Hi,
Yay Earth Week! We had fun collecting plastic bags to recycle and reusing supplies to create artwork. There is a paired reading passage for homework this week about Trash. Fourth grade is the first time students encounter paired passages which requires higher level thinking. They need to compare, contrast, and analyze the information in the passages to show their understanding. We have been working on this and will continue. Talk about the passages and ask questions about all the things your child is reading. Continue to ask them, "why" and ask them to think about the strategies he/she is using while reading.
Kickball Tournament-The Kickball Tournament, Kids Kicking out Hunger, will be on Sunday, May 1 at Gattis Elementary. Hopefully, your child will be there playing kickball. If you don't want to play, you can come, volunteer and cheer on Forest Creek! Let me know if you have any questions. We would love to have you all come and support Forest Creek and help us kick out hunger in Round Rock and Honduras! Go to the link to sign up to help. Thank you!
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e084ea4ad2c7-volunteers
Pen Pals-We are working hard on our pen pal books. We are writing essays about our time with our pen pals. We should finish them this week.
Mindfulness-The children seem to like the Mindfulness activities that we've done so far. Next week, we will add an active learning activity such as spelling freeze tag, spelling relay, etc... and then do the mindfulness session after the physically active game. We will give feedback to the researchers about the effectiveness of mindfulness in the classroom especially paired with physical activity. They will used our feedback to write a NIH grant. You can try mindfulness at home using this free program. Go to smilingmind.com.au and sign up. The program is from Australia and the accent adds to the fun of the sessions. :) Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Read about our week:
Reading-We are continuing to review genres and discussing on test taking strategies. We are talking with partners and sharing our strategies and our thinking. Many times, the students understand the passage, but get confused by the question. We are working on thinking carefully about what the questions is really asking and checking carefully that our answer truly answers the question. We are also working in some book groups and doing lots of independent reading as well as working on I-Station on the computer. Be sure to work on I-Station at home. I-Station can count as some daily reading and recorded on reading logs also. Go to FCE website, then resources, then students, then click on I-station Math, it may then ask for our school name, type in Forest Creek Elementary, then log in using s###### (student number) password=###### (student number with no S). You may have to download I-Station onto your computer or I-pad. Once downloaded, play games and work on literacy activities everyday!
Writing-We will finish our Pen Pal stories for our pen pal book. We will also begin planning some fiction stories. We will read more mentor texts and refer back to fiction story structures to help make our stories awesome!
Social Studies- Our field trip to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum is on Tuesday and we are very excited. Thank you to the parents who will chaperone our trip. This trip helps bring together a lot of the people, events, and concepts that we've learned this year. When we return, we will continue to research our Texas Heroes and begin working more on our projects.
Spelling-This week we will work on prefixes-un, dis, non. When added to a base word, it changes the meaning to the opposite of that base word. Test on Friday.
Vocabulary-Last week we worked on math measurement words. These were very tricky for some children. Study more, practice on quizlet, and there will be a retest on Friday of measurement words, if last week's score was below 70%. There will also be a test on Friday on this week's words.
Sign up for spring conferences, if you haven't yet. We look forward to meeting with you and discussing your child's progress. Students should attend conferences to talk about their goals and share work samples.
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/20F0F4CADA92FA02-mrs
Dates to Remember:
Monday, April 25, 2016-Wear FCE shirts, Service Club after school from 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, April 26, 2016-4th Grade Field Trip to Bob Bullock Museum-Wear school shirts. Bring sack lunch (unless you ordered one from the cafeteria)
Friday, April 29, 2016-Wear college shirts, Reading Response Letter due, Turn in Reading Logs, Homework Packet due, Spelling and Vocabulary test-SCIENCE DAY
Monday, May 2, 2016-Wear FCE shirts, Writing Club after school from 2:45-3:45
Wednesday, May 4, 2016-Early Release Day
Friday, May 6, 2016-Wear college shirts, Reading Response Letter due, Turn in Reading Logs, Homework Packet due, Spelling and Vocabulary test
Monday, May 9, 2016-3rd & 4th GRADE STAAR MATH TEST, Wear FCE shirts, Service Club after school from 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, May 10, 2016-3rd & 4th GRADE STAAR READING TEST
Wednesday, May 11, 2016-5th GRADE SCIENCE TEST
Friday, May 13, 2016-Wear college shirts, Turn in Reading Logs
Monday, May 16, 2016-Wear FCE shirts, Writing Club after school from 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, May 17, 2016-Pen Pal Visit
Thursday, May 19, 2016-Rising Star Night, 6-7:30 pm
Friday, May 20, 2016-Wear college shirts, Reading Response Letter due, Turn in Reading Logs, Homework Packet due, Spelling and Vocabulary test, FIELD DAY 12:20-2:20
Saturday, May 21, 2016-Volunteer at the Round Rock Serving Center from 9-10:30 am-All are welcome!
Monday, May 23, 2016-Wear FCE shirts, Service Club after school from 2:45-3:45
Friday, May 27, 2016-Wear college shirts, Reading Response Letter due, Turn in Reading Logs, Homework Packet due, Spelling and Vocabulary test
Monday, May 30, 2016-No school,Memorial Day Holiday
Thursday, June 2, 2016-Last Day of School
Thank you for sharing your child with me. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam
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