Upcoming Events!

Dear Parent(s),

            As part of our American history unit, each student will independently research a specific famous person from the Colonial, Revolutionary or Westward Expansion time period. Each of these famous people played some part in the birth of our nation.

            Each student was given a name of a person to research. Research will be conducted at home AND in class. (The Public Library has lots of books on this topic). From conducting this research, the students will learn about the different personalities and lives of unique individuals who helped in creating our nation.  As research is conducted, students should take notes to help in organizing all information collected. I gave them questions they need to research and find answers to, they should keep this note sheet in their BEE books at all times.

            The students will create a journal AT HOME from their research. After the research and journal has been completed, the students will then begin working on their Wax Museum presentation. Each student will have to draw their famous person’s face as best they can.  Our art teacher is going to help them do this during Art, but they may need to complete it at home if they do not get done during art class. We will then glue it to a background (I already have these) and display it in the school. They will also begin working on a short speech to say about their person. Their speech should only be about 10-20 seconds and should explain who they are and why they are important. *I will let them know when they need to begin working on their speeches .Each student will present his or her journal to the class on March 5th.

            The entire fourth grade will dress up as their person and do a Wax Museum on famous people on March 12^th. Parents will be invited to come and walk through our museum and learn about each person. Children will need to dress up as their person might have dressed.  These attires should be created from clothing found at home and are not expected to be elaborate. The costumes are in addition to the presentation and will make the Wax Museum seem realistic and authentic. Creativity is very important and encouraged in this project. Your child will need to act as though they ARE their person.

I intend for this experience to be a memorable ending to our study and an enjoyable way for the students to get to know the individuals they have been reading about while studying the founding of our country.  The students should have fun in this learning experience.  If there are any questions or problems, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you for your continuous support.

Tanya Constantine

** Mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 5th, journals are due and Wednesday, March 12th, Our class will be having a Wax Museum of Famous People. 

Thank you

Thank you everyone for my birthday goodies, what a fun day I had with my class!! I enjoyed all of my sweet gifts, birthday cards and hugs!! Mrs. Abbott brought popsicles in the afternoon for us all to enjoy, and my BFF Mrs. Walker surprised us with a decorated door. We had lots of fun!

Classroom Happenings

**WOW!  We had a wonderful American Revolutionary Starburst Act experience in 4^th grade!  Thank you so much for supporting this event.  As expected, we had some very worried and frustrated 4^th graders.  By the end of the experience, they all were able to make the connection with what our Founding Fathers and Colonists felt as they declared their independence from Great Britain.  They started the event with 10 starburst being given to them with the understanding that they would be used as a consequence/reward system for behavior.  Students were then told that they were to pay a starburst each time they did certain things such as: using paper (Stamp Act), eating a snack (Sugar Act), getting water not during lunch time (Tea Act), letting their book buddies sit in their desks and share starbursts and snacks with them (Quartering Act), talking in the halls, talking out of turn, leaving and entering the classroom, missing out on recess (Intolerable Acts!!!!t), etc.  Each was added as the days went on until the kids finally had had enough because of the “intolerable” events that were occurring.  They chose to meet with other classes (just as the colonies did participating in the 1^st and 2nd Continental Congresses), creating signs, petitions and banners, and finally meeting with the Principal and Assistant Principal of the school to declare their independence from the Starburst rules.  Dr. Scholl and Mrs. Williams were extremely supportive and helpful during this lessons for our 4^th graders.  I really appreciate all they offered!  Ultimately, it was an even that won’t be forgotten and hopefully helped students to connect a bit of their American Heritage to themselves.  Feel free to ask your child about the details.  If there is a particular question you have about the experience, I am also always here to explain.  Learning is exciting in 4^th grade!!!

**Congratulation to Kennedy Edwards for being our Spelling Bee class representative!

**I wanted to thank my WONDERFUL parents for all you shared with me for Christmas!  Wow, I really felt appreciated by each of you through your kind notes and goodies.  Thank you so much for your continued support.  This has been a most successful school year thus far, and I look forward to the remaining portion of 4^th grade being even better! 

**We had to say goodbye to Virginia Miller before the holidays and now we also have to say good bye and good luck to Seth Gaiefsky who is moving to Florida. Ask the kids about the rock rituals that our class has when we have to say good bye to a friend.

**Mark you calendar, important dates are also on our class calendar.

**School will be closed on Monday, January 20^th for MLK Day.

**Our wonderful music teacher Mrs. Gray would like to invite parents to see our 4th grade program. It will be February 11th at 9 a.m. in the lunchroom. Come and see the instruments your children have been learning to play! 

Have a wonderful week! 

Classroom Happenings 11-18-13

Reading-We are finishing up our "lit circles". The class broke into groups of 4 or 5 and each group read and discussed a different book. Each day the group members had different jobs after reading their selection for the day. Ask your child about the book he/she read and these jobs, some of the jobs were: discussion director, word wizard, passage picker. and connector. The kids posted their jobs on Edmodo and then other group members commented on their posta.  Writing-We are beginning a unit on personal and persuasive essays. The kids are learning to pick their thesis statement, choose 3 points to argue or defend, and then develop their essay from there.  Math-We are nearing the end of a unit called How Many Packages, How Many Groups, which focuses on the concept of multiplication and division of bigger numbers. I will be sending home practice tests for this unit if you would like to go over them with your child. Content-We have finished studying the 13 Colonies before the American Revolution and now we are beginning the causes of the Revolution. This will be an exciting unit as the children actually feel how the colonists felt as pressure was being put on them by the British government. More will come home about this in an email, it will be a secret, at least for a while, from the kids! Technology-If you have a keyboard computer at home, let your child work on Typing Club from home, We are doing this in the lab as well, but from what I understand, our state testing will be on the computer this year and the better we are at typing, the more it will help us on the state tests. ! *Check our calendar for other important dates. And, don't forget to sign up on this link, if you are interested, to chaperone our upcoming field trip to the Children's Theatre. permission forms went home today.

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.