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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Summer Reading!

Dear Class and Families,
    I hope your first 2 weeks of Summer Vacation are off to a great start!  I just wanted to write to say I finished two really good books!  How to Speak Dolphin by Giny Rorby and ECHO by Pam Munoz Ryan.  Both of these books were recommended and passed on to me by Gigi.  That's enough to let you know they are both really good books.  Just a quick gist on each book.  How to Speak Dolphin is book similar to Rules and tells the story of a young girl and her autistic half brother.  ECHO tells 3 stories in one an you must read to find
out what connects all three main characters.  Full of adventure and suspense! The book is thick, but the font is pretty big and you can get through it quick! I hope you have all visited the library and are enjoying some good outside play time!
Vasanthi

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Summer Reading!

Dear Families, Flipping - Free images on Pixabay

It is hard to believe that fourth grade is almost over. Your children have worked hard this year and have grown in so many ways. As you look ahead to summer, I hope that your calendars are filled with rest, relaxation, and fun. I also hope your summer is filled with reading!

As we close out our school year, the fourth grade will be hosting a book exchange to encourage, excite, and get new titles in the hands of kids. Over the weekend, please help your child look through their shelves to find gently used books that they are no longer interested in, but would be a great book for a friend.  Have them bring them into school by Wednesday, June 14th. On Thursday June 15th, kids will exchange them!  

As an added layer of excitement, we will be helping children create summer book boxes.  In it will be new books acquired from the book swap, a calendar, and a list of 4 titles they would like to read over the summer.  Please send in one empty shoe box ASAP that your child can use for this purpose.  Over the course of the next week we will have book talks to build excitement around new titles.  We hope to get everyone energized and organized about summer reading!  We will even have a visit from Katie, the Pierson Library Librarian!

Please let me know if you have any questions. I am looking forward to the exchange and summer reading!

Fondly,
Vasanthi

Dates to remember:
ASAP-- a shoe box
Wednesday, June 14 - All books that will be exchanged should be at SCS
Thursday, June 15th- Our book exchange!
Did you know…?
  • The best predictor of summer loss or summer gain is whether or not a child reads during the summer.  And the best predictor of whether a child reads is whether or not he or she has access to books. (Allington, McGill-Franzen, 2003)
  • Children who read four or more books over the summer fare better on reading-comprehension tests in the fall than their peers who read one or no books over the summer.  (Kim, 2004)
  • The two largest contributions to reading achievement are access to interesting books and student choice of the books they read. (Guthrie and Humenick 2004)
  • Check out this article!



A few lessons on sound waves! How does sound travel? Can I make a paper cup telephone?




Summer Math Ideas

Summer Math Ideas



Summer Math Ideas for Students:

Youcubed - Look under “ideas and tasks” to find all you need...all summer long!

NCTM Classroom Resources - a collection of online resources from the authority

Illuminations - another collection of resources from NCTM, mainly online apps and games

More ideas from Bridges - summer math fun at home (including a link to Bedtime math)

More from Bridges - parent reading & games

Bedtime Math - a fun problem per day….everyday!



Parenting Ideas To Promote Lifelong Learning:

An article for Parents to read about the feedback we give children:  Growth Mindset Feedback

Here is a Document with research based articles, websites, and videos that support children’s learning.


Math Support for Parents K-5 - parent letters about the math we do with all K-5 students






Questions, comments, ideas for improvement?  Please contact John Madden - jmadden@cssu.org


Friday, June 2, 2017

Jog-a-Thon and Scientist Shares

Thank you all for supporting your child with their Scientists Shares.  We learned so much about many different important scientists.  We made a lot of connections, just from listening to the timelines, fun facts and paragraphs.  Many scientists came from Europe, modern scientists are working hard on new ideas, some scientists had tragic deaths, many Noble Prize Winners, and many have families and love playing sports!


We had sunshine while we were jogging and rain while we were picnicking and dancing!