Week 2


Weekly Greetings!

Wow, we had a great first week in 4th grade! This is a fantastic group of students, and I am truly privileged to help mold their future through the coming school year. I see abundant potential in them all.

I have a distinct structure on how I manage my classroom, and we started off on the first day in small groups with the students working to establish what the three main rules looked like, and sounded like in the classroom. We focused on "Being Safe", "Being Kind", and "Being a Good Listener". It was wonderful to see how well each group cooperated together and the ideas they generated were perfect!

The second day, we plunged into some reading review strategies and our new math program. The students also worked on a descriptive paragraph about something fun they did this summer. In Social Skills, we covered five of the "Six Keys" for success this year, and will address the last one on Tuesday as the student have their Library time on Monday. I listed the keys in my last post.

Every day I set a time aside at the end of the day for students to complete daily assignments, but if they are all done, then they have some free choices for "Enrichment". Once we get the class set of computers, they I will be adding a technology component o this time. The pictures to follow show some of the activities students did toward the end of the week in "Enrichment".
The field trip to the bird banding station was very interesting, and it was a nice way to start the year. Unfortunately due to a fire drill in school that morning, we were delayed a few minutes and just missed seeing the netted birds being banded. Some students had this experience last year, and there will be another opportunity next year to go again. The Tetlin Refuge staff did a very informative presentation at the station about the importance of bird banding and characteristics of birds. They even had wings, feather, and bird feet for the students to examine.
This week we will continue to establish routines through a smart start review.  We will also to go to the Tok Green House on Thursday to talk about harvesting, and begin a unit in Science on Healthy Habits.  Another important item will be the MAP testing on Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon. This test will give us valuable information to guide your child's education and set appropriate goals for the year.

In closing, I  hope you all can make it to the Tok School Open House on Wednesday from 4pm to 6pm. See you then!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

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