Week 4

TGIF!!!

We have been very busy learning lots of fun stuff this week! Here’s what we have been working on in…

Spelling: The kids worked on spelling activities and took their spelling quiz this morning.

Grammar: We talked about common and proper nouns and there was an assessment on that this morning as well.

Reading: We were introduced to a new CAFE strategy, Voracious Reading! Please have conversations with your child and encourage them to use these strategies as they are reading at home.

Writing: The kids have been working very hard on their personal narratives. They did an AWESOME job coming up with some very clever hooks!

Social Studies: The kids took the Economics test on Tuesday. Those grade came home in the Thursday folders yesterday.

Science: We began our unit on water and weather! We talked about the different states of matter, the water cycle, and various forms of precipitation.

Math: The kids have been doing an AWESOME job with adding and regrouping this week! I am so proud of how hard they are working! It’s hard having math at the end of the day but they are doing a great job!

Next week in…

Spelling: I have posted the week 4 spelling words. Please remember that some of your kids will have a different list than what I have attached. They will get this list from Mrs. Burns on Monday.

Grammar: We will be talking about singular and plural nouns and will have an assessment on Friday.

Reading: We will continue discussing themes of books and learning new strategies to use while reading! There will be an assessment on Friday over theme.

Writing: I will go over with the students how to improve their writing.

Science: We will be discussing clouds. Your child will be required to do some cloud observations at home.

Math: The kids will learn the standard algorithm for subtraction and regrouping (borrowing)! Please work with your child on these skills as they are crucial to understand before learning other, more challenging, math concepts.

Parent To-Do:

• I have been posting grades online, please log into ParentVue and check your child’s grades if you haven’t already. If you do not have the login information, you will need to go to the office to pick that up.
• If you have not returned the Edmodo permission sheet, please return it. I want to begin using that for homework assignments.
• Class t-shirt orders were due today, but if you forgot to turn in the form, it’s not too late! Send in the money with the attached blue paper on Monday!
• Sign up for Remind if you haven’t already, you can find the invite sheet that tells you how to sign up under the Parent Resources tab.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Week 3

I want to thank those of you again for attending Open House last night! It was so nice to see all of you. I know all of the information can be overwhelming so I am attaching the PowerPoint in case you want to go back and digest some of the information some more. Also, for those of you who did not attend, this will help provide you with a little more information about how our class is set up and what you can expect for your child’s 4^th grade year.

This week in…

Spelling/Grammar: The students worked on their spelling activities and they took their spelling quiz this morning. We also discussed simple subjects this week.

Reading: We continued to learn reading strategies and the students are finding “good fit books” to read.

Writing: The kiddos have been working hard on their narratives.

Social Studies: We wrapped up our Economics unit and there will be a test next Tuesday. Your child should be bringing home their study guide and their Social Studies notebook every day to study. Please help your child go over these terms.

Math: We are wrapping up place value today with a Chapter 1 test (reading and writing large numbers, comparing and ordering numbers, and rounding numbers).

Next week in…

Spelling/Grammar: I am going to start posting the spelling list for the week to my blog (see Spelling page on the left). Some of your children may have a modified spelling list from Mrs. Burns so check your child’s agenda for their words as well. In grammar we will be talking about common and proper nouns.

Reading: We will continue practicing our reading stamina and learning new CAFE strategies.

Writing: The students will continue working on their personal narratives.

Social Studies/Science: We will take our Economics test on Tuesday. On Monday, we will begin our Science unit on Water and Weather!

Math: We will begin learning how to do the standard algorithm for addition (woohoo, you’re welcome parents!). Please help your child with this concept as it is a new concept for most of them.

If you haven’t already, please sign up for Remind. This is a simple, easy, and convenient way for me to send you quick text updates and reminders about what is going on in our class. I will attach the letter that was sent home at Sneak-A-Peek but all you have to do is text @b99c7 to the number 81010.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I am so blessed to be able to spend my days with your precious children. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please do not ever hesitate to contact me! 

Week 2

I hope you all have had a wonderful week! We have been rockin’ and rollin’ in class this week! I am SO proud of the kids and all of their hard work. They have done such a wonderful job with all of the routines and procedures (they even keep me in line if I have forgotten something!).

This week in…

Reading- We continued with our CAFÉ strategies and we continued to build our reading stamina. We went to the library and checked out books as well.

Writing- We talked more about narrative writing and will continue to talk about and write narratives in the coming weeks.

Spelling- The kids had their first spelling sort this week. They did a great job with their spelling activities. The kids will always be required to do spelling activities each week (all due on Friday) and then we will have a spelling test every Friday (unless told otherwise).

Grammar- We talked about complete subjects and predicates.

Social Studies- We began our unit on economics! We talked about goods and services, opportunity cost, wants and needs (hearing their wants vs needs was funny!), and supply and demand. The kids have a TON of background knowledge about economics thanks to their fabulous 3^rd grade teachers and Market/ Economics Day! Please talk with your child about these different concepts and test them on their knowledge!

Math- We continued talking about place value which includes how to read numbers properly, how to compare numbers, and how to order numbers. Please continue the extra practice with your child by having them read numbers to you! All students should have their IXL usernames and passwords where they can go on and practice the math concepts we are currently working on!

Next week in…

Reading- We will continue learning more CAFÉ strategies and building our stamina!

Writing- The students will begin to compose their own narrative.

Spelling- We will begin with a new spelling sort and the kids will have a quiz on Friday (if they are with me for spelling).

Grammar- We will be talking about simple subjects.

Social Studies- We will wrap up our Economics unit by discussing different resources, international trade, specialization, and income. The students will be taking a test on August 23^rd over the Economic unit. I highly suggest that the kids start studying now! They will be given a study guide early next week.

Math- We will be talking about how to round numbers and solving different real-world problems involving place value! There will be a math assessment on Friday to go over these concepts. (There is a math assessment every Friday).

Open House is on Thursday at 5:00! Please plan on being there as I will be discussing many important topics about your child’s year in 4^th grade!

I hope you have a great weekend!

Thanks!

Week 1

What a whirlwind of a week it has been! It has been a crazy busy, but wonderful, first week of school! I am loving getting to know all of your precious children!

This week we really focused on learning classroom routines and procedures. We are still a work in progress but they are doing a phenomenal job so far.

In math, we began learning and talking about place value. We will continue to work on this next week. You can help your child by writing down a number and having them read it to you out loud. We will be going up to the millions place. In social studies, we talked about map skills. The students worked with a partner to discover different parts of a map and various locations on a map. Next week we will begin talking about economics! In reading, the students were introduced to new reading strategies using the CAFE model.  I hope that you will frequently ask your child what they are learning in class! These updates are to help you when you ask your child what they learned at school and they respond with “nothing”! I encourage you to test their knowledge!

Please know that you are asked to sign the agenda each day. It is your child’s responsibility to remind you of this. It is NEVER your fault for forgetting to sign their agenda (trust me, they will blame you and I remind them that you’ve already passed 4^th grade J). By 4^th grade the kids should start becoming independent learners. The agendas are going to be checked for signatures daily starting on Monday. Students are also required to read for 2 hours each week. These 2 hours must be spread out over at least 3 days. I recommend that the kids read about 20 minutes a night. Please make sure your child is recording their reading in their agenda each day. This will be discussed further at Open House on the 18^th.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let me know! I look forward to seeing all of you at Open House on August 18^th. Have a great weekend!