November 26- 30

Happy Wednesday!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I really enjoyed my trip in New York over Thanksgiving!   One of my favorite things was getting to FaceTime with your sweet kids before they got out of school on Friday while I was at the 9/11 memorial.  I was excited to see them on Monday morning!!

 

*We want to welcome our newest student Miguel, who joined us right before we left for Thanksgiving.  We are so excited to have Miguel as a part of our class! 

Math: We are continuing to review and practice multiplication strategies as well as division stratigies.  We started Unit 4 on measurement.  We have been busy measuring and comparing things in the classroom.  We will be estimating and measuring lengths in U.S. standard and metric units as well as reviewing perimeter.  We started Minute Math this week which is part of our morning work.  We will have a Minute Math Quiz every Friday with problems we have done the previous week.  Minute Math is a great review of 4th grade math practice.  We will have our end of the Unit 3 test on Friday.  This will include a variety of multiplication problems from Unit 3 (which is still in their binder).     

If your child needs more practice with math strategies please go to the link below.

http://tconstantine.wikispaces.com/Math+Casts 

Please watch the video and then practice with more problems.  You may also use the thin Math Investigations textbook to help your child.

 

Vocabulary/ Grammar: Students will have their vocabulary test on Friday.  All of the spelling city activities will also be due on Friday.     

We started our study on adverbs this week.  Students will be tested Friday on adverbs.  Students started D.O.L. (daily oral language) this week and will have a quiz every Friday on what we learned Monday- Thursday during morning work.  I have stressed to the students it is important they review their D.O.L. every night so they will be prepared for the test and they will not have to cram the night before.J  
 

Reading: This week we started reading The Tale of Despereaux.  We have been discussing the different story elements, character traits, and specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).        

Social Studies: This week we are studying the original 13 Colonies.  We have been learning about Jamestown, Plymouth, and Roanoke.  They will have a map quiz on Friday.  Students will be required to spell each colony correctly, as well as label it on the map.  I sent a link out on Edmodo for students to use to practice labeling the map.  There is also a list on Spelling City (13 Colonies) students can use to help them study.  

Other Reminders:         

•  Book orders for December will be due Wednesday, December 5, so we can get the orders in before Christmas break.  Thank you so much for your orders so far!!  They have helped us add many more books to our library that the students are enjoying reading.  Thanks for the book donations also!!  Please remember that you may order online, fast and easy, by clicking on the highlighted link:  Scholastic Book Clubs.  Please use our class code, JT2TW, so we can earn free books. Thanks you so much!  I will send home a coupon for one free book worth up to $5 with your next order of $5 or more from Scholastic. 
• Box Tops are due Wednesday, December 14.  Please send in your Box Tops to help our school earn money.  Thanks for sending them in! J

Things we are running low on if you could please send in we would greatly appreciate your donation!
1. colored cardstock
2. colored paper (8 1/2 by 11)

 

Please email me if you have any questions.

Your children are such a joy!  Thank you for sharing them with me!

Mrs. Wilkes

Mrs. Wilkes

November 12- November 16

This week in 4th grade:

*First of all I would like to THANK the TERRIFIC chaperones that went on the field trip to the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center!!  We could not have made it such a successful and fun learning field trip without your help!!  I also want to THANK our WONDERFUL room mom, Tonia, for bringing our kids all the snacks and water for our trip.  The snacks were great and helped fill their tummies.  I have been so blessed this year with all the volunteers and wonderful help this year!!  You all are truly AMAZING and I am so grateful!! 

*Your children did a FANTASTIC job at the Veteran's Day Program tonight!!  My husband and I really enjoyed the musical and I was so proud to show him my kiddos!!  They are such a blessing!!  

*We want to welcome our newest student Myrical, who will join us first thing tomorrow morning.  We are so excited to have Myrical as a part of our class! 

Math: We will finish Unit 3 of Investigations this week.  We will have our weekly math computation quiz on Friday with review problems as well as some of the division type problems we have been learning how to solve.  Also please review over multiplication clusters- including doubling and halving with your children.  Please use the thin Math Investigations textbook to help your child with math stratgies if needed.  I constantly remind the children to check back over their work because they continue to make careless mistakes.  Please continue to encourage them at home to be more careful with their work at school. 

Vocabulary: We do not have vocabulary this week since it is shorter and right before the holidays.  Happy Thanksgiving!!  

Reading: We are continuing our study in Making Meaning on exploring narrative texts focusing on describing in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions) and questioning.  We started "The Twits" by Roald Dahl today and we hope to finish on Friday.  We will start a new read aloud when we come back from the Thanksgiving break.   

Last week we finished our read aloud, "City of Ember" and made comparisons between the movie and text after watching the movie.  They continue to believe, along with Mrs. Wilkes, that the book is always better than the movie! Students need to continue to be tracking their reading online through www.reading-rewards.com.  Students need to enter their data on their own at home. If this is a problem, please just send me a note and students can enter the data here at school.   

Writing: We started our study on adjectives this week.  Students will be tested Friday on adjectives.  We will work on creating various Thanksgiving writing pieces as well as memory and tradition writing pieces.  

Social Studies: This week in Social Studies we will begin our study on the 13 Colonies.  We will study about Jamestown, Plymouth, and Roanoke.  They finished their Explorer presentations and did a great job teaching others about their Explorer.    

Other Reminders:

•             Feast items are due Friday, November 16.  Please let me know, by email, tomorrow if you are unable to participate so I can make arrangements in advance by Thursday morning.    
•             Graded papers came home today.  I apologize, but there is a math homework and math review sheet that did not make it in the pack of papers.  These will be sent with the next graded papers.  I have gone over some of the problems with the students whole class.  Please take time to review these WITH your child. For questions that are missed, please have your child go back and rethink/rework to find the correct answer and write all corrections directly on the paper with a pen. If I have already corrected the item, please have a discussion with your child about what he/she missed.  Please RETURN them by THURSDAY, November 15. 
•             Progress reports will go home tomorrow.  Please sign these and RETURN them by FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16.  
•             Just a reminder, with Progress reports, their Science grade has not been changed from the report cards.  The students will now have a Social Studies grade since we started this 9 weeks and will continue until the 3rd nine weeks.  We began with Explorers and moving onto 13 colonies.  After the 13 Colonies we will continue into the American Revolution and Westward Expansion.  The last nine weeks we will continue with our science curriculum. 
•              E-Learning Day assignments (Math, Reading/Language Arts, and a Quiz) are due by Monday, November 19. This is due to starting the school year at a later date.   
•             Remember there is NO school from Monday, November 19 thru Friday, November 23.  Happy Thanksgiving!! I will miss my kiddos!!      
•             Book orders for December will be due Thursday, December 6, so we can get the orders in before Christmas break.  Thank you so much for your orders so far!!  They have helped us add many more books to our library that the students are enjoying reading.  Thanks for the book donations also!!  Please remember that you may order online, fast and easy, by clicking on the highlighted link:  Scholastic Book Clubs.  Please use our class code, JT2TW, so we can earn free books. Thanks you so much!

Please email me if you have any questions.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break and enjoy spending time with family!  Happy Thanksgiving!!

Your children are such a joy!  Thank you for sharing them with me!

Mrs. Wilkes