Newsletter

Hi,

We had a great week and I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend.

Science Fair-The science projects looked amazing.  The projects in the fair from all grade levels were great and we have many projects going onto Regionals!  Nice job, Jack M.! Good luck at Regionals!

Science and Math Night was a lot of fun and was filled with great learning activities. Thank you to all who attended!

Monthly Reading Challenge: Our monthly reading challenge was to read three Traditional Literature books and write about them.  (fairy tales, tall tales, fables, myths, trickster tales, etc...) Many of the students already did this in class and will be coming to our lunch in the classroom on Wednesday.  

Let's read about our week:

Reading-We are finishing up our study of Traditional Tales and will begin reading more non-fiction.  We will read book club books and articles that deal with Civil Rights and will discuss our responsibility to treat others with respect, especially people who are different than us.

Writing-We are finishing up our personal narrative writing and will celebrate our published pieces on Tuesday!  We will then write more expository pieces and continue to apply our grammar/punctuation study to our writing and add specific details and examples to make our opinions stronger.

Grammar-This week we will continue our study of strengthening sentences by combining them and using openers to enhance meaning.  We will also look at correct ways to punctuate these sentences and which ways make our thoughts clear to the reader. Tell your child when you read and find an amazing sentence.  Talk about what makes a sentence effective and clear and different ways to rearrange a sentence and still keep the same complete thought.  This could be a fun car game while driving to practice or appointments!!!! 

Spelling-Last week we changed adjectives to adverbs by adding ly. This week we will continue to do this but the adjectives that we are studying end in consonant y and the y needs to be changed to an i before adding ly. We will also have individual words.  Talk to your child about patterns in the words as you are studying spelling.

Social Studies-We are learning about Stephen F. Austin and the Old Three Hundred, who were the first people to settle with Austin in Texas.  We will pretend that we are Stephen F. Austin and will read letters from potential colonists and evaluate them to decide whether they would be an asset to our colony.  We will also begin talking about Santa Anna's dictatorship.

Monday, Jan. 30-College Shirt Day- Writing Club after school 2:50-3:50

Friday, Feb. 3-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear RED.

Saturday, Feb. 4-Volunteer at the RR Serving Center from 9-10:30

Monday, Feb. 6-College Shirt Day- Service Club after school 2:50-3:50

Tuesday, Feb. 7-PTA General Meeting at 9:00 am

Friday, Feb. 10-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Saturday, Feb. 11- UIL District Event-Go FCE!

Monday, Feb. 13-College Shirt Day- Writing Club after school 2:50-3:50

Tuesday, Feb. 14-Mentor Visit at 9:15 am, Valentine Party at 1:00

Thursday, Feb. 16-Jump Rope for Heart

Friday, Feb. 17--Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, Feb. 20-No school for students

Wednesday, Feb. 22-Group and Spring Photos

Thursday, Feb. 23-Student Art and Frame sale

Friday, Feb. 24--Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Hope you had a great weekend!  Thank you for sharing your child with me.  Let me know if you have any concerns.

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Hi,

Our Walk to Read Event went very well on Friday!  The entire school walked around the track then stopped and read together.  It was amazing to see ALL of the students reading together!  We collected LOTS of books and money.  The Service Club is meeting on Monday afternoon to count everything.  We will let you know the results.  Thank you to all who donated and to the fourth graders for all their hard work.  Trudy Marshall was amazed and very appreciative.  She took photos to show the children in Africa.

Talent Show was another success.  Our students have many, many gifts and talents!  It takes bravery to get up in front of an audience and the kids did very well.

Our Regional UIL Event was on Saturday and our teams did very well.  FCE won our division!  More results will come soon!  Be sure to consider trying out for one of our UIL teams next year.  It is a great experience! We now move on to our District UIL competition on Feb. 11.

Read about our week:

Reading-We will continue to analyze traditional tales.  This week we will focus on the book One Grain of Rice by Demi and a tall tale called Stormalong.  We will also read and discuss some tales in small groups. Next week, we will read about Ruby Bridges and Brown vs. the Board of Education.  We will begin reading historical fiction book club books that deal with civil rights.  We have an ongoing theme of treating others with respect and talked about that topic in social studies as we discussed Native Americans. Later in the year, we will read historical fiction novels set during World War II and continue the discussion about respecting the differences of others.

Writing-We will continue with personal narrative writing and will work hard to draft, revise, edit, and publish personal narratives by Friday.

Grammar-Noticing subordinating conjunctions in mentor sentences and in our reading, then writing using these will be our focus this week.  Subordinating conjunctions are words like although, after, as, when, while, unless, before, because, if, and since.  They can be used at the beginning of a sentence as part of a dependent clause and require a comma, and a complete sentence to make a correct sentence.  Example: Because the science projects are due tomorrow, students were working hard to finish them.  They can also be used after an independent clause to make a complex sentence then won't need a comma.  Students were working hard to finish them because the science projects are due tomorrow.  We will work on this topic for a long time to understand and then apply it effectively. We will also continue to work on run on sentences, combining sentences, and dialogue.

Spelling-This week we will work on adding -ly to an adjective to make it an adverb. quick-quickly, The students will also have individual words.

Social Studies-We will finish our PBL projects on a topic of the student's choice that inspired them after watching the On the Way to School Documentary.  We will present them on Wednesday.  You are welcome to come and enjoy the presentations.  They will begin at 9:30 on Wednesday in our classroom.

Dates to Remember:

Monday, Jan. 23-Book Fair all week! College Shirt Day.

Wednesday, Jan. 25-PBL project presentations at 9:30 am, Family Fun Night at Chick Fil A

Thursday, Jan. 26-Math/Science Night 5-7 pm

Friday, Jan. 27-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, Jan. 30-College Shirt Day- Writing Club after school 2:50-3:50

Friday, Feb. 3-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear RED.

Saturday, Feb. 4-Volunteer at the RR Serving Center from 9-10:30

Monday, Feb. 6-College Shirt Day- Service Club after school 2:50-3:50

Tuesday, Feb. 7-PTA General Meeting at 9:00 am

Friday, Feb. 10-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Saturday, Feb. 11- UIL District Event-Go FCE!

Monday, Feb. 13-College Shirt Day- Writing Club after school 2:50-3:50

Tuesday, Feb. 14-Mentor Visit at 9:15 am, Valentine Party at 1:00

Thursday, Feb. 16-Jump Rope for Heart

Friday, Feb. 17--Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, Feb. 20-No school for students

Wednesday, Feb. 22-Group and Spring Photos

Thursday, Feb. 23-Student Art and Frame sale

Friday, Feb. 24--Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Hope you had a great weekend!  Thank you for sharing your child with me.  Let me know if you have any concerns.

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Happy MLK Day!

Our week was busy, but fun as we worked hard researching for our PBL projects. We learned about Libraries of Love and watched On the Way to School. Students then chose their area of research and a format for presenting the information to others. Some students are researching clean water around the world, while others are learning about education in Africa and other countries.  Some students are learning more about Malala, who continues to fight for education for all, and others are researching a country such as Uganda or Kenya.  All the students are very curious and are asking great questions to learn more.  Most of the students are working collaboratively with others to learn about their topic and to create a presentation.  I am very impressed with their work.

Because of the threat of bad weather, our Walk to Read Event was rescheduled for Friday, January 20 at 1:15.  Our fourth graders are working on a video broadcast for the school which will be aired at 1:15.  Fourth grade helpers will be assigned to each classroom and after the video, we will all head out to the track to simulate the long walk that many children around the world need to take to get to school.  Each child will walk while holding a hard cover book (new or gently used).  Our goal is to have each child bring in a book to donate to Libraries of Love.  (If someone doesn't have a book to donate, the person will still bring a book outside for the walk, but won't turn it in for donation. ) We will walk around the course set up on the playground/track until 1:55.  Then at the sound of the whistles, we will all stop and read for about five minutes.  At the next whistle sound, we will walk back to class and leave the books for donation outside of the classroom for fourth graders to pick up.  It will be a great event and we need some volunteers to help guide the walkers.  Families are welcome to come and walk with their child's class also.  We need more volunteers to stand in the field and guide classes.  Let me know if you are able to volunteer or sign up with the WatchDogs.

Envelopes for Libraries of Love were sent home for monetary donations as well.  If you would like to donate cash or checks, please put donations in the envelope and return them to your teacher by Tuesday, January 24.  Thank you in advance for your support of this project.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Read about our week:

Reading-We are continuing to learn about traditional literature and are having mini-book club groups to discuss a summary, character changes, and the theme or lesson of the traditional book read.  

Writing-We are reviewing expository writing and will take the STAAR Ready Writing Test on Wednesday.  This is the released 2016 STAAR test and we will use it to gather data for future writing instruction.  We will determine each students strengths and areas that need further work.  We will also work on strengthening our writing of narratives.

Social Studies-We are using SS time to work on our PBL projects and will hopefully finish these up this week. We will let you know when we will have a day to present our projects.  We would love to have you come and watch our presentations.  We will resume our study of Texas history soon.

Spelling-We studied words with the Greek roots-bio, auto, graph, and ology.  This week we will study number prefixes-mono, bi, tri.  We will also have lots of independent words. Be sure to study and work on applying correct spelling to writing.

Grammar-We will continue to work on stopping the run on sentences and focus on ways to punctuate dialogue correctly.

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, Jan.17-Bring in your Libraries of Love Donation Envelopes and books for donation.

Friday, Jan. 20-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green. Walk to Read Event at 1:15-Donate gently used or new hard back books and /or money for Libraries of Love.  FCE Talent Show at 6:00 pm-Book Fair will be open in the evening!

Saturday, Jan. 21-UIL Event at Terravista-Go FCE!

Monday, Jan. 23-Book Fair all week! College Shirt Day.

Wednesday, Jan. 25-Family Fun Night at Chick Fil A

Thursday, Jan. 26-Math/Science Night 5-7 pm

Friday, Jan. 27-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Have a great evening!  Thank you for sharing your child with me.  Let me know if you have any concerns.

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Happy New Year!

We had a great week back to school and welcomed 2017 as we welcomed Miss Annie Moellenberg!  Mrs. Moellenberg had her baby on Friday and everyone is doing well. Mrs. Tennyson, who is our long-term substitute until Mrs. Moellenberg returns was able to come to FCE on Friday.  We miss Mrs. Moe, but we are so happy to have Mrs. Tennyson here with us.

Walk to Read/Libraries of Love Project Based Learning (PBL) project-The fourth graders are working on a few projects to benefit Libraries of Love in Africa.  They kicked off their learning this week by watching a document called On the Way to School.  This documentary showed the challenges that four kids from around the world face on their way to school.  A boy from Africa, a girl from Morocco, a boy from Argentina, and a boy from India all walked many hours to be able to get an education. After watching the documentary and learning more about Libraries of Love, we wrote persuasive paragraphs to encourage people to donate books and money and included reasons why this is an important organization.  Next we discussed and thought about the documentary and Libraries of Love. We then brainstormed questions and topics to research for a project and presentation. This week we will finish up the revising and editing of our paragraphs and put some of our paragraphs on broadcast and many on posters. Then we will begin researching topics of our choice inspired by the movie. We will use our research to create projects and then will present the information to others. 

Our Walk to Read Event is scheduled for Friday, January 13 at 1:15.  (Hopefully, the weather will hold out.  If it is raining, we will reschedule for Friday, January 20.) Our fourth graders are working on a video broadcast for the school which will be aired at 1:15.  Fourth grade helpers will be assigned to each classroom and after the video, we will all head out to the track to simulate the long walk that many children around the world need to take to get to school.  Each child will walk while holding a hard cover book (new or gently used).  Our goal is to have each child bring in a book to donate to Libraries of Love.  (If someone doesn't have a book to donate, the person will still bring a book outside for the walk, but won't turn it in for donation. ) We will walk around the course set up on the playground/track until 1:55.  Then at the sound of the whistles, we will all stop and read for about five minutes.  At the next whistle sound, we will walk back to class and leave the books for donation outside of the classroom for fourth graders to pick up.  It will be a great event and we need some volunteers to help guide the walkers.  Families are welcome to come and walk with their child's class also.  Let me know if you are able to volunteer or sign up with the WatchDogs.

Envelopes for Libraries of Love were sent home on Friday for monetary donations as well.  If you would like to donate cash or checks, please put donations in the envelope and return them to your teacher by Tuesday, January 17.  Thank you in advance for your support of this project.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Read about our week:

Reading-Students did a great job reading over the winter break and logging their minutes.  Very impressive and great effort!  We are learning about traditional literature and read a reader's theater about a trickster called Sticky Coyote.  We also are reading and writing about Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude. While reading traditional literature, we are analyzing characters and character changes as well as working on summarizing.  We will examine themes also and use text evidence to prove our thinking.

Writing-We are working on writing persuasive paragraphs and using examples with specific details to support our reasons which support our central idea or claim.  Strong conclusions also are important to influence our readers and help to call them to action.

Social Studies-We read and discussed the roles of some tribes like the Comanche and Apache in the missions and will begin talking about Moses and Stephen F. Austin. We will also use some of our social studies time to work on our PBL Walk to Read/Libraries of Love projects.

Spelling-Last week we practiced homophones and will continue to tackle the challenge of which there, its, too, and your to use when writing. We took a spelling inventory last week to track our progress in word study. We will work on individual words based on our progress and will, as a class, work on words with the Greek roots-bio and graph (ex. biography, biology, autograph).  Bio means life and graph means to write.

Grammar-We will continue to work on stopping the run on sentences and focus on ways to punctuate dialogue correctly.

Dates to Remember:

Monday, Jan. 9-College Shirt Day,  Service Club 2:50-3:50 pm, Science Checkpoint 4 due

Tuesday, Jan. 10-PTA General Meeting at 3:15

 

Thursday, Jan. 12-Don't forget to bring in a new or gently used hard cover book to donate and turn in your Libraries of Love donation envelope by Tuesday. Report Cards go home.

Friday, Jan. 13-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test, Walk to Read Event at 1:15, Wear FCE shirts or purples and green. Science Fair Registration Packets are due. Talent Show auditions from 3-7.

Monday, Jan. 16-MLK Day-No School

Tuesday, Jan.17-Special Service Club Meeting from 2:50-3:50

Bring in your Libraries of Love Donation Envelopes.

Friday, Jan. 20-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Wear FCE shirts or purples and green. FCE Talent Show at 6:00 pm

Saturday, Jan. 21-UIL Event at Terravista-Go FCE!

Have a great weekend!  Thank you for sharing your child with me.  Let me know if you have any concerns.

Sincerely,

Pam

Happy New Year! Reading logs due on Tuesday!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that you enjoyed time with family and friends.  I hope you also had fun reading over the break.  I can't wait to hear about your adventures and hear about the books that you read.

Be sure to record your reading on a reading log (either the holiday log or other paper). Be sure that you read at least 200 minutes and have a parent/guardian signature. Reading logs are due on Tuesday.  Make sure to write a notecard for finished books to include them for your 40 Book Challenge.

On Tuesday, everyone will reflect on their beginning of the year goals and their progress so far, and will revise goals, if needed, and write some action steps to get to where we need to be.  It is hard to believe that we are halfway through our fourth grade year.  We need to refocus and keep our efforts high to be sure that we continue to learn and grow everyday.  

See you on Tuesday with goals in mind and reading logs in hand!  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns and happy 2017!

Sincerely,

Pam 

Holiday Reading Log

Hi,

I hope everyone is enjoying the winter break.  Thank you to Mrs. Alexander and all who helped and donated for our Holiday Party.  We had a wonderful time with lots of food and fun! Thanks to everyone.

Winter Break Reading Log

All students should be excited and motivated to read everyday.  Be sure to talk to your child about what they are reading.  Read together and share your thoughts and analysis about the book.  Talk to them about books and articles that you read and encourage him/her to discuss their reading with you.  Each student needs to read at least 200 minutes over the winter holiday.  We will be out of school for 18 days, so that makes about 11 minutes a day.  (Ideally, they should read about 30 minutes a day). The students that read 200 minutes and bring in a signed reading log (or piece of paper with minutes read and a parent's signature) will get to pick a prize.  However, the prize is not important.  Here are some articles about reading at home. 

 http://www.scilearn.com/sites/default/files/imported/alldocs/rsrch/30388RAExtra10min.pdf , 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/opinion/patterson-kids-reading/, 

https://phoenixacademyomaha.org/read-for-20-minutes-each-day/, 

http://www.pennykittle.net/uploads/images/PDFs/Reports/why-cant-I-skip-reading.pdf

   

My goal is for the students to read a lot at their level (a little challenging but still able to be done independently), and discuss books and their reading with family and friends.  We will set up Google Classroom on Monday, so the kids can write about their reading online and share their thinking with classmates.  My ultimate goal is for all the students to love to read and to be motivated to read independently.  Thank you for modeling and encouraging reading at home. Thank you for taking time to talk to your child about books and reading and to make reading a focus in your family.  I am so excited to read about their reading and share my own reading as well.  Happy Reading!

Enjoy!  

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Hi,

I hope you are staying warm and enjoying some family time this weekend.We have a busy, fun week, but will still be working hard and learning a lot.

Gingerbread Houses with 1st Grade Reading Buddies

We will make gingerbread houses (graham crackers on milk cartons) with our first grade buddies on Monday morning.  We love reading with our buddies each week and are looking forward to making houses together.

Mentor Visit

Our mentors from The Court at Round Rock Assisted Living Facility will come on Tuesday from 9:15-10:30.  We will interview them about traditions and their celebrations in December and will play games together.  We learn a lot about the past from our mentors and enjoy spending time with them.

Biography December Monthly Challenge Lunch Treat

On Wednesday we will have lunch in the classroom and have a treat to celebrate those students who read and wrote a notecard about a biography in December.  We will talk about biographies and discuss our books with each other as we eat and enjoy a little treat.  The biography notecards are due on Tuesday.

Holiday Party 

Our holiday party will be on Thursday, Dec. 15 at 1:00 in our classroom.  Thank you to Mrs. Alexander who is organizing our party and all families who donated items or signed up to donate.  Here is the link to sign up.  

https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/60b054ea4a923aa8-holiday/276422

Literacy Night-Passport for Adventure

Thank you to all the families who were able to attend our Literacy Night.  There were amazing projects from each continent and tables with displays from different countries. Our fourth graders did a great job on projects from Asia.  Our Fun Friday play group performed some folk tales from Asian countries and our Fun Friday Japanese Art group created some wonderful drawings and writing.  The reading classes read folktales and/or researched countries in Asia and created slide shows, Prezi presentations, and posters.  These projects help us understand different cultural practices and help us appreciate and celebrate our similarities and differences.  We learned a lot and they did a super job.  

Libraries of Love-Book Drive for Africa

Our Libraries of Love Book Drive is on!  We will collect donations of new or gently used HARD COVER books that will go to Africa for the children. This year, we are helping Libraries of Love build 7 new libraries in the Maasai Country in Kenya.  We are so excited to be part of this project. Our school will have a Walk to Read Event on Friday, Jan. 13 at 1:15 and will collect more books and donations until that day.  Learn more at  https://librariesoflove.org/.  Clean out your bookshelves and donate books for a great cause.  Our goal is for each child to donate one gently used or new hard cover book for Libraries of Love.  Spread the word and help us out. Thank you in advance for your support.

Winter Break Reading Log

All students should be excited and motivated to read everyday.  Be sure to talk to your child about what they are reading.  Read together and share your thoughts and analysis about the book.  Talk to them about books and articles that you read and encourage him/her to discuss their reading with you.  Each student needs to read at least 200 minutes over the winter holiday.  We will be out of school for 18 days, so that makes about 11 minutes a day.  (Ideally, they should read about 30 minutes a day). The students that read 200 minutes and bring in a signed reading log (or piece of paper with minutes read and a parent's signature) will get to pick a prize.  However, the prize is not important.  Here are some articles about reading at home.  http://www.scilearn.com/sites/default/files/imported/alldocs/rsrch/30388RAExtra10min.pdf , http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/opinion/patterson-kids-reading/, https://phoenixacademyomaha.org/read-for-20-minutes-each-day/, http://www.pennykittle.net/uploads/images/PDFs/Reports/why-cant-I-skip-reading.pdf

   

My goal is for the students to read a lot at their level (a little challenging but still able to be done independently), and discuss books and their reading with family and friends.  We will set up Google Classroom on Monday, so the kids can write about their reading online and share their thinking with classmates.  My ultimate goal is for all the students to love to read and to be motivated to read independently.  Thank you for modeling and encouraging reading at home.  Thank you for taking time to talk to your child about books and reading and to make reading a focus in your family.  I am so excited to read about their reading and share my own reading as well.  Happy Reading!

Here is a link to the Coyote Call Newsletter from this week.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y4kI3Jci1Tg7wO1PzUd2uKaEUwRfr3kkFCscJUmkFh0/edit

Read about our week:

Reading-We are finishing up our study of biography and will take a reading DCA on biography on Wednesday.  Reading Response letters are due on Thursday this week.

Writing-We will continue to write expository pieces this week and work on organization and elaborating.  We are working on our own individual writing goals to improve the effectiveness of our writing.

Spelling-We won't have a spelling test this week, but will continue to review homophones, plurals, possessives, contractions, and words with silent letters.

Grammar-Run on sentences will be a focus this week (and most weeks).  We will work on ways to correct and stop the run on.

Social Studies-We will learn more about missions and analyze the impact (positive and negative) that missions in Texas had on Native Americans and on the settling of Texas. We will also share our Asia projects.

Dates to Remember:

Monday, Dec. 12-College Shirt Day, Gingerbread Houses with Reading Buddies, Service Club 2:50-3:50 pm

Tuesday, Dec. 13-Mentors will visit from 9:15-10:35. Turn in cards for Biography Monthly Challenge

Wednesday, Dec. 14-Monthly Challenge Treat at lunch time-Biography 

Thursday, Dec. 15-Winter Party for fourth grade at 1:00 pm in classrooms, Homework packets due. Reading Response Letters due, NO SPELLING TEST 

Friday, Dec. 16-Winter Break begins-Winter Break Reading Contest!

Tuesday, Jan. 3-Welcome back to school! Be safe, enjoy time with family and friends, and read everyday!  Winter Break Reading Logs (200 minutes, signed by parent) due for grade.

Have a great weekend!  Thank you for sharing your child with me.  Let me know if you have any concerns.

Sincerely,

Pam