February News

Carney’s Crew Class News and Updates  

February 18, 2018  

Dear Families,

Happy snowy Monday! I hope you enjoyed your weekend. It’s hard to believe that we are only a week away from February break!

Here are some updates from the classroom:

We are in the middle of unit 5 and are learning about adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with like denominators.  We are halfway through unit 5, so we will take the first part of our math test this Friday and then we will take the second part of the math test in early March when we return from break.  Students who will be absent this Friday will take their test on Thursday.

In reading, students are exploring informational texts and are working to identify the topic, main idea and supporting details. We have been using the website www.newsela.com for some of our informational texts.  Students have logins for this website and can access from home.  Login information is on their password card in their google drive.  They know how to access all of this!

Students have been working so hard on their informational writing pieces.  We are working to publish our writing today and will have our author’s celebration tomorrow afternoon during our writing time.  Students will share their writing with you at conferences after break. Information about our next big writing project will be coming home in Friday folders!

Our next science and social studies units will be happening simultaneously.  In science, we will be starting our Land and Water unit and in social studies, we will be learning about the regions of the United States.  

Upcoming Dates:

Recorder Concert- Our 4th grade recorder concert is TOMORROW, February 19th from 7:00-7:30. Students should come down to the classroom at 6:45, no earlier.  They should bring ONLY their recorders with them. I will walk them down to the concert and then they will meet their adult after the concert.  Students will NOT be coming back to the classroom after the concert.

Conferences - Trimester 2 conferences will be on Monday and Tuesday March 4th and 5th. Mrs. Burke sent out information about conference sign ups in her newsletter last Friday.  Please email me with any conference related questions.

MBS Yearbook- Yearbooks are available to order until Feb. 22nd using the following link- http://jostensadservice.com/?REF=A09886611

February Break- There will be no school for students from February 25th-March 5th. School will start up again on Wednesday, March 6th.

Passion Projects- Please look in Friday folders for a yellow piece of paper explaining our upcoming passion projects.

Inservice Day- Save the date! There will be no school for students on Friday, March 22nd due to teacher inservice.

Have a great rest of your week and a restful vacation. See you all in March!

Mrs. Carney

January Updates

Dear Families,

I hope you enjoyed your weekend. It’s nice to see temperatures finally above zero! Thank you for remembering to send all winter gear to school each day, it is much appreciated!

Here are some updates from the classroom:

We took our unit 4 math test on Friday and tests will be coming home sometime this week. Unit 5 will focus on fraction and mixed number computation and measurement.  We will continue to work on multiplication facts and computation throughout this unit as well. Any additional practice with multiplication at home will benefit your child, especially with division fast approaching.

In reading we have wrapped up our mythology unit and have started focusing on nonfiction.  Students have been working hard to identify text features and explain how they help when reading an informational text.  Ask your child to name a few text features for you. This week we will start learning how to identify the main idea and supporting details of a nonfiction article or text. We will also learn about the difference between main idea and topic.   

We started our informational writing unit and students created expert lists in their writer’s notebooks. Students brainstormed topics that they know and care a lot about and then selected one topic to begin writing about. We are currently in the process of drafting our first informational writing piece based on the topic from their expert lists.  Students have brainstormed subtopics and listed facts, details and examples for each. We are working on using the “hamburger” structure to organize our paragraphs for each subtopic. Ask your child to explain the hamburger to you! Stay tuned for information coming home soon about our Passion Projects!

In social studies, we have started our Vermont Land and Economy unit and are learning about the physiographic regions of Vermont.  Students are working on identifying similarities and differences in both the land and products in each of the regions. We will switch to our Land and Water science unit sometime in the beginning of February.

Upcoming Dates:

Valentine’s Day- We will do a valentines exchange on February 14th.  I will send home a list of student names this week. Please remember, there needs to be a valentine for every child.  We will not have a big party, but if you would like to send in a small treat, please email and let me know!

MBS Yearbook- Yearbooks are available to order until Feb. 22nd using the following link- http://jostensadservice.com/?REF=A09886611

Early release day- Students will be dismissed at 12:45 on February 6th.

SBAC interim assessments- Over the next few weeks, students will take a math and reading SBAC interim assessment. This is a much shorter version than the SBAC testing that we will do in May.

Recorder Concert February 19th- I will follow up with the exact time and details of the concert after I get more details from Mr. Mast, but I wanted to give you a save the date for your calendar!

Your kids are working so hard both academically and socially each day! It is amazing to see how much they have grown since the beginning of the year. I am so lucky to be their teacher!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Carney

Fort Day

Students had a blast during our fort day this afternoon! Check out the pictures!

Fort Day Tomorrow!

Hi Everyone!

Happy New Year! 

We filled our fish bowl and will be celebrating tomorrow with forts, stuffed animals and a read-a-thon!  Students can bring in sheets and/or blankets to help make their forts.  They may also bring in a small stuffed animal and an electronic  device for reading (or just a good old fashion book!). There are plenty of books in the classroom and students will also have access to chromebooks for other online reading options.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great night!

Mrs. Carney 

Making Frindles

We made frindles today!  Be sure to ask your child what a frindle is.

All set to go into the oven! 

Class Goal Celebration

We met our class goal today and filled our token jar! We will celebrate tomorrow with pjs, stuffed animals and a movie.  Please make sure that stuffed animals are small and can fit inside your child's backpack.  Thank you in advance!

More learning fun!