Happy New Year and Welcome Back!

First, I'd like to thank you for making our end of 2nd quarter learning celebration a success! It was amazing to see so many proud faces, on both students and parents!

Thank you also for all of the thoughtful and generous Christmas gifts!

We have hit the ground running for the second half of the year and are already back in the swing of things. Here is an overview of what we will be working on for the next several weeks in 4th grade:

We have started an integrated Reading/Writing project that focuses on historical fiction and begins with reinforcing our nonfiction work from last quarter to build background knowledge. This week and next we are working to build a timeline and learn about significant events in the Civil Rights Era. Then we will transition to picture books, read alouds, and book clubs using historical fiction literature set during that time. Students will be reinforcing our work from the 1st 9 weeks to analyze characters and try to "walk in their shoes". 

In Science we have a short mini unit that focuses on the phases of the moon and what causes night and day, then we will use our Social Studies time to look at important events in NC during the Civil Rights Era.

In Math we will be focusing on mastering the standard algorithm for multi digit addition and subtraction- adding and subtracting up to 4 digit numbers the "old way". Students have used other methods in 2nd and 3rd grade to build understanding and will now look at how using the standard algorithm is usually the most efficient method. 

A few other important announcements/reminders:

Last 9 weeks you received info about re-registering your child to attend HES next. Thank you so much to those of you have already completed that, if you have questions or need more information please let me know. All students must re register to hold their spot at HES.  

Beginning next week students will have a small amount of math homework each week. Every Monday they will bring home a worksheet with math practice that is either a review or practice of skills we are currently working on. The sheet will be divided into days, Monday-Thursday. Your child may complete each column on the listed day, or however works for your family/your schedule. Completed homework should be turned in each Friday.  

Please help your child remember to charge their computer each night. 

Yesterday students received permission slips for our field trip to the NC Symphony on February 25th. Please complete and return this sheet. No money is needed  for this trip. We usually ask students for "dress their best" for this trip- more info about that when we get closer to the trip.

Important Dates:

January   15 PTA meeting, 6:30pm
                20- MLK, Jr, no school

February   21   Teacher Workday
                 25    Symphonyt Trip

Hi Everyone!

We have just a week and a half until winter break and what a full week and a half it will be!

Next Friday, December 13th from 1-2pm we will host our "Showcase of Learning" for the first semester. Students will choose a piece of work that they are proud of, thought was interesting, felt they did their best on, etc to share. This can be anything from the big reading-writing-science integrated project we are currently working on to a poem written in the first 9 weeks, to an art assignment from Mr. O's class. Students will be prepared to share what they learned from the piece of work they choose and why they wanted to share it. We hope you can join us!

*We would like to have cookies and cocoa during our "Showcase of Learning" . I was planning to make cocoa in a crockpot, I have one, does anyone have another we could borrow? We could also use some styrofoam cups, marshmallows, and cookies. 

Before we leave for winter break we will take the mid year reading and math screeners using Aimsweb. Please make sure students have a fully charged computer each day.

We plan to go out for recess each day, unless it is raining. Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather each day and has a sweatshirt or jacket. 

Here are a few pictures from our science fun day last week :)

 
 

Hi Everyone!

We have a lot going on in the next few weeks, here is a sneak peek!

Next Tuesday, 11/22 will be our Science Fun Day. Hopefully you have seen the bright green sheet with all of the details. If you need a new one let me know. The cost is $24, please turn this in by this Friday, 11/22.

You may have read in the weekly Dolphin Dispatch about our new approach to the end of semester Celebration of Learning. On Friday December 13th from 1:00-2:00 we invite you to come to our class and look at student work from this semester. Each student will  choose a piece of work to showcase and write a reflection about why it is their favorite, what they are most proud of, etc.

Tomorrow and Wednesday we will take the first round of NC Checkins for this year. These are assessments created by the NC Department of Public Instruction  to see what objectives students have mastered and what they need extra support with. These tests are similar to the EOG's, but not as long. As always, PLEASE make sure your child's computer is FULLY CHARGED for these assessments. 

Now that the weather is turning colder, please make sure your child has a coat, jacket, sweatshirt, etc for recess. As long as the windchill is above freezing and it isn't raining we make every effort to go outside.

HES Dolphins helping others - Giving Tree

WOW - DOLPHINS FAMILIES YOU ARE AMAZING!  We have had two trees full of giving tags already claimed and there are still more available. Spread a little cheer this holiday season by adopting a tag from the HES Giving Tree. Our Giving Tree will be open for selection on Friday, November 8th. Each tag represents a wish item or a clothing item for a student in need. The Giving Tree is located in the HES main office. Only adults should choose a tag from the tree. Mrs Creech, School Social Worker, is available to help families select wish items through phone or email.  All items should be returned to the main office by Thursday, December 5th. Donations of walmart or grocery store gift cards are also appreciated. beth.creech@orange.k12.nc.us or ext. 25067.  #dolphinshelpingothers

Please fill out the following survey for our PTA:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfa5ZFkGa60cnbmnNsVDzujOPhG7_y67cHYZcWrx21gAOXkoQ/viewform

Happy Tuesday everyone!
Here are some updates and info for this week.

REMINDER:  On Friday, October 25th we will be

visiting Old Salem. All students need to bring a lunch

and drink. We will be walking around outdoors quite a

bit, please dress accordingly. Students do not need any

extra money, but they may bring money to spend at the

bakery. Chaperones- you will need to pay at the visitor’s

center when you arrive. The address for the visitor’s

center is: 

900 Old Salem Rd 

Winston Salem NC 27101

**note from the group coordinator at Old Salem-

PLEASE NOTE: for the next couple of years, there will be major roadway 

construction around Winston-Salem, affecting routing to Old Salem.  The 

day before your visit please check www.business40nc.com for the most 

up-to-date directions.  Allow additional time for travel.

Do you have a large cooler we can borrow

for lunches? If so we would love to have

them by Thursday afternoon.

In both reading and writing we will continue our

nonfiction work. In reading we are doing background

reading about Native American tribes in the 3

regions of NC. Once we have read about tribes in

each region we will compare and contrast differences

in their ways of life and look at possible explanations

for the differences.

In writing we are practicing creating and supporting

a thesis statement based on our writing about

important people to us.

In social studies we will begin studying the Lost Colony

and colonization of each region of NC.

In math we will review multiplication and division and

then have our test for unit 2.

Today students will bring home their "Home Connections"

math workbooks. Every 2 weeks or so I will share pages

they can do for OPTIONAL math homework. I will try to

offer pages that students should be familiar with and

can do pretty independently. For now, pages I suggest are:

1, 2, 6, 7,8, 13, 14, 19,23,33,34,36,41,42,44

HES FAMILY PICNIC

Bring your blankets/ chairs and picnic baskets and join HES families

for dinner and games on Friday, October 25th on the field for food,

fun, and friendship. 5:30pm - 9:00 pm

TRUNK OR TREAT

HES is joining Hillsborough Police department on October 26th at

Fairview Park providing fun activities and a safe trunk-or-treating

experience for families in our community.  Please continue to send

in bags of candy this week through October 25th that we can

use at our Dolphin trunk.

Enrollment for 2020-2021

HES has started hosting prospective families with Spanish interpreters available on some dates. Tour dates and times are listed on the HES website.  If you know of a family that will have a kindergarten student next year, is new to the community, or is a current OCS student at another school and want to be part of our HES family, please encourage them to visit us to get to know about the learning opportunities we have to offer.  Applications are encouraged for new K-5 students and will open in January. Returning families will also re-apply given first priority in January. Help us spread the word.

Fall Scholastic Book Fair will be November 4th - 8th

Mark your calendars!

The book fair will be open from 7:30 am to 3:15 pm Monday through Thursday, and from 7:30 to noon on Friday. That Tuesday we will stay open until 6pm for family and friends who are unable to visit the fair during school hours.

Please join us to shop before the morning bells ring, during your child's scheduled classroom visit, during lunch that week and of course during the extended hours on Tuesday!

One of the keys to a successful book fair is a team of wonderful volunteers! If you would like to volunteer and/or if you have any questions please contact Valerie Lund via email, valerie@briareos.net. Thank You!  

Be on the lookout for more specific information as we get closer!

Welcome Back, I hope everyone had a wonderful fall break!


Our 2nd quarter is off to a great start! Here is a quick overview of what we will be doing in each academic area.

Reading:
This quarter our focus is on nonfiction reading. We will begin by identifying some of the differences between fiction and nonfiction and how preview, predict, etc differently for nonfiction texts. We will also work on activating and confirming prior knowledge, collecting information, and organizing new information. Beginning next week (10/14)students should be reading nonfiction for their 20 minutes each night.

Math;
We are continuing to work on multiplication this quarter. We are working more on 1 digit by 2 digit and starting to explore 2 digit by 2 digit. For 4th grade, we focus on decomposing numbers to make smaller (easier) problems and adding together partial products. For example: 

Social Studies;

We will study groups of people that were native to North Carolina and identify similarities and differences between tribes in the different regions of NC. We will also study groups that settled in the 3 regions of NC. We will double up on nonfiction work during this time and get some extra practice with nonfiction reading strategies.

Writing:

In writing we are beginning to work on opinion writing. This week we are working on creating s simple thesis statement and explaining it with 3 reasons. Next we are adding details to the reasons to create a paragraph explaining the thesis statement. Here is the class example we worked on together:

Other Important Info:

OCS LEGO Blitz 2019 - Registration closes October 14th 

We welcome our elementary and middle school students to join us for the  2019 Lego Blitz Build. This is a time for students to come together as a team and build while partnering with Habitat for Humanity! If you want to build and can’t find a team, please reach out to your room parents as they are working together to help connect students. 

The Lego Blitz will be held on Thursday, October 17th. Registration closes on Monday, Oct. 14th.  Teams of 4 are required for this event. 

Click here to Register: https://goo.gl/forms/f0gNRKfOz8nnvkti2  

Important Dates:

October 10     HES STEM night 5:30-7:30

              12     Campus Beautification Day 9am- noon

              14     HES Spirit Night at Radius Pizza

              25     Old Salem field trip

November  11  No School- Veteran's Day

                   26 In-School Science field trip w/ Science Fun for Everyone (more info to come)

                   27-29  Thanksgiving Break

Happy September!

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!

We have a lot packed in to our next 2 weeks before fall break! If you do not already have a conference scheduled to go over your child's 1st quarter report card, they are bringing home another sign up sheet today- please check yellow folders for those.

All students should be bringing home an info note about our first field trip. We will be visiting Old Salem on Friday October 25th. The cost for students is $21 and all STUDENT money is due before fall break. Parents who would like to chaperone will pay at Old Salem the day of the trip. Please see the letter for more details.

As we wrap up this quarter we will finish up our work with realistic fiction in both reading and writing. In math we will spend the rest of this 9 weeks looking a little deeper into multiplication and starting to multiply larger numbers- keep working to memorize those multiplication facts! 

A few other important things:

Our canned food drive will continue until this Friday, 9/6. 

HES STEM night will be this Thursday from 5:30-7:00, if you plan to attend please RSVP here: 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4aafa72aa0f58-hesfamily


Congratulations to our first 2 Terrific Kids of 2019-2020, Natalie Kunz and Seamus Hester!

Important Upcoming Dates:

September   12   Old Salem field trip money due
                    13     last day of the 1st 9 weeks

October        8     beginning of the 2nd 9 weeks

November   11   No School- Veteran's Day

Happy Friday everyone!

Your child is bringing home several important papers today. They have an envelope that contains their interim report, a letter to sign up for report card conferences, and their math EOG scores from last year. You may remembered these were not released with reading scores because it was a "re-norming" year for math scores.

Next week is going to be an exciting week in 4th grade. We will have a local poet in residency with us, Mr Philip Shabazz. He has been doing week long poetry residencies with us for many, many years. Students will generate ideas and learn to write AMAZING poetry in just a few sessions with him. BIG thanks to the PTA for continuing to find this cultural arts experience. 

Be on the lookout next week for detailed info about our first field trip. 

Important Dates:

Aug 22     Picture Day, HES Spirit Night at Whit's
Aug 23     No School- Teacher Workday

Sept 2     No School- Labor Day
Sept 5     STEAM night at HES
Sept 13   Last day of the 1st 9 weeks