Before beginning to read A Long Walk to Water, the Blue class took a day to learn about and research the nonprofit organization called Water for South Sudan. They learned about the water crisis as well as the Lost Boys of Sudan. We are so excited to start our novel tomorrow. Hello Families,
We wanted to send a quick reminder regarding PARCC. We know it’s a long email, but please take the time to read it as you’ll find a lot of very important information in it. As you may already be aware, our PARCC and CMAS tests are scheduled to occur beginning of April 10th. It is really important that the students are at school during that week well rested and on time. We will be testing each day, but will finishing the testing that week. J We just wanted to take a moment to reach out to you about some ideas we have to make the PARCC and CMAS tests more fun, and less stressful for kids. As a fourth grade team, we pride ourselves on encouraging our students. We plan to work hard to provide them with encouraging notes throughout the week, but we need your help as well. We are asking you to write a letter from you (or someone from your family), addressed to your child, that we can give to the student the day PARCC begins. These letters will act as a form of support the kids can read before they begin with their tests. Letters can be given to your child’s homeroom teacher beginning now, leading up to Friday, April 7th. We will be happy to store them until the big day J. These letters are a SECRET to the students so please DO NOT give them to your child to give to us. You can always email them to us as well. Every year, we do a raffle at the end of PARCC and CMAS. We are also hoping to receive a few donations of $5 gift cards to raffle off the week after PARCC and CMAS testing. The more we get the better. As an incentive for using their time wisely, and focusing, students may receive a ticket. Tickets will be put in a bin, to be pulled during the raffle. This is an exciting way to reward some of the kids who worked hard though out testing. If you are interested in donating a $5 gift card, but are unsure where it should be to, just think of what your kid likes! We are sure the other fourth graders will love it too. Below are some more ideas:
If you have any ideas as surprises that you’d like to plan and organize, we would love to have them. Just let us know what you are thinking. J As a fourth grade team, we will also be creating a couple other surprises for the kiddos that week. Please let us know if you have any further questions and thank you in advance! -The Fourth Grade Team Oh no! Princess Peach was stolen by Bowser and only HPA 4th graders can save her. We used our nonfiction skills to work together to find the clues to open the breakout box! Luckily, Peach was saved! To celebrate kicking of 2017 with kindness, we had a compliment palooza. We all made hearts and wrote compliments to each other on them. :) Our smiles were bright and our hearts were big. We committed a crime of stealing the most prized history article and the Aurora sheriffs were after us. AHHHH! We worked hard to close read, identify text structures and main ideas, write summaries and SAAC statements, as well as identify the author's craft. Some of us made it out alive and others got sent to Alcatraz to serve out a life sentence. No matter what, we loved our work. :) |
Archives
April 2017
Categories |