August 30, 2010

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to another school year. My name is Tricia Heissenbuttel and I am very excited to be teaching your children this year. Fourth grade is an important transition year. Your children will be reading textbooks for content, will learn how to do research, will need to study for tests, will be writing their own homework in their assignment books, will learn to take notes, and will receive letter grades for the first time. It is also a year full of excitement with our Science Fair projects, our California missions and Gold Rush simulations, our class musical called “It’s Electrifying,” and our fieldtrip on a bus to Sacramento. Together, I hope you and I can work to help your children to be successful.

On the first day of each week your children will have in their homework folders a letter like this one. The purpose of this letter is to tell you what we have done the previous week, what we will be doing in the upcoming week in fourth grade, and how you can help your child at home. This letter will be stapled to your child’s work from the previous week. On Monday nights, please take some time to review and discuss this work with your child. This letter will also be posted on the 4th grade blog at http://sjcschool.org/blogs/grade4/.

Tomorrow your children will receive their assignment books. Each afternoon before dismissal, I will stamp their assignment books after they have written down all their homework. I ask that you sign this page at the bottom each night after your child completes her or his homework. There is also a space that we can use to communicate with each other. Each morning, I will check for those signatures and notes as I collect homework. Homework, letters home, and other important information will go home in your children’s homework folders. If these start to fall apart, feel free to replace them throughout the year. The only requirement is that they MUST fit into your child’s desk, therefore binders and other large folders are not acceptable.

Each week we will celebrate a Superstar in fourth grade. I will send home a poster on Monday with the Superstar for the following week. Your child will have a week to complete this poster. The poster must be brought to school the following Monday, but if your child completes his or her poster earlier in the week it can be brought to school when it is completed. This poster will be shared with the class and posted on our Superstar board. Our first Superstar will receive his or her poster tomorrow and will return it on or before next Tuesday.

Beginning tomorrow night your child will be taking home one book a night to be covered and returned to school the next day. Please take this opportunity to review the books with your children to get an idea of what we will be learning this year.

Tomorrow night you and your children will have a homework assignment to complete together. I ask that you think about and discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses they possess. Please focus on many strengths and only one weakness that you can help your child to work to improve over the first quarter. Please make sure that this is a realistic and obtainable goal for your child and please stay away from stating a grade value in the goal. Together, think of specific steps that your child can do every day or week to reach this goal. This will be due on Thursday. I will be sending home a card with the goal after Back to School Night that you can post somewhere in your home to track progress. This card will be collected at the end of the quarter.

Please make sure that your child brings all of their supplies to school by this Wednesday. Attached to this letter is a complete list of fourth grade supplies. If an item is checked, it means that your child still needs to bring in that item. All emergency cards, summer reading lists, summer school forms, sport transportation forms, Diocesan waivers, volunteer driver information, and medication forms are due Friday, September 10. Many of these will be completed online this year, but you will need to print the Emergency Card, sign it and return it to school. Please be especially aware of the volunteer driver information form. If you think that you may drive on a fieldtrip this year, please send it in with a photocopy of your license and proof of car insurance. If fourth grade has 100% returned by the 10th, we will get a free dress day. Let’s win it!

Feel free to drop by the classroom, introduce yourself and ask questions. I am looking forward to meeting you next Thursday at “Back To School Night.” I am excited to work closely with you and your children to provide a fourth grade year full of fun and learning.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Tricia Heissenbuttel