Happy Holidays!
Thank you to Mrs. McCulloch for planning an awesome holiday party. There were tons of fun activities and the kids had a great time. Thank you also to all the parents who were able to help and/or send in supplies. This party was a wonderful way to celebrate together and end the first half of 4th grade.
I can’t believe that the school year is half over. I have some grading to do over the break and will be entering those grades. We are leaving to go to Philadelphia on Saturday so the grades won’t be entered until January. Feel free to check out your kids grades so far on Home Access but be aware that some of the grades will change a little bit before they are finalized.
Visit our Moodle Page! I added lots of new activities for the kids to complete over the break. If they say that they are bored, send them there. They can write to respond to my questions and topics and they can respond to their friends’ posts as well. Go to the school web page, then students, then moodle. Sign in using their log on to the school computers. 126lastnamefirst initial, password-their school id number. Have fun! I love to read their posts and respond.
Holiday Reading Log-Be sure that your child is keeping up with their reading, writing, and math over the holiday break. I sent home a holiday reading log on Wednesday that had a chart to keep track of minutes and books read. All of the kids are required to read 150 minutes a week or 300 minutes for the two weeks off. Any child reading over 300 minutes will be receiving a special surprise! I will have several prizes on the table and the highest minute readers will get to choose first. Any child who doesn’t complete the 300 minutes of reading time will need to go to study hall when we return to catch up. Encourage your child to email me and let me know about their progress and what books they are reading. I am so excited to have more time to read over the break and look forward to hearing about the reading adventures of the kids. I set up a page on moodle and they can leave posts for each other also!
This week we worked on some problem solving using the Twelve Days of Christmas, we read and responded to The Christmas Carol, and performed some holiday plays.
We will be continuing with fractions and problem solving, reading book club books, continuing to learn about soil, writing expository and personal narratives, and learning about the Texas Revolution.
Service Club organized tons of food for our families. They were picked up on Thursday evening and the families were very grateful for the food! Thank you to all those who helped organize and those who donated food.
Service Club will be volunteering at the Round Rock Serving Center on Saturday, January 5, 2013 from 9-10. All are welcome to join us.
Have a wonderful, safe holiday. Thank you for all the beautiful cards and gifts. I will enjoy spending time with my family over the break but will miss your children. Thank you for sharing them with me.
Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, December 21, 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
Newsletter-Donate food and books, Service Club meets on Monday and Thursday after school, Biography Presentation due on Monday, Science Checkpoint #2 due on Wednesday
Hi,
We had a wonderful visit with our pen pals on Dec. 4. We made them beaded candy cane ornaments and created painted ornaments with them. We also played holiday games and discussed our favorite parts of the holidays. We will be seeing them again on January 30. On that day we will be meeting in the art room and participating in the Empty Bowls Project with them. We will all make bowls with Mrs. Arnold that will then be fired and later glazed by us. The bowls will be donated to the Empty Bowl Project and will be available for purchase for $10. When buying a bowl, the buyer gets a bowl of soup from Chili's and other food and drinks donated by restaurants. The money will be donated to the Round Rock Serving Center. The event will take place in April. It is a wonderful opportunity to have a service project within our service project with our pen pals! You are welcome to join us on Wednesday, January 30 at 1:00 in the art room.
On Thursday, we will be having fun with our first grade reading buddies while creating gingerbread houses together. We will meet in the morning and use icing, graham crackers, and candy to transform our empty milk cartons into beautiful sweet holiday homes. We will bring them home on Thursday.
Thank you to Mrs. Schmitz for coming into our classroom to teach us about Hanukkah! She and Rebecca showed us a menorah, read us a book, answered many questions, and even gave us some chocolate gold coins! It was interesting to learn about holidays around the world and the children loved it!
Thursday will be our holiday party at 2:00. Mrs. McCulloch will be sending an email asking for donations. If you don't receive it by Monday pm, let me know so that I can get it to you. As part of our party we will be collecting books for the Round Rock Serving Center. When we went to volunteer there on the first Saturday in December, the book case in the waiting area was almost empty. Luckily we brought donated books from the FCE Literacy Night but we still left with many shelves empty. I walked in with the books and the waiting children came right to me eagerly to gather some books. Hopefully, we will get lots of books from our class to help fill up that book case for the holiday break.
Our class will be having a Secret Santa activity. The children will fill out a form with some of their favorite things and turn it in. Then they will randomly select a form and chose their Secret Pal. They will write complimentary notes to that friend throughout the week and keep their identity a secret. They will bring in a candy bar or a snack for their secret pal on Thursday and we will reveal who had who. I think that this will be a fun, community building activity for our class. If you aren't able to provide a candy bar or snack for the secret pal, let me know. Encourage your child to try to keep the secret until Thursday!
Last week we took Curriculum Based Assessments in Reading, Math, Writing, and Science. Our class worked very hard on all of these assessments and I will be using the data gained to guide instruction in small groups and extension groups after the holidays.
In Reading-we have been working on reading and learning from our biographies. We will be presenting our presentations beginning on Monday. We will be reading and evaluating a short version of The Christmas Carol this week. We will reading to determine character changes, compare and contrast the three spirits, determine a theme or lesson learned, write a summary and evaluate each other's summaries, as well as write about what parts of the story we liked or didn't like and why. We will also be practicing fluency using a readers theater of The Christmas Carol, Miranda's Dream (Christmas Story), and The Miracle of the Candles (Hanukkah story). We will be videotaping our performances on Thursday.
Writing: We will be finishing our revisions and editing of our biography essays this week. They will also be choosing to write holiday poems, holiday essays, personal narratives about the holidays, letters to soldiers and/or pen pals, or holiday fantasy stories. We will be working on some power writing Be sure to encourage your child to email me over the break and/or go to our moodle page and add some posts to several discussions. He/she can also respond to other student's posts. It is a nice way to practice writing as they keep in touch.
Math: Fractions, division, multiplication, and problem solving will be our focus. We will also think about the traditional song The Twelve Days of Christmas and figure out how many items were given over those twelve days.
Science: We conducted some soil experiments last week. We investigated and used our senses to determine the properties of four different soils. We tested for water retention of each soil type by putting soil in pantyhose and suspending the soil/pantyhose in a beaker. We added 200 milliliters of water and subtracted the amount of water that drained through from 200 to determine the amount of water retained in the soil. Then we planted radish seeds in the different soil types and watched what happened each day for five days. We didn't add more water so we made predictions and our hypothesis of which soil would allow the seeds to grow fastest and sustain growth. We will write about our observations on Monday. We will talk a bit more about soil this week.
Social Studies: We learned about three empresarios in Texas-Stephen F. Austin, Martin de Leon, and Green DeWitt. We researched them and took notes. We read letters from people wanting to be accepted into Austin's colony and determined whether Austin should let them come or not and why. We will be talking a bit more about empresarios and then beginning to discuss the Texas Revolution when we return in January.
Dates to remember:
Monday, Dec. 17-Biography Presentations due, Service Club meeting to organize food donations, Bring in more food for our families
Wednesday, Dec. 19-Science Checkpoint #2 is due
Thursday, Dec. 20-Holiday party at 2:00, Bring in gently used books for RR Serving Center, Service Club meets after school with guest speaker (my daughter Blair will be here to talk about our trip to Honduras and help us organize a campus drive for them)
Friday,Dec. 21-Beginning of holiday break-be sure to read at least 150 min. per week, practice math facts and write often
Have a safe and happy holiday! Thank you for sharing your children with me! I love coming to school each day!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a wonderful visit with our pen pals on Dec. 4. We made them beaded candy cane ornaments and created painted ornaments with them. We also played holiday games and discussed our favorite parts of the holidays. We will be seeing them again on January 30. On that day we will be meeting in the art room and participating in the Empty Bowls Project with them. We will all make bowls with Mrs. Arnold that will then be fired and later glazed by us. The bowls will be donated to the Empty Bowl Project and will be available for purchase for $10. When buying a bowl, the buyer gets a bowl of soup from Chili's and other food and drinks donated by restaurants. The money will be donated to the Round Rock Serving Center. The event will take place in April. It is a wonderful opportunity to have a service project within our service project with our pen pals! You are welcome to join us on Wednesday, January 30 at 1:00 in the art room.
On Thursday, we will be having fun with our first grade reading buddies while creating gingerbread houses together. We will meet in the morning and use icing, graham crackers, and candy to transform our empty milk cartons into beautiful sweet holiday homes. We will bring them home on Thursday.
Thank you to Mrs. Schmitz for coming into our classroom to teach us about Hanukkah! She and Rebecca showed us a menorah, read us a book, answered many questions, and even gave us some chocolate gold coins! It was interesting to learn about holidays around the world and the children loved it!
Thursday will be our holiday party at 2:00. Mrs. McCulloch will be sending an email asking for donations. If you don't receive it by Monday pm, let me know so that I can get it to you. As part of our party we will be collecting books for the Round Rock Serving Center. When we went to volunteer there on the first Saturday in December, the book case in the waiting area was almost empty. Luckily we brought donated books from the FCE Literacy Night but we still left with many shelves empty. I walked in with the books and the waiting children came right to me eagerly to gather some books. Hopefully, we will get lots of books from our class to help fill up that book case for the holiday break.
Our class will be having a Secret Santa activity. The children will fill out a form with some of their favorite things and turn it in. Then they will randomly select a form and chose their Secret Pal. They will write complimentary notes to that friend throughout the week and keep their identity a secret. They will bring in a candy bar or a snack for their secret pal on Thursday and we will reveal who had who. I think that this will be a fun, community building activity for our class. If you aren't able to provide a candy bar or snack for the secret pal, let me know. Encourage your child to try to keep the secret until Thursday!
Last week we took Curriculum Based Assessments in Reading, Math, Writing, and Science. Our class worked very hard on all of these assessments and I will be using the data gained to guide instruction in small groups and extension groups after the holidays.
In Reading-we have been working on reading and learning from our biographies. We will be presenting our presentations beginning on Monday. We will be reading and evaluating a short version of The Christmas Carol this week. We will reading to determine character changes, compare and contrast the three spirits, determine a theme or lesson learned, write a summary and evaluate each other's summaries, as well as write about what parts of the story we liked or didn't like and why. We will also be practicing fluency using a readers theater of The Christmas Carol, Miranda's Dream (Christmas Story), and The Miracle of the Candles (Hanukkah story). We will be videotaping our performances on Thursday.
Writing: We will be finishing our revisions and editing of our biography essays this week. They will also be choosing to write holiday poems, holiday essays, personal narratives about the holidays, letters to soldiers and/or pen pals, or holiday fantasy stories. We will be working on some power writing Be sure to encourage your child to email me over the break and/or go to our moodle page and add some posts to several discussions. He/she can also respond to other student's posts. It is a nice way to practice writing as they keep in touch.
Math: Fractions, division, multiplication, and problem solving will be our focus. We will also think about the traditional song The Twelve Days of Christmas and figure out how many items were given over those twelve days.
Science: We conducted some soil experiments last week. We investigated and used our senses to determine the properties of four different soils. We tested for water retention of each soil type by putting soil in pantyhose and suspending the soil/pantyhose in a beaker. We added 200 milliliters of water and subtracted the amount of water that drained through from 200 to determine the amount of water retained in the soil. Then we planted radish seeds in the different soil types and watched what happened each day for five days. We didn't add more water so we made predictions and our hypothesis of which soil would allow the seeds to grow fastest and sustain growth. We will write about our observations on Monday. We will talk a bit more about soil this week.
Social Studies: We learned about three empresarios in Texas-Stephen F. Austin, Martin de Leon, and Green DeWitt. We researched them and took notes. We read letters from people wanting to be accepted into Austin's colony and determined whether Austin should let them come or not and why. We will be talking a bit more about empresarios and then beginning to discuss the Texas Revolution when we return in January.
Dates to remember:
Monday, Dec. 17-Biography Presentations due, Service Club meeting to organize food donations, Bring in more food for our families
Wednesday, Dec. 19-Science Checkpoint #2 is due
Thursday, Dec. 20-Holiday party at 2:00, Bring in gently used books for RR Serving Center, Service Club meets after school with guest speaker (my daughter Blair will be here to talk about our trip to Honduras and help us organize a campus drive for them)
Friday,Dec. 21-Beginning of holiday break-be sure to read at least 150 min. per week, practice math facts and write often
Have a safe and happy holiday! Thank you for sharing your children with me! I love coming to school each day!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, December 10, 2012
FCE Food Drive, Science Checkpoint #1 due Monday, Biography presentations due Monday, Dec. 17
Dear Families,
There are many people in the world who are hungry or having a hard time buying the things they need. Did you know that some of these people live right in our neighborhood? There are lots of reasons why people may be struggling and need a little extra help.
It is hard to pay for all of the things we need and we all could use some assistance sometimes. We would like to help our Forest Creek families who may be having trouble financially this year.
The Service Club is asking you to donate canned food and other food items so that we can make the holidays a little easier for them.
Gift cards are also welcome.
Each grade level has been assigned a type of food,
however, all food will happily be accepted.
Pre K and Kinder - canned fruit, fresh apples and oranges
1st Grade - canned chili, ravioli, or spaghetti, boxed dinners, and macaroni and cheese
2nd Grade - cereal and oatmeal
3rd Grade - canned meat, fish, and peanut butter
4th grade - pasta, rice, and canned soup
5th grade - canned vegetables
Thank you for making someone's holiday a little bit brighter.
The FCE Service Club
There are many people in the world who are hungry or having a hard time buying the things they need. Did you know that some of these people live right in our neighborhood? There are lots of reasons why people may be struggling and need a little extra help.
It is hard to pay for all of the things we need and we all could use some assistance sometimes. We would like to help our Forest Creek families who may be having trouble financially this year.
The Service Club is asking you to donate canned food and other food items so that we can make the holidays a little easier for them.
Gift cards are also welcome.
Each grade level has been assigned a type of food,
however, all food will happily be accepted.
Pre K and Kinder - canned fruit, fresh apples and oranges
1st Grade - canned chili, ravioli, or spaghetti, boxed dinners, and macaroni and cheese
2nd Grade - cereal and oatmeal
3rd Grade - canned meat, fish, and peanut butter
4th grade - pasta, rice, and canned soup
5th grade - canned vegetables
Thank you for making someone's holiday a little bit brighter.
The FCE Service Club
Monday, December 3, 2012
Dates to Remember and Homework for week
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
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
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
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