This Week

Thought for the week:

Surround yourself with people who are only going to lift you higher.

Red Ribbon Week October 27-31

Monday: Wear red, white or blue

Tuesday: wear outrageous or colorful socks

Wednesday: wear favorite team jersey/shirt

Thursday: wear cap/hat

Friday: dress like a super hero

News from PTO:

Change for Change

THANK YOU for the wonderful Change for Change fundraising success.  We truly believe that it was the effort you put into the event.  Thank you for allowing your kids to donate their change and clean your change out to help us with this great fundraiser!  We made $5,000 more than we did last year!  THANK YOU!

Young Authors’ Week/Fine Arts Night:   Monday, November 17

Roger Day Concert & Silent Auction – 6:00 p.m.

Roger Day Concert & Silent Auction

Our next event will be a SILENT AUCTION in conjunction with the Roger Day concert on November 17.  The PTO is hoping this will be a good combination.

Silent Auction Donations  

The PTO will be asking parents to donate items for the Silent Auction.  If you would like to donate, please contact the PTO.  Also, if anyone as an individual or business would like to donate please contact the PTO.  All proceeds will go back to the school!!!  All items should be received by November 11, to allow time to organize.  If you have questions, please call the school (439-3000) and ask for a contact person with PTO fundraising/silent auction.

City of Hoover’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

South Shades Crest has been asked to be the school who sings and lights the tree at this year’s ceremony. Mark your calendar for Monday, December 1, 2014 5:00 pm, Hoover City Hall (Municipal Lane). 

Chromebooks

Technology Help

Please bookmark www.hcseli.com.  This site contain information you may need in relation to Hoover technology and devices.  The section for students contains many helpful sites and sites that your child will be using in class.  It is good to have this information at your fingertips. 

Directions for Purchasing Chromebook Insurance:

·       Go to www.myschoolfees.com

·       Enter your username and password (or register for an account)

·       Click down arrow by select school

·       Select HOOVER – IT DEPARTMENT

·       At the right enter your child’s student # (10 digit 196…..)

·       Select your student in the middle of the screen

·       Select device fee

·       Select Device Fee Protection Plan

·       Add to Cart

·       Checkout

Chromebook Case:You can purchase a case through school.  They are twenty dollars.  You can send a check or go to www.myschoolfees.com.  If you purchase a case on your own, it will need to be approved by an SSC principal.

E-News

Monday 10/20/2014: 6:00 p.m.  Chromebook parent meeting for 3^rd and 4^th grade, don't miss this important meeting!!

Things you need to know or do:

Homework Agenda

 Students will complete a homework agenda each day that will goes in the front of their binder. Please make sure you are signing these each night. If your child is absent, they can always get assignments from the homework blog.

City of Hoover’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

South Shades Crest has been asked to be the school who sings and lights the tree at this year’s ceremony. Mark your calendars for Monday, December 1, 2014 5:00 pm, Hoover City Hall (Municipal Lane). 

Zaxby’s Night (from PTO):

Another phenomenal Zaxby’s night for us!!!!

We raised around $678 on Tuesday!!!!!

THANKS SO MUCH if you ate at Zaxby’s to help our school!!!

The September Box Top Submission winners are (from PTO):

I have forgotten to remind everyone to send in those box tops any day of the week. 

We submitted $479.10 in Box Tops for the month of September. Our school goal is $3000.

Kindergarten - Chapman - 387

First Grade - Jett - 326
Second Grade - Renno - 419

Third Grade - Howell - 665
Fourth Grade - None – no submissions

Grade level winners will be announced monthly. 

PLEASE START COLLECTING AND SENDING IN BOXTOPS.  THANKS!!!

Long Planning for Classroom Teachers:

Thursday October 23- 4^th grade Teacher Planning - 8:45-10am

PARENT VOLUNTEER NEEDED – I will need a parent volunteer to keep the class from 9:00 until 10:00.  The whole grade level will watch a movie while supervised by the parents. We will provide the movie.

Young Authors Week/Fine Arts Night:   Monday, November 17

Roger Day Concert – 6:00 p.m.

All classrooms will be locked during the Rodger Day Concert. The building will be open from the lobby to the fire doors before you reach the Library. We will have displays of student art work and writing in the front part of the building. We hope you will join us for this event. 

Here's What's Happening!

 Just a little bit about what is going in class: Reading-We finished learning about the types and features of non-fiction. We are also learned how to quickly find information and better understand information when we are reading non-fiction. We have just started learning about literature circles. We spent last week and the beginning of this week learning about each job so that we can better discuss our books when we get into our groups. Writing-We have packed our journals with ideas for writing. We have been working on writing personal narratives. We have learned about strong beginnings and endings, transition words, how to focus in on a small moment and we have read lots of mentor texts to learn about how authors write personal narratives. Now we are ready to choose a piece, edit and revise, and start publishing, we will have a celebration when we are done and share our published pieces with each other. We have also finished studying nouns, and now we are working on verbs, and pro-nouns will be next. We study these parts of speech the same weeks that we do vocabulary. The kids have an English book that they are welcome to bring home at any time, just make sure it comes back the next day. There is also a good website below to practice if needed. Math- We finished our second unit that was on multiplication (with small numbers). We ended the unit by focusing on the multiples of 100 and their factors. And then talked about how those factors of 100 could help us with the factors of 200, 300 and so on.  Don't forget the Math Student Handbook I sent home, it will help you help your child with any of these homework pages. Some of the kids are still not fluent with their multiplication facts 1-12. This is imperative to be successful with harder multiplication problems and division which is our next unit! There are some links below to help your child practice their facts. Content-We finished up our study of Space last week. We learned about the differences between comets, meteors, meteorites, meteoroids, and asteroids, the moon phases, technology in space and the planets. We have just started our study of electricity, see sites below for helpful links.  Technology-Even though we do not have our chrome books yet, we have been very busy with technology! The kids are using Spelling City to practice their spelling, vocabulary and even science words, Reading Rewards for their independent reading book, and we are working on a Google Presentation to teach our book buddies how to be safe around electricity. We also have a Google Classroom that we have used a little. The kids should know how to get to it and log in. For now I just use it as a place to post extra study guides. Tomorrow I will introduce the kids to the Typing Club to improve their keyboarding skills. Many of the sites we use and will be using have parent codes that you will see from your child's account if you are interested in seeing what they are doing, or you can always just log in using their username and password.  Remember to keep talking about online safety and have clear rules for your child using technology at home. 

Thanks to everyone who was able to sign up for a conference, I have met with a few of you already. If you have a conference scheduled and have not filled out this conference form, please do so before we meet. This will help me better prepare for our time together.

Also, a big thank you for all of the donations sent in for our change for change! We passed the halfway mark to our goal.

Sites to check out!
*Check our calendar for important dates.
Favorite Links-for just about anything your child needs to work on or learn about in 4th grade!
Lab Lessons-This is the link we go to during our computer lab, remind your child to check here and make sure their lab assignments were completed each week.
Nouns and Pronouns practice

Multiplication Practice!!

• Self Correcting Quizzes-up through a fact or just one table
• Practice a Multiplication table on Math Magician
• Lots of Multiplication sites

Electricity Sites

Have a great week!

August 26, 2014

Parents,

It was so nice to meet with those who attended Parent Night.  Thank you for coming even though talking was a challenge!   I am SO thankful to have my voice back and appreciate all of the sweet wishes from many of you. As I mentioned, we have a very sweet class.  It is my hope that we can always work to the fullest so your children can not only grow academically, but socially and emotionally as well. We are going to have a wonderful year together in 4^th grade and I appreciate all support you are able to offer!!!  I will have a lot of information in this Newsletter.  Please let me know if I have left something out!  Looking forward to a forward to a fantastic year!

**HCS username and password**--Please help your child memorize their username and password by this Friday.  These will remain with your child until their senior year if they remain in the HCS system.  They will use it every time they log in to the computer system, Google, and other sites.  These are in their binders under the Imp section of the binder.

**Spelling City**--Should be underway! Let me know if you have questions.

**Reading Rewards**--Also underway.  Each night Monday through Thursday students will be expected to read for at least 20 minutes log and comment on the site.  I would love for them to read Friday through Sunday, however I will not expect them to report to me.  I will only check the site.  A math sheet will be coming home each Monday and will be turned in to me on Friday and usually it will have pages from our workbook stapled to it.  Students are definitely encouraged to solve the work on their own and then have a parent or grown up check for accuracy.  We rotate weeks: Language (parts of speech) and Vocabulary one week, and Spelling and DOL the next week.  Never will students be tested in Vocabulary and Spelling or DOL and Language in the same week. Spelling City will be due every Friday, and flash cards and sentences will be due on vocabulary weeks.  Please continue to sign the agenda EVERY night.

**Hoover Public Library Summer Reading Program**--(From Mrs. Jolee Owens, SSC Librarian)  “If any of our students participated in the HPL Summer Reading program, have them bring their reading log or certificate to get a special treat from the library.  They have all next week to turn in their forms and then they will receive a “coupon” for a treat from the lunchroom. I will begin giving “coupons” after Labor Day.”

**Graded Papers**-The first set of graded papers will come home this Wednesday inside the yellow SSC Wednesday Folder.  Please look over and initial EACH graded paper with your child and allow them time to make corrections IN PEN.  There will also be a parent signature form that you can then initial letting me know you both have had time to work together on this.  I would like to have these returned by Thursday, however if you need an extra day then just jot a note in the agenda, or send me an email letting me know. If you write notes besides in the comment section, make sure it is on the first graded paper because I do not flip back through them.

**Book Orders**
A separate email went out about Scholastic.

**Box Tops/Campbell’s Food Labels**
We will be collecting Box Tops throughout the year.  PLEASE send in any Box Tops you find in your child’s backpack.  Box Tops = Free dollars for SSC!!! The following comes from Dr. Scholl:  There are a couple of contests through Box Tops and Campbell's labels that we can be entering daily.  Below are the links to each.
For box tops…5 entries per day for 5000 extra boxtops.  15 are chosen weekly. https://generalmills.promo.eprize.com/savetheboxtops/
For Campbell's labels - 1000 schools win $1000.
http://sweeps.labelsforeducation.com/?CID=GS1431

**School Closed for Labor Day**-September 1st

**Fall Picture Day** -- Next Tuesday, September 4^th J

**Change for Change**-September 15-19-More information to come

**PTO/Open House-Next Tuesday, September 16^th from 6:00-7:30 PM

**Upcoming Field Trip**--It is our plan to go on our first field trip to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center on Thursday, September 11^th.  More information will be coming in the next couple of days as the paperwork is approved, but I wanted to give you a heads up in the meantime.  I will be allowed to take 5 chaperones on this field trip.  Please sign up here if you are interested. If the sign up is full, send me an email by this Friday and I will draw names, or you can wait until our next field trip to the aquarium.


**Ice Bucket Challenge**--From Dr. Scholl: Ice Bucket Challenge- IMPORTANT FYI:
This was sent to me from one of the other Hoover Schools and we may have some of this here too. Be aware!
I just wanted to bring to your attention some potentially dangerous stunts the kids are currently talking about at school and on the bus.  I think with all the ice bucket challenges going around, it has re-ignited some older and unsafe challenges.  I caught him trying these at home and researched them; the cinnamon challenge and the ice/salt challenge.  You may already be aware of these, but I thought it might be a good time to let parents know and talk to their children.
The poison control center has posted warnings about the cinnamon challenge.  The ice and salt challenge can cause serious frost-bite type burns to the skin.  I have included an article about the cinnamon challenge.  This one is can be very dangerous, especially to people with asthma.  The cinnamon causes a gag reflex and can cause accidental inhalation of the powder into the lungs. The cinnamon oil is caustic and does not break down, remaining in the lungs and causing permanent lung damage. Some teens have been put on ventilators after trying this stunt.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/consequences-of-the-cinnamon-challenge/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

**THANK YOU


In the classroom we are focusing on the following:

READING:
Establishing Reading Workshop, D.E.A.R. time (Drop Everything And Read), How to effectively select a book that is “Just Right”, and discussing ways that Reading is Thinking.  We are Book Buddies with Mrs. Lessman's class and look forward to reading with them each Friday afternoon.  We love our Book Buddies! I will take a daily status check of each student’s reading to help instruction and growth.  Our Read Aloud books so far have included  Thank you, Mr. Faulker, The Hundred Dresses, and Out of My Mind.  We have shared rich conversations and discussed the need to predict, connect, infer, question, and reread while reading.

MATH:
In Math, we began the year with data collection and graphing.  We have collected data in a variety of ways, compared the data, and graphed the data.  We will continue to collect data throughout the year by interviewing each other to collect, compare, and graph data regarding topics we are interested in that incorporate numerical analysis.  I expect students to practice their multiplication facts on a daily basis.  By November students are expected to be fluent through 12X12.  The sooner your child has all math facts memorized, the quicker they will be able to apply future lessons.  It is very difficult and time consuming when students are spending time computing problems they should have memorized.  Please work with them EVERY DAY on their math facts, by calling out different problems while in the car, while making dinner, while waiting for an appointment, or at any other time you have available.  Multiplication.com is a good website students can use to practice at home as well. We will have a computation quiz each Friday .

THEME:
We have been working on Building the Classroom Community through a variety of Get to Know You games and activities.  We also began our Science unit on Space and Flight. Yesterday, students brought home a Moon Chart.  They are to observe the moon each night and quickly draw what they see.  Over time, they will begin to see the phases of the moon appear.  This week they will begin studying the planets. Today the kids were assigned a planet to research and make a pamphlet on, directions for this will come home tomorrow and be due a week from this Friday. We are also discussing meteorites, famous contributors to our Space history, and as we wrap up our unit on Space, we will have a more in depth look on the moon and its influence and relationship to our beautiful planet Earth.

WRITING:
Establishing Writing Workshop--   Students have been webbing and sketching favorite memories and making lists of future writing topics.  We have discussed The Writing Process and all steps that are a part of publishing any piece of writing.  There are 5 steps in the Writing Process: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Proofreading, and Publishing.  We will begin our DOL (Daily Oral Language) in two weeks. Quizzes are normally given each Friday.  Students are welcome to take home their DOL folders or English books home to study, however, if they are listening in class, they should not have to!! We will be tested at the end of every other week.  When we are not working on DOL we will be working on Language (nouns, verbs, sentences, etc.) Here is some great online practice for Grammar also: http://tconstantine.wikispaces.com/English


SPELLING/VOCABULARY
Spelling and Vocabulary will rotate every other week.  Students will be working on developing sentences, creating flashcards, alphabetical order, etc., as well as spellingcity.com in order to help review before our Friday quiz.

TECHNOLOGY:     Google Docs!!! (Typing; Font size, color, background, bold, underline, style; saving; Printing; Creating a folder); Each week we go to the computer lab.  We began the year with reviewing what we already knew about correct placement of our hands on the keys when typing, continued with technology vocabulary.  Once we get the Chrome Books, we will discuss technology and use technology much more.  In the meantime we will utilize the computer lab as much as possible, here is a link if you want to peek at what we do in there!

I want to thank you ALL for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read/respond to this newsletter as well as future e-news I send out. I know this is a lot of information, and as the year progresses our routines will require less words.  I hope I answered some things I was not able to say at Parent Night and looking forward to this year a huge success for your child.  Thank you so much to those who have already sent in contributions, and to those who have already volunteered their time. If you are looking for ways to help our class, please visit our volunteer page. Have a great week!!

All my best!

P.S. Aniya's grandmother passed away recently, please send prayers and/or positive thoughts!

First Week

Welcome Parents!

The kids and I had a great start to school! Thank you so much for having them so prepared in every way. We have a great group of kids in our class. I'm sure they told you that I lost my voice at the end of the first day so it was interesting teaching a new group of kids on day 2 but they were wonderful. For most of the day, they whispered back to me. It was so cute! Thursday and Friday we spent reviewing school and class rules, learning about our classroom, and getting to know each other. We will dive right in learning about space in science.  In math we will begin by making sure we have all of our multiplication facts 0-12 fluent and memorized! In addition to that, we will review computation skills and begin a unit on data and analysis. As writers we will begin collecting ideas for stories  We will also begin to write personal narratives and study how to “zoom in” on the most important parts so it will sound like a story and not just a retelling. We read and enjoyed lots of picture books the first week of school, like, First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg and we read The Kissing Hand by Audry Penn,with our book buddies. Now, we are about to begin our first read aloud, The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes . As we discuss the book, it will encourage us to empathize with others and to treat them how we would like to be treated. We will also begin by talking about mental images and making connections to our reading in order to better understand our books.

I hope you have had a chance to look through your child's H.E.R.O Binder, if not, please take the opportunity tonight. Behind the important info tab will be things that need to stay in the binder all year like: our class directory, usernames and passwords for sites we use and H.E.R.O book rules. Please sign the "agenda" each night where your child writes homework. Our homework, will also be posted on our Homework Blog. This site also has links to other sites we use. We are starting out only doing spelling online, if your child does not have access form home, please see this link for the paper homework your child can do for spelling instead instead.

Anna Emaldi, Patrick Eaton's mom, has volunteered to be our room mom! Everyone please give her a big hug Parent Night! I am very excited to see all of the parents that will be able to help this year and give Anna lots of support!

I'm looking forward to seeing you all Thursday, August 14th at 6 p.m. for our parent meeting. Please bring your smart phone, tablet, or good old fashioned pen and paper.

If you have not completed the Technology Access Form, please do so as soon as possible.

If you approved the tech documentation at registration, your child may bring his or her personal device to school starting this week. Please echo my discussion with your children that when they bring it to school, school rules apply to sites they can go on, times they can use devices, etc. Also, remind your child that when not in use, they should be in desks, and go from desks to backpacks at pack up time so we don't lose them.

Have a great week!

Have a wonderful summer!!

I give you back your child, the same child you confidently entrusted to my care last fall. I give him back pounds heavier, inches taller, months wiser, more responsible, and more mature than he was then.

Although he would have attained this growth in spite of me, it has been my pleasure and privilege to watch his personality unfold day by day and marvel at this splendid miracle of development.

I give him back reluctantly, for having spent many months together in the narrow confines of a crowded classroom, we have grown close, have become a part of each other, and we will always retain a little of each other.

We have lived, loved, laughed, played, studied, learned, and enriched our lives together this year.

But give him back I must.

Love,

Mrs. C.

The End is Near!

We will be bringing home a little each day from today until the last day. Please help the kids remember to clean out back packs every night!!

Also, a reminder to send in a self addressed stamped envelope for report cards, if your child will not be here the last day.
Field day-wear sunscreen, bring a hat, water bottle, and sunglasses

Next week:
Bring a book from home each day, our classroom books will be packed up and the library is closed.
Monday-Finish up ABC Books, Memory Books, letters of advice to 3rd graders
Tuesday-Read-a-thon You can wear pajamas
Wednesday-Class Party 1-2:30
Thursday dismissal at 12:45-Board game day
Friday-Dismissal at 11-Clean up day have a book from home.

From the Dolphin Echo:

Testing is over and the 4th graders did a wonderful job piloting the computer based program. It’s hard to believe our kids are nearing the end of their days in elementary school. 4th graders will be ending the year with a study of Motion and Design in science and a Geometry unit in math. May 16th the students will have a celebration walk down the halls of their school as the children in all of the other grade levels line the walls and cheer for us “Moving on Up to be a Buc”! This will be the kick off for our school’s Field Day. Our end of the year class party will be May 21st, so please contact your room parent if you can help. Look for information to come home about summer programs and reading lists, it is so important for the kids to keep enjoying books over the summer. Have a wonderful vacation and thank you for sharing your children with us.

Have a great weekend!