11/24-11/25

We have a short week coming with just two days of school.  Please enjoy the time with your families and celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday if your family does so.

Here is what our super short week will be filled with...

Language Arts:

New reading logs went home today and will be due on Tuesday with only 80 minutes.

Between Krupa's and Bakke's homerooms, 85% of students have already made their 1st trimester reading goal!  Congratulations to each of them and their success on reaching this challenge.  The deadline for turning in completed responses is Monday.  Tuesday, we will be holding our 1st trimester reading reward party for all those who earned it!

Writing: We will be working hard on completing their I Survived story final drafts.  Watch for these to come home in their report cards!

Word Study: Word study will resume again after the long weekend, however, we are going to try out a change in the schedule.  We will be getting new words and testing for the previous week every THURSDAY from now on.  This will allow for more time to practice and master each of the patterns.  We will continue to have two lists going to better meet the needs of all of our learners.

Math:

Signed study guides are due on Monday.  They will be taking the unit test next week.

Social Studies:

Students will be testing on the western region of the United States.  Please practice over the weekend!

11/17-11/21

Our week was a little mixed up due to the lovely first snow this year!  I hope everyone was able to spend some time relaxing or catching up on their extra day off.  Please take the time to check your child's agenda to see if they made it to the PATH reward today.  If they have late work, please help them make a plan to get caught up as the end of the trimester is quickly approaching!

Language Arts:

New reading logs went home today and are due next Friday, November 21st.
There will be no word list until after the Thanksgiving break.  Students who scored poorly on today's test will re-do this week's word list.  Check Dojo to see if this pertains to your child.

Comprehension: This week we will be focusing on the sequence of event in a fiction story.

Writing: We will continue through the writing process with our historical fiction I Survived stories.  By the end of next week, final drafts should be done by Thanksgiving break.  They are looking AMAZING so far!  We have some very tainted writers in 4th grade:)

Vocabulary: Our words of the week are wreck, possess, construct, debris.  We will also be working on stressed and un stressed syllables.

Grammar: Conjuctions

Reading Goal Update:
Your child must reach their 10 book reading goal by November 25th in order to participate in the Reading Reward Party that day.  I do not accept more than one book a day.  They should be completing their response journals as they finish books.  We have had some trouble with students only reading a couple of pages and then trying to do responses.  This is dishonest and will not be accepted!  Their responses also need to be at least 5 complete sentences with correct capitalization and punctuation.  As fourth graders, this is the standard for all of their writing.  Please contact me with any questions you may have on this.  Many 4th graders are already at or past 10 books!! Congrats to them:)

Math

We will be taking a final addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division test in the next two weeks that will determine your facts test grade on your report card.  Please be prepared to do your best on these four minute, fifty question tests! The tests will be graded in the following manner;

Trimester One

Above Grade Level  (A)

Addition   0-20  100%

Subtraction 0-20  100%

Multiplication 0-10  90%

Division  0-10  90%

     All under 4 minutes

At Grade Level  (G)

Addition   0-20  95%

Subtraction 0-20  95%

Multiplication 0-10  80%

Division  0-10  80%

    All under 4 minutes

Below Grade Level  (B)

Addition   0-20  < 95%

Subtraction 0-20  < 95%

Multiplication 0-10  < 80%

Division  0-10  < 80%

    All under 4 minutes

Second Trimester includes 0-12's

Third Trimester includes 0-12's and the percentages increase

11/10-11/14

We had a wonderful focus Friday today to honor our veterans.  Great job to Alex and Eva in our class with sharing their poems at the ceremony.  Today, your students took home an envelope containing a hard copy of their MCA results.  Please remind them to share this with you at home.  We are closing in on the first trimester with just over two weeks left.  The students and I were talking today about how fast this fall has gone by.  It's true what they say.. time flies when you are having fun!

Here are our plans for the upcoming week:

Language Arts:

New reading logs went home today and will be due next Friday, November 14th.  Students should also have 8 books completed by this date.  We currently have 7 students who are behind on their reading goal.  Please check in with your child to see if they are one of them!

Comprehension:  We will be focusing on Historical Fiction and finding information directly in the text.  We will be reading a story called Riding Freedom and completing a story guide to practice all of the skills we have done so far this year.

Writing: This week we will be reviewing the writing process and will be starting a historical fiction story.  On Tuesday we will be going into the computer lab to do research on an event from history that they will center their story around.  Please take some time this weekend to brainstorm some events with your students and help them pick a topic!

Vocabulary: We will be looking at specific language authors use to create mood and effect in their writing.  We will also be practicing recognizing and using similes and metaphors.

Word Study: New word lists will come home on Monday.  Please continue to practice these with your students.

Math:

This week in math class, we will be understanding the magnitude of one million. We will identify place value for numbers up to the millions, adding and subtracting numbers that create a sum and a difference of one million. Look for a quiz to be given Tuesday .  An end of the unit test will be assessed before the holiday break.  Please be watching for a study guide to be completed at home during the week of November 17th-22nd. 

November 3rd-7th

It is hard to believe it is already November!  The end of the first trimester is November 25th, so please check in with your students and continue to encourage them to meet their trimester goals.  As the weather is getting colder, please remind students to dress appropriately for recess.  Sandals and T-shirts are no longer safe outside attire!

Here is what we will be busy learning next week in our classroom:

Language Arts:

Comprehension: Theme- When reading at home, ask your student what the lesson being learned in the story is.

Writing: We will be completing our Veteran's Day Poetry final drafts and voting on who will read theirs during the late start ceremony. I have been so impressed by the amazing poets we have in our rooms!

Word Study- We now have a couple of different lists/patterns going on due to the different needs and spelling abilities in our room.  Students will continue to bring home a hard copy of the list as well as writing their words into their agendas on Mondays.  All students will still test on their words on Fridays.

Vocabulary- Greek and Latin Word Parts (photo, graph, auto, tele)
Our words of the week are focus, promote, critic, target, thrill

Goal Check In- Students should be at a minimum of 7 books by the 7th.  This will help their success toward the goal of 10 by the end of the trimester.

Math:

In our math classes we will continue to work on solving word problems that involve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  We will identify place value of numbers to the thousands column and we will read, write, and round numbers out to the thousands, as well. 

In Social Studies class, we will be studying the states that are located in the Western Region of the United States. The students will be expected to have memorized their state capitals and be able to identify each state on a United States map. 

Last Week of October

Here is what's happening in our classroom next week...

Language Arts

New reading logs went home today and are due next Friday, October 31st.

Comprehension Skil-Point of view (who is telling the story? how do we know?)
Grammar-Verbs
Vocabulary-Suffixes -y and -ous
Writing-Transition words
Word Study- Long and short U patterns
*Some students will come home with a green challenge list this week.

This week we spent some time on the computers researching Veteran's Day.  Next week we will be writing Veteran's Day Poems in preparation for the ceremony being held on our late start November 7th.  Please take the time to ask your child about what they learned while researching this holiday.

All students should be at 5 books finished by this point in the year.  Please check in with your child to be sure they are pace with their goals.

Math

-Unit 3: Adding and subtracting milt-digit numbers and word problems
Continue to practice math facts and record on the fact logs.

Oct.20-Oct.24

I hope everyone had a great long weekend to spend time with their families and relax.   I am so proud of the leadership and accountability I saw with the students at conferences.  They did an amazing job and should be really proud of themselves.  Thank you for your willingness to try something new!

Here is a preview of next week!

Math:
Next week, we will review congruence, similarity, and symmetry; parallel and perpendicular lines; and the differences among quadrilaterals. We will review area and perimeter. The review/study guide will be sent home on Monday and we will test Unit Two  on Tuesday.on Tuesday. 

Language Arts:
Comprehension Skills- Writing informational summaries and determining what information is most important
Grammar- Common, proper and plural nouns
Word Study and Vocabulary-Homophones
Writing- Writing informational summaries and using transition words

New reading logs went home yesterday and are due next Friday, Oct. 24th.  We kept the 120 minute goal to allow students to have a couple days off.

As we are nearing the halfway point of the trimester, students are to be at 5 books finished by Friday. This will allow them to be on pace with the 10 per trimester goal.
Students were asked to bring home their reading response journals to write in over the 5 day weekend.

Many parents had questions about the grade level equivalents to their student's letter reading level.  I have included a chart to show this a little better.

Fountas and Pinnell Levels	AR Levels
A	0.2-0.4
B	0.2-0.4
C	0.5-0.6
D	0.7-0.9
E	0.7-0.9
F	1.0-1.2
G	1.3-1.5
H	1.6-1.9
I	2.0-2.4
J	2.5-2.9
K	2.6-2.9
L	2.7-2.9
M	3.0-3.4
N	3.4-3.9
O	3.5-3.9
P	4.0-4.4
Q	4.2-4.4
R	4.5-4.9
S	4.6-4.9
T	5.0-5.4
U	5.2-5.4
V	5.5-5.9
W	6.0+
X	6.0+
Y	7.0+
Z	7.0+

Oct. 13th-15th

Next week is conferences!  To be respectful of each family's time, please try to be on time to your student's conference.  Also, remember that the students will be leading their conferences so they must be there!  We have been doing a lot of things to prepare and your 4th graders are very excited to share with you all of the great things they are doing:)

We only have 2 days of school next week!  Here is what we have planned-

Language Arts:
-Looking at poetry and idioms
-How to use different print and reference materials

A new reading log was handed out today and will be due on Tuesday with 80 minutes read.
There will be no word list this week.

Math:
-Finishing up Unit 2 on perimeter and area

Fact logs only need to have 20 minutes of math fact practice.

Other:  Book orders will be due Tuesday.

Have a great week and I will see you soon!