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