Week of November 16 - November 20, 2015

Dear Families and Friends,

Report cards and parent conferences are complete and went very well. Including students in their conferences marks and important transition in ownership and accountability for most scholars. Congratulations to all students! Well done.

Jupiter Grades. Most of you and your children have logged in and changed your pass codes. If you have not had a chance to do this, please do so now. This will help you and your child monitor grades and assignments together as a team. This tool should be utilized to help your child develop as a life-long learner teaching them the value of responsibility and expectation as they grow as scholars. Jupiter Grades

Play: "13 Colonies."  We read through our play today for the first time and listened to all of the songs.  We will watch a kid's production of the play on video tomorrow to give students a complete sense of the play. Students will be asked to consider 3 different parts and 3 different songs/dances that they would most like to perform. Then, I will use fair sticks to select students for parts knowing that all students within our class are completely capable of doing a marvelous job in whichever role they may get. 

Play performance dates: Thursday December 10 at 7 p.m. for parents and friends and Friday December 11 at 11 a.m. for the school. Mark your calendars! You don't want to miss this wonderful event!

Parent help and volunteers needed: for filling in missing items for costumes, rehearsing lines, practicing dances and songs, assisting with the set and back stage, etc. I will put together a sign up sheet on google docs for those who would like to sign up to help. Thank you in advance! Your participation is greatly appreciated!

Shared Music and Scripts: I have shared the music with lyrics and the instrumental version along with a script of the play. Your child also brought home a script today which is to stay home and be used to read and practice from nightly. 

ELA/Social Sciences: We will read and do various activities that support our theme of learning about the colonies. Students will continue to work on their Native American Reports.

Art: Students will complete their tribal shadow boxes this week, and we will start to create set designs for our play with the help of Mary Beth in the Art department!

Read Aloud: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech.

Math: Despite our commitment to the play, we will continue to weave our math curriculum into our days. We are working on the multiplication algorithm, multiplication using mental math strategies with 10's, 100's and 1000's as well as the operations and properties. I hope to build a solid foundation with these skills. We have been working diligently toward this goal. A review of former concepts will continue as we dive into fractions in the next few weeks.

Writing and Grammar: We will continue to study subjects and predicates and use them in our essays and daily writing assignments.

Spelling: We have started our spelling packets and tests on Fridays. Please support your child with this new addition to our nightly home work. There is a place that requires a parent signature. Our words come from student papers and authentic pieces of their writing. The spelling packet this week is geared toward our play and the study of the colonies.

Nightly Reading: Please remind your child to read their lines and go over their script for nightly reading this month. This will help students reinforce and build confidence with their parts. 
Thank you for supporting both our classroom and your wonderful child!

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Week of November 2 - November 6, 2015

Dear Families and Friends,

Report cards and parent conferences are coming up quickly--November 4-10. If you haven't done so, please click on the SignUpGenius link below to select a slot for our conference. 

SignUpGenius

**Please remember, your child is to come with you to the parent conference so that they can be directly involved in their progress thus far. 

ELA: Now that assessments for report cards are complete, we will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House.

Read Aloud: We are putting the finishing touches on the Kit Carson report we did as an assessment on the computer. We are reading Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, currently, which is a novel loaded with figurative language. This will be a rich experience for language enrichment.

Math: I am please to say that students overall really knocked the ball out of the park on their first trimester math assessment. They should be very proud of themselves. They have worked very diligently on the subject. For those who still need to do so, math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments. We are beginning order of operations this week.

Science: Building circuits begins very soon. Remember those Christmas tree lights when you were a kid? The ones in series that made your parents very testy? Well, we'll be creating some of those very soon. Hopefully, we'll all still get along when it's over....

Social Studies: We're ready to start our writing on our tribes and will start that now that assessments are complete.

Writing and Grammar: We will continue to study grammar and use it in our essays. 

Spelling: Starting this trimester, spelling tests on Fridays! More on that soon.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Week of October 26- October 30, 2015

Dear Families and Friends,

Special Announcements: Halloween is being celebrated at school this Friday morning with the annual Halloween parade. Your child can come to school in his/her costume in the morning. We will have the parade first thing in the morning as usual and then resume our Friday schedule with P.E. at 9:20. Please be sure your child has regular/comfortable clothes and tennis shoes to change into for the rest of the day. 

Head Phones: We had a special delivery from Amazon courtesy of Julie Thornton (Tom's mom)! Julie donated new head phones to our classroom for our computers. Wow! We use them all the time, and they are terrific. Thank you, Julie, you rock!

Report cards and parent conferences are coming up quickly--November 4-10. If you haven't done so, please click on the SignUpGenius link below as soon as you are able so that you can get a slot that works for your schedule. Thank you to those who have signed up thus far. The emails come straight into my in box, and I can see that it is working just fine. 

SignUpGenius

**Please remember, your child is to come with you to the parent conference so that they can be directly involved in their progress thus far. 

I will be conducting the remaining assessments in math (Thursday) and writing (Mon., Tues., Wed.). Please Make sure your child is on time, well rested and fed. 

ELA: We will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House as time allows around assessments.

Read Aloud: We have finished Kit Carson and will be writing a book review on it.  Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech in our next novel! 

Math: Math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments. We are reviewing concepts in place value, rounding. estimating, factors and multiples in preparation for our math assessment Thursday.

Science: Now that Mrs. Dudley is back from Science Camp, 5th graders will continue with her, and the 4th will turn back to their study of magnets and circuits in the Foss Science Program. 

Social Studies: We are researching our tribes for our narrative essays about Native Americans. Your child has homework to research his/her tribe this week. This could include a home library book or a bit of supervised web browsing on a particular tribe. They are welcome to bring in any information that they would like to share as they collect it. We will do this in class as well. 

Writing and Grammar: We are reviewing prepositions, types of sentences, similes, and simple, compound and complex sentences in preparation for our writing assessment.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Week of October 19- October 23, 2015

Hello Families and Friends,

We had a magical and truly great experience on the water today on the O'Neill Sea Odyssey trip! Thank you to all those who drove and chaperoned. There was a lot to see and a great deal to learn about marine biology, ecology, and navigation. The water was calm and the day perfect for a sail. As homework tonight your child should get online and walk you through what they learned. Go to www.oneillseaodyssey.org. Select "Educators" on the top of the page and scroll down to the bottom of the orange drop menu. Select "View your Class Data." This will take you to the page where you can select the group your child was in--Great White Shark or Harbor Porpoise under Mountain School at the top of the page. Enjoy looking this over together. In addition, your child also took home a folder with a picture of them on the boat at the helm! 

Special Announcement: there is no school on Friday Oct. 23!

Head Phones: We had a special delivery today from Amazon courtesy of Julie Thornton (Tom's mom)! Julie donated new head phones to our classroom for our computers. Wow! We used them today in the afternoon, and they were terrific. Thank you, Julie, you rock!

Report cards and parent conferences are coming up quickly--November 4-10. Please click on the SignUpGenius link below as soon as you are able so that you can get a slot that works for your schedule. Thank you to those who have signed up thus far. The emails come straight into my in box, and I can see that it is working just fine. 

SignUpGenius

I will be conducting assessments over the next few weeks as we wind down the first trimester. Making sure your child is on time, well rested and fed is especially important.

ELA: We will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House. 

Read Aloud: We are finished Kit Carson today and will be writing a book review on it. Tomorrow we'll be starting Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech! 

Math: We took our factors and multiples pretest on Friday. Monday we had our official test on this material.  It is important for students to continue to review the divisibility rules which will help with division by a single digit. We will move into multi-digit multiplication and division in the coming weeks.  Math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments. 

Science: Now that Mrs. Dudley is back from Science Camp, 5th graders will continue with her, and the 4th will turn back to their study of magnets and circuits in the Foss Science Program. 

Social Studies: We are researching our tribes for our narrative essays about Native Americans. Your child has homework to research his/her tribe this week. This could include a home library book or a bit of supervised web browsing on a particular tribe. They are welcome to bring in any information that they would like to share as they collect it. We will do this in class as well. 

Writing and Grammar: We are reviewing transitions and will work on learning the process of organizing our ideas for our narratives.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Monday October 19, 2015

Hello Parents and Friends,

The time has arrived! We are departing tomorrow morning from the school at 7:45 a.m. sharp for our much anticipated O'Neill Sea Odyssey trip. Please have your child here by 7:30 to avoid any delays. We will have to leave the school on time to get to our destination at the harbor, park and meet our instructor downstairs at the west end of the building on the Plaza sidewalk across from the parking lot and the Crow's Nest Restaurant. I will give all drivers their maps and student forms in the morning here at the school.

Specifics:

Location: O'Neill Sea Odyssey 

2222 East Cliff Drive, Suite 222

Santa Cruz, CA 95062

831-475-1561

(East side of Santa Cruz Harbor next to the Crow's Nest. A map will be provided to each driver with permission slips for each student traveler.)

Go to the link below to see a preview of what we will see and do, maps, and more info.:

O'Neill Sea Odyssey link

Parking: Cars and vans go to the metered parking in the launch ramp area OR the visitor's parking for up to $5.00 per hour (we are there approximately 3 hours).

Arrival/Departure: We must arrive no later than 8:15. Late arrivals result in an abbreviated program. We will wrap up at 11:30 and head back to school for recess and lunch.

Food: Please make sure your child has eaten a very good breakfast. During the 3 hour program, there is no break.

Clothing: Dress comfortably and bring a jacket, sun screen, a hat, and sunglasses.

Shoes: Sneakers or soft-soled, non-skid shoes are required!!! You will be asked to remove dress shoes, platforms, sandals, heels or thick-soled shoes.

Weather: The program is modified to accommodate all weather conditions. Therefore, rain or shine, we will plan to go.

Drivers/chaperones and carpools:

Kelley: Taylor, Mikayla, Owen, Jace

Marika: Kadin, Madi, Jon, Hannah F.

Dwayne: Anika, Maia, Micah, Isaiah

Julie: Sophie, Claire, Jack, Tom

Linda: Ruby, Hannah M., Tyler, Noah

Mary: Adrian, Hunter, Mrs. Young

Thank you for all of the support and see you tomorrow bright and early everyone! Otters, dolphins and whales await.

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Newsletter for Week of 10/12 - 10/16

Hello Families and Friends of the 4/5 Classroom,

We had a great time on the field trip to see Micha and company dance last Friday. Our class was very well behaved and enjoyed the show. Many of our students were up on stage participating. It was wonderful to be a part of the dance.

Reminders:
Field Trip: O'Neill Sea Odyssey. Tuesday October 20th from 7:45 -12:00. Please be sure you are here at the school with your child promptly at 7:45. Space is limited. We are allowed no more than 8 parent volunteers/ chaperones. Your child should eat a good breakfast. There are no breaks once on board. Dress comfortably, wear soft-soled sneakers only (no sandals, platforms, heels, or thick-soled shoes allowed) and a jacket (gloves and hats as necessary). This is a free event and promises to be a great adventure!

ELA: We will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House.  

Math: We have started learning about squares of a number and will continue that this week. It is important for students to still review the divisibility rules.  Math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes, too. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments. 

Science: We are working on a STEM project about Curiosity the Mars space rover. This unit focuses on engineering. It will combine computer work, prototype/model building, literacy connections and team work/collaboration.

Social Studies: We are researching our tribes for our narrative essays about Native Americans. Your child has homework to research his/her tribe this week. This could include a home library book or a bit of supervised web browsing on a particular tribe. We will do this in class as well. 

Writing and Grammar: We are continuing simile practice and did an informal drama yesterday in groups! This was very engaging and the students enjoyed it. We will work on word roots this week for vocabulary building and spelling. This will help students develop their writing as we begin writing projects like personal narrative, opinion, and expository pieces. 

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Newsletter for Week of 10/5 -10/9

Hello Families and Friends of the 4/5 Classroom,

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weather that is beginning in our area. We have a great week planned which will wrap up with our field trip on Friday to see Micha Dance. Details follow.

Field Trip Announcement: The "Micha Scott Dances" show at the Mello Center is Friday October 9. The show is from 10-11. Your child should come to school at the usual time. We will leave the school at 9:00. We do need 1 more driver. If you are able to help us out, please let me know today, if possible, so that I can get all the drivers and passengers arranged. The cost is $2.00 ea. for every child and parent driver.  You must have all paperwork signed in the office to be a driver.  

Reminders:
Field Trip: O'Neill Sea Odyssey. Tuesday October 20th from 7:45 -12:00. Please be sure you are here at the school with your child promptly at 7:45. Space is limited. We are allowed no more than 8 parent volunteers/ chaperones. Your child should eat a good breakfast. There are no breaks once on board. Dress comfortably, wear soft-soled sneakers only (no sandals, platforms, heels, or thick-soled shoes allowed) and a jacket (gloves and hats as necessary). This is a free event and promises to be a great adventure!

ELA: We will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House.  

Math: Our test on factors and multiples went well for most students last Friday. We will continue to practice divisibility rules and concepts this week. Your child should review the divisibility rules each night this week in his/her Blue Binder. Math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes, too. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments.  

Science: Magnets and circuits continue.

Social Studies: We will finish highlighting chapter 3--The Tribes of North America in our History Alive texts and make notes in the margins on Tuesday and Thursday. We are creating and coloring our totem projects. Students can pick out additional texts today as we will write a brief essay on a tribe of their choice to practice our writing skills. This will be a research project that can, for the most part, be done in class. This is an example of expository text with the purpose of informing the reader.

Writing and Grammar: We will continue sentence variety this week in grammar and use the strategies we learn in our journal writing over the coming weeks. Yesterday, we added similes to the mix. This will help students develop their writing as we begin writing projects like personal narratives, opinion, and expository pieces. 

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Newsletter for Week of 9/28-10/02

Hello Families and Friends of the 4/5 Classroom,

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and got a chance to see the blood moon and lunar eclipse last night or simply view it with your child on you tube. The kids did an excellent job last Friday with the substitute teacher they had. To acknowledge and celebrate this good behavior, I am giving them a small popcorn party on Friday this week  at 10:30 (snack time). If any parents would like to contribute, I am accepting bags of popcorn (like from Trader Joes, etc.) and juice. Thank you in advance!

New Announcements: We are going to see the "Micha Scott Dances" show at the Mello Center on Friday October 9. The show is from 10-11. Your child should come to school at the usual time and we will leave the school at 9:00. This amazing opportunity came up rather suddenly and most classrooms are going to this unique performance. We do need drivers, however, and the cost is $2.00 ea. for every child and parent driver. If you are able to drive, please let me know as soon as possible. You must have all paperwork signed in the office to do so. Permission forms will go home tomorrow with your child in the blue binder homework folder. Please sign and return this form along with $2.oo for your child. 

Reminders:
Field Trip: O'Neill Sea Odyssey. Tuesday October 20th from 7:45 -12:00. Please be sure you are here at the school with your child promptly at 7:45. Space is limited. We are allowed no more than 8 parent volunteers/ chaperones. Your child should eat a good breakfast. There are no breaks once on board. Dress comfortably, wear soft-soled sneakers only (no sandals, platforms, heels, or thick-soled shoes allowed) and a jacket (gloves and hats as necessary). This is a free event. This should be a great adventure!

ELA: We will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House.  

Math: homework on factors, multiples and divisibility will continue each night this week as we prepare for our test on this unit this Friday. Please check your child's planner for specific page numbers. We will continue to review our concepts.  

Science: Experiments with making a compass and other magnet projects continue on Wednesday.

Social Studies: We will practice highlighting chapter 3 in our History Alive texts and making notes in the margins on Tuesday and Thursday. Photocopied chapter  notes went home with your child for a first-read preview last week and will be used for the purpose of developing these useful note-taking skills. 

Writing and Grammar: We are working on sentence variety this week in grammar and will use the strategies we learn in our journal writing this week. Sentence variety makes writing interesting to read. This skill will help students develop their writing as we begin writing projects like personal narratives, opinion, and expository pieces.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Newsletter for Week of 9/21-9/25

Hello Families and Friends of the 4/5 Classroom,

Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. The kids shared many of the things they did, and it sounded wonderful; camping, Bird Island, Renaissance Fair, the SC County Fair, the Boardwalk, and more.

Reminders:
Field Trip: O'Neill Sea Odyssey. Tuesday October 20th from 7:45 -12:00. Please be sure you are here at the school with your child promptly at 7:45. Space is limited. We are allowed no more than 8 parent volunteers/chaperones. Your child should eat a good breakfast. There are no breaks once on board. Dress comfortably, wear soft-soled sneakers only (no sandals, platforms, heels, or thick-soled shoes allowed) and a jacket (gloves and hats as necessary). This should be a great adventure!

ELA: We will continue with in our literature circle book--The Birchbark House.  

Math: homework on factors and multiples went home on Monday and will continue each night this week. Please check your child's planner for specific page numbers. We will continue to review rounding and estimating with whole numbers and using number lines.  In an effort to keep all organized, your child has selected his/her favorite notes on this concept to keep on hand in the blue binder. All other papers relating to this topic where gathered together and put into their drop folders at school. We are starting a new unit on prime factorization this week.  We will work on prime and composite numbers, factors and multiples.

Science: We will continue our study of magnets this week. We experimented with permanent and temporary magnets, learned about north and south poles, and how magnets attract and repel.

Social Studies: We will continue our study of the migration routes of the Native Americans who settled North and South America. We are diving deep and will be discussing this and writing summaries in our interactive notebooks. This background information will help support our study of some of the Indian tribes and civilizations like the Hopis, Mayans, Incas and Aztecs.

Writing: We will edit and print out our preposition poems Tuesday. A pen and ink illustration drawing will accompany this work which will be finished in class this week.

Grammar: Homework on the 4 types of sentences: exclamatory, declarative, imperative, interrogative in conjunction with simple, compound, and complex sentences went home Monday night as practice.  We will journal write this week and practice incorporating these into our writing.

Enjoy your week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Newsletter for the Week of 9/14- 9/18

Hello Friends and Families,

It was nice to see many of you at the spaghetti dinner and movie night on Friday. What a great event and a wonderful community! Thank you to the Parent Club and all those who made the evening possible.

Announcements and reminders: See you at Back to School Night Wednesday Sept. 16! The orientation for new families begins at 6:30 in the PAC room with Ms. M. Teachers will deliver their classroom presentations at 7 and again at 7:30.

Field Trip: O'Neill Sea Odyssey. Tuesday October 20th from 7:45 -12:00. Please be sure you are here at the school with your child promptly at 7:45. Space is limited. We are allowed no more than 8 parent volunteers/chaperones. Your child should eat a good breakfast. There are no breaks once on board. Dress comfortably, wear soft-soled sneakers only (no sandals, platforms, heels, or thick-soled shoes allowed) and a jacket (gloves and hats as necessary). This should be a great adventure!

ELA: We have read Chapter 1 in our literature circle book--The Birchbark House.  We will begin the group discussions and comprehension questions this week. It is an insightful and touching story about a Native American girl and her family. This will enhance our history reading on Native Americans for the next few weeks.

Math: We will continue our work on rounding and estimating with whole numbers and using number lines. This has been tricky for many students as the numbers go into the millions for 4th graders and the billions for 5th. We will take time to practice these concepts in groups, as a class and on the computer. There are notes with guidelines that your child receives and files in his/her binder. These are to help with homework and to give them and you support with the concepts and practice.

Science: We will begin our study of magnets this week. There will be hands-on interactive lab work, and this will dove tail nicely into our unit on electricity and circuits. This is always a very interesting and fun topic for students at this level.

Social Studies: We will be reading about the migration routes of the Native Americans who settled this land. There will be some photocopied History Alive chapter reading that will come home as a "second read" on Tuesday and Thursday nights for homework. It is designed to be their nightly reading on those nights. Your child is not expected to do 20-30 additional minutes of reading, unless they love to read!

Writing: We are finishing, editing and typing our preposition poems in class this week. We will probably be able to accomplish that in class.

Grammar: We will be reviewing and practicing the 4 types of sentences and incorporating them into our writing: exclamatory, declarative, imperative, interrogative. This will be in conjunction with simple, complex and compound sentences. This stuff makes our writing so much more fun to read!!

Have a lovely week,

Mrs. Young

Week of Sept. 7-11

Dear families,

I hope you had a happy and safe Labor Day weekend! Thank you to all those who have generously supported our classroom with donations, plants and time! We are all settling in and rolling along.

This past week, we began art, music, and P.E. In addition, on Friday at 2:15 we met with Ms. Bombaci's first graders who are our reading buddies this year! The kids were really sweet with the first graders. It was a wonderful thing to see. Happiness is a reading buddy.

Back to School Night is Next Wednesday September 16. At 6:30 Ms. M will meet new families in the PAC room and then teachers will give classroom presentations for everyone at 7:00 and again at 7:30. I look forward to greeting everyone and talking about the curriculum and our fabulous year.

This past week we worked on our organizational binders. The blue binder is the math binder which includes the planner, a purple homework pocket for each day's due assignments, and a reading log for parent signatures every night. This binder has three sections: notes; homework and classwork; and tests. This is the only binder that will travel back and forth every day between the classroom and home. Although I will try to post assignments here every afternoon, your child's planner is the best place to see what is assigned and when it is due. We fill in our planners every morning and Shauna, our wonderful aide, will be checking to see that homework, planners, and signatures are complete. This is a system to help your child manage course work and a schedule. We will practice together until everyone has it down. In addition to this binder, there is a red ELA and Social Sciences binder as well as a black science binder. These stay at school. If you have any questions regarding the binders, the planner or the reading log, please let me know. 

Math: we have been reviewing whole numbers and place value up to the millions. We will continue to review math facts and begin to go forward this week with estimation, approximation and rounding. We will, as a general rule, have a test every Friday to assess the week's concepts. In addition, we are working on a POM (problem of the month) and continue to do math story problems each period to reinforce concepts.

Social Sciences: We will continue our study of maps and longitude and latitude as well as landforms and bodies of water. This will build background knowledge for our upcoming writing project Explorers: A Personal Narrative.

Science: we are completing our STEM project on domes and will move into our Foss curriculum on electricity and magnets in the next week.

Read Aloud: Kit Carson. We are mapping his journey through the Sierra Nevada Mountains from California to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Field Trip: O'Neill Sea Odyssey. October 20 from 8:30-12:00. Drivers needed. Please be sure that you have filled out the necessary paper work with the office. You will find our field trip drivers sign up page on our blog if you are interested in driving and joining us.

Warmly,

Mrs. Young and Shauna

First Newsletter

Week of August 31-Sept. 4, 2015

Dear Parents and Friends of the 4/5 Classroom,

With our first week of school off to a great start, we are looking forward to a successful second week. We will be assembling our math and planner binder tomorrow as a class. Please be sure your child has his/her blue binder so that we can get started with the process. Shauna and I will be handing out the planners and dividers and supporting each student with this task. If all goes as planned, you should notice that the blue binder begins to travel back and forth with your student on a daily basis. They will need a parent signature EVERYDAY, so please be sure to ask your child about it. 

We will be diving into our math curriculum on place value this week and the planner, which is in the blue binder, will reflect the math homework assignments with page numbers should you need to reference them. The first math homework assignment is as follows:

Assigned Monday due Tuesday: Exercise 1 pp. 7-10
Tuesday math packet: due Wednesday
Wednesday math packet due Thursday
Thursday math packet due Friday
Friday: test on whole numbers

Our weekly social studies vocabulary homework is assigned Tuesday and is due on Friday. This week's terms: globe, geographic terms, latitude, longitude, geography, physical feature

There is no science homework this week 

Grammar homework this week: worksheet on 4 types of sentences due Wed.

Nightly reading is 20 minutes a night for 4th graders and 30 minutes a night for 5th graders. A reading log comes home daily in the planner for parents to sign each night upon nightly reading completion.

Announcements: 

Tues. Oct. 20: O'Neill Sea Odyssey field trip 8:30-12:00 (More information to follow). We will need drivers.

Fri. Sept. 11: Spaghetti Feed/Movie Night 6:30-9:30 

Wed. Sept. 16: Back to School Night. Ms. M will greet new families in the PAC room at 6:30. Teachers will give presentations at 7 and 7:30. I'll share our curriculum. I look forward to seeing you all then.

Thank you for supporting our classroom and your child. 

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Welcome Back

8/20/2015

Dear Friends and Families,

I hope you have enjoyed your summer! I would like to welcome all of you back as we embark on a new school year. My name is Heather Young, and I will be substituting for Mrs. Honig in the 4/5 classroom.

A little about myself.... I live in Scotts Valley with my husband Scott and our two sons, Casey and Wyatt. Casey just celebrated his 16th birthday and starts 10th grade at Scotts Valley High School. Now, over six feet tall (unbelievable), he plays football for the Falcons and seems very excited to be heading back to school to see his friends. Wyatt graduated from Cypress Charter High School in June and will attend Cabrillo this fall. He takes after his mom and is an amazing artist. Nonetheless, they grow up too fast!

Professionally, I have a background and education in the humanities, teaching, and the arts--one of my passions along with growing killer dahlias. I originally started my teaching experience at the community college level and found that I enjoy teaching at the elementary level most of all, as I love children. Additionally, as many of you know, I have been a long-time sub for Happy Valley Elementary--another joyful mountain community. You may have guessed that I am quite tickled to be joining your team of dedicated teachers, staff and parents. It's a privilege to have been selected for this position.

In closing, please find the supply list on the Home page under the Beginning of year business tab if you would like to get a jump on that before school begins. If you are still enjoying the last lingering moments of summer and are not so inclined, worry not. I will send home a hard copy of the list with your child on the first day of school (Wednesday August 26th) and you can gather things together next week as you are able. You may also fill out the parent interview on the same tab on the blog if you wish. Otherwise, I will send home copies of that with your child as well.

Please pop in to say hello and see our beautiful new classroom. I am eager to meet all of you and your children.

Kind Regards,

Mrs. Young