Tomorrow, I will be heading back to Garrison Mill after having a wonderful break with my family.  Than you again for my class gift cards,basket of goodies, and all the other wonderful gifts.  I do hope the thank you notes made it home before the break. I also hope each of you and your families had a wonderful holiday. I look forward to seeing my class on Tuesday, ready to start the second half of fourth grade.

Tuesday afternoon, I will be scheduling back-to-back sibling conferences with the other staff members.  Conferences will be the week of January 26th from 1PM to 3PM, and we will have early dismissal all of that week. I know this is short notice, but if you know of any afternoon that week that you could not be available for a conference, please let me know no later than Tuesday morning, January 6.  From past experience, I have found it is so much easier to put you on a different day, than to try to reschedule a conference once everyone else has accepted their time.  Also, if you have recently had a conference and don't feel the need for another, please let me know not to schedule you.

We will be pretesting and beginning a new unit on fractions and decimals this week.  Once again, I will also be giving the timed tests to all students.  Everyone will have timed practices for homework this week to help get them ready, as I found many students had temporarily lost speed last nine weeks and didn't immediately pass the retest!

This week, my class will be writing an essay on heroes.  While we will be writing it at school, I would love for you to help them brainstorm who they would like to write about!  We will also be starting a new unit on adjectives.

Spelling lists and tests will be coming home on Tuesday for your signature.  The next tests will be on Wednesday, January 14. 

We will be reading a new USA Weekly and quizzing on it Friday.  We will also continue reading The Kid Who Ran For President in class.  My students have been  responding to some thought provoking questions about this book.  Some of their insights have been very interesting!  There will be a book test when we finish reading it.

The only homework over the break was to complete two logs of five entries each.  Hopefully, your child has about completed their first book and will be ready to take their AR test soon. This week, I will be sending home the reading sheet with all of the independent reading due dates for the third nine weeks.

Enjoy their last day of vacation, and I look forward to seeing all of my students on Tuesday!

Sincerely,

Heather Fowler

Dear Parents,

Just a reminder that our Grandparent Luncheon is on Thursday.  Please meet us in our classroom at noon.  The class has prepared a short poetry recital for you.  Lunch will be served in the cafeteria from 12:15-12:45.

The unit 9 spelling tests are on Thursday.  We are actually ready for them now, but we have computer lab and reading groups on Wednesday, so we will be taking them on Thursday.  There is also a social studies test on Thursday. 

The third reading reflection is due this Friday, November 21.  Your child had to select a different project number than the one he/she chose the first nine weeks. All students should currently be finishing up their books and projects. Please don't forget to refer to the pink independent reading sheet for all book due dates this nine weeks.

I also want you to be aware that all internet services for Cobb County Schools will be disabled during a system upgrade from 5:00 PM November 21 until 6:00 AM December 1.

Have a great Thanksgiving with your family!

Sincerely.

Heather Fowler

Dear Parents,

This Friday we will be celebrating our great class behavior with our first Compliment  reward. If you would be willing to send in a 2 liter drink or a food snack for the entire class, I would be very grateful.  They've worked so hard to earn this.  We had to spell the word compliment three times, and every letter represents a time our class was complimented for great behavior. They are having a movie with, hopefully, plenty of food and drinks!  If you would like to send in a G movie for the class to vote on, that would also be very much appreciated.

Today, we had a lesson on nutrition presented by Wellstar. Next Friday, we will have another High Touch High Tech lesson.  This one will be on sound.

Please don't forget that the second AR test needs to be taken by Friday.  We will also have our chapter ten math test on Friday.  Your child has the pretest to be signed by you, after they have corrected any wrong problems and studied for the test. Next, we will be studying two digit divisors!

Looking ahead, our next two spelling tests will be on Monday. The Scholastic book orders are due on Tuesday, if you would still like to order.  Our page is mrshfowlersclass, and the password is 4thgrade.  I will be out of school on Thursday and Friday next week for my son's wedding. My very good friend, who is a former Garrison Mill teacher, will be subbing for me.  Our teaching styles are very similar, so you will probably not even realize I'm gone!  However, I will not be available to answer notes and emails from 11/13 until my return on 11/17.   

Have a great rest of the week!

Sincerely,

Heather Fowler

Dear Parents,

Please don't forget the pancake breakfast that our wonderful Foundation is sponsoring this coming Saturday from 7AM-11AM! 

We have begun a new division unit in math. My students will learn to divide using one and two digit divisors, with and without remainders. I am a big believer in checking division with multiplication.  I always tell the class that they should know whether their division problems are correct before I grade their quizzes and tests, if they've multiplied correctly to check their work!  We will also be continuing with the timed fact practices  Each nine weeks all students will have to again pass a baseline for each set of facts.  It's amazing how many who passed last nine weeks, have become a little rusty and are back doing the homework!  They should be fine with a week or two of practice, but it is important to keep their skills current.

We continue studying nouns, and this week we are concentrating on possessive nouns.  I expect each child to be able to use singular and plural nouns, as well as singular and plural possessive nouns, in sentences correctly.

We had our fire safety test today, and my class scored almost all A's!  The firefighters will help us celebrate on Thursday by bringing the firetruck to Garrison Mill!  As you can imagine, we have lots of students looking forward to this activity.  It might be a little cool when we go out at 8AM, so please have your child bring a sweater.

There will be a book test on Dinosaur Hunters on Monday.  All of the questions will come from the chapter sheets, that we have been completing and discussing in class.

Our Scholastic order came in yesterday.  Many thanks for all of your orders.  I was able to acquire 14 books for our classroom with the points we earned.  I have put five new flyers on our Scholastic page.  If you would like to do any holiday shopping at some great prices, please let me know not to send your order home with your child, and I will email you when your order is available for pick up!  This will be our last order before the holidays, and it will be due November 11.

Our art parents will be doing a fall craft with the class on October 29.  Can't wait to see what we're making!

Have a great rest of the week!  As always, thank you for all of your help and support.

Sincerely,

Heather Fowler

Just a reminder that you have through Friday to order from our online Scholastic book club.  The website is www.scholastic.com.  Our name is mrshfowlersclass and the password is 4thgrade. I will be submitting the order this weekend, unless anyone lets me know that they need extra time.

Also, please remind your child that our administration has requested that no toys be at school, even in bookbags.

Thanks,

Heather Fowler

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL $22*
Nov. 1st price increast to $25*

On-line ordering available at:  http://www.myyear.com
*Note:  cost includes taxes.  Does not include 1x $1.75 processing fee per transaction, multiple items per order allowed.  Be sure to print & keep your confirmation for proof of payment.

ORDER FORMS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE CREDENZA OUTSIDE OF THE OFFICE.

Dear Parents,

You should have seen all of us in our red class t-shirts on Friday.  They really looked great! It would be super if we could wash them in time for Spirit Day this Friday and wear them again.

The last Accelerated Reader tests showed quite a bit of improvement for many of my students. I believe they're doing their independent reading more carefully. We took our first reading quiz on the USA newspaper last week.  Your children have been practicing locating written information in class and reading groups, so that they will become more and more successful at this skill.  Meanwhile, I do plan to drop the lowest one of these quizzes this nine weeks. 

Friday's math quiz will come home as soon as the three absentees are able to make it up.  A few of my students didn't study their multiplication properties enough. Several are still having trouble with the  order of operations.  They have to remember that we clear the parentheses first, then do multiplication or division from left to right, and last we add and subtract, also from left to right.

This week, we will be multiplying two and three digit numbers by one digit and graphing multiplication using the the distributive property.  Our class has really improved on their timed facts.  Thank you so much for all of your help with our timed practices.  All but two students in my class can pass the timed addition with a 96% or higher, three still need to score at least a 96% on timed subtraction, seven still need to pass timed multiplication with at least 96% accuracy, and all but four can pass timed division with a 96% or higher score.  That is such an improvement from where we started!  Mastering the multiplication and division facts will be so important for speed and accuracy when doing problems in class, for homework, or on tests and quizzes. It will be difficult to keep up with the 4th grade multiplication and division unit if your child doesn't know these facts very well.

Thank you for helping with our Reflection entries.  This week, we will continue writing in class developing our narratives.  We will also be studying nouns.  There will be another DOL quiz on Friday.  Please be sure your child is studying their packet, which we will have corrected and discussed in class.

The new spelling lists will be coming home on Monday. Students should be studying a little each day rather than cramming for the tests the night before. Also, spelling correctly across the curriculum is very important. I still see way too many priority words misspelled in students' written work!

I had a request for our class to participate in the Scholastic Book Club this year, so I have signed us up online. Currently, you may order from the September or October issues until October 10.  Please pay online, as I cannot accept money in the classroom.  Ordering is entirely optional. There seem to be many good buys on books in those two catalogs, and I will be happy to continue to provide the book club if there is enough interest.  Apparently, I will be asked to pay the postage, if we don't get at least $20 in orders per catalog.  So, if that becomes a problem, I may have to discontinue it!  I sent home our password and ordering information last Thursday.  Please let me know if you didn't see it and need another copy. We will also earn points to buy extra books for our class library when you participate.   

I hope each of you has a great week, and that we all manage to find enough gas to make it to and from Garrison Mill!  I plan to bring three of my grandchildren to the Fall Festival on Friday.  I hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Heather Fowler