Rainy Monday and a Field Trip

Welcome back to our rainy, rainy Monday.  Luckily the sun finally came out this afternoon so we weren't going so stir crazy inside all day!

Today we started working on our first school-wide writing prompt.  As a school we have decided to focus on writing this year, especially for our fourth grade students so that we not only become better writers for our future, but also become better writers for our MSP this spring.  We are focusing on informational writing this year since that tends to be the one that students struggle with the most - explaining and supporting details with reasoning.  It's a great help to practice this at home and use that all important word... BECAUSE!!  I stress this every day with students that for every answer they give, they should say "because" so that I know that have some kind of reason why they believe what they do.  Write this secret word on their planner for bonus points tonight!  :)

Today we also got a field trip form home for our field trip on October 4th (sheesh, that's next Friday already!).  We are asking that you return the field trip form with the required $5 by this Friday.  If you need a scholarship for this field trip, please email me or send me a note so that can be arranged.  We are so excited to be going to the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery and it should be a lot of fun so if you're able to chaperone, please fill out the attached form and send that back as well - this is new this year.