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

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!

Week 7

Yeah, Fall is here!!  But did you your kids tell you that our classroom felt like Winter on Friday?  Something is wrong with the air conditioner in our room, and it kept blowing out very cold air despite the fact that the thermostat was set on as high/hot as it would go.  It has been reported to the county, so hopefully they will get the work order and fix it over the weekend.  Just in case, have your child bring a jacket.  Thanks.

Don't forget that the Native American test is Monday.  The kids have had a study guide for a week, so hopefully they have been studying each day. After Native Americans, we will move on to Explorers.  We have six major European explorers to study, and yes, this is a very in depth unit just like the Native Americans. 

We tested on Graphs/Data Analyzing on Friday in math, and we will be moving on to coordinate graphing this week.  This unit only takes a few days, so they will most likely test on Friday.  It's actually a fun little unit.  After that, we will spend a week reviewing all math skills taught this nine weeks in order to prepare for our math benchmark test.  This test will test them over all skills taught this first nine weeks of school, and it does count as a grade.

In your child's Friday folder there is  a conference form.  If your child has a sibling, I met with that child's teacher and we tried to come up with times that were close together in order to help you out.  It is always very hard to schedule 25 conferences.  I thank you for understanding that I have to remain on a schedule for these two days.  Conferences are scheduled for 20 minutes and they can't go over into another time slot.  If one conference goes over just by 5 minutes, it can throw all of the other conferences off for the rest of the day.  I do look forward to meeting with each of you.  Please sign and return the conference form on Monday.


Your child received a Gladiator reading bookmark in their Friday folder two weeks ago. If your child wanted to participate in this, it is due on Sept. 26... THIS Monday.

The book fair is coming to Burnette.  Our preview day is October 3, and our shopping day is October 6.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Please excuse any typos. Thanks!

Week 6

I am really enjoying this nice weather!  How about you? :-)

In my math class, we have started studying about graphs.  The students have had lots of fun taking surveys, organizing their data, and creating graphs.  We will continue this graphing unit for another week.  We will review at the end of the week and be ready to test on Friday, September 23.. If you would like to help your child look over some graphing information, you can pull up the online textbook.  I put the log-in information on last week's blog posting.

Although we still have two Native American tribes/regions we will be learning about this week, I am going to go ahead and send home the Native American unit study guide this Monday.  We will test on Monday, September 25. This is a unit with LOTS of information, so it would be in your child's best interest to start reviewing now. 

As I mentioned at curriculum night, our spelling studies have changed a bit.  Actually, your child will continue to have the same types of dictation sentences they have had in the past (along with the regular spelling homework on the five words), but there will be ten new words added that include prefixes and suffixes.  This is a new word study program adopted by Gwinnett County.  We will be doing lessons daily on prefixes and suffixes that pertain to these words, but it is their responsibility to study the words throughout the week.  They will be given time to write the words in their agenda book each week.  They will receive the words either Monday or Tuesday of each week.

In science with Mrs. Howell, your child will test on their water and weather vocabulary on Tuesday of next week.  They should have their words and study materials in their journal.

Please continue to send in any Fun Run fundraiser money that you have collected. Way to go to those that have already turned money in. 

We have started receiving our Time Magazine. The kids had fun reading their first issue. It was a blast discussing 'on line school' with the kids, as this was the topic of the featured front page article.  

Soon you will be receiving information about conferences, so please be on the lookout for all the details.

Please remind your child that our media center day is every Monday.  This is a weekly opportunity to renew a book or check out a new one.  We go as a class once a week, because there simply aren't many opportunities for students to go individually. 

Does your child know all of their multiplication facts?  Do they have quick recall with them?  If not, please work with your child each night using flashcards.

I think I have covered all of the important tidbits of information for the week.  If I remember anything, I will come back and post again.  Have a great rest of the weekend!

Please excuse any typos.  Thanks!