BTSN Information from the Room Reps

Hello Passeggi/Beller Families.

We wanted to give you a heads up about Back to School Night this Thursday. As mentioned previously, please bring your checkbook and be prepared to write a check payable to Maureen Murphy to pay for classroom expenses for the year. We will give you a detailed description of the expenses at back to school night or you can click on the attachment to see a written description for each classroom expense. Please be aware that this is a voluntary contribution except for the $10 all families are asked to pay for the classroom water. If you want to write a check before hand you may put it in the Scheinman family folder. If you choose to contribute the full amount the total is $50.

We'd also like to collect for field trips for the year (with the exception of the milestone) and will be asking you to write a check for $88, again payable to Maureen Murphy. We'll be asking you to sign permission slips tomorrow as well and you can turn the check and permission slips into the ADAMS family folder. The field trips are listed (along with cost) on Lale and Elysha's class website. There are also scholarships available for fieldtrips. Please see Stacy Emory for more details.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your support.

Betsy Adams and Maureen Murphy
PRT Reps for Lale and Elysha's class

Quick Reminders

Good morning!

A couple of quick reminders...

1. Back to school night is tomorrow at 6:30. Can't wait to see you all there.

2. Some of the volunteer jobs for the year still need to be filled. Please read the descriptions on our website and let us know if you are interested.
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/volunteers.html

3, I have updated our website to include all archived updates (in case you missed one or forgot something). Eventually we will only be posting updates to our website rather than
email. You can find the link on the class homepage:
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/index.html

4. Please make sure you email both of us. This ensures that we can all work together and are all aware of any questions or concerns that you might have.
ahsyle@gmail.com
lalebeller@gmail.com

5. New field trip added! I got a call yesterday regarding an overnight trip to SF that I tried to get us into earlier ,but it was full. Well, they had an opening for June. I have heard this is
a fantastic trip. This will be our milestone for the year. We will complete some fundraising to help cover the costs. If you have any ideas please send them our way. There is a
link to the trip on our homepage.

See you tomorrow,
Elysha and Lale

Second Week Update

It's been a busy week in the 4th grade! Here's a little bit about what we've been up to...

Language Arts
We began with creating our writing binders and completing a short writing assignment, based on The Important Book. It gave the learners a chance to quickly review and go through the steps of the writing process. We touched upon some of the "six traits of writing" such as word choice in this lesson as well. We explored our Write Source books, which will be used as a reference during Writer's Workshop. For Word Work we practiced cursive and introduced No Excuse words (there is a copy in their homework folder). During Reader's Workshop, we talked about our class library, genres that we are familiar with, and introduced our Reader's Notebooks. We filled out personal surveys about reading (the writing version was assigned as homework and is due on Tuesday). We'll give more details about Writer's and Reader's Workshop at BTS night next Thursday.

Math
This week math was filled with exploration and assessment. Before we did any math this week, we shared our feelings (both good and bad) about it. We talked about how we would spend the year building on what we already knew and that it was my job to help them to discover their strengths and help them grow. Then we read the book Math Curse where the girl discovers that everything can be made into a math problem. It is really a fantastic book! We then solved some of the problems from the book. We also spent part of the week working on transitions and expectations during math centers. The learners were really engaged and focused, which was impressive considering how many of us there are in the classroom! We played math trivial pursuit, explored coins and combinations that made one dollar, played Uh oh 99!, and explored geoboards. Thursday was spent completing a challenging math assessment. The learners worked incredibly hard considering that it was assessing what they should know by the end of fourth grade. I will give the same assessment at the end of the year to show how much they have grown.

Unit Study
This week we talked about the units we would be completing during the course of the year. The learners were really excited about the science units. We also talked about how they would use their knowledge from last year about California regions and Native Americans and build on it. We will be starting our electricity unit in the upcoming weeks and will also be learning about Explorers. We also talked about our larger theme for the year which is, "It takes many voices to tell the story of California." Learners also discovered that the white binders they were asked to bring in would house all their unit activities. The learners decorated covers for the binders. Next week we will use the artifacts to create an artifact museum. We will then start to look at how or why our family came to California and create family timelines. Stay tuned for more info...

Earthquake Kits
We have received some of these, but not many. Please send yours in if you haven't already.

Back to School Night
Don't forget that next Thursday is Back to School Night. We will be going over lots of curriculum and classroom information at that time so we hope you can attend.

Classroom Jobs
Most of the classroom jobs have been filled, but we still need a field trip organizer. All the trips are scheduled, so your job would basically be collecting money and recruiting drivers. If you are interested please email us directly so we can give you more information. It would be great to have someone in place before back to school night.

Volunteers
We have some opportunities in the classroom to volunteer. We are currently looking for some volunteers for our Book Groups in Reader's Workshop. include reading a novel and participating in a literature circle with a group of about 6-7 learners. There will be some information about how to facilitate and guide the learners, as we will try to have the learners take on the responsibility of running their meetings. I already have a few parents who did it last year and enjoyed it on board for this year. It will be happening on Monday and Tuesday mornings before recess time. It will most likely be a 45 minute slot that will start soon after school begins, but it may end up being scheduled a little later and ending before recess (10:25). If you're interested and available, email Lale at lalebeller@gmail.com.
There will be some more opportunities coming up as well.


If you have any questions or concerns about anything at all, please let us know, so we can address it. We're looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Lale and Elysha
lalebeller@gmail.com
ahsyle@gmail.com

First Week of School

Good Morning,

We hope everyone got a great nights sleep. Unfortunately my little one was up most of the night, he must have been excited for school to start as well! ; ) We wanted to update you on the snack days and volunteer jobs.

So far the following days are covered for afternoon snack:
Tuesday: Betsy Adams
Wednesday: We have an assembly that will go to the end of the day, so no snack is needed
Thursday: Vivian Brates
Friday: OPEN

Classroom Volunteer Jobs
Room Reps: Betsy A. and Maureen M.
Towel Washer: Stella G.
Library Liason: Vivian Brates
Book Club Coordinator: Vivian Lee
Snack Stocker: Stella G. (2-3 more needed)

Jobs Still open:
Field Trip Coordinator: You will create a permission trip packet that will go home and will organize them when they return, collect monies and coordinate drivers for each of the trips. (Time Commitment: one to five hours per month)

Cup washer:
Every few weeks take the cups home to be washed in the dishwasher. This is a bi-monthly job.

Shoppers (2 people): This is just in case we need something but have no way to pick it up. This is an as needed job

Snack Stockers (3-5 people): Over the course of the year learners will forget their snacks and sometimes even lunch. In our classroom we keep a snack drawer for just such occasions. We could use donations of healthier snacks for our snack drawer. Some examples are: granola bars, individually packed crackers, dried fruit, pretzels, trail mix, you get the idea.

Classroom Beautification Representative: this person will do a major clean up of the classroom once a month. In the past this job has been split by two people. Once a month (after school or on the weekend), you will dust the room, mop/vacuum the floor, and wipe the tables, counters and sink. This job is important to help keep all of us healthy. (Time Commitment: two hours per month)

We are looking forward to an exciting year and can't wait to greet the learners this morning!
Elysha and Lale