Open House, Freaky Friday, Colonial Day

Hi All,

This is just a reminder that students will be conducting their conferences on Monday, October 12th from 1-2 PM in our classrooms. This is an opportunity for your student to share their progress and goals they are going to work on. Our students are creating slideshows to guide their conference with you. They will have samples of their classwork to share with you. If you are unable to attend, they will be able to share their slideshow with you at home through their Google Drive after the Open House. If you are not going to be in school next week, we ask that you let the front office know you will be out of town. If you are scheduled for an additional conference, please check in PTCfast for your date and time. 

We are going to do a Freaky Friday Day for our Fall Celebration. During the day, our classes will rotate through each 4th grade class. In one rotation we will do Math, another will be Science/STEM, Language Arts, and Social Studies. We will need one chaperone to move with the class for each rotation. We will end in our homeroom class. For the morning snack, we want to do the Halloween Goldfish with water. The goldfish needs to be in their own sealed bags. They have them on sale right now at Target, Walmart, and Sprouts. I have also seen Annie's goldfish packs for class sets which is also ok. We need 28 students bags and waters. For afternoon snack, I would like to do Halloween Oreos and Capri Suns. We will need three packages of Oreos and 3 cases of Capri Suns. If you can assist, please sign up on our sign up list.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a44a4a623aa8-freaky

Also, Colonial Day is quickly approaching. This event allows our students to experience some parts of daily life during Colonial Times. There will be 13 colonial groups that travel through the centers. This year the kids will experience pie, soap making, games, minuet dancing, silhouette portraits, and candles (weather permitting). Colonial Day will be November 4th from 8:00-11:25 AM. We are in need of volunteers to run the centers (directions and materials provided) and donations of supplies to make this event possible for our students. We also need some volunteers that come early or stay afterwards to help with set up and clean up. If you are unable to work the whole time, sign up under additional volunteers and put the time you are available in the comment slot. We need all volunteer slots need to be signed up for by Wednesday, October 28th so we can get information to you about the center you are helping with. Some centers will have teachers assisting with the start up and others can be started with just volunteers. We are asking that craft and non perishable supplies be sent in by Friday, October 30th. Food supplies should be sent in on Monday and Tuesday, Novemeber 1st and 2nd. The link to sign up can be found below or by clicking on the page on our classroom website: 4th Grade Treasure Hunters.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a44a4a623aa8-colonial

If you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks for all your help and support....we greatly appreciate it!

Captain Moricz

Surprise!

Hello Treasure Hunters and Families,

What an amazing class we have and what an amazing week we just finished in 4th grade! For most 4th graders, turning 10 is a big thing in 4th grade. While we always take time to celebrate each other's special day, last week we got to help create a surprise for one student in our class. I don't know if your child shared the story with you, but one of our classmates has a brother who is in the Navy. The number one request for her birthday was to have her brother come home. However, he had told her he couldn't get leave. Secretly a plan went into place to get him here. On Thursday, after a short stop at home to change into his uniform, he stopped by our class to surprise his younger sister. It was an amazing moment to share as a class and the students really enjoyed getting to ask him questions about his role in the Navy. It is such a wonderful reminder that we need to treasure all of our veterans and active military personnel, especially on the day before Patriot Day. My husband served in the Air Force, my dad worked with the Navy Seals as a diver during the Vietnam war, and my grandfather was a pilot stationed at Pearl Harbor. 

I am excited to report that Edmodo is up and running. Parents....please create your accounts. You will need the parent code which can be found on the home page when your child logs into his or her account. If you already have an Edmodo account, you can just add the code to your account. If not, you can register and create a new one. This is the best way for you to keep informed about learning happening both inside and outside the classroom. I was so impressed with the number of kids who were logging on this weekend to share what we are doing with their families. Keep up the great work!

This week we will be continuing to grow as Scientist and Engineers as we begin working with concepts in the water cycle. Over the next several weeks, students will conduct hands on investigation and use inquiry strategies to explore each step in the cycle. I will post information on Edmodo, but kids will also be using their journals in class to keep track of terms and important concepts. 

In Math, we are exploring factors, prime, and composite numbers. We learned how to represent numbers visually last week, but this week we will practice using divisibility rules to determine if larger numbers are prime or composite. All of this will help us to explore properties of algebra and order of operations. 

This is also a very special week for Pirates!!!! On Friday, we will celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day. We will share our pirate stories we have been working on in class. We will complete a special pirate STEM challenge on Thursday and we will even test out some pirate language during the process. In math, we will work with coordinate grids on Friday to simulate a pirate battle. In honor of our special day, students will be permitted to dress up like pirates. The costumes created should be school appropriate. Students may not wear makeup or bring weapons to school. If you don't have a costume or something appropriate to wear, you can still support our class by wearing combinations of red, white, and black. 

We arrrgghhh going to have a great week! Please make sure to ask your child about their day.

Room 14 News for the Week of August 31st!

Hello Treasure Hunters and Families,

This week we will be going into our full CORE groups for Math and Science. By now, your treasure hunter should have given you a letter that tells who your child's math teacher will be. If it says Mrs. Fisher, then that will be an AM math class. If it says Mrs. Moricz, that will be a PM math class. If your child is in extended math, there is a permission slip attached that needs to be completed. This will be my AM math class.

In Math this week, students will continue to explore how we can use range, median, mode, and mean to describe patterns and data. We will also do another math mindset challenge. Our goal is to create a learning environment where our kids want to explore math and see that they can be successful when learning becomes challenging.

In Science, we are exploring the properties of water like surface tension. This will be an introduction to our first unit in Science: The Water Cycle. Our class will have Science on Monday and Wednesday. Mrs. VanDeventer's class will be on Tuesday and Friday. If your child is in IDS, he or she will have Science on Tuesday and Friday and join her class for Social Studies on Mondays and Wednesdays. Please keep this in mind as you schedule appointments. Since lessons in both classes are hands on, it is often difficult to make them up when they are missed.

We have also started planning which topics we want to explore for genius hour. Students rarely get a chance to explore learning they are passionate about, but with genius hour, they will be given that opportunity. The first step is to come with an open ended question worthy of pursuing. The questions must be open ended enough that the answer can't be found with a google search. The students will then research information to help them answer their questions before deciding how they will share it out with the world. Stay tuned for more to come!

Hope you have a great week!

This week's news to use!

Hello Treasure Hunters and Families,

We had a busy week last week starting our beginning of the year assessments, finishing our classroom rules, learning about digital citizenship, researching pirates, and creating our pirate me dolls. We have learned several new routines and procedures in class. I am so impressed with the effort each student has put into starting their year off right. Our class continues to earn compliments from the other teachers and staff around Manzanita for modeling great behavior and kindness. I am so proud of the class and all they have accomplished so far this year! We have earned 35 compliments and celebrated our success with new pencils, erasers, and an extra 5 minutes of recess.

This week we will be finishing our math assessments and begin to talk about establishing growth mindsets. A growth mindset is the belief that anything is possible if you are willing to work hard for it. In our class, praise is based on effort and we learn that mistakes are a normal part of the learning process.

Helping your child develop a growth mindset is one of the many ways you can support your treasure hunter this year. I will be talking about the process and our curriculum this week at Parent Night. Please join me in our classroom at 6PM on Thursday. You will also have an opportunity to meet Mrs. VanDeventer and hear her talk about reading.

Did you hear the news? The 40 Book Challenge has begun. Books are flying off the shelves as students dig into reading. I sent our Scholastic Book Order home on Friday in your child's backpack or binder. There are many new books in the order and it is a great way to expand your child's library on a budget. If our class total is $300 or higher, we will earn 10,000 points that can be used to order more books for our classroom. You can place your order online or send in a check with the order form. The final day to order is Friday, August 21st. I will then close the order out over the weekend and it takes about two weeks for the books to arrive.

On Friday, your child also brought home their Treasure Hunter poster to complete for homework. I shared my poster in class and we talked about what goes in each section. Please have your child work on this a little bit each night. This is a great opportunity to set guidelines and routines for homework, especially for long term projects. It is due this week on Thursday, August 20th. When your child is chosen as TREASURE HUNTER OF THE WEEK, he or she will be able to bring in 3-5 items to share with the class. This is a special time for us to continue to grow as a classroom community.

If you ever have questions or need to reach me, the best method is via email at tmoricz@cfsd16.org. I usually check it several times during the day. However, if there is a change in how your child will go home, please contact the front office to let them know. They will buzz into the classroom to pass along the message.

Have a wonderful week!

Parent/Student Handbook

Hello Treasure Hunter Parents!

Welcome to our classroom. I enjoyed meeting many of you at Open House. We are off to a great start in 4th grade. This is an awesome group of students and I can't wait to see how much they will grow this year. To stay updated on events in class, please subscribe to our classroom website. You will also be able to sign up for a parent Edmodo account to see the assignments your child has in class. We will talk more about this at parent night on August 20th at 6PM.

There are a few changes in the parent/student handbook this year that you may wish to review. Please return the front page with your child as soon as possible.

-First, birthdays will be celebrated in class, but students may no longer bring in food or treats. Students may bring in pencils, erasers, or a book for the class if they wish. We will celebrate birthdays once a month and they will be posted on our class calendar on the website. We will celebrate with extra recess time and warm wishes for the students celebrating. 

-Students should leave all toys, trading cards, purses, personal items at home. The handbook even mentions sports equipment. We have equipment at school that the students can use. The goal is to minimize distractions and protect students personal belongings. However, students who are chosen for treasure hunter of the month will have the opportunity to bring in 3-5 items to share with the class. 

-Please review the dress code requirements with your child. Shorts must be longer than the fingertips when arms are at the child's side. Tank tops need to be three fingers wide. If it is smaller, a sweater or other top must be worn with it to cover it. Hats may be brought to school, but must be taken off when your child is indoors.

This week we will be starting to switch classes for math and reading. Students will learn about the 40 Book Challenge, take the Dibels reading test, and begin assessments for reading and math. Homework this week will consist of reading 30 minutes every night and working on their treasure hunter poster. I will be sending that home on Tuesday night and it will be due in class next Monday.

Thanks for all your help and support! I am looking forward to a great year together! If you ever have any questions, email is the best way to reach me.