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The real lessons in life are not found in the victory, but in the struggle.

Wednesday 08/31/2016: 4th grade ACT reports go home

Thursday 09/01/2016: Picture day

If you have not filled out the 4th grade entry survey, please do so as soon as you can. This helps me to know your child better!

Signed papers will be coming home this week! Many times I will give extra credit if errors are corrected in pen AND your child shows me the corrections the next day so please go over these papers with your child, initial EVERY page so that I know you saw each one, and initial the page that will be in the front that has dates for each time that signed papers come home.

The Math Review Sheets that will come home with signed papers are problems that we do in class each morning. We go over all of the problems with a star next to them. I tell the kids that there is no reason they should miss these problems because we go over these each day together. The Math Practice test I give each Friday is exactly the same skills that the kids do for homework each week. So before they get turned in on Thursday, give them a look over and let your child know if they need to re-do anything. And we will talk about them again in class. By now we should know our 3's and 4's in 3 seconds or less and this week we are working on 6's and 7's. We did not make flash cards in class today, but they are welcome to at home if it helps. I did make them an online sheet like this , that they can access in Google Classroom, to keep up with facts they know and facts they are working on. I'll show them tomorrow how to highlight facts they know. Also, above each table is a link that will take them to more practice if they need it. I showed them today how to star flash cards that they need to continue working on in each table. Not sure if their work will save unless you make them their own quizlet account. Some accounts I can make for them, but quizlet is not one of them.

They also had their first reading comprehension test last week. It says "Practice Test 2" at the top. I did not take off that many points this time since it was our first time, but let them know that there were only 7 questions on this quiz, so each one counts a lot! Please go over this story with your child and review with them how to go back into the story and find the answers and that each question can have tricky answers, but there is only 1 right answer, (even though some can seem right). I let them know that they can, and should, use a highlighter to go back and find the answers, I also tell them to number the question that their highlight goes with.

Just a reminder if you missed parent night. We do spelling and DOL (Daily Oral Language) one week, and vocabulary and concentrate on a grammar skill the next (spelling also counts for vocabulary). This week we are on Spelling and DOL. We practice DOL each day and have a quiz on Friday. The kids are welcome to take home DOL folders at any time to study, although, if they are listening in class, they should not need to! We had a big talk about that today. ;) Spelling and Vocab tests are taken on Spelling City. You can ask your child to log in at any time, click on the "my test" link at the top right, and see how they are doing. For now they are also copying most of these on paper as well.

A couple of us still do not have computers. I have asked about them, put in work orders, etc. If your child is one that does not have a computer yet, it may not hurt for you to put in another work order or get in touch with the tech department. For the work order, you will need your child's 196 number, it can be found behind the important papers tab in our TEAM binder.

This week we will start reading AND logging each night Monday - Thursday. I have gone over this step by step with the kids, but if they need a reminder, or if you would like more info, click on this link.

We will be using a digital binder for science. We just got it started today. I don't think any of the kids have used one before and they are pretty excited about it. Get them to show you! They also had a big time making their racers and predicting how much energy they would need to get their racer into the "sweet spot" Let them tell you all about it! :)

Have a great week! Let me know if you have any questions. (Still have absent students so we have not been able to take our class picture yet.)

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I was out at the end of last week getting my son to college, so I promise to get our picture changed as soon as everyone is here and we can get a whole class picture. Just a little bit about what is going on in class: Besides LOTS of beginning of the year assessments...  Reading-We are reviewing strategies that good readers use like making mental images, re-reading and making connections. Continue to make sure your child is "sticking with a book" and reading on his/her just right level. Writing-We have been working on collecting ideas for writing in our binders, online and adding detail to our writing pieces. Sticking to a topic will be a BIG focus this year. We collected memories through our bag reports. We will explore different ways to write about these memories. We took pictures of our memories so encourage the kids to continue to take pictures of memories with their laptops to use as ideas for writing. I have noticed that many of the kids are not using capitals and ending punctuation, this is something that should be mastered by 4th grade, I'm sure many of them are just getting back into the swing, but please remind your child that capitals and ending punctuation MUST be used in 4th grade.   Math-We have just begun a short data collection unit as we review computation and our multiplication facts. Content-We started out just by getting to know each other and are now moving into our study of energy and electricity !  Homework - Please initial the calendar each night to show that you have seen and checked homework. You can see your child's homework on our homework blog, or just ask your child to show you our class homework calendar on their laptop. Also, here is a link to their same calendar >>>*Check our calendar for other important dates.

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ust a little bit about what is going on in class: Besides LOTS of beginning of the year assessments...  Reading-We are reviewing strategies that good readers use like making mental images, re-reading and making connections. Continue to make sure your child is "sticking with a book" and reading on his/her just right level. Writing-We have been working on collecting ideas for writing in our binders, online and adding detail to our writing pieces. Sticking to a topic will be a BIG focus this year. We collected memories through our bag reports. We will explore different ways to write about these memories. We took pictures of our memories so encourage the kids to continue to take pictures of memories with their laptops to use as ideas for writing. I have noticed that many of the kids are not using capitals and ending punctuation, this is something that should be mastered by 4th grade, I'm sure many of them are just getting back into the swing, but please remind your child that capitals and ending punctuation MUST be used in 4th grade.   Math-We have just begun a short data collection unit as we review computation and our multiplication facts. Content-We started out just by getting to know each other and are now moving into our study of energy and electricity !  Homework - Please initial the calendar each night to show that you have seen and checked homework. You can see your child's homework on our homework blog, or just ask your child to show you our class homework calendar on their laptop. Also, here is a link to their same calendar >>>*Check our calendar for other important dates.

Parent Night

Thanks to those who were able to make it! If you were not able to, here is the handout we went over so please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks again to Mrs. Fair, for volunteering to be our room mom this year! I know everyone will be a great support to her.

So that I can continue to learn about your children, please fill out this questionnaire that I mentioned last night. I'm getting to know their side of things, but I would really appreciate your input as well.

As I knew I would, I forgot things I wanted to say to you at Parent Night and will email as they come up. One thing is that some of the 4th grade teachers are trying out flexible seating. If anyone would like to donate a stability disc (please inflate before sending in) to our class, send it in and we will try them out! :) Once we see how it's going in other classes, we may add more. 

The kids are doing a great job getting into the swing of things quickly! We have a really sweet, caring group. You guys have done good!!

 *Check our calendar for other important dates and homework. Sites we talked about You may want to go ahead and make a folder for sites for our class. Here are a few we talked about:

E-News (I will add our class picture on this site soon!)
Our Class Web Site
Our Homework Blog
Spelling City