1) Your generous children!
Last week, a group of your children pooled their book fair money together and purchased the entire Harry Potter Series! I have always mixed and matched my book series together in my library, Harry Potter included. Now, however, I have a beautiful set of all 7 books for my students to enjoy. I am so proud of their teamwork, but also their big hearts. Thank you!
2) Opportunities to discuss your wonderful children with you.
I am so thankful to have a chance to sit down with all of you and talk about how amazing your children are. Everyone has areas of growth, and I love the time to talk though any questions or concerns that you might have, but also, getting to know you all better helps me get to know all of my students better as well. Thank you all for your flexibility and your punctuality!
3) Your generosity with your time.
Thank you to all of the parents who have filled out my survey during conferences last week! If your conference is this week, I would encourage you to come a couple minutes early to take a quick mindset survey for my grad school project. If you forget, CLICK HERE TO TAKE IT ONLINE.
Your children took this survey at the beginning of the year as a quick pretest of their mindset. My project is to compare the mindset of your children with you, so if both parents can take the survey, that would be ideal!
A note on this as well: Please do answer the questions for yourself, not your child! 😊
4) Mrs. Hoffman's hard work.
Many 5th grade families in particular were asking about music curriculum this year, and if students will be learning all of the 5th grade skills, even if they are in a 4/5. I sent an email to Mrs. Hoffman and she was kind enough to put a little summary together for my newsletter! Here is what she says:
"We have been doing 5th grade curriculum since September. I have blended the 5th grade and 4th grade curriculum somewhat. At present, we are doing a 5th grade drum unit, which covers complex rhythmic patterns. We are also doing alto recorders, and higher/lower register of the soprano recorder (both 4th and 5th grade skills). The students are studying multicultural dances and songs, of which will be performed at our winter multicultural concert in December. As I have explained to the students, the guitar/ukulele unit will begin in February."
A big thank you to Mrs. Hoffman for providing the summary for us!
I hope you all have a wonderful short break, and find space to spend some quality time with loved ones!
As always, I am here if you have any questions, comments, or concerns!
Thankfully,
Mrs. Hart
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Conference Week Schedule!
As I had emailed you just minutes ago, here is a copy of our half-day conference schedule.
Things to note:
- Students only get recess when there is no specialist time is scheduled.
- Lunch will be in the classroom, the designated times are for students who buy their lunch to go to the cafeteria to do so.
- There will be 3 formal Math days where 4th graders will be going to their math rooms, the other days will have some math, but as a whole class.
- There will be no science or social studies rotations until after Thanksgiving Break.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
Friday, November 2, 2018
We Survived Halloween on a Wednesday! :)
Dear Parents,
Congratulations to us all for surviving a mid-week Halloween! It was touch-and-go for a little while, but as a whole the class was very well behaved yesterday and today.
A big THANK YOU to all of our parent volunteers, especially Mrs. Balsiger who planned it all! My students had several compliments for all of our volunteers at the compliment circle during our classroom meeting on Thursday. The kids had such an amazing time, and are so grateful for all of the time and effort you put into our party!
Another THANK YOU goes to our Watch DOG Mr. Hill, who was also mentioned during this compliment circle for helping several groups figure out how to make their STEM challenge projects work.
A final THANK YOU goes to Mary Wilber, and her husband, for visiting us to talk about local tribes' "First Salmon" ceremonies. Mary is a part of the Northshore Native American Education Program, and really wow-ed the kids with all of the interesting information about our local tribes!
Some other quick announcements:
Picture RETAKES are happening on MONDAY starting at 9:30. If you want your child to get retakes done, please let me know!
After much deliberation, we have finally figured out how to do Science and Social Studies rotations!
- Your child was given their "schedule" and they put it inside their planners near the front cover.
- With this rotation schedule there will be 2 days of Science and 2 days of Social Studies for ALL of our students, at their grade level.
- 4th graders will be going to Mr. Bennett for Science, and Mrs. Ratliff for Social Studies.
- 5th graders will be going to Mrs. Lambard for Science, Mrs. Singh for Science OR Social Studies, and/or myself for Social Studies.
- All classes will be intermixed with the General Education 4th and 5th graders. 5th grade will intermix with 5th EAP as well. Unfortunately, because of schedule limitations, 4th graders will not be having Science and Social Studies with any other 4th grade EAP classes.
In Math, 5th graders have completed our 2nd block on Integers, and are now starting Block 3 on Rational Numbers. I was proud of how well they did on their Block 2 test. It is going home tonight and should be brought back on Monday!
In Social Studies, we are working on a Mock Election, due on Tuesday! Students are learning about the ballot measures and our candidates for US Sentate, and writing about how they are going to vote, and why. Once students have finished a position statement of a few sentences, they get to fill out a ballot and turn it into my mailbox! The reward for informed voting is an official "I Voted" sticker sent from Olympia! I am so proud of how engaged they are with this task. They definitely have a new appreciation for how difficult and confusing some of these measures are!
In Science, we finished our STEM challenge with some excellent demonstrations and presentations. The point of doing these challenges is to give children the opportunity to be creative, but also to evaluate their knowledge and what they need to learn more about. Many of my students decided some lessons on Simple Machines like "Wheels and Axles" would be good!
In Language Arts, we have started our first "Choice Time" Tic-Tac-Toe board. Students have 9 choices, and have to work on one of those choices for the entire time. Options include, fall poems, independent reading, creating a card game or board game with directions, and more! I can't wait to see what they come up with.
On a sad note, we had to say goodbye to 2 of our students, Sara and Maryam, today. They will be moving to sunny California to be closer to family. We will miss them dearly in our classroom this year.
As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
All the Best,
Mrs. Hart
Congratulations to us all for surviving a mid-week Halloween! It was touch-and-go for a little while, but as a whole the class was very well behaved yesterday and today.
A big THANK YOU to all of our parent volunteers, especially Mrs. Balsiger who planned it all! My students had several compliments for all of our volunteers at the compliment circle during our classroom meeting on Thursday. The kids had such an amazing time, and are so grateful for all of the time and effort you put into our party!
Another THANK YOU goes to our Watch DOG Mr. Hill, who was also mentioned during this compliment circle for helping several groups figure out how to make their STEM challenge projects work.
A final THANK YOU goes to Mary Wilber, and her husband, for visiting us to talk about local tribes' "First Salmon" ceremonies. Mary is a part of the Northshore Native American Education Program, and really wow-ed the kids with all of the interesting information about our local tribes!
Some other quick announcements:
Picture RETAKES are happening on MONDAY starting at 9:30. If you want your child to get retakes done, please let me know!
After much deliberation, we have finally figured out how to do Science and Social Studies rotations!
- Your child was given their "schedule" and they put it inside their planners near the front cover.
- With this rotation schedule there will be 2 days of Science and 2 days of Social Studies for ALL of our students, at their grade level.
- 4th graders will be going to Mr. Bennett for Science, and Mrs. Ratliff for Social Studies.
- 5th graders will be going to Mrs. Lambard for Science, Mrs. Singh for Science OR Social Studies, and/or myself for Social Studies.
- All classes will be intermixed with the General Education 4th and 5th graders. 5th grade will intermix with 5th EAP as well. Unfortunately, because of schedule limitations, 4th graders will not be having Science and Social Studies with any other 4th grade EAP classes.
In Math, 5th graders have completed our 2nd block on Integers, and are now starting Block 3 on Rational Numbers. I was proud of how well they did on their Block 2 test. It is going home tonight and should be brought back on Monday!
In Social Studies, we are working on a Mock Election, due on Tuesday! Students are learning about the ballot measures and our candidates for US Sentate, and writing about how they are going to vote, and why. Once students have finished a position statement of a few sentences, they get to fill out a ballot and turn it into my mailbox! The reward for informed voting is an official "I Voted" sticker sent from Olympia! I am so proud of how engaged they are with this task. They definitely have a new appreciation for how difficult and confusing some of these measures are!
In Science, we finished our STEM challenge with some excellent demonstrations and presentations. The point of doing these challenges is to give children the opportunity to be creative, but also to evaluate their knowledge and what they need to learn more about. Many of my students decided some lessons on Simple Machines like "Wheels and Axles" would be good!
In Language Arts, we have started our first "Choice Time" Tic-Tac-Toe board. Students have 9 choices, and have to work on one of those choices for the entire time. Options include, fall poems, independent reading, creating a card game or board game with directions, and more! I can't wait to see what they come up with.
On a sad note, we had to say goodbye to 2 of our students, Sara and Maryam, today. They will be moving to sunny California to be closer to family. We will miss them dearly in our classroom this year.
As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
All the Best,
Mrs. Hart
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