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 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!

Three Day Weekend- week 4

Yeah!  It's so nice to have a 3 day weekend.  Enjoy this time with your children.

The kids had so much fun with the first auction.  I hope to do this at the end of each month.  In order for it to work though, I will need ongoing donations.  Those of you that have donated items already, they were all perfect, so keep them coming.  We have one month to build the stock back up, so if you see cheap items, go ahead and grab them.  A great place can be Target's dollar section, which is located right when you walk in their front door.  Sometimes they mark this section 75% off, and things can get really cheap. You can send in items all through the month.

Now that I have every one's individual reading level figured out, we are ready to get Reader's workshop into full swing.  This means that I will be working and conferencing with students in small groups and individually.  We will also begin working on reading strategies.  This is ongoing throughout the year, and includes topics such as questioning the text, connecting with the text, and visualizing the text (among many others).

Other topics of study include:  character traits, Native Americans, estimation, sentence structure, sustained silent writing, memories for writing (we share 3-4 memory bags a day), water cycle, and many others

NOTE:  My math group will test on estimation and rounding this coming Friday. 

Remember, we do have a fundraiser going on.  Your child brought home all of the information and the collection envelope in last Friday's folder.  Thanks for your support in helping your child get donations.  We are scheduled to have our Fun Run on September 9.

In this Friday's folder, you will find an information request sheet for our class directory.  Thank you for filling this out and returning it on Monday.

If your child signed up for a club, I also included any club information I received. 

Please take the time to look through your child's papers.  If your child did not do well on an assignment, I will sometimes  put a sticker at the top requesting that you sign and return it. I like to keep these papers on file just incase your child shows a pattern of struggling.  This can be very helpful in conferencing about struggles, as well as helping me keep track of specific skills your child is need extra help with. 

I am really enjoying this group of kids, and I feel like we are having a great year.  Enjoy your weekend. 

Pleae excuse any typos.  Thank you!