We had a great week back to school and welcomed 2017 as we welcomed Miss Annie Moellenberg! Mrs. Moellenberg had her baby on Friday and everyone is doing well. Mrs. Tennyson, who is our long-term substitute until Mrs. Moellenberg returns was able to come to FCE on Friday. We miss Mrs. Moe, but we are so happy to have Mrs. Tennyson here with us.
Walk to Read/Libraries of Love Project Based Learning (PBL) project-The fourth graders are working on a few projects to benefit Libraries of Love in Africa. They kicked off their learning this week by watching a document called On the Way to School. This documentary showed the challenges that four kids from around the world face on their way to school. A boy from Africa, a girl from Morocco, a boy from Argentina, and a boy from India all walked many hours to be able to get an education. After watching the documentary and learning more about Libraries of Love, we wrote persuasive paragraphs to encourage people to donate books and money and included reasons why this is an important organization. Next we discussed and thought about the documentary and Libraries of Love. We then brainstormed questions and topics to research for a project and presentation. This week we will finish up the revising and editing of our paragraphs and put some of our paragraphs on broadcast and many on posters. Then we will begin researching topics of our choice inspired by the movie. We will use our research to create projects and then will present the information to others.
Our Walk to Read Event is scheduled for Friday, January 13 at 1:15. (Hopefully, the weather will hold out. If it is raining, we will reschedule for Friday, January 20.) Our fourth graders are working on a video broadcast for the school which will be aired at 1:15. Fourth grade helpers will be assigned to each classroom and after the video, we will all head out to the track to simulate the long walk that many children around the world need to take to get to school. Each child will walk while holding a hard cover book (new or gently used). Our goal is to have each child bring in a book to donate to Libraries of Love. (If someone doesn't have a book to donate, the person will still bring a book outside for the walk, but won't turn it in for donation. ) We will walk around the course set up on the playground/track until 1:55. Then at the sound of the whistles, we will all stop and read for about five minutes. At the next whistle sound, we will walk back to class and leave the books for donation outside of the classroom for fourth graders to pick up. It will be a great event and we need some volunteers to help guide the walkers. Families are welcome to come and walk with their child's class also. Let me know if you are able to volunteer or sign up with the WatchDogs.
Envelopes for Libraries of Love were sent home on Friday for monetary donations as well. If you would like to donate cash or checks, please put donations in the envelope and return them to your teacher by Tuesday, January 17. Thank you in advance for your support of this project. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Read about our week:
Reading-Students did a great job reading over the winter break and logging their minutes. Very impressive and great effort! We are learning about traditional literature and read a reader's theater about a trickster called Sticky Coyote. We also are reading and writing about Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude. While reading traditional literature, we are analyzing characters and character changes as well as working on summarizing. We will examine themes also and use text evidence to prove our thinking.
Writing-We are working on writing persuasive paragraphs and using examples with specific details to support our reasons which support our central idea or claim. Strong conclusions also are important to influence our readers and help to call them to action.
Social Studies-We read and discussed the roles of some tribes like the Comanche and Apache in the missions and will begin talking about Moses and Stephen F. Austin. We will also use some of our social studies time to work on our PBL Walk to Read/Libraries of Love projects.
Spelling-Last week we practiced homophones and will continue to tackle the challenge of which there, its, too, and your to use when writing. We took a spelling inventory last week to track our progress in word study. We will work on individual words based on our progress and will, as a class, work on words with the Greek roots-bio and graph (ex. biography, biology, autograph). Bio means life and graph means to write.
Grammar-We will continue to work on stopping the run on sentences and focus on ways to punctuate dialogue correctly.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, Jan. 9-College Shirt Day, Service Club 2:50-3:50 pm, Science Checkpoint 4 due
Tuesday, Jan. 10-PTA General Meeting at 3:15
Thursday, Jan. 12-Don't forget to bring in a new or gently used hard cover book to donate and turn in your Libraries of Love donation envelope by Tuesday. Report Cards go home.
Friday, Jan. 13-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test, Walk to Read Event at 1:15, Wear FCE shirts or purples and green. Science Fair Registration Packets are due. Talent Show auditions from 3-7.
Monday, Jan. 16-MLK Day-No School
Tuesday, Jan.17-Special Service Club Meeting from 2:50-3:50
Bring in your Libraries of Love Donation Envelopes.
Friday, Jan. 20-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test, Wear FCE shirts or purples and green. FCE Talent Show at 6:00 pm
Saturday, Jan. 21-UIL Event at Terravista-Go FCE!
Have a great weekend! Thank you for sharing your child with me. Let me know if you have any concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam
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