Sunday, April 17, 2016

Hi All,

What a beautiful weekend!

First of all, my compliments to your beautiful children, who sustained a polite, independent "Grand Conversation" on the book Coolies. For 45 minutes they respectfully shared their thoughts about this historical fiction picture book on the Chinese workers who built the transcontinental railroad. Kids mentioned discrimination, family loyalty, asked questions, and made comparisons to other books we've read like Wonder and our Reflections text. Their conversation ended Friday on a bright and powerful note!

On Friday we were also fortunate to have a terrific assembly by the Banana Slug String Band, sponsored by Soquel Creek Water District. In addition, we squeezed in the spelling and vocabulary test and the mid-module test on fractions.

This week will be the final week of RTI, and our last week of spelling words in the homework packet. ( We will still be reading and will still have homework packets!).   Packets during the remainder of the year will be project-oriented. The first project will be a science experiment and  presentation, which will be due on Tuesday, May 10th. Information will be coming home on next week's packet, but kids can start thinking about simple science experiments now.

Fourth Grade will begin state testing in a week, and parent volunteers will be cancelled during the two week window. While we won't be testing for hours and hours each day, our normal schedule will be shifted about somewhat. We will continue with math lessons on some days, but I don't intend to send math homework during the two weeks of testing. As I mentioned above, RTI will end after this week. Instead, our class will be reading the novel Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, and will have independent Reader's Workshop time as well.

It's hard to believe, but our class has used all the pencils, end cap erasers, wipes, and Kleenex sent in at the beginning of the year. If you can send in a bit more (especially pencils), we'd really appreciate it!

Finally, on Monday I'm sending home permission slips for our field trip to Monterey's Custom and Pacific House museums. It is scheduled for Friday, May 6th. Please return the permission slip and $3 ASAP. Email me if you are able to drive on that day, and already have cleared TB tests and fingerprints on file.

Have a great week,
Carroll Mayer

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