Week of January 27th

The last week of January is upon us! This month has been a little bit of a tricky month in 4th grade. I think my students (who have been amazing rock stars for most of this year) are testing boundaries here at school. Please reinforce expectations for school at home and remind them to be the best that they can be, that is Essential #43 in 4th grade. :)

ELA:

This week is the last week for students to get their 500 minutes of reading for January. January Reading Calendars are due next Monday, February 3rd.

This week we are going to be revising our Christmas Traditions writing to make sure we have a good thesis statement, complex sentences, and sentences that have plenty of detail! I am hoping students will be finishing up this 5 paragraph essay by Thursday of this week. :)

Math:

This week your student's multiplication fact homework looks different. They are bringing home a half sheet of paper that you will need to initial on the days that they practice their facts at home.  It is now a 5 day a week requirement for full credit. Students may use whatever they want to practice those at home, but please note they will be practicing Xtramath in class each day so you need to see them complete a session before you sign off on that since it will show a green check mark from school. 

This week we are continuing to work on equivalent fractions. This can be tricky for students, especially if they do not have their multiplication facts mastered. They will be finding common factors, greatest common factors, and least common factors as well as simplifying and generating equivalent fractions. I cannot stress the importance of them having those multiplication facts enough. :)

Bi-Monthly Math Night:

I will be leading my math night again on Monday, February 3rd from 6:30-7:30 in my classroom, Rm. 118. I would love to see you there! We will be covering general elementary math concepts and then leaving time at the end to go over any specific questions you have. 

Week of January 20th

This week is a busy week! We are working hard on lots of skills and beginning to learn new skills!

ELA: 

This week in ELA we are really working hard on our writing skills. We are going to begin diagramming sentences to help us with our writing. We are also going to be working on topic sentences which are also called thesis statements. Your student should have already written out their graphic organizer for their next informative writing. We will be going back over that and revising it to include the skills we have been learning.

We are also working on our reading comprehension skills by reading articles about Martin Luther King Jr. Students are working on answering the questions using part of the question in their answer and referencing where in the text they found their answer. So a good answer may look like "According to the text life for Martin Luther King Jr. was difficult because black people did not have the same rights as white people. An example of this was that black students were not allowed to attend the same school as white students." 

Math:

This week we are beginning Topic 8 which is all about fractions and finding equivalent fractions. We completed two sets of pages in our Interactive Math Notebook yesterday that were for fraction vocabulary and equivalent fractions. 

Because students knowing their multiplication facts is so helpful for fractions, I am going to change how Xtramath homework is turned in for students who have not mastered their multiplication facts yet. I am going to start having my students practice their facts each day in class. The Xtramath program does not distinguish between where students have completed each practice session so I am going to have a half sheet of paper for students to bring home each week. I would like parents to initial which days their student has practiced their multiplication facts at home. This will also allow for students to practice them differently. They can use flash cards, use paper pencil versions, or they can just use Xtramath as well. This will begin next week.

National Park Pass:

Families of 4th grade students have an opportunity to get into national parks for free! Click HERE to sign up for it!

Week of January 13th

 I hope you all had a lovely weekend! I feel like this month is just flying by even though this is only our second week back after break. Your kids came back and hit the ground running last week, I am so proud of them!

English Language Arts:

This week we are going to be adding to our Interactive Reading Notebooks (IRN) and Morpheme Lexicons (ML). We are going to begin really working with Greek and Latin Roots to be able to decode word meanings based on the meanings of their morphemes. 

This is a quiz week so your student will be taking a Morning Warm Up quiz on Thursday. They will also be taking a comprehension test for chapters 1-5 of Because of Winn-Dixie on Wednesday. 

Math: 

Your student should have taken home their Topic 5 Celebration of Learning last week. If they got below a 70%, I would really like them to study at home to retake the test this week. We have one more week of reviewing concepts this week so it is a great week to retake a test since no new information is being taught. 

This is a quiz week for Math 4 Today so your student will be taking a quiz on Thursday. Please remind your student to be working on their multiplication fact homework on Xtramath. I have so many students who are so close to passing them all and won't have that as homework anymore! I would love to see them do that this week! 

Science:

We are finishing up our unit on the Human Machine in science today. Students have been learning about muscles, nerves, eyes, tendons, and so much more! 

Social Studies:

We have been learning about where Idaho is in the world in Social Studies. Students will be finishing up this unit by the end of the month. After this we will begin studying about the Native American tribes in Idaho.

Enrichment Clubs:

Your student should have brought back their sign up sheet for Enrichment Club for 3rd Quarter last week. The highlighted class is the class that your student will take each Thursday for the next several weeks right after lunch. They will have another opportunity to sign up for another class in 4th Quarter.

For a student to be able to attend their Enrichment Club, they must have NO missing work in Infinite Campus. This includes monthly reading calendars and Xtramath. I will pull missing assignment reports while they are at lunch. If anything is on that, they will have to work on missing assignments during that time instead of attending enrichment. Likewise, if their last couple of week's of Xtramath homework was not completed, they will spend their time working on their multiplication facts instead of going to Enrichment. This is part of our school policy. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. :)

VCS Skate Night:

Tonight is the VCS Skate Night at the Nampa RollerDrome from 6:00-8:00 pm. The cost is $8 for admission and $3 for skate rental. This is a public skate night, so please plan to accompany your child. 

Week of January 6th

 Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful break with your families. I spent the last half in California with my husband's family going to Disneyland and Universal. We had a wonderful time, but I missed my students. I brought them all a peppermint toad to enjoy this morning from my trip. :) They were a little concerned it was a real toad covered in chocolate, but once I assured them it wasn't they thought it was fun. :)

English Language Arts:

This week we are going to finish up some progress monitoring testing that didn't get done before break. We are also going to be starting a new novel, Because of Winn-Dixie. It is one of my favorites!

December Reading Calendars were due today. If your student forgot because of the break, no worries! I will still count them as full credit if they are turned in tomorrow.

Math:

We are going to be finishing up Topic 5 Tests today and then do a review of concepts we have learned so far this year. We will be starting on fractions soon! Students who have not mastered their multiplication facts may struggle more with fractions so I encourage my students to really be working on those! 

Quarter 2/Semester 1 Report Cards:

Your student's report card will be posted on Infinite Campus tomorrow at 8:00. Please make sure you can access your Parent Portal to be able to see those. If you do not have access, please email Mrs. Bowers at amybowers@visioncsd.org to get your login information. This will also help you stay updated as I update my gradebook so you know how your student is doing all throughout the quarter.