February 25- March 1

Hello Parents! 
Our field trip to American Village is TOMORROW! We will be outside most of the day so please have your child dress for the weather. Your child may bring a sack lunch in disposable containers from home or purchase one from the lunchroom.  There is a gift shop at American Village. We ask that students bring no more than $20 cash. Students are responsible for keeping up with their own money.
**I want to say a BIG THANK YOU for my cards, goodies, and classroom supplies we needed that you sent in for Teacher Appreciation Week!!  THANK YOU so much for your love, support, and encouragement.  Every bit means so much!!   
**In preparation for the Wax Museum next week, I could use some volunteers to laminate and hang portraits. If you are willing and available to help any time on Thursday or Friday, please let me know! Thanks in advance!
This week in 4th grade:
Math: We are continuing to interpret the meaning of the numerator and denominator of a fraction, as well as finding fractional parts of a rectangular area, and identifying equivalent fractions. New this week: Representing fractions greater than 1, ordering fractions and justifying their order through reasoning about fraction equivalencies and relationships, and comparing fractions to the landmarks 0, ½, 1, and 2. I highly encourage you to use the Student Math Handbook (pages 53-63) as a resource to help your child with fractions at home. We will continue with weekly quizzes on Friday.
Vocabulary: We will continue to combine Spelling and Vocabulary activities each week. Students will be assessed on Fridays. Nightly homework will be given. Don’t forget to use Spelling City as a resource. 
Reading: This week we are continuing to read Wonder and discussing different story elements. Students are also reading independently in just right chapter books.
Grammar: This week our focus is on quotation marks. We learned that a quotation is the exact words a person says. Students are expected to place quotation marks before and after a speaker’s exact words, capitalize the first word in the quotation marks, and use a comma to separate the quotation from the rest of the sentence.
Writing: This week we will be exploring functional writing in "Being A Writer."  We will practice writing with an audience and purpose in mind, writing directions for recipes, cartoon drawings, and games.  We will also practice checking our writing directions for sequence, completeness, accuracy, and clarity.   
Social Studies: On Wednesday, we will begin a short unit on Geography. This will be our last Social Studies unit for the year.

Don’t forget that the Fourth Grade Wax Museum is coming up NEXT Wednesday, March 6^th. 
Important information to remember:

• Student speeches are being approved and I will finish giving them back on Wednesday.  Speeches are to be memorized by Monday, March 4^th. This does count for a grade!
• Students will need a costume representing their Famous American. I sent home a green sheet of paper a few weeks ago with ideas for costumes.  Please let me know if you have questions about the costume. Students need to bring their costumes to school on Monday, March 4^th.
• Powerpoints are being completed at school. We have our final computer lab time this Wednesday for students to complete.
• You are invited to attend the Wax Museum on Wednesday, March 6^th from 11:00 a.m. until noon.

Other Reminders:

• Our classroom book order is due this Thursday, February 28.  Our classroom code to order online is JT2TW.  Ordering online is SUPER easy and it helps us get more points!
• Please send in Spark for Change items; bath bar soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, lotion, deodorant, hand sanitizer, and gallon-size Ziploc-type plastic bags.
• February 25, (Monday)—4th grade Beef-O-Brady’s night, 5:00-8:00
• February 26, (Tuesday)—American Village field trip
• March 4, (Monday)—American History PowerPoint and speeches due
• March 4, (Monday)—Dress Rehearsal for Wax Museum—students only, BRING costumes to school
• March 4- SSC Dr.Seuss P.J. Day, all students can wear pajamas to school
• March 6, (Wednesday)—Wax Museum from 11:00-12:00—Parents invited-Come to school with make-up and hair READY
• March 4-8 The Scholastic Book Fair returns to the SSC Library
• March 8, (Friday)—"Spark for Change" items are due
• March 10, (Sunday)—Meet  to go downtown to hand out
• March 25-29—Spring Break—schools closed
• April 19, (Friday)—SSC Family Fun Fair, more information to come

Have a great day!
Mrs. Wilkes

February 11- February 15, 2013

Hello Parents!!
I hope you are having a great week!  We need this rain to go away so the kids can run and play outside!!  We have already had students bring in hygiene items for our "Spark for Change" project.  PLEASE send those in with your child.  Hotel shampoo and soaps are wonderful also if you have some around the house.  Please make sure to mark Sunday, March 10 on your calendar, our date that we will be going downtown to hand out the hygiene kits to the homeless.
Math:  We started the week off by reviewing over our subtraction stratgies for more practice.  We are continuing to find fractional parts, fractions of an area, and fractions of groups of things.  We have been adding fractions, finding fractions that equal a whole, and finding equilvalent fractions in order to have like denominators.  We are also finding equlivalent fractions to be able to add fractions  We will learn how to play "Adding Up to a Whole."  This unit is challenging so please review over material with your child.  Please continue to work with your child on multiplication and division facts through 12X12.
Quizzes- Thursday, Minute Math Quiz (#37-40)
                 Friday, regular Computation quizzes (review over what we have done throughout the week from workbook pages and notes)   
Reading and Writing:  We are continuing to work from Making Meaning on inferencing and we started author's purpose this week.  We are continuing to read Just Right books during D.E.A.R. time each day.  As your child is reading each night, please take a few moments to ask them about what they are reading.  We will begin our read aloud Wonder on Monday.  We will work on DOL week 11 and have a quiz on Friday.  The students have been enjoying writing creative poems through our "Being a Writer" unit on poetry.  Please ask them to share some of their poems with you.  They have impressed me with their creative thinking!!      
Content: We have continued to learn more about The Constitution and the Branches of Government.  We are looking in more detail at the Admendments in the Constitution.  We will have a quiz on Friday on what we learned throughout the week.  Students need to study their study guide we completed in class.  Please make sure you are working on your wax museum person.  It is very important that students are starting to memorize their speeches.        
**Please continue to have your child turn in the math homework, reading log, and spelling/vocabulary homework each Friday.

Quick reminders: 
      ·      February 14, (Thursday)—Valentine Exchange/Valentine Box competition

·      February 15, (Friday)—deadline for yearbook picture submissions

·      February 25, (Monday)—4th grade Beef-O-Brady’s night, 5:00-8:00

·      February 26, (Tuesday)—American Village field trip

·      March 4, (Monday)—American History PowerPoint and speeches due

·      March 4, (Monday)—Dress Rehearsal for Wax Museum—students only, WITH costumes, but no make-up or hair design

·      March 6, (Wednesday)—Wax Museum from 11:00-12:00—Parents invited-Come to school with make-up and hair READY

·      March 8, (Friday)—"Spark for Change" items are due

·      March 10, (Sunday)—Meet  to go downtown to hand out

·      March 25-29—Spring Break—schools closed

·      April 19, (Friday)—SSC Family Fun Fair, more information to come

·      Box Tops—Send in as soon as possible, as often as you would like

February 4 - February 8, 2013

February 4, 2013

 

Hello Parents!
I hope you all had a wonderful Friday!!  Our schedule continues to stay busy as our week went by quickly.  I know the kids along with myself enjoyed getting a little extra rest on Wednesday morning.  I am thankful the weather was not to bad.  Please make sure to check the homework blog to help your child keep up with assignments.  PLEASE make sure your child is researching their wax museum person.  It is very important that the children have some of their research done for when we visit the computer lab this week.  We will begin on our PowerPoint projects this week.  Also students came home today with instructions on their Arbor Day writing piece.  We have been working on these pieces in class, however they need your help with editing them over the weekend.  They may need to add more writing or just editing.   They are supposed to type their piece, print it out, and illustrate the background.  We have gone over this in class and I have shown them examples.  These are due on Monday.  Thank you for your help!  Please look at the last blog post for more details on the "quick reminders" below.  

Math:  We will begin our next unit in Investigations on Monday, Unit 6.  During this unit we will be learning about fractions.  I will send a parent letter home, Monday from the Investigations book with ideas of activities to help with at home.  We will be finding fractional parts, fractions of an area, and fractions of groups of things.  This unit will be challenging so please review over material with your child.  Please continue to work with your child on multiplication and division facts through 12X12.
Quizzes- Thursday, Minute Math Quiz (#33-36)
                 Friday, regular Computation quizzes (review over what we have done throughout the week from workbook pages and notes)   
Reading and Writing:  We will continue to work from Making Meaning on inferencing and summarizing.  We are continuing to read Just Right books during D.E.A.R. time each day.  As your child is reading each night, please take a few moments to ask them about what they are reading.  We will begin our read aloud Wonder.  We will work on DOL week 10 and have a quiz on Friday.   
Content: We will be learning about The Constitution and the Branches of Government.  We will have a quiz on Friday on what we learned throughout the week.  Please make sure you are working on your wax museum person.  It is very important that students have their research so they can begin on their PowerPoint projects this week.      
**Please continue to have your child turn in the math homework, reading log, and spelling/vocabulary homework each Friday.

Quick reminders:
      ·      February 4— Graded papers are due

·      TUESDAY, February 5—Deadline for permission form and money for American Village field trip 
·      February 7— Scholastic Book s due for February (The read aloud, Wonder, we are about to start reading is in this book order for a great price.) Our online code is JT2TW.

·      February 14—Valentine Exchange/Valentine Box competition

·      February 15—deadline for yearbook picture submissions

·      February 26—American Village field trip

·      February 28—4th grade Beef-O-Brady’s night, 5:00-8:00

·      March 4—American History PowerPoint and speeches due

·      March 4—Dress Rehearsal for Wax Museum—students only, WITH costumes, but no make-up or hair design

·       March 6—Wax Museum from 11:00-12:00—Parents invited-Come to school with make-up and hair READY

·      March 25-29—Spring Break—schools closed

·      April 19—SSC Family Fun Fair, more information to come

·      Box Tops—Send in as soon as possible, as often as you would like