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March 6, 2014
Issue #11
Important Upcoming
Dates:
March 11th and 13th:
Parent-Teacher
Student Led
Conferences
(The Ottawa Scholastic
Book Fair is during this
time, too!)
March 14th: No School
for Students
March 21st: Pot o’ Gold
Silent Auction and
Family Event
Some “New” News
in 4H
 I have been working
on a new website
that is available to
parents and
teachers. This
website can be
accessed through
the above listed
“Weebly” site. You
can find
information on
District and School
Newsletters, as well
as links to sites for
reinforcing
particular academic
areas.
Hoekstra’s Herald
March 6, 2014
Emily Hoekstra
m o f f a t t . e m . t @ p e t o s k e y s ch o o l s . o r g o r h t t p : / / o t t a w a h o e k s t r a . w e e b l y . c o m
Lots to Share!
We have been extremely busy
these last few weeks! Our class has
wrapped up several projects,
including State Report Movie Maker
presentations, Literature Circle
book groups, our own Michigan
legends, States of Matter and Heat
Energy tests, and the study of
graphs and averages. Many of you
have expressed interest in seeing
your fourth grader’s State Report
presentation, and these will be
available to you at conferences. You
will also have a chance to read their
unique Michigan legends!
studying those basic
multiplication and division facts
at home. This will help your
fourth grader when we get
deeper into long division
(DMSB). 
D- Divide
M- Multiply
S- Subtract
B- Bring Down
I hope you received my
letter concerning March
Homework Journals. I wanted
We have moved on to new
“big ideas” including, but not limited to give the class an opportunity
to: division- long division, Force and to work on their writing in the
other forms of Energy (science), the classroom, and share their
branches of the Federal Government pieces during writing conference
time. If they have not completed
(Executive), understanding
enough writing entries by the
figurative language (metaphor,
end of the month, you may see
simile, onomatopoeia, and
the journal come home to be
personification), and recapping the
different genres we have studied so wrapped up. They will also have
these to share with you at
far this year. *** I can’t stress
enough how important it is to keep conferences next week.
Projects Galore!
Biography projects are now
underway in our classroom. I
appreciate that many of you have
already started the research,
highlighted important information,
and begun “speeches” for the
notecards. This week we talked
more about good and relevant
research, compared to sites that
might not be reliable. On the back
of this form you will find a list of
the days/times that we will have
biography presentations. They will
take place AFTER SPRING BREAK,
in the week of April 14-16th. We
have 55 presentations between the
two fourth grades, so
unfortunately the times that we
have listed (on the back side of
this newsletter) are what we
need to keep, schedule wise. We
hope you can make it. The times
we chose are based around
specials and library schedules. As
the date gets closer, we will talk
more about costumes and card
memorization. While we are not
requiring the kids to memorize
their lines, we do hope they can
give good eye contact throughout
their presentation.
Biography
Presentations- Dates and
Times
(remember
Grade
Level
News that 4A is also presenting,
Page 3 of 4
School
Newsletter
and will be mixed in with 4H students)
Monday-April 14th
Tuesday-April 15th
Wednesday-April 16th
8:45-9:30 a.m.
Jaden Kenny
Landyn Karr
8:45-9:30 a.m.
Mary Fran Forton
Mackenzie Golke
Kolton Horn
12:45-1:30 p.m.
Isaac O’Neal
Sofia Jarevenpaa
Shawni Thelen
Ella Dixon
Nik Taylor
10:00-11:30 a.m.
Ashley Brazier
Maddie Rose
Tate Wilder
Ava Luesing
Demetrious Mourufas
9:30-10:15 a.m.
Rayna Tripp
JJ Marshall
Kaitlynn Walter
Avery Timm
Allie Foster
Olivia Abram-Craig
10:30-11:30 a.m.
Dylan Aldridge
Mackenzie Espinoza
Cam Adams
Harlan O’Brien
Shannon Hausler
Owen Ashley
Tabatha Furgeson
Questions, and Quizzes, and Tanglers,
OH MY!
Starting this week, students will receive biweekly “check-ins” to see how they can recall facts
from previous units. They will get ten questions
that include reading, math, science, social studies,
language, and “other” categories.
It is important for our learning to spiral,
which means that we can’t forget concepts/ideas
from previous months. This week’s check-in Tangler
included: two-digit by two-digit multiplication,
elapsed time, expanded form of numbers,
similes/metaphors, reading genres, animal
adaptations, Phases of the Moon, and the Civil War.
** Study guides will not be given for these “quick
checks”, as I want to see what information they can
pull from their bright brains!
This week’s “Big Ideas”
- Social Studies- Legislative Branch: key responsibilities
-Math- Long Division with remainders
-Spelling- ou, au, aw sounds
-Reading- Wrap up Lit. Circles, legends, genre posters
-Writing- legends, and biography work
-Science- Force and various forms of energy