February 24-26 Laura out, Carol and Carl will sub
February 25 (Thursday) - Out & About to Washington County Museum
March 1 Returning Student Forms Due
March 3 Read Across America Day (PJs and stuffed animals encouraged)
March 4 All School Meeting - Plovers will present
Returning Student Form Due March 1st
Click here to submit a Returning Student Form. Please fill out a separate form for each currently enrolled student who will be returning next year.
Homework Due by Thursday, February 25th
1. Read for at least 20 minutes every night.
2. Complete Reading Response letter
3. Complete at least 30 minutes of math practice.*
*Suggested IXL skills for 3rd grade math practice:
F.3 Multiply by 2
F.6 Multiply by 5
Loops and Groups Multiplication Game
*Suggested 4th grade math practice:
Fractions Worksheet: Fractions Week 7 Homework
Oregon Battle of the Books Club Announcement
Congratulations Nasya! As the winners of our school battles, Nasya, Daphne and Payton (from the Puffin Nest) will represent FGCS at the regional competition in March. Please see the revised meeting schedule below and remind your reader to turn in all books! Thank you!
Wed Feb 24: Practice session for winning team. No meeting for other teams.
Wed Mar 2: OBOB celebration for all teams – LAST MEETING!
Sat March 5: Regional competition at Westview High School (Beaverton)
Upcoming Out and Abouts
This week, we will jump onto the Oregon Trail through a program at the Washington County Museum. This trip will happen on Thursday instead of Wednesday. We'll tour the museum and check out a special exhibit on display this month about Forest Grove! If you would like to visit the museum with your family, it is free for families every second Saturday of the month. To learn more about these programs, visit:http://www.washingtoncountymuseum.org.
Next week, we will imagine our long trek along the Oregon Trail has finally brought us to the Tualatin Valley. We'll learn more about a small town called Forest Grove, and see if it might be a nice place to finally settle! We will visit the Old Train Station with Friends of Historic Forest Grove to learn what Forest Grove was like in its early days. Chaperones are welcome, but not required.
Volunteer Opportunities
Breakfast Donations - Fruit and cereal/bagels needed for this week.
Out & About Chaperone - Join us next Wednesday at the Old Train Station with Friends of Historic Forest Grove!
Literature Circles and Book Clubs
All Plovers will meet with their book clubs 1-2 times this week! The books students are currently reading are: Balto, Buffalo Before Breakfast, Chicken Squad, Phoebe the Spy, and Steal Away. Students will have time in class to read and write about their book, but some students may choose to read at home and complete their book club assignment as extra homework. I do not want this to be a burden for families, so if your Plover seems worried about completing their assigned reading or writing, please let me know so I can help their book club figure out a more reasonable pace.
Weekly Review
Last week, the Plovers focused on getting their projects ready to share at Celebrations of Learning. I was happy to see so many students sharing their Scoggins Dam models and the fantastic (and loud!) earthquake table! Thank you to the families who were able to stop in and maybe even design their own dam. Some students also had projects from Academic Choice to share. Academic Choice is a weekly self-guided project time, loosely based on the Genius Hour movement. Plovers who have completed their weekly homework assignments have an hour every Thursday to work on a project or learn a new skill of their choice. At Celebrations of Learning, groups who have been working on sewing, computer programming, Native American research and marble maze construction were able to show off some off their work. Other groups, like stop-motion animation and school postal service, are still in the planning and creating phase; they will display their work later in the year!
4th grade Plovers have been asking about Storybird, a digital storytelling website that we used last year, so I gave the class some time in the computer lab to check it out. Students can write their own stories and poems using artwork displayed on the site. When their poems and stories are published, they are shared just with our classroom community. I am able to monitor the students' accounts, review their writing, and moderate comments (the Plovers know I will not publish comments with incorrect grammar or punctuation). Your student can access their account at home if they know their username and password; please email me if you would like further log in instructions.
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 or come into the classroom before/after school.