Week of May 17

               

Links from this week:

Many students wanted me to pass along some links from our learning this past week!

Museum of Natural Curiosity: We learned about this cool museum during our "Curiosity" P2 lessons this week. It is located in Utah so if you're planning a trip out west at some point, definitely check it out!

Every Kid Outdoors: This website goes along with our virtual field trip we went on on Tuesday to the Pictured Rocks! On Monday, I sent home a pass that can be used until the end of August to admit 4th graders and their families (anyone under 16 and up to 3 adults) FREE into national parks across the US! Check out this website for more information including a link called Plan a Trip where you can Find a Park to visit (it is easy to filter by state to see which National Parks you can visit).

Charging computers each night:

I would appreciate your help in gently reminding your child to have their computer charged and ready for the school day each morning. We've had many coming to school recently without their computer or with computers that aren't charged. Thank you for helping with this!

NWEA and M-STEP Testing:

M-STEP testing begins this week; we may have to finish these tests on Thursday and Friday depending on the completion of tests each Wednesday. Our schedule is:

-Wednesday May 19: M-STEP Reading Assessment

-Wednesday May 26: M-STEP Math Assessment

Scholastic Book Order - Orders due online by Thursday May 27:

This will be our last Scholastic Book order of the year! Ordering books is completely optional but is a fantastic way to grow your at-home library collection at a low cost and have plenty of books for summer reading.

Each book that is ordered helps our classroom to earn free books for our class library and the students LOVE to see what new books we receive each month.
If you are ever interested in ordering books as a gift and want me to set them aside for you to pick up, please let me know.
You can click the following link to place an order through our class ordering page: https://orders.scholastic.com/L63HX

Daily Student Health Screener:

Click here for a checklist of symptoms and situations to keep a focused eye on this year. The teachers are logging daily health checks, as well. We are doubling down on health and wellness in efforts to protect our ability to meet for in-person learning. Thank you for your cooperation on this.

Mrs. Bawks' Brown School Family Blog:

Please don't forget to take a peek at Mrs. Bawks' Brown School Family Blog each week. CLICK HERE to read it.

Important Upcoming Dates:

Wed. 5/19 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Wed. 5/26 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Fri. 5/28 - All books checked out from the Media Center need to be returned by today.

Mon. 5/31 - NO SCHOOL (Memorial Day)

Wed. 6/2 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Fri. 6/4 - Popcorn Friday!

Thur. 6/10 - 1/2 Day of School (Dismissal at 12:34pm)

Fri. 6/11 - Last day of School: 1/2 Day of School (Dismissal at 12:34pm)

This week's learning:

Positivity Project (P2): This coming week we will be focusing on the character strength of Forgiveness: "You forgive those who have done wrong. You accept that people make mistakes."

ELA & Writing: This week we will begin our end-of-year review and testing. We will review many of the essential skills that we've learned this year (main idea and detail, nonfiction text structures, text features, making inferences, making judgements, etc).

In writing this week, we will begin researching for our informational writing. Students will use websites, books and other sources to find more information for their subtopics.

Math:  This week, we will take our unit 7 test on Monday (test was moved from Friday to Monday due to NWEA testing taking a bit longer) and then will begin our final math unit for this year. Our lessons for the week are:

Monday: Unit 7 Test

Tuesday: I can solve challenging multistep number stories.

Wednesday: I can apply my understanding of the additive nature of angle measures to real-life situations.

Thursday: I can find measures of pattern-block angles and use known angle measures to find measures of other angles.

Friday: I can apply knowledge of line symmetry to create symmetric shapes.

Looking to extend your child's learning in math at home?

I highly recommend having them work on Khan Academy (we use this in class)! Students have access to the assignments that I've put onto Khan Academy for them (they use these during our math workshop time) and they can also work on their "course mastery." Khan Academy will continue to work them through 4th grade concepts and beyond (for those students who are ready to begin learning skills beyond the elementary level) and provides video explanations to help them work through the content. They also have courses to practice reading and language arts, computer programing (Pixar in a Box has historically been very popular with students in my classroom!), growth mindset, careers and much more!

Science: This week, we will investigate how heat can be used to make things move. This simple idea led to the invention of steam engines and a revolution in human transportation! Students will create their own simple heat engines and test different heat sources. 

You can support your child’s learning by watching videos of some of the few steam locomotives still in operation (https://video.link/w/Xdge). Ask your child: how do these trains get energy to move? 

Social Studies: This week we will focus on learning about how our federal government is organized. Big ideas from these lessons are:

• The Framers of the Constitution were afraid of giving one group or one person in government too much power. 
• They limited the power of the federal government by separating or dividing power among three groups or branches of government.  
• The three branches are known as the legislative branch, the executive branch and the judicial branch.
• Each branch has a different function and its own special powers.

Homework:  Homework each week consists of reading 20+ minutes at home (this can be a library book, magazine, newspaper, online book, etc) and practicing multiplication and division facts 1 through 12. Mastering multiplication and division facts is vital to our learning this year.

Thank You,

Mrs. Hassenger