What a Wonderful Week 2!

Hi,

We had a wonderful week. We worked hard in all of our subject areas and even gained a new student!

Welcome to Jada! She has moved to Texas from Queens, New York. She is a great addition to our classroom and we are so happy that she is with us.

President Obama will be giving a Back to School Address to the school children of the country on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010. Last year, President Obama encouraged students to study hard, stay in school and take responsibility for their education. Our class will be watching the address. Any parent who objects to their child viewing the Presidential Address can request that they be excused from the activity by contacting me. More details on this year's Presidential speech will be announced soon. Once the President's speech is available Round Rock ISD will post a link to it on the district's Web site. Let me know what you think.

Reading-We practiced how to talk in small groups about books that we've read. We discussed genres of literature and will strive to independently read from each genre this year. We read a wonderful book together called How Many Days to America? by Eve Bunting. It is a moving story about a family who leaves their home in the Carribean suddenly to immigrate to the United States on a small boat. While we read we noticed our inner conversation and wrote about it in our reading response journals. We thought about the questions, connections, predictions, and feelings as we read and jotted them down in our journal. This is called leaving tracks of our thinking and helps us to be more engaged in our reading and increase our reading comprehension. We will continue doing this type of reading throughout the year.

Writing-We took a piece through the writing process this week. We learned about similes and metaphors then made a list of some of our talents and characteristics. We chose one and then thought about examples or ways to describe how that talent or characteristics pertain to us. We read a book called The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown to give us a template for our "Important Poems". We used our brainstorming ideas and the template to create rough drafts of our important poems. I conferenced one-on-one with each child and we revised the poem together. We added one more thing, adjusted the order or whatever to make the good poem even better. Then we edited the poem by correcting spelling, capitalization, grammar, etc... We then published our poem by writing it in our best handwriting and mounting it on paper with decorations. The poems were very expressive, used sensory details, contained similes and metaphors, and created great images for the reader. Be sure you read and enjoy them in the hallway.

Everyone did a nice job decorating their writer's notebook, also. Thank you for assisting at home.

Math-We have been working on place value and problem solving. We have played many games and experimenting with using different strategies to solve problems. Some of our favorite strategies were Guess and Check, Draw or Use Base Ten Blocks, use number line, draw pictures, use operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), use symbols to represent place value, and use arrow paths and hundred boards. Wow!!!!! Your children are very creative and are using that creativity to explore with math concepts. We learned about the RUMOR steps for problem solving. This strategy helps kids remember how to approach word problems and get started. R=read the problem closely, U=underline the question, M=method: What is the problem asking us to do? What method or strategy will you use? Circle the important words in the problem. O=Operation: (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) Show all your work and solve it two ways. R=Reread teh question. Does your answer make sense? We practiced this with some problems and really worked on trying multiple strategies. Thank you for playing games and assisting with math homework as needed.

Science: We are doing demonstrations to explore the scientific process. We observed and wrote about a flour/color tile demo. We measured about 2 inches worth of flour in a container. Then dropped a color tile into the flour from various distances and observed what happened. Ask your kids about this. We also discussed safety in science. We made a class graph using the data that the children gathered at home. (Are you a square?) We wrote about the results of the graph. We also examined and made inferences about magazine advertisements. We will be conducting a class experiment next week. The experiment came up in our read-aloud book, The Year of the Dog. The character had done an experiment in which she had several plants and fed the plants with various liquids to see which one helped the plant grow best. In the book, Ginger Ale was most effective. We will try a few other liquids suggested by the class and see if we can replicate this study. It will also help us realize what a science project contains. The students will be required to complete a science project this year and this will be a model for them.

Watch D.O.G.S.- We love to have Dad volunteers at school. If you would like to be one of our Watch DOGS or want to learn more about the program, come to a meeting on Tuesday, September 7 before the PTA meeting. Pizza will be served so please RSVP to me so that I can let the office know.

Back to School Night Powerpoint-The Fourth grade Back to School Night Powerpoint is now on our class blog. Check it out. Go to our Forest Creek website, our teams, Fourth Grade, Pam Bartholomew. Feel free to become a follower of our site, leave a comment, or encourage your children to leave a comment. We will be doing this in class soon.

Dates to Remember:
Sept. 6 Labor Day Holiday--No School

Sept. 7 Reading Logs due (at least 100 min. and parent signature)

Sept. 7 First Lego League Applications are due

6:00 - 6:30: WatchDOGS Kickoff in the library!

6:30 PTA Meeting in the library

Sept. 9 First Lego League Meeting @ 3:00 in
First Lego League Parent Meeting @ 4:30-5:00
BoyScout Meeting in the Cafeteria @ 6:30 pm

Sept. 10 Grandparents Day
First Spelling test of the year

Sept. 13 Book Orders Due

Sept. 15 Early Release Day @ 12:45 pm

Sept. 27 Service Learning Pen Pal Trip to The Court Retirement Facility-More details to come

Have a relaxing and safe holiday!

Thank you for sharing your children with me. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.


Sincerly,
Pam Bartholomew