Week 12

Boo!  and Happy Halloween to you.  Monday is Halloween, and I have several fun themed activities planned.  In reading we will be doing "Scaredy Cat Context Clues".  In math we will play a Halloween multiplication board game, and a game called "Don't let Order of Operations SCARE you!"  It should be a fun day.

We have so much going on in the classroom as far as learning goes.  We are continuing our studies of Jamestown and moving into looking at the Pilgrims and settlement at Plymouth.  By the end of the week, we will be looking closely at the differences in the English, Middle, and Southern colonies.  We will test on this unit toward the middle to end of  the week of Nov. 7th.  I will know better by the end of this week when the test will be.

In math, we are continuing our studies of Order of Operations.  We will take a test on Thursday of this week, which is November 3rd. 

In grammar last week , we tested on nouns, and this week we will begin studying pronouns. We will take a short test on this the week of Nov. 7th.

Please note, if you do not see your child's actual test come home in the Friday folder for some time, it is because not all tests have been given.  This would include all tests in  all 4th grade classes.  We use the same tests, and we allow students to retake tests that have failing grades (the scrores are averaged), so it may take some time for the tests to come home. 

Reading this week will consist of studying using context clues to help us better understand what we are reading.

Please check the school's website for important dates.  You may do that by clicking HERE and looking our the main page.  This Thursday is Technology, Intervention, and Enrichment Night starting at 6:15.

Our stock of items for the auction is running low!! Please, please, if you are out and see some cheap trinket stuff, I would appreciate you purchasing some things.  These are just Dollar Store type items.  We have postponed our auction until this Friday to see if we can get some more items before then. Thank you so much for your help with this.

Enjoy your week, and as always, thank you for your support!

Please excuse any typos. Thanks!

Week 11

Greetings!

Don't forget.... my math group has their first multiplication test this Monday.  Your child should have brought home a study guide.  We also played review games.  We will continue with multiplication, and we will have two other tests over the next couple of weeks.

In social studies, we will begin our studies of the Colonists.  Our upcoming reading skill is features of non-fiction texts. The science topic is the solar system.  In grammar we will continue with nouns and we will test on this most likely this Thursday.  There is not a study guide for this, as these are review skills that they actually learned in third grade, too.  The noun topics include common, proper, singular, plural, singular possessive, and plural possessive. 

October 27 is picture make-up day. Please have your child let me know if they need a picture form, as not all students will need one.  You can also email me to let me know. You can view other important dates on the school's main web page by clicking HERE.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  The weather is wonderful!!

Please excuse any typos.  Thanks!

Week 10

Wow!  If your child attended the sock hop dance, then you know they had lots of fun!!  I always love seeing my students in that kind of atmosphere, where the structure of the classroom can be removed, and they can just be kiddos. :-)  Also, kudos to the Garland Family (Abigail's parents) because I know they were working the entire night to make the event happen. Daddy Garland was the cool fifties dude on the microphone the whole night, and Mama Garland was the pretty lady decked out in her pink fifties sweater who was running around the whole night.  ... so much fun!  I know many other people helped make the sock hop happen,  but these are the two that I know for sure were from our class.  If any others of you helped out, a huge thanks to you, too!!

We will have two tests coming up.  On Monday, I will be giving the kids an explorer study guide. We will TEST on  Friday, October 21st.  The guide covers details on the six explorers we have studied.  It has LOTS of information.  The kids (and maybe you too) are finding that once you hit 4th grade, social studies covers history with great detail.  I will be the first to tell you that it is a lot of information for their little minds to retain.  The class has really seemed to enjoy this unit.  After explorers, we will move on to colonists. 

In my math class, we are working our way through our next math unit.  Some of the topics that will be on the next test are basic multiplication, factors, multiples, applying multiplication to word problems, and properties of multiplication.  We will complete a study guide in class, and the test will be on Monday, October 24th.  There are also review questions from the last topic of study, including questions on median, mode, and range. The study guide will go home later this week. We will also have two other multiplication tests this nine weeks. They will cover other topics dealing with multiplication, such as two digit by two digit multiplication.

Two other topics of study in the classroom are nouns (common, proper, singular, plural, possessives, etc.) and informational writing.

As we move into this second nine weeks, the students should have a full understanding of what the class and school expectations are.  Because of this, no warnings will be given before choice cards are marked.  I have also gone over this with the kids.  If you would like to talk with your children about this, some expectations to discuss would be:  morning expectations upon arrival (these are also posted on the wall), bathroom behavior (talking), hallway behavior (talking, playful behavior), classroom behaviors (keeping others from learning, goofing off, not engaged in lessons, talking when teacher is teaching, getting up in the middle of lessons, not being prepared with materials, etc.), lunchroom behavior (school rule is to enter cafeteria on silent, walk through the line on silent, and stay on silent when the music in playing, line up silently), and exiting the building on silent in the afternoon as they walk through the halls.  Despite the fact that this seems like lots of 'silent' time, the school does expect silence in lots of situations.  There is also plenty of time in the classroom to work with partners, groups, or simply talking throughout lessons.  There is visiting in the lunchroom when the music is not playing and they have recess each day to visit with friends and play.

Busy... Busy... Busy!!    ....... I have a very busy weekend planned!!  Of course I had the sock hop last night, and my daughter goes to her first high school homecoming tonight... so exciting!!  She and her group of girlfriends are going together for an evening of fun.  In addition, my son has a baseball tournament, which will include a minimum of four games. So, as you can tell, life is very busy for the Phillips' family.

Enjoy your weekend!

Please excuse any typos.  Thanks!

Week 9

Wow!  Can you believe we are 1/4 of the way through the school year? It's hard to believe that 9 weeks has already passed by.  It has been a great year thus far.  I love working with your children each day.  They are well behaved, motivated, and excited about learning.

The students took a benchmark each day this past week, and yes, these do count as a grade (only 4% of the overall average).  You should be able to view their scores on the grade portal.  Unfortunately, we do not send these tests home.  They are signed out to us right before the test begins and then we return them upon completing the test.  Teachers do not view the test ahead of time.  It is a county issued test.

Because of benchmarks, our schedule was completely thrown off.  We actually did not even get out spelling test in on Friday.  We will simply pick up with the next unit on Tuesday.

 I enjoyed seeing each of you at conferences.  I had 100% attendance, which meant I met with 25 families.  I appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to come in.

As this next nine weeks begings, we are moving into multiplication.  Remember, your child should have come to 4th grade having mastered their basic multiplication facts with QUICK recall.  I am finding that I do have a handful of students that really need to be practicing these each night at home.  We have already started 2 digit multiplication by one digit and we will soon be moving into two digit by two digit.  Much of this will just be practice, repeat, practice, repeat.... After that, we will move into long division.

We will be spending about two more weeks on Explorers.  Your child will be bringing home a vocabulary study sheet at the end of the week and a few days later, they will bring home a unit study guide.  I will let you know when the tests will be.  Make sure that your child studies the guide when it is sent home.  It is a lot of material, so homework each night should be to look over the material.

Among other things, we have also been working on conjunctions and writing compound sentences. We study prefixes and suffixes daily to help us better understand spelling and word meanings. Our reading topic this week is comparing and contrasting.  Our reader's workshop/guided reading groups are in full swing and the kids are enjoying it. 

In your child's Friday folder this week, they brought home a baggie to collect quarters.  This is for United Way and is a school fund raiser.  Thanks for encouraging your child to participate. 

The book fair was a lot of fun.  They made some great book selections!

WOW!  I think that about covers it for this week.  Enjoy this nice long weekend. 

Please excuse any typos.  Thanks!

Week 8 - update

This is just a reminder that the students have a test in Science this Thursday on the topic of WEATHER.

Week 8

Don't forget about early release times for Monday and Tuesday of this week due to conferences.  If you do not remember your conference time, you can call the front office at school and they can remind you of the time.  They have a list of all conference times. Thanks for being on time since conferences are scheduled back-to-back.  I appreciate your understanding.

The students previewed the book fair this past Friday.  Our shopping day is this coming Thursday, October 6th.

This is an extremely busy week at school with conferences, the book fair, AND we have end of the quarter benchmark testing.  Students will take one test each day this week.  These tests will cover material studied this first nine weeks of school.  There are no study guides for these tests, but we will do some review in class to simply as a refresher of the concepts.

Don't forget to check the school's website for other important dates.  Here is a link to the calendar.

This week we will continue our studies of European explorers, as well as review other skills taught this nine weeks.

Please be on the look-out for cheap items that can be added to our auction merchandise.  We will need to work each month to rebuild the stock by the end of the month.  We had our second auction on Friday, and the kids had so much fun.  Thanks for your help with this.

Have a super Sunday.

Please excuse any typos.  Thanks!