Hi,
We had a groovy day today! The kids did a wonderful job singing and dancing in the Boogie-O-Rama! Their outfits and wigs were very cool! Our speakers, Jody and Mallory, as well as our singing soloists, Alexa, Haylea, Aaliyah, and Dre, were awesome. I was extremely impressed!
Our class had a substitute on Wednesday and it didn't go very well. There was a lot of extra talking out, and some inappropriate behavior. So on Thursday, we all reminded each other in writing about the expectations for our class when we have a substitute. They know my expectations when I am here but some may not have realized that those same expectations are in place with a substitute. The entire class did a wonderful job demonstrating those expectations (work hard, quiet voices, respect others) on Thursday and today. I was especially proud of their hard work and calmness in the classroom today with so much excitement going on around school. We will continue to review expectations in the classroom, regarding quality work, in the hallway, in the bathroom, and in the cafeteria as the holidays approach. Your children are very respectful and kind and I am so happy to be with them each day.
Reading-In reading this week, we read a wonderful book called Cheyenne Again and learned about finding themes throughout literature. The children were extremely engaged in this book and had so many thoughtful responses. It tells about a 10 year old Cheyenne boy who is taking from his family to go to boarding school to learn how to be a respectable citizen. We found many themes like sadness, loneliness, anger, and fear but also hope. We thought that the author's message was about remembering your culture and heritage or treat others as you would want to be treated. They did a fantastic job!
Book Club Books-We started some new book clubs this week. We are trying to finish these books by Tuesday and then will be starting new books after Thanksgiving. Most of the kids are really working hard and writing complete summaries and in-depth responses to what they've read. We also wrote and discussed tricky words and use context clues to figure out unknown meanings them confirmed them in the dictionary. Setting and characters were also discussed and written about. We are trying to build our reading stamina as we work on comprehension strategies. Great work!
Writing-Wow! Many of your children are doing a great job with revision! We have been working on our second personal narratives and having individual conferences to discuss revisions. The children are using a checklist to independently make revisions then we meet and discuss other possible revisions to try. We are trying hard to finish these pieces by Tuesday.
Math-Division can be challenging. Many children are understanding division using manipulatives in story problems. Games have also been a good way to experiment with strategies for division and multiplication. Fact families are another tool that many kids use to solve division equations. We are continuing to work on harder divison problems next week. We will be using multiple strategies to solve these problems. Thank you for working with math facts at home as well.
Social Studies-We started to learn about explorers in Texas this week. We will be continuing to study Texas explorers with some interesting activities after the holiday. We will be working on some Thanksgiving activities the next two days.
Dates to Remember:
Nov. 15 - Dec. 3 TAG Referral window open
Nov. 24-26 Thanksgiving Holiday. No School.
Dec. 1 Walk to School Wednesday
Dec. 2 ADHD and Other Bio-behavioral Disorders Information Session facilitated by Linda Classen, M. Ed., LPC @ 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m @ Blackland Prairie Elementary PRO Center, Rm. D104To RSVP or for more information, contact Felice Geear, BPE Parent Support Specialist at felice_geear@roundrockisd.org or 424-8598.
Dec. 3 Deadline for turning in TAG referrals
Campbell's Labels for Education Contest ends
Dec. 6 - 10 Holiday Catalog Stacking Contest!
Dec. 9-Literacy Night at FCE
Dec. 13-Visit to see our Pen Pals at The Court in Round Rock
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am thankful to be a part of your child's education. Thank you for encouraging them to work hard and try their best each day!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, November 19, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Newsletter- November 14
Hi,
We had an odd week last week. I think that the time change had an effect on all of us. (including me) During a lot of the week, we were either very talkative or very sluggish. I know that this week is going to be wonderful! We will all be ready to work hard and learn a lot!
We did have a wonderful visit with many of our pen pals on Friday. Not all of our friends were able to attend, but we had fun participating in some Thanksgiving activities together. Thank you to Austen's Grandmother for filling in and allowing some kids to interview her. We made a giant class turkey which has a feather created by each child and pen pal telling about things for which they are thankful. The turkey with the thankful feathers is out in our hallway along with some photos of our pen pals. We also created words using the letters from Thanksgiving, completed some Thanksgiving math story problems, and interviewed them about their Thanksgiving memories. We made a graph of favorite Thanksgiving foods, played a game called Where is the pinecone?, played a memory game with Thanksgiving pictures, and worked on a Thanksgiving word search. Best of all, we were each able to speak into the microphone and share our fall poems aloud. The class also performed two readers' theaters about Thanksgiving. It was a busy and fun visit!
Reading-We practiced using context clues to figure out unknown words as well as to figure out the correct meaning used in multiple meaning words. We also worked on determining which statements about a passage were telling details and which statement was a main idea. We will be learning more about theme this week and will be using fact/question/response charts to read expository text about Squanto and Harvest Festivals around the world. We will also use them to help us read the Social Studies textbook.
Writing-We are finishing up our second published pieces. These personal narratives will have a great story arc (events leading up to the climax or most important part of the story then a resolution and/or reflection at the end). They will also contain an external story (what are we doing in the story) and an internal story (what are we wondering, thinking, flashing back, flashing forward, imagining, etc...). We should finish our final copies by Thursday and then will begin writing essays.
Math-We are beginning to work more with division this week and we still practice our multiplication strategies along the way. We will incorporate division strategies and fact families into story problems also. As always we will share our strategies so that we can learn from each other and play games to help us practice.
Science-We will be finish learning about heat and energy this week.
Social Studies-We will begin learning about explorers in Texas this week.
Dates to Remember:
Nov. 15 TAG Referral window opens-Go to the Forest Creek TAG website for info
Nov. 16 PTA Reflections Gallery Night
Nov. 17 Picture Retakes
Nov. 18 Thanksgiving Meal (12:05-12:35)
SEPAC November Meeting
Where: RRISD Athletic Complex 10211 W. Parmer Lane
Time: 9:00 am until 12:00 pm
Nov. 19 Boogie-O-Rama-Wear your 70:s clothes. 10:05-10:55
Nov. 24-26 Thanksgiving Holiday. No School.
Dec. 1 Walk to School Wednesday
Dec. 3 Deadline for turning in TAG referrals
Campbell's Labels for Education Contest ends (See Flyer)
Dec. 6 - 10 Holiday Catalog Stacking Contest!
Thank you for sharing your child with me! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the cool weather!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had an odd week last week. I think that the time change had an effect on all of us. (including me) During a lot of the week, we were either very talkative or very sluggish. I know that this week is going to be wonderful! We will all be ready to work hard and learn a lot!
We did have a wonderful visit with many of our pen pals on Friday. Not all of our friends were able to attend, but we had fun participating in some Thanksgiving activities together. Thank you to Austen's Grandmother for filling in and allowing some kids to interview her. We made a giant class turkey which has a feather created by each child and pen pal telling about things for which they are thankful. The turkey with the thankful feathers is out in our hallway along with some photos of our pen pals. We also created words using the letters from Thanksgiving, completed some Thanksgiving math story problems, and interviewed them about their Thanksgiving memories. We made a graph of favorite Thanksgiving foods, played a game called Where is the pinecone?, played a memory game with Thanksgiving pictures, and worked on a Thanksgiving word search. Best of all, we were each able to speak into the microphone and share our fall poems aloud. The class also performed two readers' theaters about Thanksgiving. It was a busy and fun visit!
Reading-We practiced using context clues to figure out unknown words as well as to figure out the correct meaning used in multiple meaning words. We also worked on determining which statements about a passage were telling details and which statement was a main idea. We will be learning more about theme this week and will be using fact/question/response charts to read expository text about Squanto and Harvest Festivals around the world. We will also use them to help us read the Social Studies textbook.
Writing-We are finishing up our second published pieces. These personal narratives will have a great story arc (events leading up to the climax or most important part of the story then a resolution and/or reflection at the end). They will also contain an external story (what are we doing in the story) and an internal story (what are we wondering, thinking, flashing back, flashing forward, imagining, etc...). We should finish our final copies by Thursday and then will begin writing essays.
Math-We are beginning to work more with division this week and we still practice our multiplication strategies along the way. We will incorporate division strategies and fact families into story problems also. As always we will share our strategies so that we can learn from each other and play games to help us practice.
Science-We will be finish learning about heat and energy this week.
Social Studies-We will begin learning about explorers in Texas this week.
Dates to Remember:
Nov. 15 TAG Referral window opens-Go to the Forest Creek TAG website for info
Nov. 16 PTA Reflections Gallery Night
Nov. 17 Picture Retakes
Nov. 18 Thanksgiving Meal (12:05-12:35)
SEPAC November Meeting
Where: RRISD Athletic Complex 10211 W. Parmer Lane
Time: 9:00 am until 12:00 pm
Nov. 19 Boogie-O-Rama-Wear your 70:s clothes. 10:05-10:55
Nov. 24-26 Thanksgiving Holiday. No School.
Dec. 1 Walk to School Wednesday
Dec. 3 Deadline for turning in TAG referrals
Campbell's Labels for Education Contest ends (See Flyer)
Dec. 6 - 10 Holiday Catalog Stacking Contest!
Thank you for sharing your child with me! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the cool weather!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, November 5, 2010
Newsletter
Hi,
We had a busy but fun week. We finished up our published class book about our pen pals and it looks wonderful. The children did a great job writing important poems about their pen pals and decorating a page with a photo. We had a contest for the cover of the book. There were many beautiful entries and the kids voted for their favorite. Haylea's drawing was picked for the cover and Alexa's drawing will be our title page. I can't wait to see the books after publication!I know that our pen pals are going to love them.
Reading:
In reading we learned some more about poetry and looking for characteristics of free verse or lyrical poems in the poems read. We read traditional literature and created huge charts to understand literary elements in myths, fairy tales, tall tales, legends, and fables. We also read an article about polar bears and made a facts/questions/response chart to help guide our understanding of non-fiction text. Today we read an awesome book about Mt. Everest called Top of the World. We read with a question in mind and used the subheadings to let us know where to find some answers. We learned a lot about the dangers of climbing the tallest point on the earth. Next week we will learn about drama and the differences in punctuation in dialogue in drama and narratives. We will also act out some plays and/or reader's theaters.
Writing:
We have been generating story ideas and writing drafts for our second published piece. We've written about turning points in our lives (first times/last times doing something that used to be hard but isn't anymore, first/last times with a person, animal, or at a place, times when our lives almost changed or did change, and times when we realized something important about ourselves.) We also wrote entries about strong feelings. Using a story arc (events in story that lead up to a climax and then down to a resolution)with stories that we've read helped us to understand the structure of a good story. Today we looked at our first published pieces. We reread them and then determined elements of the piece in which we did well and areas to work on or next steps. Then we read some of our friend's pieces and gave them feedback. Later we looked at all of our entries in our writer's notebooks and chose a few that had good potential. We shared them with a friend and decided on an idea for our next published piece. We wrote a story arc of that idea to help us plan. Next week we will begin writing these pieces. I am very excited!
Math:
Math has been busy with multiplication strategies for larger numbers. We used big arrays broken into smaller arrays as a strategy to solve multiplication with larger numbers. I was so impressed with the variety and quality of strategies that many of your children use when problem solving. I was amazed at how well they could manipulate numbers. We will continue with multiplication and begin division next week.
Science:
We have continued to explore mixtures and solutions. We made a solution of salt and water and tried to boil some salt water to watch the salt evaporate but we ran out of time. The next day, we saw a lot of the salt separate from the water in the pan and on the spoon. We pretended to have a beach in our beakers. We looked at this mixture and separated items using tools. Our beach included sand, water, small rocks, and shells. We used coffee filters, our hands, and tweezers to separate the mixture. We also used a magnet to separate a mixture of beans and metal brackets, watched the ingredients separate in salad dressing and made a solution of Crystal Light powder and water to see the powder dissolve. We will finish up with mixtures and solutions on Monday and begin learning about energy.
Pen Pals:
Our pen pals will be visiting our school on Friday, November 12. We will be doing some Thanksgiving Day activities with them. The children will start planning the specifics on Monday. We would love to have you join us!
Dates to remember:
Nov. 1 -Nov. 12 Round Rock Area Serving Center Annual Food Drive
Nov. 9 TAG Parent Information Night @ 5 pm in the library-If you have any questions about TAG, let me know.
Nov. 9 Food Tasting session by Food Services from 5 - 6 pm
Nov. 9 PTA Meeting @ 6:30 pm in the library
Nov. 9 Senior Choir Concert @ 7:00 pm
Nov. 10 Early Dismissal @ 12:45
Nov. 15 TAG Referral window opens
Nov. 16 PTA Reflections Gallery Night
Nov. 17 Picture Retakes
Nov. 18 Thanksgiving Meal
Nov. 19 Boogie-O-Rama (Fourth Graders perform at 10:05 am)
Dec. 3 Deadline for turning in TAG referrals
Thank you for sharing your child with me. If you have any questions or concerns, let me know!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a busy but fun week. We finished up our published class book about our pen pals and it looks wonderful. The children did a great job writing important poems about their pen pals and decorating a page with a photo. We had a contest for the cover of the book. There were many beautiful entries and the kids voted for their favorite. Haylea's drawing was picked for the cover and Alexa's drawing will be our title page. I can't wait to see the books after publication!I know that our pen pals are going to love them.
Reading:
In reading we learned some more about poetry and looking for characteristics of free verse or lyrical poems in the poems read. We read traditional literature and created huge charts to understand literary elements in myths, fairy tales, tall tales, legends, and fables. We also read an article about polar bears and made a facts/questions/response chart to help guide our understanding of non-fiction text. Today we read an awesome book about Mt. Everest called Top of the World. We read with a question in mind and used the subheadings to let us know where to find some answers. We learned a lot about the dangers of climbing the tallest point on the earth. Next week we will learn about drama and the differences in punctuation in dialogue in drama and narratives. We will also act out some plays and/or reader's theaters.
Writing:
We have been generating story ideas and writing drafts for our second published piece. We've written about turning points in our lives (first times/last times doing something that used to be hard but isn't anymore, first/last times with a person, animal, or at a place, times when our lives almost changed or did change, and times when we realized something important about ourselves.) We also wrote entries about strong feelings. Using a story arc (events in story that lead up to a climax and then down to a resolution)with stories that we've read helped us to understand the structure of a good story. Today we looked at our first published pieces. We reread them and then determined elements of the piece in which we did well and areas to work on or next steps. Then we read some of our friend's pieces and gave them feedback. Later we looked at all of our entries in our writer's notebooks and chose a few that had good potential. We shared them with a friend and decided on an idea for our next published piece. We wrote a story arc of that idea to help us plan. Next week we will begin writing these pieces. I am very excited!
Math:
Math has been busy with multiplication strategies for larger numbers. We used big arrays broken into smaller arrays as a strategy to solve multiplication with larger numbers. I was so impressed with the variety and quality of strategies that many of your children use when problem solving. I was amazed at how well they could manipulate numbers. We will continue with multiplication and begin division next week.
Science:
We have continued to explore mixtures and solutions. We made a solution of salt and water and tried to boil some salt water to watch the salt evaporate but we ran out of time. The next day, we saw a lot of the salt separate from the water in the pan and on the spoon. We pretended to have a beach in our beakers. We looked at this mixture and separated items using tools. Our beach included sand, water, small rocks, and shells. We used coffee filters, our hands, and tweezers to separate the mixture. We also used a magnet to separate a mixture of beans and metal brackets, watched the ingredients separate in salad dressing and made a solution of Crystal Light powder and water to see the powder dissolve. We will finish up with mixtures and solutions on Monday and begin learning about energy.
Pen Pals:
Our pen pals will be visiting our school on Friday, November 12. We will be doing some Thanksgiving Day activities with them. The children will start planning the specifics on Monday. We would love to have you join us!
Dates to remember:
Nov. 1 -Nov. 12 Round Rock Area Serving Center Annual Food Drive
Nov. 9 TAG Parent Information Night @ 5 pm in the library-If you have any questions about TAG, let me know.
Nov. 9 Food Tasting session by Food Services from 5 - 6 pm
Nov. 9 PTA Meeting @ 6:30 pm in the library
Nov. 9 Senior Choir Concert @ 7:00 pm
Nov. 10 Early Dismissal @ 12:45
Nov. 15 TAG Referral window opens
Nov. 16 PTA Reflections Gallery Night
Nov. 17 Picture Retakes
Nov. 18 Thanksgiving Meal
Nov. 19 Boogie-O-Rama (Fourth Graders perform at 10:05 am)
Dec. 3 Deadline for turning in TAG referrals
Thank you for sharing your child with me. If you have any questions or concerns, let me know!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Pen Pal Books
How did you like creating our pen pal books? What do you think our pen pals will think about them? Write about your thoughts and feelings and comment on each other's posts.
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