Newsletter

Hi,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Writing STAAR Test- Tuesday, March 28 is the big day!  Be sure to help your child realize that this is a great opportunity for them to show their best.  There will be free breakfast on testing day.  The kids will need a book to read, and some neat, nutritious snacks (no juicy or messy fingers, please).  Our lunch will be later than usual so that we can get in our testing time without interruptions.  Please send a few extra snacks with your child to help them have energy to do their best.  Encourage your child to take breaks as needed.  They can put their head down for a few minutes, go to the bathroom, and/or get a drink to help refocus.  Let me know if you have any questions.  The kids have been working so hard and their best effort on testing day will bring them success!

Writing Camp!- We had a wonderful time at Writing Camp.  Each child published TWO expository essays!  

One essay was about something that they are looking forward to doing and reasons why they want to do that.  We had some kids that wanted to be basketball or baseball players, inventors, authors, bakers, and architects.  We also had some that wrote about traveling to Paris, Israel or Europe and Asia. One student couldn't wait to go hunting with Dad again.    

The other essay was a description of a favorite place and explanations why that place is special to them.  Some of our special places were Grandma's house, the living room, the kitchen,the bedroom, their bed, a fort behind the couch, outside with friends, outside in a tree, and the whole house.  Others like going to Idaho, the gym, and Dad's shop. One student wrote about her writer's notebook as her favorite place.  

We worked together to revise and edit and be sure that each expository had specific details to explain what they wanted to do and why.  We worked on exciting leads, engaging transitions that help make the essay flow and are interesting, and strong conclusions that leave the reader thinking.

Writing Camp was about practicing all of our strategies to make our essays the best they can be.  We also practice some spelling and revising and editing with lots of fun games and some passages. However, Writing Camp also had some catchy songs.  Ask your child to sing Camp Write Along, Write, Write Baby, and That Writing Feeling!  I had a great time with your children during writing camp and was impressed with their hard work.  

Look for their orange camp writing folder in their backpacks on Monday.  Review this with them and ask them to explain some of their strategies.  I will also send home copies of their writing from Writing Camp.  Enjoy and thank you for one last review.  

Monthly Reading Challenge for March-Read a book with at least 300 pages!  We are working on our stamina, so our March challenge is to read a book with at least 300 pages. This will count as 2 books on our 40 book challenge.  Notecards for the March Challenge are due on Friday.  We will have a special treat at lunchtime on Monday, April 3. Happy Reading!!!!  

Read about our week:

Reading-Tolerance and respect for all people is a big focus in our class.  We discussed this in social studies when studying the Native Americans and in reading while learning about civil rights. During the next few weeks, we will begin using historical fiction and informational books to learn about WWII.  We will read aloud Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and will discuss the mistreatment of the Jewish people.  We will read many picture books about the Holocaust.  We will learn about Pearl Harbor and the Japanese Internment Camps.  We will also learn about the Navajo Code Talkers.  We use literature to talk about history because it helps us to see the events from the character's point of view.  The goal is for the students to work to stop discrimination of people based on the way they look or their religion and to be respectful and kind to others.

Writing-We will review and take our Writing STAAR test. Then we will work on some poetry, personal narratives, and fantasy stories.  We will decide on pieces that we want to submit for the Rising Star book.  

Spelling-We will review words that are commonly misspelled as well as individual words that are tricky for us.  We will have a test on Friday.

Social Studies-We will work in groups to create an original battle flag for the Texas Revolution and will make a flip book with events from the revolution.  We will start our Texas heroes research by the end of the week, but they won't be due for a few weeks.

Dates to remember:

Monday, March 27-Wear college shirts. Writing Club 2:50-3:50. Bring in food for our food drive.

Tuesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Test

Friday, March 31-Reading Response Letters due.  Spelling test. Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, April 3-Wear College Shirts, Service Club from 2:50-3:50

Tuesday, April 4-9:00 PTA General Meeting

Wednesday, April 5-Early Release Day, Kona Ice Sales

Thursday, April 6-Food Drive Ends

Friday, April 7-Reading Response Letters Due, Spelling Test, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green.

Saturday, April 8-Empty Bowl Event-We hope many of you will join us at The Festival on April 8 from 11-2pm at Cedar Ridge High School - for more information, visit emptybowlsroundrock.com or on social media @rremptybowls

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

Sincerely,

Pam

Hi,

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break with lots of time for family fun.I am excited to see all of the children tomorrow and hear about their adventures.

Writing Camp!- Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be our amazing fourth grade Camp Write Along!!!!!!!  We will write most of the day and engage in some fun camp activities.  Your child can bring in a sleeping bag or blanket, pillow, small stuffed animal,and flashlight. They can dress in camping clothing during Writing Camp.

Camp Letters-Thank you to those families who have sent me letters already for their campers. I encourage you to write a letter to your camper. You can ask family members also to write about camping experiences, write about writing, write to tell your camper how much you miss your camper while he/she is away at camp, or whatever!  Be creative!  We will have a mail call each day and many families send a letter for each day. You can send letters in or you can email them to me and I will print them out. In the past receiving letters at Writing Camp is a big deal for the kids.  Thank you in advance.

Monthly Reading Challenge for March-Read a book with at least 300 pages!  We are working on our stamina, so our March challenge is to read a book with at least 300 pages. This will count as 2 books on our 40 book challenge.  Hopefully, your child took advantage of spring break and read a lot. I can't wait to read your notecard about your book! Happy Reading!!!!  

Spring Break Challenge-A reading log came home for our Spring Break Challenge!  You were asked to read at least 100 minutes over spring break. All students who read at least 100 minutes and turn in a completed log, will get to choose a prize.  The students, who challenge themselves and read the most, will get to choose first.  I can't wait to hear about the amazing books read over the break.

Dates to remember:

Monday, March 20-Writing Camp-Wear camp clothes.  Service Club from 2:50-3:50-Spring Break Reading Challenge Logs are due! No spelling words this week.

Tuesday, March 21-Writing Camp

Wednesday, March 22-Writing Camp-Family Fun Night at Zaxby's-6:00

Friday, March 24--Reading Response Letters due.  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, March 27-Wear college shirts. Writing Club 2:50-3:50.

Tuesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Test

Friday, March 31-Reading Response Letters due.  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, April 3-Wear College Shirts Service Club from 2:50-3:50

Tuesday, April 4-9:00 PTA General Meeting

Wednesday, April 5-Early Release Day, Kona Ice Sales

Friday, April 7-Reading Response Letters Due, Spelling Test, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green.

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

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Hi,

Happy Texas Independence Day!  Mrs. Tennyson's last day with us was Friday, and Mrs. Moellenberg comes back on Monday!  Spring break starts next Monday....but we still have a very busy and fun-filled week ahead!

Monthly Reading Challenge for March-Read a book with at least 300 pages!  We had a great time celebrating reading informational books and now will work on our stamina and our March challenge is to read a book with at least 300 pages. This will count as 2 books on our 40 book challenge.  Since we have spring break, you will have more time to read!!!!!  I can't wait to read your notecard about your book! Happy Reading!!!!  

Spring Break Challenge-A reading log will come home this week for our Spring Break Challenge!  Be sure to read at least 100 minutes over spring break. All students who read at least 100 minutes and turn in a completed log, will get to choose a prize.  The students, who challenge themselves and read the most, will get to choose first.  My hope is that students are motivated to push themselves to read A LOT over spring break (and always) and get lost in their books.  I am excited to read more over spring break!  Students are welcome to send me an email and share about their books.  They are also encouraged to share their books on Google Classroom!

Author Visit on Wednesday-Nathan Hale-Nathan Hale, author of One Dead Spy and Alamo All-Stars, will visit our school on Wednesday.  The third, fourth, and fifth graders will hear him speak.  There will be books on sale.  An order form came home last week.  We are excited to hear him speak and tell about his Alamo book!

STAAR Ready Math Test on Tuesday-We will take this test on Tuesday to determine each child's strengths and areas that still need work.  

Writing Camp!!!!!!-Camp Write Along is our fourth grade activity to help us have fun as we get ready for Writing STAAR.  Our classroom will be transformed into a campground.  The students may bring sleeping bags and pillows.  Wear camping clothes and get ready to write!  We will have camp sing alongs with the whole fourth grade.  It is a great time to pull together all we've learned and practice some more to be able to show our stuff on March 28.  Writing Camp will be March 20, 21, and 22.  Get ready campers!!!!!

Let's read about our week:

Reading-We will continue to read and discuss dramas and compare them to fiction writing.

Writing-We will examine expository writing and highlight and label parts of an expository.  We will also read the introduction, reasons, and conclusion of an essay.  The details sentences will be cut into strips and the students will organize the details and examples by putting them with the appropriate reason and put them in order create a strong flow.  We will also write using sensory details and figurative language.  Be sure to write over spring break!

Grammar-We will continue to work with apostrophes and compare possessives and contractions. We are also discussing differences between plurals and possessives. We will look at lots of sentences and notice when a comma is used because the sentence is compound or a list of actions or things.  We will also notice when a comma is not needed and as always we will identify complete sentences (independent clauses) and incomplete sentences (dependent clauses).

Spelling-This week we will review tricky words and most of our lists will be independent words.  Be sure to practice at home.

Social Studies-We and will perform a reader's theater of the book, Voices of the Alamo. We also will choose a hero for our Texas Heroes projects.  There are websites bookmarked for each of the Texas Heroes on our Bartholomew Bat Blog. http://pambartholomew.blogspot.com/p/social-studies-links.html  Scroll down and you will see heroes like Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, and Jane Long. Those projects will be due after spring break.

Dates to remember:

Monday, March 6-Wear college shirts. Service Club from 2:50-3:50 PTA Family Fun NIght at Hat Creek

Tuesday, March 7-STAAR Ready Math test-PTA Meeting at 3:15

Friday, March 10--Reading Response Letters due, Revising and Editing Homework Due, Reading Passage due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, March 13-Friday, March 17-Spring Break-Spring Break Reading Challenge!

Monday, March 20-Writing Camp-Wear camp clothes.  Service Club from 2:50-3:50-Spring Break Reading Challenge Logs are due!

Tuesday, March 21-Writing Camp

Wednesday, March 22-Writing Camp

Friday, March 24--Reading Response Letters due, Revising and Editing Homework Due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, March 27-Wear college shirts. Writing Club 2:50-3:50.

Tuesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Test

Hope you had a great weekend!  Thank you for sharing your child with me.  Let me know if you have any concerns.

Sincerely,

Pam