Teacher's Note May 22, 2017

Can you believe we are in the final week of the school year?  I think this school year went fast!  We will not have any homework this week. 

Student council has planned Spirit Week with the following days:
Monday - Hawaii Day
Tuesday - Professional Day
Wednesday - Backwards T-shirt Day
Thursday - Rainbow Day - fourth graders wear blue

We want to congratulate Adrianna and McKenzie for being selected to perform in the school talent show on Tuesday.  We will definitely be cheering for them! 

Our math lessons this week will be reviewing decimals, fractions, area, perimeter and graphing. 

We had fantastic poetry books handed in last Friday!  The students and I will be grading them this week.  Then on Wednesday all of the fourth grade will gather in the library for Poetry and Pastries.  The kids will share their poetry in small groups and large group.  Then we will enjoy a delicious pastry! 

May I express my love and best wishes to each student and their family.  One of the kids told me last week we have a very good class.  I had to smile and answer, " Yes, we do!"  Please encourage your son or daughter to continue reading this summer. I will look forward to seeing the students and parents around campus next year. Have a very enjoyable summer.

Love,
Mrs. Figueroa 

Teacher's Note May 15, 2017

I hope each of you had a very enjoyable Mother's Day.  I certainly loved the time with my family. 

We had an excellent field trip to the University of Arizona last Friday.  Thank you for the tremendous parent support.  I heard many of the students say I definitely want to go to the U of A or to college.  We want to inspire young minds to continue learning! 

Our poetry book will be due on Friday.  It is a major project that we have been working on  for over a month.  The kids will be given a checklist of poems that they need to complete.  They should have a creative and attractive front cover and About The Author as the back cover.  We will be working on the poems in class and the students can work on them at home as well. 

This will be our last week of homework and then you can shout for joy. 

I hope we all have a wonderful week full of learning activities!

Warmly,
Mrs. Figueroa 

Homework week of May 15, 2017

Monday - math 50 & 51, vocabulary 131 & 132 and reading log
Tuesday - math 54 & 55, spelling 107 & 109 and reading log
Wednesday - math 58 & 59, work on poetry book and reading log
Thursday - math 63 & 64, finish poetry book and reading log

Spelling Words: The up and Down Fall

1.  difficult
2.  probably
3.  beginning
4.  direction
5.  discover
6.  excellent
7.  important
8.  imagine
9.  energy
10.  remember
11.  different
12.  another
13.  beautiful
14.  dangerous
15.  government
16.  interest
17.  becoming
18.  description
19.  engineer
20.  wonderful 

Bonus words
transformed
investigate
enthusiastically
décor
apparently
corridor 

Teacher's Note May 8, 2017

Oh, what a week we just had!   It was Teacher Appreciation Week and our decorated door looks absolutely great!  Everyday I was showered with group gifts from our CEOs.  Some of the gifts were my favorite snack items, a bouquet of orange roses, a garden set with seeds, a gift card for a pedicure, and scented lotions.  Thank you all for the gifts and your support all year long.  The awesome parent support makes Soleng Tom an excellent work site.

Last week also had the challenge of so many students being sick.  One day we had ten students absent due to illness.  We have been disinfecting our tables and trying to use hand sanitizer in hopes of killing the germs.  I will be more flexible with the make up work because we had so many absences.  The students will be excused from many of the assignments. 

Our final field trip of the year is this Friday, May 12.  We will be walking around the U of A campus and trying to see as much as possible.  I will check with the drivers and verify whether or not you can still provide transportation.  I know some of our drivers had to take last week off to care for sick children.  Everyone who goes on the field trip needs to wear walking shoes and a hat.  We will eat a picnic lunch on a shady lawn.  I really hope this field trip inspires the students to pursue higher education. 

We have been working hard writing poetry. Currently we are working on our I Do Not Understand poem and three nature poems.  The kids seemed very excited about the nature poems on Friday.  I hope to rekindle the excitement to write on Monday.   I see many of the students using flash drives to work on their poetry at home.  Thank you for your help editing the poems. 

May we have a wonderful week full of learning opportunities. 

Love,
Mrs. Figueroa 

Homework Week of May 8, 2017

Monday - math 34 & 35, vocabulary 13 & 14 and reading log
Tuesday - math 38 & 39, spelling and reading log
Wednesday - math 42 & 43, fact and opinion and reading log
Thursday - math 46 & 47, work on poetry, and reading log

Spelling List: The Gold Rush

1.  hasn't
2.  I've
3.  I'd
4.  we've
5.  wouldn't
6.  you'd
7.  haven't
8.  wasn't
9.  they've
10.  you've
11.  she'd
12.  didn't
13.  won't
14.  shouldn't
15.  couldn't
16.  weren't
17.  we'd
18.  hadn't
19.  they'd
20.  don't

Bonus words
beckons
abandoned
fares
rugged
profitable
multicultural