Newsletter

HI,

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend. 

Food Drive: Thank you for donating for our food drive.  We donated about 300 items to the Round Rock Serving Center.  

Mentors: We had a great time with our mentors on Tuesday.  We will create a book about them. Each child will write a page about their mentor and we will include photos. We will print a few copies of  our book to keep in the classrooms and we will give each mentor a book.  We enjoy learning from them and playing games with them and the mentors look forward to coming to see the kids each month. It is a win/win situation!

Monthly Reading Challenge for April is to read an award winning book. (novel-about 100 pages) Mrs. Smith has also given the students an April Book Bingo Challenge. They can win food coupons for Mighty Fine and other places for completing the Book Bingo. The kids can turn in notecards for books read to have them count for the 40 Book Challenge. Have fun and keep reading!!!!!

*Reading Response Letters will be due on Thursday this week, since we don't have school on Friday.

Field Trip forms came home on Thursday.  The permission slip is pink. We will travel to the Bob Bullock Museum on Tuesday, May 2.  Let me know if you want to be a volunteer chaperone for the trip.  Be sure that you are up to date with your Volunteer Application through RRISD and are an approved volunteer.  Here is the link: RRISD volunteer application

Report Cards also came home on Thursday.  Please return the envelope and one copy signed.

Kids Kicking Out Hunger Kickball Tournament-On May 7, we will participate in a kickball tournament against Gattis, Blackland Prairie, and Cactus Ranch Elementary Schools. To play, fill out the form and bring it in with $10.  All money will go to Copprome Orphanage in Honduras. We will also collect food for the Round Rock Serving Center. Our sponsors will provide you with a FCE Kickball t-shirt to wear on the day of the event. When you register, you will get an email with a google form to fill out t-shirt sizes and give you more information.  You can create your own team or register and we will place you on a team. We can't wait to see you there!!!!!! Ask me or Mrs. Shogan if you have any  questions.

FCE Coyote Carnival-April 21-Please send in items and/or gift cards for our Sweet Treats Class Auction Basket.  Thank you!!! We will be selling all-access wristbands and raffle tickets at DISCOUNTED prices on the following days:

April 7th, April 12th, and April 13th. Food will be sold the night of the carnival - check out this flyer for all the details! Questions?  Please contact Laila Gregory at fcepta.carnival@gmail.com.

Volunteers needed for the Carnival on April 21-We cannot pull off this huge event without your help!

• We need 107 Adult volunteer hours and we only have 42% filled.  Even if you can’t help the evening of the carnival, we need lots of help during the day, too!

Adult Volunteers -

• We need another 96 Student volunteer hours so please have your middle school and/or high school students sign up here
• If you can’t give your time, please consider volunteering baked goods for our Bake Sale -
• Ask your child’s teacher if they need help putting together their silent auction item
• Ask your child’s homeroom parent if they need help putting together the class basket for the raffle

Please contact Danielle Martinez at fcepta.volunteer@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Read about our week:

Reading-We are continuing to read Number the Stars. We are enjoying our book club books and are meeting with our groups to discuss the plot, tricky words, questions, the characters, the theme, and make predictions.  We read The Butterfly this week and wrote responses about it. This book is about a girl in France during WWII who discovers that her mother is working with the resistance and hiding Jewish families in their basement.  The story is based on the lives of author, Patricia Polacco's family.  This week, we will continue reading our book club books, do some STAAR practice, and will read a book called Baseball Saved Us which is about the Japanese Internment Camps.  Ask your child about his/her reading.

Writing-We will continue to work on poems, narratives, and expository pieces for Rising Star and we will write about our mentors.

Spelling/Vocabulary-We will learn about and practice using multiple meaning words and dictionary definitions this week as part of our word study.  Practice on Quizlet and we will have a test on Thursday. https://quizlet.com/class/3493745/  Look for the set called Multiple Meaning Words.  We will have a test on 4/21/17 on the Reading Review Words and Academic Vocabulary for Reading Words.

Social Studies-Texas Heroes Projects-We will begin researching a Texas Hero for a project due on April 24, 2017.  The kids will choose a hero, will research that hero, and choose a way to present the hero to the class.  The PM class already brought home information about the project and chose their heroes.  The AM class will do this on Monday.  This will give us all a chance to research and be creative as we learn about some important people in Texas history.

Dates to remember:

Monday, April 10-Wear College Shirts, Writing Club from 2:50-3:50

Wednesday, April 12-Family Night at Zaxby's

Thursday, April 13-Reading Response Letters Due, Multiple Meaning Words Test, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green.

Friday, April 14-No School-Keep reading and enjoy time with family and friends.

Monday, April 17-Wear College Shirts, Service Club from 2:50-3:50-Rising Star Entries due to teachers

Friday, April 21-Reading Response Letters Due, SpellingTest, Vocabulary Test on Reading Vocabulary Words. Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green-Kickball Tournament Registration Due-FCE Coyote Carnival from 5:30-9:00  

Monday, April 24-Wear College Shirts, Writing Club from 2:50-3:50-Bond Election Early Voting Opens

Friday, April 28-Reading Response Letters Due, SpellingTest, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green.STEAM DAY-Presenters needed- contact lorilyn_brown@roundrockisd.org or laura_queton@roundrockisd.org.

volunteers needed: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4aa8ab2aaaf58-forest

Monday, May 1-Wear College Shirts, Service Club from 2:50-3:50

Tuesday, May 2-4th Grade Field Trip to the Bob Bullock Museum

Friday, May 5-Reading Response Letters Due, SpellingTest, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green

Sunday, May 7-Kids Kicking Out Hunger Kickball Tournament 12-4pm at Gattis Elementary School

Monday, May 8-STAAR Testing-4th grade Math-No Writing Club

Tuesday, May 9-STAAR Testing-4th grade Reading

Thursday, May 11-Rising Star Night-6:00 pm

Friday, May 12-Reading Response Letters Due, SpellingTest, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green

Monday, May 15-Wear College Shirts, Last Service Club of the year from 2:50-3:50

Friday, May 19-Reading Response Letters Due, SpellingTest, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green-Field Day 4th Grade-12:30-2:30

Monday, May 22-Wear College Shirts, Last Writing Club of the year from 2:50-3:50

Thursday, May 25-Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast-7:30, PTA General Meeting at 8:00

Friday, May 26-Reading Response Letters Due, SpellingTest, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green

Monday, May 29-No school-Memorial Day

Thursday, June 1-Last Day of School- End of the year party TBA

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

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Hi,

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend. 

Food Drive-Bring in canned goods by Thursday for our food drive for the Round Rock Serving Center.

Early Release Day on Wednesday

Mentors are coming on Tuesday-We are so excited to see our mentors again.  You are welcome to come meet our mentors.  They will be here from about 9:30-10:30 in the library.

Monthly Reading Challenge for March-Read a book with at least 300 pages!  Notecards are due on Monday!  We will have a special treat at lunchtime on Monday, April 3. Happy Reading!!!!  

Read about our week:

Reading-We are continuing to read Number the Stars and started our book club books.  We will also work in small groups to read books and articles about WWII.  

Writing-We are writing poems and narratives that could be submitted to Rising Star.  We are reviewing elements of story and figurative language which also supports our reading work.

Spelling-We will learn about the Greek and Latin roots-hydr and aqua, which both relate to water. We will have a test on Friday.

Social Studies-We worked in groups to create an original battle flag for the Texas Revolution. Then presented our flags to the class and explained the colors and symbols used.  Working in groups can be challenging for many people.  It was tricky at times, but everyone found ways to work together and create something new and original.  I was very impressed with their efforts. We will start our Texas heroes research by the end of the week, but the projects won't be due for a few weeks.

Dates to remember:

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

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