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
Saturday, October 27, 2012
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)