Newsletter: August 22-30

Mrs. Cioni’s Class

4-3

Website: mrscionisclass.weebly.com

Email: ccioni@sd25.org

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to what will hopefully be another great year at Patton. This year will be filled with many exciting activities and projects centered around our geosphere, energy transfers, waves, the regions of the US, and our government and economy. Fourth graders will learn more about multiplication and division, and become reading detectives as we continue the journey of becoming lifelong readers. The next ten months will surely be an adventure. Please feel free to call me or email me if you have any questions. I look forward to meeting everyone at Curriculum Night on Wednesday, August 28.

Just a Few Notes...

As you have heard from the front office, there is a designated time to drop off school supplies and see the classroom on Wednesday, August 21 from 2:40-3:20 PM. For anyone not able to make it, bring your supplies with you on the first day. Pre-ordered kits have been delivered to the classroom and are waiting for those of you who ordered them. In addition to purchased school supplies, your child will need to bring back their HEADPHONES and RECORDER from 3rd grade. Both will be used again this year.

Students are allowed to bring water bottles into the classroom. I ask that they fill their bottles at home in the morning before they come to school. They will have the opportunity to refill them as needed throughout the day. WATER ONLY will be allowed in the classroom. Please do not send flavored water or sports drinks in the water bottles.

Students are encouraged to bring a healthy snack to school to have during morning snack to tide us over until lunchtime. The lunch hour begins at 12:10, with fourth graders eating third shift at 12:50. Please be reminded that school policy indicates only fresh fruits and vegetables in their own skin will be allowed in the classroom at snack time.

If you need to send money to school for hot lunch, PTA, or anything else, please send money in an envelope with your child's name, room number (4-3), and where the money should go.

In the newsletter I will list the names of those students who will be celebrating birthdays in the upcoming weeks. Those who have birthdays in the summer can celebrate their half birthdays during the school year. Please be reminded that birthday treats are not allowed at school. We will be sending out some suggestions of non-food ways to celebrate your child's birthday if you choose.

Parent Homework: Parent-Teacher communication is key to your child's success. I am asking that each parent take a few minutes to complete the "About My Child" form coming home in backpack mail on the first day. I am requesting that forms be returned to me by August 30. Your input is valuable to me as I get to know your child these first few weeks. Thank you.

Last but not least, students will have the opportunity to purchase books from the Scholastic book order forms. I will send home two order forms each month from which you may select books. If you choose to buy books, please include a check made out to Scholastic. PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY CASH TO SCHOOL for book orders. There is also a link on my webpage under "For Parents" if you prefer to order online with a credit card.

Upcoming Events...

August 18 Happy Birthday, George! (to be celebrated August 23)

August 28 Curriculum Night 6:30-7:10 PM for Grades 3-5, 7:20-8:00 PM for Grades K-2

September 2 No school: Labor Day

The Final Six Days...

Monday, June 3

SIX to FIVE COUNTDOWN: Backboard Dodgeball

-Colonial Williamsburg in-house field trip (Part 1)

-Summer Keyboarding Challenge with Mrs. Corley

Tuesday, June 4

FIVE to FIVE COUNTDOWN: Class Picnic

-Colonial Williamsburg in-house field trip (Part 2)

Wednesday, June 5

FOUR to FIVE COUNTDOWN: Breakout from the Underground Railroad

-Cultural Arts Assembly: American Grove Evolution

-Happy Birthday, Cayla!

-Writing Celebration
-Personalized Learning Projects: 4-3's Got Talent Presentations Part 1

Thursday, June 6

THREE to FIVE COUNTDOWN: Board Games

-Bring a board game to share and play with classmates.

-SPIRIT DAY: Apply sunscreen/bug spray at home & dress for the weather

-Personalized Learning Projects: 4-3's Got Talent Presentations Part 2

-Happy Birthday, Adam! (June 19)

Friday, June 7

TWO to FIVE COUNTDOWN: Wet Head Game (Dress appropriately)

-Happy Birthday, Vanessa! (June 22)

-Last day of math instruction

-Reading Buddies Farewell

-Bring an empty bag and empty backpack to bring home school supplies and projects.

-Please make sure all books and textbooks have been returned to school.

Monday, June 10

(Last day of school/Full day of attendance)

ONE to FIVE COUNTDOWN: Minute-to-Win It Challenges

-Awards Assembly

-Yearbook signing

-Report cards emailed home

-Summer vacation begins at 3:35pm!  

Weekly Reflection: December 7

Reporters: Reese and Adam

Photographer: Henry

This a pull back car. We played with it to observe the energy transfers. Motion energy changed to elastic energy, which changed to motion energy and sound energy. 

This week in class:

For science we are learning about energy in action and stored energy, and energy transfers. The forms of energy that we learned about were: electrical, sound, heat, light, motion, elastic, chemical and gravitational energy. If we sorted them into categories then elastic, chemical and gravitational energy would be in stored energy, and electrical, motion, sound, light and heat would be energies in action. The definition of energy is things that are happening now, and the definition of stored energy is things that are not doing anything but waiting to be done/used.

Weekly Reflection: October 12

Reporters: Adam and Kennedy

This week in class...
In science we learned about how plates move and Pangaea. Plates can converge (“collide”), diverge (“separate”),  and transform (“scrape and slide”). We also learned about our geosphere, the crust, mantle, the outer core and the inner core. We learned about volcanoes and why/how they erupt.

Weekly Reflection: October 4

Reporters: Graham and Jaeden
Photographer: Vanessa

We learned if we practice and learn new things, we can make our brains stronger.  

Look how much we have learned so far this year!

This week in class...

We worked on models for the earth like convergent plates, divergent plates and transform plates. We got to pick what we wanted to make the plates with. We could make it with clay and we could put it on plates and all that stuff. We made movies and pic collages and shared what we learned with the class. All of the 60 second presentations were good. We are learning about the crust of the earth, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. We learned about erosion, deposition, weathering and abrasion.

This week our school started reading “Wishtree” by Katherine Applegate for One Book, One School. It is about a Wishtree named Red, who has a best friend who is a crow (Bongo), and a family of opossums who live in a hollow, and a lonely girl next door who is in need of a friend. She hangs a special wish that will not soon be forgotten. The school is on chapter 10 and people are enjoying it. Our past “One book, One School” books have been “The Wild Robot” and “Nest for Celeste”. The entire school is reading “Wishtree”.

Weekly Reflection: September 28

Reporters: Cici and Grace
Photographer: Evan

River table with 3 holes testing how more water affects the shape of the river.

Can you see what I see? 4 bowling pins, a paper clip, 2 airplanes, a rocket ship, a golden sun, 2 skies of blue, a bird that sings cock-a-doodle-do! We finished this 300 piece puzzle today!! We've been working on it for 3 weeks. Good job, 4-3!

This week in class...

This week in science we did river tables. There were three groups. Control, slope, and amount of water. Control was the group with all the normal variables. It was the group where all the other groups compared theirs too. Slope was the group that had four history books under it. The amount of water was the group that had three holes in their cup. All three rivers made a delta.  

We also learned about non-fiction a text features. We all got to choose a reference non-fiction book. We had to find headings in our book. Then we did a scavenger hunt to locate other text features.

Weekly Reflection: September 21

Reporters: Cayla and Diego
Photographer: Lincoln

We got a class reward and we helped Steve 

breakout of Minecraft. Everyone enjoyed it!

In class this week...

This week we did a Minecraft Breakout. We learned to work together. We had a lot of fun doing a science lab with glaciers. It was awesome. This week most of us had a test of us reading with Mrs.Cioni. We started something called a Weekly Language Review.

Mrs. Corley came in and taught us how to use Chromebooks. Last week we did our first spelling test.