Plant Dissection

Scientists at work!

Successful trip to Shelburne Farms and visit to Shelburne Food Shelf

Thank you so much for your generous donations.  We stocked the shelves of the Shelburne Food Shelf and met Susan, one of the many volunteers that supports this important cause in the community!  Way to go Endeavor!

We learned about the parts of plants and each job they have in supporting the plant through its life!  We also harvested many tasty vegetables and fruits from the gardens and created a meal by chopping, seasoning and roasting our findings!  We also had time for some important team building activities.  We learned that together we can succeed if we communicate clearly, listen, show respect and compromise, take turns and PARTICIPATE!

Thanks Shelburne Fire Department for your important Fire Prevention Lessons!

Ask your child about his or her experience and make some fire prevention plans together!  Change those batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors!  Make a plan for where to meet as a family in an emergency! 

Christine shares an important story with us!

Christine will join our Reading Workshop everyday!  Today she shared a story called Thank You Mr. Faulker by Patricia Pollacco.  Ask your child about it!

Timeline Shares

Everyday we begin our morning learning about the incredible lives we have lived!  Thank you for supporting your child in creating his or her beautiful detailed and story filled timelines!  Not only has each timeline been shared thoughtfully, our class has thoughtful comments and questions for one another!  We've learned so much about one another!

Happy Friday!

Here are some snaps of our careful and detailed caterpillar observations!  Thank you for taking the time to send in fresh milkweed!  We've had many larvae die so this science project has also become a cooperative group project!  Groups are working together to make goals for their observations and sharing the work of cleaning the frass (feces), feeding the caterpillars and taking important measurements!  They are being so safe, responsible and respectful! Our 5 caterpillars have traveled home with me for the weekend!

You all should be so proud of the kind and loving children you are raising!  We end our day at Closing Cirlce with a pile of notes from me called Thumbs Ups!  These notes are my way of positively acknowledging students for their positive behavior, efforts in class or accomplishments!  We publicly celebrate these accomplishments with a variety of cheers, too.  Your children have already taken it upon themselves to write Classroom Compliments for one another!  They are taking the time to notice and note the kindness and efforts of others!  However, it didn't stop here.  Now, we have students designing their own positive acknowledgment notes!  We have hearts from Gigi called Fabulous Fuzzies and stars from Fiona called Star Students!  They truly are spreading kindness and positivity!  Thank You!

Lastly, this week's goal sheet came home in homework folders!  It is pink and is exactly like last week!  We again took the time to plan our week and mapped out when we will get our reading and responsibilities done!  Thank you for supporting your child with this weekly routine! 

PS-We had a guest teacher this afternoon.  Please ask your child how they were safe, responsible and respectful with Val Today!  I know they will have done their best!

Another Observation Day!

Our Caterpillars!

Scientists recorded their second caterpillar observations this morning!  Sadly, many of us suffered fatalaties over the weekend and our now joining forces  to observe other caterpillars.  Thanks to all my fourth graders for staying positive!  

Send in fresh milkweed for our babies!  Ask your child about their caterpillar!

First Goal Sheet of the Year Sent Home Today! The Caterpillars Arrived!

Look at these amazing students planning their week.  Executive Functioning (organizing) are a set of skills we all need to practice so we can manage our time and our expectations for completing assignments, routines and even cleaning, packing and washing!  After I went over the Goal Sheet and explained the expectations for reflection and reading I had students make a calendar with a key that showed what work they would accomplish and when.  I also had them draw themselves handing in the Goal Sheet on Thursday, September 15!  Please let me know if you have any questions!  And make sure you check out their work on the back of their Weekly Goal Sheet!

Here is this week's Goal Sheet!

Name________________________________________    Week of 9/8 -9/15

*Signed Goal Sheets due back on Thursday, 9/15 *

Habits of Mind

Have you filled a bucket today?  Share an example of how you filled someone’s bucket (home, soccer field, school, etc.).  Keep it PAWSitive!   Please use complete sentences in your sincere response.   (Example: I filled my family’s bucket when I cleared the dinner table without being asked.)

Subject	Parent/teacher comments
Timeline Projects Use your plan and your families as a resource as you work on this big and important project!	DUE Date:
Independent Reading Graph-Please record the number of minutes you read by coloring in the bar that matches the date of the night you read (For example: I read 20 minutes on 9/9.  So I will color the 4 boxes up to 20 minutes) 30 minutes 25 minutes 20 minutes 15 minutes 10 minutes 5 minutes Time/Date 9/9 9/10 9/11 9/12 9/13 9/14
Independent Reading (20-30 minutes –at least 5 nights) Title of Book(s) ________________________________________________________________________	Parent Signature (Please sign off on the reading) _____________________

Teacher Comments/ Notes: Timeline Project-Don’t forget to work on it! Field Trip to Shelburne Farms 9/14! 8:45AM-1:10PM.  Lunch from home, sneakers, dress for the weather! Hike For Hunger Food Drive 9/12-9/23.  Please bring in non-perishable goods for the Shelburne Food Shelf.  We will deliver our donations on 9/23!   Check our blogs! Share See Saw and Kidblog with your parents!

Week of Inspirational Math

Today we worked hard to make sense of the graph above in the left hand corner!  Thanks to one another we were able to understand what the data meant and how the arrangement of the emojis was important in understanding how this data we put together!  We then chose our own partners and categories and created graphs about food, colors, games, weather, pets, dogs and candy!  Ask your child about it!!

Good news!  The caterpillars should arrive tomorrow.  If you have any milkweed in around your yard, please send it in!!

Seed Observations in preparation for our surprise!

Another scientific observation!

We each picked one leaf or one flower from the Butterfly Garden to observe scientifically!  We used magnifying glasses and rulers to collect more data on our objects!!  All of this careful observation will prepare us for our surprise on Tuesday or Wednesday!

Working on our important and big Timeline Project!

Parents, don't be surprised if your child asks you questions about their lives!  They are looking for 10 important/special/happy/sad life events!  These projects will be started here at school, look for more information next week!  Happy Friday!  Thank you for sharing your children with me!

Fun Friday Game Time!

Every Friday begins with Game Time!  A great way to build social/emotional skills, cooperative group skills and have fun with one another!  Ask your child about it!!

Setting up our Writers Notebooks!

We began covering our Writer's Notebooks with pictures and words!  This art project will inspire us with writing topics!  We had our first 7 minute write and filled the page with writing topic ideas! Please help your child find any photos or items they would like to glue onto their notebooks!  We will finish their decorating tomorrow!  We've also read two great books this morning, Library Mouse A World to Explore and Born Yesterday The Diary of a Young Journalist! Now, we are off to Music!

1st Day Of School

Welcome to 4th Grade!  Our first day of school was filled with so much positivity!  We earned 66 clicks!  (Ask your child about that and look for a pamphlet coming home with your child on Friday!) Thank you so much for all of cleaning wipes, pencils and kleenex!  We will use all of it!  

Our day began with Morning Meeting and snack.  Sharon, math interventionist, and Jeannie, technology staff, joined us during the morning and will be a part of our Morning Meeting for the next couple weeks.  We hope this allows students to know more adults in the building, creating a larger sense of community within our school.  Together we talked about our Everyday Expectations across school settings and friendship and kindness.  We explored with pattern blocks, wrote or drew in our mindfulness journals and observed in the vegetable gardens.  We also had music class with Mrs. Burritt!  Can't wait to see what today brings!