From the Desk of Mrs. Bauguss

Our current needs include:

• Paper towels
• Index Cards
• Classroom snacks

I have updated a few things on our classroom wish list if you would like to help contribute. The students are REALLY excited to read other books by Gary Paulsen in the Hatchet series so I have added some of those to our class wish list as well.

Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1BVVC6BVXG5UN?ref_=wl_share

Thanks for your support! We could not do it without you!

Last week was week 1 in our competition. Our class completed 498 lesson on Dreambox last week! That is amazing! This week we move onto week 2 of the competition. The students are very excited about this opportunity to win prizes throughout the week and to see who wins on Friday to move onto the next round! Ask them how they are doing and if you have time, let them spend a few minutes at home to work on it each night. Their math knowledge is growing exponentially!

March 10th-14th: Week 2 of Dreambox March Madness Competition!

March 14th: Spirit Day & Birthday Celebrations

March 19th Raleigh Field Trip!

March 26th: Report Cards go home

March 28th: PTO Dance 3-5

April 4th: Spirit Day & Birthday Celebrations!

April 9th: Spring Picture Day

April 14th-21st: Spring Break!

April 24th: Merle Fest Outreach performance

April 30th: Progress Reports go home

May 2nd: Spirit Day & Birthday Celebrations!

May 7th: Early Dismissal; Career Day!

May 23rd: Field Day

May 26th: Holiday No School

May 30th: Early Dismissal; Last day of school

Thanks to all that came out to our Raleigh Zoom meeting. Here is the smore that I created with all of the Raleigh trip information! Please let me know if you have any questions!

Pickin' Up Wilkes Poster Contest details are in the flyer below.

Contestants are to produce a 22X28 inch poster that focuses on the Earth Day theme “Pickin Up Wilkes” The contest is available to all Wilkes County 4th grade students. It begins Feb. 3rd, 2025 and runs through March 19th, 2025. Committee members will collect all posters from each public and private school as well as the Wilkes County Public Library. One submission per student. Posters must be hand drawn, no pictures of commercial origin are permitted. Each participant will receive a FREE Litter Committee t-shirt! Judges will be looking for originality and Wilkes County appeal. The winning participant will be awarded a pizza party for their entire class. The winner will be chosen and contacted April 22nc, 2025. Posters will be published in the Journal Patriot, displayed online and at the Wilkes County Landfill. The winner and their poster will be recognized at the May 8th, 2025 School Board Meeting and at the May 9th, 2025 Commissioners Meeting.

For more information, go to https://www.wilkescounty.net/644/Pickin-Up-Wilkes

The Division of Public Health, Communicable Disease Branch is excited to announce the Annual “Fight the Bite!” campaign. We are asking for your help to educate North Carolinians about the prevention of vector-borne diseases by ‘fighting the bite!’ Ticks and mosquitoes cause a great deal of illness in North Carolina, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, and La Crosse Encephalitis.

We invite all K-12 students across the state to create and submit an educational poster that may be used in this statewide campaign. We hope your participation will be a fun and valuable learning experience. If you are a parent or teacher of a participating student, please help them follow the instructions below to create their poster and submit it on time. Students should design their posters with a clear message about how they plan to “Fight the Bite!” and prevent tick- and mosquito-borne illnesses. Rules:

1. The poster contest is open to all students, K-12 across the state of North Carolina. There will be three grade categories: K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

2. Students must create their posters on an 8 ½” X 11” sheet of paper in either landscape or portrait layout. Only one submission per student is allowed.

3. All art must be original! Submissions should be colorful and eye-catching. Any text should be large enough to read, legible, and spelled correctly.

4. Students may pick any theme related to “Fight the Bite” or any topic relating to the prevention of tick- and mosquito-borne illnesses.

5. Each participating student should fill out an entry form and tape it to the back of their poster. Do not staple.

6. The deadline to submit posters is Monday, April 7, 2025.

7. Posters must be mailed to the address atop page two in an envelope big enough to hold the poster without folding and should be labeled “Do Not Fold.” Posters can also be scanned and emailed to emily.herring@dhhs.nc.gov.

See the attachment below for more information!

March 4th: Jude

March 14th: Cora

April 14th: Omari

Many students have stopped doing homework nightly. This is detrimental to them in many ways and I am hoping to help encourage homework completion each night. Ideally students should still be reading each night for 15-30 minutes.

Our homework expectation are now:

• Complete reading passage with 10 questions
• Play math game to practice multiplication and division facts

We have started Module 3 and the students are very excited to be learning about the two sides to the American Revolution! They have learned some rich vocabulary and important history of our Nation. See the tip sheet for families below to learn all about this module and what the students will be learning!

WHAT IS MY GRADE 4 STUDENT LEARNING IN MODULE 3?

Module 3: The Redcoats Are Coming!

In Module 3, we will use a critical eye to see how the American Revolution was a foundation for American history. By focusing on identifying and understanding perspective and its impact on our understanding of events and decisions people make, students will improve their critical-thinking skills as both readers and writers. We will ask the question: Why is it important to understand all sides of a story?

OUR CLASS WILL READ THESE BOOKS & POETRY:

▪ Woods Runner, Gary Paulsen

▪ The Scarlet Stockings Spy, Trina Hakes Noble

▪ George vs. George: The American Revolution as Seen from Both Sides, Rosalyn Schanzer

▪ Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak, Kay Winters

OUR CLASS WILL EXAMINE THESE PAINTINGS & ENGRAVINGS:

▪ Washington Crossing the Delaware, Emanuel Leutze

▪ The Boston Massacre, Paul Revere

OUR CLASS WILL READ THESE ARTICLES:

▪ “Massacre in King Street,” Mark Clemens

▪ “Detested Tea,” Andrew Matthews

OUR CLASS WILL WATCH THESE VIDEOS:

▪ “Paul Revere-Mini Biography”

▪ “Fred Woods Trail—Driftwood, Pennsylvania”

▪ “The Culper Spy Ring: Path through History”

▪ “REBUILD—From The Ashes, The World Trade Center Rises Again”

OUR CLASS WILL VIEW THIS PHOTOGRAPH:

▪ Raising the Flag at Ground Zero, Thomas E. Frankline

OUR CLASS WILL ASK THESE QUESTIONS:

▪ What were the perspectives of the two main sides of the American Revolution?

▪ How did different people’s experiences affect their perspectives about the American Revolution?

▪ How did different people’s perspectives affect their actions during the American Revolution?

▪ What drove the Patriots to fight for their independence from Britain?

QUESTIONS TO ASK AT HOME:

▪ What is happening in the story?

▪ What is the essential meaning, or most important message, in this book?

▪ How does this story build your knowledge about the American Revolution?

BOOKS TO READ AT HOME:

▪ Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George?, Jean Fritz

▪ If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution, Kay Moore

▪ George Washington, Spymaster, Thomas B. Allen

▪ Did it All Start with a Snowball Fight?: And Other Questions About ... The American Revolution, Mary

Kay Carson

▪ Sybil Ludington’s Midnight Ride, Marsha Amstel

▪ Samuel’s Choice, Richard Berleth

▪ Sophia’s War: A Tale of the Revolution, Avi

▪ My Brother Sam Is Dead, James Lincoln Collier

▪ Chains, Laurie Halse Anderson

▪ Forge, Laurie Halse Anderson

▪ Johnny Tremain, Esther Hoskins Forbes

▪ Sam the Minuteman, Nathaniel Benchley

▪ For Liberty: The Story of the Boston Massacre, Timothy Decker

▪ When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots, Lynne Cheney

IDEAS FOR TALKING ABOUT THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION:

▪ Explain the perspectives of the two main sides of the American Revolution.

▪ Explain the perspective of each group of colonists about the tax on tea (Patriots, Loyalists, In-Betweens).

▪ Summarize what was happening in the books read in class.

▪ Create a comic strip story map to record in pictures what is happening in each story that is read in class.

▪ Practice telling a story about the American Revolution in first person (I, me, we) and third person

(he, she, they).

▪ Practice reading aloud a monologue assigned for homework. Ask your Grade 4 student how the colonists feel about the tea tax and why.

▪ Discuss the American spirit that kept patriots fighting in the war despite terrible conditions and the poor odds of winning.

▪ Discuss the characters in The Scarlet Stockings Spy and Woods Runner. Who are they? Why are they important to the stories?

▪ Discuss whether the patriots were justified in fighting for their independence from Britain. What was the cost of the war for each side in the conflict?

We have continued to learn about fractions these past few weeks and will be taking our Adding and Subtracting Fractions test on Monday. We will then be diving into multiplying fractions and whole numbers!

Vocabulary:

mixed number

improper fraction

We are moving to learn about civics and government this week by learning about the branches of the government, state government office and the rights and responsibilities of citizens!

Honesty Newsletter:

It’s not always easy to be Honest in our words, actions, or thoughts with others or with ourselves. Practicing Honesty with ourselves allows us to identify emotions, be aware of our emotions, regulate emotions, and advocate for our emotions. This month's focus for 4th grade is practicing Honesty to support positive self-talk.

Click here to download the Grade 4 Honesty Newsletter

Conversation Starters:

• Can you describe some examples of helpful, Honest thoughts?
• Can you share how being Honest with ourselves can help us to shift hurtful thoughts into helpful thoughts?

We will have a mid-morning snack since our lunch is at 12:10. Students may bring healthy snacks that will give them the nutritional boost they need to get through the day. Our snack time is only 5-10 minutes long, so please keep that in mind when planning snacks to send. Also, foods requiring minimal clean-up are best! Please do not send anything with peanuts or peanut butter due to allergies. We do not have a refrigerator in our classroom, so do not send anything that must be kept cold.

Hydration is an important part of learning! Students are permitted to bring a water bottle to keep on their desks during the day. Please do not send any glass bottles, soda, or sports drinks. Water only, please!

Snack Ideas:

• pretzels

• animal crackers

• apples

• goldfish crackers

• graham crackers

• Slim Jim Beef Sticks

• granola/cereal bars

• yogurt

• pudding cups

• fruit snacks

• bananas

• oranges

I have updated our Amazon Wishlist to include a few books that I think will interest the students as well as snacks and classroom supplies that we will need in the future. I have also added a few things that will help to enhance our classroom lessons and small group centers.

Here is the link to our classroom wish list!

Reminders:

Please make sure students come to school each day with the following:

• Backpack
• Water Bottle
• Green Folder
• healthy snack

Green Folder: Your student will bring home a green communication each day. In that folder, there will be a place for you to write any notes or for me to communicate with you that way as well. This folder is your student's responsibility.

Homework: Each night, your student will be responsible for reading 20-30 minutes. The reading log should be in their green folder and be signed each night.

Transportation: Please call the office if you have a transportation change for the day. Please make sure you have let me know how your child will typically travel home.

Following the nightly homework routine will help your child have success in school. Make sure your student is reading 20-30 minutes every night, writing their nightly 3-5 sentence summary, studying their multiplication facts and doing their fluency passage will help them build foundational skills they need to succeed.

Jennifer Bauguss

baugussj@wilkes.k12.nc.us

336-838-4261

Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

I believe we should keep an open line of communication about your student in order to provide the best experience and education possible. I will post frequently on Class Dojo and update our Smore newsletter often. My preferred communication hours are 7:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.. Any messages received outside these hours will be answered the next business day.