Pilgrims To America!

We were so proud of the students and their work with our annual production of "Pilgrims to America!" They worked so hard to memorize their lines, speak with expression and fluency, and project their voices. They worked to tell the story of the historical impact of Thanksgiving and we believe they did an outstanding job! Kudos!

Now we have the students working hard again on their next project, the "how-to" project. The students are working to read expository text and write their own version of a sequenced "how-to" presentation. We kicked off this project with a how-to workshop in the cafeteria where teachers and parents demonstrated many different skills to the students to give them a variety of ideas for their own projects. The students are excited to begin showing us what they know how to do! They will be reading, writing, and orally presenting all within this project. This will be fun!

Pilgrims To America!

We are excited to be working on our annual production of "Pilgrims To America," the historical representation of why we celebrate Thanksgiving! This play will be presented two times, at 9:30 and 2:00, so mark you calendars now and plan to attend one of our presentations on Tuesday, November 23! Each student will have a special part in this production, whether as a actor or actress, poetry reader, or narrator. The students also create the scenery for the stage. It is a fun and special way to study why we celebrate Thanksgiving, fun reading and fluency practice, and a great collaborative, team project for our entire fourth grade!

Look What We Did At Jamestown!

Jamestown Field Trip Coming Up!

I am getting so excited about the upcoming field trip to Jamestown! This really is one of the highlights of the fourth grade year for so many of our students. They look forward to not only the learning of the actual tour of Jamestown, but also the "neat" bus, the long day away from school, and just the "event" of it all! It is a wonderful day all the way around! I look forward to it every year. I can't wait to see the look on the faces of all the students when we cross the mountains on the big bus and they get to board the ships at Jamestown! No matter how many times I get to go on this trip, it never gets old! Please make sure your child packs enough snacks for this big day, including drinks (no soda please) for both the ride there and the ride home. We also encourage a jacket as the weather may be cool by the water. I hope to post some pictures next week!

Latest News

It was great to see so many of you at the Community Night this week. I enjoyed talking with you again and meeting some new faces as well! If you did not get a chance to come, all is still well! Parent conference day is coming soon and we can get a chance to catch up then, or really anytime! Feel free to send a note or give me a call if you would like to set up a time to meet to discuss your child's progress with adjusting to this new school year. We are off to a great start and are almost finished with the first six weeks already! Time flies when we are having fun! :) Speaking of parent conference day, the fourth grade team will be sending home notices soon about that day. We will be allowing you as parents to choose whom you would like to meet with on that day; your child's homeroom teacher, literacy teacher, or mathematics teacher. You can also choose another day/time that would suit you better if that need arises. We are just looking forward to talking with you all! As always, parent communication is the key to a successful year for everyone! I am looking forward to keeping an open line! Have a great week!

Check out the Changes!

Make sure to check out the "Mrs. Slykhuis Links" at the bottom of the blog page! I have added a quick link there to my portaportal (note my guest access is jslykhuis) and I plan to add more links there as I find great ideas for students and parents! I have also added to the blog a little information about myself and the class schedule. Hope you find this information helpful!

Flying High in Fourth Grade!

I can't believe how quickly we have gotten into our routines! We now are switching for classes, taking tests, doing word study contract work, etc. and it all seems like no problem for these great kids! This week we learned more about weather in science. We did some experiments with temperature and will do some graphing with this topic next week. In Virginia Studies the students made their salt dough maps of the state - easily the highlight of the week! :) We are finishing up our study of place value of math. In fact, we plan to take our unit quiz on Monday and move into estimation and addition/subtraction review. I love to help students learn more ways to think about how to mentally add and subtract numbers so they don't always have to rely on paper and pencil methods. We will play loads of fun games to help with this. Ask your child about what we play as you can easily play them at home. We played a game this past week called "Make 16" with playing cards. It is easy and fun!

This week's learning adventures!

Another great week! This past week we really concentrated on getting into more of a classroom routine. We began running literacy stations/rotations and started working in more focused math small groups. It really feels like we are wonderful community. I couldn't ask for a better class! In math we are continuing our work with place value. We have many different things going on to help us learn about place value, including projects, small group practice and games! Ask your child how to play "Wipeout" on the calculator! This game gives your child a great way to practice the value of numbers. In science, we continued to work through lab activities to help us with the process skills such as observing and classifying. Next week will be begin to learn about weather. We are reading a great story in literacy called Akiak! Ask your child what that story is about as we think it would make a great movie! :)

School has begun!

I have so enjoyed these past few days of meeting and getting to know each student.  They are such sweethearts!  This is going to be a great year of learning.  Every face looks anxious to learn something new each morning!  I have the best job in the world!

School is beginning!

I am so excited to begin a new school year!  The students will be coming in less than a week!  It is so much fun to help these students learn new things and form new relationships during the school year.  I can't think of a more rewarding "job" than this!