Week of October 27th

 I cannot believe we are already in the final week of October! Time really does fly when you are having fun and I am having so much fun with this class. They make me laugh every day! We have a really busy week this week with it being a quiz week and our October Book Celebration week!

ELA: 

This week in reading we are really working on how to thoroughly answer short answer written response questions. We use RACE as an acronym to help us remember all of the parts that should be in our answer. RACE stands for restate, answer, cite, and explain. 

Math:

This week we will be finishing up Topic 4! We will take our Topic 4 Celebration of Learning on Thursday. Instead of calling it a test, we think of it as a way to show off all that we have learned and celebrate that! 

Like I told my class today, I do not expect them all to be able to use the standard algorithm to multiply multi-digit by multi-digit numbers by the end of the week. I want them to be able to solve them using the strategy that works for them! They will get to the algorithm when their brain is ready. :)

Alice in Wonderland Book Celebration:

We have been reading Alice in Wonderland each day this month and we will finish it up on Wednesday! Just in time to celebrate on Thursday! Your student is invited to wear their costume if it is a character from our book on Thursday, all dress code rules still apply. Your student does NOT have to dress up if they don't want to! The day is meant to be fun. Costumes don't have to be over the top either, just use what you already have on hand at home! 

Students are invited to bring in snacks to share while we watch the movie. Please don't send in junk food, we really like to encourage healthy habits. I will proved the sweet treat and the drink. If you would like to send in veggies, fruits, crackers, cheese and meat, those are all things that the kids usually go through first at parties. :)

We will be watching the 2010 Disney version of Alice in Wonderland and it is rated PG. If you would prefer your student not watch the movie with us, please email me and let me know. I will provide an alternate activity for them to do elsewhere during that time. 

Enrichment Forms:

Your student is bringing home their first Enrichment Sign Up Form today. It is a first come first serve type situation. So if they are really hoping to get a certain class, they need a parent to sign it and bring it back ASAP. To qualify for Enrichment, your student cannot have any missing work, including homework. This is meant to enrich their curriculum on top of regular curriculum, therefore they will need to get all of their regular work done before getting to participate in enrichment. This does take the place of Thirsty Thursdays on those Thursdays we have Enrichment. 

Enrichment takes place twice a year during the school day. :)

Guardian Gala:

Week of October 20th

 Welcome back from Fall Break! I hope you all had a wonderful break! My students seemed to have a lot to share this morning. :) It was wonderful to see all of their smiling faces, I missed them!

ELA:

This week in reading we are going to be  focusing on subjects and predicates. We will be working on a page in our Interactive Reading Notebook as well. This is NOT a quiz week, but your student is welcome to retake any quiz that they did not pass last week when they are ready. 

Math:

This week in math we are going to be starting Topic 4. This is all about multiplying two multi-digit numbers. Students will be working on a variety of strategies to use to help them understand the concepts and properties being used.

Book Celebration:

In 4th grade we read Alice in Wonderland as our classic book for our October Book Celebration. Students are invited to dress up as a character from the story on Thursday, October 30th. All dress code rules still apply to costumes. I encourage my students to create their costume using things they already have at home! 

We will be watching the newer Disney version of Alice in Wonderland and it is rated PG. If you would prefer your student not watch the movie with us, please email me and let me know. I will provide an alternate activity for them to do elsewhere during that time. 

Your student is also invited to bring in snacks to share with the class. We prefer all snacks that are brought in to be healthy snacks. Meat and cheese trays, fruit trays, and veggie trays are great options! I will provide drinks and a small sweet treat. Any extra sweets sent in will be put into goodie bags for the kiddos to bring home to enjoy. :)

 

Week of October 6th

Hello everyone! I am so excited for this week, we have a lot of awesome things happening! This is actually the first day of Quarter 2. I somehow got my dates mixed up and thought this was the last week of Quarter 1. I think I am just trying to extend this year so I get to keep these kiddos a little longer. :)

Missing Assignments:

If your student has missing assignments from Quarter 1, they have until tonight to get them in. I was going to offer until this Thursday, but I got an email from Mrs. OldenKamp this morning letting us know the grading window is actually going to close tomorrow morning at 8:00 am. This means that your student will not be able to submit any missing work for Quarter 1 after that because my gradebook will be locked. 

If your child completes a missing assignment at home tonight, please take a picture of it and email it to me. I will be working to get anything turned in into the gradebook throughout the evening and tomorrow morning before 8. 

Math:

This week we are reviewing the concepts we have learned in Topic 3. Since we are headed into Fall Break next week, I didn't want to start Topic 4 before that. Topic 4 is continuing our work on multiplication with multi-digit x multi-digit multiplication. 

It is SO important that your student be practicing their multiplication facts and mastering them as quickly as possible. Even if they understand how to solve these multi-digit multiplication problems, they will still struggle if they don't know their facts. 

English Language Arts:

This week we are continuing our work on reading comprehension with our novel study and ReadWorks. We are also really working on our morphemes and are adding in several pages to our Lexicon each week. 

A Day in the Life of a 4th Grader:

Tomorrow is the day! I am so excited for you to come and spend a "day" with us in 4th grade. I can honestly say this is my favorite parent/teacher conference I have ever done! I love  having parents come in and see what class looks like for us. If you haven't yet signed up for a time slot, please click HERE to do that. This time is not set in stone, it just let's me know how many to plan for. :) Just a reminder, I will be locking my door 5 minutes after to protect that time. If you get here and the door is locked, feel free to join the next session! 

Fall Break:

Next week we do not have school for Fall Break. Your student still will have reading homework for their reading calendar. However, they will have an opportunity for extra credit! If they complete 100 minutes of practice on assigned (or recommended skills if they complete all of the assigned skills), for both Language Arts and Math, they can get 20 extra credit points in each subject. 

Quarter 1 House Winners: ALTRUISMO!!!!

Congratulations to the members of ALTRUISMO for being our Quarter 1 winners! We will be celebrating them and all of their awesome work on Wednesday! Students are encouraged to wear the color black on Wednesday to celebrate them. They can still wear their house color as well, but something black is encouraged. :)

We will also be joining the other grades and classes Wednesday afternoon to play a game and celebrate our friends!