Welcome to Room 219!
I am thrilled to be your child’s Fourth Grade teacher and to share this year with not only them, but with you as well. We have an amazing group of children and will have a fantastic year together!
Thank you for all of your help and support!
Communication:
My email is [email protected]. This is the best way to reach me for most matters. I check this email mid-day and at the end of the day. If there is a change in your child’s dismissal routine, the best way to ensure I receive this information is to call the front office.
I will send out information via Bloomz. Please make sure your email address is current with the school so that you receive these messages.
We will send home weekly notes and monthly newsletters, which will be posted on this site and sent out via Bloomz. Let me know if at any time you feel that my communication about our classroom is inadequate. My intention is to keep you fully informed about your students.
Attendance Expectations:
Please be sure to have your student at school on time, every day. Students who are not at work in our classroom at 9:00 will be considered tardy. Please also pick up your student at 3.45. Students who are not picked up by 4:00 will be in the office.
Please limit absences and schedule appointments for days when we do not have school, if possible. Absences should be reported to the attendance line. Please also let me know about absences, if you can.
Classroom volunteers
I welcome Parent volunteers for school events, field trips, class parties, communication, etc. If you are interested in helping as a volunteer in any way, please let me know.
Field Trips:
Fourth grade plans several field trips this year, including visits to the State Capitol for “How We Organize Ourselves”, and the Colorado History Museum for our Colorado History unit, as well as to a planetarium for our Space unit. We also will schedule field trips or in‐school presentations for our other units.
Birthday celebrations:
Brown has a new NO TREAT or trinket policy for birthdays. Your child will be celebrated all day on their special day.
Classroom Routines
Planners
We have planners for end of the day. We reflect on what we learned and note important vocabulary and activities in our planners. Students are expected to take planners home and return them to school every day. Thank you for helping our students learn valuable self-management skills!
Homework
The fourth grade teachers send home a homework packet every Friday, due back to school the following Friday. Homework includes 100 minutes per week of reading, as well as math work and a short writing exercise. Homework is not intended to be your job or your problem, so if homework becomes a problem please send me a note to let me know the student has tried but does not understand the homework (or whatever the situation is) and I will excuse the student from that assignment or find time during school hours to work through the issue. Homework usually helps students tremendously when it helps them to create work habits and practice concepts they understand. Students who hand in proficient homework improve academically. However if homework is not productive, please let me know.
Bathroom tickets
Each student in my class is issued tickets (one/day plus one bonus per week) to use for any absences from the classroom for bathroom or water fountain. If students do not use all tickets, they are entered into a raffle for small prizes, such as lunch in the classroom or bringing a special item to school. This is an amazingly effective way to consolidate student bathroom trips to the numerous opportunities they have outside of classroom instruction time. If there is some reason for your student to have additional bathroom passes, please just let me know.
Snack
Since the students don’t have lunch until 12:45, we allow a small, tidy, easy to eat snack in the morning. Please do not send chips, candy, puddings, popcorn, and the like because they are messy and distracting. Bars, fruit, cheese, half sandwiches, small crackers, cereal, and vegetables are excellent small snacks. The only beverage allowed in the classroom is water.
Math facts
Fluency in the areas of addition, subtraction, and multiplication is a critical skill for our fourth grade students. The students must learn their multiplication facts before October 15 and stars on the chart in our classroom mark each student’s progress. Most of the students respond very well to this mild competition. Students who master their math facts become coaches for their friends. Please help them learn their multiplication facts! Family members often can help with math facts because we’ve all had to learn them! There also are websites such as www.mathfactspro.com and others.
AR quizzing
The kids know their AR reading levels and they have set “points” goals for the trimester. They know how to quiz on the computer, how to monitor their own progress, and how to choose books. I’m confident that every reader in my class can achieve their AR goals.
Awards
Brown will have a “3 C’s” award ceremony at the end of every month. We also will celebrate each trimester those who achieve their AR goals and those who are models of the IB learner profile.
I am thrilled to be your child’s Fourth Grade teacher and to share this year with not only them, but with you as well. We have an amazing group of children and will have a fantastic year together!
Thank you for all of your help and support!
Communication:
My email is [email protected]. This is the best way to reach me for most matters. I check this email mid-day and at the end of the day. If there is a change in your child’s dismissal routine, the best way to ensure I receive this information is to call the front office.
I will send out information via Bloomz. Please make sure your email address is current with the school so that you receive these messages.
We will send home weekly notes and monthly newsletters, which will be posted on this site and sent out via Bloomz. Let me know if at any time you feel that my communication about our classroom is inadequate. My intention is to keep you fully informed about your students.
Attendance Expectations:
Please be sure to have your student at school on time, every day. Students who are not at work in our classroom at 9:00 will be considered tardy. Please also pick up your student at 3.45. Students who are not picked up by 4:00 will be in the office.
Please limit absences and schedule appointments for days when we do not have school, if possible. Absences should be reported to the attendance line. Please also let me know about absences, if you can.
Classroom volunteers
I welcome Parent volunteers for school events, field trips, class parties, communication, etc. If you are interested in helping as a volunteer in any way, please let me know.
Field Trips:
Fourth grade plans several field trips this year, including visits to the State Capitol for “How We Organize Ourselves”, and the Colorado History Museum for our Colorado History unit, as well as to a planetarium for our Space unit. We also will schedule field trips or in‐school presentations for our other units.
Birthday celebrations:
Brown has a new NO TREAT or trinket policy for birthdays. Your child will be celebrated all day on their special day.
Classroom Routines
Planners
We have planners for end of the day. We reflect on what we learned and note important vocabulary and activities in our planners. Students are expected to take planners home and return them to school every day. Thank you for helping our students learn valuable self-management skills!
Homework
The fourth grade teachers send home a homework packet every Friday, due back to school the following Friday. Homework includes 100 minutes per week of reading, as well as math work and a short writing exercise. Homework is not intended to be your job or your problem, so if homework becomes a problem please send me a note to let me know the student has tried but does not understand the homework (or whatever the situation is) and I will excuse the student from that assignment or find time during school hours to work through the issue. Homework usually helps students tremendously when it helps them to create work habits and practice concepts they understand. Students who hand in proficient homework improve academically. However if homework is not productive, please let me know.
Bathroom tickets
Each student in my class is issued tickets (one/day plus one bonus per week) to use for any absences from the classroom for bathroom or water fountain. If students do not use all tickets, they are entered into a raffle for small prizes, such as lunch in the classroom or bringing a special item to school. This is an amazingly effective way to consolidate student bathroom trips to the numerous opportunities they have outside of classroom instruction time. If there is some reason for your student to have additional bathroom passes, please just let me know.
Snack
Since the students don’t have lunch until 12:45, we allow a small, tidy, easy to eat snack in the morning. Please do not send chips, candy, puddings, popcorn, and the like because they are messy and distracting. Bars, fruit, cheese, half sandwiches, small crackers, cereal, and vegetables are excellent small snacks. The only beverage allowed in the classroom is water.
Math facts
Fluency in the areas of addition, subtraction, and multiplication is a critical skill for our fourth grade students. The students must learn their multiplication facts before October 15 and stars on the chart in our classroom mark each student’s progress. Most of the students respond very well to this mild competition. Students who master their math facts become coaches for their friends. Please help them learn their multiplication facts! Family members often can help with math facts because we’ve all had to learn them! There also are websites such as www.mathfactspro.com and others.
AR quizzing
The kids know their AR reading levels and they have set “points” goals for the trimester. They know how to quiz on the computer, how to monitor their own progress, and how to choose books. I’m confident that every reader in my class can achieve their AR goals.
Awards
Brown will have a “3 C’s” award ceremony at the end of every month. We also will celebrate each trimester those who achieve their AR goals and those who are models of the IB learner profile.