Friday, December 20, 2013
Happy Holidays! Great Party! Holiday Reading Challenge! Practice Math Facts! Workon Science Projects! Be sure to also enjoy time with family!
Happy Holidays! December 20, 2013
Thank you to Mrs. Fitch, our room mother, for planning an amazing holiday party! Thank you also to all the parents who came today to help! It was wonderful! The children made ornaments, played bingo, decorated cookies, and made holiday cards for children at Dell Children's Hospital. They also ate fruit, veggies, brownie bites, and Rice Krispy treats! Our book exchange was a lot of fun! We chose books one at a time and kids could steal or chose an unopened book. Poor Gavin got his books stolen at least 3 times! He was a great sport and still ended up with a perfect book for him. The kids had a great time with all of our celebrations today! Thank you again!
Thank you also for the wonderful presents! You are all very generous. Thank you for your support and for sharing your children with me.
We began presenting our biography projects today and will continue on Tuesday, January 7. If your child hasn't completed it yet, go to smore.com to finish up. We will begin reading folk tales and other traditional tales in January. We will be discussing character traits (protagonist and antagonist), how characters change in stories, plot with rising action, climax, and resolution, and the impact that the setting (time or place) has on the story. The children will choose a tale to retell to the class.
In writing, we will work on revising and editing our essays on what we want to be when we grow up and why and will begin writing new personal narratives. Talk about small moments that occur during our winter break. Those moments may become your child's next great piece of writing!
In math, we will continue working with fractions and begin working on geometry. Look for problem solving situations over break especially involving fractions, geometry, and multiple steps. Be sure to practice math facts over break. Remember firstinmath.com is a great resource! Your child should be quick with those multiplication and division facts.
In science, we will have fun with some soil explorations. Be sure to continue working on science projects! Check point #3 will be due on Thursday, January 9.
In social studies, we will learn more about explorers in Texas.
Don't forget to record reading minutes on our Holiday Reading Log! 200 minutes is the requirement. Read more and receive prizes!!!!!! Are you up for the challenge?
Have a wonderful holiday break. My husband, daughters, and I are traveling to Philadelphia to see our extended family. We are especially excited to meet our great niece, who is 3 months old, and see our other great niece, who just turned three! Be sure to relax, be safe, and enjoy your time together.
I will miss seeing your child but look forward to a wonderful second part of 4th grade!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Holiday Party tomorrow at 10:00 AM, Homework packets and reading logs are due. Holiday Reading Challenge will come home. Biography presentations begin tomorrow. Read more below.
Hi,
The class has been reading biographies and researching a person. They made flyers on a site called Smore.com. Many of the children have completed their Smore flyer and are ready to present their project tomorrow. (Jacob presented his today and did a great job!) If your child hasn't completed it, or if you want to go over it with them tonight, directions are below to locate it online.
Go to the FCE website, Our Teams, 4th Grade, Pam Bartholomew, Then go to the Bartholomew Bat Cave blog. At the Bat Cave, go to Reading/Writing Links then Smore is the first link.
Log in to Smore using your child's gmail account for the district.
Type s then your child's 6 digit number @student.roundrockisd.org (example: s123456@student.roundrockisd.org)
Password: your child's birthdate using 0, as needed. two digit month, two digit day and four digit year- (example: 01012004)
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks and enjoy! They have worked hard and their flyers look very good!
Have a great day!
The class has been reading biographies and researching a person. They made flyers on a site called Smore.com. Many of the children have completed their Smore flyer and are ready to present their project tomorrow. (Jacob presented his today and did a great job!) If your child hasn't completed it, or if you want to go over it with them tonight, directions are below to locate it online.
Go to the FCE website, Our Teams, 4th Grade, Pam Bartholomew, Then go to the Bartholomew Bat Cave blog. At the Bat Cave, go to Reading/Writing Links then Smore is the first link.
Log in to Smore using your child's gmail account for the district.
Type s then your child's 6 digit number @student.roundrockisd.org (example: s123456@student.roundrockisd.org)
Password: your child's birthdate using 0, as needed. two digit month, two digit day and four digit year- (example: 01012004)
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks and enjoy! They have worked hard and their flyers look very good!
Have a great day!
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi, November 26, 2013
Your children did a wonderful job in the Boogie-O-Rama! Their outfits were groovy, their singing spectacular, and their dancing was awesome! Hats off to all of the children with singing or speaking parts. That can be difficult to perform in front of a lot of people. You were all amazing!
Thank you, Mrs. Dickson, for the beautiful apple pie! We tasted some last night and it tastes as wonderful as it looks. Thank you to everyone who baked or provided pies for our staff. We appreciate it a great deal!
Our school and the FCE Service Club donated 104 toys to OMS and Dell Children's Hospital! We didn't quite reach our goal but that is still A LOT of toys. Great job! The children will love them. We are having a FCE Service Club meeting on Monday, December 2 from 2:45-3:45. All 4th or 5th graders are welcome!
Don't forget that we will have a science test on Electricity, Insulators, and Conductors on Tuesday, December 3. Reading/Math log will be due on Monday, December 2 and Wednesday, December 4 is an early release day.
Encourage your students to go to Stemscopes to practice. (FCE website, For Students-right side, User Name-bartholomew, password-bats). They can also explore some fun Thanksgiving sites and videos on websites linked to our Bartholomew Bat Cave page. (FCE website, Our Staff, 4th grade, Pam Bartholomew, Bartholomew Bat Cave link on left side, social studies links, 2nd two sites listed)
There are tons of fun games and interactives linked to our Bartholomew Bat Cave website. Have fun exploring!
Have a wonderful holiday! See you on Monday!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Your children did a wonderful job in the Boogie-O-Rama! Their outfits were groovy, their singing spectacular, and their dancing was awesome! Hats off to all of the children with singing or speaking parts. That can be difficult to perform in front of a lot of people. You were all amazing!
Thank you, Mrs. Dickson, for the beautiful apple pie! We tasted some last night and it tastes as wonderful as it looks. Thank you to everyone who baked or provided pies for our staff. We appreciate it a great deal!
Our school and the FCE Service Club donated 104 toys to OMS and Dell Children's Hospital! We didn't quite reach our goal but that is still A LOT of toys. Great job! The children will love them. We are having a FCE Service Club meeting on Monday, December 2 from 2:45-3:45. All 4th or 5th graders are welcome!
Don't forget that we will have a science test on Electricity, Insulators, and Conductors on Tuesday, December 3. Reading/Math log will be due on Monday, December 2 and Wednesday, December 4 is an early release day.
Encourage your students to go to Stemscopes to practice. (FCE website, For Students-right side, User Name-bartholomew, password-bats). They can also explore some fun Thanksgiving sites and videos on websites linked to our Bartholomew Bat Cave page. (FCE website, Our Staff, 4th grade, Pam Bartholomew, Bartholomew Bat Cave link on left side, social studies links, 2nd two sites listed)
There are tons of fun games and interactives linked to our Bartholomew Bat Cave website. Have fun exploring!
Have a wonderful holiday! See you on Monday!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Newsletter-Science Test on Monday, Homework packets due, Reading/Math Log Due on Monday, Toy Drive, TAG referrals print on Nov. 18, Literacy Night on Thursday, Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday
Hi, November 15, 2013
We finished our read aloud, Wonder! Ask your child about it. If you haven’t read Wonder, you should. It is a Bluebonnet Book and Round Rock ISD adopted this book as a focus book for the entire district! It is the story of a Auggie, a boy with facial deformities who goes to school for the first time. Each section of the book is told from a different character’s point of view. It deals with the challenges of school, friends, family, bullies, etc… for all the characters but with an emphasis on Auggie and his struggles with his appearance and the way others judge him. The motto of the book is Choose Kind. We had so many good discussions about tolerance, life, choices, and actions while reading this book. It was very powerful and I highly recommend it. Read this quote, which was mentioned at the end of the book.
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” John Wesley
We will begin a new read aloud next week.
Science test on Forms of Energy and Forces will be on Monday. Practice the vocabulary and visit Stemscopes to study. Discuss forms of energy that are used everyday. Discuss forces used in daily life.
Mechanical energy-bike riding, throwing a ball, windmills, anything that moves
Light energy-TV, video games, sun, lamps, computers, anything with light
Heat energy-stove, oven, microwave, sun, lamps, fire, anything that gives heat
Sound energy- musical instruments, radio, TV, anything that uses sound vibrations
Electrical energy-lamp, TV, video games, computer, anything that uses electricity
Push on a swing in an arc, friction makes you slow down on the slide, pull on a rope to climb, etc….
Service Club meets on Monday afterschool. All 4th and 5th graders are welcome! We are still collecting toys for the OMS Toy Drive. We have about 39 new toys so far and our goal is 200. Please consider a new toy donation to give to a child at Dell Children’s Hospital. Crafts, puzzles, figures, legos, Barbies, cars, games, or any new toy would be so appreciated! Thank you!!!!!!!
Literacy Night is on Thursday, November 21 from 5-7. Come and buy Promise Pizza, and enjoy activities from each continent as well as other writing and computer activities. 4th Grade will be hosting Australia! Come see some items from Sydney, read some books, and make a craft. Ballet Folklorico will also perform. Donate a book (or more) and trade it for a New-to-You book to take home. Extra books will be donated to the Round Rock Serving Center.
Thanksgiving Dinner will be served in the cafeteria on Thursday. Our typical lunchtime is 11:55. You are welcome to come and eat with your child.
Green cups all week in the cafeteria! Hooray! We plan on continuing with this behavior!
Read about our week:
Reading-Poetry was our focus. We listened to The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe and used context clues to figure out some tricky words, imagery to visualize the poem, and discussed the mood of this narrative poem. While learning about poetry, we learned about stanzas, line breaks, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, hyperbole, metaphors, similes, and onomatopoeia. We will begin reading biographies this week.
Writing-We wrote poems about Native Texans and experimented writing poems. Shape poems and other poem sites linked to our website were also fun to explore. We will continue writing poems and writing about our biographies.
Math-Multiplication and division strategies are our focus. We will continue to work on graphs, elapsed time, and algebra. We will soon be working on an introduction to fractions.
Science-As mentioned earlier, we are finishing up our study of forms of energy. For the rest of this week, we will explore more with circuits, insulators, and conductors.
Social Studies-We will learn about European explorers in Texas this week.
Have a wonderful weekend! Please let me know of any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We finished our read aloud, Wonder! Ask your child about it. If you haven’t read Wonder, you should. It is a Bluebonnet Book and Round Rock ISD adopted this book as a focus book for the entire district! It is the story of a Auggie, a boy with facial deformities who goes to school for the first time. Each section of the book is told from a different character’s point of view. It deals with the challenges of school, friends, family, bullies, etc… for all the characters but with an emphasis on Auggie and his struggles with his appearance and the way others judge him. The motto of the book is Choose Kind. We had so many good discussions about tolerance, life, choices, and actions while reading this book. It was very powerful and I highly recommend it. Read this quote, which was mentioned at the end of the book.
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” John Wesley
We will begin a new read aloud next week.
Science test on Forms of Energy and Forces will be on Monday. Practice the vocabulary and visit Stemscopes to study. Discuss forms of energy that are used everyday. Discuss forces used in daily life.
Mechanical energy-bike riding, throwing a ball, windmills, anything that moves
Light energy-TV, video games, sun, lamps, computers, anything with light
Heat energy-stove, oven, microwave, sun, lamps, fire, anything that gives heat
Sound energy- musical instruments, radio, TV, anything that uses sound vibrations
Electrical energy-lamp, TV, video games, computer, anything that uses electricity
Push on a swing in an arc, friction makes you slow down on the slide, pull on a rope to climb, etc….
Service Club meets on Monday afterschool. All 4th and 5th graders are welcome! We are still collecting toys for the OMS Toy Drive. We have about 39 new toys so far and our goal is 200. Please consider a new toy donation to give to a child at Dell Children’s Hospital. Crafts, puzzles, figures, legos, Barbies, cars, games, or any new toy would be so appreciated! Thank you!!!!!!!
Literacy Night is on Thursday, November 21 from 5-7. Come and buy Promise Pizza, and enjoy activities from each continent as well as other writing and computer activities. 4th Grade will be hosting Australia! Come see some items from Sydney, read some books, and make a craft. Ballet Folklorico will also perform. Donate a book (or more) and trade it for a New-to-You book to take home. Extra books will be donated to the Round Rock Serving Center.
Thanksgiving Dinner will be served in the cafeteria on Thursday. Our typical lunchtime is 11:55. You are welcome to come and eat with your child.
Green cups all week in the cafeteria! Hooray! We plan on continuing with this behavior!
Read about our week:
Reading-Poetry was our focus. We listened to The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe and used context clues to figure out some tricky words, imagery to visualize the poem, and discussed the mood of this narrative poem. While learning about poetry, we learned about stanzas, line breaks, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, hyperbole, metaphors, similes, and onomatopoeia. We will begin reading biographies this week.
Writing-We wrote poems about Native Texans and experimented writing poems. Shape poems and other poem sites linked to our website were also fun to explore. We will continue writing poems and writing about our biographies.
Math-Multiplication and division strategies are our focus. We will continue to work on graphs, elapsed time, and algebra. We will soon be working on an introduction to fractions.
Science-As mentioned earlier, we are finishing up our study of forms of energy. For the rest of this week, we will explore more with circuits, insulators, and conductors.
Social Studies-We will learn about European explorers in Texas this week.
Have a wonderful weekend! Please let me know of any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Great week! Homework packet and reading/math log due on Monday. Toy Drive-Bring in NEW toys. TAG information metkn
Hi, November 2, 2013
We had a week filled with some Halloween fun and learning. We topped it off with more fun at Movie Night. Thanks PTA!
Reading-We read a lyrical poem called “Enter This Deserted House” by Shel Silverstein. We discussed tricky words and used the context clues to help figure them out. We noticed the rhyme and rhythm, the stanzas, and the line breaks. We wrote about the mood of the poem and the images that the poet created with his words. Then we watched a video with the poem being read and various nature images being shown. We discussed the images used and the way the speaker used his voice to create different moods and emotions. Then…. we watched another video of this poem with different images. This time the images were clips from the movie, Psycho, and there is one surprising part that made the kids scream! We wrote about how the two videos were different even though the poem read was exactly the same and talked about how different people interpret poems (and other things) in completely different ways. Here are the links to the videos. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x587PpF-J1Q and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1I4uaRt6bM
We will continue reading and analyzing poems this week and reading/discussing our book club books.
Writing-We read a model of an personal essay or expository essay and discussed the structure. An essay has a central idea, supporting details, and a conclusion. We brainstormed, planned, and wrote a rough draft about our favorite place. We worked hard to make our introductory paragraph interesting and inviting to the reader. Lots of specific details with sensory words were used in our supporting details paragraphs. We worked hard to be sure that our conclusions tied up the ideas and thoughts, were reflective, and left the author with something on which to think. I met with the children to talk about the strengths of their essay rough draft, and we talked about changes to make to improve their piece. Many are now revising and editing on their own and some kids already finished their final copy. We will finish up our essays at the beginning of the week, then we will work on writing poetry.
Math-Telling time, elapsed time, reading thermometers, figuring out changes in temperatures, and analyzing graphs were all practiced in math this week. We will continue to spiral these concepts all year. Try to work on these skills at home often. We will begin working on multiplication and division with larger numbers this week.
Science-We will be learning about forms of energy this week.
Social Studies-We read about bartering and discussed items that specific tribes from Texas traded and why. We will continue to learn about Native Texans.
Toy Drive
Service Club is having a Toy Drive for children at Dell’s Children’s Hospital and to bring awareness to OMS, a childhood disease that affects the brain and nervous system. A child in our community has this disease and his mother came to talk to us about it at our last Service Club meeting. Please help us help others. Bring in new toys to donate. Our goal is 200 new toys for the hospital.
Honoring Veterans
We are honored to invite and serve current and former military personnel on Monday, November 11, 2013 to celebrate Veterans’ Day. The cafeteria will serve breakfast from 7:15-7:45 to veterans. After, veterans are invited to stay and walk through campus to be greeted by students. Please RSVP to this event to help us as we prepare food and gather visitor badge information. We look forward to seeing you!
If you are a Boy or Girl Scout, please wear your uniform to school on November 11 to help honor the Veterans visiting our campus,
TAG Parent Information Meeting
Learn more about the TAG Program and the referral process. This meeting will be held in the Forest Creek Elementary Library on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 from 5:30-6:00pm. Referrals for students in grades K-5 will be accepted from November 18 through December 6. Please contact Deanna Jezisek (deanna_jezisek@roundrockisd.org) or Julie Washburn (julie_washburn@roundrockisd.org) for additional information or with questions.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 4-Reading/Math Log and homework packet due
Monday, November 4-Service Club Meeting 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, November 5-Reflections Gallery Night-6:00
Wednesday, November 6-Walk to School Day
Thursday, November 7-Family Fun Night at Austin Pizza
Friday, November 8-Spelling/word study test on plurals
Monday, November 11-7:15 Veteran’s Day Breakfast
Thursday, November 14-Fundraiser Pick up 2:00pm
Thursday, November 14-Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in Mrs. Arnold’s Room
Thursday, November 21-Thanksgiving Lunch and Literacy Night
Tuesday, November 26-Groovy-O-Rama at 10:05 for Fourth grade
Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a week filled with some Halloween fun and learning. We topped it off with more fun at Movie Night. Thanks PTA!
Reading-We read a lyrical poem called “Enter This Deserted House” by Shel Silverstein. We discussed tricky words and used the context clues to help figure them out. We noticed the rhyme and rhythm, the stanzas, and the line breaks. We wrote about the mood of the poem and the images that the poet created with his words. Then we watched a video with the poem being read and various nature images being shown. We discussed the images used and the way the speaker used his voice to create different moods and emotions. Then…. we watched another video of this poem with different images. This time the images were clips from the movie, Psycho, and there is one surprising part that made the kids scream! We wrote about how the two videos were different even though the poem read was exactly the same and talked about how different people interpret poems (and other things) in completely different ways. Here are the links to the videos. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x587PpF-J1Q and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1I4uaRt6bM
We will continue reading and analyzing poems this week and reading/discussing our book club books.
Writing-We read a model of an personal essay or expository essay and discussed the structure. An essay has a central idea, supporting details, and a conclusion. We brainstormed, planned, and wrote a rough draft about our favorite place. We worked hard to make our introductory paragraph interesting and inviting to the reader. Lots of specific details with sensory words were used in our supporting details paragraphs. We worked hard to be sure that our conclusions tied up the ideas and thoughts, were reflective, and left the author with something on which to think. I met with the children to talk about the strengths of their essay rough draft, and we talked about changes to make to improve their piece. Many are now revising and editing on their own and some kids already finished their final copy. We will finish up our essays at the beginning of the week, then we will work on writing poetry.
Math-Telling time, elapsed time, reading thermometers, figuring out changes in temperatures, and analyzing graphs were all practiced in math this week. We will continue to spiral these concepts all year. Try to work on these skills at home often. We will begin working on multiplication and division with larger numbers this week.
Science-We will be learning about forms of energy this week.
Social Studies-We read about bartering and discussed items that specific tribes from Texas traded and why. We will continue to learn about Native Texans.
Toy Drive
Service Club is having a Toy Drive for children at Dell’s Children’s Hospital and to bring awareness to OMS, a childhood disease that affects the brain and nervous system. A child in our community has this disease and his mother came to talk to us about it at our last Service Club meeting. Please help us help others. Bring in new toys to donate. Our goal is 200 new toys for the hospital.
Honoring Veterans
We are honored to invite and serve current and former military personnel on Monday, November 11, 2013 to celebrate Veterans’ Day. The cafeteria will serve breakfast from 7:15-7:45 to veterans. After, veterans are invited to stay and walk through campus to be greeted by students. Please RSVP to this event to help us as we prepare food and gather visitor badge information. We look forward to seeing you!
If you are a Boy or Girl Scout, please wear your uniform to school on November 11 to help honor the Veterans visiting our campus,
TAG Parent Information Meeting
Learn more about the TAG Program and the referral process. This meeting will be held in the Forest Creek Elementary Library on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 from 5:30-6:00pm. Referrals for students in grades K-5 will be accepted from November 18 through December 6. Please contact Deanna Jezisek (deanna_jezisek@roundrockisd.org) or Julie Washburn (julie_washburn@roundrockisd.org) for additional information or with questions.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 4-Reading/Math Log and homework packet due
Monday, November 4-Service Club Meeting 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, November 5-Reflections Gallery Night-6:00
Wednesday, November 6-Walk to School Day
Thursday, November 7-Family Fun Night at Austin Pizza
Friday, November 8-Spelling/word study test on plurals
Monday, November 11-7:15 Veteran’s Day Breakfast
Thursday, November 14-Fundraiser Pick up 2:00pm
Thursday, November 14-Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in Mrs. Arnold’s Room
Thursday, November 21-Thanksgiving Lunch and Literacy Night
Tuesday, November 26-Groovy-O-Rama at 10:05 for Fourth grade
Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, October 25, 2013
Great visit by author, Phil Bildner!
October 25, 2013
Hi,
What an exciting day! Learning about writing from Phil Bildner was amazing! He inspired us to put more details in our writing and to work hard to revise, then revise, then revise some more to get our writing to be the best it can be.
The Fire Safety Assembly for the last day of Red Ribbon Week was fun, also! We learned a lot about staying safe, crawling under smoke, and checking our smoke alarms. Congratulations to our essay contest winners! Liam, Jilian, and Matthew all won prizes in our school’s Red Ribbon Week Essay Contest! Yeah!
It was nice to see all of you at conferences. Thank you again for your flexibility.
Read about our week:
Reading: We read Twenty-One Elephants by Phil Bildner and made a story mountain to show the characters, setting, plot, climax, resolution, and theme of the book. New book club books were started and we read about an illness that is killing some bats in our country in our Time for Kids magazine. Next week we will read poetry and learn many poetic terms. We will also continue with our book club reading.
Writing: We took our first writing curriculum based assessment. The children had to practice writing to a personal narrative prompt with a two hour limit. They had to independently plan, draft, revise, edit, and write a final copy. They worked hard. The teachers will use a rubric to score the compositions and we will use the information to plan mini-lessons and make goals to improve writing. Next week we will continue working on writing expository essays and poetry.
Math: Patterns and Algebraic Reasoning has been our focus and the children are doing well looking for patterns and figuring our a rule or equation that supports the pattern. We will continue working with these concepts and will learn about elapsed time, measuring temperature, and bar graphs this week. Practice telling time with an analog clock. This is difficult for many students because there are more digital clocks around then analog, so the children get less practice. Thank you for continuing to work on automaticity of math facts as well.
Science: Our test on Matter was on Thursday. We will review this test on Monday and begin working with forms of energy.
Social Studies: We will continue to learn about the tribes of Texas.
Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Hi,
What an exciting day! Learning about writing from Phil Bildner was amazing! He inspired us to put more details in our writing and to work hard to revise, then revise, then revise some more to get our writing to be the best it can be.
The Fire Safety Assembly for the last day of Red Ribbon Week was fun, also! We learned a lot about staying safe, crawling under smoke, and checking our smoke alarms. Congratulations to our essay contest winners! Liam, Jilian, and Matthew all won prizes in our school’s Red Ribbon Week Essay Contest! Yeah!
It was nice to see all of you at conferences. Thank you again for your flexibility.
Read about our week:
Reading: We read Twenty-One Elephants by Phil Bildner and made a story mountain to show the characters, setting, plot, climax, resolution, and theme of the book. New book club books were started and we read about an illness that is killing some bats in our country in our Time for Kids magazine. Next week we will read poetry and learn many poetic terms. We will also continue with our book club reading.
Writing: We took our first writing curriculum based assessment. The children had to practice writing to a personal narrative prompt with a two hour limit. They had to independently plan, draft, revise, edit, and write a final copy. They worked hard. The teachers will use a rubric to score the compositions and we will use the information to plan mini-lessons and make goals to improve writing. Next week we will continue working on writing expository essays and poetry.
Math: Patterns and Algebraic Reasoning has been our focus and the children are doing well looking for patterns and figuring our a rule or equation that supports the pattern. We will continue working with these concepts and will learn about elapsed time, measuring temperature, and bar graphs this week. Practice telling time with an analog clock. This is difficult for many students because there are more digital clocks around then analog, so the children get less practice. Thank you for continuing to work on automaticity of math facts as well.
Science: Our test on Matter was on Thursday. We will review this test on Monday and begin working with forms of energy.
Social Studies: We will continue to learn about the tribes of Texas.
Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Red Ribbon Week Oct. 21-25, Wear Tie Dye on Monday, Reading/Math Log and Homework Packet due on Monday, Writing Assessment on Wednesday, Science Test on Thursday, Word Study/Spelling test on Friday,Phil Bildner Visit on Friday
Dates to remember:
Monday, October 21-Reading/Math logs due, homework packets due
Monday, October 21-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, October 22-Picture Day
Wednesday, October 23-Writing Assessment
Thursday, October 24-Science Test
Friday, October 25-Word Study/Spelling test
Friday, October 25-Visit with author, Phil Bildner
Thursday, October 31-Writing Club from 2:45-3:45 in Ms. Arnold's Room
Friday, November 1-Movie Night, The Croods, at 7:30-bring canned food
October 19, 2013
Hi,
We have a new student! We are excited to welcome Madison to our bat cave! She comes to us from Oklahoma and has been a wonderful addition to our classroom!
Thank you for your flexibility with the rescheduling of our conferences. The kids also did well, overall, with two different substitutes. I was very excited to be back with everyone!
Next week is Red Ribbon Week! We have a theme for each day.
Monday-Say Peace Out to Drugs-wear tie dye
Tuesday-I Picture Myself Without Drugs-wear your school picture clothes
Wednesday-Say Yes to a Healthy Heart and Body-wear anything and everything RED
Thursday-Too Cool for Drugs-wear sunglasses
Friday-Sock it to Drugs-wear crazy socks
Also on Friday, we will have a Red Ribbon Week assembly. We will be working on essays for the Red Ribbon Week Essay contest on Monday and Tuesday.
Phil Bildner will be at our school! He is the author of several picture books including The Hallelujah Flight, Twenty-One Elephants, Turkey Bowl, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He will be conducting a writing workshop with all of our fourth grade classes. He is a very dynamic and interesting speaker and the children will learn a lot from him while having a great time. Order forms for his books will be coming home on Monday. He will sign the books bought as well. You can learn more about Phil Bildner by going to his site: http://philbildner.com
Service Club will be meeting on Monday, October 21, 2013 from 2:45-3:45 in our classroom. We will have a guest speaker come to teach us about a childhood illness called OMS and how we can help with a toy drive to support research.
Writing Assessment on Wednesday. All of the fourth graders will be writing to a prompt provided by our district. The children will be independently drafting, revising, editing, and writing their final composition on lined paper. This is to help prepare them for the STAAR testing that will be done in the spring and help us determine strengths and things to work on to improve their writing. Please be sure that your child is in school on time on Wednesday for testing from about 8:00-10:00.
Read about our week:
Reading-We are reading expository text. We ask questions, make inferences, make predictions, make connections, and summarize. We use evidence from the text to prove our answers and support our thinking. We read about the government shutdown in our Time For Kids magazine this week. We will be reading about smoking, drugs, and alcohol from our health book this week to coordinate with Red Ribbon Week. We will also begin new book club books.
Writing-We learned about truisms and how we can use them to inspire and/or conclude our writing. A truism is a statement that is true or the author believes to be true. Friends are an important part of my life. After a storm, a rainbow appears. Life can be unfair. Winter is the best season. All of these sentences are examples of truisms and we practiced putting truisms into our writing. We will work on essays for Red Ribbon Week, finish up our Reflections writing, and gather more entries for essays this week. We will also practice using were/where correctly and words and learn about words with the following word parts- therm (thermometer, thermal), cent (centimeter, centennial), sci (science, scientist), and meter (millimeter, centimeter, kilometer, meter stick) and continue to use correct capitalization and punctuation in all of our writing in all subjects.
Math-We are continuing looking for patterns and using algebraic reasoning. The class is doing very well looking at a pattern and determining a rule for that pattern. We will be applying these concepts into some challenging word problems this week. As always we will continue to work on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts.
Science-We are finishing up learning about matter, changes in matter, and mixtures and solutions. We will have a test on Thursday on these concepts. I will send a study guide by email this week end and also suggest encouraging your child to go to Stemscopes to practice the concepts covered. Stemscopes includes websites, games, interactive virtual investigations, vocabulary, and science rock songs. Go to stemscopes from the Forest Creek website. Go to the For Students link on the right side. Then to stemscopes. User name: Bartholomew. Password: bats. Review the activities related to Classifying Matter, Changes from Heat, and Mixtures and Solutions.
Social Studies-We will continue learning about the tribes of Texas this week.
Have a wonderful weekend. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, October 21-Reading/Math logs due, homework packets due
Monday, October 21-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, October 22-Picture Day
Wednesday, October 23-Writing Assessment
Thursday, October 24-Science Test
Friday, October 25-Word Study/Spelling test
Friday, October 25-Visit with author, Phil Bildner
Thursday, October 31-Writing Club from 2:45-3:45 in Ms. Arnold's Room
Friday, November 1-Movie Night, The Croods, at 7:30-bring canned food
October 19, 2013
Hi,
We have a new student! We are excited to welcome Madison to our bat cave! She comes to us from Oklahoma and has been a wonderful addition to our classroom!
Thank you for your flexibility with the rescheduling of our conferences. The kids also did well, overall, with two different substitutes. I was very excited to be back with everyone!
Next week is Red Ribbon Week! We have a theme for each day.
Monday-Say Peace Out to Drugs-wear tie dye
Tuesday-I Picture Myself Without Drugs-wear your school picture clothes
Wednesday-Say Yes to a Healthy Heart and Body-wear anything and everything RED
Thursday-Too Cool for Drugs-wear sunglasses
Friday-Sock it to Drugs-wear crazy socks
Also on Friday, we will have a Red Ribbon Week assembly. We will be working on essays for the Red Ribbon Week Essay contest on Monday and Tuesday.
Phil Bildner will be at our school! He is the author of several picture books including The Hallelujah Flight, Twenty-One Elephants, Turkey Bowl, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He will be conducting a writing workshop with all of our fourth grade classes. He is a very dynamic and interesting speaker and the children will learn a lot from him while having a great time. Order forms for his books will be coming home on Monday. He will sign the books bought as well. You can learn more about Phil Bildner by going to his site: http://philbildner.com
Service Club will be meeting on Monday, October 21, 2013 from 2:45-3:45 in our classroom. We will have a guest speaker come to teach us about a childhood illness called OMS and how we can help with a toy drive to support research.
Writing Assessment on Wednesday. All of the fourth graders will be writing to a prompt provided by our district. The children will be independently drafting, revising, editing, and writing their final composition on lined paper. This is to help prepare them for the STAAR testing that will be done in the spring and help us determine strengths and things to work on to improve their writing. Please be sure that your child is in school on time on Wednesday for testing from about 8:00-10:00.
Read about our week:
Reading-We are reading expository text. We ask questions, make inferences, make predictions, make connections, and summarize. We use evidence from the text to prove our answers and support our thinking. We read about the government shutdown in our Time For Kids magazine this week. We will be reading about smoking, drugs, and alcohol from our health book this week to coordinate with Red Ribbon Week. We will also begin new book club books.
Writing-We learned about truisms and how we can use them to inspire and/or conclude our writing. A truism is a statement that is true or the author believes to be true. Friends are an important part of my life. After a storm, a rainbow appears. Life can be unfair. Winter is the best season. All of these sentences are examples of truisms and we practiced putting truisms into our writing. We will work on essays for Red Ribbon Week, finish up our Reflections writing, and gather more entries for essays this week. We will also practice using were/where correctly and words and learn about words with the following word parts- therm (thermometer, thermal), cent (centimeter, centennial), sci (science, scientist), and meter (millimeter, centimeter, kilometer, meter stick) and continue to use correct capitalization and punctuation in all of our writing in all subjects.
Math-We are continuing looking for patterns and using algebraic reasoning. The class is doing very well looking at a pattern and determining a rule for that pattern. We will be applying these concepts into some challenging word problems this week. As always we will continue to work on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts.
Science-We are finishing up learning about matter, changes in matter, and mixtures and solutions. We will have a test on Thursday on these concepts. I will send a study guide by email this week end and also suggest encouraging your child to go to Stemscopes to practice the concepts covered. Stemscopes includes websites, games, interactive virtual investigations, vocabulary, and science rock songs. Go to stemscopes from the Forest Creek website. Go to the For Students link on the right side. Then to stemscopes. User name: Bartholomew. Password: bats. Review the activities related to Classifying Matter, Changes from Heat, and Mixtures and Solutions.
Social Studies-We will continue learning about the tribes of Texas this week.
Have a wonderful weekend. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Newsletter-October 13, Read about our week!
Hi,
We had a wonderful visit on Friday with our pen pals. We went to the science lab and examined a gourd in depth. We measured, described, drew, touched, and weighed the gourd using the triple beam balance. We also determined if the gourd would sink or float. Then we interviewed our pen pals about their childhoods and Halloween, played Halloween Bingo, played with playdough, and worked on some tricky Halloween crossword puzzles and word searches. We will be meeting with our pen pals again on December 6 and will have more holiday fun.
Dates to remember:
Monday, October 14-No school for students
Tuesday, October 15-Reading/Math logs due, homework packets due
Tuesday, October 15-Friday, October 18-Book Fair in the library 7:30-4:30-late hours on Friday
Friday, October 18-Movie Night, The Croods, at 7:30-bring canned food
Tuesday, October 22-Picture Day
Friday, October 25-Visit with author, Phil Bildner
Read about our week:
Reading-We finished our book club books! Each child is writing a letter to me telling me all about the book and its story elements as well as the favorite and least favorite parts. They are also creating story mountains to show the story elements. We also read non-fiction or expository text and are writing responses to them which include our connections, questions, predictions, thoughts and feelings about the topic. We will continue with more non-fiction this week.
Writing-We read the poem, Dreams, by Langston Hughes and discussed the metaphors and the deeper meaning that dreams, goals, and hopes for the future help make our lives meaningful and help direct us. Then the children wrote poems, stories, plays, essays, etc… that exemplified the theme, Dream, Believe, Inspire for the Reflections contest. We also used photos of special places to write descriptive paragraphs and help add specific details to our writing.
Math-Patterns and algebraic equations has been our focus this week. We are looking for repeating patterns in rows of shapes and determining a formula or algebraic equation to figure out the 10th, 20th, or 100th repeat in the pattern without drawing the pattern 100 times. It can be tricky but they are getting it! We are also using input/output charts and determining the rule. For example, if the CD cost $4 , how would you figure out the cost of 1,2,5,10, 25, etc… CD’s. Putting the data on an input/output chart helps us to see the patterns and figure out those higher numbers.
Science-We are working with matter and states of matter and also how increasing or decreasing heat changes the state of matter. We are working on writing an essay to explain the information about matter and this week will be working with solutions and mixtures.
Social Studies-The Native Tribes of Texas was our topic of discussion this week. We were in groups and researched a tribe and made a chart showing that information. We determined if the tribe was nomadic or non-nomadic, if they farmed or hunted, the region where they lived, and how that region affected their lives. We shared the charts and will learning more about Native Groups this week.
Thank you for your support and flexibility with the changes to conferences. I appreciate your understanding.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a wonderful visit on Friday with our pen pals. We went to the science lab and examined a gourd in depth. We measured, described, drew, touched, and weighed the gourd using the triple beam balance. We also determined if the gourd would sink or float. Then we interviewed our pen pals about their childhoods and Halloween, played Halloween Bingo, played with playdough, and worked on some tricky Halloween crossword puzzles and word searches. We will be meeting with our pen pals again on December 6 and will have more holiday fun.
Dates to remember:
Monday, October 14-No school for students
Tuesday, October 15-Reading/Math logs due, homework packets due
Tuesday, October 15-Friday, October 18-Book Fair in the library 7:30-4:30-late hours on Friday
Friday, October 18-Movie Night, The Croods, at 7:30-bring canned food
Tuesday, October 22-Picture Day
Friday, October 25-Visit with author, Phil Bildner
Read about our week:
Reading-We finished our book club books! Each child is writing a letter to me telling me all about the book and its story elements as well as the favorite and least favorite parts. They are also creating story mountains to show the story elements. We also read non-fiction or expository text and are writing responses to them which include our connections, questions, predictions, thoughts and feelings about the topic. We will continue with more non-fiction this week.
Writing-We read the poem, Dreams, by Langston Hughes and discussed the metaphors and the deeper meaning that dreams, goals, and hopes for the future help make our lives meaningful and help direct us. Then the children wrote poems, stories, plays, essays, etc… that exemplified the theme, Dream, Believe, Inspire for the Reflections contest. We also used photos of special places to write descriptive paragraphs and help add specific details to our writing.
Math-Patterns and algebraic equations has been our focus this week. We are looking for repeating patterns in rows of shapes and determining a formula or algebraic equation to figure out the 10th, 20th, or 100th repeat in the pattern without drawing the pattern 100 times. It can be tricky but they are getting it! We are also using input/output charts and determining the rule. For example, if the CD cost $4 , how would you figure out the cost of 1,2,5,10, 25, etc… CD’s. Putting the data on an input/output chart helps us to see the patterns and figure out those higher numbers.
Science-We are working with matter and states of matter and also how increasing or decreasing heat changes the state of matter. We are working on writing an essay to explain the information about matter and this week will be working with solutions and mixtures.
Social Studies-The Native Tribes of Texas was our topic of discussion this week. We were in groups and researched a tribe and made a chart showing that information. We determined if the tribe was nomadic or non-nomadic, if they farmed or hunted, the region where they lived, and how that region affected their lives. We shared the charts and will learning more about Native Groups this week.
Thank you for your support and flexibility with the changes to conferences. I appreciate your understanding.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Great Week!
Hi,
We had a great week!
Reminders: Turn in fundraiser forms. Donate clothing and books. Sign up for conferences, if you haven’t already. Pen Pals will come on Friday, October 11.
Reading: We are working on reading expository text, looking for text features, and writing summaries and responses about what we read. Our responses include connections, predictions, questions, thoughts, feelings, and opinions. We don’t just say that we like or dislike something but give reasons to support our opinions. We are also finishing up our book club books and will begin new books and new groups by the end of next week.
Writing: Gathering entries for personal essays is our focus. One difference between personal narratives and personal essays is that narratives are about small moments and essays are about a big idea. We observed in a 2nd grade PE class and the PreK class at recess. We wrote what we saw and heard with details then tried to stretch our thinking by writing a big idea. This makes me realize… was a common sentence starter for us. We also read Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting which is a realistic fiction story of a boy and his father living in an airport. We discussed homelessness and wrote some things we noticed and our opinions about that. Our Time for Kids newspaper had an article about chimps being retired to a sanctuary after being used to test medicines for humans. Many children felt strongly about this and wrote their thoughts and opinions. We had a severe weather drill this week and some of the kids wrote their observations and big ideas about that drill. We will continue noticing things and stretching our thinking as we gather more entries then will choose one to take through the writing process and write as an essay.
Math: We finished up our review of multiplication and division strategies but will revisit them often throughout the year. We took an assessment on Thursday and finished it on Friday. This assessment will help me focus some small groups for math and begin more reteaching and extension groups as needed. Next week, we will begin looking at patterns and algebraic reasoning. Continue to practice math facts and use Think through Math at home. Most of the kids know many of their facts and all of them can use a strategy to figure out the answer to a fact but we need the kids to be more automatic with their fact recall. This makes working with higher numbers much easier. Talk to your child about their strategies for solving multiplication and division problems.
Science: Changes in matter from heat has been our topic of discussion this week. We visited some websites that simulated melting, boiling, and freezing. We made online diagrams of the effects of increasing and decreasing heat in solids, liquids, and gases. We also did some fun experiments with insulators. We put ice in several bags then wrapped each of the bags with a different insulator like flannel, denim, bubble wrap, paper towels, dishtowels, sponges, and a sock. Then we put the items outside in the sun for about 15 minutes. We determined that the sock was the best insulator. We also put ice and salt in half of a soda can. The outside of the can became freezing cold and a thin layer of ice formed on the outside of the can. We realized that the cold can decreased the heat energy around the can and turned the water vapor back into liquid which then began to freeze because the can was so cold. Next week we will continue talking about matter and also mixtures and solutions.
Social Studies: The characteristics of the regions of Texas were reviewed using the textbook. We will apply the characteristics of the regions to our study of the Native Americans who lived in each region. What resources did the tribe use? How did they adapt to their environment?
Thank you for sharing your child with me and let me know if you have any comments or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam
We had a great week!
Reminders: Turn in fundraiser forms. Donate clothing and books. Sign up for conferences, if you haven’t already. Pen Pals will come on Friday, October 11.
Reading: We are working on reading expository text, looking for text features, and writing summaries and responses about what we read. Our responses include connections, predictions, questions, thoughts, feelings, and opinions. We don’t just say that we like or dislike something but give reasons to support our opinions. We are also finishing up our book club books and will begin new books and new groups by the end of next week.
Writing: Gathering entries for personal essays is our focus. One difference between personal narratives and personal essays is that narratives are about small moments and essays are about a big idea. We observed in a 2nd grade PE class and the PreK class at recess. We wrote what we saw and heard with details then tried to stretch our thinking by writing a big idea. This makes me realize… was a common sentence starter for us. We also read Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting which is a realistic fiction story of a boy and his father living in an airport. We discussed homelessness and wrote some things we noticed and our opinions about that. Our Time for Kids newspaper had an article about chimps being retired to a sanctuary after being used to test medicines for humans. Many children felt strongly about this and wrote their thoughts and opinions. We had a severe weather drill this week and some of the kids wrote their observations and big ideas about that drill. We will continue noticing things and stretching our thinking as we gather more entries then will choose one to take through the writing process and write as an essay.
Math: We finished up our review of multiplication and division strategies but will revisit them often throughout the year. We took an assessment on Thursday and finished it on Friday. This assessment will help me focus some small groups for math and begin more reteaching and extension groups as needed. Next week, we will begin looking at patterns and algebraic reasoning. Continue to practice math facts and use Think through Math at home. Most of the kids know many of their facts and all of them can use a strategy to figure out the answer to a fact but we need the kids to be more automatic with their fact recall. This makes working with higher numbers much easier. Talk to your child about their strategies for solving multiplication and division problems.
Science: Changes in matter from heat has been our topic of discussion this week. We visited some websites that simulated melting, boiling, and freezing. We made online diagrams of the effects of increasing and decreasing heat in solids, liquids, and gases. We also did some fun experiments with insulators. We put ice in several bags then wrapped each of the bags with a different insulator like flannel, denim, bubble wrap, paper towels, dishtowels, sponges, and a sock. Then we put the items outside in the sun for about 15 minutes. We determined that the sock was the best insulator. We also put ice and salt in half of a soda can. The outside of the can became freezing cold and a thin layer of ice formed on the outside of the can. We realized that the cold can decreased the heat energy around the can and turned the water vapor back into liquid which then began to freeze because the can was so cold. Next week we will continue talking about matter and also mixtures and solutions.
Social Studies: The characteristics of the regions of Texas were reviewed using the textbook. We will apply the characteristics of the regions to our study of the Native Americans who lived in each region. What resources did the tribe use? How did they adapt to their environment?
Thank you for sharing your child with me and let me know if you have any comments or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam
Friday, September 27, 2013
Newsletter
Dates to Remember:
Reading/Math Logs due on Monday.
Homework packet due on Monday.
Spelling/word study test on Friday.
Thursday, October 3-Math test on Multiplication/Division strategies
Thursday, October 3-Writing Club-Mrs. Arnold's room, 2:45-3:45
Donate clothing, jeans, jackets, and books for Round Rock Serving Center. Boxes are outside the office. Thank you for supporting our FCE Service Club, PTA, and our community.
Hi,
We had our first Pen Pal visit today and it was wonderful! Our pen pals were so happy to be with your children and the kids were respectful, kind, and engaged. It was amazing to see them interviewing, chatting, and playing games together. The pen pals stayed about 20 minutes longer than was planned because they were all working so well together. Our next visit is scheduled for October 11 from 9:30-10:30 in the library. We would love to have you come and see our students in action.
Thank you to all the dads who were able to come to our classroom this morning for our Dad's Day. We had fun creating aluminum foil boats and testing them out to see which design could hold the most pennies. Thanks again and feel free to come and spend time in our classroom at other times as well. We would love to have you.
Read about our week!
Reading-We read an article on Food Allergies in Time For Kids and talked about text features and the organization of non-fiction or expository text. We will continue reading non-fiction this week as well as continue reading, discussing, and responding to our book club books.
Writing- We are gathering entries for personal essays. We compared the characteristics of a personal narrative and a personal essay. We talked about big ideas like friends and watched a video of the unique friendship between Bella the dog and Tarra the elephant at a Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. We will be writing about what we notice and observe and then reflect on what the observation or noticing made us realize, wonder, or think. As always we will be writing with in complete sentences with capital letters at the beginning of our sentences and punctuation at the end. Thank you for keeping your child accountable for these conventions.
Math-In math, we explored multiplication and division strategies. We talked about fact families and the how multiplication and division are related. We played games and solved problems. The children made arrays out of graph paper to represent candy boxes. They made all possible arrays for 24 candies and then wrote a letter to explain which box would be best and why. Math vocabulary has also been a hot topic. Dividend, divisor, quotient, factor, and product are all words that we practice each day. We will reviewing on Monday for our test on Thursday.
Science-The study of matter is our focus. We did an investigation using straws and water. The water had food coloring and different amounts of water and made layers according to the density of the water when put in the straw with a pipette or eye dropper. We also experimented with our reading buddies and made layers using oil, water, and corn syrup. We will continue with matter topics next week.
Social Studies-Texas map posters were made in small groups. The kids traced the shape of Texas and divided it into regions. Then added pom-poms, yarn, and jewels to represent products, resources, rivers, and cities. They made a map key or legend and a compass rose as well. We will soon be talking about the Native Americans in early Texas.
Thank you for your continued support. As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam
Reading/Math Logs due on Monday.
Homework packet due on Monday.
Spelling/word study test on Friday.
Thursday, October 3-Math test on Multiplication/Division strategies
Thursday, October 3-Writing Club-Mrs. Arnold's room, 2:45-3:45
Donate clothing, jeans, jackets, and books for Round Rock Serving Center. Boxes are outside the office. Thank you for supporting our FCE Service Club, PTA, and our community.
Hi,
We had our first Pen Pal visit today and it was wonderful! Our pen pals were so happy to be with your children and the kids were respectful, kind, and engaged. It was amazing to see them interviewing, chatting, and playing games together. The pen pals stayed about 20 minutes longer than was planned because they were all working so well together. Our next visit is scheduled for October 11 from 9:30-10:30 in the library. We would love to have you come and see our students in action.
Thank you to all the dads who were able to come to our classroom this morning for our Dad's Day. We had fun creating aluminum foil boats and testing them out to see which design could hold the most pennies. Thanks again and feel free to come and spend time in our classroom at other times as well. We would love to have you.
Read about our week!
Reading-We read an article on Food Allergies in Time For Kids and talked about text features and the organization of non-fiction or expository text. We will continue reading non-fiction this week as well as continue reading, discussing, and responding to our book club books.
Writing- We are gathering entries for personal essays. We compared the characteristics of a personal narrative and a personal essay. We talked about big ideas like friends and watched a video of the unique friendship between Bella the dog and Tarra the elephant at a Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. We will be writing about what we notice and observe and then reflect on what the observation or noticing made us realize, wonder, or think. As always we will be writing with in complete sentences with capital letters at the beginning of our sentences and punctuation at the end. Thank you for keeping your child accountable for these conventions.
Math-In math, we explored multiplication and division strategies. We talked about fact families and the how multiplication and division are related. We played games and solved problems. The children made arrays out of graph paper to represent candy boxes. They made all possible arrays for 24 candies and then wrote a letter to explain which box would be best and why. Math vocabulary has also been a hot topic. Dividend, divisor, quotient, factor, and product are all words that we practice each day. We will reviewing on Monday for our test on Thursday.
Science-The study of matter is our focus. We did an investigation using straws and water. The water had food coloring and different amounts of water and made layers according to the density of the water when put in the straw with a pipette or eye dropper. We also experimented with our reading buddies and made layers using oil, water, and corn syrup. We will continue with matter topics next week.
Social Studies-Texas map posters were made in small groups. The kids traced the shape of Texas and divided it into regions. Then added pom-poms, yarn, and jewels to represent products, resources, rivers, and cities. They made a map key or legend and a compass rose as well. We will soon be talking about the Native Americans in early Texas.
Thank you for your continued support. As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Hi,
We enjoyed indoor recess today and some rainy weather. We also had a great week!
FCE Service Club meets on Monday, September 23 from 2:45-3:45. All 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are welcome.
Reading and math logs are due on Monday. Homework packets are also due.
Monday is our library check-out day.
This week is Education Go Get It Week! Wear a college shirt on Monday! Scroll down to read about the rest of the week.
Be sure to return your registration form with a signature and any necessary corrections.
Early Release on Wednesday, September 25 at 12:45
Bring Dads to School Day is on Friday, September 25 from 7:15-8:15 in the classroom then Dads move to the cafeteria for donuts. Research shows that having an involved Dad is a big indicator of student academic success. We look forward to seeing you!
Pen Pals will be here on Friday!-We wrote letters yesterday for our pen pals and introduced ourselves. On Friday, September 27, our pen pals will be at our school in the library from 10:00-10:45. We will be interviewing them and playing games. You are all invited to come and meet these amazing friends from The Court at Round Rock Assisted Living Facility.
Read about our week:
In reading, we read and responded to our book club books and met as a group to discuss questions, predictions, tricky words, characters, and our thoughts about the chapter and the book as a whole. We also read and responded to some non-fiction articles in our weekly Time for Kids publication. We read about the 50 year anniversary of the March on Washington, a newly discovered mammal, and many other interesting articles. Next week we will continue reading and discussing our book club books. We are examining the basic story elements (setting, characters, problem, solution). We will also be looking at non-fiction text and examining different structures that an author uses in expository text. (compare/contrast, problem/solution, sequential, etc…)
In writing, many of the children published their personal narratives! All of the children are doing a great job drafting, conferencing with me, making revisions, and editing their pieces. We will share our narratives and begin gathering entries for our first published essay of the year. We also worked on the spelling and usage of the homophones there, their, they’re, your, and you’re and using correct capitalization and punctuation in all of our writing.
In math, we took an assessment on place value, ordering, estimation, as well as adding and subtracting with regrouping. Most of the children did very well. We are now working on multiplication and division strategies. We played games to practice these strategies and used a multiplication chart to look for patterns. Thank you for working on automaticity of facts with your child at home. Vocabulary is a big part of math and we worked with the words addend, sum, factors, product, multiple, dividend, divisor, quotient, and minuend, subtrahend, and difference. We will continue to work on these and add more math language throughout the year.
In science, we took an assessment on tools and safety and wrote an essay about why scientists need tools. The multiple choice section and the content of the essay was not a problem for most students but many needed to remember to always use correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in anything that they write. Thank you for helping your child be accountable for these conventions of writing. Matter is our next topic and we had fun with some investigations this week. We talked about the three states of matter and how energy is either added or subtracted to a substance to change the state of matter. We put blue food coloring in cups of water then added ice cubes to water and used a white paper towel to wipe off the condensation. There were no blue marks on the paper towel so we knew that the water droplets on the outside of the cup didn’t come from the inside blue water and through the plastic but appeared when the cold temperature of the cup changed the water vapor in the air from a gas to a liquid. We also investigated three balloons with mystery substances inside. We measured the mass of the balloons in grams using a triple beam balance, observed them, touched them, smelled them, and predicted which balloons would sink or float. The density of the mystery substances determined whether they would sink or float. Dishwashing liquid had the greatest density and was denser than the water, so it sunk. Air was least dense and was less dense than the water, so it floated. Baby oil bobbed a little bit under the water so its density was in between that of air and dishwashing soap. We will learn more about density in matter this week.
In Social Studies, we learned about freedom, equality, and democracy because this was Celebrate Freedom Week! We learned about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We also learned about Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. We will learn more about maps this week.
Education Go Get It Week!
Round Rock ISD will celebrate Education Go Get It (EGGI) week from September 23-27 as a way of providing students with information about higher education. At Forest Creek, our goal is for every student to make college their choice. We will be celebrating all week with the following activities:
Monday: College Spirit
Wear your favorite college/university t-shirt or jersey
Tuesday: Be All You Can Be – Say College is for me!
Wear Camouflage
Wednesday: Step up to Education
Wear tennis shoes
Thursday: Hats Off to College
Wear your favorite college hat
Friday: Dress for Success
Wear clothes that represents your future profession of choice
Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We enjoyed indoor recess today and some rainy weather. We also had a great week!
FCE Service Club meets on Monday, September 23 from 2:45-3:45. All 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are welcome.
Reading and math logs are due on Monday. Homework packets are also due.
Monday is our library check-out day.
This week is Education Go Get It Week! Wear a college shirt on Monday! Scroll down to read about the rest of the week.
Be sure to return your registration form with a signature and any necessary corrections.
Early Release on Wednesday, September 25 at 12:45
Bring Dads to School Day is on Friday, September 25 from 7:15-8:15 in the classroom then Dads move to the cafeteria for donuts. Research shows that having an involved Dad is a big indicator of student academic success. We look forward to seeing you!
Pen Pals will be here on Friday!-We wrote letters yesterday for our pen pals and introduced ourselves. On Friday, September 27, our pen pals will be at our school in the library from 10:00-10:45. We will be interviewing them and playing games. You are all invited to come and meet these amazing friends from The Court at Round Rock Assisted Living Facility.
Read about our week:
In reading, we read and responded to our book club books and met as a group to discuss questions, predictions, tricky words, characters, and our thoughts about the chapter and the book as a whole. We also read and responded to some non-fiction articles in our weekly Time for Kids publication. We read about the 50 year anniversary of the March on Washington, a newly discovered mammal, and many other interesting articles. Next week we will continue reading and discussing our book club books. We are examining the basic story elements (setting, characters, problem, solution). We will also be looking at non-fiction text and examining different structures that an author uses in expository text. (compare/contrast, problem/solution, sequential, etc…)
In writing, many of the children published their personal narratives! All of the children are doing a great job drafting, conferencing with me, making revisions, and editing their pieces. We will share our narratives and begin gathering entries for our first published essay of the year. We also worked on the spelling and usage of the homophones there, their, they’re, your, and you’re and using correct capitalization and punctuation in all of our writing.
In math, we took an assessment on place value, ordering, estimation, as well as adding and subtracting with regrouping. Most of the children did very well. We are now working on multiplication and division strategies. We played games to practice these strategies and used a multiplication chart to look for patterns. Thank you for working on automaticity of facts with your child at home. Vocabulary is a big part of math and we worked with the words addend, sum, factors, product, multiple, dividend, divisor, quotient, and minuend, subtrahend, and difference. We will continue to work on these and add more math language throughout the year.
In science, we took an assessment on tools and safety and wrote an essay about why scientists need tools. The multiple choice section and the content of the essay was not a problem for most students but many needed to remember to always use correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in anything that they write. Thank you for helping your child be accountable for these conventions of writing. Matter is our next topic and we had fun with some investigations this week. We talked about the three states of matter and how energy is either added or subtracted to a substance to change the state of matter. We put blue food coloring in cups of water then added ice cubes to water and used a white paper towel to wipe off the condensation. There were no blue marks on the paper towel so we knew that the water droplets on the outside of the cup didn’t come from the inside blue water and through the plastic but appeared when the cold temperature of the cup changed the water vapor in the air from a gas to a liquid. We also investigated three balloons with mystery substances inside. We measured the mass of the balloons in grams using a triple beam balance, observed them, touched them, smelled them, and predicted which balloons would sink or float. The density of the mystery substances determined whether they would sink or float. Dishwashing liquid had the greatest density and was denser than the water, so it sunk. Air was least dense and was less dense than the water, so it floated. Baby oil bobbed a little bit under the water so its density was in between that of air and dishwashing soap. We will learn more about density in matter this week.
In Social Studies, we learned about freedom, equality, and democracy because this was Celebrate Freedom Week! We learned about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We also learned about Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. We will learn more about maps this week.
Education Go Get It Week!
Round Rock ISD will celebrate Education Go Get It (EGGI) week from September 23-27 as a way of providing students with information about higher education. At Forest Creek, our goal is for every student to make college their choice. We will be celebrating all week with the following activities:
Monday: College Spirit
Wear your favorite college/university t-shirt or jersey
Tuesday: Be All You Can Be – Say College is for me!
Wear Camouflage
Wednesday: Step up to Education
Wear tennis shoes
Thursday: Hats Off to College
Wear your favorite college hat
Friday: Dress for Success
Wear clothes that represents your future profession of choice
Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, September 13, 2013
Fun Week!
Hi,
We had a great week. The kids worked hard and most of them are putting forth a good amount of effort. Good for them and let’s keep it up! We enjoyed having the Austin Jazz Group here for an assembly this afternoon! Ask your child about his/her favorite part/song/instrument and why they liked that part.
We will have a math test on Monday on place value (up to hundred millions, expanded form, standard form, word form, ordering large numbers, estimation, rounding) as well as addition and subtraction with regrouping. We did a review today in class and your child should have it in the back pack to bring home to study. Subtraction with regrouping is especially hard for many students. They all need to add to check their work every time they subtract large numbers. (points will be deducted on the test) Here is a website that could help with the understanding that the strategy isn’t to randomly cross out digits and replace with a 10 or a 9 but to regroup the number. 1 thousand =10 hundreds, 1 hundred =10 tens, 1 ten =10 ones. When you regroup, you aren’t changing the number, you are rearranging the number in each place. Go to this website: http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/activity.jsp?sid=nlvm&cid=1_1&lid=155
At this site, your child can practice with virtual base ten blocks.
We will also have a science quiz on safety and tools. Your child will bring home pictures of tools and their uses today as well.
Service Club will begin on Monday, September 23 in our classroom from 2:45-3:45. We will meet every other Monday. Service Club facilitates activities for the school such as writing letters to soldiers, collecting food for families from our school, collecting books for the Round Rock Serving Center, and many other service opportunities. We also go to the Round Rock Serving Center on the first Saturday of each month from 9-10 to volunteer. Come and help us help others! Pick up in front of the school at 3:45. All fourth and fifth graders are welcome!
Writing Club will begin on Thursday, October 3 in Mrs. Arnold’s room from 2:45-3:45. We will meet every other Thursday. In writing club, the second, third, fourth, and fifth graders write and share their work. We have a short mini-lesson or talk about a strategy to try to improve writing, then the kids write! Teachers are there to conference about their writing and we encourage the kids to talk to each other about their work. Then we have a sharing time at the end of the session.
Research Club is led by Mrs. Washburn and is starting on Tuesdays. Applications are outside the computer lab. This group will work on independent research ideas. Email her for more information. Julie_Washburn@roundrockisd.org
Math Pentathlon will begin on Thursday, September 19. Everyone is encouraged to come and have fun with math puzzles and games. Applications are outside the computer lab. Email Julie_Washburn@roundrockisd.org for more info.
Robotics will be starting soon. More information will be coming.
Read about our week!
Reading-In reading this week, we began some book club book groups. Your child is reading Mudshark, Chocolate Fever, or The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. They are reading independently and then answering questions about the chapter. Then we meet as a group to discuss it and talk about it in greater depth. We also read some articles and a book called 14 Cows for America about September 11. I am in the process of individually testing each child to determine their independent and instructional reading levels. We also read and compared a fire poem and an article about wildfires. Next week we will continue with book club books and read some articles from Time for Kids.
Writing-We are drafting personal narratives and will be revising and editing next week for publication by Friday. We read several books to use as mentor texts to model quality writing and talk about the techniques that the author uses. Zooming in on details, strong word choice, telling the story with details, not giving a summary of what happened, expressing thoughts and feelings, describing the setting, and slowing down the most important parts are some of the strategies on which we are working.
Math-Place value games and activities have been fun this week. We discussed opposing viewpoints of Charlie Brown and Lucy and use estimating and mathematics to decide who was correct. We ordered numbers on a large number line on the chalkboard and practiced rounding on the number line also. We even chose a dream vacation and had to use estimation to see how much it would cost. We will have an assessment on Monday and then will begin practicing multiplication and division concepts.
Social Studies-We completed our bus trip through the regions of Texas and are completing activities to go with each region.
Science-We examined shells using tools in the science lab and watched some demonstrations (using the tools) using vinegar, salt, and pennies. We discussed the scientific process as we determined which container cleaned the pennies best. We also watched what happened when mixing baking soda, soap, and vinegar and wrote about our observations. On Monday, we will do explore whether the mass of a matchbox car has an impact on the distance it will travel using a ramp. Then we will take the quick quiz on safety and tools. Next we will learn about matter.
Let me know if you have any concerns or questions. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a great week. The kids worked hard and most of them are putting forth a good amount of effort. Good for them and let’s keep it up! We enjoyed having the Austin Jazz Group here for an assembly this afternoon! Ask your child about his/her favorite part/song/instrument and why they liked that part.
We will have a math test on Monday on place value (up to hundred millions, expanded form, standard form, word form, ordering large numbers, estimation, rounding) as well as addition and subtraction with regrouping. We did a review today in class and your child should have it in the back pack to bring home to study. Subtraction with regrouping is especially hard for many students. They all need to add to check their work every time they subtract large numbers. (points will be deducted on the test) Here is a website that could help with the understanding that the strategy isn’t to randomly cross out digits and replace with a 10 or a 9 but to regroup the number. 1 thousand =10 hundreds, 1 hundred =10 tens, 1 ten =10 ones. When you regroup, you aren’t changing the number, you are rearranging the number in each place. Go to this website: http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/activity.jsp?sid=nlvm&cid=1_1&lid=155
At this site, your child can practice with virtual base ten blocks.
We will also have a science quiz on safety and tools. Your child will bring home pictures of tools and their uses today as well.
Service Club will begin on Monday, September 23 in our classroom from 2:45-3:45. We will meet every other Monday. Service Club facilitates activities for the school such as writing letters to soldiers, collecting food for families from our school, collecting books for the Round Rock Serving Center, and many other service opportunities. We also go to the Round Rock Serving Center on the first Saturday of each month from 9-10 to volunteer. Come and help us help others! Pick up in front of the school at 3:45. All fourth and fifth graders are welcome!
Writing Club will begin on Thursday, October 3 in Mrs. Arnold’s room from 2:45-3:45. We will meet every other Thursday. In writing club, the second, third, fourth, and fifth graders write and share their work. We have a short mini-lesson or talk about a strategy to try to improve writing, then the kids write! Teachers are there to conference about their writing and we encourage the kids to talk to each other about their work. Then we have a sharing time at the end of the session.
Research Club is led by Mrs. Washburn and is starting on Tuesdays. Applications are outside the computer lab. This group will work on independent research ideas. Email her for more information. Julie_Washburn@roundrockisd.org
Math Pentathlon will begin on Thursday, September 19. Everyone is encouraged to come and have fun with math puzzles and games. Applications are outside the computer lab. Email Julie_Washburn@roundrockisd.org for more info.
Robotics will be starting soon. More information will be coming.
Read about our week!
Reading-In reading this week, we began some book club book groups. Your child is reading Mudshark, Chocolate Fever, or The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. They are reading independently and then answering questions about the chapter. Then we meet as a group to discuss it and talk about it in greater depth. We also read some articles and a book called 14 Cows for America about September 11. I am in the process of individually testing each child to determine their independent and instructional reading levels. We also read and compared a fire poem and an article about wildfires. Next week we will continue with book club books and read some articles from Time for Kids.
Writing-We are drafting personal narratives and will be revising and editing next week for publication by Friday. We read several books to use as mentor texts to model quality writing and talk about the techniques that the author uses. Zooming in on details, strong word choice, telling the story with details, not giving a summary of what happened, expressing thoughts and feelings, describing the setting, and slowing down the most important parts are some of the strategies on which we are working.
Math-Place value games and activities have been fun this week. We discussed opposing viewpoints of Charlie Brown and Lucy and use estimating and mathematics to decide who was correct. We ordered numbers on a large number line on the chalkboard and practiced rounding on the number line also. We even chose a dream vacation and had to use estimation to see how much it would cost. We will have an assessment on Monday and then will begin practicing multiplication and division concepts.
Social Studies-We completed our bus trip through the regions of Texas and are completing activities to go with each region.
Science-We examined shells using tools in the science lab and watched some demonstrations (using the tools) using vinegar, salt, and pennies. We discussed the scientific process as we determined which container cleaned the pennies best. We also watched what happened when mixing baking soda, soap, and vinegar and wrote about our observations. On Monday, we will do explore whether the mass of a matchbox car has an impact on the distance it will travel using a ramp. Then we will take the quick quiz on safety and tools. Next we will learn about matter.
Let me know if you have any concerns or questions. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, September 6, 2013
Busy and Fun Week!
Reminders:
Reading/Math Logs due on Monday.
Decorated Writer's Notebooks due on Monday.
Wednesday, September 11: 5:45-pizza, 6:00-PTA Meeting, 6:30- Watch DOGS Kick-off, 6:45-Volunteer Orientation
Thursday, September 12: Girl and Boy Scout Informational Meeting
Friday, September 13: Math Assessment on Place Value and Numeration
Wednesday, September 25: Early Release Day 12:45pm
Friday, September 27: Dads in Class at 7:30, Dads in cafeteria for coffee and donuts at 8:15
We had a busy and fun week!
In reading, the children read poetry books and wrote a letter to me about one of the poems in their book and explained the aspects of the poem that they liked best. The children also read different editions of National Geographic Explorer magazines. They each wrote a letter to me telling me the text features that were helpful to him/her and what he/she learned in their article. We read aloud a book called, How Many Days to America? by Eve Bunting. As I read, the kids wrote their questions, connections, predictions, and thoughts on post-it notes. We call this strategy, "Keeping tracks of our Thinking." This helps them to notice what they are thinking as they read, focus their attention, and monitor their comprehension. We will begin book club groups next week and will practice this strategy in our novels.
In writing, we published our important poems! The students conferenced with me and added metaphors, similes, and sensory words as they revised and edited. They did a great job and the poems are in our hallway for all to see! Next week, we will work on personal narratives. We will write focused seed stories and not giant watermelon stories. (something that happened on the trip to Disney World rather than the entire trip to Disney World). As always, we will work on using capital letters and punctuation appropriately. We will begin using individual spelling lists soon. More information to come.
In math, we are continuing to learn about place value, numeration, and problem solving. We ordered larger numbers using a number line, explored using strips of numbers in expanded form, and played games arranging digits to create numbers in order from least to greatest. Addition with regrouping and subtraction with regrouping especially regrouping with zeros was another focus of the week. We had fun solving logic problems using clues and will focus on estimation and rounding. An assessment of place value and numeration will be given on Friday.
In science, we continued to work on our fantasy stories from the point of view of science safety equipment.
In social studies, we began our virtual bus trip around the regions of Texas. We explored the Mountains and Basins Region and the Coastal Plains Region. We will continue our trip this week.
We met with our first grade reading buddies on Friday afternoon and had fun sharing and reading with them. Our class does some reverse inclusion with our younger functional academic classroom during their adapted PE time. Eleven of our students will assist the teacher in the gym for about 20 minutes on Fridays. The same group will work with the younger children for the first quarter than we will change our group each quarter for the rest of the year. While that group is out of the room, the rest of us are working on math extension and/or remediation activities. Helping with these groups of younger children is a great way for our children to learn acceptance and gives them the opportunity to be role models. I am grateful for these character building and fun activities!
Have a wonderful weekend and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Reading/Math Logs due on Monday.
Decorated Writer's Notebooks due on Monday.
Wednesday, September 11: 5:45-pizza, 6:00-PTA Meeting, 6:30- Watch DOGS Kick-off, 6:45-Volunteer Orientation
Thursday, September 12: Girl and Boy Scout Informational Meeting
Friday, September 13: Math Assessment on Place Value and Numeration
Wednesday, September 25: Early Release Day 12:45pm
Friday, September 27: Dads in Class at 7:30, Dads in cafeteria for coffee and donuts at 8:15
We had a busy and fun week!
In reading, the children read poetry books and wrote a letter to me about one of the poems in their book and explained the aspects of the poem that they liked best. The children also read different editions of National Geographic Explorer magazines. They each wrote a letter to me telling me the text features that were helpful to him/her and what he/she learned in their article. We read aloud a book called, How Many Days to America? by Eve Bunting. As I read, the kids wrote their questions, connections, predictions, and thoughts on post-it notes. We call this strategy, "Keeping tracks of our Thinking." This helps them to notice what they are thinking as they read, focus their attention, and monitor their comprehension. We will begin book club groups next week and will practice this strategy in our novels.
In writing, we published our important poems! The students conferenced with me and added metaphors, similes, and sensory words as they revised and edited. They did a great job and the poems are in our hallway for all to see! Next week, we will work on personal narratives. We will write focused seed stories and not giant watermelon stories. (something that happened on the trip to Disney World rather than the entire trip to Disney World). As always, we will work on using capital letters and punctuation appropriately. We will begin using individual spelling lists soon. More information to come.
In math, we are continuing to learn about place value, numeration, and problem solving. We ordered larger numbers using a number line, explored using strips of numbers in expanded form, and played games arranging digits to create numbers in order from least to greatest. Addition with regrouping and subtraction with regrouping especially regrouping with zeros was another focus of the week. We had fun solving logic problems using clues and will focus on estimation and rounding. An assessment of place value and numeration will be given on Friday.
In science, we continued to work on our fantasy stories from the point of view of science safety equipment.
In social studies, we began our virtual bus trip around the regions of Texas. We explored the Mountains and Basins Region and the Coastal Plains Region. We will continue our trip this week.
We met with our first grade reading buddies on Friday afternoon and had fun sharing and reading with them. Our class does some reverse inclusion with our younger functional academic classroom during their adapted PE time. Eleven of our students will assist the teacher in the gym for about 20 minutes on Fridays. The same group will work with the younger children for the first quarter than we will change our group each quarter for the rest of the year. While that group is out of the room, the rest of us are working on math extension and/or remediation activities. Helping with these groups of younger children is a great way for our children to learn acceptance and gives them the opportunity to be role models. I am grateful for these character building and fun activities!
Have a wonderful weekend and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, September 2, 2013
First Week of School was filled with Learning Opportunities!
Reminders:
No School on Monday for Labor Day.
Reading/Math Logs due on Tuesday.
Back to School Night on Thursday, September 5 at 6:00 in the cafeteria.
Grandparent's Day on Friday, September 6. Our lunch time is 11:55-12:25.
Our first week of school was full of learning about each other and our classroom. We learned about our expectations for reading and writing workshop, ways we share strategies in math, and how we treat others in our classroom, our school, and everywhere! We respect each other, learn from each other, and share our ideas and thoughts. We are going to have a great year!
In reading, we read and discussed many books that had strong characters and interesting interactions among characters. We enjoyed books like, Bully, Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, Wolf!, and Amazing Grace. We discussed internal and external characteristics and the theme or author's message and genres using these books. The children independently read a traditional pourquoi story called The Cat's Purr. Pourquoi means "why" in French and pourquoi stories were created by various cultures to explain things in nature or why things were the way they were. This story told about why cats purr. The children read the story then wrote me a letter telling a short summary of the book, how the characters changed in the story their favorite parts, why they liked that part, and their thoughts about the book's title. The children also read independently daily and I conferenced with them about their book choices and had a conversation about their reading. We began reading the novel Wonder together. This is an amazing book about the life of a 10 year old boy with facial abnormalities. It leads itself to many discussions about literary content as well as life lessons. Next week, we will continue reading different genres, use strategies to monitor our comprehension, and write responses about our reading.
In writing, we discussed a quote about not giving up and discussed the definition of the word, persevere. Then the children wrote a personal narrative about a time that they showed perseverance. We also created individual Enthusiasm Webs and Frustration Webs. We brainstormed things that make us really happy and excited as well as things that make us frustrated. We will use these webs to help us with ideas for future writing. The book, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, helped us think of memories in new ways and record those for future writing as well. Our first published piece of writing will be our important poems. We are drafting poems using similes, metaphors, and sensory descriptions to explain something that is important to each of us. Next week, we will conference individually, revise, edit, publish, and illustrate these poems. Then we will continue gathering entries for personal narratives.
In math, we are learning about place value and problem solving. We played many games such as greatest number wins and guess my number. We found large numbers in everyday life, wrote numbers in standard form, word form, and expanded form, and used base ten blocks to visually represent numbers. Using hundred boards, fifty boards, and eighty boards, we found patterns and used addition and subtraction to figure out unknown numbers. Playing with numbers in this way helps us to better grasp the base ten system and understand place value. Problem solving strategies were shared throughout the week using our document camera. We talked about effective and efficient strategies and learning from mistakes. We will continue to work on place value and problem solving next week.
In science, we talked about science safety and began writing an imaginative story from the point of view of a safety tool. (goggles, apron, gloves, eye/face wash, fire blanket, or fire extinguisher). We will continue these stories next week and explore science tools.
In social studies, we began learning about the regions of Texas by sharing photos of ourselves all around the state. We will examine characteristics of each region and its resources by going on a virtual bus tour of the state. We will also practice reading maps and features of maps. Learning and drawing conclusions by examining primary source documents is an aspect that we will be implementing in social studies this year. We began by examining documents (photos, map, girl scout sash, etc...) from my life to learn about me. The children will use primary source items (or photos or drawings of them) to decorate their writer's notebooks. We will examine each of these to learn more about each other as well as learning about primary sources.
I look forward to seeing our parents on Thursday for our Back to School Night and meeting grandparents on Friday for Grandparent's Day.
Thank you for a great week. Contact me with any questions or concerns.
Friday, August 23, 2013
School Starts on Monday! It is going to be a great year!
Hi,
We will begin our fourth grade year with lots of activities to help us create our classroom community. This classroom will be a safe, accepting place for all students to share their ideas, ask for help, learn independently as well as in groups and to grow together. We will all respect each other and live by the HOWL motto.
H- honor yourself and others
O-own your actions
W-work toward your best
L-listen and be heard
I feel so lucky to be here to help facilitate this process!
We will also be setting up expectations and routines around the school(hallway, bathroom, lunch, recess, specials) and in our reading/writing workshop, math class, read aloud, and science/SS class.
Reading-We will be working on building our reading stamina using self-selected books. We will also read and discuss the characteristics of fiction books as a whole group as well as in small groups. We will discuss themes or author's message and make lots of inferences as we read. Writing reading responses will be done daily. Reading daily at home will be an expectation.
Writing-Writing about special people, places, and things will be our focus. We will do this in a personal narrative and personal essay format. Talking about our writer's notebooks and gathering ideas for writing will also be important this week and throughout the year. As always, writers are expected to write using capital letters, punctuation, and neat handwriting so that they can communicate thier thoughts effectively for others. We will be continuing to work on cursive writing throughout the fall.
Math-In math, we will be problem solving daily using multi-step problems and will be sharing strategies together. We will also be working hard to improve our math vocabulary and use math language daily. Our first unit of study will be numeration and place value. Playing games will help us practice. Working on facts will be an expectation as part of daily homework.
Social Studies-Texas history is our focus in fourth grade. We will begin learning about maps and the regions of Texas. Using the photos of students in areas of Texas will help us learn. We will also take a virtual bus ride through Texas using video clips and photos. Thank you for bringing in your photo!
Science-Science safety and tools will be our first unit. We will learn what to do in a lab and how to do it safely. We will also discuss the scientific process and practice some of those steps.
It is going to be a great first week! I am working hard to make sure that our classroom is ready for lots of engaging and interactive learning!
Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns! Email is the best way to reach me.
Thank you so much! I will see you on Monday!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
pam_bartholomew@roundrockisd.org
Friday, August 16, 2013
Welcome to a new school year! 2013-2014!!! It is going to be a great year!
Hello!
I am so excited to meet all of our new Bartholomew Bats and welcome you to 4th grade.
The beginning of a school year is one of my favorite times of year. We all get to make new goals, meet new friends, and learn new things. I can't wait for us to all get to know each other, share our summer adventures, and get down to some awesome learning!
I look forward to seeing all of you on our School Supply Drop-off night on Thursday, August 22. If your last name begins with A-L, come between 4:00-4:30. If your last name begins with M-Z, come between 4:45-5:15.
See you on Thursday! This is going to be a great year!
Love,
Mrs. Bartholomew
I am so excited to meet all of our new Bartholomew Bats and welcome you to 4th grade.
The beginning of a school year is one of my favorite times of year. We all get to make new goals, meet new friends, and learn new things. I can't wait for us to all get to know each other, share our summer adventures, and get down to some awesome learning!
I look forward to seeing all of you on our School Supply Drop-off night on Thursday, August 22. If your last name begins with A-L, come between 4:00-4:30. If your last name begins with M-Z, come between 4:45-5:15.
See you on Thursday! This is going to be a great year!
Love,
Mrs. Bartholomew
Monday, June 3, 2013
Thank you for a wonderful year!!!!!! Have a safe, fun, reading-filled summer!
HI,
Thank you for an amazing year! I loved coming to school each day to learn with these wonderful students.
Be sure to read A LOT this summer. Email me and tell me about your summer and the books you are reading.
Go to Think Through Math and I-Station to practice skills and have fun.
Record your reading minutes on the Scholastic Summer Challenge website for our class.
Go to our class moodle page and write posts. Check back and respond to your classmate's posts.
Write me a note and send it in the envelope that I gave you so that we can be pen pals.
Feel free to go visit your pen pal from The Court or write him/her letters.
Email me and let me know what you are doing. I would love to hear from you.
Be active, have fun, and be safe. See you in August!
Love,
Mrs. Bartholomew
Thank you for an amazing year! I loved coming to school each day to learn with these wonderful students.
Be sure to read A LOT this summer. Email me and tell me about your summer and the books you are reading.
Go to Think Through Math and I-Station to practice skills and have fun.
Record your reading minutes on the Scholastic Summer Challenge website for our class.
Go to our class moodle page and write posts. Check back and respond to your classmate's posts.
Write me a note and send it in the envelope that I gave you so that we can be pen pals.
Feel free to go visit your pen pal from The Court or write him/her letters.
Email me and let me know what you are doing. I would love to hear from you.
Be active, have fun, and be safe. See you in August!
Love,
Mrs. Bartholomew
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Visit with Elephants in Tennessee today! Architect tomorrow!
Hi,
We visited elephants in Tennessee today! We had a video-conference with a scientist from the Elephant Sanctuary. We began researching elephants at the sanctuary after reading the book, The One and Only Ivan. The book is told from a gorilla's point of view about his life in the circus mall with a performing elephant. Ivan helps the animals find homes in a zoo with other animals. We then started discussing and researching pros and cons of zoos and wrote persuasively about zoos using info from our research. While I was researching, I found the elephant sanctuary website and inquired about their e-learning program.
The kids chose an elephant from the sanctuary and learned about her. They took notes and wrote their questions and some did posters and powerpoints. We've been watching the elephants on the elephant cam at the sanctuary also.
Today, we met with Mr. Montgomery through our video cam and saw videos and information about the elephants and asked him lots of questions. We heard many interesting and amusing stories about the specific elephants and ended up having to switch our lunch time quickly because our 30 minutes conference lasted 80 minutes! It was wonderful. Ask your child about their favorite part and what they learned about helping and caring for all animals.
Mrs. Korfanta featured our class on her blog. http://forestcreekcoyotech.blogspot.com/
Check it out!
Tomorrow, we have an architect coming to speak with us about his job and how he uses all academic areas as well as interpersonal skills at work. It will be fun!
More excitement to come on Thursday!
Sincerely,
Pam
We visited elephants in Tennessee today! We had a video-conference with a scientist from the Elephant Sanctuary. We began researching elephants at the sanctuary after reading the book, The One and Only Ivan. The book is told from a gorilla's point of view about his life in the circus mall with a performing elephant. Ivan helps the animals find homes in a zoo with other animals. We then started discussing and researching pros and cons of zoos and wrote persuasively about zoos using info from our research. While I was researching, I found the elephant sanctuary website and inquired about their e-learning program.
The kids chose an elephant from the sanctuary and learned about her. They took notes and wrote their questions and some did posters and powerpoints. We've been watching the elephants on the elephant cam at the sanctuary also.
Today, we met with Mr. Montgomery through our video cam and saw videos and information about the elephants and asked him lots of questions. We heard many interesting and amusing stories about the specific elephants and ended up having to switch our lunch time quickly because our 30 minutes conference lasted 80 minutes! It was wonderful. Ask your child about their favorite part and what they learned about helping and caring for all animals.
Mrs. Korfanta featured our class on her blog. http://forestcreekcoyotech.blogspot.com/
Check it out!
Tomorrow, we have an architect coming to speak with us about his job and how he uses all academic areas as well as interpersonal skills at work. It will be fun!
More excitement to come on Thursday!
Sincerely,
Pam
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Thank you for all the wonderful, thoughtful presents! Award for Service Club, Science Day tomorrow, Pen Pal Trip, Symphony Trip, Texas Heroes essays and presentations due on Thursday, May 16, read on...
Hi,
Thank you for all your generosity during Teacher Appreciation Week. You are all so wonderful! Thank you, especially, for all of the flip flops for Honduras! I am so excited to be helping the children there and for your children to be a part of it.
Our Service Club won an award! We were chosen the Youth Volunteer of the Year for Forest Creek Elementary and will be accepting an award at a ceremony on Thursday, May 23 at the Performance Arts Center on McNeil Road. There will be breakfast at 7:30 am and presentations begin at 8:00. The ceremony should last about an hour. All of your children are encouraged to attend (then come to school). You would have to provide transportation. Our entire class, whether they were able to stay after school for Service Club or not, have helped in all of the projects that the club did. Many of you also came to the Round Rock Serving Center to volunteer on Saturdays. (We are volunteering this Saturday from 9-10) We would love to have you come and accept the award with us. Then we will come back to school to learn more the rest of that day.
Science Day is tomorrow. We will be participating in activities that deal with science and music, nurses, toxicology, Archaeology, and the Grand Canyon. It is going to be a fun day!
Next Tuesday will be our trip to The Court at Round Rock Assisted Living Facility to see our pen pals. We are so excited to see them and go on this trip. We are going to have a tour of the facility and play some games. We are also going to take our recorders and play a song for them. It will be so wonderful! You are all invited to join us. We will be leaving at about 9:15 and returning at about 11:15.
The Symphony trip will be on May 21. Please let me know by Friday morning if your child needs a sack lunch from the cafeteria. I will only order a lunch for him/her, if you let me know. Thanks so much!
This week we had a wonderful time with our mealworms. Some of them have turned into pupas and we are waiting for the final transformation to beetles! Your children used their creative skills to write diaries from the meal worm's point of view. They are wonderful, imaginative, and funny. We will bring the diaries to share with our pen pals and then I will send them home. Enjoy!
We read a lot of non-fiction about science this week and summarized as we read. We read an article about how animals adapt to hot temperatures and how they use color to protect themselves from predators. Continue to read fiction and non-fiction over the summer and be sure to talk about what was read.
Our read-aloud book, The One and Only Ivan is quickly becoming a favorite. We described each character today thinking about inner characteristics based on their actions, as well as outer characteristics or appearances. Ask your child about this book. The language used is so rich and the characters are very memorable. I love it.
In math we are learning more about division and about measuring angles. We will be using protractors to measure and will be doing more long division strategies in problem solving context. Be sure to continue to practice facts over the summer as well as math vocabulary. Find math in everyday life and discuss.
Our Social Studies Texas Hero essay and project is due on Thursday, May 16. Be sure that your child is researching, including a bibliography, and ready to do a presentation. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you again for all the wonderful treats and gifts this week. I feel very appreciated. I so appreciate your support and enjoyed talking with you during our conferences. I definitely appreciate the hard work and kindness of your children all year and especially at this time of the year. They are wonderful!
Sincerely,
Pam
Thank you for all your generosity during Teacher Appreciation Week. You are all so wonderful! Thank you, especially, for all of the flip flops for Honduras! I am so excited to be helping the children there and for your children to be a part of it.
Our Service Club won an award! We were chosen the Youth Volunteer of the Year for Forest Creek Elementary and will be accepting an award at a ceremony on Thursday, May 23 at the Performance Arts Center on McNeil Road. There will be breakfast at 7:30 am and presentations begin at 8:00. The ceremony should last about an hour. All of your children are encouraged to attend (then come to school). You would have to provide transportation. Our entire class, whether they were able to stay after school for Service Club or not, have helped in all of the projects that the club did. Many of you also came to the Round Rock Serving Center to volunteer on Saturdays. (We are volunteering this Saturday from 9-10) We would love to have you come and accept the award with us. Then we will come back to school to learn more the rest of that day.
Science Day is tomorrow. We will be participating in activities that deal with science and music, nurses, toxicology, Archaeology, and the Grand Canyon. It is going to be a fun day!
Next Tuesday will be our trip to The Court at Round Rock Assisted Living Facility to see our pen pals. We are so excited to see them and go on this trip. We are going to have a tour of the facility and play some games. We are also going to take our recorders and play a song for them. It will be so wonderful! You are all invited to join us. We will be leaving at about 9:15 and returning at about 11:15.
The Symphony trip will be on May 21. Please let me know by Friday morning if your child needs a sack lunch from the cafeteria. I will only order a lunch for him/her, if you let me know. Thanks so much!
This week we had a wonderful time with our mealworms. Some of them have turned into pupas and we are waiting for the final transformation to beetles! Your children used their creative skills to write diaries from the meal worm's point of view. They are wonderful, imaginative, and funny. We will bring the diaries to share with our pen pals and then I will send them home. Enjoy!
We read a lot of non-fiction about science this week and summarized as we read. We read an article about how animals adapt to hot temperatures and how they use color to protect themselves from predators. Continue to read fiction and non-fiction over the summer and be sure to talk about what was read.
Our read-aloud book, The One and Only Ivan is quickly becoming a favorite. We described each character today thinking about inner characteristics based on their actions, as well as outer characteristics or appearances. Ask your child about this book. The language used is so rich and the characters are very memorable. I love it.
In math we are learning more about division and about measuring angles. We will be using protractors to measure and will be doing more long division strategies in problem solving context. Be sure to continue to practice facts over the summer as well as math vocabulary. Find math in everyday life and discuss.
Our Social Studies Texas Hero essay and project is due on Thursday, May 16. Be sure that your child is researching, including a bibliography, and ready to do a presentation. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you again for all the wonderful treats and gifts this week. I feel very appreciated. I so appreciate your support and enjoyed talking with you during our conferences. I definitely appreciate the hard work and kindness of your children all year and especially at this time of the year. They are wonderful!
Sincerely,
Pam
Monday, April 29, 2013
Flip Flop Drive, Mealworms!, Sam Houston to visit!, Early Release on Wednesday, Conferences this week!
Hi,
We are excited about a fun filled week of learning!
Each of the students has a container on their desk with some meal worms inside. We are learning about life cycles and metamorphosis. We learned that a mealworm goes through a complete metamorphosis which means that it has 4 stages of growth-egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Butterflies, ladybugs, and beetles go through a complete metamorphosis. Frogs and other insects like walking sticks go through an incomplete metamorphosis which means they have 3 stages of growth-egg, nymph, and adult. We actually saw one of our meal worms in its pupa stage and an adult! We are observing, measuring, and giving our meal worms tests to record their reactions. We will be bringing our meal worms home at the end of next week. Feel free to set them free!
Sam Houston is coming to visit on Wednesday! We will enjoy a presentation and learn about the life of Sam Houston. We have begun to research him and will continue this week then we will write an expository piece about Sam Houston and his life.
Wednesday is also early release day and conferences will begin at 1:00. I attached the conference schedule. If you haven't signed up yet, please do so soon. Please bring your child to the conference so that they can help share their accomplishments this year and examine our goals.
Pen Pal Visit-Our class will take a bus to go and visit our Pen Pals at The Court on Sunrise Road on Wednesday, May 15. We will leave FCE at about 9:15 am and returning at about 11:00 am. This will be our last official visit of the year. You are invited to come with us for our trip. I would love to have a few parents join us. There will be room on the bus so you can ride with us (I will check and make sure) or you can meet us there. Let me know if you are able to attend. Feel free to go and visit our pen pals over the summer and beyond. Just call first to be sure that the pen pal is at home and up for company. I know that they would love to continue to see the children.
The FCE Service Club is collecting flip flops for the children of Honduras. Our goal is to collect 125 pairs of flip flops for the children at the orphanage as well as the people who live in Mt. Olives. Thank you in advance for your caring and giving spirit!
Be sure to remind your child that we are still in school and that the effort level should not be decreasing. I am excited by all the wonderful projects and activities the our class will do before this year is out. We are done with our testing for the year but will continue to learn and grow each day. Thank you for your support.
Our visit to volunteer at the Round Rock Serving Center will be on Saturday, May 11 from 9-10. Come join us!
Thank you!
Pam Bartholomew
We are excited about a fun filled week of learning!
Each of the students has a container on their desk with some meal worms inside. We are learning about life cycles and metamorphosis. We learned that a mealworm goes through a complete metamorphosis which means that it has 4 stages of growth-egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Butterflies, ladybugs, and beetles go through a complete metamorphosis. Frogs and other insects like walking sticks go through an incomplete metamorphosis which means they have 3 stages of growth-egg, nymph, and adult. We actually saw one of our meal worms in its pupa stage and an adult! We are observing, measuring, and giving our meal worms tests to record their reactions. We will be bringing our meal worms home at the end of next week. Feel free to set them free!
Sam Houston is coming to visit on Wednesday! We will enjoy a presentation and learn about the life of Sam Houston. We have begun to research him and will continue this week then we will write an expository piece about Sam Houston and his life.
Wednesday is also early release day and conferences will begin at 1:00. I attached the conference schedule. If you haven't signed up yet, please do so soon. Please bring your child to the conference so that they can help share their accomplishments this year and examine our goals.
Pen Pal Visit-Our class will take a bus to go and visit our Pen Pals at The Court on Sunrise Road on Wednesday, May 15. We will leave FCE at about 9:15 am and returning at about 11:00 am. This will be our last official visit of the year. You are invited to come with us for our trip. I would love to have a few parents join us. There will be room on the bus so you can ride with us (I will check and make sure) or you can meet us there. Let me know if you are able to attend. Feel free to go and visit our pen pals over the summer and beyond. Just call first to be sure that the pen pal is at home and up for company. I know that they would love to continue to see the children.
The FCE Service Club is collecting flip flops for the children of Honduras. Our goal is to collect 125 pairs of flip flops for the children at the orphanage as well as the people who live in Mt. Olives. Thank you in advance for your caring and giving spirit!
Be sure to remind your child that we are still in school and that the effort level should not be decreasing. I am excited by all the wonderful projects and activities the our class will do before this year is out. We are done with our testing for the year but will continue to learn and grow each day. Thank you for your support.
Our visit to volunteer at the Round Rock Serving Center will be on Saturday, May 11 from 9-10. Come join us!
Thank you!
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, April 19, 2013
Newsletter-Lots of Effort This Week! Geometry Vocab. test on Monday, Reading Log due on Monday, STAAR testing on Tuesday and Wednesday
Hi,
We worked so hard this week at school and at home. Our entire class should be proud of the effort that they put into their learning. I sure am proud of them! Thank you for your help and support at home.
The kids are coming home with a math packet that has problems from category 1 which includes place value, numeration, operations, fractions, and decimals. We went over the whole packet today in class. Please review this with your child over the weekend. You can make a game where you change the numbers and you do a problem and share your strategy, then your child does a problem (or the same problem) and shares his/her strategies. Be sure to encourage checking over work (always add to check after subtracting) and being sure to answer the question that was asked.
Continue to read and discuss books this weekend also. (summarize the story, look at tricky words in context and discuss meanings, how did characters change throughout book, how would you describe characters, what imagery or figurative language did the author use) Reading logs are due on Monday.
As you know, next week is our STAAR testing. Your child will take the Math STAAR on Tuesday and the Reading STAAR on Wednesday. Be sure to get to bed early, eat breakfast, and send water and healthy snacks. Breakfast is free at school all week! Effort is very important as well as focus and taking time. The test is timed but the children will have plenty of time to finish. Taking breaks as needed is a good way to refocus and be ready to continue working. I am excited for the class to get a chance to show off all the great things that they’ve learned this year and throughout their lives. I am very proud of this class and know that they will try their best.
The Forest Creek Service Club is continuing to collect food and books for the Round Rock Serving Center. Please send in items and put them in the box by the office. We will be going to volunteer at the Serving Center on Saturday, May 4 from 9-10am. Anyone is welcome to join us!
Reading –In reading this week we read about Antarctica. We read an article about the people striving to reach the South Pole and were surprised by the ending! We also read a journal about the author’s time in Antarctica and a small book about birds, heroes, and the land of Antarctica. We wrote summaries, discussed cause and effect and met in small groups to talk about our thinking.
Writing-We wrote and published pieces for our school’s Rising Star book. We will be submitting poems, narratives, and essays and the teachers will choose about three or four from each category to be published in our campus book. Results will be in by next Friday.
Math-Measurement, geometry, problem solving, operations, etc….. We have done some of everything this week! We will continue reviewing on Monday and will have our geometry vocabulary test. Be sure to play games to practice our words over the weekend. Think Through Math is another great way to practice at home.
Science-We started learning about the water cycle and the sun and will continue with these concepts next week.
Social Studies-We will be learning about Statehood next week. We will have a Sam Houston presentation on May 1.
Thank you for all your support. Look for another email regarding conference dates and times.
Sincerely,
Pam
We worked so hard this week at school and at home. Our entire class should be proud of the effort that they put into their learning. I sure am proud of them! Thank you for your help and support at home.
The kids are coming home with a math packet that has problems from category 1 which includes place value, numeration, operations, fractions, and decimals. We went over the whole packet today in class. Please review this with your child over the weekend. You can make a game where you change the numbers and you do a problem and share your strategy, then your child does a problem (or the same problem) and shares his/her strategies. Be sure to encourage checking over work (always add to check after subtracting) and being sure to answer the question that was asked.
Continue to read and discuss books this weekend also. (summarize the story, look at tricky words in context and discuss meanings, how did characters change throughout book, how would you describe characters, what imagery or figurative language did the author use) Reading logs are due on Monday.
As you know, next week is our STAAR testing. Your child will take the Math STAAR on Tuesday and the Reading STAAR on Wednesday. Be sure to get to bed early, eat breakfast, and send water and healthy snacks. Breakfast is free at school all week! Effort is very important as well as focus and taking time. The test is timed but the children will have plenty of time to finish. Taking breaks as needed is a good way to refocus and be ready to continue working. I am excited for the class to get a chance to show off all the great things that they’ve learned this year and throughout their lives. I am very proud of this class and know that they will try their best.
The Forest Creek Service Club is continuing to collect food and books for the Round Rock Serving Center. Please send in items and put them in the box by the office. We will be going to volunteer at the Serving Center on Saturday, May 4 from 9-10am. Anyone is welcome to join us!
Reading –In reading this week we read about Antarctica. We read an article about the people striving to reach the South Pole and were surprised by the ending! We also read a journal about the author’s time in Antarctica and a small book about birds, heroes, and the land of Antarctica. We wrote summaries, discussed cause and effect and met in small groups to talk about our thinking.
Writing-We wrote and published pieces for our school’s Rising Star book. We will be submitting poems, narratives, and essays and the teachers will choose about three or four from each category to be published in our campus book. Results will be in by next Friday.
Math-Measurement, geometry, problem solving, operations, etc….. We have done some of everything this week! We will continue reviewing on Monday and will have our geometry vocabulary test. Be sure to play games to practice our words over the weekend. Think Through Math is another great way to practice at home.
Science-We started learning about the water cycle and the sun and will continue with these concepts next week.
Social Studies-We will be learning about Statehood next week. We will have a Sam Houston presentation on May 1.
Thank you for all your support. Look for another email regarding conference dates and times.
Sincerely,
Pam
Friday, April 12, 2013
Science test on Monday. Reading logs due on Mon. Go to websites to practice math and reading. Empty Bowl Project on Saturday. Bring in food and books for the Round Rock Serving Center.
HI,
Science weather test on Monday. Study on Stemscopes.
Reading log due on Monday.
Go to Think Through Math-FCE webpage, students, Think Through Math-Students should have their passwords.
Go to Quia.com to practice geometry vocabulary-go to Mrs. Brannan's website then geometry games
Go to I-Station to practice reading. Students should have their log in.
Read this letter about the band-aid drive and bullying awareness:
Hello everyone!
My name is Emily Couture and I am a junior at Cedar Ridge High School. I organized "Bullying is Whack Day" in October as part of my Girl Scout Gold Award project. My project is called H.E.A.L. (Help Encourage Affection and Love) and is helping to raise awareness about anti-bullying and kindness throughout Forest Creek Elementary. The last part of my project is a band aid drive. I feel as if a band aid represents my project and anti-bullying so I want to collect around 1,000 band aids (about one for every student) and make a giant heart out of them to frame and hang in FCE. I will be on broadcast the following week of April 15-19 advertising this band aid drive which ends Friday April 19th. The class that brings in the most band aids will get a prize (which is undecided as of right now). The band aids can be any size, shape, or color as long as they are not used.
Thank you for all your help!
Emily Couture
Read about our week!
Reading-We read and discussed some articles and books this week in small groups. We read a WWII book about a boy who was sent to Scotland to avoid the Blitz in London. We also read articles about Japanese Internment camps and Navajo Code Talkers. Half the class read one and half read the other and they each discussed their article with a person who read the other article. There was some good discussion and great cooperation. An article about the Brown vs. Board of Education case was also read and discussed by many students. We are working on reading longer pieces and summarizing effectively as well as making inferences and using context to understand vocabulary. We will work on these concepts next week.
Math-Geometry and measurement has been a focus. We are using blocks to measure volume as well as rulers and meter sticks to measure length. We are doing a lot of problem solving and lots of discussion to help us learn and practice strategies. Continue to practice math facts and go to Think through Math to practice at home.Review geometry vocabulary on quia.com. Go to Mrs. Brannan's website and quia then do games to practice geometry vocabulary. We will be having a test on geometry vocabulary next week on Friday.
Writing- We are working on writing poetry about weather including similes, metaphors, and lots of descriptions using sensory words. Line breaks and stanzas are included in our poetry and many of our poems will be entered into our Rising Star contest for our school. I wonder if any of our work will be published.
Science-Weather test on Monday. We collected weather data this week, watched videos, and worked on some weather plays. We will be performing our plays or reader's theaters for our reading buddies on Friday.
Empty Bowl Project is tomorrow at Cedar Ridge High School. Come and see our bowls and support the Round Rock Serving Center.
Bring in food and books for the Round Rock Serving Center also. The shelves were almost empty last Saturday when we were there.
Have a great weekend. Keep working hard.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Science weather test on Monday. Study on Stemscopes.
Reading log due on Monday.
Go to Think Through Math-FCE webpage, students, Think Through Math-Students should have their passwords.
Go to Quia.com to practice geometry vocabulary-go to Mrs. Brannan's website then geometry games
Go to I-Station to practice reading. Students should have their log in.
Read this letter about the band-aid drive and bullying awareness:
Hello everyone!
My name is Emily Couture and I am a junior at Cedar Ridge High School. I organized "Bullying is Whack Day" in October as part of my Girl Scout Gold Award project. My project is called H.E.A.L. (Help Encourage Affection and Love) and is helping to raise awareness about anti-bullying and kindness throughout Forest Creek Elementary. The last part of my project is a band aid drive. I feel as if a band aid represents my project and anti-bullying so I want to collect around 1,000 band aids (about one for every student) and make a giant heart out of them to frame and hang in FCE. I will be on broadcast the following week of April 15-19 advertising this band aid drive which ends Friday April 19th. The class that brings in the most band aids will get a prize (which is undecided as of right now). The band aids can be any size, shape, or color as long as they are not used.
Thank you for all your help!
Emily Couture
Read about our week!
Reading-We read and discussed some articles and books this week in small groups. We read a WWII book about a boy who was sent to Scotland to avoid the Blitz in London. We also read articles about Japanese Internment camps and Navajo Code Talkers. Half the class read one and half read the other and they each discussed their article with a person who read the other article. There was some good discussion and great cooperation. An article about the Brown vs. Board of Education case was also read and discussed by many students. We are working on reading longer pieces and summarizing effectively as well as making inferences and using context to understand vocabulary. We will work on these concepts next week.
Math-Geometry and measurement has been a focus. We are using blocks to measure volume as well as rulers and meter sticks to measure length. We are doing a lot of problem solving and lots of discussion to help us learn and practice strategies. Continue to practice math facts and go to Think through Math to practice at home.Review geometry vocabulary on quia.com. Go to Mrs. Brannan's website and quia then do games to practice geometry vocabulary. We will be having a test on geometry vocabulary next week on Friday.
Writing- We are working on writing poetry about weather including similes, metaphors, and lots of descriptions using sensory words. Line breaks and stanzas are included in our poetry and many of our poems will be entered into our Rising Star contest for our school. I wonder if any of our work will be published.
Science-Weather test on Monday. We collected weather data this week, watched videos, and worked on some weather plays. We will be performing our plays or reader's theaters for our reading buddies on Friday.
Empty Bowl Project is tomorrow at Cedar Ridge High School. Come and see our bowls and support the Round Rock Serving Center.
Bring in food and books for the Round Rock Serving Center also. The shelves were almost empty last Saturday when we were there.
Have a great weekend. Keep working hard.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Field Trip on Friday, April 5 to Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum
Hello!
Reminder: Our field trip to the Bob Bullock Texas state History Museum is tomorrow (Friday, April 5)!
Bring a sack lunch. Wear comfortable shoes and a purple, green, or Forest Creek shirt. (if possible) Don't send cameras, any form of electronics, or money. We can't take photos inside the museum and we don't want anything getting broken or lost. We will not be going into the gift shop.
We are all very excited about the trip and know that the kids will have a great time and learn a lot.
We will be seeing lots of primary sources or original artifacts, letters, diaries, speeches, photographs, tools, etc... and some secondary sources such as drawings, paintings, articles, textbooks, etc....
We will review information about native Americans in Texas, explorers, missions, and the Texas Revolution as well as learn about statehood and Texas today.
Be sure to talk to your child about what they saw and why it was interesting for them.
We will also be watching an IMAX movie about tornado alley. We will be learning about weather next week so this will be perfect!
We talked in class about behavior expectations on the bus and in the museum. Please review these with your child at home.
Bus-sitting with back against back of seat at all times, quiet talking to people in the seat with you, feet and bodies out of the aisle, respectful actions to bus driver as well as all other people on bus. Follow the Forest Creek HOWL motto.
Museum-stay with your group at all times, walking only, quiet voices, listen to adults with you as well as people in the museum, don't go to the bathroom or anywhere else in the museum without an adult's permission and a buddy. Follow the Forest Creek HOWL motto.
H-honor yourself and others
O-own your actions
W-work toward your best
L-listen and be heard
It will be a great day!
Thanks,
Pam
Reminder: Our field trip to the Bob Bullock Texas state History Museum is tomorrow (Friday, April 5)!
Bring a sack lunch. Wear comfortable shoes and a purple, green, or Forest Creek shirt. (if possible) Don't send cameras, any form of electronics, or money. We can't take photos inside the museum and we don't want anything getting broken or lost. We will not be going into the gift shop.
We are all very excited about the trip and know that the kids will have a great time and learn a lot.
We will be seeing lots of primary sources or original artifacts, letters, diaries, speeches, photographs, tools, etc... and some secondary sources such as drawings, paintings, articles, textbooks, etc....
We will review information about native Americans in Texas, explorers, missions, and the Texas Revolution as well as learn about statehood and Texas today.
Be sure to talk to your child about what they saw and why it was interesting for them.
We will also be watching an IMAX movie about tornado alley. We will be learning about weather next week so this will be perfect!
We talked in class about behavior expectations on the bus and in the museum. Please review these with your child at home.
Bus-sitting with back against back of seat at all times, quiet talking to people in the seat with you, feet and bodies out of the aisle, respectful actions to bus driver as well as all other people on bus. Follow the Forest Creek HOWL motto.
Museum-stay with your group at all times, walking only, quiet voices, listen to adults with you as well as people in the museum, don't go to the bathroom or anywhere else in the museum without an adult's permission and a buddy. Follow the Forest Creek HOWL motto.
H-honor yourself and others
O-own your actions
W-work toward your best
L-listen and be heard
It will be a great day!
Thanks,
Pam
Friday, March 22, 2013
Writing Camp was wonderful, Field Trip Permission Slips due on Monday, Pen Pals coming on Tuesday at 12:55, No school on Friday
Hi,
Writing Camp was a huge success! The campers worked hard, had fun,
and revised and edited two complete compositions! Many kids even
finished their final copies! Great word choice, slowing down the
heart of the story, and using inviting introductions and thoughtful
conclusions made these pieces amazing! We sang fun songs and loved
receiving letters from home. Our afternoon celebration today was fun. We
shared our stories and had some s'mores. (When you think you are done
writing...write s'more!) Thank you, Mrs. McCulloch for sending in
s'more poptarts for our snack today. I have two letters for Todd and
two for Kyra that I
printed and forgot to give them. I am sorry and will get the letters
to them on Monday.
Next Tuesday, our pen pals are coming. We will be participating in PE
activities with them at 12:55. We are so excited to be active with
them and see them again. Come and join us!
We won't have school on Friday, March 29 but will be working hard
during the week. It is challenging to stay motivated during these
bright, sunny, summer-like days. Thank you for continuing to
encourage your child to put forth a great amount of effort and to work
hard to focus and do his/her best in school.
In Reading, we will continue learning about World War II events through reading
literary non-fiction or historical fiction, biographies, and
non-fiction. We will be working on summary, inferences, and other
types of comprehension skills and talking about the themes in these
books and articles. A common theme is respecting others, be tolerant
of differences in others, don't judge others based on their race,
culture, etc...
In Writing, we will be continuing to revise, edit, and write final
copies of our pieces from writing camp (if they didn't get to do final
copies of both) and will be continuing to write personal narrative
entries and essay entries in school. We will also be working on lots
of editing and revising practice using multiple choice formats and
bubble sheets to prepare for our tests on Tuesday, April 2 and
Wednesday, April 3.
In Math, we will continue to work on geometry and measurement. We
will be having a test on geometry vocabulary on Monday, April 1 (Not
an April Fool's Joke!) and will be reviewing multiplication, division,
addition, and subtraction in multi-step problems.
In Science, we will continue to learn about natural resources and
which ones are renewable and nonrenewable. We will have a test on
those concepts on Thursday, March 28. A study guide will be coming on
Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend! I enjoyed our fun writing camp week! Let
me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Writing Camp was a huge success! The campers worked hard, had fun,
and revised and edited two complete compositions! Many kids even
finished their final copies! Great word choice, slowing down the
heart of the story, and using inviting introductions and thoughtful
conclusions made these pieces amazing! We sang fun songs and loved
receiving letters from home. Our afternoon celebration today was fun. We
shared our stories and had some s'mores. (When you think you are done
writing...write s'more!) Thank you, Mrs. McCulloch for sending in
s'more poptarts for our snack today. I have two letters for Todd and
two for Kyra that I
printed and forgot to give them. I am sorry and will get the letters
to them on Monday.
Next Tuesday, our pen pals are coming. We will be participating in PE
activities with them at 12:55. We are so excited to be active with
them and see them again. Come and join us!
We won't have school on Friday, March 29 but will be working hard
during the week. It is challenging to stay motivated during these
bright, sunny, summer-like days. Thank you for continuing to
encourage your child to put forth a great amount of effort and to work
hard to focus and do his/her best in school.
In Reading, we will continue learning about World War II events through reading
literary non-fiction or historical fiction, biographies, and
non-fiction. We will be working on summary, inferences, and other
types of comprehension skills and talking about the themes in these
books and articles. A common theme is respecting others, be tolerant
of differences in others, don't judge others based on their race,
culture, etc...
In Writing, we will be continuing to revise, edit, and write final
copies of our pieces from writing camp (if they didn't get to do final
copies of both) and will be continuing to write personal narrative
entries and essay entries in school. We will also be working on lots
of editing and revising practice using multiple choice formats and
bubble sheets to prepare for our tests on Tuesday, April 2 and
Wednesday, April 3.
In Math, we will continue to work on geometry and measurement. We
will be having a test on geometry vocabulary on Monday, April 1 (Not
an April Fool's Joke!) and will be reviewing multiplication, division,
addition, and subtraction in multi-step problems.
In Science, we will continue to learn about natural resources and
which ones are renewable and nonrenewable. We will have a test on
those concepts on Thursday, March 28. A study guide will be coming on
Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend! I enjoyed our fun writing camp week! Let
me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Writing Camp begins on Tuesday! Sack Lunches on Friday! Great Week Ahead!
Parents,
I hope that your spring break was fun, relaxing, and safe. Don't forget to bring in signed reading logs for prizes. Any student reading over 150 minutes will receive a prize. The readers who read the longest amount of time get to choose first.
Writing Camp is beginning on Tuesday! During writing camp, our classroom is transformed to resemble a campsite. We all wear orange bandanas (I have them for the kids), camp clothes, and bring in our sleeping bags! We set up camp in our classroom, sing camp songs with the other fourth grade classes, and work on writing all morning. During the week, we will plan and write a personal narrative and an expository draft. We will review ways to revise to make our pieces even more effective for the reader and will work a lot on editing. (capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, etc...) We will be reading mentor texts or books and other pieces through a writer's eye and determine strategies and techniques that worked well for other authors. We will then use them in our own writing. Playing games that reinforce editing and revising skills will also be a part of our camp day. Writing Camp is one of the highlights of fourth grade and your child will have a wonderful week!
Our schedule is modified a bit this week so that the younger kids can use the cafeteria to practice the Hoe Down. We will be having our specials in the morning and our recess after lunch. We will also be having sack lunches on Friday in our classrooms due to the Hoe Down. Let me know ASAP if your child wants a sack lunch. The time before lunch will be mostly writing but we will be working on math and science in the afternoon.
Camp letters is a fun part of writing camp. Just like you would send your child a letter if he/she were away at camp, you can send your child a letter during writing camp! You can pretend that they are away at a sleepover camp and you miss them, you can write them a letter that includes stories and memories from your camping experiences, you can write them a letter that encourages them to enjoy this time writing and learning, or you can write about whatever you would like! You can write a letter a day (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) or write one letter. You can ask friends and family to write letters, also. You may email letters to me and I will print them out to give to the kids or send them into school in a sealed envelope to me and I will hand them out throughout the week. Whatever works for you! Letter writing is authentic writing and it is great for the kids to see more ways to communicate and how important writing is in our lives. Have fun with camp letters and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Dates to remember:
Monday, March 18-return spring break reading logs
Tuesday, March 19-Friday, March 22-Writing Camp!
Thursday, March 21-Writing Club 2:45-3:45
Friday, March 22-Hoe Down for K-2
Monday, March 25-Science test on Natural Resources
I am so excited about this week! We are going to have a great time!
Sincerely and Happy Camping!
Pam Bartholomew
I hope that your spring break was fun, relaxing, and safe. Don't forget to bring in signed reading logs for prizes. Any student reading over 150 minutes will receive a prize. The readers who read the longest amount of time get to choose first.
Writing Camp is beginning on Tuesday! During writing camp, our classroom is transformed to resemble a campsite. We all wear orange bandanas (I have them for the kids), camp clothes, and bring in our sleeping bags! We set up camp in our classroom, sing camp songs with the other fourth grade classes, and work on writing all morning. During the week, we will plan and write a personal narrative and an expository draft. We will review ways to revise to make our pieces even more effective for the reader and will work a lot on editing. (capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, etc...) We will be reading mentor texts or books and other pieces through a writer's eye and determine strategies and techniques that worked well for other authors. We will then use them in our own writing. Playing games that reinforce editing and revising skills will also be a part of our camp day. Writing Camp is one of the highlights of fourth grade and your child will have a wonderful week!
Our schedule is modified a bit this week so that the younger kids can use the cafeteria to practice the Hoe Down. We will be having our specials in the morning and our recess after lunch. We will also be having sack lunches on Friday in our classrooms due to the Hoe Down. Let me know ASAP if your child wants a sack lunch. The time before lunch will be mostly writing but we will be working on math and science in the afternoon.
Camp letters is a fun part of writing camp. Just like you would send your child a letter if he/she were away at camp, you can send your child a letter during writing camp! You can pretend that they are away at a sleepover camp and you miss them, you can write them a letter that includes stories and memories from your camping experiences, you can write them a letter that encourages them to enjoy this time writing and learning, or you can write about whatever you would like! You can write a letter a day (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) or write one letter. You can ask friends and family to write letters, also. You may email letters to me and I will print them out to give to the kids or send them into school in a sealed envelope to me and I will hand them out throughout the week. Whatever works for you! Letter writing is authentic writing and it is great for the kids to see more ways to communicate and how important writing is in our lives. Have fun with camp letters and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Dates to remember:
Monday, March 18-return spring break reading logs
Tuesday, March 19-Friday, March 22-Writing Camp!
Thursday, March 21-Writing Club 2:45-3:45
Friday, March 22-Hoe Down for K-2
Monday, March 25-Science test on Natural Resources
I am so excited about this week! We are going to have a great time!
Sincerely and Happy Camping!
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, March 4, 2013
Newsletter-Published Book forms due ASAP, Early Release on Wed.
Hi,
We had a busy week! Our Pen Pals came on Wednesday and we glazed our bowls for the Empty Bowl Project with them. Our next Pen Pal visit will be on Tuesday, March 26 at 1:00 in the gym. We will be participating in PE activities with them. We will have fun playing seated volleyball, tossing baskets, dancing and other activities to promote physical activities and health with the children and the adults.
We also had a fun night at our carnival! Thanks to all who donated their time or items for our basket! Thank you so much to Jeanne McCulloch for all her hard work to make our basket look so amazing!
Last week, we took our STAAR ready tests in reading and math. They were challenging but gave us good information to move us forward and focus instruction. Thank you for working hard with your child at home.
STAAR PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS will be held on March 7th at 7:30am and 6:00pm. Both sessions will be held in the FCE Library. You may find some general information on STAAR at the following link: STAAR Standard Setting Questions and Answers. (go to website for active link)
We will have a reading challenge over Spring Break. Your child is expected to read at least 150 minutes over the break but we will have a little competition to see how many minutes we can all read. Prizes will be awarded to every child reading over 150 minutes. The children who read the most, get to choose their prize first. Thank you for encouraging reading at home!
Continue to practice math facts in all operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). Have fun with multi-step problems, geometry vocabulary, and measurement vocabulary at home as well.
This week, we will be finishing up our published books! Please return the order form with a signature and mark whether you want to purchase additional copies or just check no. Each child will have their original pages bound into a hard cover book.
Fill out the parent climate survey form for our district. The link is on our school webpage. https://www.roundrockisd.org/surveys/surveys/13ParentEng1.htm?path=/surveys/surveys/
Read about our week:
Reading-We began learning about World War II and reading historical fiction or literary nonfiction books about this topic. We will be using this books about WWII to teach comprehension skills as well as to discuss tolerance and respectfulness.
Writing-We will be working on our published books as well as continuing to work on revising and editing skills. We are in the process of writing essays about weathering, erosion, and deposition in science and will begin gathering more entries for personal narratives this week. Writing Camp will be the week after spring break! Get out your sleeping bags and camp clothes ready for a fun week of writing activities in the morning mixed with math games in the afternoon. More information will be coming.
Math-We are finishing up more fun activities in measurement and will be working with geometry this week and after spring break. Be sure to work on facts, multi-step problem solving and vocabulary at home. We will have a geometry vocabulary test after spring break.
Science-We are finishing up weathering, erosion, and deposition or changes to the land and will begin learning about weather. We will have a test on Changes to the Land on Thursday. A study guide will come home on Monday.
Social Studies-Happy Texas Independence Day! It was actually on March 2, 1836 that the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed. We will be discussing this and the Battle of the Alamo which was fought on March 6, 1836.
Dates to Remember:
Kindergarten Round up-March 5- 9am -2pm
Early Release on Wednesday, March 6 at 12:45
Thursday, March 7-Writing Club 2:45-3:45-Order forms for Published books are due
Thursday, March 7-STAAR PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS-7:30am and 6:00pm
Monday, March 11-Friday, March 15-Spring Break
Tuesday, March 19-Friday, March 22-Writing Camp!
Friday, March 22-Hoe Down for Grades K-2
Have a great week!
Pam
We had a busy week! Our Pen Pals came on Wednesday and we glazed our bowls for the Empty Bowl Project with them. Our next Pen Pal visit will be on Tuesday, March 26 at 1:00 in the gym. We will be participating in PE activities with them. We will have fun playing seated volleyball, tossing baskets, dancing and other activities to promote physical activities and health with the children and the adults.
We also had a fun night at our carnival! Thanks to all who donated their time or items for our basket! Thank you so much to Jeanne McCulloch for all her hard work to make our basket look so amazing!
Last week, we took our STAAR ready tests in reading and math. They were challenging but gave us good information to move us forward and focus instruction. Thank you for working hard with your child at home.
STAAR PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS will be held on March 7th at 7:30am and 6:00pm. Both sessions will be held in the FCE Library. You may find some general information on STAAR at the following link: STAAR Standard Setting Questions and Answers. (go to website for active link)
We will have a reading challenge over Spring Break. Your child is expected to read at least 150 minutes over the break but we will have a little competition to see how many minutes we can all read. Prizes will be awarded to every child reading over 150 minutes. The children who read the most, get to choose their prize first. Thank you for encouraging reading at home!
Continue to practice math facts in all operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). Have fun with multi-step problems, geometry vocabulary, and measurement vocabulary at home as well.
This week, we will be finishing up our published books! Please return the order form with a signature and mark whether you want to purchase additional copies or just check no. Each child will have their original pages bound into a hard cover book.
Fill out the parent climate survey form for our district. The link is on our school webpage. https://www.roundrockisd.org/surveys/surveys/13ParentEng1.htm?path=/surveys/surveys/
Read about our week:
Reading-We began learning about World War II and reading historical fiction or literary nonfiction books about this topic. We will be using this books about WWII to teach comprehension skills as well as to discuss tolerance and respectfulness.
Writing-We will be working on our published books as well as continuing to work on revising and editing skills. We are in the process of writing essays about weathering, erosion, and deposition in science and will begin gathering more entries for personal narratives this week. Writing Camp will be the week after spring break! Get out your sleeping bags and camp clothes ready for a fun week of writing activities in the morning mixed with math games in the afternoon. More information will be coming.
Math-We are finishing up more fun activities in measurement and will be working with geometry this week and after spring break. Be sure to work on facts, multi-step problem solving and vocabulary at home. We will have a geometry vocabulary test after spring break.
Science-We are finishing up weathering, erosion, and deposition or changes to the land and will begin learning about weather. We will have a test on Changes to the Land on Thursday. A study guide will come home on Monday.
Social Studies-Happy Texas Independence Day! It was actually on March 2, 1836 that the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed. We will be discussing this and the Battle of the Alamo which was fought on March 6, 1836.
Dates to Remember:
Kindergarten Round up-March 5- 9am -2pm
Early Release on Wednesday, March 6 at 12:45
Thursday, March 7-Writing Club 2:45-3:45-Order forms for Published books are due
Thursday, March 7-STAAR PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS-7:30am and 6:00pm
Monday, March 11-Friday, March 15-Spring Break
Tuesday, March 19-Friday, March 22-Writing Camp!
Friday, March 22-Hoe Down for Grades K-2
Have a great week!
Pam
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Pen Pals come on Wednesday, STAAR Ready tests in Math and Reading on Thursday and Friday, Carnival on Friday!
Hi,
We are taking STAAR Ready tests on Thursday and Friday. These tests are made by our district and are similar to the actual test that we will take in April. We are taking them now as a way to check on the skills and concepts that the children have and which ones are still difficult. We will be reteaching and extending as necessary based on the data from the tests. Several of the children in our class have had trouble bubbling in the answer document so this also gives us another chance to practice our test taking strategies. Be sure your child is going to bed early on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Be sure that he/she eats a good breakfast on Thursday and Friday morning and brings a healthy (and neat) snack for each day. Thank you!
Because of the STAAR ready tests this week, we will not have convention sentences this week. We will be reading 150 minutes this week (log due on 3/4) but won't have math homework on Wednesday or Thursday. We will have a reading and writing packet that will be due on Friday instead of any reading responses or writing entries due. So homework this week is:
read 150 minutes due on Monday, March 4, 2013
reading/writing packet due on Friday, March 1, 2013
math papers on Monday, Tuesday
Our pen pals are coming on Wednesday during our art time to paint our bowls for the Empty Bowl Project! Yeah! Feel free to come and join us!
Be sure to volunteer at our Spring Carnival on March 1. The link for volunteers to sign up is https://www.ptavenue.com/volunteerr.asp?sc=FCEPTA&v=26615.
Look for Bartholomew to sign up to help with the booths. If all those slots are filled, you can sign up to help with "Food Set Up", "Games Set Up", "Ticket Sales" and "Clean Up Crew". Thank you!
Don't forget also to bring in items for our class basket! Thank you so much!
Read about our week:
Reading: We read non-fiction articles and books this week and looked at text structures or the ways that authors organize texts. A book or selection may have several different text structures or may be organized in just one way. Some common structures are cause/effect, compare/contrast, description, and sequence. We read some books and articles and talked about the text structures and why the author organized the information in those ways. We will begin studying about WWII using historical fiction and nonfiction texts this week.
Writing: We worked on our published books and began revising our STARR Ready narratives. The children finished revising and editing their narratives for homework. Thank you for your help! We will continue to work on our published books this week and hopefully complete them! Order forms are coming home on Monday! Each child will receive a free copy of their individual published book. Please return your order form with either payment and an order or a signature and a check by the sentence stating that you don't want any extra copies. Thank you and let me know if you have any questions.
Math: We will be working this week on a quick review of some geometry concepts from third grade and continue with volume, and more problem solving using measurement, multiplication, division, etc... We will be doing lots of multi-step problems using lots of strategies. Continue to practice math facts at home.
Science: We watched some movies, played games, and listened to songs about weathering, erosion, and deposition. We also read about caves. We will be doing a webquest on Monday and visit some sites with cool weathering, erosion, and deposition activities.
Social Studies: We will celebrate Texas Independence Day on Friday. March 2 is Texas Independence Day!
Reminders:
Monday, February 25-Reading Logs due
Wednesday, February 27- Pen Pal Visit at 1:00 to paint bowls
Thursday, February 28-Service Club 2:45-3:45
Friday, March 1-Spring Carnival-sign up to volunteer
Wednesday, March 6-Early Release 12:45, Kona Ice at FCE (Anniversary of Battle of Alamo)
Thursday, March 7-Writing Club 2:45-3:45
Monday, March 11-15-Spring Break
Tuesday, March 19-Friday, March 22-Writing Camp
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We are taking STAAR Ready tests on Thursday and Friday. These tests are made by our district and are similar to the actual test that we will take in April. We are taking them now as a way to check on the skills and concepts that the children have and which ones are still difficult. We will be reteaching and extending as necessary based on the data from the tests. Several of the children in our class have had trouble bubbling in the answer document so this also gives us another chance to practice our test taking strategies. Be sure your child is going to bed early on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Be sure that he/she eats a good breakfast on Thursday and Friday morning and brings a healthy (and neat) snack for each day. Thank you!
Because of the STAAR ready tests this week, we will not have convention sentences this week. We will be reading 150 minutes this week (log due on 3/4) but won't have math homework on Wednesday or Thursday. We will have a reading and writing packet that will be due on Friday instead of any reading responses or writing entries due. So homework this week is:
read 150 minutes due on Monday, March 4, 2013
reading/writing packet due on Friday, March 1, 2013
math papers on Monday, Tuesday
Our pen pals are coming on Wednesday during our art time to paint our bowls for the Empty Bowl Project! Yeah! Feel free to come and join us!
Be sure to volunteer at our Spring Carnival on March 1. The link for volunteers to sign up is https://www.ptavenue.com/volunteerr.asp?sc=FCEPTA&v=26615.
Look for Bartholomew to sign up to help with the booths. If all those slots are filled, you can sign up to help with "Food Set Up", "Games Set Up", "Ticket Sales" and "Clean Up Crew". Thank you!
Don't forget also to bring in items for our class basket! Thank you so much!
Read about our week:
Reading: We read non-fiction articles and books this week and looked at text structures or the ways that authors organize texts. A book or selection may have several different text structures or may be organized in just one way. Some common structures are cause/effect, compare/contrast, description, and sequence. We read some books and articles and talked about the text structures and why the author organized the information in those ways. We will begin studying about WWII using historical fiction and nonfiction texts this week.
Writing: We worked on our published books and began revising our STARR Ready narratives. The children finished revising and editing their narratives for homework. Thank you for your help! We will continue to work on our published books this week and hopefully complete them! Order forms are coming home on Monday! Each child will receive a free copy of their individual published book. Please return your order form with either payment and an order or a signature and a check by the sentence stating that you don't want any extra copies. Thank you and let me know if you have any questions.
Math: We will be working this week on a quick review of some geometry concepts from third grade and continue with volume, and more problem solving using measurement, multiplication, division, etc... We will be doing lots of multi-step problems using lots of strategies. Continue to practice math facts at home.
Science: We watched some movies, played games, and listened to songs about weathering, erosion, and deposition. We also read about caves. We will be doing a webquest on Monday and visit some sites with cool weathering, erosion, and deposition activities.
Social Studies: We will celebrate Texas Independence Day on Friday. March 2 is Texas Independence Day!
Reminders:
Monday, February 25-Reading Logs due
Wednesday, February 27- Pen Pal Visit at 1:00 to paint bowls
Thursday, February 28-Service Club 2:45-3:45
Friday, March 1-Spring Carnival-sign up to volunteer
Wednesday, March 6-Early Release 12:45, Kona Ice at FCE (Anniversary of Battle of Alamo)
Thursday, March 7-Writing Club 2:45-3:45
Monday, March 11-15-Spring Break
Tuesday, March 19-Friday, March 22-Writing Camp
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Newsletter, Sign up for Spring Carnival
We had a busy week! We had a fun Valentine's Day Party. Thank you to all
the parents who donated items and/or came to the party to help.
Thank you, especially, to Mrs. McCulloch for planning and facilitating our
party. Everyone had a great time!
Thank you also for sending in items for our class basket for the Spring
Carnival! Keep them coming!
Changes in homework this week. Read below!
Homework this week:
Read 150 min. per week-due Monday, February 25 One (1) reading response and
summary Writing-Revise and edit narrative writing(they will bring it home on
Tuesday)-return by Thursday Reading/Writing packet Convention Sentences test
on Friday Try I-Station at home this week for at least 30 minutes-(can count
as reading minutes) Math paper daily
Sister Teresita, the nun who founded and runs the Copprome Orphanage in
Honduras, came to speak to our Service Club on Thursday. The meeting was
after the Valentine's Day party. The children had just eaten lots of sweets
and were very excited. I was a bit concerned about the behavior during our
meeting. Well, Sister Teresita quietly asked if the children had any
questions. Sage asked to tell her about Wendy, one of the children who Sage
had chosen to write a letter. Sister told a very bittersweet story about Wendy and her situation.
The children listened so attentively and were totally engaged in each and
every one of Sister's stories about the children. It was so wonderful to
watch their faces and hear them comment later about how lucky they are and
how hard it must be for the children in Honduras but how lucky they are to
have Sister to care for them.
Sister Teresita enjoyed the children at our Service Club meeting very much
and was able to come back to talk to the children in our classroom on Friday
morning! More stories were shared as the children silently listened. It
was amazing and I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to meet Sister
and hear about her life and the lives of the children. Each of our children
chose one of the children from the orphanage and they wrote a letter to
them. We typed the letter in English then translated the letter into Spanish
using an online site. They also drew pictures for the kids. Sister was so excited to have these
papers for the children that she wanted to hold them on the airplane rather
than put them in her suitcase so that they were safe. Be proud of the generosity and caring attitude of your child.
Read about the rest of our week:
Reading: We read more traditional tales and some plays this week. We
compared drama writing and narrative writing. We noticed that in dramatic
writing, the character's name and a colon are used rather than quotation
marks when showing dialogue. We also noticed that there is a list of
characters and sometimes a narrator. There are stage directions which tell
how the characters will act and/or speak and where. The directions are from
the perspective of the actor rather than the audience. Stage left means the
actor's left and the audience's right. We will be reading non-fiction
articles and books this week and looking at text structure.
Writing: We wrote letters for the children in Honduras, we wrote animal
haikus for the Haiku Contest in the library, and we worked on our published
books. We will continue to work on our published books as well as working
on some revising and editing at home for homework.
Math: Overall, we did well on our Decimals/fractions test and began working
with measurement. We made a cool chart which included the types of
measurement, tools used, as well as customary/standard and metric units.
We played a game called Race to a Gallon during which the team tries to fill
a gallon container with beans in the fewest number of turns. The team spins
a spinner to figure out the unit used. For example, the player spins quart. Then he/she spins the quart spinner to find out the number of quarts of beans to add. This
continues until the the gallon container is filled with beans. This
game is a hands-on way to work with conversion and measurements of capacity.
We will continue with measurement and problem solving this week.
MEASUREMENT VOCABULARY TEST ON FRIDAY. USE QUIA.COM TO PRACTICE. ( quia
web, user name: lisabrannan, password: dominic, then look for Measurement
Vocabulary-Mrs. Bartholomew's class.)
Science: Weathering, Erosion, Deposition-Oh My!!!! With our first grade
friends, we shook a limestone rock in water in a baby food jar.
We observed the rock before shaking then shook for a total of 9 minutes and
took notes throughout. We will continue to learn more about weathering,
erosion, and deposition. There is also a quia game ready for Rocks, Soil,
and Landforms vocabulary.
Social Studies: Performing the Voices of the Alamo play was fun to perform.
We tried the performance for the video camera but ran out of time (mostly
because I forgot to push the button to begin recording and didn't realize it
until the play was almost over. ) We will finish up the recording this week.
Maturation Video-OPT out form attached. This form was also sent home in
Thursday folders.
Be sure to volunteer at our Spring Carnival on March 1. The link for
volunteers to sign up is
https://www.ptavenue.com/volunteerr.asp?sc=FCEPTA&v=26615.
Look for Bartholomew to sign up to help with the booths. If all those slots
are filled, you can sign up to help with "Food Set Up", "Games Set Up",
"Ticket Sales" and "Clean Up Crew". Thank you!
Reminders:
Monday, February 18-No school for students
Tuesday,February 19-Reading Logs due, Measurement Vocabulary Test on Friday, go to Quia.com to study
Thursday, February 21-Writing Club 2:45-3:45
Thursday, February 28-Service Club 2:45-3:45
Friday, March 1-Spring Carnival-sign up to volunteer
Wednesday, March 6-Early Release 12:45, Kona Ice at FCE
Thursday, March 7-Writing Club 2:45-3:45
Monday, March 11-15-Spring Break
Tuesday, March 19-Friday, March 22-Writing Camp
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
the parents who donated items and/or came to the party to help.
Thank you, especially, to Mrs. McCulloch for planning and facilitating our
party. Everyone had a great time!
Thank you also for sending in items for our class basket for the Spring
Carnival! Keep them coming!
Changes in homework this week. Read below!
Homework this week:
Read 150 min. per week-due Monday, February 25 One (1) reading response and
summary Writing-Revise and edit narrative writing(they will bring it home on
Tuesday)-return by Thursday Reading/Writing packet Convention Sentences test
on Friday Try I-Station at home this week for at least 30 minutes-(can count
as reading minutes) Math paper daily
Sister Teresita, the nun who founded and runs the Copprome Orphanage in
Honduras, came to speak to our Service Club on Thursday. The meeting was
after the Valentine's Day party. The children had just eaten lots of sweets
and were very excited. I was a bit concerned about the behavior during our
meeting. Well, Sister Teresita quietly asked if the children had any
questions. Sage asked to tell her about Wendy, one of the children who Sage
had chosen to write a letter. Sister told a very bittersweet story about Wendy and her situation.
The children listened so attentively and were totally engaged in each and
every one of Sister's stories about the children. It was so wonderful to
watch their faces and hear them comment later about how lucky they are and
how hard it must be for the children in Honduras but how lucky they are to
have Sister to care for them.
Sister Teresita enjoyed the children at our Service Club meeting very much
and was able to come back to talk to the children in our classroom on Friday
morning! More stories were shared as the children silently listened. It
was amazing and I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to meet Sister
and hear about her life and the lives of the children. Each of our children
chose one of the children from the orphanage and they wrote a letter to
them. We typed the letter in English then translated the letter into Spanish
using an online site. They also drew pictures for the kids. Sister was so excited to have these
papers for the children that she wanted to hold them on the airplane rather
than put them in her suitcase so that they were safe. Be proud of the generosity and caring attitude of your child.
Read about the rest of our week:
Reading: We read more traditional tales and some plays this week. We
compared drama writing and narrative writing. We noticed that in dramatic
writing, the character's name and a colon are used rather than quotation
marks when showing dialogue. We also noticed that there is a list of
characters and sometimes a narrator. There are stage directions which tell
how the characters will act and/or speak and where. The directions are from
the perspective of the actor rather than the audience. Stage left means the
actor's left and the audience's right. We will be reading non-fiction
articles and books this week and looking at text structure.
Writing: We wrote letters for the children in Honduras, we wrote animal
haikus for the Haiku Contest in the library, and we worked on our published
books. We will continue to work on our published books as well as working
on some revising and editing at home for homework.
Math: Overall, we did well on our Decimals/fractions test and began working
with measurement. We made a cool chart which included the types of
measurement, tools used, as well as customary/standard and metric units.
We played a game called Race to a Gallon during which the team tries to fill
a gallon container with beans in the fewest number of turns. The team spins
a spinner to figure out the unit used. For example, the player spins quart. Then he/she spins the quart spinner to find out the number of quarts of beans to add. This
continues until the the gallon container is filled with beans. This
game is a hands-on way to work with conversion and measurements of capacity.
We will continue with measurement and problem solving this week.
MEASUREMENT VOCABULARY TEST ON FRIDAY. USE QUIA.COM TO PRACTICE. ( quia
web, user name: lisabrannan, password: dominic, then look for Measurement
Vocabulary-Mrs. Bartholomew's class.)
Science: Weathering, Erosion, Deposition-Oh My!!!! With our first grade
friends, we shook a limestone rock in water in a baby food jar.
We observed the rock before shaking then shook for a total of 9 minutes and
took notes throughout. We will continue to learn more about weathering,
erosion, and deposition. There is also a quia game ready for Rocks, Soil,
and Landforms vocabulary.
Social Studies: Performing the Voices of the Alamo play was fun to perform.
We tried the performance for the video camera but ran out of time (mostly
because I forgot to push the button to begin recording and didn't realize it
until the play was almost over. ) We will finish up the recording this week.
Maturation Video-OPT out form attached. This form was also sent home in
Thursday folders.
Be sure to volunteer at our Spring Carnival on March 1. The link for
volunteers to sign up is
https://www.ptavenue.com/volunteerr.asp?sc=FCEPTA&v=26615.
Look for Bartholomew to sign up to help with the booths. If all those slots
are filled, you can sign up to help with "Food Set Up", "Games Set Up",
"Ticket Sales" and "Clean Up Crew". Thank you!
Reminders:
Monday, February 18-No school for students
Tuesday,February 19-Reading Logs due, Measurement Vocabulary Test on Friday, go to Quia.com to study
Thursday, February 21-Writing Club 2:45-3:45
Thursday, February 28-Service Club 2:45-3:45
Friday, March 1-Spring Carnival-sign up to volunteer
Wednesday, March 6-Early Release 12:45, Kona Ice at FCE
Thursday, March 7-Writing Club 2:45-3:45
Monday, March 11-15-Spring Break
Tuesday, March 19-Friday, March 22-Writing Camp
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
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