And just like that it's November! It's hard to believe how quickly this school year is flying by. Time flies when you're having fun. We had a wonderful Halloween here at school. We celebrated with a fun breakfast in the cafeteria. Special thanks to Mrs. Baumeister, Mrs. Campbell, and Ms. Melino, for flipping pancakes and putting together a delicious breakfast with fun games. We had a wonderful time. Thank you to all who provided food & supplies for our celebration. Check out some photos from our morning: Wednesday marked the end of our first marking period. Report cards will be sent home on Wednesday. Congratulations to all of the students who have remained in the 100% homework club for the first marking period. We celebrated with an ice cream treat during lunch on Thursday. It's much more challenging for students to remain in the homework club for the second marking period because it is much longer and students are not given a "freebie". If for some reason your child is unable to complete their homework, please leave a note in their agenda. Thank you for your support! We started a new Social Studies unit: Native Americans. Katerina even let us dress her up in some traditional clothing. What a good sport! The class is enjoying this topic. We have been learning about how native americans arrived in North America, roles of different members of the tribe, government, currency, and other important parts of their lives. This is an exciting unit to teach! On Wednesday, students we paired kids up with partners from the other fourth grade class for our longhouse project. Our long house project will be taking place on Monday, November 19. We need volunteers! If you're willing to help out for a few hours in the morning, we'd love to have you! Here are some pictures from our first planning meeting: In math we started topic 5: Division! The kids have made some nice progress with their multiplication facts which should help them with this chapter. Please remember to check PowerSchool frequently for updated grades on their progress. If your child receives a grade below an 80%, it will be sent home for your signature. In ELA, we started reading a new book: Fourth Grade Rats. This is a laugh out loud book that the class is really enjoying. Since we just finished a very sad book: Shiloh, the kids are enjoying something a little bit lighter. We are working on sequencing skills in small group and centers. We have been focusing on clue words in reading to help us understand the order of events in the story. In writing, we put this skill to good use. Students wrote steps about how to make the perfect s'more and how to follow the morning routine in room 22. They did a wonderful job with this task! I look forward to our first round of parent conferences this Thursday. If for some reason you need to cancel and reschedule, please let me know as soon as possible. Here are some important upcoming dates to be aware of: 11/14: Report cards sent home 11/15: Half Day - Parent Conferences 11/19: Longhouse Project 11/21-11/23 : Thanksgiving Break 11/28: Half Day - Parents Conferences Have a wonderful long weekend!
- Mrs. Kusche Happy Monday! Here is a look at what we worked on last week in room 22. Social Studies: In S.S. we finished up our geography unit. Students took their geography tests. These have been sent home for your review. The kids have learned so much about maps, land forms, and the geography of New York State. I am impressed with their hard work and all they've learned. Math: We continue to work on Topic 4 in math. Our next test will be the first week of November. Please continue to work on those math facts at home. Many kids are making wonderful progress!! Thank you for working with your child at home. Also, if you notice a particular concept that your child is struggling with during homework, please bring this to my attention as soon as you can. ELA: We will be finishing up Shiloh this week. The kids will be sad when this book is over. They've really enjoyed reading it. We've done a lot of work with point of view while reading. The kids have loved playing the roles of both Marty and Judd. During writing we worked on writing spooky Halloween stories with a strong focus on having a clear beginning middle and end. The stories are very entertaining to say the least. These will be on display later this week. Dates to Remember: 10/31: Halloween Breakfast (parade starts at 2 pm) 11/6: No School - Election Day 11/7: End of Marking Period 11/9: Veterans Day Assembly 10 am 11/15 & 11/28: Half Days for Parent Conferences. If you need to schedule or change your date/time, please contact me. Below are some photos from some of our mapping activities from this week! Take a look at some of the things happening in 4th grade: Math: This week we wrapped up Topic 3 multiplication and began Topic 4. We began working on more mental math strategies and word problems. If your child is weak with their multiplication facts, it is important that they practice every night. These skills are crucial as we continue with our program. Students who know their facts attack new concepts with much more confidence. If you need some strategies for practice at home, please let me know. In social studies this week we researched different types of landforms. Students were assigned a particular land form through Google Classrooms and worked with a buddy to research all of its characteristics. The kids put together a beautiful display of their research in the hallway. Check out their hard work! In writing this week we worked on making our opinion writing more interesting and less robotic. We took sample writing pieces and students edited and really transformed boring writing into something worth reading. I'm proud of their hard work. In ELA we started reading Shiloh - a Newbery Award winning book. The kids never want to put the book down! We also continue to focus on story elements and main idea. Our Apple Race was a lot of fun this week. It was a cool fall day and the kids really enjoyed themselves. Thank you for all who showed up to cheer the kids on! 10/26 - Snow Cone Sale During Lunch 10/31 - Halloween Breakfast -2:00 parade 11/6 - No School - Professional Development 11/7 - End of 1st Marking Period I'll leave you with a little Footloose Go Noodle from this week. The kids love these short dance breaks in our day! The results of our student council election are in! Our two candidates chosen to represent Mrs. Kusche's 4th grade class are Megan B. and Timmy D. Congratulations to all nine students who participated in this election. Today we said "See you soon" to our classmate Riley. Recently, she was cast in a national production of The Sound of Music. She will be playing the role of Marta as they travel to 38 states and Canada. We wish her well and look forward to her return in June! Break a leg, Riley! The Color Run was a HUGE succes for the second year in a row. I was thrilled to see that our ENTIRE class registered to participate. What a wonderful time we all had. Here are the before and after pictures. (We were missing a few kids in our picture after the race.) We all agreed that we hope to participate again next year. Don't forget that the rain date for the Apple Race is this Tuesday. You can meet your child out on the field starting at 11:00. Be sure your child comes to school with a water bottle! What's did we study this week? Math: We are wrapping up Topic 3 in math next week. We will be reviewing on Tuesday and testing on Wednesday. We have learned a variety of ways to multiply numbers. Many students need extra practice with their math facts. In school, we do XtraMath everyday, we do drill practice, and this week I even started posting math facts on our door for the kids to recite as we come and go. 7's, 8's, and 9's are the trickiest. I can't stress enough that kids need to know these with automaticity. The more solid they are with facts, the easier the curriculum will be for them. Confidence in knowing their facts will go a long way! ELA: We worked so hard during ELA this week. We finished our book "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulant". There were even some tears! This book has always been a favorite of mine and became a fast favorite of many kids in the class. Many kids have started picking out more books written by Kate Dicamillo. I can't wait to show them our next book. Another winner! While reading, we continued to focus on story elements. Writing: This week we focused on opinion writing. Our debate for this week was "Should sweets be eliminated from school parties?" You may be surprised on how students weighed in. We plan to publish these pieces next week. We are working very hard at using good grammar in our writing and ALL of our assignments. Social Studies: This week we worked on a project called "Where in the World in Green Meadow". This was to help students understand the difference between continents, countries, states, regions, cities, and neighborhoods. The kids did a wonderful job and grades were sent home on Thursday. Feel free to reach out if ever you have questions regarding student grades. STEM: This week students were given the Paper Chain Challenge. We traveled to our new Maker Space to complete this week's STEM challenge. Each group of four was given one sheet of paper and was asked to make the longest chain possible. There was some careful planning and engineering that went into the design. Check out our slideshow below.
As a reminder, Amanda Melino, our room mom is looking to gather e-mail addresses to begin planning our Halloween breakfast. She would like to set up a Sign Up Genius. If you would like to be included, please reach out to her via e-mail. [email protected] or text 518-755-2834. Important Upcoming Dates:
10/16 - Apple Race 11:00 10/17 - Topic 3 Math Test 10/19 - 1/2 Day of School 10/26 - NYS Geography Quiz 10/31 - Halloween Breakfast Have a wonderful weekend! - Mrs. Kusche Happy Friday everyone! We've had a very busy week in room 22. Here is a look at what we did: I would like to say how proud I am of our nine student council candidates. They delivered wonderful speeches to the class on Friday. Immediately after, students stepped into our voting booths to vote for their top two candidate choices. In ELA we started meeting in small groups during our AIS time. Students work with a variety of teachers to practice reading comprehension skills. This week we focused on character traits while reading "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo. In writing, our focus was on summary writing. We also had fun creating some silly roll-a-stories. It was fun to hear all of the creative spins the kids put in to their writing this week! They were eager to share at our classroom podium. In Math, we starting Topic 3: Multiplication. We began by learning how to multiply numbers by 10, 100, and 1,000. We then worked on rounding numbers and multiplying them using that same zero strategy. By teaching them the distribution property, students were able to decompose numbers, multiply each part, and then add the parts together to arrive at the product. They kids did a great job! Remember to keep working on those math facts. Your hard work is paying off! We will continue to reinforce these skills this week with a variety of multiplication card games during centers. In Social Studies, we focused on the geography of New York State. Students learned all about the symbols that represent our state while we "Colored NY". On Wednesday, we took a virtual field trip across the United States and visited places like The Golden Gate Bridge, Times Square, The Grand Canyon, Washington D.C., and Mount Rushmore. NearPod is a great tool that the class is really enjoying! Next we worked on a project called "Where in the World is Green Meadow". We worked on understanding the difference between a continent, country, state, city, town, and neighborhood. We also worked on memorizing our address. We had a lot of fun with STEM this week. This week, student were given a sheet of foil and asked to build a boat that could hold as many pennies as possible. After one trial, students were given a chance to go "back to the drawing board" to make any changes. Some of the designs were really unique. We found that the most simple designs worked the best. Check out our slideshow: Please be aware of the following upcoming dates:
10/8 - No School - Columbus Day 10/10 - Color Run Make-Up Day 10/11 - Apple Race - 4th Grade runs at 11:00 Happy Fall! September flew by in the blink of an eye. The class has done a very good job of settling in to a nice routine. Here is a look at what we've done this week: In math, we finished up Topic 2: addition and subtraction. Students were tested today on these concepts and rules. Overall, I think the class is pretty good with knowing their addition and subtraction facts. XtraMath is an excellent resource if you feel as though your child needs more practice. The more practice they do the better! The program progresses with your child to meet their individual needs. Next week we will begin Topic 3 which covers rules in multiplication. We were very busy workers during ELA this week. We focused on character traits and story elements. Story Works is a new magazine that we will be using this year in 4th grade. Students will receive monthly magazines with stories from a variety of genres. We will use these to work on reading comprehension strategies in both small and large groups. We spent some time this week working on proper capitalization and punctuation. In writing we focused on how characters change throughout the story. We are currently writing about the character Fenton from "Not My Dog". We filled out a graphic organizers to group our ideas together. We finished reading "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing". We also did an author study on Judy Blume. I noticed many students purchasing more of her books at the book fair! Today we tested on our Living Things unit. Test scores will be sent home next week. There was no STEM today due to our full schedule but we will make that up next week. Our GMTV studio will be up and running again on Monday. We are unable to use our studio due to network issues but plan to return our broadcast in the library since the book fair is now over. Parents are always welcome to watch in the computer lab. Thank you for your understanding last week when we weren't able to broadcast. A new month means lots of fun things to come. We switch seats on the first of every month. I hope to see you all at the color run. I'll be working the PURPLE table this year (my favorite color!) Have a wonderful weekend. The weather forecast looks promising! Reminders:
10/1: Picture Day 10/2: Fundraiser Due 10/4: Color Run 10/8: No School - Columbus Day 10/9: Color Run Rain Date 10/11 - Apple Race - 4th Grade runs at 11:00! Happy Friday! Once again I'd like to thank you for coming to Open House on Monday night. Your support means so much. This week we had our first "extra library" class. We will have library every week instead of once every two weeks. On A week we will have library first thing on Monday morning at 9:25. On B week library will be during our normal special time at 1:50. Your child has been told that book exchange will be done on B week. (B for books is a great way to remember!) If you're unsure about what week it is, it is listed on our school lunch calendar. In ELA we started reading "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" by Judy Blume while we begin focusing on story element skills. The class is loving this book. We have had several laugh out loud moments. The story is about a 4th grade boy named Peter who gets himself into all sorts of crazy situations because of his two year-old brother named Fudge. The kids are really enjoying it. This week in writing we wrote summer memory pieces. We spent some time reflecting on our summer and choosing something we wanted to write about. I loved reading about the wonderful things the class got to experience this summer! We have some excited things coming in math! Last year Green Meadow fourth grade teachers were lucky enough to pilot a new math program called Envision 2.0. Our district has since decided to adopt this program for the district this year. As you may have noticed our workbook pages are in color and offer a reteach page of that day's lesson as well as vocabulary as it was presented in class. Students will begin each math lesson with a Solve and Share which builds independence, higher level thinking, and problem solving skills to start each lesson. There is also a new online piece where students can review the day's lesson, practice their skills, and even complete some math fluency practice. I am very excited to continue with this new program. I know the kids will love it. If your child is struggling at home with a certain concept, please bring it to my attention as soon as possible. I appreciate your support!
Important Dates: 9/24: Class will visit book fair during special (1:50-2:30) 9/8: No School: Columbus Day 9/28: Science Test 10/1: School Pictures 10/4: Color Run Congrats to this week's ticket winners!
Dear Parents, We had a wonderful first FULL week of school. In Science we began our first unit of study. We will be learning about roles of living things. Students will be taking their first science quiz on Friday, September 28th. You can look for a study guide to come home on September 21st. This week we also celebrated International Dot Day. The kids really enjoyed the book "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds. We asked the students: What can you create with just one dot? They were encouraged to "make their mark" and see where it takes them. We also incorporated this theme into our STEM Friday today. (See photos below). Students had to create their own structure using index cards and dot stickers. They had to come up with a way to put all of the team's ideas into one. The results were impressive! In math we continued our study of place value. The children learned about finding the values of numbers, how to compare them , and how to read large numbers. Our first quiz will be on Tuesday! I'm very proud of the class for successfully completing their online homework and taking their spelling tests online today with our Chromebooks. They are getting the hang of logging in to a variety of sites. Thank you for your help and support with this. A few reminders...
As always, please don't hesitate to reach out for any reason. Have a wonderful weekend! - Mrs. Kusche Thank you to Barron, Tanner, Megan, and Delaney for stepping up and being a part of our character education assembly this morning. They read the character pledge in front of the whole school and explained what it means to them. Great job!!!
Welcome back to school, parents! We have truly had an amazing first two days of school. I am thrilled to be able to work with your children this year. The enthusiasm, kindness, and teamwork that I've seen from your children this week tells me that it is going to be a terrific year! Each week, I will be sending the link to our newsletter via Remind. (Thank you for signing up!) This is a great way for me to send announcements, reminders, photos, and other information to you instantly. You can also read our newsletter by going straight to our classroom website. While I do plan to send newsletters most Fridays, sometimes you may receive news on a day other than Friday. Thank you for your understanding and patience. Our first day of school went by in a flash. Students were busy with getting to know you activities. We played an interactive Nearpod game of Mrs. Kusche: True or False to learn some things about their teacher. Thank you for sending your children with all of the necessary supplies on the first day of school. I gave the kids a scavenger hunt so they could tour the room and sort their supplies at the same time. It was fun! (see slideshow above) Friday students got to meet the rest of the 4th grade team of teachers. We rotated to learn more about STEM Fridays, our Recycling Club, and GMTV. We also tried out our new Chromebooks while practicing to login for Techy Thursday homework. The kids did a great job of logging into their Google accounts! Friday was our first day of STEM Fridays! The kids were given a task to work together to build the highest, free-standing tower possible using only toothpicks and marshmallows. They did a great job of working together. See the slideshow below! While most of what we do everyday will be presented during Open House (9/17 @ 6:30), here are just a few things that I thought you may like to know: Our Special Schedule: Working Snack: 10:30 Lunch: 12:05 - 12:45 Monday: Library (A week) 9:25 - 10:05 Physical Education 1:50 - 2:30 Tuesday: Physical Education 1:50 - 2:30 Chorus: 2:35 - 3:15 Wednesday: Art 1:50 - 2:30 Thursday: Physical Education 1:50 - 2:30 Friday: Music 1:50 - 2:30 *Please make sure students come to school with sneakers everyday. Please send in smocks and recorders (if you have them). This year we have students in our classroom with severe food allergies to peanuts and nuts. Due to the severity of these allergies, we are asking that you be mindful of this when sending food to be eaten for snack in the classroom. To reduce the chance of an allergic reaction, we are asking that you do not send any peanut or nut containing products to school with your child that will be eaten within the classroom. Your child will still be able to eat what they would like in the lunchroom where a peanut-free table is available. I truly appreciate your cooperation and understanding. If you have any questions, please let me know. Birthdays: Birthdays are very special days. However, due to many allergies we will not be celebrating birthdays with treats or goody bags in school. Students will have their names announced on GMTV and will be given a night without homework to celebrate their special day. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Homework Club: Homework club begins next week. Students start each marking period in our club. If they continue to complete their homework and hand it in on time, they will remain in the club. (Parents please don't bring your child's homework to school if they forget it!) We are trying to foster independence For the first marking period only , each student will be given one "freebie". Those students who remain in the homework club at the end of the marking period will be invited in during lunch for an ice cream celebration. Also, please remember to check and sign your child's agenda each night. Thank you all for a great first week! I look forward to working with you this year. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend! - Mrs. Kusche |