Highlights from Week 23!

First off, I want to say congratulations to two of our students who participated in the Global Reading Challenge at the Semi-Finals today in downtown! The two students were part of the winning team at our school (In-School Challenge) and were able to compete today at the Semi-Finals. They were one of the two teams that won today, and will be advancing to the 19th Annual City Final on Tuesday, March 18 at the Central Library Microsoft Auditorium. If you are able, please go and support our Leschi students March 18, at 7:00pm!

This week was Read Across America Week and we celebrated Dr. Seuss with many fun activities. We had an all-day reading adventure on Monday and students brought pillows, pj's, and slippers to wear all day in the classroom. It was a fun, relaxing day with some treats and crafts including: a healthy version of Cat in the Hat snack! Today, with our Little Buddies, we also made butter after reading "The Butter Battle Book" by Dr. Seuss. It was such a fun time, and students got a good work out shaking up and making their butter!

Next week will be extra busy with a field trip on Wednesday to Pratt Fine Arts Center to make a mosaic and watch how glass is made. We will also be doing some print making as well - please return your student's field trip form if you have not done so. On Thursday, we will have a wonderful opportunity to have Beecher's Flagship Foundation come to our class and lead a workshop all morning called: "Pure Food Kids Workshop." Please check out the link for more information on the workshop.

Highlights:
-In Writers Workshop, we will be starting a brand new unit on Expository Writing/Essay Writing. Fourth graders will be taking the writing portion of the MSP (Measurement of Student Progress) next month, and we are preparing students to be succesful in writing expository writing given a prompt.
-Students working on Division units will be taking their math test next week on Wednesday! Please make sure that you are looking over the yellow study guide with your student. Also after every unit, I return all math work from the unit that has been graded. It would be helpful for families to look through those sheets and see where extra help may be needed. Students working on their Fraction unit will be taking their test the following week to get more practice.
-We are also finishing up our Rocks and Minerals science unit in the next couple of weeks. In April, we will begin our last science unit: Sound.
-Poetry reading has been going very well! After studying the structure of poems: white space, stanzas, line breaks, repetition, rhythm/meter, rhyme scheme - we launched into learning about figurative language. We learned so far: idioms, simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and personification. Next week, we will learn a few different types of poetry and move into the next reading unit.
-IMPORTANT: Our class has been chosen to be videotaped for the purpose of educating families on the different programs at our school. Next week, a videographer will be coming in to tape students working. PLEASE return the green permission form that gives permission to us to have your child in the video. If you do not want your child in the video, please make sure of it on the permission form. We need it back right away! I'm sorry for sending home so many permission forms, but our class has been busy with so many events! Your attention and punctuality in returning the forms is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

*Please remember it is Daylight Savings this weekend: spring forward!