Updates Week 24

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog.  There is a lot of important information in this post. As always, please let us know if you have any questions. 

We had a wonderful time at our class Valentine's Parties. Thank you so much to the families that donated to the animal shelter and helped our learners to share their love with the animals. Thank you, also, to the parents that volunteered to come to the party and to our wonderful room moms that planned the fun! 

Thank you, as well, to many of you that shared the love with us in the form of chocolates and Valentines. We appreciate your generosity! 

Important Announcements

• Spring Pictures will be Monday, February 22nd. Learners will take individual pictures and a class picture. We will take our pictures first thing in the morning before Specials. 
• Jump Rope for Heart will be Friday, February 26th during Specials. 
• We will have another session with our partnership with DTCC this Friday, February 26th. During this session, the learners will learn about a variety of careers. 
• Open House will be Thursday, March 10th. We will have more information coming about this evening in the near future! 
• We are in need of a few important items: tissues, hand sanitizer, and disinfecting wipes. We would greatly appreciate if you would be willing to donate any of the above items to our classrooms.  We are trying to keep all of the germs away! 

Holiday Coupons! 

For the holidays, we gave our students a coupon book. Within this coupon book, there is a coupon for a fun experience for each month. We will send reminders as those days get closer, but you may want to go ahead and mark them in your calendar now.

*March 31st - 30 Minutes of Non-electronic Game Time
*April 29th - A Picnic Outside for Lunch
*May 26th - A Movie & Popcorn

Upcoming Dates

• Monday, February 22 - Spring Pictures
• Friday, February 26 - Jump Rope for Heart (During Specials)
• Thursday, March 10 - Open House
• Friday, March 11 - Shamrock Shuffle (During Specials)
• March 14-18 Spring Break
• Thursday, March 24 - Spirit Rally
• Friday, March 25 - Weather Day 
• Tuesday, March 29 - Writing STAAR Test 

Character Education
The citizenship quality for February is Respect. 

Each week, Town Center focuses on one life principle, or guiding character quality. The life principles for each week are discussed on the morning announcements and will be posted on our agendas. 


What are we learning?
Math & Science

In math, we will be continuing our Division unit. The learners will be exploring three different strategies to use when they are solving division problems. The strategies are dividing with partial quotients, dividing with area models, and the standard algorithm.

In science, we will be starting out unit over earth's surfaces. The learners will be exploring erosion, deposition, and weathering. They will also be creating their own experiment to test different types of soils.  

Language & Literacy

We are reading our second Junior Great Books story, No-Guitar Blues. As we read through the story, the learners have had the chance to explore the question, "What does it mean to have integrity?" At the end of our study of the story, the learners will participate in a student-led discussion about the story in which they will use evidence from the text to defend their opinions. 

In writing, we will continue to explore expository writing, taking everything we've learned and putting it together to write incredible essays. The learners have been focusing on elaborating by using examples and clarification statements. This past week, they had the chance to put together everything they've learned about the writing process in a midyear writing assessment. We're looking forward to reading the learners' writing. 

Social Studies

In social studies, we have begun our study of the Texas Revolution. Throughout our study of the various battles in the Revolution, learners will be thinking about the following big questions: 

How does the past shape our present and future? 
Could the Revolution have been avoided? 

Learners will also get to participate in several Mind Missions in which they will have the chance to go through the Engineering Design Process and apply Design Thinking to their creations. 
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Thank you, again, for taking the time to read our blog. We are looking forward to another great week with our fourth graders! 

Typing Resources

A couple of our fourth grade parents and families have asked us about typing resources for our learners. We recently stumbled upon a new resource that might be helpful for those of you that want your learners to have some extra practice at home.

The website is called Kidz Type, and the learners can work through different levels to learn and practice home row typing skills.

In the past, we've also suggested www.sense-lang.org/typing/ and www.powertyping.com/ for typing practice.

We hope these resources will be helpful for you and your family.

Valentines Party

Our class parties will be Friday, February 12^th at 2:00 PM. Our room moms have helped to plan a fun party for our kiddos. The kids will have a chance to participate in some service-related activities in which they will be able to share their love with others. 

During the party, the kids will have the chance to make a decorative bag that they can use to collect Valentines. We know that some of the kids will want to make a box/bag at home, and that is okay too. Our only request regarding homemade bags/boxes is that they be small enough to fit inside their cubbies.

If your son/daughter would like to pass out Valentines, they may do that during the party. Each teacher will email a list of all of the students in their class in case your son/daughter would like to write names on his/her Valentines. We each have 23 students in our class, except for 4B which has 22 students. Of course, we do ask that if your son/daughter brings Valentines, that they bring enough for everyone in the class.

In addition to fun games and treats, we will have 3 service 'stations' that they will rotate through, each with a different focus.  They will work together to make a knot blanket for donation to kids who need a blanket in an emergency.  Second, they will have the opportunity to make a valentine for a resident at the Sandy Lake Nursing Home.  Third, they will have a 'puppy love' station where they can bring an item to donate to the animal shelter or bring loose change to combine with others for a class donation.  

If you would like to send in something for the animal shelter, feel free to have them bring it and drop it off anytime next week.  We will put boxes in each room for collection.  Here are some ideas:

• Treats
• Kitty Litter
• Any kind of wet or dry cat/dog food
• Loose change to collect for a donation to Animal Shelter

Finally, if you and your child would like to fully experience this joy of giving, the Room Moms will will gather as a small group to deliver these items after school.  We will meet at the Carrollton Animal Control Services at 3:30 at 2247 Sandy Lake Rd, Carrollton, TX.  They will gladly receive our collection and show us briefly around their facility.  We will then come back to Sandy Lake Rehab and Care Center (meet there at 4 pm) to drop off the valentines and hopefully pass out a few to residents  - 1410 E Sandy Lake Rd. (Note: This will not be a school sponsored event.) 

Important:  Please email your son/daughter's teacher and/or room mom and let us know if you are able to join in the delivery so we can tell the facilities how many of us to expect.  

If have any questions regarding our Class Valentines party, please don’t hesitate to ask. We're looking forward to a great celebration!