I hope this note finds you well and you are enjoying your fall. Thanks to our wonderful room parents, Mrs. Chase, Mrs. Denning, and Mrs. Sollars, we celebrated the end of the quarter and Fall last Friday with our class “Fall Festival”. Our room parents organized fun fall themed centers and a fun snack. The students loved the centers and had a lot of fun celebrating the fall and the end of our first nine weeks.
It really is hard to believe we have finished our first nine weeks of school. The students have already made such wonderful academic and social gains, they are really thinking deeper and taking ownership of their own learning, it is so exciting to see all of their growth!
As you know, report cards will go home Friday, 11/4. If you would like to schedule a parent conference, please don’t hesitate to email me and we can schedule some time to meet.
Please save the date for our Portfolio Showcase on November 17, 2017 from 8:15-9:15. This is an Open House style showcase where students will share their first quarter portfolio of work with you. This is an informal, drop in opportunity to come in, look at the student work, and then head out after. Although the Showcase runs from 8:15-9:15, it only will take about 15 minutes or so to review the portfolio.
It is such a pleasure working with your children each and every day. They are happy, thoughtful, enthusiastic learners. I am looking forward to another great quarter ahead!
Warm regards, Jessica Vaughan
Estimadas familias 4V,
Espero que esta nota te encuentre bien y que estés disfrutando de tu caída. Gracias a los maravillosos padres de la sala, la Sra. Chase, la Sra. Denning y la Sra. Sollars, celebramos el final del trimestre y el otoño el viernes pasado con nuestra clase "Festival de otoño". Los padres de nuestra habitación organizaron divertidos centros temáticos de otoño y un aperitivo divertido. Los estudiantes adoraron los centros y se divirtieron mucho celebrando el otoño y el final de nuestras primeras nueve semanas.
Realmente es difícil creer que hemos terminado nuestras primeras nueve semanas de escuela. Los estudiantes ya han obtenido logros académicos y sociales tan maravillosos, están realmente pensando más profundamente y asumiendo el control de su propio aprendizaje, ¡es tan emocionante ver todo su crecimiento!
Como saben, las boletas de calificaciones se enviarán a casa el viernes, 11/4. Si desea programar una conferencia con los padres, no dude en enviarme un correo electrónico y podemos programar un tiempo para reunirnos.
Por favor, guarde la fecha para nuestra Muestra de cartera el 17 de noviembre de 2017 de 8:15 a 9:15. Este es un escaparate de estilo Open House donde los estudiantes compartirán su portafolio de trabajo del primer trimestre. Esta es una oportunidad informal de perder el tiempo, mirar el trabajo del alumno y luego salir. Aunque el Showcase se ejecuta de 8: 15-9: 15, solo tomará alrededor de 15 minutos para revisar la cartera.
Es un placer trabajar con sus hijos todos los días. Son aprendices felices, reflexivos y entusiastas. ¡Tengo muchas ganas de otro gran trimestre por delante!
Un cordial saludo, Jessica Vaughan
October 15, 2017 Dear 4V Families, This Tuesday, October 17th is our field trip to the Symphony. Please arrive to school on time, and dress appropriately for the symphony!
It has been another busy week in 4V. I am sure by now you have heard about our integrated arts, science, and literacy projects. The students demonstrated all of our 4C's while working on this project. Soon, our work will be on display outside the Douglas Library. We will also be hosting our end of quarter Portfolio Showcase on November 17th. (More details to follow!).
On Friday, I had a wonderful opportunity to meet with our room parents: Kim Chase, Meghan Sollars, and Tony Denning. Together, we have planned some exciting 4V classroom events. Please check out our important dates tab. A signup genius will follow by email (and link on this website for volunteer opportunities). A huge thank you to our Room Parents, it is no small task and I am grateful for their willingness to lend a hand.
In reading, we have started Historical Fiction book clubs. Students have been enjoying reading and thinking deeply about a text, while having thoughtful conversations with other fourth graders. Students will read at least two historical fiction novels, and complete a collaborative project over the course of this unit. Right now, when reading at home, please support your child by asking them to think about how the characters in their books are complicated. (For example, characters may act differently on the outside versus what they are thinking). Another way to support your child at home, is to help your child to think about the theme of the text, and where did we see evidence of this throughout the text. Any conversations fourth graders can have about books at home can help to create stronger, more independent readers!
In mathematics, we will begin a new unit focusing on factors and multiples. Students will build upon their multiplication fact knowledge to further investigate patterns and relationships to identify the factors and multiples. Please help support your student at home by reinforcing multiplication facts!
We will begin Social Studies this week. We will begin integrating Social Studies with our Language Arts curriculum to develop our informational text reading skills, map skills, and note taking skills. Students will begin to understand the difference between primary sources and secondary sources and evaluate how reliable resources are when conducting online research.
Friday is an early release day. Please send an email or note with any early release transportation changes. Thank you for all you do! Don't hesitate to call or email with any questions!
October 3, 2017: It has been quite a busy week. The students have been working so hard thinking growing ideas about characters and texts, building a deeper understanding of place value as it relates to addition and subtraction, and building circuits!
Students completed the Unit One Math Assessment last week. This will go home in backpacks on Wednesday 10/4. If you have any questions about the assessment, please don't hesitate to contact me. We can set up some time to talk in person or by phone.
In the next few weeks, students will work on addition and subtraction with regrouping. I I am so impressed with how well students are doing determining the relationship between our place value drawings and the standard algorithm for addition and subtraction.
In Writer's Workshop, we are wrapping up our personal narrative unit of study. Students are now able to write rich, powerful narratives that include a "heart" (message), strong transition transition words, rich details that include character thoughts and actions, and figurative language. You will be so impressed with the work our students have been doing!
In Reader's Workshop, we have concluded our Character and Theme Unit of study and our class Read Aloud, The Tiger Rising. During this unit, students have honed in on their skills to think deeper about characters and texts. Over the month, students have begun to develop theories about a text and support their theory with text evidence and their inferential skills. This is challenging work, and they have truly risen to the challenge. In the next week, we will schedule our Quarter One Portfolio Showcase. This will be a time for you to come in to see the work our students are most proud of across all curriculum areas. We are starting an integrated science and literacy culminating project this week - stay tuned for some exciting updates!
As you know, Douglas has adopted the Positivity Project curriculum as part of our daily Morning Meetings. This social curriculum has been such a powerful addition to our classroom community. Each week we focus on a specific character strength and facilitate student discussion and thinking around how to identify different character strengths and how to see these strengths in themselves and others. We will share some of this work at our Portfolio Showcase as well!