Welcome to Mrs. May's classroom. This year your child will be learning more organizational skills and given more responsibilities in their class work. As you will see the expectations and work begin to be more difficult in fourth grade. If we work together as a team we can make the year successful for your child. Communication will be the key to this. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. During class time I do not answer the phone but you may leave me a voice message and I will return your call at my earliest convenience. You may also send an e-mail at: dmay@sau53.org, which I check first thing in the morning, at lunch, and then again after school.
Classroom snack time is not a set specific time. I believe a child should not go hungry. If they are hungry they may eat as long as it does not interfere with my teaching or their seat work. If we find they are unable to do this then, they will have a set time to eat that I am not teaching and they can take a few minutes from work time. I do ask that your child bring in water to drink . As always they can purchase a milk and snacks from the cafeteria. They will sign up for milk during morning work. If they do not do this at this time then I can not send them down later as they will be busy making lunch. If your child does purchase a milk they will drink it during a specific time in the afternoon as not to spill it on any classwork. Water is a much better option to clean if spilled. Snack time should not replace breakfast. Please be sure your child eats at home or through the school cafeteria in the morning.
The school continues to follow a wellness policy. This will effect anything your child is served through the school at lunch or through the classroom. Please read the wellness policy on the ECS website if you are not familiar with it. For classroom parties I will send an e-mail home on sign up genius for you to sign up to bring in a treat and/or sign up to volunteer for parties. This year there will be three parties that we are allowed to have traditional foods such as cupcakes and brownies etc. These parties will be Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's
We will be working with Growth mindset. This is a different way of thinking and talking to students. Instead of the student giving up we encourage them to work hard and find a strategy to help them with what they are struggling with. This also changes the way we encourage the students. Instead of encouraging their grades we encourage the effort they are putting into their work as well as their growth. We have also learned about making mistakes and how they grow the brain. I have talk to them about even when they make a mistake and they don't know it the brain will grow. I have told them that work should be hard for them. If it was easy they wouldn't be doing any brain growth.
In writing you child will be writing continuing to write paragraphs, research , personal narratives, letters, and opinion writing. This will be in daily writing as well as in longer pieces.
In math students should be working on praciting math facts. This year they will be learning long multipliction and division. If they do not know their facts this get very difficult for them.
Your child will be expected to follow school rules within the classroom as well as RESPECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS.
We have been learning that children should be encouraged to complete the things they have to but not rewarded for them. I do not have a reward system in my room. However we do have a marble jar so that students can see the progress they are making with doing expected behaviors. I will also suprise them once in a while with something fun. This will not be thought of as a reward just a cause we want to.
Thank you for your time. With the partnership of parent and teacher we will all have a successful year.
Darcy May