Echelmeier's News
High Levels of learning for All! (week 2/315)
What's Happening
We have lots happening these next few weeks in our classroom. This Thursday night is our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Family Night. From 5-7pm, attendees will be able to participate in various hands-on activities revolving around this theme. Each grade level will have different activities, as well as college students lending their "science, math, and engineering" expertise. Food will be served and a technology workshop will be provided to assist parents in helping develop 21st century learners at home. A lot of time and effort has gone into planning this night and I hope your family will be able to participate. Friday will consist of a "No Worksheet Holiday". We will take the activities from Thursday night and dig a little deeper with understanding and hands-on, inquiry learning.
Next Thursday, the 12th, will be our next PBS assembly at 8:45am. From 2-3 pm, our class will hold our annual Valentine's Day party. If you are willing to coordinate and/or assist in any way, please let me know asap. I will send a list of student names home at the end of the week.
I will be out of the classroom the 17th and 18th of February. I will be keeping in touch with the students, our student teacher, Miss Dennis, and our substitute teacher. Please let me know if there are any concerns as I will be checking my email daily.
Our Parent Conferences will be held on Feb. 19th and 20th. I will do my best to schedule all that have siblings on the 19th so you will only have to attend one day. Please note that this may not work with all teachers who have siblings, so your cooperation will be greatly appreciated. I will do my best to make this work for everyone.
We are also beginning our blogging with another 4th grade class in another state. The students have enjoyed their authentic writing, writing to a real audience with a real purpose. The other class has responded to our students' original postings, and we are commenting back! How exciting! No longer is learning occurring just within our four walls of our classroom!
We are also beginning our video game creations. Most of the students have chosen this as their final projects to showcase their understanding of verbs. These creations will always be aligned to our learning standards. Instead of taking a paper/pencil test on content, why not let the students create a video game showing what they know??
EXCITING times!!
WE have completed our benchmark testing and I have shared your child's progress with them. We are currently in the process of setting 3rd quarter goals. Please ask your child to explain and discuss these with you.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me through the school or my email.
What We're Learning
Writing: How to construct a persuasive writing piece.
Spelling: Spelling patterns that make /k/, /kw/, and /ng/ sounds
Math: Beginning Unit 6, Division
Social Studies: Early Missouri History/Native Americans