Wow!! What a week!!

Hello!

It is a PACKED week here at HIS!  Tonight and Wednesday night are Parent Teacher Conferences.  I am looking forward to meeting with each of you about your child's progress.  Please let me know if your scheduled time will not work for you and we will meet another time.

It is also homecoming week.  The Canes Pro Shop will be selling beads, tattoos and other "cheer gear" tomorrow morning.  Items are running $.50 to $1.00.   There are no dress up days this week other than BLACK and GOLD day on Friday!  There will also be a pep assembly on Friday morning and the students will be able to watch the homecoming parade that will is scheduled to begin at 2:30 sharp!  If you can, come out and watch the parade with us.  Please note, however, that if you do plan to join in on the festivities Friday afternoon and wish to take your child home after the parade, that you must stop in the office and go through Mrs. Gay.  It is important that we know where are students are at all times. 

The students are still learning about the circulatory system in ELA and they will also learn about the respiratory system this week. 

Our first math test will be on Wednesday this week.  Please be looking for a review tomorrow night.  Even if your child finishes the review homework in class, they will need to bring it home to teach you how to do their math.  By teaching someone else, your son or daughter will reinforce what they have learned. 

As always, please feel free to contact me with any concerns at any time.

Let's have a great (and busy!) homecoming week!  Winning like a CANE!!! 

Is it really almost October??

Next week I will be able to meet with each of you during parent teacher conferences about your son/daughter.  I have scheduled a time for everyone even if you didn't hand in your conference slip yet because I want to make sure I have the chance to sit down with you to discuss your child's education.  Please let me know as soon as possible if the scheduled time will not work for you by emailing me at bmarienfeld@hayward.k12.wi.us or calling me directly at 638-9399.  Thank you!

Erin is our Star of the Week and we also celebrate Kayden's and Ashleigh's birthdays this week!

Next week is homecoming.  The only dress up day will be Friday (Black and Gold!).  We are hoping that every child can participate in some way by wearing black and gold.  Beads, tattoos and other spirit gear will be for sale beginning on Thursday morning before school for students to purchase.  Most items are There will be a pep rally in the morning on homecoming Friday (October 4) and we will also watch the homecoming parade in the afternoon.  If you plan to watch the homecoming parade and would like to take your child with you home after it is over, please make sure to stop in the office to let Mrs. Gay know.  No child will be allowed to leave with a parent, relative, sibling, etc. unless they are picked up through the office.  We do this to ensure the safety of all students.  Thank you so much for your cooperation with this!

All of your students now have multiplication and division flash cards to use at home.  They should be practicing the cards every night.  All students should also be reading 20 minutes every night.  Starting October 1, each child will be given an AR (Accelerated Reader) goal to meet each month.  Your students are familiar with the AR program, but if you have questions, please ask.  :)

A parent brought it to my attention that Prime Time calendars are usually sent home with students so that you can plan accordingly.  I had no idea that was a thing, so I apologize for not getting September's calendar to you!  Oops!!  I sent home October's calendar today and I will continue to send them home throughout the year.  Thanks to the parent who brought that to my attention!

In ELA, we are learning about the circulatory system.  Today we watched Slim Goodbody video about it.  (Can you believe Slim Goodbody is still teaching children??  I think the video was produced in the 1970's and it is still full of great information and presented in an entertaining way.  The kids loved it!)  Ask your students one fact they learned today from the video.  I bet they will be able to tell you a whole lot more than just one!

I will talk more about math in an upcoming post.  Have a great day!

Parent Teacher Conference Forms

Hello!  Parent Teacher Conference forms were sent home with your student today along with some other important papers.  Please be sure to look through your child's take home folder extra closely tonight!  I will schedule conferences on a first come, first serve basis so the sooner you get the slips back to me, the better!  :)

Also, I apologize for the short notice, but if you were hoping to order a t-shirt, sweatshirt, or sweatpants, the order forms are due tomorrow.  I was out of the classroom yesterday for some meetings, so the order forms did not get sent home until tonight.  I didn't realize it was such a short window to order or I would have really emphasized that with your child before they left school today. 

And don't forget about tomorrow night's tailgate party!  Come hungry!  Meals are $5.00 a plate and 100% of the proceeds go to Hayward Primary and Intermediate Schools!  Go Canes!!

Ready to Groove?

Mrs. Lee presented a song to the IS Staff at the beginning of the school year.  Mrs. Baier decided to teach it to her class and I thought that was a fabulous idea!  One of the students in our class, Helena, gave me an even better idea and introduced me to an app called Video Star.  This free app allows a person to shoot their very own music video.  This song has become somewhat of a theme song for our class.  Your students worked together to come up with different scenes to shoot and worked together to make them happen.  They also got to know this song pretty well and sound pretty great singing it even though their voices cannot be heard.  This project was right up their alley as this particular group of kids has a lot of spirit!  Without further ado, I would like to present Mrs. Marienfeld's class music video!  Enjoy!

This Week's Wrap-Up

We did it!  We made it through our first full week of school!  I didn't assign any homework over the weekend other than 30 minutes of reading (book of their choice). 

We are still reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume and I am also reading the class Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt as a read aloud.  Please continue to ask your son/daughter about what we are reading in class as it helps them retain information, make connections, and make predictions. 

In math, students are practicing their rounding skills.  This is important because, as we all know, it is a very useful life skill and students are assessed on their rounding skills in the WKCE test this year.  We have a saying in class that goes, "Four or less, let it rest.  Five or more, let it soar!"  We also discussed place values this week and the pattern that it makes - ones, TENS, HUNDREDS, thousands, TEN thousands, HUNDRED thousands, million, etc.   I will be sending flashcards with multiplication and division facts home with each student next week.  Please have your child practice these facts as it makes their life MUCH easier once they know them.  :)

Students also learned a new dice game called Farkle that we played for a little bit today that involves math skills.  If your family gets some down time this weekend, ask your child to teach it to you although they may not be able to teach it to you yet. 

On Wednesday, we had a discussion about the tragedy of 9/11.  They also had a chance to work on a project in remembrance of those who lost their lives.  I've included a picture of some of their projects.  What a great job!

Picture day went well and all of the kids looked fabulous! 

Ashton will be our star student next week.  Can't wait to learn all about Ashton!  Have a wonderful day!

 - Mrs. Marienfeld

Week 2

I forgot to mention last week that Aurora celebrated her birthday on the first day of school and Savannah celebrated her birthday on September 4!  Happy Birthday, Girls!! 

This week has already been another busy, busy week as the class gets to know me and one another.  We have officially started our math curriculum and you can almost always count on having math homework Monday-Thursday and sometimes on Fridays.  Even after your child has completed their assignment, please ask them to teach it to you as this is a fantastic way to reinforce their learning of different concepts.  Along with that, we use a lot of individual whiteboards in math class as a quick way for me to see if students are getting the concept or not, so please send a dry-erase marker and an old (clean) sock with your student to school. 

In ELA, we are still reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.  Please ask your son or daughter about this book at home.  There will usually be some sort of homework from our ELA block as well.

Next week we will begin Star of the Week. I will send home a sheet with your student on Friday of the week before so they can share with us on Monday.  They will have a longer time to share on Friday of their week.  They will also be the line leader for the whole week.  I want your child's week to be extra special for them, so I may have them do other things besides line leader.  Below is the Star of the Week schedule for the year.  If you notice a conflict with your child's assigned week, please let me know and I will give them a different week to be the star! 

SEPTEMBER:
16-20 - Ashton
23-27 - Erin
30-Oct 4 - Kade

OCTOBER:
7-11 - Elijah
14-18 - Aurora
21-25 - Domanick
28-Nov 1 -Carter

NOVEMBER:
4-8 - Alexis
11-15 - Ashleigh
18-22 - Reese

DECEMBER:
2-6 - Delaney
9-13 - Helena
16-20 - Lilly

JANUARY:
6-10 - Gracie
13-17 - Savannah
20-24 - Sam
27-31 - Anna

FEBRUARY:
3-7 - Seth
10-14 - Kayden
24-28 - Eric

MARCH:
3-7 - Ryland
10-14 - Shelby
17-21 - Gretta
24-28 - Berkeley

Off to a Wonderful Start!

It has been a great first week here at school so far!  We have an outstanding class of 4th graders this year.  We have been gathering a lot of baseline data which means we have been doing a lot of short assessments/tests this week.  However, we have had some time to be creative too and that's always my favorite part.  What imaginations!!  Students were asked to write a news story for the headline, "Window Washer Sees Strange Sight at Local School" and the responses were creative and, in most cases, hilarious.

We started our first ELA unit yesterday by learning some vocabulary words.  Your son/daughter might have had their first homework assignment last night if they were not able to finish all of the definitions in class.  Knowing these words will help them understand the book better.  We read chapter 1 of "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" by Judy Blume today as a class.  The students seem to enjoy the book so far.  Judy Blume usually includes quite a bit of humor into her stories and who doesn't enjoy a laugh?

You will find some pictures of your student on the first day of school posted below.  Please enjoy!

As always, feel free to contact me at anytime and thank you for letting me get to know your child.  They are all SO GREAT!  :)