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
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