Dear New 4A Families!
Welcome to 4th grade and 4A! My name is Ms. Simpson and I will be your teacher this year. I am so happy to have you in my class. We have an amazing year of learning and many new adventures ahead. I hope you are ready for the best year ever, because I sure am!
I know you will enjoy being a fourth grade student. Ms. Walder (the new 4B teacher) Ms. Corrigan and I are planning a great year for you all. If you like great stories, plays and lots of amazing books, 4th grade is the place to be. You will get to use your creativity as you compose and share stories, poems and reports. Your math skills will soar this year and you will be amazed at how much you will accomplish. In social studies we will focus on Washington State History. We will learn about the incredible journey of Lewis and Clark as well as United States geography and map skills. Ms. Walder will be your science teacher. She is looking forward to meeting you all and taking you on many exciting scientific explorations!
In religion you will learn about Saints and lead the All Saints Day Mass. We will also study the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, memorize new prayers, as well as plan a prayer service. You will be receiving your very own Bible and you will learn to look up passages and Gospels. We will show our generosity to others with service projects including the 4th Grade Charity Bake Sale in the spring.
Every subject area will be enhanced with the use of our class set of iPads. It is a great privilege to have this amazing technology to support our curriculum.
Do you like field trips? Ms. Walder and I sure do. We already have our annual trip to Pike Place Market scheduled for November with more to come in the 
spring.
Fourth grade students can also look forward to fitness and health, library, music, Spanish, computer and art classes beginning the 2nd day of school.
There is so much more I could tell you about our year, but you will have to wait until school begins. I am so looking forward to meeting you all. When you come to school the first day please leave all of your supplies and backpacks in the hall near our room. You do have a locker this year and it will be labeled with your name. If your backpack fits, you may place it there–otherwise leave it on the floor by the wall. Once you enter the room look on the desks for your nametag, take a seat and get started on the word search you will find there! Regarding lockers—the only accessories you can bring (optional) are a karabiner for the lock and a small rack to put in the bottom. No magnets, mirrors or other locker decorations in 4th grade.
The most important thing we can all do to build a classroom community is to treat each other with kindness and respect. I know you will all come to school with big smiles and positive attitudes—ready for the best school year ever!
You do have a small homework assignment to bring in the first day of school, and it has to do with kindness. I would like you to find 5 (or more) quotes about kindness that you really like and agree with, then write them neatly and correctly in one of your new comp books. Skip lines between each quote. Put the title “Kindness Counts” at the top of the page. At school we will be doing a little project with the quotes. You can do an online search for hundreds of great quotes about kindness. Just type “quotes about kindness” in the search engine.
Enjoy the rest of your summer.
I’ll see you on August 31st
Ms. Simpson