2013 first day newsletter

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Welcome to Grade 4at Highroad Academy

Welcome to another year at Highroad Academy! I ampleased to take this opportunity to introduce myself and to

welcome your child to Grade 4. A good learning experience is built on a cooperative effort among parents, child andteacher. I look forward to the work and growth we will allaccomplish this year. With your participation both in and outof the classroom, we can look forward to a productive, creativeand enjoyable year. This year will be different in many ways not

only for you but also for myself.

First of all, I am looking forward to working with a new teaching partner. Mrs. Derksen will be teaching Thursdays as I continue my administrative role in the Grades 4-6 area. She is a wonderfuladdition to our class and I know you will enjoy the great ideas andlove for teaching and learning she brings to the class.

This year also means a new classfor me as the Grades 4-6 all move intothe portables. I am looking forwardto a year full of collaboration betweenthe Grades 4-6 as we work to build anuniqueidentity and feel to the Grade 4-6area.

Mrs. Derksen and I believe firmly that all children should have a love forlearning and that learning does

not just happen in school within our four walls. Our goal this year is to help your child build that love for learning into everything they do and to develop a sense of wonder at the

wonderful creation God has made in His love for us. As part of this, wealso hope to involve you in this goal; whether it is through our class blog,reading with your child as part of our Home Reading program or throughthe family projects that your child will bring home, we want you to be animportant part of this process.

Welcome to Grade 4. Let the learning begin!

IMPORTANT!!!

Our blog is animportant part of ourclass and an extremely important to tool inhelping you be anactive, knowledgablepart of what is going on

in our class. Instead of one newsletter at theend of the month, our

blog will be constantly updated withresources,links, news items,spelling, calendars and

other vital pieces of information. Pleasecheck the blog often forinformation and waysto help your childcontinue their journey in learning outside theclass! At the end of

this newsletter, there will be a form you cancut out and put on thefridge to help you getto our blog!

THIS WILL BE

THE ONLY

PAPER

NEWSLETTER

YOU WILL

RECEIVE THIS

YEAR!

This year

will be

different inmany ways!

GRADE 4 - MR. HANCOCK AND MRS. DERKSEN HIGHROAD ACADEMY, CHILLIWACK, BCNewsletter

3 SEPTEMBER, 2013

Highroad Academy



Introducing Mrs. Derksen!

I am very pleased to be a part of your child’s class this year. I graduated in 2000 with my Bachelo

of Education from UBC, after which I decided to return to Chilliwack, my hometown, to pursue m

career in teaching. Soon after moving back, I met my husband, Jeff, and we were married in 2002

I taught grade 6 full-time for 6 years and loved (almost) every moment of it. I then took som

time off to have our first child, a girl named Nyla. After my maternity leave was over, I decided t

return part-time to teaching to try and create a balance between my family, home, and career. was a teacher-on-call (TOC) for 4 years and really enjoyed the flexibility and lack of take-hom work. In 2010, along came our son, Eli. Several months after Eli was born I ran into an ol

friend, Kim Evans, and she inquired about whether I’d be interested in some part-time work a

Highroad. I welcomed the opportunity to be back in the classroom with the same group o

students each week. I was more than ready to take a break from TOC-ing and looked forwar

to building strong relationships with one group of students. I’ve been working part-time as

classroom teacher for the last few years at Highroad and absolutely love the schoo

community and work environment. In my spare time, I love hanging out with my famil

outdoors & drinking a vanilla latte at Starbucks, while reading the latest trilogy in tee

fiction.

CORE SUBJECTS

Grade Four is a busy year! With

Provincial Achievement test scheduled

for mid-year, students have a lot of

work and curriculum to cover. However,

Mrs. Derksen and I have a number of

fun, interactive, collaborative, exciting

and challenging projects planned.

For our Language Arts reading

program, we will be focusing on Novel

Studies. We will be starting as a class

and, as the year moves on, transitioning to more student led reading discussions

through the use of Literature Circles.

Poetry and spelling will also be major

parts of our reading program. For

writing, we will be using a mix of the Six

Traits program with the Blended Style

and Structure model. Both systems are

great ways to help students both

aspects of writing: style and content.

Our Math program continues with the

Math-U-See method with this year’s

focus being Division. As a part of that

program, we wil l be reviewing

multiplication and looking at fractions.

Daily Math Review and analyzing Word

Problems will also be an important part

of Math as problem solving is always.

Science will focus on Weather, Sound

an d L ig h t an d Hab ita ts an d

Communities.

Collaborative

DynamicInteractive

ChallengingMrs. Derksen will be teaching our

Grade 4 Social Studies curriculum with

several fascinating topics to look

forward to. Grade 4 Social Studies

topics include: Geography of Canada,

Living in Canada, Life in Canada’s North

and Explorers. Using tools like GPS,

Google Earth and maps, students will

also have fun learning more about

current world views and the various

cultures that make our global societ

the fascinating and dynamic world it

today.

TECHNOLOGY

Technology will play an important par

in our Grade 4 year. However, it

important that it is not the focus o

learning. Rather, technology is one o

the many tools we use to make sense o

our world and as a resource to gathe

information from. Our focus will how

technology can complement ouc u r r i c u l u m i n a d y n a m i c a n

interactive way that provides student

with a multi-dimensional sense of

topic. Several tools will be used an

students will be going to the compute

lab at least once a week. We will also b

going through some basics of coding a

a beginning look at how webpages ar

created and structured.

Looking Ahead At Our Year In Grade 4!Below: Mr. Hancock’s children, Liam and Siena

Learning does not just happen within the four walls of our school!

3 September, 2013

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Class Blog - Your Gr. 4 Connection As you may or may not be aware, one of the areas of focus in the Elementary and Primar

department as been communicating through the use of Blogs. Our class blog will be a

important part of our parent/teacher communication. The blog contains lots of interestin

articles, links, videos and resources to help bring curriculum alive and into the hom

where you can share what your child is learning. It is vital that you have the ability t

access our blog on a daily basis! You can visit our blog at:

http://mrhclassblog.edublogs.org /

Spelling and Weekly Bible VerseThroughout the year, students will be involved in practicing spelling words an

memorizing Bible Verses. Students will be given their spelling words and Bible Verses o

Mondays and tested on those words and verses on Fridays. To help you organize and hel

your child, spelling words and Bible verses will be placed for the year ahead on the Blo

calendar which you can access by going to the class blog and clicking on the “Calendar

link located on the top left. All spelling lists and bible verses will be put on the calendar s

you know what to practice with your child. Our class also uses a website called “Spellin

City” which allows students to practice spelling words, play games and prepare for thei

spelling tests. More information on both of these will be given on the blog. Weekly SpellinPractice will not start until the beginning of October as we review phonograms an

handwriting skills.

Other Important Items...There are so many exciting things happening this year, it is hard to fit them all in thi

newsletter!

Home Reading Program - This year, students will be introduced to an new

way of doing their home reading. Each day, as students complete their readin

for the night, they will fill in their reading log question for that day. Each day

has a different type of question that will help them to think about th

structure and style of literature as well as work on their comprehension. Thi

is also a good opportunity for you to gauge how well your child is engaged withthe books they are reading. More information will be given along with

guidelines on the amount of time expected.

Think! Projects - As part of the Science program in our class, students will b

bringing home projects designed to force students to think outside the box an

be creative. Creativity is an important part of learning and we want to hel

students stretch their creative muscles. Collaboration will be key and parent

and other family members are encouraged to help. These projects ar

mandatory and will be part of their Science mark.

Genius Hour - This is something new that some of the teachers in the Grade

4-6 will be starting this year. Google introduced a concept a number of year

ago whereby 20% of worker time was devoted to any project their wer

interested. This helped promote creativity and passion for learning. We wan

to build that concept into our week as well. We feel that for so much of the

school year, we tell students what to do and learn. This is an opportunity fo

students to pursue an idea/concept or project they are interested in and

passionate about. To that end, one hour of the week will be given to students t

pursue a passion or interest they have. They will complete a project based on

that passion and present it to the rest of the class. These projects will be

worked on throughout the term and be presented at the end of each term. W

will be using a number of resources to help us including a free website calle

DIY.org to help students gather ideas for projects. We are really excited by this

idea and feel that this will inspire a passion for learning and creativity.

COME VISIT US AT HTTP://MRHCLASSBLOG.EDUBLOGS.ORG

3 September, 2013

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http://mrhclassblog.edublogs.org/

http://http//MRHCLASSBLOG.EDUBLOGS.ORG

http://http//MRHCLASSBLOG.EDUBLOGS.ORG





Let’s

Get Acquainted!Please fill in the form as completely as possible!

1) Child’s Name _______________________________________________________________________

2) Birthdate _______________________________________________________________________

3) Parents’ Names _______________________________________________________________

4) Address _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

5) Home Phone_______________________________________________________________________

6) Work Phone _______________________________________________________________________

7) Email: _______________________________________________________________________

8) Name of other family members (including pets):

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9) List several of your child’s “favorites”, such as a favorite food, TV show, book or hobby:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10) Your child’s strengths:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11) Areas needing improvement:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12) Educational needs of your child from your perspective: (Feel free to add more info on the back!)

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PLEASE FILL IN AND RETURN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!3 September, 2013

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13) Does your child like to read? Never Rarely Sometimes Always

14) How often does your child read independently?

_____ 0‐2 times per week



_____ 8 plus times per week

15) As we plan projects this year, we are hoping to gather some information to see what tools may be available for your child t

use. Please check all that apply:

__ Computer __ High‐speed Internet __ GPS Device __ digital camera

16) As part of the Science unit: Animal Habitats and Communities, one of the field trip ideas I have been contemplating ha

been to do an overnight fieldtrip to the Vancouver Aquarium. The Vancouver Aquarium offers a great program that woul

fit in v ery well with our study of Animal Habitats and Communities. The Aquarium describes the program below:

After the Aquarium has closed its doors for the evening, bring your sleeping bag for a special night of discovery and

learning. Our Overnight Adventure Guides will lead your class on an exciting 12-hour voyage to three corners of the

world. We will be focusing on the various ways that animals, plants and humans interact within each ecosystem. This i

an unforgettable and educational experience for everyone involved.

You can read more details about the program and activities at:

http://www.vanaqua.org/learn/schools/ecosystem-expedition

Obviously, there would be parent volunteers required, etc. However, I would first like to gauge interest in doing

this. I think that it would be a great educational experience and a great class bonding experience. However, I

would only pursue it if the majority of families were in favour. Please indicate your interest below:

_____ Yes, I would be interested in this experience for my child

_____ No, I would not be interested in having my child participate in this experience.

_____ I might be interested in this experience for my child but will come and talk with you before deciding.

Any other information you would like to provide (please use the back if needed):

PLEASE FILL IN AND RETURN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!3 September, 2013

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2013 first day newsletter

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