Hi,
Here are some dates to remember:
Biography Project due on December 17-Students are reading biographies, some may read several biographies, each child will choose a person for a project and an essay. We will be writing the essay in school but I have attached two ways to plan the essay. Students will present an oral report on their person containing the information from the planning sheet. They may also do a poster, powerpoint, dress up as the person, etc.... as part of their presentation.
Science Project Checkpoint #1-due December 10-Papers came home last Thursday. Let me know if you have any questions.
Science Test on Electricity on Wednesday, December 5
Pen Pals Visit Tomorrow, December 4th-We will be in the science lab at about 9:20 until about 11:00. You are welcome to join us!
Early Release on Wednesday, December 5-12:45
Homework this week:
Read each day and record on book log
write three reading responses by Friday
Writing-write at least one entry (free choice) in writer's notebook, some may also need to write final copy of Personal Narrative for homework
Math-Different paper or activity each day, due next day
Science-study for test on Wednesday
Word Study test on Friday
Convention Sentences test on Friday
Have a wonderful week! Ask your child about our tree frog!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, December 3, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi,
I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.
I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to go on a trip over the Thanksgiving break to Honduras with a group of friends. One of my friends has a non-profit organization called Friends of Los Ninos which helps to support an orphanage and some homeless villages.
Our FCE Service Club made friendship bracelets for the children and our class wrote letters for the children in English and Spanish.
While we were there our group was able to give food (rice, beans, and lard which will feed the family for a week) to 26 families in the village at Mt. Olives. We also gave clothing, holiday presents, and a trip to the movies to the children at Copprome Children's Home. We played games, helped with homework, danced, blew bubbles, drew pictures, and wrote letters.
Another group from Tennessee also helps support the orphanage and made some videos on youtube. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g6bc3IK4oI&feature=autoplay&list=ULgNjBSNjIBIU&playnext=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E8DfzN5bik
Thank you to the FCE Service Club for helping make friendship bracelets. The children loved them. They also enjoyed the pictures and the papers with drawings and words in English and Spanish. Trying to pronounce the words in English was challenging for them but they loved it.
Thank you to our 4th grade class for writing bi-lingual letters for the kids. They loved seeing your photos and your beautiful artwork and worked hard to try to read the letters in English. Many of the children wrote back to us in Spanish.
Our class and the FCE Service Club will continue to look for ways to help the children in Honduras and let them know that Tejas really does mean friend.
This week we will be working on:
Reading-reading non-fiction and historical fiction and making inferences, discovering themes, and writing summaries
Writing-writing personal narratives as well as essays
Math-division and fractions using manipulatives and imbedded in problem solving situations
Science-Electricity, insulators, conductors
Social Studies-Stephen F. Austin and Empresarios
Be sure to attend Passport to Adventure:Literacy Night on Thursday, November 29 from 5-7pm at our school. (See note sent home Monday and attached flyer)
Don't forget that math homework is due the next day. Students should be reading and recording on their book log daily. On Friday the following assignments are due:
3 reading responses and 1 writing entry. On Friday, we will have tests on our word sorts and the conventions sentences. Science test on Electricy, Insulators, and Conductors will be on Monday, December 3.
Photo Retakes are on Wednesday, November 28.
Writing Club will meet on Thursday, November 29 from 2:45-3:45 in the library.
The FCE Service Club will volunteer at the Round Rock Serving Center on Saturday, December 1 from 9-10 am. All are welcome!
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Groovy Newsletter!
Hi,
Today was Groovy! We all had fun pretending we were in the 60's today! The kids did a great job performing in the Groovy-o-Rama. Our class had many singing solos and speaking parts and they all did very well! We hope you enjoyed the performance also and had fun singing along!
In honor of Veterans Day, Forest Creek invites Veterans to join their student for breakfast on Monday, November 12th. Breakfast is free for military Veterans and will be $1.50 for adults and guest children accompanying Veterans on the 12th.
Pen Pals are coming on Tuesday, November 13 at 10:00am! We will be meeting in the computer lab and sharing some technology with them. We created some awesome Thanksgiving themed graphs using Excel this week and are working on making some videos of our reader's theaters to present to them. On Monday we are planning on making a power point presentation to share with our pen pals as well as exploring some cool interactive Thanksgiving sites. Come and join us!
Sage, our python, had to go home to Living Science on Thursday. We had fun observing and writing about Sage. We have ordered a tree frog and it will arrive on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Read about our week!
Reading: We are doing a great job completing books with our book club groups and sharing about the books together. We also enjoyed making inferences from poetry this week. We watched the video from the first moon landing with Neil Armstrong then read a poem called Moon. We made inferences (background knowledge + text clues= inference) about some tricky words and about the poet's meaning. We learned about personification because the poet gave the moon human characteristics. We also reviewed poetry vocabulary such as line breaks, stanzas, rhythm, rhyme, free verse, and lyrical. Reading and summarizing articles about tribes in Texas was also completed well this week.
Writing: Writing pen pal letters is always a great experience for us. We brainstorm possible ideas and then the kids form their paragraphs on their own. These letters included stories about Halloween, football, and Sage, the snake. They also asked questions about Halloween and Thanksgiving and shared their excitement about our upcoming visit. We also continued writing about things we notice and wonder in detail then pushing our thinking to get to some bigger themes and ideas. Watching a video about a soccer team in Thailand who made their own field and practiced in harsh conditions was inspirational as well as fascinating for them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU4oA3kkAWU (Reading the subtitles was also fun!) Then they all wrote their thoughts, questions, impressions, and big ideas about these young boys following their dream. Going outside and around school to notice things and write about them was also interesting and we have some very deep thinkers in our class! We are going to write some Thanksgiving essays and personal narratives but will continue to work on observing, noticing, writing about it, then pushing ourselves to analyze our observations for deeper meaning. We also wrote cards and letters for veterans to receive at our Veteran's Day Breakfast on Monday.
Math: Problem solving is our focus. We practice many skills by working on multi-step problems. We solved some this week in which we needed to interpret bar graphs, we worked more on elapsed time within problems, as well as multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction in context. Sharing all of our strategies for working with multiplication and division by 9 was interesting and informative. We will continue to challenge ourselves in math.
Social Studies: Reading articles about Native tribes in Texas confirmed some beliefs we had and taught us some new facts.
Science: We worked on experimenting with forces this week. We made a pendulum and took data on the amount of time needed for pendulum of different lengths to complete ten swings. We also explored friction using a wooden sphere and wooden cylinders on various surfaces. We took our vocabulary test on forces today and will be studying for a test that will be given next Thursday.
Service Club met and made more bracelets and notes for me to take to Honduras on Nov. 17. I will be going on a trip to help in an orphanage and with some homeless in Honduras with my 15 year old daughter and some friends. We will take the beautiful cards, and bracelets for the children in the orphanage. Next week, our class will be writing some poems and/or picture books or cards in English and a little Spanish for the children. I will be gone the week of Thanksgiving but will be returning on Saturday, Nov. 24 with lots of photos and many stories to share with the class.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 12-Veterans Day Breakfast
Tuesday, November 13-Pen Pal Visit at 10 am in computer lab
Thursday, November 15-Energy and Forces Science Test, Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in library
Friday, November 16-Movies in the Park, 7PM
Wednesday, Nov. 21-Sunday, Nov. 25-Thanksgiving Holiday-Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, Nov. 29-Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in library, Passport to Literacy Night for families from 5-7pm
Saturday, Dec. 1-Volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center 9-10am
Have a great weekend! Thank you for sharing your children with me. They impress me each day with their creativity and their interesting comments.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Today was Groovy! We all had fun pretending we were in the 60's today! The kids did a great job performing in the Groovy-o-Rama. Our class had many singing solos and speaking parts and they all did very well! We hope you enjoyed the performance also and had fun singing along!
In honor of Veterans Day, Forest Creek invites Veterans to join their student for breakfast on Monday, November 12th. Breakfast is free for military Veterans and will be $1.50 for adults and guest children accompanying Veterans on the 12th.
Pen Pals are coming on Tuesday, November 13 at 10:00am! We will be meeting in the computer lab and sharing some technology with them. We created some awesome Thanksgiving themed graphs using Excel this week and are working on making some videos of our reader's theaters to present to them. On Monday we are planning on making a power point presentation to share with our pen pals as well as exploring some cool interactive Thanksgiving sites. Come and join us!
Sage, our python, had to go home to Living Science on Thursday. We had fun observing and writing about Sage. We have ordered a tree frog and it will arrive on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Read about our week!
Reading: We are doing a great job completing books with our book club groups and sharing about the books together. We also enjoyed making inferences from poetry this week. We watched the video from the first moon landing with Neil Armstrong then read a poem called Moon. We made inferences (background knowledge + text clues= inference) about some tricky words and about the poet's meaning. We learned about personification because the poet gave the moon human characteristics. We also reviewed poetry vocabulary such as line breaks, stanzas, rhythm, rhyme, free verse, and lyrical. Reading and summarizing articles about tribes in Texas was also completed well this week.
Writing: Writing pen pal letters is always a great experience for us. We brainstorm possible ideas and then the kids form their paragraphs on their own. These letters included stories about Halloween, football, and Sage, the snake. They also asked questions about Halloween and Thanksgiving and shared their excitement about our upcoming visit. We also continued writing about things we notice and wonder in detail then pushing our thinking to get to some bigger themes and ideas. Watching a video about a soccer team in Thailand who made their own field and practiced in harsh conditions was inspirational as well as fascinating for them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU4oA3kkAWU (Reading the subtitles was also fun!) Then they all wrote their thoughts, questions, impressions, and big ideas about these young boys following their dream. Going outside and around school to notice things and write about them was also interesting and we have some very deep thinkers in our class! We are going to write some Thanksgiving essays and personal narratives but will continue to work on observing, noticing, writing about it, then pushing ourselves to analyze our observations for deeper meaning. We also wrote cards and letters for veterans to receive at our Veteran's Day Breakfast on Monday.
Math: Problem solving is our focus. We practice many skills by working on multi-step problems. We solved some this week in which we needed to interpret bar graphs, we worked more on elapsed time within problems, as well as multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction in context. Sharing all of our strategies for working with multiplication and division by 9 was interesting and informative. We will continue to challenge ourselves in math.
Social Studies: Reading articles about Native tribes in Texas confirmed some beliefs we had and taught us some new facts.
Science: We worked on experimenting with forces this week. We made a pendulum and took data on the amount of time needed for pendulum of different lengths to complete ten swings. We also explored friction using a wooden sphere and wooden cylinders on various surfaces. We took our vocabulary test on forces today and will be studying for a test that will be given next Thursday.
Service Club met and made more bracelets and notes for me to take to Honduras on Nov. 17. I will be going on a trip to help in an orphanage and with some homeless in Honduras with my 15 year old daughter and some friends. We will take the beautiful cards, and bracelets for the children in the orphanage. Next week, our class will be writing some poems and/or picture books or cards in English and a little Spanish for the children. I will be gone the week of Thanksgiving but will be returning on Saturday, Nov. 24 with lots of photos and many stories to share with the class.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 12-Veterans Day Breakfast
Tuesday, November 13-Pen Pal Visit at 10 am in computer lab
Thursday, November 15-Energy and Forces Science Test, Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in library
Friday, November 16-Movies in the Park, 7PM
Wednesday, Nov. 21-Sunday, Nov. 25-Thanksgiving Holiday-Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, Nov. 29-Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in library, Passport to Literacy Night for families from 5-7pm
Saturday, Dec. 1-Volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center 9-10am
Have a great weekend! Thank you for sharing your children with me. They impress me each day with their creativity and their interesting comments.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, November 2, 2012
Newsletter-Fun Halloween Week but still working hard
Hi,
We had a fun week and worked hard while having fun with some Halloween activities.
We completed our Class Book and will be sending it off to the publisher today. We brainstormed ideas about fall with our pen pals and many of us wrote some fall poetry with them. We then took our notes back to class, read lots of poems, discussed poetry vocabulary (stanza, line breaks, rhythm, rhyme, free verse, lyrical, metaphor, simile, imagery, word choice, etc...) and wrote more poems. We revised and edited and typed our poems for a page in our class book. Then decorated a page with photographs of our pen pals and us together during our visits. All together the book turned out very well. If you still want to make a purchase, get the money to me by the end of the day. You can still order books after they are published but it costs a little more. Our published book will be here before the December break. Also our Pen Pals coming on November 13 at 10:00. Come join us for the visit.
Sage, our python until Thursday, is doing well. She is less active now that she is warmer. (We put a heating pad under her cage and that has made her very happy.
Read about our week:
Reading-This week we have been learning about poetry and reading tons of poems. We compared and contrasted a lyrical and free verse poem. We also used technology to watch two filmmakers interpretations of the same poem. The poem, Enter this Deserted House, was made into videos by two different filmmakers. One had images of nature but a creepy kind of voice and then one part of the poem talked about goblins and showed a shark grabbing a seal. It ended with a message about taking care of our planet. We talked about how the pictures at first were pretty but the voice was scary which increased suspense to the shark part but we liked the message. The other filmmaker used clips from Psycho and had video of the Bates motel. The images, the voice, and the background sounds were all creepy and dark right from the beginning, and there was a surprise at the end which made them scream. It was so fun to see the ways that different people can use media and interpret poetry very differently. It was also fun to be a little scared. We will be learning more about poetry next week.
Writing-Charlie Brown helped us practice writing essays this week. We watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while taking notes about two central ideas. One central idea was that Charlie Brown should not trust Lucy. Another was Linus truly believed in the Great Pumpkin. We watched and took notes on examples and reasons to support our central ideas. We talked about Charlie Brown and Lucy and I modeled an essay using that central idea and our supporting details and elaborating on each to make complete paragraphs. Then wrote a conclusion. The children used the other central idea and wrote about essays with supporting details and elaboration giving examples that show Linus believing in the Great Pumpkin. We revised and edited today and will be writing our final copies today. We will continue writing essays next week and writing some more poetry as well as letters to our pen pals.
Math-We have been working on elapsed time, temperature, interpreting bar graphs, math vocabulary, combinations, and problem solving. We did a logic problem and used a grid and clues to figure out which boy wore which costume and had which favorite candy. We made all possible combinations if we had three types of pumpkin stickers, two hat stickers, and two accessories stickers. We shared lots of strategies to figure out all possibilities including a tree diagram and multiplication. We did some challenging math puzzles as well and talked about how it is ok to be frustrated with a problem but to keep working on it and sticking with it trying new things, talking to others, and many times we can figure it out. We reminded each other of the quote by Einstein saying, "I am not smarter. I just stick with problems longer." I am impressed with how many interesting strategies the kids come up with for problems and how receptive the others are to trying out new strategies.
Social Studies-Explorers in Texas have been our focus this year. We are discussing the lives of Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, and La Salle. We have discussed that the Europeans were conquering new lands with the goals of God, Glory, and Gold in mind. The Spanish did a lot of exploring in Texas then stopped for about 100 years when they didn't find gold, however, their interest in the land in Texas increased again after the French and La Salle started to claim some land. That is when the missions and the converting of the natives began.
Science-We will be continuing with our study of energy next week.
Dates to remember:
Saturday, November 3-Volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center from 9-10
Tuesday, November 6-Election Day-Be sure to vote!
Thursday, November 8-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45
Friday, November 2-Fundraising orders coming home today
Friday, November 9-Groovy-o-Rama 4th grade performance at 10 am
Tuesday, November 13-Pen Pal Visit at 10 am in library
Thursday, November 15-Thanksgiving Meal at school
Have a great weekend and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for sharing your children with me.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a fun week and worked hard while having fun with some Halloween activities.
We completed our Class Book and will be sending it off to the publisher today. We brainstormed ideas about fall with our pen pals and many of us wrote some fall poetry with them. We then took our notes back to class, read lots of poems, discussed poetry vocabulary (stanza, line breaks, rhythm, rhyme, free verse, lyrical, metaphor, simile, imagery, word choice, etc...) and wrote more poems. We revised and edited and typed our poems for a page in our class book. Then decorated a page with photographs of our pen pals and us together during our visits. All together the book turned out very well. If you still want to make a purchase, get the money to me by the end of the day. You can still order books after they are published but it costs a little more. Our published book will be here before the December break. Also our Pen Pals coming on November 13 at 10:00. Come join us for the visit.
Sage, our python until Thursday, is doing well. She is less active now that she is warmer. (We put a heating pad under her cage and that has made her very happy.
Read about our week:
Reading-This week we have been learning about poetry and reading tons of poems. We compared and contrasted a lyrical and free verse poem. We also used technology to watch two filmmakers interpretations of the same poem. The poem, Enter this Deserted House, was made into videos by two different filmmakers. One had images of nature but a creepy kind of voice and then one part of the poem talked about goblins and showed a shark grabbing a seal. It ended with a message about taking care of our planet. We talked about how the pictures at first were pretty but the voice was scary which increased suspense to the shark part but we liked the message. The other filmmaker used clips from Psycho and had video of the Bates motel. The images, the voice, and the background sounds were all creepy and dark right from the beginning, and there was a surprise at the end which made them scream. It was so fun to see the ways that different people can use media and interpret poetry very differently. It was also fun to be a little scared. We will be learning more about poetry next week.
Writing-Charlie Brown helped us practice writing essays this week. We watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while taking notes about two central ideas. One central idea was that Charlie Brown should not trust Lucy. Another was Linus truly believed in the Great Pumpkin. We watched and took notes on examples and reasons to support our central ideas. We talked about Charlie Brown and Lucy and I modeled an essay using that central idea and our supporting details and elaborating on each to make complete paragraphs. Then wrote a conclusion. The children used the other central idea and wrote about essays with supporting details and elaboration giving examples that show Linus believing in the Great Pumpkin. We revised and edited today and will be writing our final copies today. We will continue writing essays next week and writing some more poetry as well as letters to our pen pals.
Math-We have been working on elapsed time, temperature, interpreting bar graphs, math vocabulary, combinations, and problem solving. We did a logic problem and used a grid and clues to figure out which boy wore which costume and had which favorite candy. We made all possible combinations if we had three types of pumpkin stickers, two hat stickers, and two accessories stickers. We shared lots of strategies to figure out all possibilities including a tree diagram and multiplication. We did some challenging math puzzles as well and talked about how it is ok to be frustrated with a problem but to keep working on it and sticking with it trying new things, talking to others, and many times we can figure it out. We reminded each other of the quote by Einstein saying, "I am not smarter. I just stick with problems longer." I am impressed with how many interesting strategies the kids come up with for problems and how receptive the others are to trying out new strategies.
Social Studies-Explorers in Texas have been our focus this year. We are discussing the lives of Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, and La Salle. We have discussed that the Europeans were conquering new lands with the goals of God, Glory, and Gold in mind. The Spanish did a lot of exploring in Texas then stopped for about 100 years when they didn't find gold, however, their interest in the land in Texas increased again after the French and La Salle started to claim some land. That is when the missions and the converting of the natives began.
Science-We will be continuing with our study of energy next week.
Dates to remember:
Saturday, November 3-Volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center from 9-10
Tuesday, November 6-Election Day-Be sure to vote!
Thursday, November 8-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45
Friday, November 2-Fundraising orders coming home today
Friday, November 9-Groovy-o-Rama 4th grade performance at 10 am
Tuesday, November 13-Pen Pal Visit at 10 am in library
Thursday, November 15-Thanksgiving Meal at school
Have a great weekend and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for sharing your children with me.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Hi,
We had a wonderful week. Red Ribbon Week was great and we learned a lot about making good choices and staying healthy. We had our photos taken on Tuesday and met the firefighters for an assembly on Friday. We finally said goodbye to our tarantula and hello to a snake. We have a beautiful ball python in our room for two weeks. Her name is Sage. (now we have two Sages) and she seems to be starting to shed. She has been fairly active so far and we will be doing some snake research on Monday. Ask your child about Sage our snake!
Electronics Day will be on Wednesday. The class has earned enough Howler tickets to purchase an Electronics Party. (250 Howlers!) Electronic devices ( MP3 player, DS, Playstation, etc..) are allowed for 30 minutes at the end of the day. All electronics will be kept in backpacks for the rest of the day. I told the kids to really think carefully before deciding to bring in something special that has the potential to be lost or broken. Anyone who doesn't bring in an electronic device can play games (from our school's websites) on the Netbooks. Earbuds must be brought to school if listening to music and only the child with the music will be allowed to listen. All games played have to be rated E for everyone if they are played in the classroom. Any chatting electronically needs to be appropriate and respectful. Electronics Party can be very fun but we need to follow some rules. Let me know if you have any questions.
Purchase one of our Class Books! Orders due by next Friday. We are writing a class poetry book. We brainstormed ideas about fall with our pen pals and began writing poetry with them. Then we wrote more poems individually and we will each create a page in our class book. We will be sending the book off to the publisher on Friday, Nov. 2. You will find an order form in your child's Thursday folder. Please fill out with a yes (with payment) or a no, sign, and return. We will be making individual books in the spring and you will receive a free book in the spring if you return the fall class book form with a yes or no. The poetry book is turning out well and we will be including photos of us with our pen pals in the books also. I am excited about our class book! Thank you for returning your forms.
Read about our week.
Reading-We read non-fiction or expository text this week from our Health textbook to gain information about the effects of drugs, smoking, and alcohol on our bodies. We especially looked at the charts and graphs and interpreting the data in them. We used National Geographic Explorer and focused on text features (photos, diagrams, captions, subtitles, charts, maps, drawings, glossary, table of contents, etc..) and discussed how these text features help us to understand the information in the text. We also read some articles independently and wrote F/Q/R charts (facts, questions, response) Finishing our book club books was also exciting this week. We wrote responses and discussed our books in groups. We also went to our class moodle and discussed our book using a chat with the others in our group. Very exciting!
Writing-Our first benchmark or CBA (Curriculum Based Assessment) was completed on Monday. The children practiced reading a prompt, brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing a final copy all independently. They wrote personal narratives in the 2 hour time limit. They will be taking the STARR writing test in the spring. The next day we reviewed the format of an essay and the format of a personal narrative. We read a poem called Jellybeans up your Nose which talks about being true to yourself and not doing something bad just because someone cool does it. We compared this to the messages in Red Ribbon Week and wrote about our thoughts, feelings, connections, etc... then wrote "this makes me think that......" or "this makes me realize....." or "I used to think ___________ but now I think ________________". These types of statements help to bring the children to a deeper level of thinking about their concepts which could turn into central ideas for essays. We noticed things in the room and then challenged our thinking with one of the statements, and we watched a video about a dog and an elephant and wrote about it pushing our thinking to find a bigger idea. We continued gathering essay entries and we will be choosing one idea to use in our next essay piece which we will be starting next week.
Math-Learning about patterns, balanced equations, and algebraic equations has been fun and we will continue with these concepts in our problem solving all year. We also a practicing using more math vocabulary and will have an assessment on our vocabulary words on Wednesday, October 31. We also examined graphs and practiced interpreting them and writing our own questions about the graphs. The cold front helped us as we practiced working with temperature. It gave us some extreme temperatures to compare. Elapsed time is another concept that we worked with a little this week and will continue with throughout the year.
Science-We began examining forms of energy-electrical, light, sound, mechanical, and thermal or heat energy. We will continue learning about energy.
Social Studies-Early Texans have been interesting to study. We read an article and completed a venn diagram to compare Early Texans and Texans of Today. Riya made a beautiful model of a Caddo village for extra credit! Thank you for extending extra effort! Next we will be learning about explorers.
Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, October 31-Math Vocabulary test
Thursday, November 1-Writing Club begins in library 2:45-3:45 (pick up in front of school)
Friday, November 2-Class book order forms due. (yes or no)
Saturday, November 3-Service Club trip to Round Rock Serving Center-9-10am
Friday, November 9-Groovy-O-Rama 10:00am fourth grade
Tuesday, November 13-TAG Informational Meeting at 5:15 pm, PTA meeting at 6:30 pm, Reflections Gallery Night at &:00 pm
Have a wonderful week! Be sure to read, write, and practice math!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a wonderful week. Red Ribbon Week was great and we learned a lot about making good choices and staying healthy. We had our photos taken on Tuesday and met the firefighters for an assembly on Friday. We finally said goodbye to our tarantula and hello to a snake. We have a beautiful ball python in our room for two weeks. Her name is Sage. (now we have two Sages) and she seems to be starting to shed. She has been fairly active so far and we will be doing some snake research on Monday. Ask your child about Sage our snake!
Electronics Day will be on Wednesday. The class has earned enough Howler tickets to purchase an Electronics Party. (250 Howlers!) Electronic devices ( MP3 player, DS, Playstation, etc..) are allowed for 30 minutes at the end of the day. All electronics will be kept in backpacks for the rest of the day. I told the kids to really think carefully before deciding to bring in something special that has the potential to be lost or broken. Anyone who doesn't bring in an electronic device can play games (from our school's websites) on the Netbooks. Earbuds must be brought to school if listening to music and only the child with the music will be allowed to listen. All games played have to be rated E for everyone if they are played in the classroom. Any chatting electronically needs to be appropriate and respectful. Electronics Party can be very fun but we need to follow some rules. Let me know if you have any questions.
Purchase one of our Class Books! Orders due by next Friday. We are writing a class poetry book. We brainstormed ideas about fall with our pen pals and began writing poetry with them. Then we wrote more poems individually and we will each create a page in our class book. We will be sending the book off to the publisher on Friday, Nov. 2. You will find an order form in your child's Thursday folder. Please fill out with a yes (with payment) or a no, sign, and return. We will be making individual books in the spring and you will receive a free book in the spring if you return the fall class book form with a yes or no. The poetry book is turning out well and we will be including photos of us with our pen pals in the books also. I am excited about our class book! Thank you for returning your forms.
Read about our week.
Reading-We read non-fiction or expository text this week from our Health textbook to gain information about the effects of drugs, smoking, and alcohol on our bodies. We especially looked at the charts and graphs and interpreting the data in them. We used National Geographic Explorer and focused on text features (photos, diagrams, captions, subtitles, charts, maps, drawings, glossary, table of contents, etc..) and discussed how these text features help us to understand the information in the text. We also read some articles independently and wrote F/Q/R charts (facts, questions, response) Finishing our book club books was also exciting this week. We wrote responses and discussed our books in groups. We also went to our class moodle and discussed our book using a chat with the others in our group. Very exciting!
Writing-Our first benchmark or CBA (Curriculum Based Assessment) was completed on Monday. The children practiced reading a prompt, brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing a final copy all independently. They wrote personal narratives in the 2 hour time limit. They will be taking the STARR writing test in the spring. The next day we reviewed the format of an essay and the format of a personal narrative. We read a poem called Jellybeans up your Nose which talks about being true to yourself and not doing something bad just because someone cool does it. We compared this to the messages in Red Ribbon Week and wrote about our thoughts, feelings, connections, etc... then wrote "this makes me think that......" or "this makes me realize....." or "I used to think ___________ but now I think ________________". These types of statements help to bring the children to a deeper level of thinking about their concepts which could turn into central ideas for essays. We noticed things in the room and then challenged our thinking with one of the statements, and we watched a video about a dog and an elephant and wrote about it pushing our thinking to find a bigger idea. We continued gathering essay entries and we will be choosing one idea to use in our next essay piece which we will be starting next week.
Math-Learning about patterns, balanced equations, and algebraic equations has been fun and we will continue with these concepts in our problem solving all year. We also a practicing using more math vocabulary and will have an assessment on our vocabulary words on Wednesday, October 31. We also examined graphs and practiced interpreting them and writing our own questions about the graphs. The cold front helped us as we practiced working with temperature. It gave us some extreme temperatures to compare. Elapsed time is another concept that we worked with a little this week and will continue with throughout the year.
Science-We began examining forms of energy-electrical, light, sound, mechanical, and thermal or heat energy. We will continue learning about energy.
Social Studies-Early Texans have been interesting to study. We read an article and completed a venn diagram to compare Early Texans and Texans of Today. Riya made a beautiful model of a Caddo village for extra credit! Thank you for extending extra effort! Next we will be learning about explorers.
Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, October 31-Math Vocabulary test
Thursday, November 1-Writing Club begins in library 2:45-3:45 (pick up in front of school)
Friday, November 2-Class book order forms due. (yes or no)
Saturday, November 3-Service Club trip to Round Rock Serving Center-9-10am
Friday, November 9-Groovy-O-Rama 10:00am fourth grade
Tuesday, November 13-TAG Informational Meeting at 5:15 pm, PTA meeting at 6:30 pm, Reflections Gallery Night at &:00 pm
Have a wonderful week! Be sure to read, write, and practice math!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, October 12, 2012
Great Week! Pen Pals and Phil Bildner come next week!
Hi,
We had a busy and great week! We had to say goodbye to our friend, the tarantula. We enjoyed observing and learning about him/her.
Thank you for meeting with me during conferences. I enjoyed seeing all of you and discussing your child’s goals. Thank you for all your support and, as always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Most of us wore orange on Wednesday to celebrate National Bully-Free Day! We talked about treating others with respect and watched a bullying Brain-pop!
The FCE Service Club is leading a Diaper Drive for the Round Rock Serving Center. When we volunteered at the center in September, we noticed a few clients asking for diapers and that shelf was empty! If you would like to donate diapers (any size) ask your child to drop them off in the box outside of the office. Thank you!
Our pen pals are coming on Tuesday! We are excited to see them and wrote letters to them today. We will be planning some activities for our visit on Monday.
On Monday, we will have our entire fourth grade will have a visit with the author, Phil Bildner! We are so excited about meeting him and learning about writing from him.
Read about our week:
Reading-We read a book called, The Other Side, which is a realistic fiction book. The book was about an African American girl and a white girl who live next door with a fence separating their yards. They watch each other from their respective sides of the fence and finally become friends. They hope that someday that fence will be knocked down. We talked about what that meant, metaphorically, and discussed a bit about civil rights. We did lots of independent reading then practiced leaving tracks of our thinking. We also read some books about matter.
Writing-Most of us finished our final copy of our personal narrative as well as our essays on No Hate Schools. We wrote these essays for a contest sponsored by Austin Family Magazine. We learned the basic format for an essay and that a personal narrative tells a story but an essay teaches something. We wrote about ways that we could make our school a safe place for everyone regardless of their differences. We will continue writing essays using topics of our choice next week.
Math-We had a great time working with patterns and algebra. Input/output charts, repeating patterns, and growing patterns have all been fun! We look for a pattern and then work to discover a formula with an unknown that can be used to work with that pattern. We also continued with multiplication and division within problem solving situations. We will be working more with algebra and patterns next week and beginning work with time and temperature.
Science-Changes in matter experiments have been fun! We put ice and salt in an aluminum can and stirred. It was cool to see the frost form on the outside of the can. We also put blue food coloring and ice in a plastic cup of water. Water droplets formed on the outside of the cup and when we wiped the droplets with a white paper towel the towel wasn’t blue. These two explorations helped us realize that the water and frost did not come through the cup or can but were the result of the cool container cooling the warm air around it and the condensation came from the air, not from the inside out of the container! We also discussed insulation and tested some materials by wrapping ice in Styrofoam, bubble wrap, flannel, sand, and towels. The sand and the flannel was the least effective insulation. The others were all about the same. Reminder: We are having a test on matter on Thursday, October 18. Be sure to go to Stemscopes (FCE site, for students, Stemscopes, username: Bartholomew, password: bats) to study.
Social Studies: We began researching early Texans. Each group will research a tribe and present the information to the class. We will be focusing on the following facts: in which region did they live, what natural resources did they use, what type of food did they eat and how did they get it, what was the appearance of the homes, were the people nomadic (moved in search of food) or non-nomadic (permanent houses).
Each group will be presenting their information to the class soon. If your child would like to do some extra credit work: he/she can create something extra about their tribe (poster, diorama, play, movie, power point, etc….)
Dates to remember:
Monday, October 15-Phil Bildner visit!
Tuesday, October 16-Pen Pal Visit in library, 9:30-11:00
Thursday, October 18-Matter Test, Writing Club begins in library-2:45-3:45
Friday, October 19-Spirit Day!
Saturday, October 20-Service Club Volunteers at Round Rock Serving Center 9-10
Tuesday, October 23-Individual Photo Day
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a busy and great week! We had to say goodbye to our friend, the tarantula. We enjoyed observing and learning about him/her.
Thank you for meeting with me during conferences. I enjoyed seeing all of you and discussing your child’s goals. Thank you for all your support and, as always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Most of us wore orange on Wednesday to celebrate National Bully-Free Day! We talked about treating others with respect and watched a bullying Brain-pop!
The FCE Service Club is leading a Diaper Drive for the Round Rock Serving Center. When we volunteered at the center in September, we noticed a few clients asking for diapers and that shelf was empty! If you would like to donate diapers (any size) ask your child to drop them off in the box outside of the office. Thank you!
Our pen pals are coming on Tuesday! We are excited to see them and wrote letters to them today. We will be planning some activities for our visit on Monday.
On Monday, we will have our entire fourth grade will have a visit with the author, Phil Bildner! We are so excited about meeting him and learning about writing from him.
Read about our week:
Reading-We read a book called, The Other Side, which is a realistic fiction book. The book was about an African American girl and a white girl who live next door with a fence separating their yards. They watch each other from their respective sides of the fence and finally become friends. They hope that someday that fence will be knocked down. We talked about what that meant, metaphorically, and discussed a bit about civil rights. We did lots of independent reading then practiced leaving tracks of our thinking. We also read some books about matter.
Writing-Most of us finished our final copy of our personal narrative as well as our essays on No Hate Schools. We wrote these essays for a contest sponsored by Austin Family Magazine. We learned the basic format for an essay and that a personal narrative tells a story but an essay teaches something. We wrote about ways that we could make our school a safe place for everyone regardless of their differences. We will continue writing essays using topics of our choice next week.
Math-We had a great time working with patterns and algebra. Input/output charts, repeating patterns, and growing patterns have all been fun! We look for a pattern and then work to discover a formula with an unknown that can be used to work with that pattern. We also continued with multiplication and division within problem solving situations. We will be working more with algebra and patterns next week and beginning work with time and temperature.
Science-Changes in matter experiments have been fun! We put ice and salt in an aluminum can and stirred. It was cool to see the frost form on the outside of the can. We also put blue food coloring and ice in a plastic cup of water. Water droplets formed on the outside of the cup and when we wiped the droplets with a white paper towel the towel wasn’t blue. These two explorations helped us realize that the water and frost did not come through the cup or can but were the result of the cool container cooling the warm air around it and the condensation came from the air, not from the inside out of the container! We also discussed insulation and tested some materials by wrapping ice in Styrofoam, bubble wrap, flannel, sand, and towels. The sand and the flannel was the least effective insulation. The others were all about the same. Reminder: We are having a test on matter on Thursday, October 18. Be sure to go to Stemscopes (FCE site, for students, Stemscopes, username: Bartholomew, password: bats) to study.
Social Studies: We began researching early Texans. Each group will research a tribe and present the information to the class. We will be focusing on the following facts: in which region did they live, what natural resources did they use, what type of food did they eat and how did they get it, what was the appearance of the homes, were the people nomadic (moved in search of food) or non-nomadic (permanent houses).
Each group will be presenting their information to the class soon. If your child would like to do some extra credit work: he/she can create something extra about their tribe (poster, diorama, play, movie, power point, etc….)
Dates to remember:
Monday, October 15-Phil Bildner visit!
Tuesday, October 16-Pen Pal Visit in library, 9:30-11:00
Thursday, October 18-Matter Test, Writing Club begins in library-2:45-3:45
Friday, October 19-Spirit Day!
Saturday, October 20-Service Club Volunteers at Round Rock Serving Center 9-10
Tuesday, October 23-Individual Photo Day
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Busy and Fun Week! No school for students on Monday. I look forward to meeting with you and your child for conferences on Monday and Wednesday.
Hi,
We had a fun and busy week.
Book Fair will be held in the library from Monday (even though we have conferences and no classes) to Friday. It will be open late on Tuesday evening and Darth Vadar will be there. Bring your change because we are collecting coins for Coats for Kids in the library. Team HOWL, a relay for life team of faculty and staff of FCE, will also be having a bake sale on Tuesday evening. Come and enjoy some treats and buy some books!
Wear college clothing on Mondays and green, purple, or Forest Creek Elementary shirts on Friday.
Wear ORANGE on Wednesday to show unity for Bullying Prevention Month.
Art Fundraiser forms and artwork was in your child's Thursday folders. Your child's artwork can make beautiful gifts and keepsakes. It also can make cute and memorable holiday presents for family members.
Phil Bildner is coming! A former teacher and children's author is coming to our school on Monday, October 15. He has been at our school before and the fourth graders will get to spend an hour with him in a writing workshop. Mr. Bildner is very entertaining and informative. The kids are going to love meeting and working with him. There is an opportunity to pre-order some of his books and he will sign them for you. For every book that you pre-order, your child will get their name in a drawing for lunch with Mr. Bildner on Monday. (lunch from home or school but in the library with ten other kids and the author.) An order form will be coming home on Tuesday and you can check out his website at http://philbildner.com/.
Our tarantula is with us for another week and is beginning to come out from under his log and see us a bit more. We are reading expository or nonfiction text about spiders and also a fiction story about spiders. We will be comparing the two genres with a similar topic on Tuesday.
Our class has a garden box and planted some small vegetable plants on Friday. We will be planting some seeds on Tuesday. Comparing the plants and the seeds will be interesting as well as weeding, watering, and harvesting our vegetables. Thank you to Mrs. McCulloch for helping us.
Read about our week:
Reading-I read a book called Encounter to the class on Friday and didn't show them the illustrations. They had to make inferences and predictions based on the text and their background knowledge. The book is especially interesting because it is about the landing of Christopher Columbus in San Salvador but it is from a native boy's point of view. Ask your child about it.
Writing-Almost everyone finished taking their personal narrative from their draft book and rewriting it on notebook paper. Our next step is to edit. (add paragraphs, correct capitalization, spelling, and punctuation) Then the writing of our final copy will begin! We are planning to finish with these narratives on Tuesday and Wednesday and then will begin writing essays.
Math-We have been doing very well working with multiplication and division concepts and applying them to problem solving situations. We will continue sharing strategies for multiplication and division and will be working with patterns this week. Algebra-here we come!
Science-Matter experiments were fun this week. We classified items as magnetic/non-magnetic, sink/float, solid/liquid/gas, and according to other properties of the student's choice. Using three unidentified substances in film canisters, we measured and recorded their mass using a triple beam balance then shook each container and described what we heard and felt. We measured the volume of the substance by putting 400 ml of water in a beaker, then dropping the container into the beaker and measuring the water level after the water was displaced. We then subtracted the two water levels to determine the approximate volume. We also used water that was red, blue, and green with food coloring and placed drops of the water into a thin graduated cylinder to see which water was the most dense. We had to try different sequences of water colors to determine the order of the density so that we could see layers of liquid. The water had different densities because I added a lot of salt into one of the containers, some salt in the other, and no salt in the third container. We learned that liquid can have different densities.We will be conducting some more explorations with matter and changes in matter this week.
Social Studies-This week we will begin learning about Early Texans. We will think about the landforms, resources, and climate of each region and the tribes that lived there.
Dates to Remember:
Book fair-all week, Tuesday evening late hours
Monday, October 8- Conferences/No school students
Wednesday, October 10-WEAR ORANGE-Anti-bullying
Thursday, October 11-Service Club meeting
Friday, October 12-Art Fundraiser orders due
Monday, October 15-Phil Bildner visits!
Wednesday, October 17-Pen Pals Visit-9:30 in library
Monday, October 22-October 26-Red Ribbon Week
Tuesday, October 23-Individual Picture Day
Wednesday, October 24-Early Release Day-Kona Ice at school
Friday, October 26-Fire Department assembly
Friday, November 9-10:00am Groovy-O-Rama
Have a great weekend! See you at your child's conference!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a fun and busy week.
Book Fair will be held in the library from Monday (even though we have conferences and no classes) to Friday. It will be open late on Tuesday evening and Darth Vadar will be there. Bring your change because we are collecting coins for Coats for Kids in the library. Team HOWL, a relay for life team of faculty and staff of FCE, will also be having a bake sale on Tuesday evening. Come and enjoy some treats and buy some books!
Wear college clothing on Mondays and green, purple, or Forest Creek Elementary shirts on Friday.
Wear ORANGE on Wednesday to show unity for Bullying Prevention Month.
Art Fundraiser forms and artwork was in your child's Thursday folders. Your child's artwork can make beautiful gifts and keepsakes. It also can make cute and memorable holiday presents for family members.
Phil Bildner is coming! A former teacher and children's author is coming to our school on Monday, October 15. He has been at our school before and the fourth graders will get to spend an hour with him in a writing workshop. Mr. Bildner is very entertaining and informative. The kids are going to love meeting and working with him. There is an opportunity to pre-order some of his books and he will sign them for you. For every book that you pre-order, your child will get their name in a drawing for lunch with Mr. Bildner on Monday. (lunch from home or school but in the library with ten other kids and the author.) An order form will be coming home on Tuesday and you can check out his website at http://philbildner.com/.
Our tarantula is with us for another week and is beginning to come out from under his log and see us a bit more. We are reading expository or nonfiction text about spiders and also a fiction story about spiders. We will be comparing the two genres with a similar topic on Tuesday.
Our class has a garden box and planted some small vegetable plants on Friday. We will be planting some seeds on Tuesday. Comparing the plants and the seeds will be interesting as well as weeding, watering, and harvesting our vegetables. Thank you to Mrs. McCulloch for helping us.
Read about our week:
Reading-I read a book called Encounter to the class on Friday and didn't show them the illustrations. They had to make inferences and predictions based on the text and their background knowledge. The book is especially interesting because it is about the landing of Christopher Columbus in San Salvador but it is from a native boy's point of view. Ask your child about it.
Writing-Almost everyone finished taking their personal narrative from their draft book and rewriting it on notebook paper. Our next step is to edit. (add paragraphs, correct capitalization, spelling, and punctuation) Then the writing of our final copy will begin! We are planning to finish with these narratives on Tuesday and Wednesday and then will begin writing essays.
Math-We have been doing very well working with multiplication and division concepts and applying them to problem solving situations. We will continue sharing strategies for multiplication and division and will be working with patterns this week. Algebra-here we come!
Science-Matter experiments were fun this week. We classified items as magnetic/non-magnetic, sink/float, solid/liquid/gas, and according to other properties of the student's choice. Using three unidentified substances in film canisters, we measured and recorded their mass using a triple beam balance then shook each container and described what we heard and felt. We measured the volume of the substance by putting 400 ml of water in a beaker, then dropping the container into the beaker and measuring the water level after the water was displaced. We then subtracted the two water levels to determine the approximate volume. We also used water that was red, blue, and green with food coloring and placed drops of the water into a thin graduated cylinder to see which water was the most dense. We had to try different sequences of water colors to determine the order of the density so that we could see layers of liquid. The water had different densities because I added a lot of salt into one of the containers, some salt in the other, and no salt in the third container. We learned that liquid can have different densities.We will be conducting some more explorations with matter and changes in matter this week.
Social Studies-This week we will begin learning about Early Texans. We will think about the landforms, resources, and climate of each region and the tribes that lived there.
Dates to Remember:
Book fair-all week, Tuesday evening late hours
Monday, October 8- Conferences/No school students
Wednesday, October 10-WEAR ORANGE-Anti-bullying
Thursday, October 11-Service Club meeting
Friday, October 12-Art Fundraiser orders due
Monday, October 15-Phil Bildner visits!
Wednesday, October 17-Pen Pals Visit-9:30 in library
Monday, October 22-October 26-Red Ribbon Week
Tuesday, October 23-Individual Picture Day
Wednesday, October 24-Early Release Day-Kona Ice at school
Friday, October 26-Fire Department assembly
Friday, November 9-10:00am Groovy-O-Rama
Have a great weekend! See you at your child's conference!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
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