February 14 Friendship Celebration (Valentine's Day)
February 17 No School
February 18 Scholastic Orders Due
February 19 Celebrations of Learning and Plover Book Drive @ 5pm
February 24 Library Visit - Chaperones Needed
Homework Due Thursday, February 13th - More details posted on the Homework Page
1. Read for at least 30 minutes per day.
2. Complete your Reading Response Letter to Laura
3. 3rd Graders complete pages 34, 35 & 36 in Math Practice Book
4th Graders complete pages 33, 34 & 35 in Math Practice Book
Valentine's Day
We will show appreciation for our classroom community and friendships with a Valentine’s Day Brunch. If your Plover would like to bring in cards for their classmates, they MUST bring one for every student. Students can make cards or buy them. Please be modest with candy contributions; Plovers will not be allowed to eat treats at school.
Class list: Apollo, Dakota, Daphne, Dublin, Everett, Francis, Gage, Hanna, Hannah, Jacob, Joey, Josiah, Lily, Logan, Luella, Madeline, McKenzi, Sam, Sonja, Sophia, Terra, Tessa, Tommy, Ulee, Zack.
Plover Book Drive at Celebrations of Learning
We hope you will join us for Celebrations of Learning next Wednesday, February 19th from 5 - 6:30. The Plovers will share their work and writing about the Free Bookstore they hope to create at FGCS! We will also hold a book drive for Plover families only. This is a practice book drive, so students can learn what to expect before we invite donations from the school and outside community! During Celebrations of Learning, we will accept donations of gently used children's books in the classroom. Books can be for any level reader - from 1st to 8th grade - and should be in good condition, without torn pages or writing in them. Please let me know if you have questions!
Upcoming Out and Abouts
Because of the early dismissal last Thursday, we missed our Out and About. So this week, we will begin working with Theatre in the Grove. The students have already decided on 4 topics for their folk tale skits: "How Mount St Helen's Lost Its Top," "Why Egg Has A Shell," "How The Desert Got So Dry," and "Why Unicorn Has A Horn."
Volunteer Opportunities - Sign up on our VolunteerSpot page: http://vols.pt/drMimF
We are in need of breakfast donations for the month of February. On Friday, February 14th, we will have a friendship celebration for Valentine's Day and I have added extra sign-ups on VolunteerSpot for fruit, veggies and healthy snacks for our celebration. Thank you for your support!
Math Notes
Last week, the 3rd graders jumped into two exciting investigations to begin exploring multiplication concepts. The first challenge began with the context of a grocery store. Students viewed an illustration of fruits and vegetables arranged in bins, stacked packages of paper towels and six-packs of water bottles. Their job was to take inventory of all the items in the store; although some objects could be counted by ones, the arrangements encouraged repeated addition, skip counting and doubling strategies to promote the development of some of the big ideas related to multiplication. The next investigation involved postage stamps and we will continue to work with this context over the next few days.
Last week in 4th Grade Math we continued our practice of multiplication. We focused on playing games to reinforce multi-digit multiplication, multiplication fluency, and multiplication word problems. We also worked on an algebraic math problem solver that had us investigate the California Frog Jump Contest. Ask your student about their Math Congress presentation. Math Congress posters will be on display for February's Celebration of Learning (Wednesday February 19th from 5-6:30 @FGCS). Hope to see you then!
Weekly Review
We narrowed our study of storytelling and folk tales down to a special kind of story called a "Pouquoi" tale. Pourquoi means "why" in French, and Pourquoi tales are legends told to explain why certain events happened. These stories are told in many different countries and cultures. Pourquoi tales are most often concerned with animals and the natural world, and the students discovered they are usually humorous and creative! We watched a few short videos (links below) to learn about the structure of these tales, and then students quickly got to work on their own original ideas! Plovers will continue to create their own Pourquoi tales during story workshop and small groups will work together to develop skits during our upcoming Out & Abouts to Theatre In The Grove.
Why Elephant Has A Trunk: http://youtu.be/rsk9Z0lOq9o
Why Snake Has No Legs: http://youtu.be/dquHyWKbJ_c
Why Flamingo Stands On One Leg: http://youtu.be/gDFS1_HMDLo
Communication
Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Parents and students can e-mail me at [email protected]. You can also leave a voice message on the class phone, come into the classroom before or after school, or call me before 8PM at home