Mr. Sassman's 4th Grade Class Blog
Weller Elementary School
Last week...
Art Specialists were in the house, and the kids made some creations inspired by Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky was an improvisational artist that believed colors and musical notes were related. They listened to music and made abstract art using only color, line, and shape. I have them on display in our classroom and will send them home soon.
The kids are well underway with their state reports. This project crosses curricula by way of reading (research), writing, and social studies. It is significant and worthy of a large block of class time for the next month or so. Sprinkled in, is DOL, spelling, GeoNotes, STEM, science, and SSR, read aloud, and our class novel. We are in full swing and halfway done with the first quarter, and I love life with this class!
Thanks for sending in cereal boxes for book reports, most have been prepped and are ready to be made (after the book is read of course). We have also started two new art pieces: I can't imagine a world without...
and Parabolic Curves (math class only)!
For your convenience, below is a copy of our Q1 TDL (To-Do-List). I printed copies for all the kids, and we are plugging away already.
This week...
Is a short one but very busy. There is no school on Friday. The District has planned Professional Development Sessions all day at Lathrop HS (yes, I would rather be with the kiddos), and I will be out of the building tomorrow for administrative work. Mrs. Young (our UAF student-teacher) will be captain of the ship, and she is more than prepared and capable of the rewarding task. She and I have been at school today planning, prepping, and grading.
On Tuesday, we will be dissecting salmon! I have facilitated this lesson for several years now, and it has always been epic! All are welcome to observe and help out. We should be starting around 12:45 if you are free and would like to join.
I caught up quite a bit on grading last week, and I again have a medium-sized stack of papers to get through today and tomorrow (as life goes for a teacher), so please be patient and keep checking Power School periodically.
Here is the link to Power School: https://premier.k12northstar.org/public/
I have finally heard back from the district about PT Conference sign-ups, and they are opening up a digital format through Power School, but not until the week before...yes I have already given them grief about the need to open it up earlier. As soon as I have more information, I will be sure to provide you with an update. Thanks for your patience, and if you are not pleased about this, feel free to contact the district and let them know wink wink...Parent voices are far more potent than teachers on these types of things.
I have added more dates below, and I am finalizing some of the FACE arts performances for our class. My goal is to have at least one field trip per month with the class this year, with a cluster of trips at the end of the year. More on that at a later date.
The First Quarter Plan:
Monday looks like:
- Non-fiction Narrative Writing - Summer Break Reflections
- State Reports and Poster Board
- States Potluck
- Spelling
- Life Sciences
- The United States - Geography, Mapping, Economy, States Reports
- Red Bird Math
- enVision Math
- Daily Oral Language (DOL)
- Q1 Book Reports
- Reading Logs
- Cursive Handbooks
- Class Novel
- Art
- Pen Pals
- And much, much, more...
Monday looks like:
8:30 - 9:00
Arrive
Writing Prompt
Morning Announcements
Class Meeting - New jobs
Student of the Week Presentation - Emily
9:00 - 9:30
Gym
9:30 - 10:00
Music
10:00 - 11:30
Snack/Read Aloud
DOL
Salmon Life Cycle and Anatomy
11:30 - 12:00
Lunch
12:00 - 12:30
Recess
12:30 - 1:45
Math Block - Repeating Number Patterns
1:45 - 2:00
Break/Movement Activity
2:00 - 2:45
Salmon Continued
2:45 - 3:00
Clean Up
Stack Chairs
Mailboxes
*Please note that math, specials (PE, music, and library), lunch, and recess are part of a fixed schedule and stay in blocks. At times, curriculum instruction will be shuffled to accommodate different initiatives.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please feel free to call or email me anytime to discuss things further. I hope you find this information helpful and useful.
IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENTS - QUIZZES - TESTS
--DOL Lesson 3 (Finish)
--Cursive Letter "D" (Should be finished with A, B, and C by now)
--GeoNotes Lesson 2 (Finish)
--Six Rooms Poetry (Final Draft)
--Latitude and Longitude
HOMEWORK
ONGOING
--Reading Logs (ongoing)
MATH HOMEWORK DUE THIS WEEK
DUE ON
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
--Practice/Reteach 2-2
Thursday, September 26, 2019
--Practice/Reteach 2-3
***A brief note about homework. It is my philosophy that homework is an opportunity for students to practice skills that they have learned in school that day/week. The benefits are proven and tremendous. I try to keep things simple: 20 minutes of reading practice (reading logs), 20 minutes of math practice (worksheet), and 5-10 minutes of spelling (1 page per night). If your student is working on homework for more than an hour each night (Monday - Thursday, none on the weekends), please contact me so we can discuss things further. It is not my intention to make life impossible for you at home.
DUE ON
--Practice/Reteach 2-2
Thursday, September 26, 2019
--Practice/Reteach 2-3
***A brief note about homework. It is my philosophy that homework is an opportunity for students to practice skills that they have learned in school that day/week. The benefits are proven and tremendous. I try to keep things simple: 20 minutes of reading practice (reading logs), 20 minutes of math practice (worksheet), and 5-10 minutes of spelling (1 page per night). If your student is working on homework for more than an hour each night (Monday - Thursday, none on the weekends), please contact me so we can discuss things further. It is not my intention to make life impossible for you at home.
***Please keep in mind, projects, or tests we have in class may have to be brought home to be finished or to study. Please ask your child if they have completed their work and check PowerSchool regularly.
ONGOING INFORMATION
READING LOGSReading logs are a regular part of our class. Students will receive "points" for each day that they read a minimum of 20 minutes at home. The purpose: for students to read each day (not 100 minutes over the weekend or 40 minutes on Tuesday to catch up for Monday).
Reading logs will be due on a rolling basis and should have dates read on them. I will give credit as they are turned in and filled out correctly (please initial these). The points students receive will be added to their overall reading grade, counting towards their final grade.
It is simple, if students read and turn in their logs, they will see their grade improve significantly while naturally benefitting in fluency and accuracy. If they do not, they will not be given a "0" on the assignment, they simply will not receive any points.
I have a yellow folder by the classroom front door filled with new reading logs. Email me with any questions or concerns, please.
GOOGLE DRIVE
You can access all of your student's digital assignments online and work at home if you would like. Simply go to www.gmail.com and type in their email address and password. Then find the Google Menu (where you will find the Drive, Docs, and Slides) icon in the top right corner (it is a nine-square grid next to their s-number). This is where they will make their Google Slides Presentation for their Biography Book Reports. All passwords have been reset and synched to their individual defaults for the start of the school year. Please do not make any changes. It is as follows:
Username: s#@student.k12northstar.org (for example: s123456@student.k12northstar.org)
Password: s#g (for example: s123456g)
DATES TO REMEMBER
Thursday, September 26, 2019
--PTA Sponsored Equinox Family Recreation Night at Weller (6 PM)
Friday, September 27, 2019
--Professional Development Teacher Work Day (no school)
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
--Picture retakes if your kiddo missed them
Friday, October 18, 2019
--Early Dismissal
--End of Q1
--FALL FESTIVAL (5 PM)!
Thursday, October 31 and Friday, November 1, 2019
--Parent/Teacher Conferences (please sign up online when it opens up, I will post the link as well)
More to come...
It's a good life!
Mr. Sassman
