Thank you to Ethan's parents who helped organize the amazing Holi celebration on the Thursday before Spring Break....what a treat! We had a very busy week of school last week upon our return. And we have a very busy few weeks ahead of us. Here is a snapshot of some key dates from now until the end of school in June: Monday, April 8th: Eclipse viewing at 2pm! Thursday, April 11th: Hubbard Street Dance residency begins Tuesday, May 7th: Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio tour Thursday, May 9th: Science Fair Wednesday, May 15th: Field trip to Naper Settlement Friday, May 17th: Talent Show Monday, May 27th: Memorial Day, no school Tuesday, May 28th: 4th Grade End of Year Celebration at Circle Lanes Thursday, May 30th: Final Dance Presentation Tuesday, June 4th: Last day of school Here a few updates from the classroom: Reading and Writing: We are wrapping up our American Revolution unit in the next couple of weeks....students are hard at work on their informational "books" about a Revolution topic. We will celebrate the end of the unit with a debate between Loyalists and Patriots (just like the actual Continental Congress). This is always one of the main hightlights of the school year! Our next unit will be an historical fiction unit where students will be reading books in book groups and writing their own historical fiction stories. Math: We finished Module 5 (fractions) with a summative assessment on Friday. On Monday, we will begin our next module focusing on geometry. This is a relatively short unit and we will follow that with another short unit on measurement conversions and end the year learning about decimals. Science: We finished up our unit on electricity and circuits and have moved on to learning about magnetism...ask your child what a temporary magnet is and how to make one! In the next week or so, we will rotate classrooms for science. Hubbard Street Dance residency: Hubbard Street Dance teaching artists will be coming into the 4th grade classrooms on Thursdays starting this Thursday. Students will learn about creating art through movement and teamwork. This is an amazing opportunity for students to learn in a non-traditional way and we are fortunate to be able to participate in the program again this year. Thanks to the PTO for funding it! Students will ultimately work in groups to create their own dances to perform for parents and third grade classes. Mark your calendars for Thursday May 30th for the final performance (time TBD). Field Trips We are visiting the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio on Tuesday, May 7th. Please fill out this permission form if you have not already done so (and volunteer to chaperone!). We are also visiting Naper Settlement on Wednesday, May 15th. Please fill out this permission form to allow your child to participate and also let us know if you can help chaperone. Thanks in advance! Here are a few pix of 4P in action!
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It's amazing that we already into the month of March and spring break is around the corner! We've been busy over the past few weeks, highlighted by an amazing job done by our 4th graders at the Black History Month assembly. Great job everyone! Here is a snapshot of happenings in the classroom: Reading and Writing Workshop: We are knee deep in the American Revolution and students are working on their "books' about their topic. Last week we worked on the first "chapter" called The Big Picture....a summary of the events leading up the actual start of the war. Students will then write about their topic, followed by their opinion about what was important about their topic and why it mattered. Math: We are nearing the end of Module 5 on fractions and will finish with a summative assessment before spring break. Currently, we are learning how to add and subtract mixed numbers. Also, students have been using Prodigy to solve word problems using all four operations. Science: We are two weeks into our Energy unit and everyone seems to be enjoying it....building circuits using a D-cell, wires, a motor and light bulbs is fun! Last week students built a series circuit and a parallel circuit and we discussed how they are different. This week we will explore other ways in which they are different before moving on to the next unit, magnetism. Hubbard Street Dance residency Once again, 4th graders at Hatch will participate in the Hubbard Street Dance residency program....this program is led by amazing Hubbard Street dancers who visit our classrooms once per week to lead the class in learning through movement. The program kicks off on Thursday, April 11th and will run until the end of the year. Students will be working in groups to create their own dance centered around a theme and we will celebrate the end of the program with a performance for parents in late May. This is an awesome opportunity and we are excited to get started! Upcoming field trips We have a few field trips coming up in May so keep a lookout for permission forms.
Talent Show We are excited to announce the Hatch Has Talent 2024 show for 3rd-5th graders will take place on Friday, May 17! In order to prepare, we have a few dates for your attention. If your child is interested in learning more about the talent show, they will attend an information session during lunch on Wednesday, March 20. They will receive a QR code to a Hatch Has Talent google classroom. If they would like to submit an audition, they will submit a video audition to the google classroom by the Friday, April 12 deadline. More information, details, guidelines, and permission slips will come after the interest meeting. If your child is absent the day of the meeting, the QR code will be available in the music room. Holi Celebration PBIS is planning our Trimester 2 Celebration. We are excited to announce that our school will be celebrating the festival of colors, Holi, on March 22nd. We are fortunate to have several Hatch parents leading us through this celebration. Holi is a vibrant and joyous Hindu festival celebrated primarily in India and Nepal, welcoming the arrival of spring and the triumph of good over evil. It is a time for spreading happiness, love, and forgiveness among friends and family. Here is the permission slip, please return it to school or email Ms. Winfield with a note that says your child has your permission to participate. Science Fair The Hatch Science Fair will take place on Thursday, May 9th! This is an exciting opportunity for your child to work on a science project (experiment, demonstration, or research). We will be showing students examples of each kind of project in class so they are familiar with it and hope to get lots of sign ups! Here is the sign up form with more information. We will also be sending home flyers with a sign up form. IAR Testing Just a reminder that we will be taking the IAR math and reading tests this week beginning on Monday at 8:30. Please make sure your child brings their IPad to school fully charged. Thanks in advance! Here are some pictures of our class in action during science! Thanks to all of you who were able to come see the 4th grade wax museum last week. It was amazing to see all of them in action. Thanks also for supporting your child with help with their costume and props. It was a great day! Here is a brief update on happenings in the classroom: Reading Workshop: Now that we have wrapped up our biography unit, we will be starting to study events during the American Revolution. Students will be reading books on various topics related to the war and writing a short "book" on their topic. Our mentor text for the unit is "King George: What Was His Problem?", which is a somewhat humorous take on the events leading up to the war. We will also be reading an historical fiction book called "i Survived the American Revolution". Writing Workshop: Students are drafting their literary essays and doing a great job. We are hoping to wrap these up in the next couple of weeks or so. Science: We will begin our science unit studying energy this week! This is a great, hands-on unit where students will learn about electricity, circuits and magnetism. Math: We are already into volume 2 of Module 5 studying fractions. Everyone is doing a great job learning how to compare fractions, finding common denominators, how to create mixed numbers and how to add and subtract fractions with different denominators. Next up we will be learning about adding and subtracting mixed numbers and multiplying mixed numbers. Here are some pix of our class in action! How can it already be the end of January? It seems like we just returned from winter break....they year seems to be flying past! Thanks again to all of you for supporting your child through the two e-learning days we had. It ended up being kind of nice break from the classroom and I was so impressed at how engaged everyone was. Here is a brief update on what's been going on the classroom: Reading Workshop: We are moving and grooving in our biography unit. Students have selected a person from history to study and write a first person "speech" on. The speeches are coming along nicely and we are looking forward to our Wax Museum on Thursday, February 15th. We are inviting 3rd grade classrooms along with parents to come see it (look our for an email from me shortly with more details). You can support your child by helping them with their costume! Writing Workshop: Students have chosen a short story to read to base their literary essay on and most have written their thesis and reasons. We will be drafting our essays over the next several weeks. Math: We are continuing to work through Module 5 which focuses on fractions. So far, students have learned how to find equivalent fractions and we will be learning about ordering fractions this week. Everyone is doing a great job! We have also been using Prodigy to expose students to other math concepts such as geometry and measurement and data. Social Studies: We are learning about Illinois history using a workbook where students read and answer questions. Conferences: If you have not had a change to sign up for conferences, feel free to do so at your earliest convenience. Here is a newsletter from the specials teachers! Lastly, here are a few pictures of 4P in action: I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of winter break. Thanks to all the parents who helped chaperone our field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry and volunteered to help run our winter break party. Thanks so much! We had a great week of school leading up to winter break, highlighted by the Biz World Bazaar on Thursday. All four of our friendship bracelet companies did a fabulous job (see pix below) and Mr. Righeimer's third graders seemed to really enjoy themselves. Reading Workshop: All of our extreme weather research groups did an amazing job researching their topic and presenting to the class. Most groups also created a Blooket to quiz the class afterward! We will finish up the unit the week we return from winter break by learning about non-fiction craft techniques that writers use. Following that, we will start our Biography unit where students will choose an important person from history to write a first hand account and present during our wax museum celebration in early February. Stay tuned for more details! Writing Workshop: We will finish up our personal essay unit the week we get back from winter break. After that, we will begin our literary essay unit where students will apply the strategies they learned during personal essay unit to writing an essay about a short story. Math: We are getting close to finishing module 3 (multiplication and division). Last week, students were assessed on topics A-G and when we return, we will learn about topic H (double digit multiplication) and then begin module 5 (fractions). Everyone is doing a great job! Science: During January, we will begin teaching our core science curriculum. Students in 4P will be studying energy and at the end of the unit, students will travel to the other 4th grade classrooms to study another topic (Mr. Zand teaches earth science and Ms. Awe life science). We've been busy in 4P the past few weeks, working hard in the classroom and having fun too! A big highlight was the annual Turkey Trot last week! It was great to see many of you cheering on the runners and walkers! Here are a few updates on happenings in the classroom: Reading Workshop: Research groups are busy working on their weather projects...I've been impressed by the amount of detail that many groups are including in their work! Students will be finishing up their presentations the week that we return from Thanksgiving break and presenting to the class the following week. It promises to be a good show! Our mentor text for this unit is Zane and the Hurricane, which is a survival story set during Hurricane Katrina. Ask your child about it! Writing Workshop: Students are working on drafting their personal essays....everyone has a thesis and reasons and are now working on adding examples for their reasons and a concluding paragraph. Everyone is doing a great job! Math: Last week, students took the mid module assessment for module 3 and now we are working on long division using two digit dividends. Next week, we will learn about multiples and factors before moving back into long division with 3 and 4 digit dividends. We hope to wrap up the module around Winter break. Here are some pictures of 4P in action! It was a pleasure meeting with you all during conferences to touch base on the amazing work students in 4P are doing this year. I feel lucky to have such hard working yet fun loving students this year! Here's a quick update on happenings in the classroom as we move toward the end of October: Reading Workshop: I shared your child's summative reading assessment from our first reading unit (realistic fiction) during conferences. We also celebrated the end of the unit by carving soap creations in honor of the main character in our mentor text, Rob (see pictures below). Starting this week, we are moving on to our non-fiction reading unit studying extreme weather in research groups. Students will work together to research and present information (presentation) about extreme weathe topics such as hurricanes, tornados, etc. During the unit, students will be learning important non-fiction reading skills such as identifying the text structure of a text, summarizing and synthesizing information. Writing Worskshop: We finished up our realistic fiction stories and will shortly be moving on to personal essays....students will be coming up with a thesis and supporting reasons all about something they care about. Science: We had fun learning about why leaves change color in the fall and hopefully many of you got to see our leaf rubbing display in the hallway during conferences. We will be sprinkling in topical science lessons in the coming months before launching into our Energy unit. Announcement from Ms. Stringham: ELLY SWARTZ AUTHOR VISIT: On Monday, November 13th, the 3rd-5th graders have an amazing opportunity to meet the author, Elly Swartz! Her brand new book, Hidden Truths, comes out next week. If you would like to order a signed, personalized copy of her book for your child, you can purchase the book here! Thanks so much for supporting the Hatch Library and every child's love of reading! Soap carving photos below: I can't believe we are almost halfway through October already....the year seems to be flying by. We've had a great few weeks, filled with learning and fun, highlighted by our first Tiger Head celebration of the year (see pic below). Here are some highlights from the classroom:
Reading and Writing Workshop: We are wrapping up our realistic fiction reading unit where students have been learning how to infer about character traits, character change and theme. We will finish the unit with a summative assessment next week, followed by our end of unit celebration next Friday. Students are also finishing up their realistic fiction stories focusing on writing techniques such as showing not telling. We have also been using Flocabulary to learn about figurative language like similes, metaphors. personification, etc. and students have been doing a great job of identifying examples of figurative language in their reading and using it in their writing! Math: We finished Module 1 last week with a review of all of the math concepts in the unit and a summative assessment. We are moving on to Module 3 beginning Monday (multiplication and division strategies). Students are also using Khan Mappers to dive deeper into other concepts like geometry and also Reflex and Frax to work on fluency. I look forward to meeting with all of you at conferences on 10/25 and 10/26. If you have not had a chance to sign up, feel free to do so at your earliest convenience. We've had a great couple of weeks of learning and fun in 4P. Band, orchestra and chorus schedules have started and everyone seems to be settling in to our weekly routines. Here are a few highlights from the classroom: Reading Workshop: After finishing our novel study of Frindle, we have begun our read aloud mentor text, The Tiger Rising, for our first reading unit. During the unit, students will be reading realistic fiction books at their reading level and practicing identifying character traits, tracking character change and understanding theme. We will also be practicing these skills in class using formative assessments. Writing Workshop: Students have completed their story arcs and developed their characters and are busy drafting their scenes. Last week we learned various writing techniques to "show" not "tell" and practiced by rewriting a short descriptive paragraph. Everyone is doing a great job! Math: We had fun playing rounding bingo on Friday and will complete our mid module study guide on Monday. The study guide will prepare students for the mid module assessment on Tuesday. Social Studies: We started learning about the US govenment last week and will continue over the next couple of weeks. MAP testing: Students will be taking the Fall MAP test on Wednesday, September 20th and Thursday, September 21st. Please make sure your child brings their fully charged IPad. Here's a quick note from Ms. Stringham: For all 3rd-5th grade families...we are getting geared up for the 2nd Annual Well Read Tigers Book Club. I would love your students to participate! You can find all the information here and the sign-up here. Please email me, Nefret Stringham, [email protected], with any questions. Here are some pictures of our class in action: We had a super first full week of school this week and I was happy to meet many of you at Curriculum Night on Wednesday. Here are some highlights from the week: Reading: We are enjoying our "Frindle" novel study....students are reading the book along with me and answering comprehension questions. We also began a series of lessons learning about "reading signposts"....these are places in books where readers should stop and think about how the event that is happening might affect characters, plot or theme. We will continue learning about these signposts next week before we begin our realistic fiction reading unit. Math: We have completed the first 4 lessons in Module 1. Topics that we are working on include multiplying and dividing large numbers by 10 and writing various forms of numbers such as unit form, standard form, word form and expanded form. Next week, we will learn about rounding large numbers. In addition, the class has started using Reflex on their IPad to practice fact fluency as well as Khan Academy. Writing: We have begun our realistic fiction writing unit with students brainstorming story ideas as well as characters for their stories. Next week we will work on setting then drafting a story arc (or plot). Everyone is doing a great job! Word Study: I have formed word study groups and students practiced using their word study workbook as well as Vocabulary A-Z to study their words. As a reminder, students will be assigned a word list each week which I will send home so you can practice spelling the words at home. Students will have a practice test on Thursdays and a final test on Fridays. In other news....picture day is Friday, September 8th! Here are a few pictures from the week: |
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