October 2016 Newsletter
Room 116
Summary of the Month: It has been ages since my last newsletter! I am resigning myself to the notion that I won’t have the time do this weekly but I’ll get one out at least monthly. I can’t believe how fast October flew by. We have had an eventful month with art projects, hands on science, and a very informative field trip to the Murray Nature Center where the kids dissected owl pellets. We’ve studied Utah’s habitats and natural resources. We practiced with latitude, longitude and map skills. We’ve been working with a template to help organize information into a five paragraph essay. In language arts, we’ve been working on finding important details and main ideas and using this skill to create summaries. In math, we learned how to multiply with single and double digits and finished up with unit three. Today our Wonders story was about buffalo and how their near extinction is part of what led to the Dust Bowl. I showed them some pictures from the Dust Bowl era and they were so amazed! I encourage you to keep building on this interest at home. The best part about teaching is seeing my students get so excited and engaged about learning something new. Their jaws dropped when they saw entire houses and farms buried in dust and huge monster-like dust clouds! It is a perfect segue into our study of weather and soil. We finished our class book “Project Mulberry” and wrote up our reading responses. I’m finding that the kids are struggling with the editing aspect of their websites so I’m making the switch to using google classroom to publish their work. I’ll keep their websites alive so that you can get their usernames and passwords. Most of our silkworms are in their cocoons now. It will be fun to see their next transformation into moths. The kids are already asking me what our next pet will be! (I prefer pets that have a complete life cycle in just a couple months) We’ve moved from tables to rows, but we’re keeping the team idea alive with team jobs and responsibilities. We talked about some bad habits we are getting into with talking out of turn during class discussions. I am also going to start implementing something new to help them with completing assignments, turning things in and making sure they identify their work. (I had many no name papers last term!). I want to thank everyone for being so patient with me and my Gradebook. I will update this more frequently during this next term and send corrected work home sooner. Look for their work from term 1 coming home early next week. Sadly we said goodbye to Nikta who moved to Algeria but happily we said hello to Adam who just moved from Virginia. Overall, it was a great month!
Coming Up: I’m excited to start up our pen pal relationship with our 4th grade sister classroom in Rekyavik Iceland! We are going to teach them everything about Utah! Eventually, I want to work on the same project with them simultaneously using the miracle of google classroom. I’ve been in recent contact with their principal and they are excited to meet us. In math, we will be starting long division and getting more comfortable with fractions. In language arts, we’ll be working with possessive nouns and spelling with r controlled vowels. We’ll continue working on our skills of finding the main idea and details in expository texts and using these to create summaries. In science, we will be studying animals and adaptations. In social studies we will look at how geography affects the way people live. We have been so fortunate to have Caroline’s mom, Michelle Madsen, come in each week and do music with us! The kids look forward to it each week. Thank you Michelle! I have decided to take down our interactive wikispace website. It was just too redundant. But I will continue to post newsletters to my website. I also created a new secure/password protected page where I can post pictures from our class. I’ll email the password when it’s ready for viewing! Also, I update the homework page on my website daily after school with the homework assigned for each evening. You can download whole chapters and math assignments from this page. This address is: http://mrshamula4thgrade.weebly.com/homework.html
Announcements:
As always….please let me know if you have any questions, concerns or if you want to set up a meeting with me. The best way to reach me is through email; [email protected]
Shelly Hamula
Coming Up: I’m excited to start up our pen pal relationship with our 4th grade sister classroom in Rekyavik Iceland! We are going to teach them everything about Utah! Eventually, I want to work on the same project with them simultaneously using the miracle of google classroom. I’ve been in recent contact with their principal and they are excited to meet us. In math, we will be starting long division and getting more comfortable with fractions. In language arts, we’ll be working with possessive nouns and spelling with r controlled vowels. We’ll continue working on our skills of finding the main idea and details in expository texts and using these to create summaries. In science, we will be studying animals and adaptations. In social studies we will look at how geography affects the way people live. We have been so fortunate to have Caroline’s mom, Michelle Madsen, come in each week and do music with us! The kids look forward to it each week. Thank you Michelle! I have decided to take down our interactive wikispace website. It was just too redundant. But I will continue to post newsletters to my website. I also created a new secure/password protected page where I can post pictures from our class. I’ll email the password when it’s ready for viewing! Also, I update the homework page on my website daily after school with the homework assigned for each evening. You can download whole chapters and math assignments from this page. This address is: http://mrshamula4thgrade.weebly.com/homework.html
Announcements:
- Halloween parade starts Monday Oct 31 at 9:15. Please no masks or weapons as props. Thank you for sending back permission slips for the Harry Potter movie in the afternoon. If you haven’t yet, you may email me to let me know if your son or daughter is allowed to watch this movie with the 4th grade.
- Our next Hands on Science is on November 21st from 9-12. We could use a parent volunteer! It is really fun and well organized. Please let me know if you are interested in helping out.
- Garden Clean Up Party… bring gloves and shovels. Tentatively planned for 11/5. More details to follow.
- New term starts on Monday 10/31. Report cards will be coming home next week.
As always….please let me know if you have any questions, concerns or if you want to set up a meeting with me. The best way to reach me is through email; [email protected]
Shelly Hamula