Thank You

Thank you for all of the kind words this week as we had a terrible loss to the Clarksville Community.

As there is no school tomorrow, reading calendars will be due on Monday (don't forget a parent signature). We will also have our second spelling test on Monday. We will review the different genre's on Monday and have our Genre Quiz on Tuesday (originally planned for Friday).

This week we attempted to continue having a great day of learning as Ms. McDonald would have wanted us to. We wrote a variety of different Writer's Notebook topics and reviewed even more genre's of reading. We began our unit on addition and subtraction in math and continued to work on our NYS maps in Social Studies.

I hope that your teammate shared our lesson on Internet Safety with you. I feel strongly that our children need to have lessons on appropriate, safe, and effective ways to use the internet. Each week I will be highlighting a different topic. Yesterdays lesson had a focus on Private Information and not giving it out! Next week we will discuss Passwords.

Next week we will also have our first assembly's. The Show of Love on Thursday and Fire Safety on Friday.

Thank you again for your support of your children. We are a great team!

Test

What a fantastic first Math Test on Place Value we had today. The class average was 90%. Fantastic!

We are continuing to have issues with our chatty behavior! We had a hall walking conversation today and I hope to see great improvement tomorrow. Thank you again for your support with this.

Don't forget picture day is Thursday!

I hope you are surviving this weather!!!

Hard Work

We were hard workers this week! I am proud of all of their accomplishments and it was a pleasure to meet all of you.

We are having a little problem in class with chatting. The noise level is quick to rise and although we are discussing it all day in class, I could use a little support at home. Please have a chat with your student about transition times and making good choices. I am going to begin having consequences of missing minutes at recess (a class decided consequence) starting on Monday. I am hoping this issue can be nipped quickly.

Next week our Reading Workshop time will focus on four more genre's: Historical Fiction, Non-Fiction, Classic/Traditional Literature, and Science Fiction. In addition, we will have a quick quiz on the genre's on Friday.

In Writing Workshop we will continue to focus on different types of entries for our Writer's Notebooks. By the end of next week we will have practices 10-12 different types of entries so that when writing is assigned, your writer shouldn't have much writers block!

Monday will be a review of Place Value with our first math test on Tuesday. The test will be fair and the review sheet will be written off of the test. I encourage your mathematician to study on Monday night!!

Spelling tests will start next week. Your student will have 5 words assigned on Monday with their first test on Wednesday. They should study each night.

In addition to their spelling, I encourage your student to study their math facts. We will be taking 2 mad minutes per week!! Addition and Subtraction will be our first focus.

Picture day is Thursday!!!

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Fantastic Start

We are off to a fantastic start. I am so happy with the homework and classwork that are coming in. It is clear to me that many parents are checking these assignments and I appreciate your time and effort.

We will be continuing our study of Place Value in math next week with comparing and ordering, rounding, and problem solving. This is sometimes a hard unit for fourth graders. We will continue working on it throughout the year.

In Reading Workshop we will be starting a genre study. We will be looking at the different types of writing for their characteristics and purpose. This will be a two week study.

Our focus in Writing Workshop will be on entries - different types, how to come up with ideas, and stamina. Your writer will be writing entries at home for homework next week as well as in class.

Our Social Studies work will continue to focus on geography but turn to New York State specifics. We will be looking at rivers, lakes, and making large NYS maps.

I am very much looking forward to meeting you on TUESDAY night at Open House!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Full Week... Here we come!

We had a fantastic Friday last week. We got to know each other, met with Mrs. Kourt's class to make a book for Ms. McDonald, and went over many routines.

This week we are going to jump right in. In Reading Workshop we are going to work on using our classroom library, choosing just right books, discuss the kids of reading we like to do, and plan for our reading in class this year. In Writing Workshop we are going to being with what good writer's do, how we use our writer's notebook, and creating a heart map. Math will start with place value and a quick inventory on where we are as math students. For Social Studies, we will begin our geography unit with the 7 continents review and key NYS landforms.

It is going to be fantastic I am sure! Thank you for supporting your 4th grade student!

1st Day!!!

What a quick day we had! It was great to see 22 smiling faces (we had one absentee). Everyone was very well behaved while we organized all of our supplies. You will be amazed at how ready we are to start right up on Friday. Thank you for sending in almost all of the necessary supplies for the year. We are fully stocked and ready to go!

I hope your student enjoyed their first day, I can't wait to get to know them better in the coming weeks!