Ms. Sullivan

This week has been busy.  I was out 2 days with a sick child, and Wednesday was our Immigration Day/Halloween.  I want to thank everyone who could make it on Wednesday.  The day was a success and the kids loved seeing all of you during their parade and journey to and through Ellis Island.  For those of you who couldn't make it, there are pictures on the Sea Road School website that you can look at to see what our day was like.  Each child looked so wonderful in their costume.  We had a lot of fun!  Thanks for your help at home.  Without all your help it wouldn't have been 1/2 of what it was. 

For the next couple of weeks we are going to be focusing on rocks and minerals.  Our rocks have been sitting in our classroom lonely and the kids are dying to dig in!  We need a couple more empty egg cartons if you have any at home.

I sent home a 1/2 sheet of paper today telling you when your conference time will be.  There are a couple of people I haven't heard from yet, so get those slips into me soon so I can give you a time.

We are still collecting for the pet basket.  Our last day will be November 26th.  Every year the 4th grade buys all the ingredients for the fish chowder that is served at the holiday fair.  We are in charge of the oyster crackers.  We need 8 bags of them.  If you are willing to get some of them, please email me back.  We will also need those by the 26th.

A lot of students have not handed in their word packet for this week and some for last week as well.  Please check in with your child this weekend and see if they need to finish them or find them at home.

I am looking for Mystery Readers for 11/30, 12/14, and 12/21.  Please let me know if you can come in or another relative in your family can come in.  Grandparents are perfect for this!!  The kids love it!! 

Have a great weekend! 

It was nice meeting with many of you this week for conferences.  Your children are absolutely wonderful and adjusting well to 4th grade.  I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of you next week.

The whole fourth grade is entering a poetry contest.  The theme is Nature and Me.  They all did acrostic poems.  They turned out really nice!

We had fun playing with our rocks this week.  We sorted them and did lots of tests on them.  We looked for the streak they made on a tile, luster, fracture, color, and hardness.  Next week we will be looking at the rock cylce and sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks.

We finished our study of characters, setting and plot.  Next week we will be reading some new books with partners.  They will decide together how much to read by what date to get the book done in time.  They will meet a few times to discuss the book.  All the books will be chosen on their reading level.

Our new book project for this month is an adventure book.  You should have seen the requirements for the bookworm project come home already.  We decided the book should be read by November 19th and the bookworm is due on November 30th.  We wrote these dates in their assignment books. There will not a December book project.

 I am still looking for Mystery Readers.  I need one on 11/30, 12/14 and 12/21.   We would love to have you or a relative/friend come in!

I know I am always asking for things, but......  we are still looking for 5 more bags of oyster crackers for the chowder that is sold during the holiday fair.  Thank you to Mrs. Connor, Mrs. Krutuleski, and Mrs. Moore for already voluteering to bring some in.  We have gotten a lot of items for the pet basket.  We seem to have a lot of dog items, so if you are planning on sending something in for it we could use some items for other pets. 

Just a reminder that there is no school Monday and a 1/2 day on Wednesday.  Enjoy the long weekend!

We have been very busy this week!  Today a person from The Cromwell Center came in to talk to us about disabilities.  She was fabulous and the students did some neat activities.  Ask your child about it.

We finished up our study of rocks and minerals.  Our next focus will be on matter.  We will be doing a lot of really fun experiments to discover the properties of matter.

In social studies we will be studying Maine and the northeast region.  We will  be starting next week.

It was nice meeting with all of you over the last week.  I know our schedules can be hectic and I appreciate you all taking the time to come to school so that I could share all of your child's hard work. 

Thank you to everyone who donated oyster crackers.  We are set with those now.

If you are going to donate a non-dog pet item, please get it in by November 26th.

A couple of reminders.  Next week we have 2 and 1/2 days.  We have a 1/2 day on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday off.  Also, report cards are going home December 6th.

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving together with family and friends.  Hopefully we can all stay healthy!!

What a fun time we had at the Holiday Fair yesterday!  The kids were so well behaved and found some nice treasures for holiday gifts!  Thanks to everyone who contributed to the pet basket and who gave of their time to volunteer at the fair.  If you came, I'm sure you felt the excitement in the air!!

There are quite a few students not getting their homework in on time.  By now I would expect them to have the routine down and be able to complete their homework on a regular basis.  Please make sure you are signing their assignment books each night and checking in with them about their homework.  We have a lot of nice looking bookworms in our room.  The book project was due today.

We started our new unit on matter this week.  We talked about what scientists do, what an experiment is, and started classifying objects into the categories of solid, liquid, gas, or a mixture.

In social studies we started our study on Maine.  We will eventually be doing a research project on something or someone specific from Maine.  I will let you know when that starts.  To go along with our study of Maine we are reading Lost on a Mountain in Maine.  It is a true story about a boy getting lost on Mount Katahdin when hiking with his family.  It is a great adventure book.

In math we finished our fourth unit and are now learning about larger numbers, exponents, and multiplying 2 digit by 2 digit numbers!  Keep studying those facts!

Our final word master quiz with the analogies will be on 12/12 so we will be reviewing all 25 of those vocabulary words next week for our word activities.  Be on the lookout!

Just a reminder there is no school 12/7.  Report cards will go out 12/6.  You can keep the report card, but return the envelop signed.

Have a great weekend and we will have to keep our eye on the pending storm!!