Calendar
May 16 - Noon Dismissal, Teacher Inservice
May 24 - Shine and Show
May 31 - Jog - a Thon

Announcements
THANK YOU for the tremendous Teacher Appreciation lunch!  The food was delectable and all of the teachers and staff had a fabulous time.  You're generosity is greatly appreciated!

Pioneer Day is coming up fast.  Mindy Senko and I will need roughly 16 volunteers that day (June 13th) to help run the stations and for set-up/clean-up.  Jean Adams will be coordinating volunteers from Mindy's room, and I need a parent from my class to help organize volunteers from my room .... any takers?  In addition to volunteers, there are items that we need (e.g. certain foods, yarn, paper products, etc.) for Pioneer Day.  Whomever takes on the "organizing" duty for my room will also be in charge of helping with this.  Although a lot of work, Pioneer Day is great fun for all involved - most especially the kids!  The students are encouraged to wear pioneer outfits (think Little House on the Prairie), however uniform dress is also allowed.  Boys get a break when it comes to pioneer dress, for they just need to wear a button down, long-sleeve plaid shirt with jeans.  Girls, on the other hand, might need to do a bit more preparation.  A long skirt and a collared shirt will work just fine.  Please let me know if you have any further questions.

A BIG thanks to Richard Keller for coming into the classroom and teaching Junior Achievement during April and May.  The students were taught great lessons on resources needed for business (capitol, human, and natural), how to price merchandise, where to locate a business, and much, much more.  Part of the curriculum was for the kids to come up with their own business plan - the "fuzzy, heated toilet seat" had to be one of the most creative!

Four weeks until the last book report is due!  We have been doing a lot of discussion in class about what the game should entail and the kids all have a handout explaining the assignment.  For the last book report of the year, Mindy and I don't give a rubric for the kids to follow.  However, we do expect that the board is colorful and the decorations on the board reflect the setting of the story.  As well, the plot of the story needs to be incorporated into the game in some way.  The characters from the story should be represented in the pieces (4 total) for the game the kids make - no swiping Monopoly pieces and calling it good!  Mindy and I have showed all of the fourth graders multiple examples of games that we have saved over the years, so they have a strong idea of what is expected.  On Monday, June 11th, we will have a game morning where the kids will break up into groups of 4 and rotate around to play their peers' games.  Lots o' fun!  On that morning, we also like to have a special snack for the kids while they are playing.  If there is a parent willing to bring in popcorn for the class, that would be tremendous.

Curriculum Update
Just this week the class started reading the novel Bound for Oregon.  This great book follows the Todd family as they decide to head west to Oregon in the mid 1800's from Arkansas.  The kids will be reading roughly 3-4 chapters per week (partly in-class and partly for homework) and writing summaries for each chapter in their BFO "workbooks" that they put together.  They will also be picking out new vocabulary (e.g. ague, reticule) from each chapter to define in their workbooks.  This novel is an excellent and fairly challenging read for the end of fourth grade and will take us through to the end of the school year.

This week, I'll be giving the kids a test on prepositions, prepositional phrases, and objects of prepositions.  Then we'll move onto interjections and conjunctions - the fun parts of speech for last!  By the end of the year, we'll also have spent some time diagraming simple sentences to review all 8 parts of speech.  As we wrap-up the Harcourt spelling lists, the students and I will create our own spelling lists for the last few weeks of school.  I'll have them give me ideas for spelling words - fun, fun!

Science has been a blast these past few weeks.  We've moved on to a new area in physical science - electricity!  I grabbed the Van de Graaff generator from Mrs. Eastes, and it seems like each science class we come up with a new way to have fun with static electricity!  Starting next week, we'll be covering circuits and doing great experiments with batteries, copper wire, and light bulbs.  Mrs. Senko has the kids immersed in all things pioneer during social studies instruction.  They have taken on pioneer personalities and are keeping journals about their adventures.  In her room, she as an outline of a covered wagon on her floor - way smaller than you'd imagine!  How'd those pioneers do it??

Math has been all about fraction, fractions, and more fractions!  Mrs. Senko's class has recently covered converting impartial fractions into mixed numbers and finding common denominators to add and subtract fractions.  My math class is adding fractions with like denominators and finding least common multiples.  By the end of the year, we will finish with fractions and also cover decimals and finding perimeter and area.  During religion, we've been discussing Pentecost and the Holy Spirit.  The kids have shared with me and others ways that the Holy Spirit has helped them to make good choices in their lives.  They've also been using their student Bibles quite frequently to reference stories discussed in their religion books, and we had a great time analyzing the timeline in the back of their Bibles.

Have a fantastic week!

It's always fun to share a negative charge as a group!

Calendar
April 19 - Class Picture Day
April 20 - All School Mass @ 10:00
April 21 - School Auction

Announcements
Well, we're in the final stretch of the school year!  I gave the kids my "we're gettin' down to the wire" talk this week and emphasized how Mrs. Senko and I are really focused on getting them ready for fifth grade and the "big kid" wing.  To help, it would still be a great idea to check your child's planner every school night.  Anything highlighted in blue means it wasn't turned in.  The late homework policy only gives students two days, past the due date, to turn in completed work for credit.  Typically, by the time the progress reports get emailed out at the end of the month, missing assignments are so overdue that even if they are turned in they won't count for credit.  If your child's planner is suspiciously blank or if you hear your child utter the red flag phrase - "I don't have any homework tonight." - check the class wiki.  Just click on the link at the top of the teacher blog.

Pioneer day (June 13) is fast approaching.  The kids are encouraged to wear pioneer outfits (think Little House on the Prairie), however uniform dress is also allowed.  Boys get a break when it comes to pioneer dress, for they just need to wear a button down, long-sleeve plaid shirt with jeans.  Girls, on the other hand, might need to do a bit more preparation.  A long skirt and a collared shirt would work just fine - there's no need for any parent to go through torture with 7 yards of calico fabric and a complicated sewing pattern.  However, if you enjoy sewing than more power to ya!  Please let me know if you have any questions.

The mystery book reports turned out tremendous!  I am thoroughly enjoying reading them and very much appreciate the support you parents gave to your children during the process.  The last book report of the year is due the last week of school on the 11th.  Your child may choose any genre of book and they will be creating a game based on the plot, characters, and setting of their chosen book (informational sheet will be handed out this week and posted to the "Important Handouts" page). Let the reading begin!

Subject Update
We are focusing on expository non-fiction stories in our Harcourt anthology.  The most current story the kids are reading is called Mangrove Wilderness and it gives fantastic information about mangrove trees and the Florida Everglades.  Mrs. Senko and I are focusing on summarization skills and the kids have been writing short summaries to assist in comprehension of the story.

In the technology lab this past week, the students researched Asian elephants to commemorate Packy's 50th birthday.  They used the Oregon Zoo website and factmonster.com to gather information, and then organized the facts in a Word document.  We'll be using our time in the lab this upcoming week to begin typing up descriptive essays that we will start soon.  

Now that we have finished our unit on adverbs, we'll be attacking prepositions, prepositional phrases, and objects of prepositions during grammar instruction.  The kids will also be reviewing strong adjectives to assist them in their descriptive writing activity.  We finished up the Holy Week/Easter section in our religion books, and next up the kids will be reviewing the Beatitudes.  They'll be creating Beatitude posters that will help them to understand and remember each Beatitude and its "present-day" meaning.  

Mrs. Senko is covering missionaries and mountain men in social studies class and soon will be transitioning into a large unit on the pioneers and the Oregon Trail.  I just finished up the topic of sound in science class and have begun a new unit on light.  The kids and I had a great time experimenting with light and reflection using several mirrors, a strong flashlight, and a dark room!  In math instruction, I will soon be wrapping up with quadrilaterals and lines of symmetry.  Mrs. Senko continues to teach on fractions and lowest common denominators.

Have a great week!

We had a fantastic time at Fort Vancouver this morning!  The fourth grade was split into three groups that rotated between the bake house, fur storeroom, and carpenters' workshop.  The kids made sea biscuits, a fun toy (which I can't remember the name of), and they got to see their fair share of animal fur.  Our guides were tremendous and we all had a great time exploring the fort.  Thank you to all of our outstanding drivers/chaperones!