Back to School NIght on Thurs. Sept. 6 at 6 pm, Decorated Writer's Notebook due on Tuesday

Hi,

We had a marvelous first week of school. We practiced routines and expectations but began some great learning as well.

Reading-We are working on reading longer and stronger. That means spending more time accurately reading books at our reading level that interest us. I have been so impressed with the amount of time we have been able to read and stay focused this week. We have increased our time each day. On Monday we read for 10 minutes, discussed what we read, and then read for 10 more minutes. Today we read for 43 minutes! While the children read, I am doing individual reading assessments and will soon be working with small groups or having individual reading conferences.

Writing-Vocabulary is a big focus in each subject area. We learned the word persevere and then applied it to a reflection writing entry about a Wilma Rudolph quote. "The potential for greatness lives within each of us." The children wrote about times that they worked hard to reach their potential and had to persevere during that process. We will continue to work on revising these entries. We also started an acrostic poem that describes us. We learned about similes, metaphors, and exploding the moment. We will be applying these writing techniques to Important Poems that we write about ourselves that we will begin writing on Tuesday.

Math-Our class is full of mathematicians! We solved a challenging math problem and had tons of unique and effective strategies for the same problem. Logic problems are fun for us to solve and we enjoyed solving one about children trying out for sports teams. Most of us are very good at computing addition and subtraction facts. We had fun working with large numbers this week also. Thank you for helping with the Large Number Facts homework. We learned many random and interesting facts. (ex. Taylor Swift's salary, prices of many mansions and sports cars, the number of micro-organisms in our intestines, volume of salvia produced in a person's lifetime, the weight of the largest Rice Krispy treat, and many more!) We used base ten materials to represent numbers up to the thousands. To try to visualize larger numbers, we used butcher paper and cut out 10 thousand cubes which made a 10,000 long strip, then put 10 of the 10,000 strips together to show 100,000 squares. Next we put ten 100,000 squares together to show 1,000,000! We taped our display in the hallway across from the counselor's office. Come and see it! Next week we will continue to work with ordering and problem solving using large numbers.

Social Studies-The Texas photos brought in by the class are wonderful. We each shared our photos and found the locations on the map. Then wrote about our photo. They are displayed outside our classroom.

Science-We started working on some science safety things today. We will be continuing learning about science safety and tools next week.

Please return papers from the big envelope ASAP. Thanks!

If you have a minute, please go to the counselor's page on our website and fill out a survey. http://teacherweb.com/TX/ForestCreekElementary/Leitch/apt1.aspx

Thank you for the wonderful letters describing your child. It is so great to read them and learn more about how we can work together to challenge your child and help him/her grow this year.

Reminders:
Tuesday, Sept. 4-Decorated Writer's Notebooks due
Thursday, Sept. 6 - Back to School Night at 6:00pm
Friday, Sept. 7-Spirit Day-Wear green, purple, or FCE shirt
Monday, Sept. 10-College Day-Wear a shirt from your favorite college
Tuesday, Sept. 11-PTA meeting, Watchdogs kick-off
Friday, Sept. 28- Book Orders due

Have a safe and fun long weekend! Your child should read and record, decorate his/her writer's notebook, and practice math facts.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew

Great First Day of 4th Grade!

Hi,

We had a wonderful first day!  We started off with a read-aloud of an easy book called The Okay Book  which helped us to realize that we are all different and like various things and that is ok.  We thought about things that we are good at doing and things that we still need to work on and shared some of those things with each other.  A big theme in our class is to be respectful, accepting, and helpful to others.  We did a great job acting in that way today.

I love to read and I would like the kids to have a passion for reading after this year.  (Some of them already have developed that passion!)  We will be reading A LOT in school and they are all expected to read even more at home.  They will be able to choose most of the books that they read (especially at home) and should be reading books at their level.  I do want them to work toward reading more chapter books and completing them.  We are going to be very diligent about recording our reading at home and at school on our reading logs in our purple folders.  

You may have noticed the jumbo plastic bag in your child's back pack.  This bag will come back and forth from home to school each day.  Your child will carry the purple folder with the reading log and any homework inside, his/her agenda, and at least two books (at their reading level) in the jumbo bag. Soon he/she will also have his/her reading response journal and a reading response will be part of their reading at home.  Each child needs to complete at least 3 reading responses each week.That book will probably come home tomorrow. Thank you for helping your child to be responsible about their at home reading and their other homework and be sure that the jumbo bag is in the back pack each day.

Homework:  Read at least 20 minutes and record on reading log. Return any completed forms from big envelope and Texas photo as well as jumbo bag tomorrow.

Math was very exciting today. We worked on a challenging problem and there were tons of unique and effective strategies used by the children!  It was thrilling to have them share about their thinking and especially exciting when their first strategy was incorrect and they had to make adjustments to answer correctly.  Problem:  In a field were some cows and chickens.  There were 11 heads and 30 feet.  How many cows and chickens were there?  Ask your child to share their strategy or one that he/she heard from a friend.  

Tomorrow will be another great day!  We had art today and will have PE tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing your children with me.  I am so thrilled for a fantastic school year!

Sincerely,

 

Pam Bartholomew
4th Grade Teacher

Welcome to Fourth Grade 2012-2013!

Hello!

I am so excited for our new school year and I have been busy unpacking and getting our classroom organized. I am looking forward to meeting all of our new Bartholomew Bats and beginning an exciting year of learning.

Go to this link and fill out the student information form. All of the information will be used only by me for classroom purposes. Thank you!

Student Information Form

Come and see our room and drop off school supplies on Friday, August 25, 2012 at 4:00 pm if your last name begins with the letters A-L or at 4:45 if your last name begins with the letters M-Z. The Kona Ice Truck will also be at school that evening.

Fourth grade is an amazing grade. You will be learning about Texas History, becoming creative problem solvers, improving and refining your writing skills, participating in many science experiments, and becoming avid readers. You will work hard every day, listen carefully, share your thoughts, discover big ideas, and help others daily. Our community of learners will be strong and ready for lots of challenges. I am looking forward to getting started.

Here is your first assignment!!!!!! We will be learning about the regions of Texas. You need to bring a photo of yourself taken somewhere in Texas to school on Friday, August 25. It can be a photo from El Paso, Dallas, Houston, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, or even Round Rock or Austin. A picture from anywhere in Texas (or even from your backyard) will be great. It can be a paper copy and it can include other people as well. On Friday evening, I will give you a note card and you will write a few sentences to tell where you are, what you are doing, and what it was like there. Use details in your writing. We will be using all of our photos and the captions we write for our photos on a bulletin board in the hallway outside our classroom. It will be interesting to see and learn about places in our state.

I know that all of you read a lot this summer so be sure to come to class on Monday, August 27, ready to share some of your favorite books. I can't wait to hear about your favorite titles and your interests.

Feel free to comment to the post and tell your thoughts about fourth grade, your summer, or our new school year. You can also email me with any questions or concerns.

See you on Friday, August, 25!

Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
pam_bartholomew@roundrockisd.org

Thank you for a wonderful year!

Hi, Thank you for a wonderful school year! I have enjoyed your children a great deal this year. We have had many new adventures and have helped each other grow. I am excited to have more time with my family but I will definitely miss your children. Thanks for a great party! Mrs. Geyer did a fantastic job this year as our room mom. Thank you to her. Thank you also for all of you who helped by being here and/or by sending in supplies as well as helping your child at home with school work. It takes a village and your children made good progress this year because we all worked together. Thank you so much! I attached a book list with some sites that have suggested readings for your child this summer. Keep working on math facts, problem solving, writing, and reading this summer! Thanks again and have a safe and happy summer. Sincerely, Pam Bartholomew

Hard to Believe that it is the Last Week of 4th Grade!

Hi, It is hard to believe that we are already in our last week of 4th grade! I have had a extraordinary time with your children this year. I am excited to have more time for my family and reading, but am very sad about not seeing your children everyday. I am proud of the progress that your children have made this year! We will continue to work this week but do have several fun things planned as well. On Monday we will be gluing the bones that we found inside our owl pellets to black paper. The kids have found lots of bones from the rodents that the owl ate and have separated the bones from the fur. Using a bone chart, they have tried to identify the bones and label them. This activity compliments our reading of There's an Owl in the Shower. We will be finishing reading this book on Monday also. We researched the Northern Spotted Owls a bit and also wrote poems about owls as well as Character Cinquain poems about one of the characters in the book. We have discussed the impact that cutting in the old growth forests had on the owls and other animals that used that ecosystem as their habitats. It has been interesting to learn how most of earth's creatures are interdependent. On Tuesday our pen pals will be coming for our last visit of the school year. We have had a wonderful time learning about the past through the stories told to us by our pen pals. Writing letters to them gives us an authentic reason to write as did writing about them in our class pen pal book. Each child wrote a page about their pen pal and decorated a page of photos. Some children wrote a poem about his/her pen pal, some wrote an essay, and some wrote an expository piece with subtitles. The pen pals will be at FCE at about 10:30 am. We would love to have you come and join us. YOU ARE INVITED! On Wednesday, we will be having an Author's Celebration! We will celebrate the amazing writing that the children have completed this year by sharing our published books with you. Come to our room at 2:00. Each child will share the title and cover of his/her book with the entire group. Then we will break into smaller groups to read individual books. It will be a lot of fun and I know that the children are excited to share their books. Hope you can join us at 2:00 on Wednesday! On Thursday, we will be having fun with meal worms. We will conduct some experiments with the meal worms and take data on the results. We will learn about the life cycle of the meal worm and do some research on them. The meal worms will not complete their life cycle during this last week of school so the children are invited to take home a meal worm and then report back on our MOODLE page about the progress of their meal worm. If you do not want your child to bring a meal worm home, please let me know. On Friday, we will have a signing party with the entire fourth grade using our yearbooks or autograph books. We will also have our end of the year party. You will be getting an email on Monday afternoon asking for donations for our party. Our party will be in our classroom at 2:00 pm. Thank you in advance for helping to add to our fun! Check your Child's Back Pack Your child will be bringing home some workbooks. There will be a huge math book which we did use a lot throughout the year, a smaller blue reading/writing book which we did use a lot for multiple choice practice, and a white language book which we used a little bit. Be sure to use these books for practice over the summer so that your child keeps his/her skills strong for fifth grade. The students will also be bringing home their writer's notebook, reader's response notebook, word study spiral, math spiral, science notebook, and two social studies spirals. Look through these books with your child and celebrate all of their hard work this year. You may want to save a few of these. I love looking back at Blair's writing and other work from 4th grade and younger. It is fun for them to see what they found important and what their writing was like when they were young. Enjoy! Send in Erasers, Pencils, Food, and Books to Help Others Our school is collecting erasers and pencils for an orphanage in Honduras. A friend of mine organizes trips to Honduras to help children in an orphanage as well as homeless there. The group is going again in June and I asked her how we can help. She told me of how the children all shared one tiny eraser. Our class talked about how much they like having erasers and sharp pencils and how they tend to take them for granted. We already collected a lot of erasers and hope to collect a bunch more to help out these children. There is a box outside the office for the donations. Our FCE Service Club has been collecting food for the Round Rock Serving Center as well as books for the clients to use in the waiting area and take home with them. Our Service Club also worked on a public service announcement about reasons why people would use the services of the RR Serving Center and we will be finishing up the editing of our movie this week. Thank you again for donating books and food this year. We will continue to accept donations this week. Thank you again for a fantastic year. I hope to see you this week to be able to thank you in person. Be sure that your child is reading a lot this summer. Take part in a reading program at the public library or Barnes and Noble or one of the other cool programs. I would love to get emails or letters about books that they enjoyed. Practice math facts and math concepts online with First in Math as well as other sites on our class web page or any FCE teacher web page for lots of learning and fun. Write a lot also. Your child will be bringing home a stamped envelope with my address on it. They should write me a letter this summer and I will write them back. Then we can be pen pals! The children can also continue writing to their pen pal from The Court. Have a safe and wonderful summer full of fun! See you in 5th grade!!!!!!! Sincerely, Pam Bartholomew

Thank you!!!!!!

Thank you so much for a wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week! Each day was filled with surprises! The notes from the children touched my heart and I will treasure them. The gifts, flowers, fruit, candy, dinner, etc.... were all amazing! My family especially loved the dinner! Thank you also to the FCE PTA for all the lunches, breakfasts, and fun things this week. We enjoyed a free Zumba class on Tuesday which was great! I am walking in the Relay for Life on our FCE team so I will hopefully work off the many pounds that I've gained this week! Thank you again! I certainly feel appreciated! Your children did a great job in the Totally O'Rama today! Their outfits, hair, and make-up was also totally rad! Field Day is next Friday and our pen pals will be here to visit on May 22. We will continue to work hard in class and even get to take a Social Studies benchmark on Tuesday! On Tuesday afternoon we will begin working with our owl pellets which is so fun! Have a great weekend! Thanks again for everything! Sincerely, Pam Bartholomew

Wow! Teacher Appreciation Week is Wonderful! Round Rock Leader coming to our classroom tomorrow!

Hi, Thank you for all the incredible surprises for Teacher Appreciation Week! I've received yummy Hershey's Kisses (and some real ones) from the kids, beautiful flowers, and amazing cards and notes. I am so honored to be a part of your child's life. Thank you so much. I also received another honor last Friday. The district had a banquet honoring all of the Teacher of the Year Honorees from each of the elementary, middle, and high schools. At the banquet, each principal went on the stage and told about the Teacher of the Year for his/her school. I was so excited to be there with Mrs. Lehnick, representing Forest Creek. Each of the teachers needed to write some essays about their teaching philosophy and the types of things that they do. Then a committee reads the essays and chooses a teacher to be the RRISD District Teacher of the Year. (one for Elementary and one for Secondary) I was so surprised and thrilled to be chosen as the Elementary Teacher of the Year at the District level. I will now write more essays and represent Round Rock ISD at the regional event. Thank you for all of your support this year. The Round Rock Leader will be coming tomorrow to interview me and take some photos of the children for the Saturday edition. They will be here after lunch. The children are going to be excited to be in the newspaper! Here's what we've been doing in class: We have two new friends! We have a tree frog (named Fred by the class) and a anole lizard (named Lizzie). The lizard was hiding yesterday but finally came out from under the water dish during inside recess and turned from brown to bright green right in front of the kids. It was so cool! We borrowed the pets from Living Science and they will be picked up next Friday. We will keep observing and learn more about them this week and next. Savanna brought in some adorable frogs and tadpoles last week. She caught them and helped us review the life cycle and complete metamorphosis! In the tank were tadpoles, tadpoles with two legs, tadpoles with four legs but still a tail, and little frogs. We were so excited to see the life cycle first hand and shared them with our first grade buddies. We began reading a book called, There's an Owl in the Shower today. We are using this book as a shared reading. I will read some chapters and we will write summaries and responses and discuss them. The children will also read some chapters for homework and write summaries and responses about them. This book will help us discuss some environmental issues and will lead us into disecting owl pellets next week and integrating science, math, writing, and reading. Writing about our pen pals is another activity that has been our focus. We will each write a page about our pen pal (essay, newspaper article, biography, poem, etc.. ) and decorate another page with some photos. These pages will be compiled into a pen pal book which we will send off to our RRISD printers and give to our pen pals. They will be coming to our school for their last visit of the school year on Wednesday, May 22. Come join us! In math we are practicing division and multiplication in problem solving situations and sharing strategies. We will continue reviewing all our math concepts for the rest of the year. We took a science benchmark today and overall the children did very well. We will be taking a social studies benchmark next week so we will be reviewing some more Texas history this week and next. Thanks again for all the wonderful notes and gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week. So you on Friday for the Totally O'Rama at 10:05! Sincerely, Pam Bartholomew