December 15-December 19

'Twas the Week Before Break.....

In Spelling this week we will wrap up unit 7 today with a parent activity and review. Then we will have the test on Tuesday. We will not start another spelling unit until we get back from break. 

In math we will also be finishing up our unit on division. We will have a math test on Thursday in the morning. Practicing division and their multiplication facts will be the best way to prepare for this test. 

In Social Studies we will finish up our short unit on basic Missouri facts. There will be a quiz on Thursday. They have a sheet of notes to study for this quiz. We are studying things like the state bird, animal, capital, population, etc. 

In reading and writing we will continue working on poetry. We will share our poetry on Wednesday and some poems will be chosen by the students to share at our assembly on Friday.

Dress up days this week:

Monday: Ugly Christmas Sweater day

Tuesday: Christmas in July (no swimsuits)

Wednesday: Grinch- dress like your favorite character

Thursday: Polar Express (pajama day)

Friday: Red and Green day 

Don't forget our character awards assembly is this Friday at 8:30 AM! 

December 8-December 12

This week in Math we will continue with our division lessons. The math test is scheduled for December 18th for this division unit. They have been taught 3 different methods to do division, however, on the test, they will be able to choose the method that works best for them to solve the problems.

This week in spelling we will start a new word list. We will be looking at compound words and words that have more than one meaning (bear, show, tear, etc). Understanding the different meanings and being familiar with compound words can help them in their writing and their reading. The test for this unit will be next week.

In Science/SS this week we will wrap up our science unit by going over the correct answers for the science test and discussing our classroom and individual data. We will then move on to our new, short Social Studies unit. This unit focuses on basic Missouri facts like the state bird and song. This will be a very short unit that will be tested December 18.

We will continue working on poetry in both reading and writing this week. They will be reading several poems and discussing them and also writing their own poetry.


Miss Ussary's class needs to have book orders in by Friday the 12th.

Holiday parties are this Friday!

Poster Awards

Congratulations are in Order!

Congratulations to our poster contest winners from the Conservation Kid's Day Poster Contest!
For Class Awards:
KOUNTZ
3rd: Kenya Kirk
       Brynna Coman
       Haley Dreier
2nd: Zachary Kelly
1st: Paityn King
USSARY
3rd: Taiylor Harrington
             

2nd: Ben Pugh
1st: Kara Harmon

School Winners:
3rd: Paityn King
2nd: Ben Pugh
1st: Kara Harmon

We would also like to congratulate our Spelling Bee competitors.  Ben Pugh and Kaylie Yates represented each fourth grade class at our school wide competition.  Ben was the first place winner in the fourth grade!  Awesome spelling!  

December 1- December 5

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a great break!

In math this week we are continuing to focus on Division. You will notice some different looking worksheets going home Tuesday and Thursday. These are to give them more practice with division and slow down our lessons a little bit. We are doing this to assure we give them a lot of time and practice to master this skill.

In science we will finish up our unit and review for our test on THIS FRIDAY, the 5th. Wednesday and Thursday we will review in class with some review games. The students will take the test for the first 30 minutes without their packets. Then they will be allowed to use them on the rest of the test until they complete it. Their packets and the review questions asked during our games will help them prepare for the test.

We will also have a spelling test on Friday over our unit 6 words. We will spend the week working with these words and doing hands on spelling activities with them.

This week for Reading, students will be taking the DRA(Developmental Reading Assessment) test.  This gives us a good idea of where your child stands as a reader, and what we base their reading levels off of.  This week (and some of next), the class will be taking the NWEA test.  This test is similar to the state test in Reading, Math, and Language.  We use these scores to see growth and areas in need of improvement.  Students will also focus on reading poetry.  

With reading poetry, students will also integrate poetry in their writing.  This month, students will be working on a poetry book.  The class will learn about figurative language, and how to read and write using this writing element.  Students will be creating a book about winter using several poetry frames.

November 24-November 25

Short Week!

This week in math we will continue our focus on long division. We have 3 methods we are working on teaching them, but our main focus is that they understand what division is and can be successful with at least ONE method. Continuing to work on multiplication facts will help your child with division.

In science this week we will discuss chemical changes. Our science test will be December 5th. We will have two days of review before the test. The packets they have been filling out as we go can be used on the test AFTER the first 30 minutes of the test. Our hope is that they will study and be able to answer some of the questions based on what they know and they will use the packets later to check their answers or answer questions they weren't sure of.

In reading and writing this week we are just doing our "How To" presentations. We will assess students' speaking and listening skills during this time.

These two days are going to fly by this week! We hope everyone has a great break!

November 17- November 21

This week in math we are wrapping up our multiplication focus on Monday and moving into division. We will be back in our math expressions curriculum for this and they will have homework again with a homework side and remembering side.

In science we will continue our discussion on states of matter, physical changes, and chemical changes. We will not be able to get the test in on this unit until after Thanksgiving break. Because of this, we will make sure and set aside several days to just review the material so that they are better prepared for the test. They have packets again for this unit that you have probably see come home. These packets include vocabulary, questions over the material, the investigations we've done in class, and study guides. All of this material will help them better prepare for the test. The test is tentatively scheduled for December 5th.

In spelling this week we will continue our discussion on prefixes and suffixes. We will not begin another spelling unit (with a list/test) until after we return from Thanksgiving break.

This week in Writing, students will begin (and finish) the drafting process on their expository (How-To) papers.  Their presentations will be MONDAY and TUESDAY of next week.  Look for a half sheet of paper on your child's presentation day.  Please send materials needed for the presentation on this day.

In Reading, students will continue with their non-fiction read of Pilgrims and work on their literature circles.  We will continue to work on AR points.  Mid Quarter is tomorrow (11/19).  Students should have at least half of their points.

Sunny D Labels are due November 21st.
Progress reports will go home November 19th. 

November 10- November 14

In math this week we have decided to go back and focus one more full week on multiplication. We are still finding that some students are still struggling with their multiplication facts. We will play games, do times tests, and review our facts with multiplication worksheets this week. The more they can work on these at home the more likely they'll be to master their facts!

In spelling we will continue discussing prefixes and suffixes. We will create a book of suffixes to use as a reference in our room with the book of prefixes that we created last week. At the end of the week we will start discussing how some other languages have contributed to our language. Our spelling test this week is on Tuesday.

In science this week we will continue discussing the states of matter and all the changes they can encounter. We will do investigations and activities in the classroom, as well as work in our science packets to answer questions from the chapter. The packets they are filling out will be a great study tool for the test!

This week in Writing, students will be working on the trait of organization and using transition words.  We will finish up this trait this week, and then begin preparing to draft.  For this draft, students will be asked to create an expository paper, or a "How-To".  In this paper, students will give the class a step-by-step presentation.  This presentation is something that will need to be completed at school, and can be no longer than 15 minutes.  We will have presentations on November 24 and 25. (If some students are ready, we could possibly have some presentations on the 21.)  A note with more detail will go home on Tuesday.  We just wanted to give you a head's up to begin thinking about something that your child could present.  

In Reading, students will begin studying non-fiction text features, and begin a class reading of Pilgrims.  

Please remember that fall is here!  The weather is to take a turn to the cold side this evening.  As long as it is dry and temperatures are above freezing, students will go outside for some fresh air.  Please help us keep everyone healthy and dress them appropriately. 

November 3-November 7

Thank you so much for all who attended conferences.  We always enjoy being able to share in your child's successes as a student!

This week in reading, students will be working on finding facts and opinions in their text, and also writing facts and opinions about their reading.  This will lead us into reading nonfiction texts this month.  We will begin that next week.

In Writing, students will begin learning about an author's purpose as a writer.  We will focus on persuading and informing this week, and entertaining next week.  This also is a skill that we use as reader's, so knowing how to achieve and identify the purpose is a huge step!   

In spelling this week we will begin working on our new spelling list. We will also discuss spelling patterns with /ea/ and the /j/ sound and different ways it is made. On Thursday and Friday we will work hard on prefixes and suffixes and discuss how they can help us determine the meaning of a word as well as how it is spelled.

In math we will return to our Math Expressions lessons. The last 3 lessons in this unit focus on practicing the methods we have learned and reviewing the steps and vocabulary we have covered. Friday will be the test! Looking over class activities 2-1 through 2-19 in the students' math notebooks will help them prepare or study for this test. They will need to know the 3 methods we have learned (Algebraic Notation, Place Value, and Expanded Notation) as well as the vocabulary terms in this chapter (estimate, partial products, rounding, and distributive property). We will also continue working on our multiplication tables in the morning but any extra practice they can do at home will help them greatly!

We will wrap up our Social Studies unit this week by going over the test and graphing it in our data notebooks.

We will go back to Science on Tuesday and continue studying the states of matter (Chapter 13 in their science books). We will discuss physical and chemical changes and review what we know about the particles in different states of matter.

Friday we will be attending the High School play at 1:15. Please make sure to send $1 with your student for their entrance fee before then!

October 27- 29

Short Week

We hope that everyone enjoyed their weekend.  We get an extra long weekend this week, with Thursday and Friday being "No School" days.  

This week in Reading and Writing we will be wrapping things up.  In Reading, the students will quiz over Sleepy Hollow, present their memory bags on Tuesday, and watch the movie on Wednesday to do a book movie comparison.  We have let students know that those with unfinished Memory Bags will work during the movie time, so hopefully everyone turns those in on time! (Some are already turned in, and the students seem really excited about them!)  In Writing, students are finishing up their final drafts of their Monster Narrative that are due Tuesday morning. 

In Spelling this week, we reviewed today for our test that is on Tuesday.  We plan to go over missed words in Wednesday.

In Math, we are using this week to help students build their fluency in basic multiplication facts.  They will not have any homework, as we will be building fluency in the classroom to help with these skills.  If you have a chance, you may review facts with your child at any time.  Let us know if you need any resources to do this.  There is a link to the right of this screen to a website our students should be familiar with.  

In Social Studies, students will prepare for a chapter 2 test.  The test will be on Wednesday, first thing in the morning.  Hopefully, we can get them back to them by the end of the day, before the long break.  The suspense could be torture over that long weekend!  Fingers are crossed.  Their packets will be the best way to study for this test.  We will play a review game on Tuesday in class.

We hope to see everyone at conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We know the Royals will be playing both nights, and that most of you (and us!) are wanting to watch our boys in blue.  The good news is that conferences are only for 15 minutes, and everyone should be finished by 8:00!  We are excited to share news with you about your child, and look forward to seeing you.  That being said, GO ROYALS!  

Thank you

Thank You Ever So Kindly!

Thank you to all parents/grandparents who were able to attend, donated items, or who helped in any way with our parties.  The kids (and teachers!) had a blast!  We don't know what we would do without you all!  Please send any and all pictures to us for the yearbook!

October 20-24

This week in Reading we will finish our class read aloud, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  We will continue completing activities with this book, chapter by chapter.  To wrap the book up, students will be asked to create a "Memory Bag".  In this bag, students will use their imagination to come up with objects to represent each story element in the book; 1. Setting (Time and Place) 2. Characters  3. Plot (Events- at least 3, with at least one item being the solution)  4. Conflict (Problem)  5. Theme (The main idea of the book)  Each item will be recorded on a provided sheet, and then placed in a bag.  Students will present their "Memory Bags" on the week of the 27th.  Creativity is the key!  That makes this project so much fun!  For instance, we are not looking for a replica of the Headless Horseman, but rather something that he stands for.  He was a Revolutionary War soldier, he hurls pumpkins at people. he rides a horse, he is headless....  Something that represents one of those traits.  Please don't go out and buy anything!  Just have fun being creative, and thinking outside of the box.  Students will also continue with their literature circle jobs and books.  We hope to have these books finished by the week of conferences, or the week after.  

In Writing, we will continue drafting our Monster Narratives,  Some are turning out quite well.  We have an imaginative class!  

In Math this week we will continue working on multiplying larger numbers. We are also coming back and working on basic multiplication tables as we've noticed some of our students could really use a refresher! 

In Social studies this week we will continue reading about famous historians from Missouri. You may have seen the note taking packet that we are using for this unit of SS. This packet was made in an attempt to help them be better prepared for the tests. They have been told that they can use this packet on their test so they should take their time and make sure their answers are right before then! The SS test will be on October 29th.

In Spelling this week we will start a new unit with a new word list on Tuesday. This unit focuses on different patterns for making certain sounds as well as prefixes and suffixes. The spelling test for this unit will be NEXT Tuesday. 

Reminders:

Fall Parties will be held on Friday, October 24.  We hope to see you then! 

Wednesday will be a noon dismissal.

Fundraiser pick ups are tomorrow from 3-6! 

Parent-teacher conferences are next week, please get in contact with us if your note with your scheduled conference time did not make it to you or if you need to change your time!

Multiplication Help

It seems that the "post" links did not work.  We did, however, get the links to the right of the screen to work.  So, take two on the multiplication fact practice!

Multiplication Help

Here are a few quick links to help your child with basic multiplication facts, and two-by-two multiplication.  Enjoy!  (I am working on how to create links for future reference!)

Basic Facts
http://www.multiplication.com/games


Turtlehead Method

http://www.teachertube.com/video/turtlehead-multiplication-77588

October 13- October 17

We hope that everyone had a great weekend!  The fall weather is really upon us.  The end of the quarter is Friday. All 10 AR points are due by the end of that day.  With that in mind, keep an eye out for the white conference slips coming home to confirm your child's conference time.  

Here is a look at our week ahead.

In Writing, students will begin thinking about and drafting their "Monster" narrative.  This story will ask the students to include two events leading up to the conflict (problem) and two events leading to the solution.  Our goal is to have the monsters and their papers on display for conferences.

In Reading, students will continue reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  We are loving this spooky tale!  The class will also continue to work on their Literature Circles.  

In Math this week we will continue with multiplication strategies. We will also start moving to some harder multiplication and word problems. The strategies we have been working on will work for these problems as well and we will continue perfecting those.

In Social Studies this week we are discussing Missouri's diversity and its famous artists, athletes and musicians. 

In spelling this week, we will discuss homophones and possessive pronouns. We will focus an entire day on they're, their, and there and when to use each of these. The spelling test is this Friday for the 3rd list sent home! 

Have a great week!

Field Trip Update

Field Trip Update

The Conservation Department has just emailed me.  They have relocated the field trip to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Fredrick.  It will be there rain or shine.  Therefore, the field trip will go on!  Sorry for any confusion previous posts may have caused.  I wanted to keep you as updated as possible.  See you Thursday!

Field Trip

Field Trip

Due to a high possibility of rain, there is a chance that out field trip will be canceled and the Conservation Department will reschedule a date to bring the presentation to us.  At the latest, we will be informed at 8:00 on Thursday morning if our trip is canceled.  For any parents that were planning on attending, we would need a number to reach you and let you know that the trip has been canceled.  Please send a note with the best number to reach you on that morning.  We are so sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause.  We just found this out this morning.  We will keep you posted! 

October 6- October 10

We hope that everyone had a great weekend.  The fall air is really beginning to cool down!  Please keep that in mind as your child prepares for school.  Recess is at 12:40, but the air is sometimes still cool.  Layers are best!

This week in English Language Arts, students will work on making subjects and verbs agree.  This will help us in creating complete sentences as we prepare to write a narrative.  At the end of the week, students will begin brainstorming ideas.  In Art, students will be creating a 3-D monster!  We will use this monster as the main character in our narratives.  We hope the students enjoy this opportunity to bring their artwork to life.  

In Reading, the classes will begin reading a book together to work on finding the main idea in literature.  We will begin reading Washington Irving's classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  It has been retold on a junior level, and makes for a suspenseful read!  Using this text, students will record their thoughts and predictions about the story.  

This week in math we will continue working on multiplication and the different ways to approach these problems. Our lessons will focus on helping them to understand multiplication by using place value. You've probably noticed we focus on factoring out the 10 to make the math simpler. We do this by using rectangular drawings and multi step factoring when we are multiplying.\

In science with week we will finish up the unit with a test on Tuesday. (This should have been written in their agenda every day this week). We have done a lot of lab work and interactive activities to solidify their understandings in science. We will review on Monday with a game and then take the test on Tuesday. We will then move back to Social Studies and discussing Missouri again.

In spelling this week we will focus on the long E sound and patterns that make that sound (ee, ea, y, e, etc). Then we will look at homophones. We will really focus hard on "there," they're," and "their."

As a reminder, our field trip to Mark Youngdahl Conservation Area is thisThursday, October 9.  We will be leaving the school at 8:30, and arriving back around 1:00.  Please dress your child appropriately in tennis shoes or boots, and in layers.  Bring a sack lunch, with drink.  Parents are welcome to attend, but there will be another field trip at the end of the year that will be a full day trip. 

Field Trip

As a reminder, our field trip permission slips are due today, Friday, October 3.  We are going to the Mark Youngdahl Trail for Conservation Kid's Day on Thursday, October 9.  If you have not signed and returned this, please do so as soon as possible.  Thank you in advance!  Have a great weekend!

September 29-October 3

This week in Writing, students will review verb tenses and irregular verbs (verbs that are spelled differently when written in past tense).  We will use this information to work on subject verb agreement next week.  As a Writing Strategy, students are going to reread their notebook entries and highlight or underline words or phrases that they could write more about, or create an entirely new piece of writing from.  This strategy is known as "Lifting a Line".  It can become very interesting when we take these words or phrases and create new writing pieces with them!

In Reading, students will begin small group Literature Circles.  The students have been grouped according to their reading levels and they will meet with this small group every 4 days.  We have chosen a book that is on their reading level that we will read in small groups and complete "jobs" while reading.  These are the same reading jobs that the students worked on earlier this year.  Our goal is to work on strategies that meet each group's individual needs, as well as keeping them reading!  As a whole class, students will work on finding details and the main idea while reading.  We will use several strategies to help students with this.  It isn't as easy as it sounds!  But don't worry, we will continue to work on this throughout the year with many types of texts.  

This week in Math we are starting a new unit. We will begin with looking at multiplication and different ways to use drawings/arrays to represent those equations. This helps them visually make sense of multiplication. There will be math homework every day this week except for Friday.

In Science this week we will finish up the last chapter in the unit and begin to prepare for the test NEXT Tuesday, October 7. We have covered the states of matter, measurement and will finish the chapter up with density this week. They will have 3 study guides that we have completed to use to study and will also be able to bring home their science books.

In Spelling this week we will start with a new word list. These words help us to learn the rules of the long/short /i/ sound and the different ways to make the /k/ sound. The word lists will come home tonight. There will be another parent/student activity on Thursday night and a test on Friday. It was great to see how many of you worked with your student on the last parent/student, spelling activity. We appreciated your support at home!

September 22- September 26

This week in Writing, students will be learning to write using the trait of Ideas.  This is one of the six traits for successful writers.  With this trait, students will learn how to develop ideas, and create a narrative writing piece.  In Writer's Workshop, students will be writing from a word.  Student's will pick a part of speech, and write about it, or from it for 15 minutes.  This is to help build stamina, and develop ideas as a writer.  

In Reading, students will continue working in class to finish Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing while learning about the story elements.  We have been using our Reader's Notebook to make notes as we read.  Some students have asked if they can use their notebooks with their independent reading books in the same way!  Of course!  It is so exciting that students want to utilize a skill that they are learning in class to help them as a reader!  That is the whole point!!  

As a side note, our mid quarter has just passed.  You should have received Progress Reports last Friday.  In fourth grade, we require 10 AR points per quarter.  Our hope is to have students at 5 points by mid quarter.  To help students not fall far behind, we are having students who are under 5 points to stay in during recess and read or quiz.  At this  point in the school year, we have read several books to the class that have quizzes.  They should be really close to 5 points if they have taken quizzes over the books that have been read to them.  Remember to help encourage their reading at home.  It makes that 10 points seem not so hard to get!

In Math this week we will be reviewing adding/subtracting greater numbers, estimating, and rounding. We will have a Test over unit one on Thursday. We will have a full day to review math on Wednesday. They can bring home their math notebooks to help them study! 

We also have our first spelling test this Thursday. They should have brought home their first list last week of 20 words. We are discussion patterns in spelling words and the words on this list will follow that pattern. On Wednesday night they will bring home a spelling activity to do with you. We appreciate your support and know it is a huge factor in their success in school! 

In science we are continuing to discuss states of matter. We  are doing some fun activities in our classroom to make this a hands on unit and they really seem to be enjoying it so far!  

Miss Ussary will be gone on Wednesday for a training in Maryville. 

September 15- September 19

It's Monday again! Don't forget that Wednesday is a half day this week! Also, progress reports will be sent home this Friday, the 19th. 

This week in Writing, students will apply their new knowledge of the Parts of Speech by placing them in sentences.  We will have a review game on Monday.  This will lead us into subjects and predicates in sentences, and their agreement.  The Writer's Workshop strategy that we will focus on is observations.  Writers use the world around them and their 5 senses to make the reader's feel what they are writing.  We will use multiple areas of the school to "observe" the world around us.

In Reading, students will continue their work on studying the story elements.  We will begin reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.  We will use this book to identify and study the 5 elements more closely.  

In math this week we will begin subtracting multi-digit numbers. We will be looking at how subtraction is just the undoing of addition. Place value is a huge focus for these lessons. 

In Social Studies this week we are reviewing on Monday and taking a test on Tuesday. The test is over pages 74-89 in the Social Studies books. They can use their note packet, the three worksheets we've done and their questions that they turned in on Friday to study. 

On Thursday we will switch to Science. We will begin talking about the states of matter. 

In Spelling this week we will finish up working on syllable division and move on to discussing long and short vowel sounds. No spelling lists will be sent home this week. 

September 8- 12

Pictures and Homecoming Week

Happy Monday!  Here is a look at our week ahead.

In English Language Arts, students will be learning about the Parts of Speech.  This should be a review for some of the parts of speech.  We will take a deeper look at adverbs, pronouns, and prepositions and how these can make our writing better.  

In Reading, students will have a literature circle discussion on the story that we read and completed jobs for last week.  We will then begin to look at the 5 story elements; characters, setting, plot, conflict, and theme.  Students will begin a class read aloud to focus on these elements.

This week in math we are working on adding numbers with multiple digits. They learned 3 different strategies for doing this. There are examples of each strategy in their notes. We will also begin learning estimation and mental math. They will have math homework on Monday,Tuesday, and Wednesday nights this week. 

In social studies this week we are continuing talking about Missouri's geography. We are doing a Reader's Theater (skit) in which they will act out being a class that is working to spread the message about helping their environment. We will also make signs to hang in our schools to remind everyone to conserve and recycle when they can. 

We started Spelling this week. There is not a word list for this week. We are beginning instruction by discussing syllables and understanding how to divide them in a word. The reason we do this is so they can hear each individual syllable in a word they are trying to spell. This helps them break down a word into small parts that they can spell and put them together to make the complete word. 

As a reminder, class pictures are Wednesday, September 10.  Next week is the book fair, with Grandparent's night on Tuesday, from 6-7.

September 2- 5

Short Week

I hope that everyone enjoyed their long weekend. School is already off to a running start!  Here is a look at our Fourth Grader's week ahead...

In Reading this week, students will learn the value of a proper book discussion.  Soon, we will divide students into small groups to study a small book more closely.  To do this, students will be participating in something known as Literature Circles.  This week, we will complete each Literature Circle Job as a class with a whole group read aloud to demonstrate to students what we will be looking for when they study their small group books.  With each "job", students will be asked to take a deeper look at the text.

In Grammar, students will be working on identifying and punctuating the 4 sentence types; declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative.  This may be a review, but in fourth grade, we still see punctuation as an issue.   In Writer's Workshop, students will continue to get to know themselves as writer's.  We are already amazed at the ability of some of our students!  We will work on two strategies this week.  One strategy is "History of a Name".  In this strategy, we will read aloud a picture about about a child and how she feels about her LONG name.  We will then ask students to write about their names.  Maybe you have a story to tell your child about their first or middle name, or maybe the heritage of their last name.  Maybe you have a nickname that your family calls your child.  If you do, please share this information with them!  You don't need to tell them it is for "Writing", just bring it up in conversation.  Hopefully this will prompt a great Writer's Workshop on Wednesday!  Students will also be introduced to the writing strategy of "Writing from a List".  This helps them sort through their thoughts, and decide what would be fun to write about.

In math last week we discussed place value and its importance in multi-digit numbers. We use place value drawings and different forms (expanded, word, and standard) to show our understanding of place value. This week we are continuing looking at place value but will focus on rounding using this understanding.We will also continue with the different number forms and comparing those numbers.

When your student has homework, they will be told to bring home their entire math notebook. We ask them to do this so that they have a resource if they struggle with something or forgot how to complete one section. In the notebooks you will see there are 5 domains that have different focuses in each one. We will sort our class work and homework into the appropriate sections. When they complete homework and it is graded, we will hand it back and they will return it to the correct domain in their notebook.

In Social Studies this week we will continue our discussion on Missouri's Geography. In this unit we are discussion the regions in Missouri and their characteristics, how we can conserve and recycle to help our state, and how latitude and longitude help us find locations on a map.

We have not yet started with our Spelling instruction. We are currently using this time to meet with the students individually to go over their academic goals for the 1st quarter. Spelling instruction will begin next week. 

August 25- 29

Welcome Back, in the HOT, HOT, HOT!

Happy Monday!  It looks to be another warm week.  With that being said, remember that it is okay for your child to bring a cool drink with them to class.  Also, our weekly plans may adjust due to the early out, and if there may be any more this week.  We will keep you posted.  

You may have heard that we haven't went outside to recess much.  Our normal recess time is after lunch.  While we are adjusting to the new year, lunch has been running a little late, making the time after lunch (prior to dismissal) very short.  We want the students to get a good feel for how recess runs in fourth grade before we take them out on half days after lunch.  They did go outside Friday earlier in the day.  Hopefully we will get a full day in here soon so we can get our routines down.  

We have planned for lessons the week, but with the shortened days we may not get to everything.

In English Language Arts students will look at the concepts they will learn as fourth graders known as "I Can" statements.  They will rate themselves with how they feel their abilities are about each concept.  We will then begin Notebooking.  For Reading and Writing, students will use a composition notebook to record notes and thoughts about what we cover in each of those classes.  It may take a little while to get used to these, but they are a great tool to have in our classrooms.  

In Math, we will also look at each concepts to be taught in fourth grade.  They will, again, rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 4 on how they feel about each concept.  We will then begin work with Place Value.  Students will be using a notebook this year.  They will be creating their notebooks using the 5 Math Domains from the Missouri Learning Standards. Each lesson description will be placed under the domain that it addresses.  THIS WILL BE THEIR ONLY MATH BOOK.  Since this is their only Math book, we are encouraging students to take their best care.  It is their resource.  We will allow them to use it on their tests, so organization will be key.  Their graded lessons will also be placed in the domains.  If the grade is not passing, they will be asked to take it home and rework it before placing it in their notebooks.

We will alternate teaching Social Studies and Science.  We will start with Social Studies.  This unit, we will learn about geography terms.  The students will receive a note packet that they will use to write in important information.  THIS WILL BE THEIR STUDY GUIDE FOR THE TEST.  You may ask you child to bring it home periodically to study information in advance for the test.  

We did already receive word that tomorrow, Tuesday,  August 26 will be an early release due to heat.  We will still have PE, Art, and Music on these types of half days(those not scheduled), so please remember to send tennis shoes on PE days!  

Have a cool day!