A lot happened this week in Ms. Hahn’s class, so let’s get right to it.
P.E. saw the introduction of floor hockey. This is proving to be a very fun unit that everyone seems to be enjoying.
We finished our explorer unit in social studies this week. The kids all had to present their explorer presentation to Mrs. Wagner’s class. We then switched and our kids listened to their presentations. It was great to watch how excited everyone was to share what they had learned. Earlier our 4th graders practiced with each other too!
In reading, the kids have finished The Underworlds book. They have moved on to doing an end of book project. It’s a fun project where they need to use a file folder and a bunch of little papers to review the book, decide what type of music the main character might listen to, talk about the important details, etc. You will likely see them on display at parent teacher conferences.
Phenology was a bit cold this week, but things are still changing out in nature so there is plenty to write and draw about.
Now that social studies is done, we are switching back to science. This unit is on light, so we all walked around the building looking to see how many things have lights. Think projector lights, thermostats, computers, and the sun.
It’s bean harvest time! The black beans were ready to pick so our class went out and picked everything. Then we brought them inside and shelled a bunch of them. We also went back and cleared all of the plant material from the garden, so everything is ready for winter. Plus the beans will be used in a Farm-to-Table in March!
On Friday PCCS held a short Veteran’s Day assembly. We all gathered by the flagpole along side Lake Leopold. Mr. Z said a few short words and we applauded the veterans in attendance. Then each class went on a walk to honor veterans that they know. It was a nice way to start the day. The school is collecting money for the Lake County Honor Flight organization. So if you have loose change laying around consider sending it in. We will make sure it makes it to the collection bucket.
Some of you may have noticed that your student is coming home with a missing/incomplete homework slip in their assignment notebooks. We were having so many kids coming to school not having finished their spelling or math work, essays turned in late, etc. that we decided we had to do something, so enter the slips. Since we are now at the start of the 2nd trimester the kids are even closer to being 5th graders. As you probably know, once they enter the other building they get standard grades. All of the teachers have policies regarding late work. In the Carson building, late work means less points on assignments. So while we don’t really do that, we certainly want them aware that there is a consequence for handing in things late.
If you could talk to your student about the missing work and sign the slip it would be very helpful. It may be good to sign it after they complete the work. We’ve gotten some slips back signed, but the work still wasn’t done.
One thing that came up yesterday was a little concerning. Many students had not done the Blind Write Sort that happens every Thursday night. When asked, they said they didn’t know how. This assignment has been a part of the spelling program all of this year and all of last. So just as a reminder, Blind Write Sort is simply writing the spelling words in the correct sort order. The blind part is that somebody else has to read the word to the student. Parents, please help your student with this every Thursday night. It’s a pretty useful assignment seeing as how the next day they take a test.
We hope that the amount of slips going home will decrease over time.
Anyway, all of that happened in the course of one week! One more week and Thanksgiving week will be upon us. Take care!
~ Mrs. Steinbeck