Hi, Sept. 27, 2014
We had another great week! Education Go Get It week was fun! We enjoyed wearing our favorite college hats and shirts, dressing up in clothes for our future jobs, and talking about colleges and careers.
In social studies, we began researching our PBL or Project Based Learning activities. Our driving question is: How can we teach others about the regions of Texas? The children chose projects that they would like to do and regions that they would like to research and teach to others. We began using textbooks and a computer site to gather information about our region while working with other students who are studying the same region. This week we will share our information and each child will decide whether he or she needs to continue researching. The children will give each other feedback and work together to be sure that there is enough information for each region in their group. Then we will begin planning our projects. We will share our plans and give feedback to help each group improve their projects. As you can see, the PBL projects involve a lot of working together cooperatively in groups and offering and accepting feedback, as well as researching the regions of Texas. I am excited to see the children learning from each other. These projects incorporate many different skills such as reading, writing, social studies, and cooperating as a member of a team. All these skills are needed for children to be successful in their future in school and beyond.
In writing, we published our personal narratives! We worked hard to plan, draft, revise, and edit these small moment stories from our lives. We will share these stories with each other on Tuesday and then will begin working on some writing for the Reflections program based on the theme-The World would be a better place if… The children can choose to write a poem, fantasy, realistic fiction, personal narrative, expository, or song about this topic. We will go through the writing process of planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. The students will decide if they want to enter their literary work in the PTA Reflections Program. We will then work on expository writing. In expository writing, we will explain and give reasons to support a central idea.
In reading, we worked on finding cause and effect relationships in our books and determining a possible theme for the book with examples and support from the text. We modeled using our read aloud, How to Steal a Dog, we then practiced using individual books. We are continuing to write detailed summaries of our reading and responses that include lots of our deep thinking. Thank you for encouraging your child to read at home each day and to work hard on their summaries and responses. We will begin reading expository text and working on skills to improve comprehension skills. Be sure that your child is studying the vocabulary words each week. This week’s words are a literary terms. They can be a little tricky, so be sure to go on Quizlet.com to study and use the cards that your child made to practice. We will have a test on Friday on the meanings of the words.
In spelling, we worked on some common homophones. We will continue to address the correct spelling and use of homophones (like their, there, they’re) all year. Next week we will work on the spelling of words with double consonants like address and success. Be sure that your child is practicing his/her individual spelling lists and reviewing words previously used on spelling tests because these words may appear in dictation sentences. Thank you for your continued support at home.
Writing Club begins this week on Thursday, October 2 from 2:45-3:45. Come and join us in the library as we free write and share our writing with others. This week we will celebrate National Comic Book Day and talk about graphic novels. The kids can experiment with this form of writing or write in any format they choose. They may choose to work on writing for the Reflections Program during writing club as well and respond to the topic: The world would be a better place if… Anyone in grades 2nd-5th can be part of writing club. We will meet every other Thursday in the library. Come and join the writing fun!
Service Club met last Thursday and will meet again on Thursday, October 9 from 2:45-3:45. We are organizing a toy drive to bring awareness to OMS, a childhood disease that affects a family from our school. We will donate toys to give to the patients at Dell’s Children’s Hospital. Please send in NEW toys and put them in the box by the office. Come to Service Club and help us help others!
Dates to remember:
Monday, Sept. 29-Reading log due, Tutorials after school 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, Sept. 30-Tutorials after school 2:45-3:45, Computer Lab open 2:45-3:45
Wednesday, Oct. 1-Summary and Response due
Thursday, Oct. 2-Writing Club after school 2:45-3:45 in the library, Computer lab open 2:45-3:45
Friday, Oct. 3-Summary and Response Due, Spelling Test, Vocabulary test
Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Friday, September 12, 2014
Newsletter-Jazz Concert Today, Pen Pal Visit on Tuesday, Reading Logs due Monday, Summary and Responses due Wednesday and Friday, Spelling test on Friday
Hi, September 12, 2014
We had a fun afternoon enjoying some cool jazz music from the Austin Jazz Workshop. Ask your child about it!
Our student teacher, Mrs. Allison, began teaching some of our social studies lessons. She is doing an amazing job and has been a wonderful addition to our classroom. She will gradually continue taking over the planning and teaching of the lessons.
Our pen pals will come to school on Tuesday! You are welcome to come and enjoy our visit with us. They will be here about 9:00 and stay until about 10:30. We wrote letters this week introducing ourselves. During the visit, we will interview our pen pals about their childhoods and play games together. The children are excited and can’t wait to meet their pen pals! Join us for the fun!
Friday is Spirit Day! We are all encouraged to wear Forest Creek shirts or shirts that are green or purple.
On Friday, we will begin meeting with our reading buddies in Mrs. Garcia’s class. We will read with them every other week. This helps us practice fluent reading and encourages the fourth graders to be role models for the younger kids.
Read about our week:
In reading, we read some realistic fiction books and wrote about the story elements. We took a reading assessment on a passage from the book, Piper Reed: Navy Brat, and will be reviewing the multiple- choice questions on Monday. We continued to read our choice novels independently. Please help your child to keep his/her choice novel inside the backpack when it is not being read. This way it is always available when there is some time to read.
I started assessing reading levels individually this week and will continue for the next few weeks.
Thank you for signing reading logs, encouraging your child to read daily, and complete books. A summary and response of the reading is due on Wednesdays and Fridays each week.
In writing, we continued collecting entries for personal narratives. We noticed that quality personal narratives are small moment stories, which have an interesting lead, a sequence of events, and lots of great details. They zoom in on the most important part and tell why the event was important or what was learned because of the experience. We will continue writing about our experiences next week and chose an entry to revise, edit, and publish.
We also had fun writing creatively about a Chris Van Allsburg illustration from the book, The Chronicles of Harris Burdick. We then read a story by Tabitha King (Stephen King’s wife) about the same illustration. It was interesting the totally different stories that came from the same illustration. We will write about another illustration from this book next week.
Spelling lists began this week and we had our first spelling test today. Each week, your child will receive a list of words. Five of the words are the same for the class and they include words from our TEKS such as homophones, irregular plurals, Latin/Greek roots, etc… The other five words are individual to each child based on words misspelled in their writing/reading responses and tricky word patterns determined by a Words Their Way assessment. The words will be glued into your child’s agenda each week and a test is on Friday. During that test, the children will also be asked to write a few sentences from dictation. These sentences will be graded for spelling and capitalization/punctuation.
In social studies, we completed our posters of Texas landmarks. They are hanging in the hallway and the children did a great job describing their landmarks, finding quotes about them, and telling why that landmark is important to Texas. They also made beautiful illustrations. We began our study of the regions of Texas by going on a virtual bus trip through the Mountains and Basins Region, the Coastal Plains Region, and the Central Plains Region. We will visit the Great Plains Region on Monday and continue to study maps and the geography of Texas.
Thank you for sharing your child with me. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a fun afternoon enjoying some cool jazz music from the Austin Jazz Workshop. Ask your child about it!
Our student teacher, Mrs. Allison, began teaching some of our social studies lessons. She is doing an amazing job and has been a wonderful addition to our classroom. She will gradually continue taking over the planning and teaching of the lessons.
Our pen pals will come to school on Tuesday! You are welcome to come and enjoy our visit with us. They will be here about 9:00 and stay until about 10:30. We wrote letters this week introducing ourselves. During the visit, we will interview our pen pals about their childhoods and play games together. The children are excited and can’t wait to meet their pen pals! Join us for the fun!
Friday is Spirit Day! We are all encouraged to wear Forest Creek shirts or shirts that are green or purple.
On Friday, we will begin meeting with our reading buddies in Mrs. Garcia’s class. We will read with them every other week. This helps us practice fluent reading and encourages the fourth graders to be role models for the younger kids.
Read about our week:
In reading, we read some realistic fiction books and wrote about the story elements. We took a reading assessment on a passage from the book, Piper Reed: Navy Brat, and will be reviewing the multiple- choice questions on Monday. We continued to read our choice novels independently. Please help your child to keep his/her choice novel inside the backpack when it is not being read. This way it is always available when there is some time to read.
I started assessing reading levels individually this week and will continue for the next few weeks.
Thank you for signing reading logs, encouraging your child to read daily, and complete books. A summary and response of the reading is due on Wednesdays and Fridays each week.
In writing, we continued collecting entries for personal narratives. We noticed that quality personal narratives are small moment stories, which have an interesting lead, a sequence of events, and lots of great details. They zoom in on the most important part and tell why the event was important or what was learned because of the experience. We will continue writing about our experiences next week and chose an entry to revise, edit, and publish.
We also had fun writing creatively about a Chris Van Allsburg illustration from the book, The Chronicles of Harris Burdick. We then read a story by Tabitha King (Stephen King’s wife) about the same illustration. It was interesting the totally different stories that came from the same illustration. We will write about another illustration from this book next week.
Spelling lists began this week and we had our first spelling test today. Each week, your child will receive a list of words. Five of the words are the same for the class and they include words from our TEKS such as homophones, irregular plurals, Latin/Greek roots, etc… The other five words are individual to each child based on words misspelled in their writing/reading responses and tricky word patterns determined by a Words Their Way assessment. The words will be glued into your child’s agenda each week and a test is on Friday. During that test, the children will also be asked to write a few sentences from dictation. These sentences will be graded for spelling and capitalization/punctuation.
In social studies, we completed our posters of Texas landmarks. They are hanging in the hallway and the children did a great job describing their landmarks, finding quotes about them, and telling why that landmark is important to Texas. They also made beautiful illustrations. We began our study of the regions of Texas by going on a virtual bus trip through the Mountains and Basins Region, the Coastal Plains Region, and the Central Plains Region. We will visit the Great Plains Region on Monday and continue to study maps and the geography of Texas.
Thank you for sharing your child with me. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, September 5, 2014
Newsletter-Tutorials Offered on Tuesdays from 2:45-3:45, Reflections Workshop on Tuesday from 6:15-7:00 in FCE Library, Reading Logs due on Monday
Hi, September 5, 2014
We had a great second week! Your children are doing very well moving between two classes and two teachers and we are definitely enjoying them all.
It was nice to see many of you at Back to School Night on Thursday. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns about homework, expectations, or anything.
We would like to invite our students to come to tutorials on Tuesday afternoons from 2:45-3:45 pm in one of our classrooms. We will be there to offer support as needed, give children time to complete assignments, or homework with some assistance. This is also a great time for re-teaching of tricky concepts and retaking of assessments, if scored below 70%. Miss Fry and I will be in the room together, so that we can both work with your children in any subject necessary. If your child is staying, let us know by email or note. We will walk the children out to the front of the school to be picked up at 3:45. If your child is walking home or riding a bike after tutorials, let us know. Be sure to encourage your child to take advantage of this extra opportunity for time together. We will begin offering tutorials this Tuesday, September 9.
In reading this week, we are continuing to develop routines and procedures for reading workshop. We have a mini-lesson during which we learn a skill or strategy, then we practice that skill or strategy during our independent reading of our choice novel. Your child should be reading the same choice novel to completion. Therefore, that book should be traveling back and forth from home to school and home again each day. It should live in his/her backpack and come out only when it is time to read, then return to the backpack. Thank you for your help with this.
We are reading How to Steal a Dog aloud and discussing elements of the story as well as comprehension strategies as we read. They are taking notes on sticky notes to leave tracks of their thinking as they are listening. They are writing their predictions, questions, connections, thoughts and feelings and using text evidence to support their thinking. They are making inferences using their background knowledge and the text clues. We are having great discussions about the moral dilemma of the main character. Should she steal a dog to try to get money for her family or is stealing something wrong, no matter what? It is wonderful to read their responses and listen to their conversations. Then we practice these skills as we read independently.
In Social Studies, we finished up our map vocabulary posters and will continue to practice reading and interpreting maps. We began learning about some Texas landmarks and making posters to explain them by researching a bit and describing the landmark. Then they are writing about why it is important and finding two quotes from the text (with page numbers) that tell about the landmark. An illustration is then created that represents it. We are practicing using a rubric to create our posters and to revise and edit to be sure that all of the components are evident. Next week, we will finish these posters and begin studying the regions of Texas.
In Writing, we are gathering entries for personal narratives. We planned, sketched, and wrote a rough draft about a time with a special person and a time at a special place. Many children shared their writing so far, and we are off to a great start. We will continue writing personal narrative entries, then will choose one to revise, edit, and publish. We watched a video of Lucy Calkins, who is a famous education researcher, talk to us about honoring our writing and the writing of our classmates by reading and listening as if the writing was precious as gold. Here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO29k1-RvsA I find it quite inspirational.
Don’t forget to encourage your child to read at least one day over the weekend to include in the reading log. Reading summaries and responses are due on Wednesday and Friday.
On Tuesday evening, there will be a Workshop for Kids about this year’s Reflections Program. I encourage all of the children to attend and have an opportunity to showcase their creative talents. It will be held in the FCE Library from 6:15-7:00 pm. Hope you can come!
Thank you for sharing your child with us. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a great second week! Your children are doing very well moving between two classes and two teachers and we are definitely enjoying them all.
It was nice to see many of you at Back to School Night on Thursday. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns about homework, expectations, or anything.
We would like to invite our students to come to tutorials on Tuesday afternoons from 2:45-3:45 pm in one of our classrooms. We will be there to offer support as needed, give children time to complete assignments, or homework with some assistance. This is also a great time for re-teaching of tricky concepts and retaking of assessments, if scored below 70%. Miss Fry and I will be in the room together, so that we can both work with your children in any subject necessary. If your child is staying, let us know by email or note. We will walk the children out to the front of the school to be picked up at 3:45. If your child is walking home or riding a bike after tutorials, let us know. Be sure to encourage your child to take advantage of this extra opportunity for time together. We will begin offering tutorials this Tuesday, September 9.
In reading this week, we are continuing to develop routines and procedures for reading workshop. We have a mini-lesson during which we learn a skill or strategy, then we practice that skill or strategy during our independent reading of our choice novel. Your child should be reading the same choice novel to completion. Therefore, that book should be traveling back and forth from home to school and home again each day. It should live in his/her backpack and come out only when it is time to read, then return to the backpack. Thank you for your help with this.
We are reading How to Steal a Dog aloud and discussing elements of the story as well as comprehension strategies as we read. They are taking notes on sticky notes to leave tracks of their thinking as they are listening. They are writing their predictions, questions, connections, thoughts and feelings and using text evidence to support their thinking. They are making inferences using their background knowledge and the text clues. We are having great discussions about the moral dilemma of the main character. Should she steal a dog to try to get money for her family or is stealing something wrong, no matter what? It is wonderful to read their responses and listen to their conversations. Then we practice these skills as we read independently.
In Social Studies, we finished up our map vocabulary posters and will continue to practice reading and interpreting maps. We began learning about some Texas landmarks and making posters to explain them by researching a bit and describing the landmark. Then they are writing about why it is important and finding two quotes from the text (with page numbers) that tell about the landmark. An illustration is then created that represents it. We are practicing using a rubric to create our posters and to revise and edit to be sure that all of the components are evident. Next week, we will finish these posters and begin studying the regions of Texas.
In Writing, we are gathering entries for personal narratives. We planned, sketched, and wrote a rough draft about a time with a special person and a time at a special place. Many children shared their writing so far, and we are off to a great start. We will continue writing personal narrative entries, then will choose one to revise, edit, and publish. We watched a video of Lucy Calkins, who is a famous education researcher, talk to us about honoring our writing and the writing of our classmates by reading and listening as if the writing was precious as gold. Here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO29k1-RvsA I find it quite inspirational.
Don’t forget to encourage your child to read at least one day over the weekend to include in the reading log. Reading summaries and responses are due on Wednesday and Friday.
On Tuesday evening, there will be a Workshop for Kids about this year’s Reflections Program. I encourage all of the children to attend and have an opportunity to showcase their creative talents. It will be held in the FCE Library from 6:15-7:00 pm. Hope you can come!
Thank you for sharing your child with us. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
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