COVID-19 and School Closure

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Over the past several days, it has been a whirlwind of information surrounding our school closure and COVID-19. I have been waiting to communicate formally with you all in order to gather the most information I possibly could. I’ve decided at this point- what I know is better than nothing!

Here’s what I know:

  • I will be creating learning packets for each student- geared to their learning. If your student has accommodations, I am considering those as I generate each packet.  Packets will be for a minimum of 10 school days and I aimed for an hour of math and an hour of reading, as required by Mrs. Marvin. Mrs. Hart and I worked closely, as we always do, to ensure that our packets have similar information so that when we do return to school, transitions will be similar across classrooms. At this time, we do not know how we will get these packets distributed, but an update to come soon.
  • Students will be provided breakfast and lunch as needed – we are working on how that will look as we speak. It may be a delivery service or pickup location(s).
  • If any family is faced with leaving a child at home unsupervised, please email me asap. I will work with our school community to help put something into place.
  • As of right now, I am not sure if I will use technology (i.e. Google Classroom or video conferencing) to send things to students. I am working on multiple things- perhaps a daily check in, a time to log on with other classmates and say hello and/or ask questions- but I will be checking my email at least twice per day, if not more. I do not want to rely solely on technology, but I am thinking it will be important to stay connected as much as possible.
  • However, I will be posting general blogs and sending emails, etc. to parents throughout the closure to keep you adequately updated.
  • If you need ANYTHING at all, please email me. a.deveau@cdsedu.org and I will do everything I can to help.

 

 

Love, Mrs. Deveau

 

 

 

 

January/February

We had a fantastic winter concert celebrating Santa. We have completed writing our first two essays! Our next writing will surround the American Revolution. Students are excited to learn more about how our country became a country!

In Math, we have started our most recent topic on fractions. We are learning about equivalent fractions and how to find them and soon we will be adding and subtracting fractions.

Exciting times in 4th grade!

The End of 2019!

November seemed to fly by as we were learning more about double digit multiplication, started writing opinion pieces, summarizing what we read and celebrating our Vets and Thanksgiving.

With only 3 weeks until our next break, we are crunched for learning. In math, we have learned the standard algorithm in multiplication and we are beginning to learn more about division in the next several weeks. It will be extremely important that we have our multiplication AND division facts MASTERED! Please practice at home as much as you can. Pick up a set of flashcards from the Dollar Tree or make your own. If you need any extra worksheets, let me know and I can send some home.

We will finish writing our first opinion essay within the next few days. This is a very busy time of year and we will be watching and performing in many holiday events. We look forward to you joining us either as a volunteer, a viewer or both.

It’s October!

Dear Families,

I’m not sure where September went, but we are now into the month of October! We have been spending our time learning all kinds of different things- let me tell you more!

Math: We have just started Topic 3 which focuses on multiplication and strategies to use to solve multiplication problems. It is REALLY important that students practice their multiplication facts with flash cards or with a parent each night in order to maintain the confidence in math. In the classroom, we also use XtraMath and IXL to encourage fact fluency.

Writing: We are continuing to work hard on our realistic fiction pieces which is a huge task. We take a small seed story and use our creativity to add details so that our reader can not only read our story but see, hear, feel, touch, and maybe even taste the things happening in our stories! We should finish up these stories by the end of October and then we will be working on persuasion pieces.

Reading: We have just completed reading a book all about our wonderful state of Maine- and we’ve practiced lots of grammatical skills too. We continue to learn a lot about prefixes and suffixes and how those change the meaning of a word.

Science: Our unit on sense receptors just finished up and we’ve switched classrooms to Mrs. Hart to learn about life cycles. Check out our final project for animal senses- students did an amazing job!

We visited Field’s Pond Audubon yesterday and it was phenomenal! Students learned about forests and their secrets. We learned how to identify trees and learned the stories of the forest (UpperStory, MidStory, UnderStory). Check out this amazing resource Orrington/Holden holds!

Welcome to the 2019-2020 School Year!

Welcome students and parents to the 2019-2020 school year. We have been busy- busy-busy the last 2 days getting to know each other and our classroom. This class is AMAZING!

Parents can expect that this week we will practice using our assignment notebooks/planners. Students need to get this planner signed nightly (whether there is homework or not). This provides a brief nightly opportunity for you and your child to discuss the day and develops important study skills for the upcoming middle school years. For the first few weeks you can expect your child’s homework to include reading 20 minutes and having a parent sign the planner as well as spelling homework (to begin week 2).

I can’t wait to learn more about our class. I am so impressed by their ability to follow directions and listen! Things are going well- day 2! The Me Museum project will help us all get to know each other a little better- tomorrow we start with a few students!

-Mrs. D