Happy Holidays!
Thank you to Mrs. McCulloch for planning an awesome holiday party. There were tons of fun activities and the kids had a great time. Thank you also to all the parents who were able to help and/or send in supplies. This party was a wonderful way to celebrate together and end the first half of 4th grade.
I can’t believe that the school year is half over. I have some grading to do over the break and will be entering those grades. We are leaving to go to Philadelphia on Saturday so the grades won’t be entered until January. Feel free to check out your kids grades so far on Home Access but be aware that some of the grades will change a little bit before they are finalized.
Visit our Moodle Page! I added lots of new activities for the kids to complete over the break. If they say that they are bored, send them there. They can write to respond to my questions and topics and they can respond to their friends’ posts as well. Go to the school web page, then students, then moodle. Sign in using their log on to the school computers. 126lastnamefirst initial, password-their school id number. Have fun! I love to read their posts and respond.
Holiday Reading Log-Be sure that your child is keeping up with their reading, writing, and math over the holiday break. I sent home a holiday reading log on Wednesday that had a chart to keep track of minutes and books read. All of the kids are required to read 150 minutes a week or 300 minutes for the two weeks off. Any child reading over 300 minutes will be receiving a special surprise! I will have several prizes on the table and the highest minute readers will get to choose first. Any child who doesn’t complete the 300 minutes of reading time will need to go to study hall when we return to catch up. Encourage your child to email me and let me know about their progress and what books they are reading. I am so excited to have more time to read over the break and look forward to hearing about the reading adventures of the kids. I set up a page on moodle and they can leave posts for each other also!
This week we worked on some problem solving using the Twelve Days of Christmas, we read and responded to The Christmas Carol, and performed some holiday plays.
We will be continuing with fractions and problem solving, reading book club books, continuing to learn about soil, writing expository and personal narratives, and learning about the Texas Revolution.
Service Club organized tons of food for our families. They were picked up on Thursday evening and the families were very grateful for the food! Thank you to all those who helped organize and those who donated food.
Service Club will be volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center on Saturday, January 5, 2013 from 9-10. All are welcome to join us.
Have a wonderful, safe holiday. Thank you for all the beautiful cards and gifts. I will enjoy spending time with my family over the break but will miss your children. Thank you for sharing them with me.
Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, December 21, 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
Newsletter-Donate food and books, Service Club meets on Monday and Thursday after school, Biography Presentation due on Monday, Science Checkpoint #2 due on Wednesday
Hi,
We had a wonderful visit with our pen pals on Dec. 4. We made them beaded candy cane ornaments and created painted ornaments with them. We also played holiday games and discussed our favorite parts of the holidays. We will be seeing them again on January 30. On that day we will be meeting in the art room and participating in the Empty Bowls Project with them. We will all make bowls with Mrs. Arnold that will then be fired and later glazed by us. The bowls will be donated to the Empty Bowl Project and will be available for purchase for $10. When buying a bowl, the buyer gets a bowl of soup from Chili's and other food and drinks donated by restaurants. The money will be donated to the Round Rock Serving Center. The event will take place in April. It is a wonderful opportunity to have a service project within our service project with our pen pals! You are welcome to join us on Wednesday, January 30 at 1:00 in the art room.
On Thursday, we will be having fun with our first grade reading buddies while creating gingerbread houses together. We will meet in the morning and use icing, graham crackers, and candy to transform our empty milk cartons into beautiful sweet holiday homes. We will bring them home on Thursday.
Thank you to Mrs. Schmitz for coming into our classroom to teach us about Hanukkah! She and Rebecca showed us a menorah, read us a book, answered many questions, and even gave us some chocolate gold coins! It was interesting to learn about holidays around the world and the children loved it!
Thursday will be our holiday party at 2:00. Mrs. McCulloch will be sending an email asking for donations. If you don't receive it by Monday pm, let me know so that I can get it to you. As part of our party we will be collecting books for the Round Rock Serving Center. When we went to volunteer there on the first Saturday in December, the book case in the waiting area was almost empty. Luckily we brought donated books from the FCE Literacy Night but we still left with many shelves empty. I walked in with the books and the waiting children came right to me eagerly to gather some books. Hopefully, we will get lots of books from our class to help fill up that book case for the holiday break.
Our class will be having a Secret Santa activity. The children will fill out a form with some of their favorite things and turn it in. Then they will randomly select a form and chose their Secret Pal. They will write complimentary notes to that friend throughout the week and keep their identity a secret. They will bring in a candy bar or a snack for their secret pal on Thursday and we will reveal who had who. I think that this will be a fun, community building activity for our class. If you aren't able to provide a candy bar or snack for the secret pal, let me know. Encourage your child to try to keep the secret until Thursday!
Last week we took Curriculum Based Assessments in Reading, Math, Writing, and Science. Our class worked very hard on all of these assessments and I will be using the data gained to guide instruction in small groups and extension groups after the holidays.
In Reading-we have been working on reading and learning from our biographies. We will be presenting our presentations beginning on Monday. We will be reading and evaluating a short version of The Christmas Carol this week. We will reading to determine character changes, compare and contrast the three spirits, determine a theme or lesson learned, write a summary and evaluate each other's summaries, as well as write about what parts of the story we liked or didn't like and why. We will also be practicing fluency using a readers theater of The Christmas Carol, Miranda's Dream (Christmas Story), and The Miracle of the Candles (Hanukkah story). We will be videotaping our performances on Thursday.
Writing: We will be finishing our revisions and editing of our biography essays this week. They will also be choosing to write holiday poems, holiday essays, personal narratives about the holidays, letters to soldiers and/or pen pals, or holiday fantasy stories. We will be working on some power writing Be sure to encourage your child to email me over the break and/or go to our moodle page and add some posts to several discussions. He/she can also respond to other student's posts. It is a nice way to practice writing as they keep in touch.
Math: Fractions, division, multiplication, and problem solving will be our focus. We will also think about the traditional song The Twelve Days of Christmas and figure out how many items were given over those twelve days.
Science: We conducted some soil experiments last week. We investigated and used our senses to determine the properties of four different soils. We tested for water retention of each soil type by putting soil in pantyhose and suspending the soil/pantyhose in a beaker. We added 200 milliliters of water and subtracted the amount of water that drained through from 200 to determine the amount of water retained in the soil. Then we planted radish seeds in the different soil types and watched what happened each day for five days. We didn't add more water so we made predictions and our hypothesis of which soil would allow the seeds to grow fastest and sustain growth. We will write about our observations on Monday. We will talk a bit more about soil this week.
Social Studies: We learned about three empresarios in Texas-Stephen F. Austin, Martin de Leon, and Green DeWitt. We researched them and took notes. We read letters from people wanting to be accepted into Austin's colony and determined whether Austin should let them come or not and why. We will be talking a bit more about empresarios and then beginning to discuss the Texas Revolution when we return in January.
Dates to remember:
Monday, Dec. 17-Biography Presentations due, Service Club meeting to organize food donations, Bring in more food for our families
Wednesday, Dec. 19-Science Checkpoint #2 is due
Thursday, Dec. 20-Holiday party at 2:00, Bring in gently used books for RR Serving Center, Service Club meets after school with guest speaker (my daughter Blair will be here to talk about our trip to Honduras and help us organize a campus drive for them)
Friday,Dec. 21-Beginning of holiday break-be sure to read at least 150 min. per week, practice math facts and write often
Have a safe and happy holiday! Thank you for sharing your children with me! I love coming to school each day!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a wonderful visit with our pen pals on Dec. 4. We made them beaded candy cane ornaments and created painted ornaments with them. We also played holiday games and discussed our favorite parts of the holidays. We will be seeing them again on January 30. On that day we will be meeting in the art room and participating in the Empty Bowls Project with them. We will all make bowls with Mrs. Arnold that will then be fired and later glazed by us. The bowls will be donated to the Empty Bowl Project and will be available for purchase for $10. When buying a bowl, the buyer gets a bowl of soup from Chili's and other food and drinks donated by restaurants. The money will be donated to the Round Rock Serving Center. The event will take place in April. It is a wonderful opportunity to have a service project within our service project with our pen pals! You are welcome to join us on Wednesday, January 30 at 1:00 in the art room.
On Thursday, we will be having fun with our first grade reading buddies while creating gingerbread houses together. We will meet in the morning and use icing, graham crackers, and candy to transform our empty milk cartons into beautiful sweet holiday homes. We will bring them home on Thursday.
Thank you to Mrs. Schmitz for coming into our classroom to teach us about Hanukkah! She and Rebecca showed us a menorah, read us a book, answered many questions, and even gave us some chocolate gold coins! It was interesting to learn about holidays around the world and the children loved it!
Thursday will be our holiday party at 2:00. Mrs. McCulloch will be sending an email asking for donations. If you don't receive it by Monday pm, let me know so that I can get it to you. As part of our party we will be collecting books for the Round Rock Serving Center. When we went to volunteer there on the first Saturday in December, the book case in the waiting area was almost empty. Luckily we brought donated books from the FCE Literacy Night but we still left with many shelves empty. I walked in with the books and the waiting children came right to me eagerly to gather some books. Hopefully, we will get lots of books from our class to help fill up that book case for the holiday break.
Our class will be having a Secret Santa activity. The children will fill out a form with some of their favorite things and turn it in. Then they will randomly select a form and chose their Secret Pal. They will write complimentary notes to that friend throughout the week and keep their identity a secret. They will bring in a candy bar or a snack for their secret pal on Thursday and we will reveal who had who. I think that this will be a fun, community building activity for our class. If you aren't able to provide a candy bar or snack for the secret pal, let me know. Encourage your child to try to keep the secret until Thursday!
Last week we took Curriculum Based Assessments in Reading, Math, Writing, and Science. Our class worked very hard on all of these assessments and I will be using the data gained to guide instruction in small groups and extension groups after the holidays.
In Reading-we have been working on reading and learning from our biographies. We will be presenting our presentations beginning on Monday. We will be reading and evaluating a short version of The Christmas Carol this week. We will reading to determine character changes, compare and contrast the three spirits, determine a theme or lesson learned, write a summary and evaluate each other's summaries, as well as write about what parts of the story we liked or didn't like and why. We will also be practicing fluency using a readers theater of The Christmas Carol, Miranda's Dream (Christmas Story), and The Miracle of the Candles (Hanukkah story). We will be videotaping our performances on Thursday.
Writing: We will be finishing our revisions and editing of our biography essays this week. They will also be choosing to write holiday poems, holiday essays, personal narratives about the holidays, letters to soldiers and/or pen pals, or holiday fantasy stories. We will be working on some power writing Be sure to encourage your child to email me over the break and/or go to our moodle page and add some posts to several discussions. He/she can also respond to other student's posts. It is a nice way to practice writing as they keep in touch.
Math: Fractions, division, multiplication, and problem solving will be our focus. We will also think about the traditional song The Twelve Days of Christmas and figure out how many items were given over those twelve days.
Science: We conducted some soil experiments last week. We investigated and used our senses to determine the properties of four different soils. We tested for water retention of each soil type by putting soil in pantyhose and suspending the soil/pantyhose in a beaker. We added 200 milliliters of water and subtracted the amount of water that drained through from 200 to determine the amount of water retained in the soil. Then we planted radish seeds in the different soil types and watched what happened each day for five days. We didn't add more water so we made predictions and our hypothesis of which soil would allow the seeds to grow fastest and sustain growth. We will write about our observations on Monday. We will talk a bit more about soil this week.
Social Studies: We learned about three empresarios in Texas-Stephen F. Austin, Martin de Leon, and Green DeWitt. We researched them and took notes. We read letters from people wanting to be accepted into Austin's colony and determined whether Austin should let them come or not and why. We will be talking a bit more about empresarios and then beginning to discuss the Texas Revolution when we return in January.
Dates to remember:
Monday, Dec. 17-Biography Presentations due, Service Club meeting to organize food donations, Bring in more food for our families
Wednesday, Dec. 19-Science Checkpoint #2 is due
Thursday, Dec. 20-Holiday party at 2:00, Bring in gently used books for RR Serving Center, Service Club meets after school with guest speaker (my daughter Blair will be here to talk about our trip to Honduras and help us organize a campus drive for them)
Friday,Dec. 21-Beginning of holiday break-be sure to read at least 150 min. per week, practice math facts and write often
Have a safe and happy holiday! Thank you for sharing your children with me! I love coming to school each day!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, December 10, 2012
FCE Food Drive, Science Checkpoint #1 due Monday, Biography presentations due Monday, Dec. 17
Dear Families,
There are many people in the world who are hungry or having a hard time buying the things they need. Did you know that some of these people live right in our neighborhood? There are lots of reasons why people may be struggling and need a little extra help.
It is hard to pay for all of the things we need and we all could use some assistance sometimes. We would like to help our Forest Creek families who may be having trouble financially this year.
The Service Club is asking you to donate canned food and other food items so that we can make the holidays a little easier for them.
Gift cards are also welcome.
Each grade level has been assigned a type of food,
however, all food will happily be accepted.
Pre K and Kinder - canned fruit, fresh apples and oranges
1st Grade - canned chili, ravioli, or spaghetti, boxed dinners, and macaroni and cheese
2nd Grade - cereal and oatmeal
3rd Grade - canned meat, fish, and peanut butter
4th grade - pasta, rice, and canned soup
5th grade - canned vegetables
Thank you for making someone's holiday a little bit brighter.
The FCE Service Club
There are many people in the world who are hungry or having a hard time buying the things they need. Did you know that some of these people live right in our neighborhood? There are lots of reasons why people may be struggling and need a little extra help.
It is hard to pay for all of the things we need and we all could use some assistance sometimes. We would like to help our Forest Creek families who may be having trouble financially this year.
The Service Club is asking you to donate canned food and other food items so that we can make the holidays a little easier for them.
Gift cards are also welcome.
Each grade level has been assigned a type of food,
however, all food will happily be accepted.
Pre K and Kinder - canned fruit, fresh apples and oranges
1st Grade - canned chili, ravioli, or spaghetti, boxed dinners, and macaroni and cheese
2nd Grade - cereal and oatmeal
3rd Grade - canned meat, fish, and peanut butter
4th grade - pasta, rice, and canned soup
5th grade - canned vegetables
Thank you for making someone's holiday a little bit brighter.
The FCE Service Club
Monday, December 3, 2012
Dates to Remember and Homework for week
Hi,
Here are some dates to remember:
Biography Project due on December 17-Students are reading biographies, some may read several biographies, each child will choose a person for a project and an essay. We will be writing the essay in school but I have attached two ways to plan the essay. Students will present an oral report on their person containing the information from the planning sheet. They may also do a poster, powerpoint, dress up as the person, etc.... as part of their presentation.
Science Project Checkpoint #1-due December 10-Papers came home last Thursday. Let me know if you have any questions.
Science Test on Electricity on Wednesday, December 5
Pen Pals Visit Tomorrow, December 4th-We will be in the science lab at about 9:20 until about 11:00. You are welcome to join us!
Early Release on Wednesday, December 5-12:45
Homework this week:
Read each day and record on book log
write three reading responses by Friday
Writing-write at least one entry (free choice) in writer's notebook, some may also need to write final copy of Personal Narrative for homework
Math-Different paper or activity each day, due next day
Science-study for test on Wednesday
Word Study test on Friday
Convention Sentences test on Friday
Have a wonderful week! Ask your child about our tree frog!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Here are some dates to remember:
Biography Project due on December 17-Students are reading biographies, some may read several biographies, each child will choose a person for a project and an essay. We will be writing the essay in school but I have attached two ways to plan the essay. Students will present an oral report on their person containing the information from the planning sheet. They may also do a poster, powerpoint, dress up as the person, etc.... as part of their presentation.
Science Project Checkpoint #1-due December 10-Papers came home last Thursday. Let me know if you have any questions.
Science Test on Electricity on Wednesday, December 5
Pen Pals Visit Tomorrow, December 4th-We will be in the science lab at about 9:20 until about 11:00. You are welcome to join us!
Early Release on Wednesday, December 5-12:45
Homework this week:
Read each day and record on book log
write three reading responses by Friday
Writing-write at least one entry (free choice) in writer's notebook, some may also need to write final copy of Personal Narrative for homework
Math-Different paper or activity each day, due next day
Science-study for test on Wednesday
Word Study test on Friday
Convention Sentences test on Friday
Have a wonderful week! Ask your child about our tree frog!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi,
I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.
I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to go on a trip over the Thanksgiving break to Honduras with a group of friends. One of my friends has a non-profit organization called Friends of Los Ninos which helps to support an orphanage and some homeless villages.
Our FCE Service Club made friendship bracelets for the children and our class wrote letters for the children in English and Spanish.
While we were there our group was able to give food (rice, beans, and lard which will feed the family for a week) to 26 families in the village at Mt. Olives. We also gave clothing, holiday presents, and a trip to the movies to the children at Copprome Children's Home. We played games, helped with homework, danced, blew bubbles, drew pictures, and wrote letters.
Another group from Tennessee also helps support the orphanage and made some videos on youtube. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g6bc3IK4oI&feature=autoplay&list=ULgNjBSNjIBIU&playnext=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E8DfzN5bik
Thank you to the FCE Service Club for helping make friendship bracelets. The children loved them. They also enjoyed the pictures and the papers with drawings and words in English and Spanish. Trying to pronounce the words in English was challenging for them but they loved it.
Thank you to our 4th grade class for writing bi-lingual letters for the kids. They loved seeing your photos and your beautiful artwork and worked hard to try to read the letters in English. Many of the children wrote back to us in Spanish.
Our class and the FCE Service Club will continue to look for ways to help the children in Honduras and let them know that Tejas really does mean friend.
This week we will be working on:
Reading-reading non-fiction and historical fiction and making inferences, discovering themes, and writing summaries
Writing-writing personal narratives as well as essays
Math-division and fractions using manipulatives and imbedded in problem solving situations
Science-Electricity, insulators, conductors
Social Studies-Stephen F. Austin and Empresarios
Be sure to attend Passport to Adventure:Literacy Night on Thursday, November 29 from 5-7pm at our school. (See note sent home Monday and attached flyer)
Don't forget that math homework is due the next day. Students should be reading and recording on their book log daily. On Friday the following assignments are due:
3 reading responses and 1 writing entry. On Friday, we will have tests on our word sorts and the conventions sentences. Science test on Electricy, Insulators, and Conductors will be on Monday, December 3.
Photo Retakes are on Wednesday, November 28.
Writing Club will meet on Thursday, November 29 from 2:45-3:45 in the library.
The FCE Service Club will volunteer at the Round Rock Serving Center on Saturday, December 1 from 9-10 am. All are welcome!
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Groovy Newsletter!
Hi,
Today was Groovy! We all had fun pretending we were in the 60's today! The kids did a great job performing in the Groovy-o-Rama. Our class had many singing solos and speaking parts and they all did very well! We hope you enjoyed the performance also and had fun singing along!
In honor of Veterans Day, Forest Creek invites Veterans to join their student for breakfast on Monday, November 12th. Breakfast is free for military Veterans and will be $1.50 for adults and guest children accompanying Veterans on the 12th.
Pen Pals are coming on Tuesday, November 13 at 10:00am! We will be meeting in the computer lab and sharing some technology with them. We created some awesome Thanksgiving themed graphs using Excel this week and are working on making some videos of our reader's theaters to present to them. On Monday we are planning on making a power point presentation to share with our pen pals as well as exploring some cool interactive Thanksgiving sites. Come and join us!
Sage, our python, had to go home to Living Science on Thursday. We had fun observing and writing about Sage. We have ordered a tree frog and it will arrive on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Read about our week!
Reading: We are doing a great job completing books with our book club groups and sharing about the books together. We also enjoyed making inferences from poetry this week. We watched the video from the first moon landing with Neil Armstrong then read a poem called Moon. We made inferences (background knowledge + text clues= inference) about some tricky words and about the poet's meaning. We learned about personification because the poet gave the moon human characteristics. We also reviewed poetry vocabulary such as line breaks, stanzas, rhythm, rhyme, free verse, and lyrical. Reading and summarizing articles about tribes in Texas was also completed well this week.
Writing: Writing pen pal letters is always a great experience for us. We brainstorm possible ideas and then the kids form their paragraphs on their own. These letters included stories about Halloween, football, and Sage, the snake. They also asked questions about Halloween and Thanksgiving and shared their excitement about our upcoming visit. We also continued writing about things we notice and wonder in detail then pushing our thinking to get to some bigger themes and ideas. Watching a video about a soccer team in Thailand who made their own field and practiced in harsh conditions was inspirational as well as fascinating for them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU4oA3kkAWU (Reading the subtitles was also fun!) Then they all wrote their thoughts, questions, impressions, and big ideas about these young boys following their dream. Going outside and around school to notice things and write about them was also interesting and we have some very deep thinkers in our class! We are going to write some Thanksgiving essays and personal narratives but will continue to work on observing, noticing, writing about it, then pushing ourselves to analyze our observations for deeper meaning. We also wrote cards and letters for veterans to receive at our Veteran's Day Breakfast on Monday.
Math: Problem solving is our focus. We practice many skills by working on multi-step problems. We solved some this week in which we needed to interpret bar graphs, we worked more on elapsed time within problems, as well as multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction in context. Sharing all of our strategies for working with multiplication and division by 9 was interesting and informative. We will continue to challenge ourselves in math.
Social Studies: Reading articles about Native tribes in Texas confirmed some beliefs we had and taught us some new facts.
Science: We worked on experimenting with forces this week. We made a pendulum and took data on the amount of time needed for pendulum of different lengths to complete ten swings. We also explored friction using a wooden sphere and wooden cylinders on various surfaces. We took our vocabulary test on forces today and will be studying for a test that will be given next Thursday.
Service Club met and made more bracelets and notes for me to take to Honduras on Nov. 17. I will be going on a trip to help in an orphanage and with some homeless in Honduras with my 15 year old daughter and some friends. We will take the beautiful cards, and bracelets for the children in the orphanage. Next week, our class will be writing some poems and/or picture books or cards in English and a little Spanish for the children. I will be gone the week of Thanksgiving but will be returning on Saturday, Nov. 24 with lots of photos and many stories to share with the class.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 12-Veterans Day Breakfast
Tuesday, November 13-Pen Pal Visit at 10 am in computer lab
Thursday, November 15-Energy and Forces Science Test, Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in library
Friday, November 16-Movies in the Park, 7PM
Wednesday, Nov. 21-Sunday, Nov. 25-Thanksgiving Holiday-Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, Nov. 29-Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in library, Passport to Literacy Night for families from 5-7pm
Saturday, Dec. 1-Volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center 9-10am
Have a great weekend! Thank you for sharing your children with me. They impress me each day with their creativity and their interesting comments.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Today was Groovy! We all had fun pretending we were in the 60's today! The kids did a great job performing in the Groovy-o-Rama. Our class had many singing solos and speaking parts and they all did very well! We hope you enjoyed the performance also and had fun singing along!
In honor of Veterans Day, Forest Creek invites Veterans to join their student for breakfast on Monday, November 12th. Breakfast is free for military Veterans and will be $1.50 for adults and guest children accompanying Veterans on the 12th.
Pen Pals are coming on Tuesday, November 13 at 10:00am! We will be meeting in the computer lab and sharing some technology with them. We created some awesome Thanksgiving themed graphs using Excel this week and are working on making some videos of our reader's theaters to present to them. On Monday we are planning on making a power point presentation to share with our pen pals as well as exploring some cool interactive Thanksgiving sites. Come and join us!
Sage, our python, had to go home to Living Science on Thursday. We had fun observing and writing about Sage. We have ordered a tree frog and it will arrive on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Read about our week!
Reading: We are doing a great job completing books with our book club groups and sharing about the books together. We also enjoyed making inferences from poetry this week. We watched the video from the first moon landing with Neil Armstrong then read a poem called Moon. We made inferences (background knowledge + text clues= inference) about some tricky words and about the poet's meaning. We learned about personification because the poet gave the moon human characteristics. We also reviewed poetry vocabulary such as line breaks, stanzas, rhythm, rhyme, free verse, and lyrical. Reading and summarizing articles about tribes in Texas was also completed well this week.
Writing: Writing pen pal letters is always a great experience for us. We brainstorm possible ideas and then the kids form their paragraphs on their own. These letters included stories about Halloween, football, and Sage, the snake. They also asked questions about Halloween and Thanksgiving and shared their excitement about our upcoming visit. We also continued writing about things we notice and wonder in detail then pushing our thinking to get to some bigger themes and ideas. Watching a video about a soccer team in Thailand who made their own field and practiced in harsh conditions was inspirational as well as fascinating for them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU4oA3kkAWU (Reading the subtitles was also fun!) Then they all wrote their thoughts, questions, impressions, and big ideas about these young boys following their dream. Going outside and around school to notice things and write about them was also interesting and we have some very deep thinkers in our class! We are going to write some Thanksgiving essays and personal narratives but will continue to work on observing, noticing, writing about it, then pushing ourselves to analyze our observations for deeper meaning. We also wrote cards and letters for veterans to receive at our Veteran's Day Breakfast on Monday.
Math: Problem solving is our focus. We practice many skills by working on multi-step problems. We solved some this week in which we needed to interpret bar graphs, we worked more on elapsed time within problems, as well as multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction in context. Sharing all of our strategies for working with multiplication and division by 9 was interesting and informative. We will continue to challenge ourselves in math.
Social Studies: Reading articles about Native tribes in Texas confirmed some beliefs we had and taught us some new facts.
Science: We worked on experimenting with forces this week. We made a pendulum and took data on the amount of time needed for pendulum of different lengths to complete ten swings. We also explored friction using a wooden sphere and wooden cylinders on various surfaces. We took our vocabulary test on forces today and will be studying for a test that will be given next Thursday.
Service Club met and made more bracelets and notes for me to take to Honduras on Nov. 17. I will be going on a trip to help in an orphanage and with some homeless in Honduras with my 15 year old daughter and some friends. We will take the beautiful cards, and bracelets for the children in the orphanage. Next week, our class will be writing some poems and/or picture books or cards in English and a little Spanish for the children. I will be gone the week of Thanksgiving but will be returning on Saturday, Nov. 24 with lots of photos and many stories to share with the class.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 12-Veterans Day Breakfast
Tuesday, November 13-Pen Pal Visit at 10 am in computer lab
Thursday, November 15-Energy and Forces Science Test, Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in library
Friday, November 16-Movies in the Park, 7PM
Wednesday, Nov. 21-Sunday, Nov. 25-Thanksgiving Holiday-Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, Nov. 29-Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in library, Passport to Literacy Night for families from 5-7pm
Saturday, Dec. 1-Volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center 9-10am
Have a great weekend! Thank you for sharing your children with me. They impress me each day with their creativity and their interesting comments.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, November 2, 2012
Newsletter-Fun Halloween Week but still working hard
Hi,
We had a fun week and worked hard while having fun with some Halloween activities.
We completed our Class Book and will be sending it off to the publisher today. We brainstormed ideas about fall with our pen pals and many of us wrote some fall poetry with them. We then took our notes back to class, read lots of poems, discussed poetry vocabulary (stanza, line breaks, rhythm, rhyme, free verse, lyrical, metaphor, simile, imagery, word choice, etc...) and wrote more poems. We revised and edited and typed our poems for a page in our class book. Then decorated a page with photographs of our pen pals and us together during our visits. All together the book turned out very well. If you still want to make a purchase, get the money to me by the end of the day. You can still order books after they are published but it costs a little more. Our published book will be here before the December break. Also our Pen Pals coming on November 13 at 10:00. Come join us for the visit.
Sage, our python until Thursday, is doing well. She is less active now that she is warmer. (We put a heating pad under her cage and that has made her very happy.
Read about our week:
Reading-This week we have been learning about poetry and reading tons of poems. We compared and contrasted a lyrical and free verse poem. We also used technology to watch two filmmakers interpretations of the same poem. The poem, Enter this Deserted House, was made into videos by two different filmmakers. One had images of nature but a creepy kind of voice and then one part of the poem talked about goblins and showed a shark grabbing a seal. It ended with a message about taking care of our planet. We talked about how the pictures at first were pretty but the voice was scary which increased suspense to the shark part but we liked the message. The other filmmaker used clips from Psycho and had video of the Bates motel. The images, the voice, and the background sounds were all creepy and dark right from the beginning, and there was a surprise at the end which made them scream. It was so fun to see the ways that different people can use media and interpret poetry very differently. It was also fun to be a little scared. We will be learning more about poetry next week.
Writing-Charlie Brown helped us practice writing essays this week. We watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while taking notes about two central ideas. One central idea was that Charlie Brown should not trust Lucy. Another was Linus truly believed in the Great Pumpkin. We watched and took notes on examples and reasons to support our central ideas. We talked about Charlie Brown and Lucy and I modeled an essay using that central idea and our supporting details and elaborating on each to make complete paragraphs. Then wrote a conclusion. The children used the other central idea and wrote about essays with supporting details and elaboration giving examples that show Linus believing in the Great Pumpkin. We revised and edited today and will be writing our final copies today. We will continue writing essays next week and writing some more poetry as well as letters to our pen pals.
Math-We have been working on elapsed time, temperature, interpreting bar graphs, math vocabulary, combinations, and problem solving. We did a logic problem and used a grid and clues to figure out which boy wore which costume and had which favorite candy. We made all possible combinations if we had three types of pumpkin stickers, two hat stickers, and two accessories stickers. We shared lots of strategies to figure out all possibilities including a tree diagram and multiplication. We did some challenging math puzzles as well and talked about how it is ok to be frustrated with a problem but to keep working on it and sticking with it trying new things, talking to others, and many times we can figure it out. We reminded each other of the quote by Einstein saying, "I am not smarter. I just stick with problems longer." I am impressed with how many interesting strategies the kids come up with for problems and how receptive the others are to trying out new strategies.
Social Studies-Explorers in Texas have been our focus this year. We are discussing the lives of Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, and La Salle. We have discussed that the Europeans were conquering new lands with the goals of God, Glory, and Gold in mind. The Spanish did a lot of exploring in Texas then stopped for about 100 years when they didn't find gold, however, their interest in the land in Texas increased again after the French and La Salle started to claim some land. That is when the missions and the converting of the natives began.
Science-We will be continuing with our study of energy next week.
Dates to remember:
Saturday, November 3-Volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center from 9-10
Tuesday, November 6-Election Day-Be sure to vote!
Thursday, November 8-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45
Friday, November 2-Fundraising orders coming home today
Friday, November 9-Groovy-o-Rama 4th grade performance at 10 am
Tuesday, November 13-Pen Pal Visit at 10 am in library
Thursday, November 15-Thanksgiving Meal at school
Have a great weekend and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for sharing your children with me.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a fun week and worked hard while having fun with some Halloween activities.
We completed our Class Book and will be sending it off to the publisher today. We brainstormed ideas about fall with our pen pals and many of us wrote some fall poetry with them. We then took our notes back to class, read lots of poems, discussed poetry vocabulary (stanza, line breaks, rhythm, rhyme, free verse, lyrical, metaphor, simile, imagery, word choice, etc...) and wrote more poems. We revised and edited and typed our poems for a page in our class book. Then decorated a page with photographs of our pen pals and us together during our visits. All together the book turned out very well. If you still want to make a purchase, get the money to me by the end of the day. You can still order books after they are published but it costs a little more. Our published book will be here before the December break. Also our Pen Pals coming on November 13 at 10:00. Come join us for the visit.
Sage, our python until Thursday, is doing well. She is less active now that she is warmer. (We put a heating pad under her cage and that has made her very happy.
Read about our week:
Reading-This week we have been learning about poetry and reading tons of poems. We compared and contrasted a lyrical and free verse poem. We also used technology to watch two filmmakers interpretations of the same poem. The poem, Enter this Deserted House, was made into videos by two different filmmakers. One had images of nature but a creepy kind of voice and then one part of the poem talked about goblins and showed a shark grabbing a seal. It ended with a message about taking care of our planet. We talked about how the pictures at first were pretty but the voice was scary which increased suspense to the shark part but we liked the message. The other filmmaker used clips from Psycho and had video of the Bates motel. The images, the voice, and the background sounds were all creepy and dark right from the beginning, and there was a surprise at the end which made them scream. It was so fun to see the ways that different people can use media and interpret poetry very differently. It was also fun to be a little scared. We will be learning more about poetry next week.
Writing-Charlie Brown helped us practice writing essays this week. We watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while taking notes about two central ideas. One central idea was that Charlie Brown should not trust Lucy. Another was Linus truly believed in the Great Pumpkin. We watched and took notes on examples and reasons to support our central ideas. We talked about Charlie Brown and Lucy and I modeled an essay using that central idea and our supporting details and elaborating on each to make complete paragraphs. Then wrote a conclusion. The children used the other central idea and wrote about essays with supporting details and elaboration giving examples that show Linus believing in the Great Pumpkin. We revised and edited today and will be writing our final copies today. We will continue writing essays next week and writing some more poetry as well as letters to our pen pals.
Math-We have been working on elapsed time, temperature, interpreting bar graphs, math vocabulary, combinations, and problem solving. We did a logic problem and used a grid and clues to figure out which boy wore which costume and had which favorite candy. We made all possible combinations if we had three types of pumpkin stickers, two hat stickers, and two accessories stickers. We shared lots of strategies to figure out all possibilities including a tree diagram and multiplication. We did some challenging math puzzles as well and talked about how it is ok to be frustrated with a problem but to keep working on it and sticking with it trying new things, talking to others, and many times we can figure it out. We reminded each other of the quote by Einstein saying, "I am not smarter. I just stick with problems longer." I am impressed with how many interesting strategies the kids come up with for problems and how receptive the others are to trying out new strategies.
Social Studies-Explorers in Texas have been our focus this year. We are discussing the lives of Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, and La Salle. We have discussed that the Europeans were conquering new lands with the goals of God, Glory, and Gold in mind. The Spanish did a lot of exploring in Texas then stopped for about 100 years when they didn't find gold, however, their interest in the land in Texas increased again after the French and La Salle started to claim some land. That is when the missions and the converting of the natives began.
Science-We will be continuing with our study of energy next week.
Dates to remember:
Saturday, November 3-Volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center from 9-10
Tuesday, November 6-Election Day-Be sure to vote!
Thursday, November 8-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45
Friday, November 2-Fundraising orders coming home today
Friday, November 9-Groovy-o-Rama 4th grade performance at 10 am
Tuesday, November 13-Pen Pal Visit at 10 am in library
Thursday, November 15-Thanksgiving Meal at school
Have a great weekend and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for sharing your children with me.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Hi,
We had a wonderful week. Red Ribbon Week was great and we learned a lot about making good choices and staying healthy. We had our photos taken on Tuesday and met the firefighters for an assembly on Friday. We finally said goodbye to our tarantula and hello to a snake. We have a beautiful ball python in our room for two weeks. Her name is Sage. (now we have two Sages) and she seems to be starting to shed. She has been fairly active so far and we will be doing some snake research on Monday. Ask your child about Sage our snake!
Electronics Day will be on Wednesday. The class has earned enough Howler tickets to purchase an Electronics Party. (250 Howlers!) Electronic devices ( MP3 player, DS, Playstation, etc..) are allowed for 30 minutes at the end of the day. All electronics will be kept in backpacks for the rest of the day. I told the kids to really think carefully before deciding to bring in something special that has the potential to be lost or broken. Anyone who doesn't bring in an electronic device can play games (from our school's websites) on the Netbooks. Earbuds must be brought to school if listening to music and only the child with the music will be allowed to listen. All games played have to be rated E for everyone if they are played in the classroom. Any chatting electronically needs to be appropriate and respectful. Electronics Party can be very fun but we need to follow some rules. Let me know if you have any questions.
Purchase one of our Class Books! Orders due by next Friday. We are writing a class poetry book. We brainstormed ideas about fall with our pen pals and began writing poetry with them. Then we wrote more poems individually and we will each create a page in our class book. We will be sending the book off to the publisher on Friday, Nov. 2. You will find an order form in your child's Thursday folder. Please fill out with a yes (with payment) or a no, sign, and return. We will be making individual books in the spring and you will receive a free book in the spring if you return the fall class book form with a yes or no. The poetry book is turning out well and we will be including photos of us with our pen pals in the books also. I am excited about our class book! Thank you for returning your forms.
Read about our week.
Reading-We read non-fiction or expository text this week from our Health textbook to gain information about the effects of drugs, smoking, and alcohol on our bodies. We especially looked at the charts and graphs and interpreting the data in them. We used National Geographic Explorer and focused on text features (photos, diagrams, captions, subtitles, charts, maps, drawings, glossary, table of contents, etc..) and discussed how these text features help us to understand the information in the text. We also read some articles independently and wrote F/Q/R charts (facts, questions, response) Finishing our book club books was also exciting this week. We wrote responses and discussed our books in groups. We also went to our class moodle and discussed our book using a chat with the others in our group. Very exciting!
Writing-Our first benchmark or CBA (Curriculum Based Assessment) was completed on Monday. The children practiced reading a prompt, brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing a final copy all independently. They wrote personal narratives in the 2 hour time limit. They will be taking the STARR writing test in the spring. The next day we reviewed the format of an essay and the format of a personal narrative. We read a poem called Jellybeans up your Nose which talks about being true to yourself and not doing something bad just because someone cool does it. We compared this to the messages in Red Ribbon Week and wrote about our thoughts, feelings, connections, etc... then wrote "this makes me think that......" or "this makes me realize....." or "I used to think ___________ but now I think ________________". These types of statements help to bring the children to a deeper level of thinking about their concepts which could turn into central ideas for essays. We noticed things in the room and then challenged our thinking with one of the statements, and we watched a video about a dog and an elephant and wrote about it pushing our thinking to find a bigger idea. We continued gathering essay entries and we will be choosing one idea to use in our next essay piece which we will be starting next week.
Math-Learning about patterns, balanced equations, and algebraic equations has been fun and we will continue with these concepts in our problem solving all year. We also a practicing using more math vocabulary and will have an assessment on our vocabulary words on Wednesday, October 31. We also examined graphs and practiced interpreting them and writing our own questions about the graphs. The cold front helped us as we practiced working with temperature. It gave us some extreme temperatures to compare. Elapsed time is another concept that we worked with a little this week and will continue with throughout the year.
Science-We began examining forms of energy-electrical, light, sound, mechanical, and thermal or heat energy. We will continue learning about energy.
Social Studies-Early Texans have been interesting to study. We read an article and completed a venn diagram to compare Early Texans and Texans of Today. Riya made a beautiful model of a Caddo village for extra credit! Thank you for extending extra effort! Next we will be learning about explorers.
Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, October 31-Math Vocabulary test
Thursday, November 1-Writing Club begins in library 2:45-3:45 (pick up in front of school)
Friday, November 2-Class book order forms due. (yes or no)
Saturday, November 3-Service Club trip to Round Rock Serving Center-9-10am
Friday, November 9-Groovy-O-Rama 10:00am fourth grade
Tuesday, November 13-TAG Informational Meeting at 5:15 pm, PTA meeting at 6:30 pm, Reflections Gallery Night at &:00 pm
Have a wonderful week! Be sure to read, write, and practice math!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a wonderful week. Red Ribbon Week was great and we learned a lot about making good choices and staying healthy. We had our photos taken on Tuesday and met the firefighters for an assembly on Friday. We finally said goodbye to our tarantula and hello to a snake. We have a beautiful ball python in our room for two weeks. Her name is Sage. (now we have two Sages) and she seems to be starting to shed. She has been fairly active so far and we will be doing some snake research on Monday. Ask your child about Sage our snake!
Electronics Day will be on Wednesday. The class has earned enough Howler tickets to purchase an Electronics Party. (250 Howlers!) Electronic devices ( MP3 player, DS, Playstation, etc..) are allowed for 30 minutes at the end of the day. All electronics will be kept in backpacks for the rest of the day. I told the kids to really think carefully before deciding to bring in something special that has the potential to be lost or broken. Anyone who doesn't bring in an electronic device can play games (from our school's websites) on the Netbooks. Earbuds must be brought to school if listening to music and only the child with the music will be allowed to listen. All games played have to be rated E for everyone if they are played in the classroom. Any chatting electronically needs to be appropriate and respectful. Electronics Party can be very fun but we need to follow some rules. Let me know if you have any questions.
Purchase one of our Class Books! Orders due by next Friday. We are writing a class poetry book. We brainstormed ideas about fall with our pen pals and began writing poetry with them. Then we wrote more poems individually and we will each create a page in our class book. We will be sending the book off to the publisher on Friday, Nov. 2. You will find an order form in your child's Thursday folder. Please fill out with a yes (with payment) or a no, sign, and return. We will be making individual books in the spring and you will receive a free book in the spring if you return the fall class book form with a yes or no. The poetry book is turning out well and we will be including photos of us with our pen pals in the books also. I am excited about our class book! Thank you for returning your forms.
Read about our week.
Reading-We read non-fiction or expository text this week from our Health textbook to gain information about the effects of drugs, smoking, and alcohol on our bodies. We especially looked at the charts and graphs and interpreting the data in them. We used National Geographic Explorer and focused on text features (photos, diagrams, captions, subtitles, charts, maps, drawings, glossary, table of contents, etc..) and discussed how these text features help us to understand the information in the text. We also read some articles independently and wrote F/Q/R charts (facts, questions, response) Finishing our book club books was also exciting this week. We wrote responses and discussed our books in groups. We also went to our class moodle and discussed our book using a chat with the others in our group. Very exciting!
Writing-Our first benchmark or CBA (Curriculum Based Assessment) was completed on Monday. The children practiced reading a prompt, brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing a final copy all independently. They wrote personal narratives in the 2 hour time limit. They will be taking the STARR writing test in the spring. The next day we reviewed the format of an essay and the format of a personal narrative. We read a poem called Jellybeans up your Nose which talks about being true to yourself and not doing something bad just because someone cool does it. We compared this to the messages in Red Ribbon Week and wrote about our thoughts, feelings, connections, etc... then wrote "this makes me think that......" or "this makes me realize....." or "I used to think ___________ but now I think ________________". These types of statements help to bring the children to a deeper level of thinking about their concepts which could turn into central ideas for essays. We noticed things in the room and then challenged our thinking with one of the statements, and we watched a video about a dog and an elephant and wrote about it pushing our thinking to find a bigger idea. We continued gathering essay entries and we will be choosing one idea to use in our next essay piece which we will be starting next week.
Math-Learning about patterns, balanced equations, and algebraic equations has been fun and we will continue with these concepts in our problem solving all year. We also a practicing using more math vocabulary and will have an assessment on our vocabulary words on Wednesday, October 31. We also examined graphs and practiced interpreting them and writing our own questions about the graphs. The cold front helped us as we practiced working with temperature. It gave us some extreme temperatures to compare. Elapsed time is another concept that we worked with a little this week and will continue with throughout the year.
Science-We began examining forms of energy-electrical, light, sound, mechanical, and thermal or heat energy. We will continue learning about energy.
Social Studies-Early Texans have been interesting to study. We read an article and completed a venn diagram to compare Early Texans and Texans of Today. Riya made a beautiful model of a Caddo village for extra credit! Thank you for extending extra effort! Next we will be learning about explorers.
Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, October 31-Math Vocabulary test
Thursday, November 1-Writing Club begins in library 2:45-3:45 (pick up in front of school)
Friday, November 2-Class book order forms due. (yes or no)
Saturday, November 3-Service Club trip to Round Rock Serving Center-9-10am
Friday, November 9-Groovy-O-Rama 10:00am fourth grade
Tuesday, November 13-TAG Informational Meeting at 5:15 pm, PTA meeting at 6:30 pm, Reflections Gallery Night at &:00 pm
Have a wonderful week! Be sure to read, write, and practice math!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, October 12, 2012
Great Week! Pen Pals and Phil Bildner come next week!
Hi,
We had a busy and great week! We had to say goodbye to our friend, the tarantula. We enjoyed observing and learning about him/her.
Thank you for meeting with me during conferences. I enjoyed seeing all of you and discussing your child’s goals. Thank you for all your support and, as always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Most of us wore orange on Wednesday to celebrate National Bully-Free Day! We talked about treating others with respect and watched a bullying Brain-pop!
The FCE Service Club is leading a Diaper Drive for the Round Rock Serving Center. When we volunteered at the center in September, we noticed a few clients asking for diapers and that shelf was empty! If you would like to donate diapers (any size) ask your child to drop them off in the box outside of the office. Thank you!
Our pen pals are coming on Tuesday! We are excited to see them and wrote letters to them today. We will be planning some activities for our visit on Monday.
On Monday, we will have our entire fourth grade will have a visit with the author, Phil Bildner! We are so excited about meeting him and learning about writing from him.
Read about our week:
Reading-We read a book called, The Other Side, which is a realistic fiction book. The book was about an African American girl and a white girl who live next door with a fence separating their yards. They watch each other from their respective sides of the fence and finally become friends. They hope that someday that fence will be knocked down. We talked about what that meant, metaphorically, and discussed a bit about civil rights. We did lots of independent reading then practiced leaving tracks of our thinking. We also read some books about matter.
Writing-Most of us finished our final copy of our personal narrative as well as our essays on No Hate Schools. We wrote these essays for a contest sponsored by Austin Family Magazine. We learned the basic format for an essay and that a personal narrative tells a story but an essay teaches something. We wrote about ways that we could make our school a safe place for everyone regardless of their differences. We will continue writing essays using topics of our choice next week.
Math-We had a great time working with patterns and algebra. Input/output charts, repeating patterns, and growing patterns have all been fun! We look for a pattern and then work to discover a formula with an unknown that can be used to work with that pattern. We also continued with multiplication and division within problem solving situations. We will be working more with algebra and patterns next week and beginning work with time and temperature.
Science-Changes in matter experiments have been fun! We put ice and salt in an aluminum can and stirred. It was cool to see the frost form on the outside of the can. We also put blue food coloring and ice in a plastic cup of water. Water droplets formed on the outside of the cup and when we wiped the droplets with a white paper towel the towel wasn’t blue. These two explorations helped us realize that the water and frost did not come through the cup or can but were the result of the cool container cooling the warm air around it and the condensation came from the air, not from the inside out of the container! We also discussed insulation and tested some materials by wrapping ice in Styrofoam, bubble wrap, flannel, sand, and towels. The sand and the flannel was the least effective insulation. The others were all about the same. Reminder: We are having a test on matter on Thursday, October 18. Be sure to go to Stemscopes (FCE site, for students, Stemscopes, username: Bartholomew, password: bats) to study.
Social Studies: We began researching early Texans. Each group will research a tribe and present the information to the class. We will be focusing on the following facts: in which region did they live, what natural resources did they use, what type of food did they eat and how did they get it, what was the appearance of the homes, were the people nomadic (moved in search of food) or non-nomadic (permanent houses).
Each group will be presenting their information to the class soon. If your child would like to do some extra credit work: he/she can create something extra about their tribe (poster, diorama, play, movie, power point, etc….)
Dates to remember:
Monday, October 15-Phil Bildner visit!
Tuesday, October 16-Pen Pal Visit in library, 9:30-11:00
Thursday, October 18-Matter Test, Writing Club begins in library-2:45-3:45
Friday, October 19-Spirit Day!
Saturday, October 20-Service Club Volunteers at Round Rock Serving Center 9-10
Tuesday, October 23-Individual Photo Day
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a busy and great week! We had to say goodbye to our friend, the tarantula. We enjoyed observing and learning about him/her.
Thank you for meeting with me during conferences. I enjoyed seeing all of you and discussing your child’s goals. Thank you for all your support and, as always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Most of us wore orange on Wednesday to celebrate National Bully-Free Day! We talked about treating others with respect and watched a bullying Brain-pop!
The FCE Service Club is leading a Diaper Drive for the Round Rock Serving Center. When we volunteered at the center in September, we noticed a few clients asking for diapers and that shelf was empty! If you would like to donate diapers (any size) ask your child to drop them off in the box outside of the office. Thank you!
Our pen pals are coming on Tuesday! We are excited to see them and wrote letters to them today. We will be planning some activities for our visit on Monday.
On Monday, we will have our entire fourth grade will have a visit with the author, Phil Bildner! We are so excited about meeting him and learning about writing from him.
Read about our week:
Reading-We read a book called, The Other Side, which is a realistic fiction book. The book was about an African American girl and a white girl who live next door with a fence separating their yards. They watch each other from their respective sides of the fence and finally become friends. They hope that someday that fence will be knocked down. We talked about what that meant, metaphorically, and discussed a bit about civil rights. We did lots of independent reading then practiced leaving tracks of our thinking. We also read some books about matter.
Writing-Most of us finished our final copy of our personal narrative as well as our essays on No Hate Schools. We wrote these essays for a contest sponsored by Austin Family Magazine. We learned the basic format for an essay and that a personal narrative tells a story but an essay teaches something. We wrote about ways that we could make our school a safe place for everyone regardless of their differences. We will continue writing essays using topics of our choice next week.
Math-We had a great time working with patterns and algebra. Input/output charts, repeating patterns, and growing patterns have all been fun! We look for a pattern and then work to discover a formula with an unknown that can be used to work with that pattern. We also continued with multiplication and division within problem solving situations. We will be working more with algebra and patterns next week and beginning work with time and temperature.
Science-Changes in matter experiments have been fun! We put ice and salt in an aluminum can and stirred. It was cool to see the frost form on the outside of the can. We also put blue food coloring and ice in a plastic cup of water. Water droplets formed on the outside of the cup and when we wiped the droplets with a white paper towel the towel wasn’t blue. These two explorations helped us realize that the water and frost did not come through the cup or can but were the result of the cool container cooling the warm air around it and the condensation came from the air, not from the inside out of the container! We also discussed insulation and tested some materials by wrapping ice in Styrofoam, bubble wrap, flannel, sand, and towels. The sand and the flannel was the least effective insulation. The others were all about the same. Reminder: We are having a test on matter on Thursday, October 18. Be sure to go to Stemscopes (FCE site, for students, Stemscopes, username: Bartholomew, password: bats) to study.
Social Studies: We began researching early Texans. Each group will research a tribe and present the information to the class. We will be focusing on the following facts: in which region did they live, what natural resources did they use, what type of food did they eat and how did they get it, what was the appearance of the homes, were the people nomadic (moved in search of food) or non-nomadic (permanent houses).
Each group will be presenting their information to the class soon. If your child would like to do some extra credit work: he/she can create something extra about their tribe (poster, diorama, play, movie, power point, etc….)
Dates to remember:
Monday, October 15-Phil Bildner visit!
Tuesday, October 16-Pen Pal Visit in library, 9:30-11:00
Thursday, October 18-Matter Test, Writing Club begins in library-2:45-3:45
Friday, October 19-Spirit Day!
Saturday, October 20-Service Club Volunteers at Round Rock Serving Center 9-10
Tuesday, October 23-Individual Photo Day
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Busy and Fun Week! No school for students on Monday. I look forward to meeting with you and your child for conferences on Monday and Wednesday.
Hi,
We had a fun and busy week.
Book Fair will be held in the library from Monday (even though we have conferences and no classes) to Friday. It will be open late on Tuesday evening and Darth Vadar will be there. Bring your change because we are collecting coins for Coats for Kids in the library. Team HOWL, a relay for life team of faculty and staff of FCE, will also be having a bake sale on Tuesday evening. Come and enjoy some treats and buy some books!
Wear college clothing on Mondays and green, purple, or Forest Creek Elementary shirts on Friday.
Wear ORANGE on Wednesday to show unity for Bullying Prevention Month.
Art Fundraiser forms and artwork was in your child's Thursday folders. Your child's artwork can make beautiful gifts and keepsakes. It also can make cute and memorable holiday presents for family members.
Phil Bildner is coming! A former teacher and children's author is coming to our school on Monday, October 15. He has been at our school before and the fourth graders will get to spend an hour with him in a writing workshop. Mr. Bildner is very entertaining and informative. The kids are going to love meeting and working with him. There is an opportunity to pre-order some of his books and he will sign them for you. For every book that you pre-order, your child will get their name in a drawing for lunch with Mr. Bildner on Monday. (lunch from home or school but in the library with ten other kids and the author.) An order form will be coming home on Tuesday and you can check out his website at http://philbildner.com/.
Our tarantula is with us for another week and is beginning to come out from under his log and see us a bit more. We are reading expository or nonfiction text about spiders and also a fiction story about spiders. We will be comparing the two genres with a similar topic on Tuesday.
Our class has a garden box and planted some small vegetable plants on Friday. We will be planting some seeds on Tuesday. Comparing the plants and the seeds will be interesting as well as weeding, watering, and harvesting our vegetables. Thank you to Mrs. McCulloch for helping us.
Read about our week:
Reading-I read a book called Encounter to the class on Friday and didn't show them the illustrations. They had to make inferences and predictions based on the text and their background knowledge. The book is especially interesting because it is about the landing of Christopher Columbus in San Salvador but it is from a native boy's point of view. Ask your child about it.
Writing-Almost everyone finished taking their personal narrative from their draft book and rewriting it on notebook paper. Our next step is to edit. (add paragraphs, correct capitalization, spelling, and punctuation) Then the writing of our final copy will begin! We are planning to finish with these narratives on Tuesday and Wednesday and then will begin writing essays.
Math-We have been doing very well working with multiplication and division concepts and applying them to problem solving situations. We will continue sharing strategies for multiplication and division and will be working with patterns this week. Algebra-here we come!
Science-Matter experiments were fun this week. We classified items as magnetic/non-magnetic, sink/float, solid/liquid/gas, and according to other properties of the student's choice. Using three unidentified substances in film canisters, we measured and recorded their mass using a triple beam balance then shook each container and described what we heard and felt. We measured the volume of the substance by putting 400 ml of water in a beaker, then dropping the container into the beaker and measuring the water level after the water was displaced. We then subtracted the two water levels to determine the approximate volume. We also used water that was red, blue, and green with food coloring and placed drops of the water into a thin graduated cylinder to see which water was the most dense. We had to try different sequences of water colors to determine the order of the density so that we could see layers of liquid. The water had different densities because I added a lot of salt into one of the containers, some salt in the other, and no salt in the third container. We learned that liquid can have different densities.We will be conducting some more explorations with matter and changes in matter this week.
Social Studies-This week we will begin learning about Early Texans. We will think about the landforms, resources, and climate of each region and the tribes that lived there.
Dates to Remember:
Book fair-all week, Tuesday evening late hours
Monday, October 8- Conferences/No school students
Wednesday, October 10-WEAR ORANGE-Anti-bullying
Thursday, October 11-Service Club meeting
Friday, October 12-Art Fundraiser orders due
Monday, October 15-Phil Bildner visits!
Wednesday, October 17-Pen Pals Visit-9:30 in library
Monday, October 22-October 26-Red Ribbon Week
Tuesday, October 23-Individual Picture Day
Wednesday, October 24-Early Release Day-Kona Ice at school
Friday, October 26-Fire Department assembly
Friday, November 9-10:00am Groovy-O-Rama
Have a great weekend! See you at your child's conference!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a fun and busy week.
Book Fair will be held in the library from Monday (even though we have conferences and no classes) to Friday. It will be open late on Tuesday evening and Darth Vadar will be there. Bring your change because we are collecting coins for Coats for Kids in the library. Team HOWL, a relay for life team of faculty and staff of FCE, will also be having a bake sale on Tuesday evening. Come and enjoy some treats and buy some books!
Wear college clothing on Mondays and green, purple, or Forest Creek Elementary shirts on Friday.
Wear ORANGE on Wednesday to show unity for Bullying Prevention Month.
Art Fundraiser forms and artwork was in your child's Thursday folders. Your child's artwork can make beautiful gifts and keepsakes. It also can make cute and memorable holiday presents for family members.
Phil Bildner is coming! A former teacher and children's author is coming to our school on Monday, October 15. He has been at our school before and the fourth graders will get to spend an hour with him in a writing workshop. Mr. Bildner is very entertaining and informative. The kids are going to love meeting and working with him. There is an opportunity to pre-order some of his books and he will sign them for you. For every book that you pre-order, your child will get their name in a drawing for lunch with Mr. Bildner on Monday. (lunch from home or school but in the library with ten other kids and the author.) An order form will be coming home on Tuesday and you can check out his website at http://philbildner.com/.
Our tarantula is with us for another week and is beginning to come out from under his log and see us a bit more. We are reading expository or nonfiction text about spiders and also a fiction story about spiders. We will be comparing the two genres with a similar topic on Tuesday.
Our class has a garden box and planted some small vegetable plants on Friday. We will be planting some seeds on Tuesday. Comparing the plants and the seeds will be interesting as well as weeding, watering, and harvesting our vegetables. Thank you to Mrs. McCulloch for helping us.
Read about our week:
Reading-I read a book called Encounter to the class on Friday and didn't show them the illustrations. They had to make inferences and predictions based on the text and their background knowledge. The book is especially interesting because it is about the landing of Christopher Columbus in San Salvador but it is from a native boy's point of view. Ask your child about it.
Writing-Almost everyone finished taking their personal narrative from their draft book and rewriting it on notebook paper. Our next step is to edit. (add paragraphs, correct capitalization, spelling, and punctuation) Then the writing of our final copy will begin! We are planning to finish with these narratives on Tuesday and Wednesday and then will begin writing essays.
Math-We have been doing very well working with multiplication and division concepts and applying them to problem solving situations. We will continue sharing strategies for multiplication and division and will be working with patterns this week. Algebra-here we come!
Science-Matter experiments were fun this week. We classified items as magnetic/non-magnetic, sink/float, solid/liquid/gas, and according to other properties of the student's choice. Using three unidentified substances in film canisters, we measured and recorded their mass using a triple beam balance then shook each container and described what we heard and felt. We measured the volume of the substance by putting 400 ml of water in a beaker, then dropping the container into the beaker and measuring the water level after the water was displaced. We then subtracted the two water levels to determine the approximate volume. We also used water that was red, blue, and green with food coloring and placed drops of the water into a thin graduated cylinder to see which water was the most dense. We had to try different sequences of water colors to determine the order of the density so that we could see layers of liquid. The water had different densities because I added a lot of salt into one of the containers, some salt in the other, and no salt in the third container. We learned that liquid can have different densities.We will be conducting some more explorations with matter and changes in matter this week.
Social Studies-This week we will begin learning about Early Texans. We will think about the landforms, resources, and climate of each region and the tribes that lived there.
Dates to Remember:
Book fair-all week, Tuesday evening late hours
Monday, October 8- Conferences/No school students
Wednesday, October 10-WEAR ORANGE-Anti-bullying
Thursday, October 11-Service Club meeting
Friday, October 12-Art Fundraiser orders due
Monday, October 15-Phil Bildner visits!
Wednesday, October 17-Pen Pals Visit-9:30 in library
Monday, October 22-October 26-Red Ribbon Week
Tuesday, October 23-Individual Picture Day
Wednesday, October 24-Early Release Day-Kona Ice at school
Friday, October 26-Fire Department assembly
Friday, November 9-10:00am Groovy-O-Rama
Have a great weekend! See you at your child's conference!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, September 28, 2012
Pen Pal Visit was Wonderful! Fundraiser due Monday. Book orders due online today. Sign up for conferences.
Hi,
We had a wonderful visit with our pen pals on Friday. Everyone was excited and it was amazing to see everyone sharing stories and so engaged! Using photos from the playground and foam shapes, the children each made a present for their pen pal. They also each wrote them a card. We interviewed the pen pals using questions generated by the kids. Then the kids shared their Texas maps and played games. Everyone had a fun time. (One of the pen pals kept talking and didn't want to get on the bus!) Thank you to those parents who were able to stop by and interact with the pen pals as well. The pen pals will be coming again on October 17 from 9:30-10:45.
We had fun with our dads this morning. The kids measured a 25 cm by 25 cm square and made aluminum foil boats. Their task was to create a boat that would float and hold as many pennies as possible. We had fun and some frustration making the boats and then testing and revising them as we tried floating them and piling on the pennies. We discussed the models of boats that held the most and the surface area of the boats. We all had a great time.
Education Go Get It Week has been amazing! We colored pennants representing our favorite college, we dressed in college t-shirts and dressed up to represent our future profession. We wrote resumes and talked a lot about the importance of effort in all that they do. Being smart is important, but even the smartest people need to put effort into their learning to succeed.
Our class Moodle page is up and running. The kids can go on line on the Moodle at home and at school to participate in discussions with others in our class, write in a journal, link to websites, etc... Go to our school web site, for students, Moodle, then the log in using their 126/lastname/first initial and their id number (used in the cafeteria etc...) Then click on Bartholomew 4th grade and get started.
We had a great turn out for our first FCE Service Club meeting! We will be meeting at the Round Rock Serving Center tomorrow from 9-10 to volunteer. Everyone is inviting to come and join us! (You don't have to be a service club member.)
Read about our week:
Reading-We used post-it notes to leave tracks of our thinking as we read. On the post-its we wrote our questions (and included answers when possible), predictions, connections, as well as our thoughts and feelings about what we read.
Writing-We are finishing up our personal narratives by adding more details using "show, not tell". We aren't just telling what is happening or how we are feeling, we are showing it using our senses, slowing down the action, and zooming into the details.
We also worked on revising our endings to include the reasons why this event was important or meaningful to us and what we learned from it.
Math-We worked on more multi-step problem solving using multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. We also worked on strategies to use when subtracting with regrouping especially using larger numbers with several zeros. We also always add to check when subtracting. Keep practicing facts at home as well as finding math in everyday situations.
Social Studies-We worked in groups to make a large map of Texas which shows the regions, major cities and rivers, as well as products and resources and where they are found or produced around our state.
Science-We are beginning our unit on matter this week.
Dates to Remember:
Friday, September 29-Book orders due online
Saturday, September 30-Volunteer at the Round Rock Serving Center
Monday, October 1-Fundraiser money and orders due. Chick Fil A Family Night-Pflugerville
Wednesday, October 3-Walk to School Day
Monday, October 8-No school for students-Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences
Wednesday, October 17-Pen Pals come to FCE
FYI:
Explore UT: Save the Date
Mark your calendar for “Explore UT: The Biggest Open House in Texas!"
When: Saturday, March 2, 2013, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: The University of Texas at Austin
Who's invited: Students K-12, teachers, and families. Everyone is welcome
Cost: Free, no sign-up for activities. Lunch is NOT included
Web site: www.utexas.edu/events/exploreut Look for an updated website by mid-December.
Thank you for sharing your child with me. Be sure to read, write,and do math each day. Have a safe and fun weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a wonderful visit with our pen pals on Friday. Everyone was excited and it was amazing to see everyone sharing stories and so engaged! Using photos from the playground and foam shapes, the children each made a present for their pen pal. They also each wrote them a card. We interviewed the pen pals using questions generated by the kids. Then the kids shared their Texas maps and played games. Everyone had a fun time. (One of the pen pals kept talking and didn't want to get on the bus!) Thank you to those parents who were able to stop by and interact with the pen pals as well. The pen pals will be coming again on October 17 from 9:30-10:45.
We had fun with our dads this morning. The kids measured a 25 cm by 25 cm square and made aluminum foil boats. Their task was to create a boat that would float and hold as many pennies as possible. We had fun and some frustration making the boats and then testing and revising them as we tried floating them and piling on the pennies. We discussed the models of boats that held the most and the surface area of the boats. We all had a great time.
Education Go Get It Week has been amazing! We colored pennants representing our favorite college, we dressed in college t-shirts and dressed up to represent our future profession. We wrote resumes and talked a lot about the importance of effort in all that they do. Being smart is important, but even the smartest people need to put effort into their learning to succeed.
Our class Moodle page is up and running. The kids can go on line on the Moodle at home and at school to participate in discussions with others in our class, write in a journal, link to websites, etc... Go to our school web site, for students, Moodle, then the log in using their 126/lastname/first initial and their id number (used in the cafeteria etc...) Then click on Bartholomew 4th grade and get started.
We had a great turn out for our first FCE Service Club meeting! We will be meeting at the Round Rock Serving Center tomorrow from 9-10 to volunteer. Everyone is inviting to come and join us! (You don't have to be a service club member.)
Read about our week:
Reading-We used post-it notes to leave tracks of our thinking as we read. On the post-its we wrote our questions (and included answers when possible), predictions, connections, as well as our thoughts and feelings about what we read.
Writing-We are finishing up our personal narratives by adding more details using "show, not tell". We aren't just telling what is happening or how we are feeling, we are showing it using our senses, slowing down the action, and zooming into the details.
We also worked on revising our endings to include the reasons why this event was important or meaningful to us and what we learned from it.
Math-We worked on more multi-step problem solving using multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. We also worked on strategies to use when subtracting with regrouping especially using larger numbers with several zeros. We also always add to check when subtracting. Keep practicing facts at home as well as finding math in everyday situations.
Social Studies-We worked in groups to make a large map of Texas which shows the regions, major cities and rivers, as well as products and resources and where they are found or produced around our state.
Science-We are beginning our unit on matter this week.
Dates to Remember:
Friday, September 29-Book orders due online
Saturday, September 30-Volunteer at the Round Rock Serving Center
Monday, October 1-Fundraiser money and orders due. Chick Fil A Family Night-Pflugerville
Wednesday, October 3-Walk to School Day
Monday, October 8-No school for students-Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences
Wednesday, October 17-Pen Pals come to FCE
FYI:
Explore UT: Save the Date
Mark your calendar for “Explore UT: The Biggest Open House in Texas!"
When: Saturday, March 2, 2013, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: The University of Texas at Austin
Who's invited: Students K-12, teachers, and families. Everyone is welcome
Cost: Free, no sign-up for activities. Lunch is NOT included
Web site: www.utexas.edu/events/exploreut Look for an updated website by mid-December.
Thank you for sharing your child with me. Be sure to read, write,and do math each day. Have a safe and fun weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, September 21, 2012
Freedom Week was Celebrated this week!
Hi,
This week is Freedom Week and September 17 is Constitution Day so we celebrated by singing the Preamble (Schoolhouse Rock) and reciting part of the Declaration of Independence. We also compared the Pledge of Allegiance to the Pledge to the Texas Flag and made a venn diagram to show similarities and differences. Brainpop is a fun way to learn new things and we used it to learn about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Read about our week:
Reading-We talked about recommending books that we love to others and trying out books that friends recommend. We also worked on leaving tracks of our thinking during a fiction book called Dear Al and discussed ways that the characters changed and possible themes of the story. We worked in small groups on summarizing, asking questions, and character descriptions. We brainstormed words with a -ly suffix and a -ish suffix and tried using them in sentences. We have been reading a lot at school. Be sure your child is reading a lot at home and talk to him/her about what he/she read.
Writing-We gathered more small moment entries and then chose one to take through revisions and editing and then possibly to publishing. We drafted leads and discovered that putting a few leads together seems to work best. (action, setting, dialogue leads) Ask your child about his or her draft and ask him/her to retell the story to you like a storyteller. You don't want a summary of the story, but you want to feel like you are part of the story because of the descriptions and details used.
Math-Arrays and multiplication strategies with problem solving has been our focus. We will continue working with multiplication and division. We will work on computational fluency as well as multi-step problems. Thanks for practicing facts at home and working on strategies.
Social Studies-We did Freedom Week activities and we took a virtual bus trip through Texas. We stopped in each region and looked at photos and took notes. We will write about our favorite regions and then will be working on a group project. Each group will create a poster-sized map of Texas with important things highlighter. Be sure and come and see them.
Science-We will be learning about classifying matter next week.
Dates to Remember:
Education Go Get It Week
Monday- Wear College Shirt
Tuesday-Hats off to College! Wear a hat.
Wednesday-Slip into College! Wear slippers
Thursday-Dress for Success! Wear an outfit that represents your future profession
Friday-I Promise to Graduate! Wear FCE, green, or purple pockets.
Thursday, September 27-PEN PAL VISIT!!!!!! You are welcome to join us! Library 9:30-10:45ish.
Thursday, September 27-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45 for 4th and 5th graders. Meet in my room and email or call with concerns.
Keep reading and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
This week is Freedom Week and September 17 is Constitution Day so we celebrated by singing the Preamble (Schoolhouse Rock) and reciting part of the Declaration of Independence. We also compared the Pledge of Allegiance to the Pledge to the Texas Flag and made a venn diagram to show similarities and differences. Brainpop is a fun way to learn new things and we used it to learn about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Read about our week:
Reading-We talked about recommending books that we love to others and trying out books that friends recommend. We also worked on leaving tracks of our thinking during a fiction book called Dear Al and discussed ways that the characters changed and possible themes of the story. We worked in small groups on summarizing, asking questions, and character descriptions. We brainstormed words with a -ly suffix and a -ish suffix and tried using them in sentences. We have been reading a lot at school. Be sure your child is reading a lot at home and talk to him/her about what he/she read.
Writing-We gathered more small moment entries and then chose one to take through revisions and editing and then possibly to publishing. We drafted leads and discovered that putting a few leads together seems to work best. (action, setting, dialogue leads) Ask your child about his or her draft and ask him/her to retell the story to you like a storyteller. You don't want a summary of the story, but you want to feel like you are part of the story because of the descriptions and details used.
Math-Arrays and multiplication strategies with problem solving has been our focus. We will continue working with multiplication and division. We will work on computational fluency as well as multi-step problems. Thanks for practicing facts at home and working on strategies.
Social Studies-We did Freedom Week activities and we took a virtual bus trip through Texas. We stopped in each region and looked at photos and took notes. We will write about our favorite regions and then will be working on a group project. Each group will create a poster-sized map of Texas with important things highlighter. Be sure and come and see them.
Science-We will be learning about classifying matter next week.
Dates to Remember:
Education Go Get It Week
Monday- Wear College Shirt
Tuesday-Hats off to College! Wear a hat.
Wednesday-Slip into College! Wear slippers
Thursday-Dress for Success! Wear an outfit that represents your future profession
Friday-I Promise to Graduate! Wear FCE, green, or purple pockets.
Thursday, September 27-PEN PAL VISIT!!!!!! You are welcome to join us! Library 9:30-10:45ish.
Thursday, September 27-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45 for 4th and 5th graders. Meet in my room and email or call with concerns.
Keep reading and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, September 14, 2012
Great Week! Early Release on Wed. Sept. 19 at 12:45, Cool Jazz Concert Friday PM
Hi,
We had another busy but wonderful week. It was quite emotional due to our discussions of the events of September 11, 2001 as well as the unity and hope felt after the tragedies. We also finished reading Stone Fox which has an unexpected and sad ending. Because the children were so engaged and in tune with the main character as I read, many of them began crying. We then talked about how well the author wrote so that we all felt as if we were right there in the story experiencing the entire thing firsthand. Ask your child about the book and how we are all striving to encourage an emotional response from the readers of our writing. We also want to get lost in our books when we read independently like we did with Stone Fox.
Here is a look at our week:
Reading-We read many articles from Scholastic about 9/11. We read and discussed a book about a Fireboat that helped control the fires when the water pipes were unable to be accessed and part of a biography of Fire Chief Peter Ganci. We then wrote Thank You cards for police officers and fire fighters. Senior Officer Schmidt, Sergeant Bazzle (Kyra's Dad!) and Detective Tines from the Austin Police Department made an appearance on broadcast on Friday. They came to accept the Thank You cards written by the students at our school. We also read a book about being accepting and not judgmental called Elmer the Dog then used sentences from the book to practice complete and incomplete sentences and capitals and punctuation. Writing about characters and character changes was a focus this week. Next week we will be working in small groups for reading.
Writing-We are collecting entries for our first personal narratives. So far we have written small moment stories about some special people, favorite places, and memorable things. We will continue collecting entries, choose one to publish, then will begin revising and editing.
Math-Mastering place value has been successful for most of us. We are now working on multiplication and division strategies. We will be using arrays, drawings, objects, and computational strategies to help us master the concept of multiplication and division and then will use that knowledge in real-life problem solving.
Science-Famous scientists was our focus for the week. We researched and discussed the contributions of Marie Curie, Sir Isaac Newton, Nicolas Copernicus, and Carl Linneaus. We also talked about the possibilities for science careers.
Social Studies-Next week is Celebrate Freedom Week and Monday is Constitution Day. We will be learning about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We will also be going on a virtual bus trip of Texas while we learn about the regions of our state.
Be sure that your child is reading everyday, writing often, and practicing math facts each day. Go to the math links on our class web site as well as links the site of other FCE teachers for some practice ideas.
Have a great weekend! Thank you for sharing your child with me!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, September 7, 2012
Another Great Week!
Hi,
We had another great week! Last week we earned the Spirit Stick because we had the most children wearing green, purple or FCE shirts. The kids have had a great time carrying it with us whenever we left the classroom. :)
Thank you to all the parents who were able to make it last night for Back to School Night. The power point that Mrs. Lehnick shared should be linked to the FCE website and I attached the Fourth Grade power point to this email. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you also for your amazing letters about your child. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them and learned a lot about your children. I feel like we have been together as a group for a long time and am VERY happy with the way they help each other and the amount of risk taking that is taking place so far. They all seem to feel comfortable and safe with each other and are excited about sharing their work and their ideas even if they may have made a mistake or if others don't agree with them. A trusted classroom environment is very conducive to learning and growing. I am so excited that we are well on our way to being that type of place for all of our class.
If you were here last night, you heard about an exciting research study. Texas I-CAN is a active learning project created by The University of Texas at Austin. All of our fourth graders will be playing active games to practice math skills. Your consent is needed so that your child can wear an accelerometer (step counter) for two weeks this year. One week in November and one in May. With your consent, the researchers will access your child's FitnessGram score, a few academic scores, and take part in some classroom observations. All the student information will be kept confidential, names removed, and will never be shared with anyone outside of the project staff. This project was created by my husband, who is a professor at UT and head of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education. If you have any concerns or questions, let me know. All students who return the consent form (checked yes or no) will receive a very cool I-CAN pencil! If you didn't get a form on Thursday night, one will be sent home on Monday.
Our class will be interacting with pen pals from The Court Retirement Facility. I have worked with The Court and their residents for 6 years. Our class will write letters introducing themselves on Monday and Tuesday. I will take them to the residents and we will match residents with fourth graders. Depending on the number of residents who will take part in our pen pal program this year, some of the children will share a pen pal with another child and other children will have a pen pal to him/herself. We will practice our writing skills by writing letters to our new friends about once or twice a month and our pen pals will come here to visit us at school each month beginning in Sept. You are welcome to come to take part in our visits. The children will be interviewing their pen pals about their childhoods and their life. Then making a class book about our pen pals later in the year. They will play games together, make bowls in art together for the Empty Bowl project, play PE games, and other fun activities. I find this program beneficial to all those involved. The children learn so much about the past as well as ways to be accepting and caring for others. The residents tell me often how important our visits are to them and how happy they are to be with the children. Some children today were asking if they could make pictures over the weekend for their pen pal or begin writing their letter. That would be wonderful and they are always welcome to make extra letters, drawings, origami, or whatever for our wonderful friends. I will let you know details of the first visit soon.
Here's what we did this week:
Reading-We are working on building our stamina and engagement during independent reading. We don't want to read books like curmudgeons but we want to read them as if they were as precious as gold. (ask your child about curmudgeons!) We are reading Stone Fox aloud and discussing elements of realistic fiction as well as character changes, plot, imagery, etc... We are also writing responses about the events and dilemmas in the story. Be sure that your child is in school on time. We are also reading The Ranger's Apprentice and begin each morning at about 7:35. This is a challenging and exciting book that we are reading and discussing as well.
Writing-Important poems were taken through the writing process this week. They brainstormed, made rough drafts, revised in an individual conference with me, edited with me also, then rewrote for publication. We worked hard on including similes, metaphors, and strong descriptions in these poems. Many of us practiced using a thesaurus and found very interesting words. We will be working on gathering ideas for personal narratives next week as well as writing letters to our pen pals.
Math-Place value, numeration, and problem solving has been our focus so far this year. We will be doing lots of multi-step problems throughout the year. Next week we will be using estimation to plan a Dream Vacation. We will also be working on multiplication concepts and strategies.
Social Studies-We began talking a bit about the regions of Texas through the use of our Texas photos. We will be learning more about Texas regions in the next few weeks.
Science-Safety and tools has been our focus. We will finish up our exploration of match box cars using the tools (measuring the distance traveled on a ramp, measuring the car and using a triple beam balance to determine mass, using a hand lens to see details, etc...) We will then be researching four famous scientists and talking about science careers.
Dates to remember:
Tuesday, September 11-Day of Remembrance and Service-We will be talking about the events of September 11. We will be writing and responding to some age-appropriate nonfiction articles and books.
Tuesday, September 11-PTA meeting and Watch DOGS kickoff
Friday, September 14-Kona Ice after school
Wednesday, September 19-Early Release Day
Thanks for sharing your child with me. Have a great weekend. Encourage your child to read and practice math facts. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had another great week! Last week we earned the Spirit Stick because we had the most children wearing green, purple or FCE shirts. The kids have had a great time carrying it with us whenever we left the classroom. :)
Thank you to all the parents who were able to make it last night for Back to School Night. The power point that Mrs. Lehnick shared should be linked to the FCE website and I attached the Fourth Grade power point to this email. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you also for your amazing letters about your child. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them and learned a lot about your children. I feel like we have been together as a group for a long time and am VERY happy with the way they help each other and the amount of risk taking that is taking place so far. They all seem to feel comfortable and safe with each other and are excited about sharing their work and their ideas even if they may have made a mistake or if others don't agree with them. A trusted classroom environment is very conducive to learning and growing. I am so excited that we are well on our way to being that type of place for all of our class.
If you were here last night, you heard about an exciting research study. Texas I-CAN is a active learning project created by The University of Texas at Austin. All of our fourth graders will be playing active games to practice math skills. Your consent is needed so that your child can wear an accelerometer (step counter) for two weeks this year. One week in November and one in May. With your consent, the researchers will access your child's FitnessGram score, a few academic scores, and take part in some classroom observations. All the student information will be kept confidential, names removed, and will never be shared with anyone outside of the project staff. This project was created by my husband, who is a professor at UT and head of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education. If you have any concerns or questions, let me know. All students who return the consent form (checked yes or no) will receive a very cool I-CAN pencil! If you didn't get a form on Thursday night, one will be sent home on Monday.
Our class will be interacting with pen pals from The Court Retirement Facility. I have worked with The Court and their residents for 6 years. Our class will write letters introducing themselves on Monday and Tuesday. I will take them to the residents and we will match residents with fourth graders. Depending on the number of residents who will take part in our pen pal program this year, some of the children will share a pen pal with another child and other children will have a pen pal to him/herself. We will practice our writing skills by writing letters to our new friends about once or twice a month and our pen pals will come here to visit us at school each month beginning in Sept. You are welcome to come to take part in our visits. The children will be interviewing their pen pals about their childhoods and their life. Then making a class book about our pen pals later in the year. They will play games together, make bowls in art together for the Empty Bowl project, play PE games, and other fun activities. I find this program beneficial to all those involved. The children learn so much about the past as well as ways to be accepting and caring for others. The residents tell me often how important our visits are to them and how happy they are to be with the children. Some children today were asking if they could make pictures over the weekend for their pen pal or begin writing their letter. That would be wonderful and they are always welcome to make extra letters, drawings, origami, or whatever for our wonderful friends. I will let you know details of the first visit soon.
Here's what we did this week:
Reading-We are working on building our stamina and engagement during independent reading. We don't want to read books like curmudgeons but we want to read them as if they were as precious as gold. (ask your child about curmudgeons!) We are reading Stone Fox aloud and discussing elements of realistic fiction as well as character changes, plot, imagery, etc... We are also writing responses about the events and dilemmas in the story. Be sure that your child is in school on time. We are also reading The Ranger's Apprentice and begin each morning at about 7:35. This is a challenging and exciting book that we are reading and discussing as well.
Writing-Important poems were taken through the writing process this week. They brainstormed, made rough drafts, revised in an individual conference with me, edited with me also, then rewrote for publication. We worked hard on including similes, metaphors, and strong descriptions in these poems. Many of us practiced using a thesaurus and found very interesting words. We will be working on gathering ideas for personal narratives next week as well as writing letters to our pen pals.
Math-Place value, numeration, and problem solving has been our focus so far this year. We will be doing lots of multi-step problems throughout the year. Next week we will be using estimation to plan a Dream Vacation. We will also be working on multiplication concepts and strategies.
Social Studies-We began talking a bit about the regions of Texas through the use of our Texas photos. We will be learning more about Texas regions in the next few weeks.
Science-Safety and tools has been our focus. We will finish up our exploration of match box cars using the tools (measuring the distance traveled on a ramp, measuring the car and using a triple beam balance to determine mass, using a hand lens to see details, etc...) We will then be researching four famous scientists and talking about science careers.
Dates to remember:
Tuesday, September 11-Day of Remembrance and Service-We will be talking about the events of September 11. We will be writing and responding to some age-appropriate nonfiction articles and books.
Tuesday, September 11-PTA meeting and Watch DOGS kickoff
Friday, September 14-Kona Ice after school
Wednesday, September 19-Early Release Day
Thanks for sharing your child with me. Have a great weekend. Encourage your child to read and practice math facts. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, August 31, 2012
Back to School NIght on Thurs. Sept. 6 at 6 pm, Decorated Writer's Notebook due on Tuesday
Hi,
We had a marvelous first week of school. We practiced routines and expectations but began some great learning as well.
Reading-We are working on reading longer and stronger. That means spending more time accurately reading books at our reading level that interest us. I have been so impressed with the amount of time we have been able to read and stay focused this week. We have increased our time each day. On Monday we read for 10 minutes, discussed what we read, and then read for 10 more minutes. Today we read for 43 minutes! While the children read, I am doing individual reading assessments and will soon be working with small groups or having individual reading conferences.
Writing-Vocabulary is a big focus in each subject area. We learned the word persevere and then applied it to a reflection writing entry about a Wilma Rudolph quote. "The potential for greatness lives within each of us." The children wrote about times that they worked hard to reach their potential and had to persevere during that process. We will continue to work on revising these entries. We also started an acrostic poem that describes us. We learned about similes, metaphors, and exploding the moment. We will be applying these writing techniques to Important Poems that we write about ourselves that we will begin writing on Tuesday.
Math-Our class is full of mathematicians! We solved a challenging math problem and had tons of unique and effective strategies for the same problem. Logic problems are fun for us to solve and we enjoyed solving one about children trying out for sports teams. Most of us are very good at computing addition and subtraction facts. We had fun working with large numbers this week also. Thank you for helping with the Large Number Facts homework. We learned many random and interesting facts. (ex. Taylor Swift's salary, prices of many mansions and sports cars, the number of micro-organisms in our intestines, volume of salvia produced in a person's lifetime, the weight of the largest Rice Krispy treat, and many more!) We used base ten materials to represent numbers up to the thousands. To try to visualize larger numbers, we used butcher paper and cut out 10 thousand cubes which made a 10,000 long strip, then put 10 of the 10,000 strips together to show 100,000 squares. Next we put ten 100,000 squares together to show 1,000,000! We taped our display in the hallway across from the counselor's office. Come and see it! Next week we will continue to work with ordering and problem solving using large numbers.
Social Studies-The Texas photos brought in by the class are wonderful. We each shared our photos and found the locations on the map. Then wrote about our photo. They are displayed outside our classroom.
Science-We started working on some science safety things today. We will be continuing learning about science safety and tools next week.
Please return papers from the big envelope ASAP. Thanks!
If you have a minute, please go to the counselor's page on our website and fill out a survey. http://teacherweb.com/TX/ForestCreekElementary/Leitch/apt1.aspx
Thank you for the wonderful letters describing your child. It is so great to read them and learn more about how we can work together to challenge your child and help him/her grow this year.
Reminders:
Tuesday, Sept. 4-Decorated Writer's Notebooks due
Thursday, Sept. 6 - Back to School Night at 6:00pm
Friday, Sept. 7-Spirit Day-Wear green, purple, or FCE shirt
Monday, Sept. 10-College Day-Wear a shirt from your favorite college
Tuesday, Sept. 11-PTA meeting, Watchdogs kick-off
Friday, Sept. 28- Book Orders due
Have a safe and fun long weekend! Your child should read and record, decorate his/her writer's notebook, and practice math facts.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a marvelous first week of school. We practiced routines and expectations but began some great learning as well.
Reading-We are working on reading longer and stronger. That means spending more time accurately reading books at our reading level that interest us. I have been so impressed with the amount of time we have been able to read and stay focused this week. We have increased our time each day. On Monday we read for 10 minutes, discussed what we read, and then read for 10 more minutes. Today we read for 43 minutes! While the children read, I am doing individual reading assessments and will soon be working with small groups or having individual reading conferences.
Writing-Vocabulary is a big focus in each subject area. We learned the word persevere and then applied it to a reflection writing entry about a Wilma Rudolph quote. "The potential for greatness lives within each of us." The children wrote about times that they worked hard to reach their potential and had to persevere during that process. We will continue to work on revising these entries. We also started an acrostic poem that describes us. We learned about similes, metaphors, and exploding the moment. We will be applying these writing techniques to Important Poems that we write about ourselves that we will begin writing on Tuesday.
Math-Our class is full of mathematicians! We solved a challenging math problem and had tons of unique and effective strategies for the same problem. Logic problems are fun for us to solve and we enjoyed solving one about children trying out for sports teams. Most of us are very good at computing addition and subtraction facts. We had fun working with large numbers this week also. Thank you for helping with the Large Number Facts homework. We learned many random and interesting facts. (ex. Taylor Swift's salary, prices of many mansions and sports cars, the number of micro-organisms in our intestines, volume of salvia produced in a person's lifetime, the weight of the largest Rice Krispy treat, and many more!) We used base ten materials to represent numbers up to the thousands. To try to visualize larger numbers, we used butcher paper and cut out 10 thousand cubes which made a 10,000 long strip, then put 10 of the 10,000 strips together to show 100,000 squares. Next we put ten 100,000 squares together to show 1,000,000! We taped our display in the hallway across from the counselor's office. Come and see it! Next week we will continue to work with ordering and problem solving using large numbers.
Social Studies-The Texas photos brought in by the class are wonderful. We each shared our photos and found the locations on the map. Then wrote about our photo. They are displayed outside our classroom.
Science-We started working on some science safety things today. We will be continuing learning about science safety and tools next week.
Please return papers from the big envelope ASAP. Thanks!
If you have a minute, please go to the counselor's page on our website and fill out a survey. http://teacherweb.com/TX/ForestCreekElementary/Leitch/apt1.aspx
Thank you for the wonderful letters describing your child. It is so great to read them and learn more about how we can work together to challenge your child and help him/her grow this year.
Reminders:
Tuesday, Sept. 4-Decorated Writer's Notebooks due
Thursday, Sept. 6 - Back to School Night at 6:00pm
Friday, Sept. 7-Spirit Day-Wear green, purple, or FCE shirt
Monday, Sept. 10-College Day-Wear a shirt from your favorite college
Tuesday, Sept. 11-PTA meeting, Watchdogs kick-off
Friday, Sept. 28- Book Orders due
Have a safe and fun long weekend! Your child should read and record, decorate his/her writer's notebook, and practice math facts.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, August 27, 2012
Great First Day of 4th Grade!
Hi,
Pam Bartholomew
4th Grade Teacher
We had a wonderful first day! We started off with a read-aloud of an easy book called The Okay Book which
helped us to realize that we are all different and like various things
and that is ok. We thought about things that we are good at doing and
things that we still need to work on and shared some of those things
with each other. A big theme in our class is to be respectful,
accepting, and helpful to others. We did a great job acting in that way
today.
I love to read and I would like the kids to have a
passion for reading after this year. (Some of them already have
developed that passion!) We will be reading A LOT in school and they
are all expected to read even more at home. They will be able to choose
most of the books that they read (especially at home) and should be
reading books at their level. I do want them to work toward reading
more chapter books and completing them. We are going to be very
diligent about recording our reading at home and at school on our
reading logs in our purple folders.
You may have noticed the jumbo plastic bag in your
child's back pack. This bag will come back and forth from home to
school each day. Your child will carry the purple folder with the
reading log and any homework inside, his/her agenda, and at least two
books (at their reading level) in the jumbo bag. Soon he/she will also
have his/her reading response journal and a reading response will be
part of their reading at home. Each child needs to complete at least 3
reading responses each week.That book will probably come home tomorrow.
Thank you for helping your child to be responsible about their at home
reading and their other homework and be sure that the jumbo bag is in
the back pack each day.
Homework: Read at least 20 minutes and record on
reading log. Return any completed forms from big envelope and Texas
photo as well as jumbo bag tomorrow.
Math was
very exciting today. We worked on a challenging problem and there were
tons of unique and effective strategies used by the children! It was
thrilling to have them share about their thinking and especially
exciting when their first strategy was incorrect and they had to make
adjustments to answer correctly. Problem: In a field were some cows
and chickens. There were 11 heads and 30 feet. How many cows and
chickens were there? Ask your child to share their strategy or one that
he/she heard from a friend.
Tomorrow will be another great day! We had art today and will have PE tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing your children with me. I am so thrilled for a fantastic school year!
Sincerely,
4th Grade Teacher
Monday, August 13, 2012
Welcome to Fourth Grade 2012-2013!
Hello!
I am so excited for our new school year and I have been busy unpacking and getting our classroom organized. I am looking forward to meeting all of our new Bartholomew Bats and beginning an exciting year of learning.
Go to this link and fill out the student information form. All of the information will be used only by me for classroom purposes. Thank you!
Student Information Form
Come and see our room and drop off school supplies on Friday, August 25, 2012 at 4:00 pm if your last name begins with the letters A-L or at 4:45 if your last name begins with the letters M-Z. The Kona Ice Truck will also be at school that evening.
Fourth grade is an amazing grade. You will be learning about Texas History, becoming creative problem solvers, improving and refining your writing skills, participating in many science experiments, and becoming avid readers. You will work hard every day, listen carefully, share your thoughts, discover big ideas, and help others daily. Our community of learners will be strong and ready for lots of challenges. I am looking forward to getting started.
Here is your first assignment!!!!!! We will be learning about the regions of Texas. You need to bring a photo of yourself taken somewhere in Texas to school on Friday, August 25. It can be a photo from El Paso, Dallas, Houston, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, or even Round Rock or Austin. A picture from anywhere in Texas (or even from your backyard) will be great. It can be a paper copy and it can include other people as well. On Friday evening, I will give you a note card and you will write a few sentences to tell where you are, what you are doing, and what it was like there. Use details in your writing. We will be using all of our photos and the captions we write for our photos on a bulletin board in the hallway outside our classroom. It will be interesting to see and learn about places in our state.
I know that all of you read a lot this summer so be sure to come to class on Monday, August 27, ready to share some of your favorite books. I can't wait to hear about your favorite titles and your interests.
Feel free to comment to the post and tell your thoughts about fourth grade, your summer, or our new school year. You can also email me with any questions or concerns.
See you on Friday, August, 25!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
pam_bartholomew@roundrockisd.org
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thank you for a wonderful year!
Hi,
Thank you for a wonderful school year! I have enjoyed your children a great deal this year. We have had many new adventures and have helped each other grow. I am excited to have more time with my family but I will definitely miss your children.
Thanks for a great party! Mrs. Geyer did a fantastic job this year as our room mom. Thank you to her. Thank you also for all of you who helped by being here and/or by sending in supplies as well as helping your child at home with school work. It takes a village and your children made good progress this year because we all worked together. Thank you so much!
I attached a book list with some sites that have suggested readings for your child this summer. Keep working on math facts, problem solving, writing, and reading this summer!
Thanks again and have a safe and happy summer.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, May 21, 2012
Hard to Believe that it is the Last Week of 4th Grade!
Hi,
It is hard to believe that we are already in our last week of 4th grade! I have had a extraordinary time with your children this year. I am excited to have more time for my family and reading, but am very sad about not seeing your children everyday. I am proud of the progress that your children have made this year! We will continue to work this week but do have several fun things planned as well.
On Monday we will be gluing the bones that we found inside our owl pellets to black paper. The kids have found lots of bones from the rodents that the owl ate and have separated the bones from the fur. Using a bone chart, they have tried to identify the bones and label them. This activity compliments our reading of There's an Owl in the Shower. We will be finishing reading this book on Monday also. We researched the Northern Spotted Owls a bit and also wrote poems about owls as well as Character Cinquain poems about one of the characters in the book. We have discussed the impact that cutting in the old growth forests had on the owls and other animals that used that ecosystem as their habitats. It has been interesting to learn how most of earth's creatures are interdependent.
On Tuesday our pen pals will be coming for our last visit of the school year. We have had a wonderful time learning about the past through the stories told to us by our pen pals. Writing letters to them gives us an authentic reason to write as did writing about them in our class pen pal book. Each child wrote a page about their pen pal and decorated a page of photos. Some children wrote a poem about his/her pen pal, some wrote an essay, and some wrote an expository piece with subtitles. The pen pals will be at FCE at about 10:30 am. We would love to have you come and join us.
YOU ARE INVITED!
On Wednesday, we will be having an Author's Celebration! We will celebrate the amazing writing that the children have completed this year by sharing our published books with you. Come to our room at 2:00. Each child will share the title and cover of his/her book with the entire group. Then we will break into smaller groups to read individual books. It will be a lot of fun and I know that the children are excited to share their books. Hope you can join us at 2:00 on Wednesday!
On Thursday, we will be having fun with meal worms. We will conduct some experiments with the meal worms and take data on the results. We will learn about the life cycle of the meal worm and do some research on them. The meal worms will not complete their life cycle during this last week of school so the children are invited to take home a meal worm and then report back on our MOODLE page about the progress of their meal worm. If you do not want your child to bring a meal worm home, please let me know.
On Friday, we will have a signing party with the entire fourth grade using our yearbooks or autograph books. We will also have our end of the year party. You will be getting an email on Monday afternoon asking for donations for our party. Our party will be in our classroom at 2:00 pm. Thank you in advance for helping to add to our fun!
Check your Child's Back Pack
Your child will be bringing home some workbooks. There will be a huge math book which we did use a lot throughout the year, a smaller blue reading/writing book which we did use a lot for multiple choice practice, and a white language book which we used a little bit. Be sure to use these books for practice over the summer so that your child keeps his/her skills strong for fifth grade. The students will also be bringing home their writer's notebook, reader's response notebook, word study spiral, math spiral, science notebook, and two social studies spirals. Look through these books with your child and celebrate all of their hard work this year. You may want to save a few of these. I love looking back at Blair's writing and other work from 4th grade and younger. It is fun for them to see what they found important and what their writing was like when they were young. Enjoy!
Send in Erasers, Pencils, Food, and Books to Help Others
Our school is collecting erasers and pencils for an orphanage in Honduras. A friend of mine organizes trips to Honduras to help children in an orphanage as well as homeless there. The group is going again in June and I asked her how we can help. She told me of how the children all shared one tiny eraser. Our class talked about how much they like having erasers and sharp pencils and how they tend to take them for granted. We already collected a lot of erasers and hope to collect a bunch more to help out these children. There is a box outside the office for the donations.
Our FCE Service Club has been collecting food for the Round Rock Serving Center as well as books for the clients to use in the waiting area and take home with them. Our Service Club also worked on a public service announcement about reasons why people would use the services of the RR Serving Center and we will be finishing up the editing of our movie this week. Thank you again for donating books and food this year. We will continue to accept donations this week.
Thank you again for a fantastic year. I hope to see you this week to be able to thank you in person. Be sure that your child is reading a lot this summer. Take part in a reading program at the public library or Barnes and Noble or one of the other cool programs. I would love to get emails or letters about books that they enjoyed. Practice math facts and math concepts online with First in Math as well as other sites on our class web page or any FCE teacher web page for lots of learning and fun. Write a lot also. Your child will be bringing home a stamped envelope with my address on it. They should write me a letter this summer and I will write them back. Then we can be pen pals! The children can also continue writing to their pen pal from The Court. Have a safe and wonderful summer full of fun!
See you in 5th grade!!!!!!!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thank you!!!!!!
Thank you so much for a wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week! Each day was filled with surprises! The notes from the children touched my heart and I will treasure them. The gifts, flowers, fruit, candy, dinner, etc.... were all amazing! My family especially loved the dinner! Thank you also to the FCE PTA for all the lunches, breakfasts, and fun things this week. We enjoyed a free Zumba class on Tuesday which was great! I am walking in the Relay for Life on our FCE team so I will hopefully work off the many pounds that I've gained this week! Thank you again! I certainly feel appreciated!
Your children did a great job in the Totally O'Rama today! Their outfits, hair, and make-up was also totally rad!
Field Day is next Friday and our pen pals will be here to visit on May 22.
We will continue to work hard in class and even get to take a Social Studies benchmark on Tuesday! On Tuesday afternoon we will begin working with our owl pellets which is so fun!
Have a great weekend! Thanks again for everything!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Wow! Teacher Appreciation Week is Wonderful! Round Rock Leader coming to our classroom tomorrow!
Hi,
Thank you for all the incredible surprises for Teacher Appreciation Week! I've received yummy Hershey's Kisses (and some real ones) from the kids, beautiful flowers, and amazing cards and notes. I am so honored to be a part of your child's life. Thank you so much.
I also received another honor last Friday. The district had a banquet honoring all of the Teacher of the Year Honorees from each of the elementary, middle, and high schools. At the banquet, each principal went on the stage and told about the Teacher of the Year for his/her school. I was so excited to be there with Mrs. Lehnick, representing Forest Creek. Each of the teachers needed to write some essays about their teaching philosophy and the types of things that they do. Then a committee reads the essays and chooses a teacher to be the RRISD District Teacher of the Year. (one for Elementary and one for Secondary) I was so surprised and thrilled to be chosen as the Elementary Teacher of the Year at the District level. I will now write more essays and represent Round Rock ISD at the regional event. Thank you for all of your support this year.
The Round Rock Leader will be coming tomorrow to interview me and take some photos of the children for the Saturday edition. They will be here after lunch. The children are going to be excited to be in the newspaper!
Here's what we've been doing in class:
We have two new friends! We have a tree frog (named Fred by the class) and a anole lizard (named Lizzie). The lizard was hiding yesterday but finally came out from under the water dish during inside recess and turned from brown to bright green right in front of the kids. It was so cool! We borrowed the pets from Living Science and they will be picked up next Friday. We will keep observing and learn more about them this week and next.
Savanna brought in some adorable frogs and tadpoles last week. She caught them and helped us review the life cycle and complete metamorphosis! In the tank were tadpoles, tadpoles with two legs, tadpoles with four legs but still a tail, and little frogs. We were so excited to see the life cycle first hand and shared them with our first grade buddies.
We began reading a book called, There's an Owl in the Shower today. We are using this book as a shared reading. I will read some chapters and we will write summaries and responses and discuss them. The children will also read some chapters for homework and write summaries and responses about them. This book will help us discuss some environmental issues and will lead us into disecting owl pellets next week and integrating science, math, writing, and reading.
Writing about our pen pals is another activity that has been our focus. We will each write a page about our pen pal (essay, newspaper article, biography, poem, etc.. ) and decorate another page with some photos. These pages will be compiled into a pen pal book which we will send off to our RRISD printers and give to our pen pals. They will be coming to our school for their last visit of the school year on Wednesday, May 22. Come join us!
In math we are practicing division and multiplication in problem solving situations and sharing strategies. We will continue reviewing all our math concepts for the rest of the year.
We took a science benchmark today and overall the children did very well. We will be taking a social studies benchmark next week so we will be reviewing some more Texas history this week and next.
Thanks again for all the wonderful notes and gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week. So you on Friday for the Totally O'Rama at 10:05!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Spring Conferences coming up, Famous Texan Essay due on Thursday, Order hard bound book written by your child, STAAR testing next week
Hi,
Don't forget that our Famous Texans essays are due tomorrow. A bibliography is needed. Citation maker is a great link to use and it is linked to our class webpage, on the social studies link page, at the very bottom. We will also begin our presentations tomorrow. The kids have been working hard! Thank you for your support at home.
Order forms for our individual published books are due on Friday. I will be mailing the books on Saturday to be printed. Your child will bring a form home tomorrow if you didn't return one yet. Every child will get one free copy of the book. If you would like to order more, that would be great. The cost is $19.95 per book. If you don't want to order more copies, then sign and return the form with the NO box checked. The class has worked so hard on these!
Spring Conferences
It is time for spring conferences already! It is hard to believe that fourth grade is almost over! Please let me know a time that could work for you and your child. Please email me with your preferred times. Rank times as 1st (preferred time) , 2nd, and 3rd .
We will be talking about your child’s progress this year. Your child will share their favorite parts of fourth grade. We will also talk about strengths and areas for improvement.
I look forward to meeting with all of you and will let you know your scheduled time as soon as possible.
Wednesday, May 2
1:00-1:15
1:20-1:35
1:40-1:55
2:00-2:15
2:20-2:35
2:40-2:55
3:00-3:15
3:20-3:35
3:40-3:55
4:00-4:15
4:20-4:35
4:40-4:55
5:00-5:15
Thursday, May 3
3:15-3:30
3:35-3:50
3:55-4:10
4:15-4:30
4:35-4:50
4:55-5:10
5:15-5:30
5:35-5:50
5:50-6:10
Friday, May 4
3:15-3:30
3:35-3:50
3:55-4:10
4:15-4:30
4:35-4:50
4:55-5:10
Next Tuesday, your child will be taking the STAAR math test. We have been working hard reviewing and will continue to do so the rest of this week and Monday. Be sure to continue to work on math facts and math vocabulary at home.
On Wednesday, your child will be taking the STAAR reading test. We have been reading a lot and working hard on comprehension strategies. Be sure to continue to talk to your child about what he/she is reading.
The Texas Education Agency has information about STAAR testing and some released questions. We have gone over these at school but feel free to explore at home as well. The campus will be closed on these days to visitors as well as next Thursday because the fifth graders will be taking their STAAR science test. There will be free breakfast in our cafeteria on these days. A healthy snack is also encouraged and an early bedtime the night before. Thank you for helping your child do their best.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for sharing your child with me.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Don't forget that our Famous Texans essays are due tomorrow. A bibliography is needed. Citation maker is a great link to use and it is linked to our class webpage, on the social studies link page, at the very bottom. We will also begin our presentations tomorrow. The kids have been working hard! Thank you for your support at home.
Order forms for our individual published books are due on Friday. I will be mailing the books on Saturday to be printed. Your child will bring a form home tomorrow if you didn't return one yet. Every child will get one free copy of the book. If you would like to order more, that would be great. The cost is $19.95 per book. If you don't want to order more copies, then sign and return the form with the NO box checked. The class has worked so hard on these!
Spring Conferences
It is time for spring conferences already! It is hard to believe that fourth grade is almost over! Please let me know a time that could work for you and your child. Please email me with your preferred times. Rank times as 1st (preferred time) , 2nd, and 3rd .
We will be talking about your child’s progress this year. Your child will share their favorite parts of fourth grade. We will also talk about strengths and areas for improvement.
I look forward to meeting with all of you and will let you know your scheduled time as soon as possible.
Wednesday, May 2
1:00-1:15
1:20-1:35
1:40-1:55
2:00-2:15
2:20-2:35
2:40-2:55
3:00-3:15
3:20-3:35
3:40-3:55
4:00-4:15
4:20-4:35
4:40-4:55
5:00-5:15
Thursday, May 3
3:15-3:30
3:35-3:50
3:55-4:10
4:15-4:30
4:35-4:50
4:55-5:10
5:15-5:30
5:35-5:50
5:50-6:10
Friday, May 4
3:15-3:30
3:35-3:50
3:55-4:10
4:15-4:30
4:35-4:50
4:55-5:10
Next Tuesday, your child will be taking the STAAR math test. We have been working hard reviewing and will continue to do so the rest of this week and Monday. Be sure to continue to work on math facts and math vocabulary at home.
On Wednesday, your child will be taking the STAAR reading test. We have been reading a lot and working hard on comprehension strategies. Be sure to continue to talk to your child about what he/she is reading.
The Texas Education Agency has information about STAAR testing and some released questions. We have gone over these at school but feel free to explore at home as well. The campus will be closed on these days to visitors as well as next Thursday because the fifth graders will be taking their STAAR science test. There will be free breakfast in our cafeteria on these days. A healthy snack is also encouraged and an early bedtime the night before. Thank you for helping your child do their best.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for sharing your child with me.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, April 16, 2012
Great Field Trip-Earth Week Activities-Famous Texan Essay due on Thursday
Hi,
We had a great time on our field trip today. Thank you so much to Mr. Schmidt, Mrs. Gawthorp, Mrs. Turner, and Mrs. Spencer for volunteering to chaperone. We had a bit of a delay waiting for our final bus to arrive but the children were patient and we still saw most of the museum and had fun. Be sure to ask your child about their favorite part of the museum. I know that the Star of Destiny movie was a big hit with most of them.
This week is Earth Week and we will be celebrating witht the following activities.
TUESDAY 4/17- 3R’s (REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE) Day -Bring an item to school that Forest Creek currently recycles, place into appropriate bin, and keep it out of the earth’s landfills! (juice pouch, plastic water bottle, ink cartridge, cell phone, alkaline battery, and aluminum cans). Keep using your Forest Creek green reusable water bottles! Available for purchase through the PTA Spirit Store. We will be sharing our recycable items in the AM.
• WEDNESDAY 4/18- Make that change day. Wear Green! How will YOU be better to the EARTH? Pass it on to a friend. (Fill out the small Green card located in envelope on the Go Green bulletin board and post it onto the bulletin board! -HOW WILL I HELP THE EARTH?)
• THURSDAY 4/19 Turn It Off day –Try conserving electricity, water, and reducing carbon emissions around your house (turn off water while brushing your teeth, turn off your computer, room lights, fans, walk don’t drive!). Don’t forget….tomorrow is ‘Walk to School’ Day to help celebrate Earth Day by keeping fuel emissions out of the air!
• ‘WALK TO SCHOOL’ FRIDAY 4/20 Go Green…Got Plants? – Go Green Plant Sale today… $1.00 per plant. And, be sure to check out the Forest Creek gardens…the whole area is really growing with numerous plants and beautiful outdoor art made by our very own students and our wonderful art teachers!
Don't forget that our famous Texan essay and projects are due on Thursday.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a great time on our field trip today. Thank you so much to Mr. Schmidt, Mrs. Gawthorp, Mrs. Turner, and Mrs. Spencer for volunteering to chaperone. We had a bit of a delay waiting for our final bus to arrive but the children were patient and we still saw most of the museum and had fun. Be sure to ask your child about their favorite part of the museum. I know that the Star of Destiny movie was a big hit with most of them.
This week is Earth Week and we will be celebrating witht the following activities.
TUESDAY 4/17- 3R’s (REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE) Day -Bring an item to school that Forest Creek currently recycles, place into appropriate bin, and keep it out of the earth’s landfills! (juice pouch, plastic water bottle, ink cartridge, cell phone, alkaline battery, and aluminum cans). Keep using your Forest Creek green reusable water bottles! Available for purchase through the PTA Spirit Store. We will be sharing our recycable items in the AM.
• WEDNESDAY 4/18- Make that change day. Wear Green! How will YOU be better to the EARTH? Pass it on to a friend. (Fill out the small Green card located in envelope on the Go Green bulletin board and post it onto the bulletin board! -HOW WILL I HELP THE EARTH?)
• THURSDAY 4/19 Turn It Off day –Try conserving electricity, water, and reducing carbon emissions around your house (turn off water while brushing your teeth, turn off your computer, room lights, fans, walk don’t drive!). Don’t forget….tomorrow is ‘Walk to School’ Day to help celebrate Earth Day by keeping fuel emissions out of the air!
• ‘WALK TO SCHOOL’ FRIDAY 4/20 Go Green…Got Plants? – Go Green Plant Sale today… $1.00 per plant. And, be sure to check out the Forest Creek gardens…the whole area is really growing with numerous plants and beautiful outdoor art made by our very own students and our wonderful art teachers!
Don't forget that our famous Texan essay and projects are due on Thursday.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, April 13, 2012
Fun Pen Pal Visit today!, Field Trip on Monday!
Hi,
We had a fun pen pal visit today! The children interviewed their pen pals while others videotaped the interview using a flipcam. We will be working to compile the footage into a pen pal movie. We also shared some of our special items and stories with our pen pals and some of them brought interesting items for us to see also. Mrs. Phillips, who has been with our pen pal group for five years, brought a calendar from Somerset, Iowa. She grew up there and the calendar contains photos from the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. Her grandfather was a blacksmith there and the calendar contains a photo of him as a young man. It was very interesting to hear their stories from the past. We will be meeting with our pen pals one more time this year.
On Monday, we are going on our field trip to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum. We will be leaving at about 9:00 and returning about 2:00. No one will be going to the gift shop so DON'T BRING ANY MONEY. Photos are not allowed to be taken in the museum so there isn't much need for the children to bring a camera. Don't forget to bring a sack lunch unless you ordered one from the cafeteria on your permission slip.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. We are going to have a great time!
Don't forget that our Famous Texans Essays and presentations are due on Thursday, April 19.
Have a wonderful weekend. Be sure that your child is reading a lot this weekend and practicing math facts.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a fun pen pal visit today! The children interviewed their pen pals while others videotaped the interview using a flipcam. We will be working to compile the footage into a pen pal movie. We also shared some of our special items and stories with our pen pals and some of them brought interesting items for us to see also. Mrs. Phillips, who has been with our pen pal group for five years, brought a calendar from Somerset, Iowa. She grew up there and the calendar contains photos from the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. Her grandfather was a blacksmith there and the calendar contains a photo of him as a young man. It was very interesting to hear their stories from the past. We will be meeting with our pen pals one more time this year.
On Monday, we are going on our field trip to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum. We will be leaving at about 9:00 and returning about 2:00. No one will be going to the gift shop so DON'T BRING ANY MONEY. Photos are not allowed to be taken in the museum so there isn't much need for the children to bring a camera. Don't forget to bring a sack lunch unless you ordered one from the cafeteria on your permission slip.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. We are going to have a great time!
Don't forget that our Famous Texans Essays and presentations are due on Thursday, April 19.
Have a wonderful weekend. Be sure that your child is reading a lot this weekend and practicing math facts.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Hard-working Day
Hi,
Everything went smoothly for our first day of STAAR testing. We will be completing Day 2 of the writing test tomorrow.
Remember:
Early to bed tonight.
Good breakfast tomorrow.
Healthy snacks are welcome.
No visitors at school.
Cell phones will be collected.
Positive attitudes and perseverance is encouraged!
Here is an email from the district.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
The 2012 Parent Climate Survey is now available.
Each year Round Rock ISD seeks parent input about the quality of the school environment and its academic programs.
We welcome your thoughtful feedback to help us identify our existing strengths and areas that need improvement.
We encourage you to complete one survey per student.
The survey will be available through April 30, in English: http://tinyurl.com/parent12english and in Spanish: http://tinyurl.com/parent12esp Thanks for your participation!
Thanks for everything and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Everything went smoothly for our first day of STAAR testing. We will be completing Day 2 of the writing test tomorrow.
Remember:
Early to bed tonight.
Good breakfast tomorrow.
Healthy snacks are welcome.
No visitors at school.
Cell phones will be collected.
Positive attitudes and perseverance is encouraged!
Here is an email from the district.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
The 2012 Parent Climate Survey is now available.
Each year Round Rock ISD seeks parent input about the quality of the school environment and its academic programs.
We welcome your thoughtful feedback to help us identify our existing strengths and areas that need improvement.
We encourage you to complete one survey per student.
The survey will be available through April 30, in English: http://tinyurl.com/parent12english and in Spanish: http://tinyurl.com/parent12esp Thanks for your participation!
Thanks for everything and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, March 26, 2012
Writing STAAR test on Tuesday, March 27 and Wednesday, March 28
Hi,
We will be taking our first STAAR tests of the year on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, we will be revising and editing passages using a multiple choice format and will be planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing the final copy of a one page composition (either a personal narrative or an essay). On Wednesday, we will revise and edit some more passages using a multiple choice format and will be planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing the final copy of another one page composition (either a personal narrative or an essay). The children have been working hard and are ready to show off their awesome writing talents! I am excited for them.
Some things to remember:
No cell phones are allowed in the classroom. If your child has a cell phone in his/her backpack, then they will need to turn it into me and I will turn it into the office. All phones will be returned at the end of the day. The teachers will also be turning in their cell phones. Be sure that NO cell phones are left in back packs.
No visitors are allowed past the office tomorrow to be sure that our testing areas are secure. Please don't plan to come and eat lunch with your child.
Our school will be offering free breakfast in our cafeteria all this week from 7:15-7:45am. Be sure that your child has a healthy breakfast.
We will be testing for three hours then stopping for lunch (about 30 minutes earlier than our normal lunch time)and then we will test for one hour more for a total of four hours.
Your child may bring in a healthy, clean snack and a water bottle. (Nothing that will leave fingerprints on the test) If he/she needs a snack, he/she will need to stop testing, give me his/her test and answer dccument, and eat neatly and quickly at his/her desk. The time will not be stopped for snack breaks or bathroom breaks, it will only stop for lunch.
I have encouraged the children to take mental breaks as needed. They can put their head down for a few minutes, go take a drink from the water fountain, or go to the bathroom, then come back to their desk to get back to work.
The directions for the composition will come first on the test and then the passages to revise and edit. I will be reading all of the directions and then they are on their own to manage their time and get it all done in four hours. We have talked about reading the directions for the prompts very carefully so they know whether they are writing a personal narrative or an essay. Personal narratives will have the words "write about a time...." and the words "write about a personal experience" in the directions. Essays will have the words "explain" and the words "include a central idea". I am suggesting that they use their time in the following way. They will have to plan their composition by creating a graphic organizer, they will draft their composition, they will revise their composition (add details, show, not tell,include a strong conclusion, etc...) and they will edit their composition (check for correct sentence structure, paragraphs, spelling, capitals, punctuation, etc...)Then they will work on their multiple choice sections carefully. Finally, they will reread their rough draft and make any necessary changes and improvements. Lastly, they will write their final copy in their neatest handwriting with good spacing and they need to be sure to reread their final copy. They need to check that they didn't skip words or write words twice, and that it is the way that they want it.
Thank you so much for encouraging them this year in their writing. I am very proud of their progress and know that they are going to shine!
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We will be taking our first STAAR tests of the year on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, we will be revising and editing passages using a multiple choice format and will be planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing the final copy of a one page composition (either a personal narrative or an essay). On Wednesday, we will revise and edit some more passages using a multiple choice format and will be planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing the final copy of another one page composition (either a personal narrative or an essay). The children have been working hard and are ready to show off their awesome writing talents! I am excited for them.
Some things to remember:
No cell phones are allowed in the classroom. If your child has a cell phone in his/her backpack, then they will need to turn it into me and I will turn it into the office. All phones will be returned at the end of the day. The teachers will also be turning in their cell phones. Be sure that NO cell phones are left in back packs.
No visitors are allowed past the office tomorrow to be sure that our testing areas are secure. Please don't plan to come and eat lunch with your child.
Our school will be offering free breakfast in our cafeteria all this week from 7:15-7:45am. Be sure that your child has a healthy breakfast.
We will be testing for three hours then stopping for lunch (about 30 minutes earlier than our normal lunch time)and then we will test for one hour more for a total of four hours.
Your child may bring in a healthy, clean snack and a water bottle. (Nothing that will leave fingerprints on the test) If he/she needs a snack, he/she will need to stop testing, give me his/her test and answer dccument, and eat neatly and quickly at his/her desk. The time will not be stopped for snack breaks or bathroom breaks, it will only stop for lunch.
I have encouraged the children to take mental breaks as needed. They can put their head down for a few minutes, go take a drink from the water fountain, or go to the bathroom, then come back to their desk to get back to work.
The directions for the composition will come first on the test and then the passages to revise and edit. I will be reading all of the directions and then they are on their own to manage their time and get it all done in four hours. We have talked about reading the directions for the prompts very carefully so they know whether they are writing a personal narrative or an essay. Personal narratives will have the words "write about a time...." and the words "write about a personal experience" in the directions. Essays will have the words "explain" and the words "include a central idea". I am suggesting that they use their time in the following way. They will have to plan their composition by creating a graphic organizer, they will draft their composition, they will revise their composition (add details, show, not tell,include a strong conclusion, etc...) and they will edit their composition (check for correct sentence structure, paragraphs, spelling, capitals, punctuation, etc...)Then they will work on their multiple choice sections carefully. Finally, they will reread their rough draft and make any necessary changes and improvements. Lastly, they will write their final copy in their neatest handwriting with good spacing and they need to be sure to reread their final copy. They need to check that they didn't skip words or write words twice, and that it is the way that they want it.
Thank you so much for encouraging them this year in their writing. I am very proud of their progress and know that they are going to shine!
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, March 9, 2012
Writing Camp-Huge Success!!!!!
Hi,
Your children worked so hard this week and actually produced 3 complete compositions! They wrote an essay completely independently on Monday during our practice test day. (tell about a special person and explain why that person is special) On Tuesday they planned, drafted, and revised a personal narrative. (write about a time that something unexpected or unplanned happened to you) On Wednesday, they revised, conferenced with me, revised some more,edited, and wrote their final copy of their personal narrative. On Thursday they planned, drafted, and began to revise an essay or expository piece of writing. (tell about a way that you can make your community a better place and give reasons or examples of what you can do). This was a little tricky for some of us so on Friday we planned an essay for another prompt (tell about a special place and give reasons why that place is special for you). Then we examined both of our essay plans and decided which one to draft, revise, conference about, revise more, edit, and publish.
I was very impressed with the way the children are revising independently. They are talking about ways they can improve their drafts and then doing it! It gave me goosebumps.
I was also amazed at the descriptions they are using. They are thinking about imagery (sensory words-describing using senses), exploding the moment (slowing down and telling an important part in great detail), and show, not tell (describe an action or emotion instead of just saying that it happened).
Your writers have grown a lot this week as writers. They worked hard and I pushed them hard to continue to focus and do their best and they did. I am very proud of them.
Keep talking about writing over spring break. Practice math facts and problem solving situations and be sure to read! Remember, 100 minutes is due on Monday, March 19 and students reading over 100 minutes will be rewarded!
Have a happy, safe, and relaxing spring break. Thank you for sharing your children with me. They did a wonderful job this week!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Your children worked so hard this week and actually produced 3 complete compositions! They wrote an essay completely independently on Monday during our practice test day. (tell about a special person and explain why that person is special) On Tuesday they planned, drafted, and revised a personal narrative. (write about a time that something unexpected or unplanned happened to you) On Wednesday, they revised, conferenced with me, revised some more,edited, and wrote their final copy of their personal narrative. On Thursday they planned, drafted, and began to revise an essay or expository piece of writing. (tell about a way that you can make your community a better place and give reasons or examples of what you can do). This was a little tricky for some of us so on Friday we planned an essay for another prompt (tell about a special place and give reasons why that place is special for you). Then we examined both of our essay plans and decided which one to draft, revise, conference about, revise more, edit, and publish.
I was very impressed with the way the children are revising independently. They are talking about ways they can improve their drafts and then doing it! It gave me goosebumps.
I was also amazed at the descriptions they are using. They are thinking about imagery (sensory words-describing using senses), exploding the moment (slowing down and telling an important part in great detail), and show, not tell (describe an action or emotion instead of just saying that it happened).
Your writers have grown a lot this week as writers. They worked hard and I pushed them hard to continue to focus and do their best and they did. I am very proud of them.
Keep talking about writing over spring break. Practice math facts and problem solving situations and be sure to read! Remember, 100 minutes is due on Monday, March 19 and students reading over 100 minutes will be rewarded!
Have a happy, safe, and relaxing spring break. Thank you for sharing your children with me. They did a wonderful job this week!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, March 2, 2012
Happy Texas Independence Day! Writing Camp next week!
Hi,
Today is the day that Texas gained its independence from Spain in 1836. We celebrated by learning about Lorenzo de Zavala and Sam Houston. Later we will be comparing and contrasting these two historical figures and signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. We also went to a very fun website about Texas and played a 3D simulation of a girl or boy in 1836 who is traveling to Washington-on-the-Brazos in search of his/her father. We ran out of time to finish the game so your child may want to play at home. The site is http://www.txindependence.org/. Have fun and celebrate Texas!
Next week begins our Camp Write Along week! On Monday, we will have a practice writing test to practice completing the revising and editing multiple choice part of the test and planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing a final copy of a composition in the four hour time frame. We will have lunch at our normal time. We will test from 8:00-10:00, take a snack/stretch/bathroom break from 10:00-10:30. Continue testing from 10:30-11:30. Break and eat lunch then continue again at the end of the day.
Writing Camp begins on Tuesday! Our room will look like a campground and your children can bring in a sleeping bag/blanket, & pillow. They can dress up in camp type clothes and/or hiking boats. We will sing camp songs with a writing twist and review skills and practice our writing. We will then use the data from the writing test to help plan our fun and educational review of strategies during writing camp. We will also play some math games, and do some social studies activities. It will be so much fun and will help us become better writers. Let me know if you have any trees or camp type decorations that we could borrow to help transform our classroom into Camp Write Along-Bartholomew's Bat Campsite! I will be decorating at about 4:15 on Monday afternoon. Thank you Mrs. Slape for donating fire wood and red lights!
Don't forget to write letters for your camper! You can email letters to me or put them in my box in the teacher work room. I will be passing out a letter each day Tuesday-Friday. Encourage family members to write letters also! The kids will love to read your writing and read about your experiences!
Reading-We read articles about King Christian X of Denmark and compared the information learned in different sources. We learned that confirming your facts is important so we need to read more than one article when we research. We also continued to work on text structures and read about famous Texans.
Writing-What wonderful personal narratives were read today! We shared many of them and heard lots of great leads, interesting small moment stories, and strong word choice. We heard some super imagery (sensory words) and thoughtful conclusions. It is very difficult to get all that onto only 26 lines of paper! Our writers are rocking!!!!!
Math-We are working on measurement which will include area and perimeter. We will be doing many hands-on activities during our writing camp week to practice measuring using different tools and units. We will continue to practice math facts and problem solving as well.
Social Studies-We will be learning more about the Republic of Texas and challenges that the new country faced which led to statehood.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, March 5-Writing Test -4 hour testing-Reading Logs due
Tuesday, March 6-Friday, March 9-Writing Camp!
Wednesday, March 7-Early Release Day 12:45
Thursday, March 8-Writing Club 2:45-4:00 in library
Friday, March 9-Hoe Down for K, 1, 2
Monday, March 12-Friday, March 16-Spring Break
Monday, March 19-Back to school-Spring Break reading logs due!
Tuesday, March 20-Service Club 2:45-4:00
Thursday, March 22-Pen Pals visit for PE activities
Tuesday, March 27 & Wednesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Tests
Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy Texas Independence Day Celebrations in Austin and UT Explore at the university! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Today is the day that Texas gained its independence from Spain in 1836. We celebrated by learning about Lorenzo de Zavala and Sam Houston. Later we will be comparing and contrasting these two historical figures and signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. We also went to a very fun website about Texas and played a 3D simulation of a girl or boy in 1836 who is traveling to Washington-on-the-Brazos in search of his/her father. We ran out of time to finish the game so your child may want to play at home. The site is http://www.txindependence.org/. Have fun and celebrate Texas!
Next week begins our Camp Write Along week! On Monday, we will have a practice writing test to practice completing the revising and editing multiple choice part of the test and planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing a final copy of a composition in the four hour time frame. We will have lunch at our normal time. We will test from 8:00-10:00, take a snack/stretch/bathroom break from 10:00-10:30. Continue testing from 10:30-11:30. Break and eat lunch then continue again at the end of the day.
Writing Camp begins on Tuesday! Our room will look like a campground and your children can bring in a sleeping bag/blanket, & pillow. They can dress up in camp type clothes and/or hiking boats. We will sing camp songs with a writing twist and review skills and practice our writing. We will then use the data from the writing test to help plan our fun and educational review of strategies during writing camp. We will also play some math games, and do some social studies activities. It will be so much fun and will help us become better writers. Let me know if you have any trees or camp type decorations that we could borrow to help transform our classroom into Camp Write Along-Bartholomew's Bat Campsite! I will be decorating at about 4:15 on Monday afternoon. Thank you Mrs. Slape for donating fire wood and red lights!
Don't forget to write letters for your camper! You can email letters to me or put them in my box in the teacher work room. I will be passing out a letter each day Tuesday-Friday. Encourage family members to write letters also! The kids will love to read your writing and read about your experiences!
Reading-We read articles about King Christian X of Denmark and compared the information learned in different sources. We learned that confirming your facts is important so we need to read more than one article when we research. We also continued to work on text structures and read about famous Texans.
Writing-What wonderful personal narratives were read today! We shared many of them and heard lots of great leads, interesting small moment stories, and strong word choice. We heard some super imagery (sensory words) and thoughtful conclusions. It is very difficult to get all that onto only 26 lines of paper! Our writers are rocking!!!!!
Math-We are working on measurement which will include area and perimeter. We will be doing many hands-on activities during our writing camp week to practice measuring using different tools and units. We will continue to practice math facts and problem solving as well.
Social Studies-We will be learning more about the Republic of Texas and challenges that the new country faced which led to statehood.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, March 5-Writing Test -4 hour testing-Reading Logs due
Tuesday, March 6-Friday, March 9-Writing Camp!
Wednesday, March 7-Early Release Day 12:45
Thursday, March 8-Writing Club 2:45-4:00 in library
Friday, March 9-Hoe Down for K, 1, 2
Monday, March 12-Friday, March 16-Spring Break
Monday, March 19-Back to school-Spring Break reading logs due!
Tuesday, March 20-Service Club 2:45-4:00
Thursday, March 22-Pen Pals visit for PE activities
Tuesday, March 27 & Wednesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Tests
Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy Texas Independence Day Celebrations in Austin and UT Explore at the university! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
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