January 20 No School
January 23 O&A to The Hobbit
January 24 Lunch Orders Due
January 27-31 The Great Kindness Challenge
January 27 Book Orders Due
January 29 Make Up PE @ 12:15
January 30 & 31 No School
Homework Due Thursday, January 23 - More details posted on the Homework Page
1. Read for at least 30 minutes per day.
* No reading response letter due this week
2. 3rd Graders complete pages 28, 29 & 30 in Math Practice Book
4th Graders complete pages 27, 28 & 29 in Math Practice Book.
Upcoming Out and Abouts
This week, we will join the Puffins at Theatre in the Grove for a performance of The Hobbit. Next week, there is no school on Thursday and we will not have an Out and About. In February, we will be working with Theatre in the Grove weekly to learn about and practice public speaking and performing.
Other Important Info
I will be out of town January 29th and February 3rd (there is no school on 1/30 and 1/31), and Teri Melof will sub for me. Teri is an experienced FGCS substitute teacher and she also completed her student teaching at the Community School! She has worked will the Plovers before in Art. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Volunteer Opportunities - Sign up on our VolunteerSpot page: http://vols.pt/drMimF
I have 2 additional chaperone tickets available for The Hobbit on Thursday. Please sign up on VolunteerSpot if you would like to join us! We are also in need of library chaperones for Monday, February 3rd. See the VolunteerSpot page for more details. Thank you for your support!
Scholastic Book Orders
Orders are due Monday, January 27th (I will submit the order Tuesday morning). You can view this month's selections and submit your order at https://orders.scholastic.com/L79X9. When you place your order online, you'll help earn free books for our class. It takes about 2 weeks for books to arrive.
Math Notes
In Third Grade Math, we reviewed material covered in the beginning of the year, including place value, estimation, telling time and solving story problems. In our review of story problems, many students shared that they enjoyed solving problems with money. So on Thursday, the third graders created their own imaginary stores and Becky's 4th grade math students came over with pretend money to purchase goods and supplies! The 3rd graders had to keep track of their sales and we will use this information to write our own story problems next week. Last week, students also completed assessments and a work sample that involved real world applications of calculating perimeter.
Last week in Fourth Grade Math, we continued our study of large numbers. Students continued practicing double-digit multiplication using the array strategy. Ask your Fourth Grader to solve 20 X 19. They should be able to draw this array two ways: using grid paper and without grid paper by drawing the outline only.
Weekly Review
Last week, the Plovers shared their idea for a free bookstore at the All School Meeting. Prior to presenting their idea to the other classes and teachers, the students submitted a project proposal along with persuasive letters to Karen and Vanessa. They met with Karen Torry on Monday to discuss questions and concerns. She provided a lot of feedback and an outline of the next steps required to move forward with this project! We would like to explain our proposal to parents in February - so stay tuned for a presentation date! Below is the script the students created to share at the All School Meeting. All students contributed to the ideas in the script, even if they decided not to speak in front of the school. Students also created pictures for a power point presentation that was supposed to play during their presentation, but we experienced technical difficulties with the projector at Central School and couldn't display the slide show! All of the students have been working hard to make this idea a reality for our school!
Francis: Hello FGCS. We are the Plovers. We have an amazing idea to tell you about. The Plovers really like watching Kid President. We like how he says that any ordinary person can change the world.
Lily: We know that there are lots of ways to make a difference every day – like helping a friend, making a card for someone or doing random acts of kindness. But we want to do something bigger!
McKenzi: We have a crazy idea that will change the Community School. We want to create a bookstore!
Luella: You are probably wondering, why a bookstore? We think having a bookstore in our school would help more people love reading. We do not have a library at our school, so we want students to have another way to get books. We also want to have a special place for students to see friends from other classes and levels.
Sophia: We think our bookstore would help the earth too. We want to have used books so that fewer trees are cut down and less garbage has to go to the landfill. Wouldn't that be awesome?
Gage: The best thing about our bookstore is that everything would be free! We think everyone deserves a good book, even if they can’t afford it. So instead, we think people could earn books in other ways.
Dakota: What do you mean?
Sonja: Well, maybe classes could earn a trip to the free bookstore by meeting an important goal or doing something to make a difference. Visiting the bookstore and picking out a free book could be a reward for classes that are working on becoming better scholars, citizens or stewards.
Dublin: In our class, we have been using a program called Class Dojo to work on improving behaviors like staying on task, helping others and cleaning up right away. Laura can give Dojo points when she sees someone doing the right thing, and so far this year we have earned over 2000 points!
We think Class Dojo has helped our classroom community because now it’s easier for everyone to concentrate and people are more responsible. Maybe other classes would try to earn a certain number of Dojo points to get a trip to the bookstore. Every class could set their own goal and work on some behaviors they want to improve.
Tessa: We have been working on this idea for a long time and it has been a lot of work!
Logan: We had to submit a project proposal to Karen and Vanessa. But first, we had to learn about persuasive writing.
Joey: What is persuasive writing?
Hanna S: Persuasive writing is writing to convince other people to agree with you. It’s kind of like a commercial. If you just beg for what you want, people probably won’t listen to you. But if you write about the reasons why you want something, they might agree with you!
Madeline: After we filled out our proposal and typed up our letters to Karen and Vanessa, we had a meeting. They had a lot of questions about the bookstore and so do we! Where can we build it? Will other people like it? Where will we get the books? How much will it cost? When will it open? We don’t know all the answers.
Karen and Vanessa liked our idea, but they haven’t approved our proposal yet. Next, we have to come up with an implementation plan. This means we have a lot to figure out!
Tommy: Later this year, we might be asking for some help with our bookstore. We might need people to help build shelves and we will probably ask for book donations. We will make another announcement when we are ready for help.
Zack: If you have questions about the bookstore or ideas, you can tell Laura or any of the Plovers. We can also come to your classroom for a meeting if you want to learn more about this project.
Hannah C: We hope everyone is excited about this idea and that you will support us. We feel excited because we saw pictures of a free bookstore in another school and we think it’s really inspiring. We want to show that ordinary kids can make a big difference. What will you do to make a difference today?
Terra: Thank you for listening.
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.