If you need to schedule a large item pick-up to be donated to the Foundation Garage Sale,
Please call Patti Lavender: 770-552-1162
We are planning to schedule pick-ups for Sunday afternoon, April 27th, but we may be able to make other arrangements.
Garrison Mill has recently established a Foundation whose purpose is to provide resources above and beyond what the County and the Garrison Mill PTA is able to provide. Please visit their web page to find out more about who they are, what they do, and help support their first fundraising event. You can visit them at: GME Foundation.
An important reminder: All donations for the fourth grade's relaxation/spa basket are due this Friday, March 21. Our basket will be auctioned to benefit Relay For Life. Our fourth grade students and teachers would really appreciate any item you could send in for this great cause!
Dear Parents,
This Friday is the end of the third nine weeks, and report cards will be coming home next Thursday. Next week, Mrs. Golden will begin teaching your child science and social studies for the fourth nine weeks, and I will teach both groups of math. While Mrs. Golden and I have teamed all year for math, we are both excited to be teaming in this new way. We have already pretested our students for the math unit on decimals, so we will be telling the children on Friday about their new groups.
Your child should have brought the English pretest home yesterday to study for tomorrow's test. They know to return it signed tomorrow. There will also be a DOL quiz Monday, so please encourage your child to bring the packet home to study before then.
This week we took some practice CRCT tests in computer lab. If you haven't already, please have your child practice at home, too. I gave you your child's password, so you could access these tests from home, when we had our conferences.
The chapter 17 math test is on Friday for both groups. Almost all of my homeroom class can now pass their timed facts with a 96% or higher score. Those who still can't meet this school goal need to really practice nightly for the next several weeks. My class results are due to our administration in just over a month, and we had set a class goal of having all of my students exceed on all four tests. Please help us achieve that goal, if your child is still having to test! Thanks!
Bingo night is at 6:00 PM this Friday night! Spring pictures and our class picture have been rescheduled for next Friday,March 21. We also have our last High Touch High Tech science "in school" field trip that same day. March 18 we will have "Boot Camp Day" at Garrison Mill with real trainers to work with our class during recess as part of Health and Nutrition Week. Should be lots of fun!
Mrs. Golden and I are having our end of nine weeks' reward next Tuesday afternoon. I would love to have some volunteers to provide quart sized bags of popped popcorn, and enough cold sodas for all of my participants. Please let me know if you would be willing to help. My class has also earned a Compliment movie and food reward that we will be scheduling soon. While the end of the nine weeks' reward is tied to the number of marks on the behavior card, the Compliment reward is for the whole class.
I hope you have a great rest of the week. I can never say enough how much I appreciate my wonderful class and parents! Thank you for sharing them with me!
Sincerely,
Heather Fowler
Dear Parents,
Unbelievable as it may seem, we reached the half way mark for the third nine weeks last week. Progress reports will be coming home on Thursday. Any student who currently has a C or lower average in one or more subjects, or too many late assignments, will be receiving a progress report. The yellow FYI report is for those students who currently have A's or B's, but have a grade that has dropped since our conference. If your child's current grades are at least B's and remain the same as or are higher than last nine weeks, you will not be receiving a progress report. Please remember that grades do fluctuate, and that we do have many more grading opportunities ahead before report cards!
Tomorrow we have our Unit 15 spelling tests. Most of my class did very well in our spelling practice today, so I am hoping for all A's! My entire class did make all A's on our first geometry test, and as they probably told you, I celebrated by baking brownies and pound cake for them!
Thursday, we are taking a field trip to the Cobb County Youth Museum. The class will dress up and take part in skits depicting the era we are currently studying in social studies. We will be returning after our regular lunch time, so students will need to either pack a lunch or order the sack lunch from school that morning. At the beginning of the year, fourth grade collected the $36 for all of our in and out of school field trips, and at that time you signed the permission form for this trip. We have found ourselves to be short on funds, since not everyone in the grade has made this donation. All of the fourth grade teachers are asking once more, if you would please check your checkbook registers or the bookkeeper's statement given out at conferences, and if you have not yet donated and could possibly do so at this time, we would be so grateful. Otherwise, we may be forced to cancel our last scheduled event.
Thursday, your child is welcome to bring in Valentines to share with the class. My class is also either bringing in a box, or I will pass out zipper bags to collect their treats in. While this is an optional activity, if they are participating my only requirement is that they pass out the same treat to each classmate, so that we don't have any hurt feelings.
Please look for the English pretest coming home tomorrow. It needs to be signed and returned Friday, after your child has studied for their test. Most of the class did really well on their Shurley English quiz last Friday. Parts of speech are an important standard in fourth grade, and this program does an excellent job of teaching them.
Monday and Tuesday are student holidays for Cobb County. While teachers will be at home for President's Day, we will be attending several inservices on Tuesday.
The 6 Hour reading forms are due Wednesday, February 20, if your child is participating and wishes to receive a free Six Flags' ticket. This deadline is not negotiable, since we have to have these forms in the mail by Six Flags' deadline, or we will not get our tickets. To avoid any disappointment, in case your child forgets theirs after the long weekend, I would suggest they turn it in by Friday. Please remember, the third book project is also due that same day.
School picture day is February 26. We will be sending home more information about this in the near future.
Our candy jar is close to empty, and we would really appreciate donations of Starbursts or Hershey Kisses. We also really need another 12 pack of Cokes for our treats. Since copy paper has become more expensive, I'm only receiving two reams of paper a month for all of our class copies. That does not go very far! If anyone would be willing to donate a ream to our class, I would be extremely grateful.
Every day, I tell my class how much I love them. I also want you to know how much I appreciate your support and help this year! Have a wonderful rest of the week and a great long weekend with your families.
Sincerely,
Heather Fowler
Dear Parents,
Today we began our new math groups and started the geometry unit. We will be doing many hands on activities, including measuring with protractors and angle rulers, as required by our Georgia Standards. There is a lot of vocabulary in this unit, so please have your child study the terms as we learn them. He/she should be able to draw examples, label them correctly, and be able to recognize the definitions.
The two unit 12 spelling tests will be on Wednesday. The DOL quiz will be moved to Tuesday of next week because of the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday.
Our Social Studies test on events leading up to the Revolutionary War will be on Friday. Tomorrow we will be doing an activity called The King's M & M's. It is designed to show the children how unfair taxation of the colonists was. I have already planned the arbitrary "taxes", and we shall see if anyone has any M & M's left by the time the tax collector has made his/her rounds!
We are currently studying a unit on pronouns in English. We are also continuing to identify parts of speech with our Shurley English program. Our DOL helps us to practice and improve our editing skills, and we are always trying to apply those skills in our everyday writing. We are reading several different versions of Cinderella, including some from other countries, in order to improve our skills when comparing and contrasting. We have been making character maps of each book. The culminating activity will be a written paper where each student will select two "Cinderella" characters from different books and compare their similarities and differences. The class has really been enjoying this activity and has a whole new appreciation for how different many of these stories are. They've also been surprised at the vocabulary we've encountered, and the fact that many of these "picture books" are written on a fifth grade reading level.
Please remember there is no school on Monday, January 21, and the rest of the week school will be dismissed two hours early for conferences. I look forward to meeting and talking with each of you about your child's progress. Monday, January 28, will also be an early dismissal day. I have jury duty that day, so I have no conferences scheduled that Monday. I am hoping I will not be out the entire week, but that is out of my control until I see whether or not I am selected for a case!
Have a great rest of the week and stay warm!
Sincerely,
Heather Fowler
Please note: The yearbook sales' deadline for ONLINE only has been extended until Wednesday, December 12.
Dear Parents,
It's great to be back with my class! Thank you so much for all of your good wishes.
The chapter 10 math test for both math groups will be on Friday. Next week, we will begin dividing with double digit divisors. Mrs. Golden and I plan to complete the division unit right before the holidays, so we will be forming our new math groups when we come back in January. Thank you for your help timing your children on their facts. I can't wait until everyone can meet our school goal!
Congratulations to Brandon for winning our classes' vote in the Kiwanis' writing contest. Also, congratulations to Jake and Connor W., our runners-up. We also want to congratulate Emilee for being elected our student council representative, and to Brandon, for being voted our alternate.
Our room parents are already at work planning our holiday party, which will be at 8:00 AM Wednesday, December 19. They are sending home a letter tomorrow asking for a food donation and also asking if you would like to help with the party. There will still be two very busy, curriculum filled days after the party, so please don't think we will be partying the rest of the week! There will have to be several tests that week, because we don't want to have to come back to them in January!
We began our new social studies unit today. The children brought the study guide home for your signatures, so I will know that you're aware they have a new one to complete and study. Please feel free to check their lessons for correct answers and spelling errors, as they are allowed to use those answers for pop quizzes on their homework. That's always a great opportunity for a good grade!
The next spelling test will be on Tuesday. After it, there will only be one more spelling unit and set of tests before our winter break, and the end of the grading period.
There will be a daily edit quiz on Monday. Your child should bring their packet home to study over the weekend.
We are reading a class book about the Mayflower's voyage. It is full of interesting facts which the children seem to be enjoying. Next, we will read Soup by Robert Peck. It is a book about two boys, one of whom is constantly getting the other in trouble! My classes always enjoy it, and we usually have plenty of good discussions about some of the problems the main characters get themselves in and out of!
The Reflection winners are invited to attend a reception before the PTA meeting tomorrow night. PTA follows at 6:30, and the fifth grade chorus will be performing as well.
As the weather turns colder, please remind your children to have their coats or other appropriate outerwear with them. Many students want to wear their sweaters or jackets all day and then have nothing to put on to go from 75 degrees inside to the forties outside.
Have a great rest of the week!
Sincerely,
Heather Fowler
Dear Parents,
I want to be sure that all of you know that I will be out for knee surgery beginning Friday, November 2. If all goes as expected, I should be returning on Monday, November 26. While that gives me three weeks to recover, it is only actually 11 teaching days, because of the upcoming teacher inservice days and the Thanksgiving holidays. While I am out, my friend and former Garrison Mill teammate, Judy Westerlage, will be supplying in my class. She and I opened Garrison Mill together, and she taught both my son and daughter! When Judy moved back to Atlanta, Mrs. Wilson hired her for a new 4th grade position. She is very experienced, a wonderful teacher, and one of the nicest people I've ever met! My students will be in excellent hands until I return. She will be following my plans for November, and we will be conferring regularly!
I am moving the social studies test back to Thursday, November 1. There will be time for Target to take it before they leave. I would like several more days to discuss the explorers and read some very interesting articles in "The USA Weekly" before we test. This will also give my class more time to study, so I shall be expecting all A's!
The chapter 8 math test is this Wednesday for everyone in both math classes. We will then progress to multiplying two and three digit numbers by two digit numbers. Both classes will be learning to use the distributive property to make and graph partial products, as well as multiplying with regrouping. Thank you for practicing the facts with those students who were still struggling with the third grade facts from 0-9. As of Friday, only two students cannot pass that timed test with at least 90% accuracy. We will now begin to time multiplication through the twelves.
We enjoyed all of the Red Ribbon Week activities last week, including the drug detection dog visiting us. We also celebrated our excellent class behavior with a Compliment movie on Friday. Our room parents brought in some great goodies and a gift certificate for each child to the school store. What a nice surprise!
Looking ahead, our 4th grade musical is November 8. Another information sheet came home last week with costume and other details from Ms. Zarin. I would love for someone to volunteer to tape our class for me, so we could all watch it when I return! We will have our second High Touch High Tech on November 15. The Grandparent Luncheon for our class will be on November 16. I do not know the exact time yet. While I usually do a small performance for the grandparents, this year with the 4th grade musical taking up lots of practice time and my being out of the classroom on November 16, I am going to have the children meet their guests at the cafeteria. I know a good time will be had by all and wish I didn't have to miss it!
The unit seven spelling tests are on Wednesday. We will write the letter home journal this week and ask that you write back by Wednesday, November 7. We will not write to you next week because of the short week and the music program. November 7, we will also begin a new science unit on simple machines.
The office has asked me to remind you of the following. For the safety of all students, please sign your child in if he/she arrives after 7:55 AM. Also, there are no transportation changes or dismissals after 1:45 PM.
Have a wonderful week with your families!
Sincerely,
Heather Fowler
