Great First Week!

Dear Families,

Our first week of 4th grade has been wonderful! Your children are working hard and doing well. I am impressed with the excitement for reading and writing so far and I know this will continue and increase as the year progresses!

Every Friday is Spirit Day! Your child should wear green, purple, or an FCE shirt to show his/her school pride! Monday is College Shirt Day. Hook 'em!

We will have our Back to School Night next Thursday from 6-6:30 in the classroom and at 6:30, Mrs. Lehnick will go over some school wide information in the cafeteria. We hope to see you there.

Your child brought his/her Thursday folder home today. Inside is a letter about joining our Class Dojo group. We are using this to track individual and class positive behavior. You can receive notifications about your student's progress and also view our class story which will have photos about classroom activities. I am still learning the specifics of this program, but Mrs. Moellenberg used it the last two years with her classes and really liked it. We will have classroom rewards like shoes off and lunch in the classroom that can be earned with points. Let me know what you think.

This week in:

Reading-The students set up the expectations for our Reading Workshop, wrote on their reading logs, and read independently for 20 minutes each day this week. The children talked with a friend about their reading and several students had individual conferences with me. They also decorated our book boxes and chose books from our classroom library. Our class library check out day is Friday. We will go tomorrow for an orientation and will get some books.

Grammar-We played active games and watched Schoolhouse Rock videos about nouns and verbs. We will continue to play games to practice complete sentences and parts of speech.

Writing-The students created self portraits included some writing about a few of their inner characteristics and some of their favorite things. They also wrote a letter to me introducing themselves. I loved reading and responding to them. We read some poetry books and began practicing the writing process by writing a poem about themselves. They brainstormed, wrote rough drafts, and are in the process of revising, editing, and publishing. The kids are excited to share their poems with you on Back to School Night. Next week, we will begin working on personal narrative writing.

Social Studies-We brainstormed things that we knew about Texas and colored a Texas map according to the regions. We began sharing information about our Texas photos. We will continue to share our photos tomorrow and write about them. We will go on a virtual bus tour of the regions next week.

Homework will be sent home on Monday. Your child should be reading everyday for at least 20-30 minutes and should record the reading on the book log that will be in the homework folders on Monday. There will also be a packet that will be typically given on Friday and due the next Friday. The math and grammar papers has a daily assignment that will be graded the next morning. There will be some additional assignments (reading response letters, spelling words, vocabulary words, etc..) that will come in later weeks.

Thank you for sharing your child with me. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Pam

Welcome Fourth Graders!

Hello,

I am so excited to start our fourth grade year. We are going to work hard toward our goals, have thoughtful discussions, ask lots of questions, use our imaginations, help each other, challenge each other, and grow as learners.

Be sure to come to supply drop off on Thursday, August 18. If your last name begins with the letter A-L, come at 4:00-4:30. Students with last names beginning with M-Z, will come from 4:45-5:15. Drop off your supplies and do some activities in the classroom. Go to the library and get your photo taken for a new ID card. See old friends and begin making some new friends. Be ready to talk about your favorite book that you read over the summer. I can't wait to see all of the fourth graders and hear about your summer reading and some of your adventures over the break.

The first day of school will be on Tuesday, August 23. The doors open at 7:15. Fourth graders meet in the hallway. The students will sit outside their classroom door until 7:30. Bring a book to read while you sit quietly. The tardy bell will ring at 7:40 am. The school day ends at 2:50 pm. Be sure that you know how you are getting home from school each day.

Be sure to bring a jacket or sweater for the classroom. It can be cold in our room.

Bring a water bottle and a healthy snack each day.

Be sure that you have a book to read each day in your backpack.

Back to School Night for grades 3-5 is Thursday September 1 at 6:00 p.m. The night will start with teacher presentations in the classrooms from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Then Mrs. Lehnick,our principal, will have a short presentation in the cafeteria. I look forward to seeing you there and sharing information about our expectations, procedures, and policies in fourth grade.

Have fun and soak in those last days of summer. Spend time exploring and creating with friends and family. Read some more books and talk about them with others. Go online and do some I-Station and Think through Math (in between Pokemon Go games). We are going to work hard and have an amazing year!

Feel free to email me with any questions or concerns. pam_bartholomew@roundrockisd.org

See you soon!
Mrs. Bartholomew