Meet Your Teacher — Open House Night 🍎

Hi Room 11 families,

I'm Ms. Reyes, and in less than two weeks I get to spend a whole year with your kid — which is, honestly, the best job description in the building. Fourth graders are my favorite people on the planet: old enough to argue about books, young enough to still gasp at a good science demo.

This note is two things: a proper hello from me, and everything you need for Open House Night on Thursday, August 27 — come find your desk before the first day. It's about a 90-second read, best enjoyed on your phone while someone negotiates for a later bedtime.

The short version: this is my twelfth year teaching and my eighth in Room 11. Before any of that, I was a field biologist — I spent three years standing in cold creeks counting salamanders, which turns out to be excellent training for fourth grade (patience, sharp eyes, a high tolerance for mud).

Things my former students would want you to know: I do all the voices in read-alouds and I take requests. I play recess kickball like it's the playoffs. I cannot draw a horse — the class will confirm this by September — and our room mascot is Newton, a well-loved stuffed cat who supervises tests from the bookshelf. Most of all, I believe fourth graders can do genuinely hard things, and my whole job is helping them find that out for themselves.

• Math. The big leap: multi-digit multiplication, long division, and making real friends with fractions. We build an enormous paper fraction wall in October, and I'll share the strategies we use in this newsletter so homework help never requires a translator.
• Reading. Novel studies begin! Our first read-aloud is a class vote between Tuck Everlasting and The Wild Robot. Feel free to lobby your kid — campaigns are already forming.
• Writing. Personal narratives in the fall, persuasive essays in the winter. Fair warning: they will practice persuading you too. Stand firm.
• Science. Ecosystems and energy, plus the crown jewel: our study of Willow Bend Creek behind the soccer field, where we test the water and catalog everything that lives in it. The salamander counter in me has been waiting all year.
• Social studies. State history, map skills, and the spring Living Wax Museum — your fourth grader, frozen in costume as a historical figure, coming alive to give a speech when you press their "button." It is exactly as delightful as it sounds.

This newsletter lands every Friday afternoon — what we learned, what's coming up, and the one or two things I need from you, all in a 90-second read. It's my one regular channel, so if you read a single thing from school each week, make it this.

Email is the fastest way to reach me; I read after dismissal and reply within a day. For anything urgent on a school day — a pickup change, an early appointment — call the front office so it reaches us right away.

I can't wait to meet you all on the 27th. Come find the string lights.

See you soon,
Ms. Reyes (and Newton 🐈)