I wish I had written this earlier, when I was still looking forward to a great football game and season, instead, I'm sitting here wondering what happened to my Steelers today. Looks like it will be a long week for Mike Tomlin and a lot of players. Oh well, like I tell my students, failure is just an opportunity to learn and to do better the next time. When you start out like this, there really isn't anywhere to go but up, right?!?
Progress reports will go home on Sept 22nd. They will only be sent home with students who have C's or below in a subject area. If you do not receive a progress report, it is because your child has A's and/or B's in all subjects half way through the grading period. Remember, it is only half way and all grades have time to improve (and get worse, but hopefully that will not happen) before the end of the 9 weeks.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone's weather instruments tomorrow. The students seem to be thrilled with how their projects were going last week. As we present to the class, my hope is that they will learn more about the instrument they made as well as the other instruments meteorologists use to predict the weather. We will continue our weather unit this week and will test on it Monday.
In social studies, we have not yet begun our unit on Native Americans, but we will begin it soon. I'm planning on beginning as soon as we finish our weather unit so that we can give it all of our attention.
We will continue (and hopefully finish) our Writer's Workshop "drop" stories this week. I have had the opportunity to conference with many of your students on their writing and should complete those conferences this week so that they can begin their final copies.
We have been doing whole group reading lessons over the past several weeks, but will begin reading groups this week. Many of the students in our class are reading at an advanced level. Those students will have short mini-lessons with me about the reading skills they need, but will then work with others of the same reading level in literature circles. They will be reading novels and informational texts that pertain to skills we are learning in other subjects, as well as some great literature which I hope they will enjoy.
Last week, I gave students information about their alternate book project. I hope they've taken the opportunity to share that information with you. I will give them their 1st teacher assigned book project this week; a sandwich book report on a book of their choice. All students should have received a bookmark with their AR level on it. Even if they are not reading AR books, they should be reading books within their reading range for these projects. If they want to read 100 page books on a slightly lower level, they should be the extra 2 books that are required each grading period. I was unable to pull the AR scores on Friday, but hopefully that computer glitch has been fixed and I will pull them Monday. I will let your child know how many (if any) books they will need to take AR tests on before the grading period ends.
In math, we will finish our unit on rounding, estimating, and reviewing addition/subtraction. We will test on Thursday or Friday, depending on how quickly the review goes. We will then begin our unit on multiplication. We will begin with multiplying 1-digit x 2 and 3-digit numbers, then move on to double digit multiplication. If your child does not know their multiplication facts, they are going to have a very difficult time with this unit. Expect a lot of math homework over the next several weeks for those students who are having trouble with their multiplication facts. We will have class time to work, but many students will need extra time to and they will bring it home as homework.
Thank you to all of the parents/guardians who are working at home with their children to practice math facts. It is very exciting seeing how many students are passing their Friday timed tests! We have several students who have passed all 4 tests with at least 96% accuracy, already. All students who pass all 4 tests by the end of the grading period will receive a special "treasure."
We took our first Wordly Wise (vocabulary) test on Friday. Many students did really well, but there were several who had a difficult time with the test. Let me remind you that I drop the lowest grade in each subject, so hopefully, if your child did not do well, this can be the grade I drop. The tests will come home in their Thursday folders this week. We will have our next test on the 23rd. Students will make flash cards for the second lesson tomorrow and they will do many activities over the next 2 weeks to learn the meanings of the words. Please work with them at home to learn their words before the next test.
We will continue with our Words Their Way tests, too. I am seeing a marked improvement in spelling scores each week. Thank you for taking the time to quiz your child on their words.
On Wednesday, we will visit the Media Center once again. The class really enjoys the lessons and books that Mrs. Haas discusses with them, as well as the opportunity to return and check out books. I am glad that books and reading are important to the students in our class! They love to read and I'm hopeful that their reading skills will continue to improve throughout the year.
I have not heard from anyone that you had plans that could not be changed for the week of Sept. 19th. If your child will not be present that week, please let me know ASAP, so that I can prepare alternate assignments for them.
Don't forget - Friday, Sept 16th is picture day. It is also the Fun Run and it's movie night here at GM. Friday, Sept 23rd is our next RFL Baseball Cap Day. Our class was so excited when we won the Chick-Fil-A spirit night and they are hoping to win the classroom competion for Hat Day, too. It is only $1.00 to wear a hat or just an RFL sticker and all proceeds go to the GM Relay for Life team.
Box Tops - We will be collecting Box Tops all year, but the 1st collection date is October 21st. We have already collected a lot of Box Tops and we are hoping to win that contest, too. (OK, I like to win and I'm instilling that love of winning into your children...I can't help myself!)
PTA Reflections information will be coming home soon. I do not know what this year's theme is yet, but I just want you to be aware that I require all of my students to participate in the Reflections assignment. Last year, most of the 4th grade GM winners came from my class and I expect that same level of effort from this year's students. Several of those students went on to the county and state level and we were thrilled to celebrate their achievements.
As you know, I love when my students win anything...but truly, it's not the winning that is most important. The important thing is the effort! The willingness to always do their best and the push to always do better is a lesson that will serve them well in life. Winning is great, but any child that puts out their best effort, consistently, is a winner in my book! I hope that I can instill that mindset into my students this year. I want them to always give a 100% effort...whether at school, in sports, at home, or anywhere else that an effort is required. To not give that effort, they are only cheating themselves of the satisfaction of succeeding! And they will succeed, they may not win, but they will succeed if they always do their best!
Thank you for letting me be a part of your child's learning. We have an awesome group of kids and I'm thrilled that I am their teacher!
Have a great week,
Mrs. G
