halloween fun. Friday Folders are coming home this evening. There are no markings or notes, please just empty, sign, and return to school on Monday.
While a few students were ready to turn in social studies projects, it seems like most groups need more time to finish their work. All assignments for the Geography of the Western Hemisphere project will be due on Wednesday. We had our last time for in-class work on the projects today.
The 4th grade team is currently working on rescheduling times and volunteers for our tie-dye activities.
If you sent any emails during the strike, they will have bounced back and I did not receive them. Please make sure to resend any important communications including volunteer clearance approvals. We are up to 2 Level 1 cleared volunteers with hopefully more approvals quickly on the way!!
The 4th grade is currently planning on having our annual “Tie Dye Day” on Friday, October 25. All classes will be tie-dying their Bell Walk shirts to serve as their 4th grade field trip shirt for the rest of the year. I collected all shirts and have them washed and ready for the event. We are looking for volunteers to sign up for the morning of Friday 10/25 to help with the process. Please follow the links below to sign up for the two time slots and for more information. Thank you!
As you have likely heard by now, classes have been cancelled tomorrow for the CTU Teacher Strike. It is unclear when we will return. We assigned homework as normal discussing how items that are due/scheduled for “tomorrow” will be due/taking place on whatever day we return to class. Hopefully, that will be very soon but for the meantime we also discussed taking advantage of this time to work on the reading and social studies projects. We continued work on geography projects in class today, and the kids got a lot of good research done. I also passed out planning sheets to help the kids work out ideas for their project choices. Everyone brought home these papers as well as their research and assignment packets today. These tools should help guide your 4th grader through their work. My hope is that we are not out long enough to warrant extending the due date, but we will certainly change plans as needed.
We also took time to finish all book report meetings that any students had signed up for. Again, I was so excited to hear about many ideas and plans that are underway. Hopefully our conversations left students in a great place to continue their work. A copy of the project assignment sheet can always be found by clicking the “Projects” link under the “Classroom Information” on the right side of this page.
Lastly, I will not have access to my email until we return to school. I hope to be back very soon!
There is a 4th Grade Parent Committee meeting this afternoon at 2:15 pm in Room 205. The meeting will largely focus on planning for the Halloween party on October 31 and the upcoming tie-dye project on October 25. Volunteer spots for both of these events will be open to all parents regardless of whether you attend the meeting today or not. If you’re not able to attend, but would like to be kept in the loop throughout any planning the committee continues with, please send me an email and I will make sure your email address gets added to any chain that gets started.
With just under a month before the first book reports are due (Tuesday, November 12), we began official “Book Report” meetings during class today. I got to meet with a handful of students and am so excited about the ideas, planning, and work that is already underway! I will continue to meet with students to answer questions, point them in the right direction, and offer guidance and support until the projects are due. As a reminder, book reports can be turned in any time before the due date.
The class was also assigned our first social studies project today in class. Your 4th grader is bringing home the assignment packet and is assigned to sit down with you tonight and go through the whole thing so that everybody knows what the project entails. As the packet describes, we will spend the rest of this week in class working on the project. The students will then a have the entirety of next week outside of school to finish work that remains to be completed before the due date on Monday, October 28. Please find a copy of the assignment linked below.