Note to Readers
Hello! I am sorry I have not been doing reporting lately, and I apologize. Due to a lack of computer, it was not possible for me to complete weekly updates. This is the final blog I am going to write, because I am moving on to sixth grade. :( This blog will be very brief, and will explain things we’re wrapping up, and fun things we’ve been doing. There also will be no paragraph about Number Corner, since we haven’t done anything it that area since May. Thanks for reading!
Reading and Writing
To wrap up the end of reading for the end of this year, we finished our read aloud for Wonder by R.J Palacio. A lot of us in the class, have already read this book, but it was still fantastic the second time around. Mrs. Crowther has also been reading us some fun picture books about school ending!
It has been hectic in writing. We have quickly been going through the writing process responding to an opinion question, “Do you think schools should ban celebrations that involve treats?” We took notes, wrote a flash draft, revised, then wrote a second draft about what our opinion was. The hectic part, we did this all in two weeks! Also, we wrote a letter to incoming fourth graders about expectations, what they’ll learn, and any other stuff we thought was important.
Math and Science
To wrap up the end of math, we have learned some things, done a Unit 6 review, and then our Unit 6 end assessment. Through this unit we have learned about the LCM, GCF, percentages, and decimals.
To wrap up the end of Science we completed some experiments. We learned how to make a lightbulb light up using a wire and battery, and how to make a magnet using a screwdriver, wire, and battery. This materials you can probably find at home, so ask your child if they would like to experiment! Just be careful about the metal part of the wire, it can get pretty hot if you touch it onto the battery for too long.
Fun Things
Lately we have been doing many fun things. First, we walked to the Shelburne Museum. There we completed workshops, and most of us learned about morse code on the Train, how to square dance, how to barter at the General Store, and about botany in the garden. Then, we went on a very long hike on the Ti Path, and the Shelburne Bay Path. Also, we have been taking part in Spirit Week……. but in our own way. Here are the things we’ve been doing each day:
- Monday: Crazy Hair Day
- Tuesday: Stuffed Animal Day
- Wednesday: Hat and Shades Day
- Thursday: Backwards Day
- Friday: Formal Day
So yeah, we’ve been doing some awesome stuff to celebrate the end of the year!
Letters We Wrote to Incoming 4th Graders
Dear Fourth Grader,
Being in Mrs. Crowthers class is fun, but you also have to work hard and listen to Mrs. Crowther for it to be fun. Mrs. Crowther has high expectations and expects you to come close to them. You are expected to use proper grammar, capitalization and punctuation in your writing. By the way, just as a little heads up, always put your name and the date on the top of the paper! In this class you are expected to act like fourth graders, and when you get there, fifth graders.
Mrs. Crowther has two children, Sy and Poppy. Poppy is 2 and Sy is 4. They are adorable and really funny! Mrs. Crowther always has little side stories that she’ll tell us, sometimes at random times! Just so you know, Mrs. Crowther has all kinds of stories about her childhood and her family. I won’t give them away, but her stories are always funny, cute or something along those lines. Mrs. Crowther even calls herself the “Queen of Distraction” sometimes. Mrs. Crowthers husband, Noah, is a mechanic and is also in a band called Waylon Speed. If you ask, Mrs. Crowther will probably show you a video of the band. Also, don’t be surprised if little kids are in the classroom one day, Sy and Poppy stop in now and then with their nanny.
A few things that Mrs. Crowther does not allow is saying shut up to each other, calling names, coming up with excuses to get out of work, side conversations when someone’s talking and standing around her when she’s working with a student or just gave directions. Manners are important to Mrs. Crowther. This year you will definitely learn the proper way to shake someones hand and the proper way to greet someone. A princess handshake is what Mrs. Crowther calls a weak, limp handshake. When you shake someone's hand, make sure you are thumb pit to thumb pit. You’ll find out what thumb pit means soon enough. Mrs. Crowther also doesn’t like it when you just talk in a bunch when you’re at circle, in line or just standing around. Mrs. Crowther will have you do boy-girl pattern or give you assigned spots in either lines or circle if you misbehave and talk all the time. So if you don’t want to be told where you sit, I suggest you behave!
Moving on to Homework and what you’ll be studying. If you have trouble with homework, or can’t do it at home for some reason, talk to Mrs. Crowther, she’ll help you figure out a way to help you get your homework done. Even if you’re feeling bashful about asking for help with homework, or saying you can’t do it at home, Mrs. Crowther, like I mentioned earlier, doesn’t like excuses for not completing work. Mrs. Crowther tries to be fair with homework, and honestly, if you figure out how to balance it isn’t so much. Try not to wait till the night before homework is due. I’ve done that before and I ended up just getting stressed. We also get Goal Sheets every week, that has all of your homework on it, that you check off every time you finish a piece of homework. It also has reminders for field trips, breaks and things like that. Mrs. Crowther will give you some sort of reflection that you do at the end of the week. You turn in your Goal Sheet at the same time as the rest of your homework.
In fourth grade you’ll start a unit on the Human Body. You’ll only really study the main systems. Vermont History and U.S. Geography will also be units. During U.S. Geography you’ll have to memorize all of the states, which one is which, state capitols and which capital is in which state. If you get far enough you might get to Geographical features (rivers, mountain ranges and National/State Parks). For Vermont History you’ll learn what part Vermont played in important parts of U.S. History, when Vermont became a state, important people from Vermont, that sort of stuff. You’ll end up doing a poster of Vermont with materials of your choice with some features you’ll have to add (some lakes, rivers, towns, counties and mountains.) and you can add some other things if you want to. In the other subjects it will be like other years, learning new skills well, putting your best effort in everything, which you are absolutely expected to do. The subjects will be more challenging, so make sure you do your best!
Somethings about Reading. You will have a reading log that you have to record all of your reading in, and I mean all of it. During the year you will get a reading partner and you will be reading books with him or her. You might even get book groups at some point in the year or that might be in fifth grade.
On to field trips, your first field trip will most likely be to Shelburne Farms, probably for some team building thing. You’ll also get to go to Montpelier, Vermont's capital. In the State house, which you’ll get a tour of, be respectful, it’s a very important building to Vermont, and you don’t want to embarrass our school, or your class. Like every year you’ll go to some shows at the Flynn Theater.
Mrs. Crowther has a bin of stuffed animals in her classroom, and she might let you take them out and put them in your book boxes as “reading buddies”. This brings me to the subject of book boxes. Everyone will get a book box and you will be expected to keep the book you’re reading, reading log, reading response journal (where you record every book you read and respond to prompts about reading/your book Mrs. Crowther gives you ) and a back up book, so you have a book to read if you finish a book when you can’t get another book.
Congratulations on getting on Endeavor and getting in Mrs. Crowthers class. Good luck in fourth and fifth grade and I hope you have as much fun and learn as much as I did!
Sincerely,
Heidi Berger
Dear new 4th graders,
In 4th grade you will learn to make as many friends as possible. Now you will be one of the oldest kids in k-5. Here are some things you should not try to get away with, these are ...Chewing gum and thats basicly it. If you are with your class 2 years in a row they will turn into your family just like us. Mrs crowther is the coolest i'm mean her husband is a rock star for god sake. Don’t worry about homework if you're in Mrs Crowther’s class you got very lucky but that doesn't mean slack off. You will learn about Vermont history.
Kids be ready for the pacer and the curl ups and the modified pull ups and the mile !!!!! awww gym is so fun!
you will go on field trips like … Shelburne museum, the state capital, shelburne farms,the fleming museum. MATH!!!!!!!!!! you know i hate math so much i am not going to talk about it. But there is one important thing you need to know it is even more important than treat others how you want to be treated this thing is that ENDEAVOR IS THE BEST AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE BEST SO HA! There is one other important thing to learn have fun in 4th grade!!!!!!!!
Sincerely Ben Rushford
Dear new 4th grader,
Wow! Do I have a lot to tell you! First, don’t worry one minute you will have an amazing time, at least I did! Mrs.Crowther also will teach you a lot of stuff in the next 2 years. She also has a lot of new things that you might have to get use to, for example reading logs. You might have just said “what.. what is a reading log?” if you said that, that is fine I will tell you what it is.. latter. I will also tell you A LOT about Mrs.Crowther! Lastly I will tell you about the load of homework! Fun right?! Haha just kidding!
As I told you, you will learn a lot. First in science you will learn about the human body. Some of the things we learned about the human body included the Respiratory system, all the muscles and bones, and also the Digestive system. After we learned about that, we had to do a little book about something that we learned about the human body.
Science in 4th grade:
- Human body
- Vermont/field trip to the state house in Montpelier, and Vermont history museum
- U.S geography
- light and sound
Science in 5th grade:
- Astronomy/gravity
- world geography
- U.S history/ a big writing piece about something that we learned about
- electricity
We also learned a lot in math, but be aware you will learn the base ten in 4th grade AND 5th grade! You will learn a lot of things in math twice, it gets a little annoying. Also a warning Mrs.Crowther is the queen of distraction, you don’t know what I mean until you are a month into the school year! Just like in 3rd grade you will also have habits of mind that Mrs.crowther that she will remind you of.
Math in 4th and 5th grade:
- base ten
- multiplication
- division
- angles/geometry
- fraction
- area, perimeter
- plotting points
- data sets
- decimals
- and many many more!
Reading is one of my favorite subjects! We learned about a lot of tools you could use we you are reading (for example making a picture in your mind, good ways to read tough words ex.). During reading we also get reading groups that we would read all the same book then talk about it with our group. A really fun thing that we learned about is Greek myths! Something that you have get use to is READING LOGS! This is a little book that you record you reading. So, every time you get your book out to read, you have to log it in you reading log.
writing you usually do 3 writing pieces that you publish year, in 4th grade we did a narrative, a state report, and best of all a fiction piece that you get to wright. In 5th grade we wrote big writing pieces as well, another narrative, a huge U.S history BOOK, and also a opinion piece.
HOMEWORK! The thing that kids dread, but don’t worry it is able to handle. You have a goal sheet that you have bring in every thursday, with the book and pages read that week. A goal sheet is a place where you can find all of the weeks homework that is due. Another thing that is similar to third grade is that you will have to do fast math 5 times a week. Something that might be new is a blog called kid blog, this is a place where you write your writing homework in. Earlier in 4th grade we also had to do some cursive, in our cursive book, that we had to bring in on Thursday.
Now lastly I will tell you about Mrs.crowther, which is the most important part of this letter. First, I will tell you about her family which includes : a toddler named Sy, a “baby” named Poppy, and a husband (who is in a band) named Noah. Be aware that Mrs.crowther tells a lot of stories about her family, which is usually a funny story. Something that she told us in the beginning of the year how to do a proper handshake. This is how she likes us to do a handshake: Look the person in the eye, and thumb to thumb. It will make more sense when she shows you how to do it. I hope you have a great 2 years with Mrs.Crowther!
From,
old 5th grader
Dear 4th Graders,
Here are a few things that will add to your list to enjoy Mrs. Crowthers class. At the starting of the year you should be focused. Once you know how nice she is and when she knows you well,
she will start throwing jokes in the middle of class, her husband is a rockstar for a good local band and she has 2 cool kids who are young and are fun to play with (She brings them in!). She will also throw out random stories at random times. This is good because this way each period isn't always an “all work period”. Also a good thing about Mrs. Crowthers class is that at the end of 5th grade, Mrs. Crowther gets you really stoked and ready for middle school. I think the best thing about Mrs. Crowther is that she teaches everything in such a quick way that a few days a week, we usually get to go outside or have fun in some way, but the way she teaches it so fast, teaches you the subject in such an easy way to understand.
I enjoyed 4th and 5th grade in Mrs. Crowthers class, and i hope you do to! Good luck!
-Will
Dear 4th grader,
I was in Mrs.Crowthers class for two years and had lots of fun!! She doesn't just teach, but she adds lots of other fun activities and i promise you will have lots of fun with her. As you get closer to her you will learn that she likes to talk about personal things with you like how you are feeling about everything and you should know that you can be totally honest. She has two children and she likes to talk about her family. Her husbands name is Noah and he is in a rock band called waylon speed. Her children are very cute and sometimes she brings them in for you to see!! HEr daughters name is Poppy and she is two, and her sons name is Sy and he is four. Im going to tell you a secret that nobody else in your class knows…………… During necaps, she gives out candy and you get lots of it!!
In reading you get a reading log to put in every time you read so you can remember all the books you read. you do readers theatre which is one of my favorite things to do in reading! you are given a script and everyone gets a part.
in writing you do all kinds of interesting things you do free write, opinion pieces. fiction and fantasy. its lots of fun!!!!!!
In science we studied the human body, and light and sound in the light and sound unit we do lots of fun stations. And in the human body unit we get a poster, to show all the specifics.
in math we do fractions, base ten, decimals, and we do multiplication and division on fastt math.
IN number corner you're gonna study the number corner calendar. There are lots of cool patterns for you to find.
The expectations for fourth grade are to walk in a single file line, you can only talk when your called on and have to listen to understand your other classmates.To make sure your listening all the time she sometimes makes you revoice what your classmates said. Overall mrs.Crowther is a wonderful teacher and i am excited that you are in her class. I hope you have as much fun as i did!!!!!
sincerely,
Macy(-:
