9/2/22

Dear Parents,
Congratulations! We’ve all survived the busy first few days of school. Fourth
grade is going to be a wonderful year filled with many different topics to cover. We’re
starting the year setting up our routines, getting to know each other, and building the
foundation for a terrific year together. All students have adjusted nicely to fourth grade
thus far. We’re working on being good listeners and learning classroom routines.
Following directions can be difficult for some, but we’re working on getting back into
those habits. There’s so much to learn!
Our class is a great group of students who I am sure will work well together to
ensure a successful school year. One of the guiding rules in our class is the following
equation: Respect + Hard Work = Fun learning. Please remember that you are part of
our learning triangle and I am hopeful that you are as excited about your child’s
education as I am.
To let you know a little bit more about myself, this is my 25th year teaching at the
Day School (yikes!). I went to Boston College for both my undergraduate & graduate
degrees. My 2 daughters and I live in Tyngsboro. My older daughter Hannah is a
freshman at Penn State. I can’t believe I’m old enough to have a college student- aah!
Erin is 15 years old and she is a sophomore at WA. We also have Murphy, our 2 ½ year
old Golden Retriever. I had back surgery this past March so I missed the third trimester
of school in the spring. Thankfully I’m feeling better and working with my physical
therapist to get stronger & stronger each week. Aside from being home with my family,
at the beach, or in the mountains rock-climbing or skiing, the Day School is one of my
favorite places to be.
I feel very strongly that we should always keep the lines of communication open.
If you ever have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. The best way
to reach me is by email (nkeefe@westfordk12.us), but you could also send in a note or
call the Day School office (692-5591 x. 3616). Please- though the kids call me Ms. Keefe,
I prefer adults to call me Nicole if you’re comfortable with doing so.
Attached you will also find some important information for you to keep at home
relevant to our class. I hope that you find this a useful reference if needed, especially for
the reminders to have your child bring library books on Mondays and sneakers on
Tuesdays for gym. Children who take strings or band lessons will need to remember
their instruments on Fridays as well. Students will carry their homework binder back &
forth from home to school daily. Be sure to check the binder for notices, homework, and
corrected work. Chromebooks will usually stay at school unless students have an
assignment to finish at home that must be done on the Chromebook.
What’s the homework policy in room 116? Typically, students will be assigned
homework each night and it’s due the next day. Occasionally, students have a longer
project or something that may stretch over a few days, but we’ll write the due date on it
in our agenda books. Otherwise, assume it’s due the next day. Fourth graders should be
spending between 10-30 minutes on homework daily, plus additional reading time.
Please let me know if your child is consistently taking a lot longer than that to complete
their homework independently and I will modify it as necessary. If your child works with
Mrs. Millett, they may have different homework than what’s posted on our class website.
Also, I told the kids that though there’s a parent signature spot in our agenda book, we
won’t need it. If I find your child is having difficulty turning in homework on time, then
we may need it, but no need to sign at this point in the year.

Here’s a quick overview of our curricular areas for the start of the year.
● Math: Unit 1 is all about place value, reviewing addition and subtraction, and also
touches on other topics such as measurement & line segments briefly to get our
brains back into the world of math.
● ELA: Nonfiction is our theme, so we’ll be doing some researching, writing
informational pieces, and reading lots & lots of nonfiction books, articles, etc…
● Science: Our first unit is all about Plants & Animals. Learning about adaptations
and the differences between plant and animal structures will be a main focus.
● Social Studies: We begin with a review unit about map skills, and then will turn
our attention to learning about the early settlers.

You should be getting some invitations in your inbox to link your email to certain
student accounts we have at school. Some of the programs we’ll be using are Google
Classroom (and other Google products), Seesaw, Lexia, Typing Club, IReady and more.
If you’d like to be able to see what your child is doing within each of these programs,
please accept the invitation to link your email.
Curriculum Night is on Thu. 9/15. I look forward to meeting you (or seeing you
again if I’ve taught a sibling before) and telling you more about our classroom, school,
and the fourth grade curriculum. Certainly though, if you have any questions before
then, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Thank you to those families who have already donated supplies to our classroom.
We are fully stocked for now, but I’ll let you know when we get low. Once again,
welcome to fourth grade at Day School!

Sincerely,

Nicole Keefe
 Important Room 116 Information
Please keep this form handy if you need to contact Ms. Keefe or the Day School at any
point throughout the school year.

Email
nkeefe@westfordk12.us

School Phone
978-692-5591 Ms. Keefe’s extension is x. 3616.

School Website
https://www.westfordk12.us/ds

Class Website
https://nedroom110.weebly.com/

Google Classroom
https://classroom.google.com/c/NTM2MDIxMjk1OTUw

Class Schedule
Monday: Library (Don’t forget your books!)
Tuesday: Physical Education (Don’t forget your sneakers!)
Wednesday: Art
Thursday: Music
Friday: Health, Information Literacy, or Technology; Band/Strings