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! :)