Dear Fourth and Fifth Grade Families,
Please enjoy these notes and updates from our classroom:
Ashoken
We will be heading to Camp Ashoken from Wednesday to Friday, and we are so excited! Students have been talking nonstop about blacksmithing projects and maple candy making, and teachers are working hard to form groups and make last minute arrangements. If your child is planning to attend, and has not yet handed in all of the forms and payment, please do so as soon as possible. If you need another copy of the packing list, please let me know. I have copies at school, but I don't have an electronic version. If your child requires medication of any kind during the trip, please bring it in the original packaging inside a ziplock back, labeled with your child's name in sharpie. Don't forget to send your child with extra socks, underwear, and garbage bags in case anything gets wet.
Students who are not joining us at camp, will join other classes Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Family Conferences
As soon as we get back from camp, it will be time for family conferences. I will be available to meet from 1:00-4:15 PM on Tuesday, March 15 and from 4:30-8:00 PM on Wednesday, March 16. I'll send home a form tomorrow. If you can, please send it in on Tuesday, so we can schedule times before we go to camp. I am looking forward to meeting with all of you.
Pen Pals
We have now received and sent our first batch of letters to our New Orleans pen pals. It was so exciting to learn about our pen pals and share about ourselves. I saw students write more than they ever had before. Ask your child about his or her pen pal.
Slavery
In recent weeks, we had two visitors come to our class to talk to us about slavery. Anthony, Kofa's dad, shared with us the story of his family and their connection to Carter Woodson, the founder of Black History Month. Students connected to this story and asked many interesting questions about African American history and race. Jennifer from the New York Historical Society came to share with us some artifacts from the Civil War era: a bag of cotton, a soldier's bag, the doll of a slave girl, and a lantern. Students enjoyed exploring these artifacts with their 4 senses (we decided to leave out taste for this activity) and hypothesizing about how the objects were used.
We continue our study of slavery by exploring the Underground Railroad through stories and songs.
Book Clubs
Students are very excited to be involved in book clubs. Groups are reading The Whipping Boy, Bunnicula, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Number the Stars, and A Wrinkle in Time. Each group has a different focus from keeping track of characters to improving fluency in reading aloud to making inferences with evidence from the text to recognizing and understanding metaphor. Ask your child about the book he or she is reading.
Personal Essays
Students are finishing up revising and editing their personal essays. We will be ready to publish soon, and I hope to have them ready by family conference time. Soon, we will move on to a unit on writing literary essays. Students will be able to write about their favorite books.
As always, if you need to contact me for any reason, you can reach me at stephschwartz@gmail.com or by leaving a note on my door or a message with anyone in the office.
Best,
Stephanie
