Tok School's Fantastic 4th Graders

Weekly Greetings! I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving, enjoying good food, family, and friends. Despite a short week, the class pressed on academically as we prepared for a second round of MAP testing this week. We will be testing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Please make sure your child is at school those days and has had a good night rest. The class continued to work on the district writing assessment last week, and will complete it by this Friday's deadline. On Tuesday we did take a break from our usual writing time to start a Social Skills program with Mr. Dunning, the school councilor.  The video showed two unsuccessful ways students usually respond to conflict, but then a third way to help resolve the problem by "staying cool". I hope to get more information about the program to inform you on how to help support your child in this area. The councilor will not be available this week, but we should continue having sessions weekly when he returns. There a...

Weekly Greetings! To start with, I want to remind you that we have only three days of school this week and on Wednesday the students will be released at 1:45pm. I will be sending homework home on Monday and Tuesday nights, but there will not be a spelling test this week. There are always some review words on the following week's list, so this week is just continued practice with a focus on r-controlled words with /ar/ and /or/. Last week, the students worked on the district writing assessments and hopefully will finish their final drafts this week. With art on Wednesday, and a visit from Tim Lorenzini from the Tetlin Refuge, there was really only three days to work on their essay. Both of the special activities just mentioned, were a welcomed break to our routine. In art, the students worked with clay and made some really creative objects. On Thursday in science, the class continued studying about matter and looked at chemical chances that can take place w...

Weekly Greetings! October is over, and as we moved into November it was time for the Student of the Month awards. One of the October students being recognized was from our class! Ruben Constantine was well deserving of the honor, and I am sure you will read all the great comments in the next edition of the Mukluk News. At the assembly last Tuesday, it was also time to acknowledge students for good grades and attendance for the first quarter. From 4th grade there were three students that earned an academic award for having all As and Bs for the quarter. Also, our class had two students with perfect attendance.  A little later that day, we participated in an AK Teach Scientists in Action virtual field trip. The students joined paleontologists behind-the-scenes at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science as they shared their discoveries of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.There were a number of classes involved from all over the United States, so our class cou...

 Weekly Greetings! There are some important dates to relay to you before I recap last week. First, there will be a 1st Quarter awards and Student of the Month assembly on Tuesday, November 7, at 8:30am in the school gym.  I hope many of you can attend. Then Thursday, November 9, there will be a Veteran's Day assembly at 2:30pm. The students have been practicing some special songs to share in honor of those that have served our country. Finally, there will not be any school on Friday, November 10, due to Parent/Teacher conferences. I will be sending home an additional note with a time scheduled to visit with each of you. Please be looking for it on Monday. Now, on to some highlights from last week. Of course, the beginning of the week was all about Halloween. We read some silly Halloween stories about pumpkins and then the class designed a face for the class jack-o-lantern. I did my best to carve it as they directed. Before the carving, we did a visualization activity and a...