Our Fourth Grade Web Page
Hi there and welcome to our Fourth grade class page. We are getting much better with this. If you have any suggestions, please let us know your ideas. If you need to get in touch with Mrs. Didden you can contact her at Pleasant Valley during the school day at extension 1723, before or after school. Please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Welcome back to school! Here are some Room 23 essentials.
Specials Monday - Gym
Tuesday - Library & Orchestra
Wednesday - Art
Thursday - Chorus
Friday - Music and Band
Planners These are to be brought home and returned to school every day. Parents are asked to initial student planners daily. They should be accompained by the students take home folder. As the year progresses we will be updating this site and informing you of what is happening in our class. Thanks for visiting.
Welcome to Pleasant Valley room 23. Planners & Take Home Folders:
Each child will bring home his/her assignments in a PV planner. We will try to teach them to use this planner like you or I would, to remind, plan and organize our week. Please try to initial their planner, as I will use it to send home notes for you to see and will also look for notes or questions from you. Take home folders will also come home daily and will have a side of papers that need to be returned to school and a side that can remain at home for you to keep. Planner and folder should be returned to their backpack upon completing their homework.
Reading At Home (RAH) - 
This is a program at PV that many of you are familiar with. Children keep track of their reading minutes every day and log them on the monthly calendars in their planners. They should read for at least 20 minutes every day. Parents sign off on the monthly numbers of reading minutes. We compute these numbers as a school at the end of the month.
Homework
20 Minutes of reading is in addition to their( up to) 45 minutes of homework each night. If their homework is taking more than a total of 65 minutes a night please let me know and we can talk about the situation on an individual basis. Please monitor their homework and initial their planner when they have completed it. Do not feel obligated to correct their homework, as it gives me a signal that the child may need more work in that area.
Math Study Links will come home as we work on each lesson in class. If one does not come home for the night, it means we are spending an extra day on a particular lesson. I am distributing the answer sheet for the Study Links at Open House as a parent helper. As the parent of a University of Chicago math student myself, I know that sometimes I need guidance with the homework! Please continue to support your child’s memorization of the basic facts at home. This is VERY IMPORTANT to your child's math success.
Conferences
A sign up sheet for December conferences is in the Cafeteria at Open House. Please be sure to sign up for a convenient time to come in to talk. I look forward to a private time to talk to parents about their child’s performance in the fall. If you need an alternate time, please let me know and I can try to accommodate your schedule.
Curriculum:
We will be working working individually and in small groups to improve our reading skills. Each child should be familiar with the process of finding a "Just Right Book".
We will learn much about the Colonial Period of the U.S. and will study the Revolutionary War. In Science our themes include Elecricity and Magnatism, Life Cycles, Landforms and The Water Cycle
Band and Orchestra:
Schedules have been set up for band and orchestra instruments. Band instrument lessons are on Monday and Friday, and the entire Band meets on Mondays during recess time. Orchestra instrument lessons are on Wednesday and Orchestra meets during recess on that day. The children leave the class for their music lessons and are responsible for the work they have missed while they are gone. Don’t worry, I will not introduce totally new information during those times. They may however have extra homework that evening to make up for what they have missed.
Volunteers:
I think that having parents and others volunteering in the classroom on a regular basis helps with the classroom atmosphere, and is certainly a help for me with paperwork and 1 to 1 reading and math practice. I would love for parents to feel free to volunteer.
We will need parent volunteers for many of the activities that will be occurring this year. These include: Chaperones to Lebanon for a Colonial field trip, The New Britain Museum of Art in December, and Roaring Brook Nature Center in the Spring.
Please sign up on the printed sheets on the table or call or write me with available times.
Many thanks to you all for entrusting me with your children for this wonderful 4th grade year. I hope to earn this trust by helping children to grow, learn and enjoy their year at P.V.
Carolyn Didden
In our class we are using the Tribes agreements to help us follow the Pleasant Valley rules of behavior. So far our class is showing a great deal of respect and attention to each other.
Our Classroom Agreements:
By the classroom of Room 23, Grade 4 at Pleasant Valley School
1. Mutual Respect
We will treat people the way we wish to be treated.
2. Attentive Listening
We will listen with our eyes, our ears and our hearts.
3. Appreciations - No Put downs
We will speak kindly to others and think of each other’s feelings.
4. The right to participate - The right to pass.
The more we participate the more we gain.
We have the right to pass in certain activities.
Please continue to check for updates to our classroom web page. Thanks for visiting!
