December 18th - Jan 1st: WINTER BREAK
Tuesday, January 2nd: School is Back in Session!
Monday, January 8th: Puffins to Forest Grove Public Library 2pm-3pm
Students should bring their library books to return, library card and a tote bag.
Chaperones Needed!
Friday, January 12th: All School Meeting: Puffins will present!
Spirit Day: Crazy Hair
Forest Grove School District building (1728 Main St.) in the Grove Room @ 9:45 am
Level 2 Suggested Weekly Homework:
Reading Homework
Spend at least 20 minutes reading (outside of school) every day.
Reading is on the "honor system" and we ask that you help your kiddo to develop a daily reading routine with good-fit books. At fall conferences, your kiddo brought home the Tower of Books wall poster, which is a fun (and optional) reading genre challenge.
Typing Homework
Level 2 students have typing homework to develop and support important keyboarding skills. Please practice at least 20 minutes per week on: Typing.com
Math homework
It is strongly recommended that your student practice math skills
at least 30 minutes (or more) per week.
This can be completed online with Dreambox or Khan Academy. Students can also play math games, or complete worksheets (you can find grade level workbooks online or at the Learning Palace).
Current 4th grade Math Topic:
- Multiplication: 1 digit by 2 digit and 2 digit by 2 digit using the "area method"
- Divide 1 digit by 2 , 3 and 4 digits using an area model
4th graders have set goals and made plans for daily practice and have identified the numbers they needs to work on (ie. 6’s, 7’s, 8’s, etc.).
During the break, ask your child to tell you their plan and support them by giving reminders about daily practice. 4th graders were given an optional math packet to practice their multiplication over the break.
4th grade: Winter Break Math Pages for those who would like a little extra practice!
Other Math Resources:
Dream Box Winter Math Fun Pack
What's Happening in the Puffin Nest?
This week, students completed another fairy tale engineering project. They either constructed a parachute for Jack (of beanstalk fame) or a contraption to carry Little Red Riding Hood’s basket down a zip line. Ask your Puffin to tell you about the project.
Here are some questions to guide you:
- Was your design successful? How could you tell?
- Did you try any designs that didn’t work?
- What surprised you about the project?
- What frustrated you about the project? How did you work through it?
We continued to study Fairy Tale Adaptations to help us with writing our own. We looked closely at the changes that authors made and noticed that they usually made one big important change to improve the story. We saw that the one big change leads to other changes- like a row of dominoes- so that the whole story fits together.
Students worked to develop the character, setting, motivation, trouble and resolution in their own fairytale adaptations this week. They also learned about how narrators tell the “backstory” and how we can use dialogue to show character traits and emotion.
Puffins have continued to explore funny Fairy Tale Adaptations through Reader's Theater. They practice reading smoothly and with expression and it helps to build our love of reading stories together.