Newsletter-February 3

Hi,

Today was a short but very productive day! We worked on a difficult math problem which included comparing and ordering fractions and adding them. They used their fraction strips but it was still challenging and they did very well. They also took a released writing TAKS test. This included four passages to read and make corrections in spelling, grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization, etc...This released test is longer than our benchmarks. Our benchmarks usually only have two passages to correct. We will be using the data from this assessment and from the recent benchmark to plan small group and whole group lessons.

The class worked so hard and was so calm and well behaved (maybe we should sleep late everyday!) that we are not having math or writing homework tonight. They are still required to read for their 100 minutes per week and write their reflection.

Happy Chinese New Year! We were so honored to have Mr. Lam (Theresa's dad) come to our classroom and teach us about Chinese New Year. We learned a lot of interesting information and were very excited to receive red envelopes and red Chinese candy. Thank you again, Mr. Lam, for sharing your knowledge and your time with us.

Tomorrow evening is our Math and Science Night. Look for more information about rescheduling if the weather becomes bad. If all goes well, we will be having fun with math and science activities from 5-8. Come find me in Mrs. Arnold's art room to read and act out a math story together!

Reading: We read a picture book called Crow Call by Lois Lowry, award winning author, and then read some autobiographical information about her. It was easy to see some similarities between events in her life and events in her book. We also read a bunch of Patricia Polacco books and will be reading her autobiography tomorrow and looking for similarities and differences. Next week we will be reading some persuasive text and working on some research.

Writing: We have finished revising our personal narratives and most of the class edited their stories and made final copies. We then started generating ideas for our next piece. We read a wonderful book called The Hickory Chair. We noted interesting, descriptive language and strong word choice. We also discussed how the author used a chair and the experiences with the chair to write her story.

We read a short story called Buffalo. Buffalo is what the author and his siblings called his father's big bathrobe. The experiences described and reflection centered around this object.
Next we made lists of objects that are important to us. We made a kernal story about their item and why it was important or significant to them. A kernal story is like a flow chart for their story. In the first box, they write where they are and when. The next book contains the first event that happened. It continues with a box for each event in the story and then the most important part of the story. Last box contains what they thought, what they learned, and what they will remember about this story and why.
We also read a short story called Your Name in Gold. We discussed the significance of the gold pin and how the characters changed in the story. We described ourselves and characters and how we changed in our story. We added more details to our first drafts. We will continue revising and editing these stories next week and publish them by next Friday.

Math: We are working hard to understand decimals, fractions, and how they relate to each other. We have used decimal squares, grids, and number lines to help us understand these concepts. We will be finishing up with this and moving on to geometry next week.

Science: Many of the children's science projects were quite impressive. Thank you for helping your children at home. We enjoyed the presentations and will be beginning learning about weathering and erosion tomorrow.

Look for progress reports and pen pal permission slips in Thursday Folders today. Please sign and return as soon as possible.


Dates to remember:

Feb. 3- Community Meeting with the Superintendent from 5:30-7:30 Canceled due to inclement weather

Feb. 4- National Heart Day-wear red
Science and Math Night- 5-8

Feb. 7, 8, 9- Book Fair in the Library

Feb. 7-Wear your favorite college shirt every Monday!

Feb. 10-Writing Club in art room 2:45-4:00

Feb. 11-Youth Art Month T-Shirt order forms due

Feb. 14-Pen Pal trip to The Court 9:15-11:15
Valentine Party-1:50-2:40
Service Club Meeting 2:45-4:00 in Mrs. Arnold's art room
Set up for Writing Camp in our classroom after 2:45

Feb. 15-Feb. 18=4th Grade Writing Camp!!!!!!!

March 1-Writing TAKS test for fourth graders

Stay warm tonight and tomorrow. Watch the weather reports.

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

Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew