Classroom Happenings-10-29-13

 Reading-We are getting close to the end of our read aloud City of Ember! We have really enjoyed reading this class book together, ask your child to tell you about it. We should be able to watch the movie this Friday! Writing-This week in writing we have been working on a piece about our Explorer that we are going to use to create an online Voki. We read mentor texts like Diary of a Worm and Atlantic  to help us use creative strategies in our own writing of our Explorer.  Math-We are beginning a unit called How Many Packages? How Many Groups? I will send an email out with more information about this math unit.   Content-We are finishing up our study of Explorers and about to begin studying about the colonization of our country!

A message from the office:

SSC Family,  

The 5x7 classroom group and 4^th grade level pictures are in! You may drop by the front office if you would like to take a look at the pictures before buying. The pictures are only $7.00 each. Online payment is preferred at www.myschoolfees.com in which you will be able to print confirmation of payment. Otherwise, send cash or check payment in an envelope to the school. Please make checks payable to South Shades Crest School. As a fundraiser for our school, SSC receives 100% of sales!!

Thank you for supporting our school with this memorable fundraiser. If you have any questions, please call the school office at 439-3000.

 *Check our calendar for other important dates.

4th Grade Teachers on Literacy Day

October 14

Book Fair this week! Our class will go each day from 1-1:30. We filled out wish lists that should have come home on Friday. October 15th from 5-7 p.m. is a time for kids and parents to come and enjoy the book fair. Check out our class wish list box, the kids picked out a few books that our class would love to have!

Reading-We are finishing our study of Questioning in Narrative Non-Fiction and will begin working on Analyzing Text Structure in Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction. We will be exploring text features such as character, setting, plot and conflict and we will continue questioning to help make sense of text. Check Reading Rewards to make sure the kids are sticking to a book each night and writing reviews at the end of each book finished. Not only the kids in our room, but kids everywhere get good ideas for books to read from our reviews!  Writing-We have been working on collecting ideas for writing in our binders and adding detail to our writing pieces. Sticking to a topic will continue to be a focus. We will also begin writing Personal Narratives and work on skills like keeping in important parts of the story and taking unimportant parts out, showing the passage of time with our words and showing why characters do what they do. To add to our ideas for writing, we will begin collecting memories to put into our writing notebook. We will explore different ways to write about these memories. Please help the kids remember to bring in memories. They will be glued into a book so if you do not want to part with original pictures, just print a copy and send that in. No bigger than about a 4x6. Math-We have officially started multiplying and dividing with bigger numbers, at first a few of us were a little stressed but we are quickly becoming comfortable with the process. I sent videos home with our beginning strategies so check old emails if you have not seen them.  Content-Our first report card will not have a Social Studies grade because we have only been studying science this first nine weeks. For a deeper understanding and to keep the flow, we will be studying Social Studies for the next two 9 weeks. During this time we will cover the time period starting with the European Explorers and going through the birth of our nation, The American Revolution and the formation of our government. Then, the last nine weeks, we will return to studying Science.