November 5

As usual, the year is sneaking past me! I am not quite sure where October went, we were so busy that it literally flew by. Thanks to everyone who has been able to volunteer for our class in one way or another! The kids enjoyed their special snack last week! We will be doing something similar before Thanksgiving break.

We are looking forward to our field trip next Tuesday! More information will be coming home via email. Just make sure the kids have water in their backpacks and a lunch if they are not ordering one from the lunch room. I asked them today if they will be bringing a lunch or not, so just check with your child today. Hope many of you will be meeting us there! Thanks to Mrs. Ballintine and Mrs. Harris for chaperoning for us!

Just a little bit about what is going on in class: Reading-We are almost finished with our read aloud, Tuck Everlasting! One of my all time favorites! We have had lots of good discussion about it and I hope the kids have come home talking to you about the Tucks! During CAFE time the kids have been working on making predictions, using context clues to figure out the meaning of words, and reader's theater to help us with our fluency in reading.   Writing-During October we did a Monster Exchange with some of the other 4th grade classes. We learned a lot about details, and what happens if we don't give enough of them in our writing. Now we are working on an opinion piece where the kids have to choose a side. Is it ok for a class to go the whole day without a teacher or not? This is an extension of our last read aloud, Flying Solo.  Math-We have taken a break from multiplication and division and are now working on geometry and fractions. We will just touch on these concepts and then come back to them again before testing in the Spring. Content-We love studying about animals! We began our study with animal cells, learned about vertebrates and invertebrates, endotherms and ectotherms and we are about to begin learning about structural and behavioral adaptations. Our student teacher from UAB, Paige Hanks, will be teaching us about habitats when she gets back next week. She is a soccer player, so she travels a lot! Ask your child to show you their animal notes that we have been working on to keep up with the highlights of what we learn. We will be having a test on adaptations next Friday, November 13th. Study guides are on Google Classroom.

The kids are excited about doing a student led conference with you. They will do this with you at home and more information will come home soon.

   *Check our calendar for other important dates.