Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Let us start out by saying how excited we are about being your student’s teachers and how privileged we feel that you have trusted us with that responsibility. Here’s a brief description of our lives as teachers.

Mrs. Stacey Johnson

This is my fifth year teaching at Cole Academy and my fourth year teaching this grade level. I love the upper grades because they are becoming increasingly more independent, yet they haven’t lost their ability to be sweet, caring children. I graduated from Michigan State University with a major in Language Arts. I recently got married to a wonderful man this past summer and we have four year old daughter named Jadyn. I live in Laingsburg, where most of our family resides.

Mrs. Christine Sharrock

This is my second year at Cole Academy. Last year I was an aid in the second grade classroom. The year before that, I taught first and second grade at Sankofa Shule Academy. I am truly enjoying working closely with the fourth grade this year.. I graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids with a major in Social Studies. I am originally from Vassar, Michigan (near Frankenmuth), and I have lived in Lansing for three years now. My husband, Chris, and I have been married for a year and a half.

What’s New in Class?

We have begun all subject areas except Science. We will begin science on Monday, Sept. 15th. We have been working on finding out what kind of learners we are, how we should study and how to prioritize in fourth grade. Thank you to all the parents/guardians that have returned the many surveys and papers that we have sent home. You are your student’s first teacher and we can learn so much from your thoughts.

IMPORTANT NOTE: PLANNERS AND LITERATURE

We apologize for the inconvenience of your student not having a planner to start the year. Our favorite planners are on back stock and we will be ordering them as soon as possible. There will be a $3.00 charge for each student. Please let us know if this presents a problem, so we can work something out.

Also, we will be collectively reading specific books and we are without enough copies. We will be reading each of the “Spiderwick Chronicles” for our fantasy unit and also reading “The Tale of Desperaux” for our adventure unit. If you have or could purchase these books for YOUR student to use throughout the units, it will be greatly appreciated. If your cannot, we will be making copies of the books for each student. We only ask because it is just really nice to read right from a published book.

On the back of this sheet is our class calendar for the month of September. Please make yourself aware of important events and birthdays.

Here is to a GREAT year!

-Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Sharrock