Welcome October

It's our first full week of October, however, the kids don't have a full week of school for the next 2 weeks. Since we have less days in the classroom, that means our hectic schedule is going to be even MORE hectic than usual to fit everything in. Here's a look at what's ahead:

Our reading theme this week will focus on change. We will be talking about how different events, situations, and settings will many times determine how we act towards others. We will use fiction and nonfiction passages to analyze character and setting changes.

Our spelling list this week deals with words that have the long "o" sound. This sound can be made with an "oa", "o", "o_e" or "ow" spelling. There will be both a regular list and challenge list this week. Our spelling test will be on Thursday this week since there is no school for the kids on Friday.

In grammar this week we will study run-on sentences. We will work to identify when there is a run-on and work to fix the sentence by either creating two sentences or using a conjunction to join ideas together.

In writing the children are continuing to work on showing rather than telling. Monday they will complete their 2nd revision assignment and we will continue to work throughout the week on showing settings and identifying objects. The kids will also be working on an "I am" poem which will be featured during our Open House on October 21st.

This week we will meet our reading buddies! The kids have been patient as the teachers have tried to work out a mutual time with our schedules. We will be connecting with Mrs. Hynek's 2nd grade class. The kids will be doing a get to know you activity with their buddies on Wednesday, as well as enjoying a fun picture book. We can't wait!

We are coming to the end of Unit 2 in math. The kids will be receiving a study guide that includes the concepts that they will be tested on and items they can use to study from. We will also be taking a practice test in class on Monday. This test, plus all of the study links/practice items of the unit can be used to review. A parent letter explaining Unit 3 will be coming home later this week. Our next unit focuses on Multiplication and Division; Number Sentences and Algebra.

We will continue to learn about the positive and negative effects of volcano eruptions. This week we will compare and contrast the eruptions of Mount Kilauea and Mount St. Helen's. The children will make a sequence book depicting the healing process of Mount St. Helen and we will also begin to review for our Volcano test which will be sometime next week. More information regarding the test, a study guide, and due dates will be given later in the week.

An extra credit opportunity in science will be explained to your kids -- both options can be done by using websites off of our blog. The first opportunity requires your children to go on a Webquest. This is where your child reads information on the web and then clicks on links provided to find answers to questions. The 2nd option is for your child to take a short online class about our earth's layers, take a quiz at the end of it, and print out the results for the proof of completion. Both are completely optional and are due by Friday, October 15th.

The students will have a chance to create their own blogs this week as well! All of the 4th graders will be given the opportunity to reflect on their learning and upload projects to create an electronic portfolio through a program called "Mac OSX Server Blog". This is a system created by Macintosh. This is done on a protected and private server. The only way to access this blog is to have the students' user names and passwords. It will be kept in the same school server from our district that we have been using all through elementary school. This week the kids will work to review what a blog is, how it is used, and the rules for safety. We will also set up the look of your child's blog "page" and practice logging in and logging out. We will eventually use the blogs as a way that all students can view and comment on each other's work. We are very excited for the opportunity that the district is giving us!

STARS lunch (Students Taking Academic Responsibility) will be this Thursday, October 7th in our classroom. An invitation to all students who did not attend study hall OR use a late pass this month will be sent home on Monday. Congratulations to the STARs in our room: Connor, Claire, Eric, Sean, Lori, Clarissa, Brian, Jacob, and Zoey!

October order forms for Scholastic will go home on Monday. All orders are due by Friday, October 15th. You can send in your order (checks only) to school or order online.

Thank you to Mrs. Rajyaguru for your wonderful work with making magnets, paper, and pens with information about our classroom on them. A magnet with contact information for our classroom will be in each child's mailboxes this week! Thank you also for the cute "peanut and tree nut free" sign for our classroom. We've already gotten compliments on it.

I think that covers it for now. Hope you all had a great weekend and stayed warm. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!