Week of August 26th

 This week is going to be jam packed full of good stuff! I am excited to hit the ground running this week! 

4th Grade Essential 44:

The last two weeks we have been focusing our learning on how to be a 4th grade student at Vision Charter School. We have gone over our 4th Grade Essential 44 and you can see what those are by clicking HERE. While we have loosely called these "rules" we are really using them as guidelines or a code of conduct for how we act and interact with others while at school (and in life). You will notice that some of them have been copied straight from the Student Handbook while others are focusing on the character traits that Vision Charter has adopted. We feel all of them will help our students to be respectful, citizen leaders. :) I would encourage you to have them practice these at home as well if they apply. 

ELA:

This week in ELA we will begin our first novel study with the book Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing. This book is really funny and since it was written a while ago, students get to learn about things that were more common when we were in 4th grade. ;)

We will also begin learning about writing a narrative essay. Students will be learning to write 5 paragraph essays for narrative, informative, and opinion essays this year. 

Math:

This week we will start talking about place value in math. Students should still be practicing their multiplication facts on xtramath.com at home. They will be expected to do one lesson four days a week for full credit. However, if they want to master them faster so that they don't have to worry about doing this every evening, they are more than welcome to! Xtramath is nice because when they are done with a lesson it will kick them out and say something like "You are done for today" or something like that. 

Week of August 19th

 We had an amazing first week of school! I went home exhausted every day (I am sure my students did too), but it was a good tired. I am so excited about my class this year and all the growth we are going to make together. You all have such wonderful kids and you should feel so proud of them and the way you have raised them!

ELA:

This week in ELA we will continue to review vocabulary procedures as well as review our 4th Grade Essential 44. We are also learning about the importance of getting a good night's sleep and reading articles about that while we practice annotating as we read to help with reading comprehension. 

Math:

This week in math we will continue working on our multiplication facts. We have been using a fun Multiplication Mashup that puts multiplication facts to music. The kids have really been enjoying it and you can find that by clicking HERE. 

Your student will begin math homework this week practicing their multiplication facts on Xtramath.com. This will be daily math homework each school day until they have mastered their math facts. You will know that they have mastered them when they bring home a certificate that was signed by me. :)

Agendas and Home Folders:

Your student will be getting a monthly grade in Study Skills for bringing their agenda and home folder back to school each day. Their agenda should be shown to you each evening and you should sign it. They get 3 points per day; 1 point for their home folder, 1 point for their agenda, and 1 point for showing their agenda to you and having you sign it. We are working really hard on instilling responsibility in our students this year and making sure they are keeping track of their assignments and whether or not they have completed them. 

Wall of Fame:

A new addition to the classroom this year is our "Wall of Fame" I took a picture of each of my students to add to the frame on the back wall. They turned out so cute! If you would like a copy of your student's picture, email me and I will send it to you. :)

Class Pet:

I sent home an email last week about Squeaks, our class pet. No one emailed me letting me know they thought their student would be too distraught if/when he were to die this year. :) I sent home a Class Pet Waiver with your student last week to ensure no one has an allergy. I have to have that signed and returned from every student before I am allowed to bring Squeaks in. I am still missing this from a few students so hopefully Squeaks will get to come in soon. 

Welcome to 4th Grade!

 Hello! I am so excited for this year, we have so many fun and exciting new things planned. If you have had another child in my class before, please know that things will be different this year. I am going to outline some of those here.

Homework:

One of the biggest changes is how we are handling homework. Your student will still have a reading calendar each month. We will start these in September. They will need to read 500 minutes each month for full credit. This is part of their ELA grade.

Math homework will consist of practicing multiplication facts on Xtramath.com each evening. Once they have mastered those 1-12 in 3 seconds or less, they don't have to do that at home anymore. Homework will be any part of their math assignment that they did not finish in class that day.

Late Work:

This year we will be sticking to the school policy for late work in 4th grade. This means that students will lose 25% of their score for each assignment per day that it is late. After 4 days, they will receive 0% for that assignment score, however they do still need to finish it to be able to do things like enrichment or the extra recess we do on Thursday for those students who don't have any missing assignments. This is a pretty big change from how we have done it in the past so please make sure you have the Infinite Campus Parent Portal access so that you are notified if something is marked missing.

This includes assignments that are turned in with no name on them. 

4th Grade Essential 44:

This year we don't have typical classroom rules. We have the Essential 44 that we feel will help our students rise to their full potential and set the expectation for school behavior and learning. I will be sharing all of those with you sometime this week, but ask your student about them too. :)

First Day Today!

Today has been amazing! Your kids have done such a good job of paying attention and working hard. I am so excited to see where we go this year, I have a feeling it is going to be one of the best years yet!