Friday, December 20, 2013
Happy Holidays! Great Party! Holiday Reading Challenge! Practice Math Facts! Workon Science Projects! Be sure to also enjoy time with family!
Happy Holidays! December 20, 2013
Thank you to Mrs. Fitch, our room mother, for planning an amazing holiday party! Thank you also to all the parents who came today to help! It was wonderful! The children made ornaments, played bingo, decorated cookies, and made holiday cards for children at Dell Children's Hospital. They also ate fruit, veggies, brownie bites, and Rice Krispy treats! Our book exchange was a lot of fun! We chose books one at a time and kids could steal or chose an unopened book. Poor Gavin got his books stolen at least 3 times! He was a great sport and still ended up with a perfect book for him. The kids had a great time with all of our celebrations today! Thank you again!
Thank you also for the wonderful presents! You are all very generous. Thank you for your support and for sharing your children with me.
We began presenting our biography projects today and will continue on Tuesday, January 7. If your child hasn't completed it yet, go to smore.com to finish up. We will begin reading folk tales and other traditional tales in January. We will be discussing character traits (protagonist and antagonist), how characters change in stories, plot with rising action, climax, and resolution, and the impact that the setting (time or place) has on the story. The children will choose a tale to retell to the class.
In writing, we will work on revising and editing our essays on what we want to be when we grow up and why and will begin writing new personal narratives. Talk about small moments that occur during our winter break. Those moments may become your child's next great piece of writing!
In math, we will continue working with fractions and begin working on geometry. Look for problem solving situations over break especially involving fractions, geometry, and multiple steps. Be sure to practice math facts over break. Remember firstinmath.com is a great resource! Your child should be quick with those multiplication and division facts.
In science, we will have fun with some soil explorations. Be sure to continue working on science projects! Check point #3 will be due on Thursday, January 9.
In social studies, we will learn more about explorers in Texas.
Don't forget to record reading minutes on our Holiday Reading Log! 200 minutes is the requirement. Read more and receive prizes!!!!!! Are you up for the challenge?
Have a wonderful holiday break. My husband, daughters, and I are traveling to Philadelphia to see our extended family. We are especially excited to meet our great niece, who is 3 months old, and see our other great niece, who just turned three! Be sure to relax, be safe, and enjoy your time together.
I will miss seeing your child but look forward to a wonderful second part of 4th grade!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Holiday Party tomorrow at 10:00 AM, Homework packets and reading logs are due. Holiday Reading Challenge will come home. Biography presentations begin tomorrow. Read more below.
Hi,
The class has been reading biographies and researching a person. They made flyers on a site called Smore.com. Many of the children have completed their Smore flyer and are ready to present their project tomorrow. (Jacob presented his today and did a great job!) If your child hasn't completed it, or if you want to go over it with them tonight, directions are below to locate it online.
Go to the FCE website, Our Teams, 4th Grade, Pam Bartholomew, Then go to the Bartholomew Bat Cave blog. At the Bat Cave, go to Reading/Writing Links then Smore is the first link.
Log in to Smore using your child's gmail account for the district.
Type s then your child's 6 digit number @student.roundrockisd.org (example: s123456@student.roundrockisd.org)
Password: your child's birthdate using 0, as needed. two digit month, two digit day and four digit year- (example: 01012004)
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks and enjoy! They have worked hard and their flyers look very good!
Have a great day!
The class has been reading biographies and researching a person. They made flyers on a site called Smore.com. Many of the children have completed their Smore flyer and are ready to present their project tomorrow. (Jacob presented his today and did a great job!) If your child hasn't completed it, or if you want to go over it with them tonight, directions are below to locate it online.
Go to the FCE website, Our Teams, 4th Grade, Pam Bartholomew, Then go to the Bartholomew Bat Cave blog. At the Bat Cave, go to Reading/Writing Links then Smore is the first link.
Log in to Smore using your child's gmail account for the district.
Type s then your child's 6 digit number @student.roundrockisd.org (example: s123456@student.roundrockisd.org)
Password: your child's birthdate using 0, as needed. two digit month, two digit day and four digit year- (example: 01012004)
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks and enjoy! They have worked hard and their flyers look very good!
Have a great day!
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi, November 26, 2013
Your children did a wonderful job in the Boogie-O-Rama! Their outfits were groovy, their singing spectacular, and their dancing was awesome! Hats off to all of the children with singing or speaking parts. That can be difficult to perform in front of a lot of people. You were all amazing!
Thank you, Mrs. Dickson, for the beautiful apple pie! We tasted some last night and it tastes as wonderful as it looks. Thank you to everyone who baked or provided pies for our staff. We appreciate it a great deal!
Our school and the FCE Service Club donated 104 toys to OMS and Dell Children's Hospital! We didn't quite reach our goal but that is still A LOT of toys. Great job! The children will love them. We are having a FCE Service Club meeting on Monday, December 2 from 2:45-3:45. All 4th or 5th graders are welcome!
Don't forget that we will have a science test on Electricity, Insulators, and Conductors on Tuesday, December 3. Reading/Math log will be due on Monday, December 2 and Wednesday, December 4 is an early release day.
Encourage your students to go to Stemscopes to practice. (FCE website, For Students-right side, User Name-bartholomew, password-bats). They can also explore some fun Thanksgiving sites and videos on websites linked to our Bartholomew Bat Cave page. (FCE website, Our Staff, 4th grade, Pam Bartholomew, Bartholomew Bat Cave link on left side, social studies links, 2nd two sites listed)
There are tons of fun games and interactives linked to our Bartholomew Bat Cave website. Have fun exploring!
Have a wonderful holiday! See you on Monday!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Your children did a wonderful job in the Boogie-O-Rama! Their outfits were groovy, their singing spectacular, and their dancing was awesome! Hats off to all of the children with singing or speaking parts. That can be difficult to perform in front of a lot of people. You were all amazing!
Thank you, Mrs. Dickson, for the beautiful apple pie! We tasted some last night and it tastes as wonderful as it looks. Thank you to everyone who baked or provided pies for our staff. We appreciate it a great deal!
Our school and the FCE Service Club donated 104 toys to OMS and Dell Children's Hospital! We didn't quite reach our goal but that is still A LOT of toys. Great job! The children will love them. We are having a FCE Service Club meeting on Monday, December 2 from 2:45-3:45. All 4th or 5th graders are welcome!
Don't forget that we will have a science test on Electricity, Insulators, and Conductors on Tuesday, December 3. Reading/Math log will be due on Monday, December 2 and Wednesday, December 4 is an early release day.
Encourage your students to go to Stemscopes to practice. (FCE website, For Students-right side, User Name-bartholomew, password-bats). They can also explore some fun Thanksgiving sites and videos on websites linked to our Bartholomew Bat Cave page. (FCE website, Our Staff, 4th grade, Pam Bartholomew, Bartholomew Bat Cave link on left side, social studies links, 2nd two sites listed)
There are tons of fun games and interactives linked to our Bartholomew Bat Cave website. Have fun exploring!
Have a wonderful holiday! See you on Monday!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Newsletter-Science Test on Monday, Homework packets due, Reading/Math Log Due on Monday, Toy Drive, TAG referrals print on Nov. 18, Literacy Night on Thursday, Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday
Hi, November 15, 2013
We finished our read aloud, Wonder! Ask your child about it. If you haven’t read Wonder, you should. It is a Bluebonnet Book and Round Rock ISD adopted this book as a focus book for the entire district! It is the story of a Auggie, a boy with facial deformities who goes to school for the first time. Each section of the book is told from a different character’s point of view. It deals with the challenges of school, friends, family, bullies, etc… for all the characters but with an emphasis on Auggie and his struggles with his appearance and the way others judge him. The motto of the book is Choose Kind. We had so many good discussions about tolerance, life, choices, and actions while reading this book. It was very powerful and I highly recommend it. Read this quote, which was mentioned at the end of the book.
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” John Wesley
We will begin a new read aloud next week.
Science test on Forms of Energy and Forces will be on Monday. Practice the vocabulary and visit Stemscopes to study. Discuss forms of energy that are used everyday. Discuss forces used in daily life.
Mechanical energy-bike riding, throwing a ball, windmills, anything that moves
Light energy-TV, video games, sun, lamps, computers, anything with light
Heat energy-stove, oven, microwave, sun, lamps, fire, anything that gives heat
Sound energy- musical instruments, radio, TV, anything that uses sound vibrations
Electrical energy-lamp, TV, video games, computer, anything that uses electricity
Push on a swing in an arc, friction makes you slow down on the slide, pull on a rope to climb, etc….
Service Club meets on Monday afterschool. All 4th and 5th graders are welcome! We are still collecting toys for the OMS Toy Drive. We have about 39 new toys so far and our goal is 200. Please consider a new toy donation to give to a child at Dell Children’s Hospital. Crafts, puzzles, figures, legos, Barbies, cars, games, or any new toy would be so appreciated! Thank you!!!!!!!
Literacy Night is on Thursday, November 21 from 5-7. Come and buy Promise Pizza, and enjoy activities from each continent as well as other writing and computer activities. 4th Grade will be hosting Australia! Come see some items from Sydney, read some books, and make a craft. Ballet Folklorico will also perform. Donate a book (or more) and trade it for a New-to-You book to take home. Extra books will be donated to the Round Rock Serving Center.
Thanksgiving Dinner will be served in the cafeteria on Thursday. Our typical lunchtime is 11:55. You are welcome to come and eat with your child.
Green cups all week in the cafeteria! Hooray! We plan on continuing with this behavior!
Read about our week:
Reading-Poetry was our focus. We listened to The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe and used context clues to figure out some tricky words, imagery to visualize the poem, and discussed the mood of this narrative poem. While learning about poetry, we learned about stanzas, line breaks, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, hyperbole, metaphors, similes, and onomatopoeia. We will begin reading biographies this week.
Writing-We wrote poems about Native Texans and experimented writing poems. Shape poems and other poem sites linked to our website were also fun to explore. We will continue writing poems and writing about our biographies.
Math-Multiplication and division strategies are our focus. We will continue to work on graphs, elapsed time, and algebra. We will soon be working on an introduction to fractions.
Science-As mentioned earlier, we are finishing up our study of forms of energy. For the rest of this week, we will explore more with circuits, insulators, and conductors.
Social Studies-We will learn about European explorers in Texas this week.
Have a wonderful weekend! Please let me know of any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We finished our read aloud, Wonder! Ask your child about it. If you haven’t read Wonder, you should. It is a Bluebonnet Book and Round Rock ISD adopted this book as a focus book for the entire district! It is the story of a Auggie, a boy with facial deformities who goes to school for the first time. Each section of the book is told from a different character’s point of view. It deals with the challenges of school, friends, family, bullies, etc… for all the characters but with an emphasis on Auggie and his struggles with his appearance and the way others judge him. The motto of the book is Choose Kind. We had so many good discussions about tolerance, life, choices, and actions while reading this book. It was very powerful and I highly recommend it. Read this quote, which was mentioned at the end of the book.
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” John Wesley
We will begin a new read aloud next week.
Science test on Forms of Energy and Forces will be on Monday. Practice the vocabulary and visit Stemscopes to study. Discuss forms of energy that are used everyday. Discuss forces used in daily life.
Mechanical energy-bike riding, throwing a ball, windmills, anything that moves
Light energy-TV, video games, sun, lamps, computers, anything with light
Heat energy-stove, oven, microwave, sun, lamps, fire, anything that gives heat
Sound energy- musical instruments, radio, TV, anything that uses sound vibrations
Electrical energy-lamp, TV, video games, computer, anything that uses electricity
Push on a swing in an arc, friction makes you slow down on the slide, pull on a rope to climb, etc….
Service Club meets on Monday afterschool. All 4th and 5th graders are welcome! We are still collecting toys for the OMS Toy Drive. We have about 39 new toys so far and our goal is 200. Please consider a new toy donation to give to a child at Dell Children’s Hospital. Crafts, puzzles, figures, legos, Barbies, cars, games, or any new toy would be so appreciated! Thank you!!!!!!!
Literacy Night is on Thursday, November 21 from 5-7. Come and buy Promise Pizza, and enjoy activities from each continent as well as other writing and computer activities. 4th Grade will be hosting Australia! Come see some items from Sydney, read some books, and make a craft. Ballet Folklorico will also perform. Donate a book (or more) and trade it for a New-to-You book to take home. Extra books will be donated to the Round Rock Serving Center.
Thanksgiving Dinner will be served in the cafeteria on Thursday. Our typical lunchtime is 11:55. You are welcome to come and eat with your child.
Green cups all week in the cafeteria! Hooray! We plan on continuing with this behavior!
Read about our week:
Reading-Poetry was our focus. We listened to The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe and used context clues to figure out some tricky words, imagery to visualize the poem, and discussed the mood of this narrative poem. While learning about poetry, we learned about stanzas, line breaks, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, hyperbole, metaphors, similes, and onomatopoeia. We will begin reading biographies this week.
Writing-We wrote poems about Native Texans and experimented writing poems. Shape poems and other poem sites linked to our website were also fun to explore. We will continue writing poems and writing about our biographies.
Math-Multiplication and division strategies are our focus. We will continue to work on graphs, elapsed time, and algebra. We will soon be working on an introduction to fractions.
Science-As mentioned earlier, we are finishing up our study of forms of energy. For the rest of this week, we will explore more with circuits, insulators, and conductors.
Social Studies-We will learn about European explorers in Texas this week.
Have a wonderful weekend! Please let me know of any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Great week! Homework packet and reading/math log due on Monday. Toy Drive-Bring in NEW toys. TAG information metkn
Hi, November 2, 2013
We had a week filled with some Halloween fun and learning. We topped it off with more fun at Movie Night. Thanks PTA!
Reading-We read a lyrical poem called “Enter This Deserted House” by Shel Silverstein. We discussed tricky words and used the context clues to help figure them out. We noticed the rhyme and rhythm, the stanzas, and the line breaks. We wrote about the mood of the poem and the images that the poet created with his words. Then we watched a video with the poem being read and various nature images being shown. We discussed the images used and the way the speaker used his voice to create different moods and emotions. Then…. we watched another video of this poem with different images. This time the images were clips from the movie, Psycho, and there is one surprising part that made the kids scream! We wrote about how the two videos were different even though the poem read was exactly the same and talked about how different people interpret poems (and other things) in completely different ways. Here are the links to the videos. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x587PpF-J1Q and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1I4uaRt6bM
We will continue reading and analyzing poems this week and reading/discussing our book club books.
Writing-We read a model of an personal essay or expository essay and discussed the structure. An essay has a central idea, supporting details, and a conclusion. We brainstormed, planned, and wrote a rough draft about our favorite place. We worked hard to make our introductory paragraph interesting and inviting to the reader. Lots of specific details with sensory words were used in our supporting details paragraphs. We worked hard to be sure that our conclusions tied up the ideas and thoughts, were reflective, and left the author with something on which to think. I met with the children to talk about the strengths of their essay rough draft, and we talked about changes to make to improve their piece. Many are now revising and editing on their own and some kids already finished their final copy. We will finish up our essays at the beginning of the week, then we will work on writing poetry.
Math-Telling time, elapsed time, reading thermometers, figuring out changes in temperatures, and analyzing graphs were all practiced in math this week. We will continue to spiral these concepts all year. Try to work on these skills at home often. We will begin working on multiplication and division with larger numbers this week.
Science-We will be learning about forms of energy this week.
Social Studies-We read about bartering and discussed items that specific tribes from Texas traded and why. We will continue to learn about Native Texans.
Toy Drive
Service Club is having a Toy Drive for children at Dell’s Children’s Hospital and to bring awareness to OMS, a childhood disease that affects the brain and nervous system. A child in our community has this disease and his mother came to talk to us about it at our last Service Club meeting. Please help us help others. Bring in new toys to donate. Our goal is 200 new toys for the hospital.
Honoring Veterans
We are honored to invite and serve current and former military personnel on Monday, November 11, 2013 to celebrate Veterans’ Day. The cafeteria will serve breakfast from 7:15-7:45 to veterans. After, veterans are invited to stay and walk through campus to be greeted by students. Please RSVP to this event to help us as we prepare food and gather visitor badge information. We look forward to seeing you!
If you are a Boy or Girl Scout, please wear your uniform to school on November 11 to help honor the Veterans visiting our campus,
TAG Parent Information Meeting
Learn more about the TAG Program and the referral process. This meeting will be held in the Forest Creek Elementary Library on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 from 5:30-6:00pm. Referrals for students in grades K-5 will be accepted from November 18 through December 6. Please contact Deanna Jezisek (deanna_jezisek@roundrockisd.org) or Julie Washburn (julie_washburn@roundrockisd.org) for additional information or with questions.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 4-Reading/Math Log and homework packet due
Monday, November 4-Service Club Meeting 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, November 5-Reflections Gallery Night-6:00
Wednesday, November 6-Walk to School Day
Thursday, November 7-Family Fun Night at Austin Pizza
Friday, November 8-Spelling/word study test on plurals
Monday, November 11-7:15 Veteran’s Day Breakfast
Thursday, November 14-Fundraiser Pick up 2:00pm
Thursday, November 14-Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in Mrs. Arnold’s Room
Thursday, November 21-Thanksgiving Lunch and Literacy Night
Tuesday, November 26-Groovy-O-Rama at 10:05 for Fourth grade
Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
We had a week filled with some Halloween fun and learning. We topped it off with more fun at Movie Night. Thanks PTA!
Reading-We read a lyrical poem called “Enter This Deserted House” by Shel Silverstein. We discussed tricky words and used the context clues to help figure them out. We noticed the rhyme and rhythm, the stanzas, and the line breaks. We wrote about the mood of the poem and the images that the poet created with his words. Then we watched a video with the poem being read and various nature images being shown. We discussed the images used and the way the speaker used his voice to create different moods and emotions. Then…. we watched another video of this poem with different images. This time the images were clips from the movie, Psycho, and there is one surprising part that made the kids scream! We wrote about how the two videos were different even though the poem read was exactly the same and talked about how different people interpret poems (and other things) in completely different ways. Here are the links to the videos. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x587PpF-J1Q and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1I4uaRt6bM
We will continue reading and analyzing poems this week and reading/discussing our book club books.
Writing-We read a model of an personal essay or expository essay and discussed the structure. An essay has a central idea, supporting details, and a conclusion. We brainstormed, planned, and wrote a rough draft about our favorite place. We worked hard to make our introductory paragraph interesting and inviting to the reader. Lots of specific details with sensory words were used in our supporting details paragraphs. We worked hard to be sure that our conclusions tied up the ideas and thoughts, were reflective, and left the author with something on which to think. I met with the children to talk about the strengths of their essay rough draft, and we talked about changes to make to improve their piece. Many are now revising and editing on their own and some kids already finished their final copy. We will finish up our essays at the beginning of the week, then we will work on writing poetry.
Math-Telling time, elapsed time, reading thermometers, figuring out changes in temperatures, and analyzing graphs were all practiced in math this week. We will continue to spiral these concepts all year. Try to work on these skills at home often. We will begin working on multiplication and division with larger numbers this week.
Science-We will be learning about forms of energy this week.
Social Studies-We read about bartering and discussed items that specific tribes from Texas traded and why. We will continue to learn about Native Texans.
Toy Drive
Service Club is having a Toy Drive for children at Dell’s Children’s Hospital and to bring awareness to OMS, a childhood disease that affects the brain and nervous system. A child in our community has this disease and his mother came to talk to us about it at our last Service Club meeting. Please help us help others. Bring in new toys to donate. Our goal is 200 new toys for the hospital.
Honoring Veterans
We are honored to invite and serve current and former military personnel on Monday, November 11, 2013 to celebrate Veterans’ Day. The cafeteria will serve breakfast from 7:15-7:45 to veterans. After, veterans are invited to stay and walk through campus to be greeted by students. Please RSVP to this event to help us as we prepare food and gather visitor badge information. We look forward to seeing you!
If you are a Boy or Girl Scout, please wear your uniform to school on November 11 to help honor the Veterans visiting our campus,
TAG Parent Information Meeting
Learn more about the TAG Program and the referral process. This meeting will be held in the Forest Creek Elementary Library on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 from 5:30-6:00pm. Referrals for students in grades K-5 will be accepted from November 18 through December 6. Please contact Deanna Jezisek (deanna_jezisek@roundrockisd.org) or Julie Washburn (julie_washburn@roundrockisd.org) for additional information or with questions.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 4-Reading/Math Log and homework packet due
Monday, November 4-Service Club Meeting 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, November 5-Reflections Gallery Night-6:00
Wednesday, November 6-Walk to School Day
Thursday, November 7-Family Fun Night at Austin Pizza
Friday, November 8-Spelling/word study test on plurals
Monday, November 11-7:15 Veteran’s Day Breakfast
Thursday, November 14-Fundraiser Pick up 2:00pm
Thursday, November 14-Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in Mrs. Arnold’s Room
Thursday, November 21-Thanksgiving Lunch and Literacy Night
Tuesday, November 26-Groovy-O-Rama at 10:05 for Fourth grade
Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Friday, October 25, 2013
Great visit by author, Phil Bildner!
October 25, 2013
Hi,
What an exciting day! Learning about writing from Phil Bildner was amazing! He inspired us to put more details in our writing and to work hard to revise, then revise, then revise some more to get our writing to be the best it can be.
The Fire Safety Assembly for the last day of Red Ribbon Week was fun, also! We learned a lot about staying safe, crawling under smoke, and checking our smoke alarms. Congratulations to our essay contest winners! Liam, Jilian, and Matthew all won prizes in our school’s Red Ribbon Week Essay Contest! Yeah!
It was nice to see all of you at conferences. Thank you again for your flexibility.
Read about our week:
Reading: We read Twenty-One Elephants by Phil Bildner and made a story mountain to show the characters, setting, plot, climax, resolution, and theme of the book. New book club books were started and we read about an illness that is killing some bats in our country in our Time for Kids magazine. Next week we will read poetry and learn many poetic terms. We will also continue with our book club reading.
Writing: We took our first writing curriculum based assessment. The children had to practice writing to a personal narrative prompt with a two hour limit. They had to independently plan, draft, revise, edit, and write a final copy. They worked hard. The teachers will use a rubric to score the compositions and we will use the information to plan mini-lessons and make goals to improve writing. Next week we will continue working on writing expository essays and poetry.
Math: Patterns and Algebraic Reasoning has been our focus and the children are doing well looking for patterns and figuring our a rule or equation that supports the pattern. We will continue working with these concepts and will learn about elapsed time, measuring temperature, and bar graphs this week. Practice telling time with an analog clock. This is difficult for many students because there are more digital clocks around then analog, so the children get less practice. Thank you for continuing to work on automaticity of math facts as well.
Science: Our test on Matter was on Thursday. We will review this test on Monday and begin working with forms of energy.
Social Studies: We will continue to learn about the tribes of Texas.
Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Hi,
What an exciting day! Learning about writing from Phil Bildner was amazing! He inspired us to put more details in our writing and to work hard to revise, then revise, then revise some more to get our writing to be the best it can be.
The Fire Safety Assembly for the last day of Red Ribbon Week was fun, also! We learned a lot about staying safe, crawling under smoke, and checking our smoke alarms. Congratulations to our essay contest winners! Liam, Jilian, and Matthew all won prizes in our school’s Red Ribbon Week Essay Contest! Yeah!
It was nice to see all of you at conferences. Thank you again for your flexibility.
Read about our week:
Reading: We read Twenty-One Elephants by Phil Bildner and made a story mountain to show the characters, setting, plot, climax, resolution, and theme of the book. New book club books were started and we read about an illness that is killing some bats in our country in our Time for Kids magazine. Next week we will read poetry and learn many poetic terms. We will also continue with our book club reading.
Writing: We took our first writing curriculum based assessment. The children had to practice writing to a personal narrative prompt with a two hour limit. They had to independently plan, draft, revise, edit, and write a final copy. They worked hard. The teachers will use a rubric to score the compositions and we will use the information to plan mini-lessons and make goals to improve writing. Next week we will continue working on writing expository essays and poetry.
Math: Patterns and Algebraic Reasoning has been our focus and the children are doing well looking for patterns and figuring our a rule or equation that supports the pattern. We will continue working with these concepts and will learn about elapsed time, measuring temperature, and bar graphs this week. Practice telling time with an analog clock. This is difficult for many students because there are more digital clocks around then analog, so the children get less practice. Thank you for continuing to work on automaticity of math facts as well.
Science: Our test on Matter was on Thursday. We will review this test on Monday and begin working with forms of energy.
Social Studies: We will continue to learn about the tribes of Texas.
Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Red Ribbon Week Oct. 21-25, Wear Tie Dye on Monday, Reading/Math Log and Homework Packet due on Monday, Writing Assessment on Wednesday, Science Test on Thursday, Word Study/Spelling test on Friday,Phil Bildner Visit on Friday
Dates to remember:
Monday, October 21-Reading/Math logs due, homework packets due
Monday, October 21-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, October 22-Picture Day
Wednesday, October 23-Writing Assessment
Thursday, October 24-Science Test
Friday, October 25-Word Study/Spelling test
Friday, October 25-Visit with author, Phil Bildner
Thursday, October 31-Writing Club from 2:45-3:45 in Ms. Arnold's Room
Friday, November 1-Movie Night, The Croods, at 7:30-bring canned food
October 19, 2013
Hi,
We have a new student! We are excited to welcome Madison to our bat cave! She comes to us from Oklahoma and has been a wonderful addition to our classroom!
Thank you for your flexibility with the rescheduling of our conferences. The kids also did well, overall, with two different substitutes. I was very excited to be back with everyone!
Next week is Red Ribbon Week! We have a theme for each day.
Monday-Say Peace Out to Drugs-wear tie dye
Tuesday-I Picture Myself Without Drugs-wear your school picture clothes
Wednesday-Say Yes to a Healthy Heart and Body-wear anything and everything RED
Thursday-Too Cool for Drugs-wear sunglasses
Friday-Sock it to Drugs-wear crazy socks
Also on Friday, we will have a Red Ribbon Week assembly. We will be working on essays for the Red Ribbon Week Essay contest on Monday and Tuesday.
Phil Bildner will be at our school! He is the author of several picture books including The Hallelujah Flight, Twenty-One Elephants, Turkey Bowl, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He will be conducting a writing workshop with all of our fourth grade classes. He is a very dynamic and interesting speaker and the children will learn a lot from him while having a great time. Order forms for his books will be coming home on Monday. He will sign the books bought as well. You can learn more about Phil Bildner by going to his site: http://philbildner.com
Service Club will be meeting on Monday, October 21, 2013 from 2:45-3:45 in our classroom. We will have a guest speaker come to teach us about a childhood illness called OMS and how we can help with a toy drive to support research.
Writing Assessment on Wednesday. All of the fourth graders will be writing to a prompt provided by our district. The children will be independently drafting, revising, editing, and writing their final composition on lined paper. This is to help prepare them for the STAAR testing that will be done in the spring and help us determine strengths and things to work on to improve their writing. Please be sure that your child is in school on time on Wednesday for testing from about 8:00-10:00.
Read about our week:
Reading-We are reading expository text. We ask questions, make inferences, make predictions, make connections, and summarize. We use evidence from the text to prove our answers and support our thinking. We read about the government shutdown in our Time For Kids magazine this week. We will be reading about smoking, drugs, and alcohol from our health book this week to coordinate with Red Ribbon Week. We will also begin new book club books.
Writing-We learned about truisms and how we can use them to inspire and/or conclude our writing. A truism is a statement that is true or the author believes to be true. Friends are an important part of my life. After a storm, a rainbow appears. Life can be unfair. Winter is the best season. All of these sentences are examples of truisms and we practiced putting truisms into our writing. We will work on essays for Red Ribbon Week, finish up our Reflections writing, and gather more entries for essays this week. We will also practice using were/where correctly and words and learn about words with the following word parts- therm (thermometer, thermal), cent (centimeter, centennial), sci (science, scientist), and meter (millimeter, centimeter, kilometer, meter stick) and continue to use correct capitalization and punctuation in all of our writing in all subjects.
Math-We are continuing looking for patterns and using algebraic reasoning. The class is doing very well looking at a pattern and determining a rule for that pattern. We will be applying these concepts into some challenging word problems this week. As always we will continue to work on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts.
Science-We are finishing up learning about matter, changes in matter, and mixtures and solutions. We will have a test on Thursday on these concepts. I will send a study guide by email this week end and also suggest encouraging your child to go to Stemscopes to practice the concepts covered. Stemscopes includes websites, games, interactive virtual investigations, vocabulary, and science rock songs. Go to stemscopes from the Forest Creek website. Go to the For Students link on the right side. Then to stemscopes. User name: Bartholomew. Password: bats. Review the activities related to Classifying Matter, Changes from Heat, and Mixtures and Solutions.
Social Studies-We will continue learning about the tribes of Texas this week.
Have a wonderful weekend. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Monday, October 21-Reading/Math logs due, homework packets due
Monday, October 21-Service Club Meeting from 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, October 22-Picture Day
Wednesday, October 23-Writing Assessment
Thursday, October 24-Science Test
Friday, October 25-Word Study/Spelling test
Friday, October 25-Visit with author, Phil Bildner
Thursday, October 31-Writing Club from 2:45-3:45 in Ms. Arnold's Room
Friday, November 1-Movie Night, The Croods, at 7:30-bring canned food
October 19, 2013
Hi,
We have a new student! We are excited to welcome Madison to our bat cave! She comes to us from Oklahoma and has been a wonderful addition to our classroom!
Thank you for your flexibility with the rescheduling of our conferences. The kids also did well, overall, with two different substitutes. I was very excited to be back with everyone!
Next week is Red Ribbon Week! We have a theme for each day.
Monday-Say Peace Out to Drugs-wear tie dye
Tuesday-I Picture Myself Without Drugs-wear your school picture clothes
Wednesday-Say Yes to a Healthy Heart and Body-wear anything and everything RED
Thursday-Too Cool for Drugs-wear sunglasses
Friday-Sock it to Drugs-wear crazy socks
Also on Friday, we will have a Red Ribbon Week assembly. We will be working on essays for the Red Ribbon Week Essay contest on Monday and Tuesday.
Phil Bildner will be at our school! He is the author of several picture books including The Hallelujah Flight, Twenty-One Elephants, Turkey Bowl, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He will be conducting a writing workshop with all of our fourth grade classes. He is a very dynamic and interesting speaker and the children will learn a lot from him while having a great time. Order forms for his books will be coming home on Monday. He will sign the books bought as well. You can learn more about Phil Bildner by going to his site: http://philbildner.com
Service Club will be meeting on Monday, October 21, 2013 from 2:45-3:45 in our classroom. We will have a guest speaker come to teach us about a childhood illness called OMS and how we can help with a toy drive to support research.
Writing Assessment on Wednesday. All of the fourth graders will be writing to a prompt provided by our district. The children will be independently drafting, revising, editing, and writing their final composition on lined paper. This is to help prepare them for the STAAR testing that will be done in the spring and help us determine strengths and things to work on to improve their writing. Please be sure that your child is in school on time on Wednesday for testing from about 8:00-10:00.
Read about our week:
Reading-We are reading expository text. We ask questions, make inferences, make predictions, make connections, and summarize. We use evidence from the text to prove our answers and support our thinking. We read about the government shutdown in our Time For Kids magazine this week. We will be reading about smoking, drugs, and alcohol from our health book this week to coordinate with Red Ribbon Week. We will also begin new book club books.
Writing-We learned about truisms and how we can use them to inspire and/or conclude our writing. A truism is a statement that is true or the author believes to be true. Friends are an important part of my life. After a storm, a rainbow appears. Life can be unfair. Winter is the best season. All of these sentences are examples of truisms and we practiced putting truisms into our writing. We will work on essays for Red Ribbon Week, finish up our Reflections writing, and gather more entries for essays this week. We will also practice using were/where correctly and words and learn about words with the following word parts- therm (thermometer, thermal), cent (centimeter, centennial), sci (science, scientist), and meter (millimeter, centimeter, kilometer, meter stick) and continue to use correct capitalization and punctuation in all of our writing in all subjects.
Math-We are continuing looking for patterns and using algebraic reasoning. The class is doing very well looking at a pattern and determining a rule for that pattern. We will be applying these concepts into some challenging word problems this week. As always we will continue to work on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts.
Science-We are finishing up learning about matter, changes in matter, and mixtures and solutions. We will have a test on Thursday on these concepts. I will send a study guide by email this week end and also suggest encouraging your child to go to Stemscopes to practice the concepts covered. Stemscopes includes websites, games, interactive virtual investigations, vocabulary, and science rock songs. Go to stemscopes from the Forest Creek website. Go to the For Students link on the right side. Then to stemscopes. User name: Bartholomew. Password: bats. Review the activities related to Classifying Matter, Changes from Heat, and Mixtures and Solutions.
Social Studies-We will continue learning about the tribes of Texas this week.
Have a wonderful weekend. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
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