Good evening!

First, I need to thank Dana Whitmire-Rotili and Amie Scarpitti for a fabulous Halloween Party! I was sad to miss it, but I stopped into Bath after my appointments to check on the guinea pigs. I could tell it was a successful party and that the children did great for Mrs. Barna. You have wonderful boys and girls! 

Tomorrow, I will be checking all schoolwork to make sure I have my assignments from my grade book entered correctly. In-Service days like these allow the teachers to calculate end-of-quarter totals and get report cards ready for launch on Friday. We also get some education of our own. Tomorrow, I will get to learn more about the NewsELA program we have adopted this year. Meanwhile, I hope your children will get to sleep in and enjoy the day, knowing they had a great first quarter.

This coming week will bring us more chapters in Sign of the Beaver. This ties in nicely with our focus on Mound Builders in Ohio during Social Studies. I am looking forward to sharing with the class the history of Ohio's native inhabitants. During this time, we will focus on the skill of making timelines. Please be prepared to help your son or daughter if they ask for help identifying at least five personal events of their own that they can timeline in class. I appreciate any help you can provide.

Upcoming Dates to Know:
November 1 - No School for students
​November 2 - 12 - Halloween Candy Donation in the lobby
November 4 - Parent-teacher conferences, night 1
November - Girls' STEM Club (parent notes for the office are required)
November 5 - Report Cards posted
November 6 - Skate Party at Skate Station
November 11 - Parent-teacher conferences, night 2

Did you ever notice that 90% of Ohio Halloweens are cold and rainy? Hopefully, you had indoor trunk-or-treating or stayed in to play board games this weekend. The Hetman's had a lazy weekend with movies, drawing, and reading. I am not complaining! Today's weather is not making me hopeful for next weekend!

This past week was fun for our students! We had Unity Day on Wednesday. In addition to wearing orange, Mrs. Kerrigan came in for a Guidance Lesson. We talked about bullying and how we can prevent it in our school. We followed that up on Friday as we did a lesson on respecting similarities and differences. You can see in the photos below that they even tried to take that seriously. 😁 I bet they can sing the song's chorus for you at home if you ask! The class loves the "Walk In Your Shoes" song!​

This week, we are continuing to read Sign of the Beaver. The class will be doing mini-projects after each section of the book to help comprehend and understand this unique time and place. Tomorrow they will get to decide if they want to write a friendly letter to the main character or if they'd prefer to draw a storyboard of an important scene from chapters 1 through 3. These projects are in the Reading Journal, found in your child's Schoolwork Pages document. 

In science, I am excited to say we will be Zooming with a scientist from the University of Georgia Tuesday. She works with animals, so we will ask her questions related to the plant and animal classifications we have learned. I cannot wait to report back to you on how that goes. Make sure you check out Twitter for a quick recap Tuesday night. (@mrsjodihetman). And in social studies, we will continue to study Ohio's regions in preparation for our lessons about Ohio's first people. 

As a reminder, the first quarter ends on Friday. I have emailed students about finishing NewsELA articles and StudyLadder assignments that are due by then. NewsELA is accessed through Clever, and StudyLadder is a unique login that the children have on a yellow handout in their take-home folders. The students can access both of those websites from home if your child needs to work on them.​

Upcoming Dates to Know:
October 25 - Red Ribbon Week's Kick-Off  
October 26 - Red Ribbon Week Neon Day
October 27 - Red Ribbon Week's Pajama Day
October 28 - Red Ribbon Week's RED Day
October 29 - Wear your Bath Team Hero shirt & bring your costume for our Halloween parade / party
November 1 - No School for students
​November 2 - 12 - Halloween Candy Donation
November 4 - Parent-teacher conferences, night 1
November 5 - Report Cards posted
November 6 - Skate Party at Skate Station
November 11 - Parent-teacher conferences, night 2

This past week the class spent a couple of days outside to identify trees and learn more about these unique organisms. The Keynote they completed is in Schoolwork. I recommend you check it out; their photos of the trees alone are beautiful! You will also see their tree poems come home tomorrow. These, too, were stunning. I was so proud of the class and their creative writing.

​This week we will continue to look at amazing organisms in science to study plants and animals. We will apply what we learn to Ohio, which aligns with shifting our social studies focus to Ohio Regions. This curriculum is engaging for the class, and I have some fun activities ahead for the children! 

In language arts, we will start the book Sign of the Beaver. This is a story about a young man left alone in a cabin in the 18th century. He and his dad built the home for the family, but young Matt needs to stay there alone while his dad goes back for his mom and sister. The children love this story. It can lead to some good discussions at home! We will start the unit by going outside to imagine what living alone in the wilderness might have been like for our 12-year old main character.

By now, you have probably seen my email about parent-teacher conferences. I appreciate the responses, and I look forward to talking about these exceptional children with you in the coming weeks. As a reminder, you can check ProgressBook for updated grades. Teachers will be working on first-quarter report cards the first week of November. ​​


Upcoming Dates to Know:
October 20 - Wear Orange for Unity Day
October 21 - Girls' STEM Club after school
   * Sign up was required; please send your child with a note if they are staying for this.
October 25 - Red Ribbon Week
October 29 - Wear your Bath Team Hero shirt
October 29 - Halloween parade and party
November 1 - No School for students
​November 2 - 12 - Halloween Candy Donation
November 4 & 11 - Parent-teacher conferences

Good evening, Families,
     In addition to updates on what we are doing in the classroom this week, I wanted to update you on activities coming up in our room. I feel like we are in the time of year when we go from zero to sixty overnight!
     Halloween is coming up first. The holiday will be celebrated at Bath Elementary on October 29th. There will be a party in our classroom, and children will be parading in their costumes at 2:00 pm. If the weather permits, the parade will circulate out the main entrance and along the front sidewalk. If you would like to see the parade, you can stand along the front sidewalk to see the kids as they pass by. The party in our room will be run by our room parents, Dana Whitmire-Rotili and Amie Scarpitti. Children should bring their costumes to school. They will have an opportunity to put costumes on before the parade. I recommend outfits that can go over school clothes to avoid long lines in the bathroom. 
     The following Monday (11/1) will be when teachers will work on first-quarter report cards. That end of the quarter also marks when we start parent-teacher conferences. This year they are scheduled for November 4th and November 11th. Because my daughter has a band concert on November 4th, Mr. Fry and Mr. Wilson said I could schedule a few conferences during alternative times as well. Please note that I will email you by October 18th if I would like to meet with you. Remember that if I don’t initiate a conference, that is ok. It just means that there aren’t any concerns at this time. However, if you have questions or concerns, I am happy to discuss them!  
     Now, onto our classroom. Last week the children did a great job with two major projects. In language arts, we wrote about Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. We did a corresponding craft to show how we visualized the character “Fudge.” The students worked in groups to research and present on the five major U.S. Regions in social studies. I am in the process of grading all of those now. Social studies scores will go in ProgressBook tonight, but the writing will take some time to get completed. For both, children received a copy of the requirements in advance so that they knew the expectations. And overall, I was blown away! I am beyond impressed with this class!

Hello, Parents,

I know the rain was a bit dreary today, but I still loved the weather this weekend. I love the start of each season! Fall makes me appreciate Ohio, though. I love the smells, the colors, and the feel of excitement that comes with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Yes, I said it. I am already thinking about Christmas. 😄

In our classroom last week, we wrapped up our first two weeks in the STEM lab. That gave us time to revisit some passion projects the children decided to work on in September. If you aren't familiar with what your fourth grader is working on, please ask them! We are building planets, coding, researching guinea pigs, and more! As they finish those projects, the kids have a chance to work on a choice board of fun math and language arts activities. This is part of our IE block (intervention/enrichment), so it is not for grades, but it is still highly valuable! 

In language arts, we finished Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and started a writing project. That concludes this week with the final copy and a fun craft. I cannot wait to hang them in the hall and include a picture of it here next week. Our next book will be Sign of the Beaver. The children enjoy it; there is a lot of adventure in that book!

In math, I have fifteen children that are working hard through multiplication strategies. It has been amazing watching them use my teaching videos and the practice pages to master Topic 3 (1-digit by multi-digit multiplication). We had plenty of small group time and learned how the lessons build on one another. Now everyone is on to 2-digit by multi-digit multiplication. I am confident they will do well!

This is a four-day week. There is no school Friday. Please continue to keep your children home if they are not feeling well. We had a cold run through some of the kids last week. Thank you for emailing me for work. Between sending items home and modifying work when they return, we will keep everyone caught up! 

Upcoming Dates to Know:
October 4 - 1st Day of Orchestra and Band
October 7 - Girls' STEM Club after school
   * Sign up was required; please send your child with a note if they are staying for this.
October 8 - No School / NEOEA Day
October 25 - Red Ribbon Week