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We have been keeping busy this week. We are closely watching our eaglets. They are expected to fledge the nest any day now. We also participated in a contest to name DC6 & DC7. Winners will be announced on June 27th so make sure you check the website! www.dceaglecam.org We had a wonderful time at our end of the year picnic yesterday. It was a hot one but we managed to stay cool. We found some shade for our picnic lunch. Then it was time to dance in the gym with the DJ. At 2:00 we headed back to the gym for our 4th & 5th grade talent show. The kids were great and the show was very entertaining. Here are some pictures: This will be our last newsletter for the year. It has been an honor teaching your children this school year. They are a special group of children. I hope you and your family have a wonderful summer. Your child is going to be an amazing 5th grader.
Please remember I'm just an e-mail away if you should ever need anything in the future. I am beyond grateful for your support this school year. This week was Caring Week at Green Meadow. My "Kindness Squad" did a wonderful job working with their first grade partners from Mrs. Baker's class. Together we made summer-themed cards for the residents at Hawthorne Ridge in East Greenbush. The cards were delivered to the Memory Care unit. The fourth graders were patient and helpful to their little friends. Some even got to work with their siblings. Check out the photos below. The kids had a great time at our STEM-centered field trip to the Children's Museum of Science and Technology last Wednesday. The class got to rotate through 4 different rotations on the field trip. These rotations included: designing and testing a wind turbine, building something with limited resources (Rig-a-ma-Jig blocks), designing a marble run on a free-standing peg board, and exploring the museum exhibits on their own. The kids had a great time. I've included some pictures from our trip below. Our week didn't end there. The fun continued as we had a special group visit from Air Products Inc. They did a variety of experiments related to STEM. They used liquid nitrogen to freeze things like flowers, bouncy balls, rubber duckies, and Twinkies. They even made us some ice cream to try. We ended our visit with a quick tour of their truck. The kids had a blast! A few reminders:
Please return all library books to school. Mrs. W has stopped checking out books for the year and we are looking to have all books returned to the library as soon as possible. I hope to see you all this Tuesday (6/12) at our Green Meadow Staff NO Talent Show. You never know who you might see up there on stage. The show starts at 6:30 at Genet School and the cost is $2 per person. All proceeds go to our PTO. Our school picnic is fast approaching. Please be on the look up for a sign up from our room mothers. All are welcome to join us at the picnic which will take place during our lunch at 12:05. The talent show will also be held that day at 2:00 in the gym. Please contact me with any questions! Only 9 days of school left. I'm going to miss this class! Happy June! I can't believe it is here already. This school year has flown by. There are many upcoming end of the year events. Please make note of these important dates at the bottom of this post. In math we've spent some time reviewing previously taught concepts like area, perimeter and geometry. We also have been working on decimals as we begin "stepping up to 5th grade" math. We have been doing lots of review in preparation for our NYS Science test. Student completed the hands-on part 1 of this state test last week. . The written part will be competed Monday morning (6/4). Please be sure your child arrives to school on time. If you have any questions, please let me know. This week I introduced students do a new interactive learning tool called NearPod. I have been asked to pilot this program for our district. Nearpod is an interactive presentation and assessment tool that can be used to create presentations, quizzes, polls, videos, images, drawing boards, web content, etc. It's like a virtual field trip tool. Already we've been able to learn about the meaning of Memorial Day, tour George Washington's home, and collaboratively share information about decimals. The students are really enjoying this new application. We've also spent some of the week working on biographies. Students are creating slide shows on a famous person. These will be presented next week. GMTV is still being done over our PA system in the main office. Thank you for your patience with this process as our IT team investigates our signal issues. We hope to be up and running before the end of the school year.
Please make note of the important dates below: 6/4 : NYS Science Test 9:30am 6/4: Caring Week at Green Meadow 6/5: Presentation from Air Products Inc. 6/6: Field Trip to the CMOST Museum 9:15-11:45 6/8: Half Day of School 6/12: Green Meadow Staff NO Talent Show at Genet 6:30 6/14: Flag Day Presentation 10:30 6/15: Half Day of School 6/21: Last day of School Have a wonderful weekend! - Mrs. Kusche Field Day 2018:
In class last week we started reading Wonder by RJ Palacio. "Wonder tells the story of Auggie Pullman, a young boy with a genetic facial difference who attends school for the first time. It has scenes of bullying and intense emotions, but it's also full of positive messages about choosing kindness, appreciating everyone for who they are (rather than what they look like), and true friendship; empathy and perseverance are also strong themes." The kids are really enjoying this book. We will be comparing it to the movie when we finish reading. I will be out Monday and Tuesday to do some curriculum writing for our district and set up for the NYS Science Hands-on portion of the test. Communication may be delayed. Here are some important upcoming dates: 5/22 - Instrument sign-up Night at Green Meadow 6-7 5/24 - Sno-Cone Sale during lunch 5/25 - No School for students - Staff Development Day 5/28 - No School - Memorial Day Have a great weekend! - Mrs. Kusche Dear Parents,
Thank you all for coming out last night to support our 4th and 5th grade choral, band, and orchestra concert. Last night, Mr. Halek announced that info was sent home about instrument selection for 5th grade. These were mailed home and not sent through backpack mail. You should be receiving them soon if you haven't already. Today our class will be meeting with Mr. Halek and Mr. Tario to listen to some instrument demonstrations. Students will then be making their choices about what instruments they would be interested in for next year. 4th grade instrument night will be held on Tuesday, May 22 from 6-7. This is your opportunity to make your final selection for an instrument for next year. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions. - Mrs. Kusche It has been a great week in room 22. The weather is finally starting to feel like spring and our NYS math test is complete. The class has worked very hard to prepare for this test. I'm proud of their efforts and dedication. Congratulations to Charlotte. She was the lucky winner of our egg contest. We've been following the eagles' nest in Washington DC since mid-February. When the eggs were laid in March, I gave students an opportunity to guess the date and time of when the first egg would hatch. Charlotte was off by just 16 minutes! Now we will continue to watch the eaglets until they fledge the nest in a few weeks.
May is a busy month with many important dates to make note of. 5/7: Last day to order a yearbook 5/8: Spring choral concert: Genet @7 (kids should arrive at 6:40) 5/10: District-wide Art Show @ CHS 6-8 Artwork from some of our students will be featured! 5/15: Field Day (4th grade from 10:30-11:30) 5/16: Author visit (during school) & Evening book fair (6-8pm) 5/17: Buy 1 Get 1 Free book fair during our special 5/22: 4th Grade instrument night @ GM (6-7pm) 5/24: Sno Cone Sale during lunch 5/25: No School K-5 5/28: No School - Memorial Day Have a wonderful weekend!
- Mrs. Kusche Here is a look at what we've been working on this week? In math we finished measurement and have moved on to geometry. This week we worked on lines, rays, and angles. The students are enjoying this topic. I challenged them to work in small groups and use a pattern block (measuring 30 degrees) to find the measurement of other angles. Friday we introduced protractors. Students practiced measuring a variety of angles. We will finish this topic on Monday and then move on to our last topic that we need to cover before the NYS Math test. In addition to our regular math curriculum, we have been using test prep books to review topics that we've been working on all year. This is helping to build confidence and familiarity with the format as we move closer to May 1st and 2nd.
Something new! There has been such an interest in using our new Chromebooks that we have added a new component to our study hall/recess portion of the day. We are calling it "Academic Chromes". You child now has the option to go outside, complete homework in study hall, or go to another 4th grade classroom to work on the slideshows, docs. and Google classrooms using our new Chromebooks. It's especially popular right now due to the chilly spring we are having.
We've wrapped up our study of the American Revolution. Folders were sent home today. These projects were used as a test grade. I was really pleased the effort and thought that went in to these projects. I think they're all sad to see this unit come to a close. We've had a lot of fun learning about how the United States became free from British rule.
Just a few reminders: 4/26 Popcorn sale this Thursday - The cost is $1 5/1-5/2 - NYS Math Assessment Have a wonderful weekend! It's been a busy week following our spring recess. The class had no trouble getting right back into the swing of things. Our two days of state testing went very smoothly. We all agreed that two days of testing was much better than three! The kids worked very hard. As you are aware, before vacation a brand-new cart of Chromebooks was delivered to our class. We have been doing all of our ELA Center work on the Chromebooks and submitting them through Google Classrooms. The kids are gaining wonderful skills with Google Slides and Google Docs as well. Before vacation the students completed their classroom challenge #2 and earned an afternoon of board games. They enjoyed playing games like Jenga, Cards, Apples to Apples, and Trivial Pursuit. It was a great way to unwind with friends before spring break. Next week we will pick back up with spelling. Our test will be on Friday 4/20. We also hope to finish up our study of the American Revolution. No assessment will be given on this topic. Their Domino project folders will be used as a test grade.
Here are some upcoming important dates to be aware of: 4/16 Art Fundraisers are due 4/19 Science Fair 6-7pm at Green Meadow 4/26 Popcorn Sale during lunch $1 5/1-5/2 NYS Math assessment Enjoy your weekend! - Mrs. Kusche Dear Parents, As you are aware, your child will be taking three New York State assessments in 4th grade. The first is ELA and will be given this week on April 11th and 12th. The test will be given in the morning starting around 9:30. Please try to avoid being tardy on these days. Students will be given as much time as needed to complete the two testing sessions. There have been some changes this year of which I want you to be aware. This year the test will be administered over two testing days instead of three. Students are very familiar with the format of the test. We have been working on review materials in class to familiarize students with the format. The format is as follows:
Day 1, Session 1: Students will be given 4 reading passages and then asked to answer 24 multiple-choice questions using a bubble sheet. Day 2, Session 2: Students will generate written responses to various reading passages. Students will be given six short-response questions and one extended response. Students write answers directly in their test booklets. How to prepare your child: - A good night's rest and a healthy breakfast are the best ways to prepare for testing days. - Students should go to bed on time (not early) the night before. - Help your child approach the test in a relaxed, positive way. |