Newsletter

Hi,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Writing STAAR Test- Tuesday, March 28 is the big day!  Be sure to help your child realize that this is a great opportunity for them to show their best.  There will be free breakfast on testing day.  The kids will need a book to read, and some neat, nutritious snacks (no juicy or messy fingers, please).  Our lunch will be later than usual so that we can get in our testing time without interruptions.  Please send a few extra snacks with your child to help them have energy to do their best.  Encourage your child to take breaks as needed.  They can put their head down for a few minutes, go to the bathroom, and/or get a drink to help refocus.  Let me know if you have any questions.  The kids have been working so hard and their best effort on testing day will bring them success!

Writing Camp!- We had a wonderful time at Writing Camp.  Each child published TWO expository essays!  

One essay was about something that they are looking forward to doing and reasons why they want to do that.  We had some kids that wanted to be basketball or baseball players, inventors, authors, bakers, and architects.  We also had some that wrote about traveling to Paris, Israel or Europe and Asia. One student couldn't wait to go hunting with Dad again.    

The other essay was a description of a favorite place and explanations why that place is special to them.  Some of our special places were Grandma's house, the living room, the kitchen,the bedroom, their bed, a fort behind the couch, outside with friends, outside in a tree, and the whole house.  Others like going to Idaho, the gym, and Dad's shop. One student wrote about her writer's notebook as her favorite place.  

We worked together to revise and edit and be sure that each expository had specific details to explain what they wanted to do and why.  We worked on exciting leads, engaging transitions that help make the essay flow and are interesting, and strong conclusions that leave the reader thinking.

Writing Camp was about practicing all of our strategies to make our essays the best they can be.  We also practice some spelling and revising and editing with lots of fun games and some passages. However, Writing Camp also had some catchy songs.  Ask your child to sing Camp Write Along, Write, Write Baby, and That Writing Feeling!  I had a great time with your children during writing camp and was impressed with their hard work.  

Look for their orange camp writing folder in their backpacks on Monday.  Review this with them and ask them to explain some of their strategies.  I will also send home copies of their writing from Writing Camp.  Enjoy and thank you for one last review.  

Monthly Reading Challenge for March-Read a book with at least 300 pages!  We are working on our stamina, so our March challenge is to read a book with at least 300 pages. This will count as 2 books on our 40 book challenge.  Notecards for the March Challenge are due on Friday.  We will have a special treat at lunchtime on Monday, April 3. Happy Reading!!!!  

Read about our week:

Reading-Tolerance and respect for all people is a big focus in our class.  We discussed this in social studies when studying the Native Americans and in reading while learning about civil rights. During the next few weeks, we will begin using historical fiction and informational books to learn about WWII.  We will read aloud Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and will discuss the mistreatment of the Jewish people.  We will read many picture books about the Holocaust.  We will learn about Pearl Harbor and the Japanese Internment Camps.  We will also learn about the Navajo Code Talkers.  We use literature to talk about history because it helps us to see the events from the character's point of view.  The goal is for the students to work to stop discrimination of people based on the way they look or their religion and to be respectful and kind to others.

Writing-We will review and take our Writing STAAR test. Then we will work on some poetry, personal narratives, and fantasy stories.  We will decide on pieces that we want to submit for the Rising Star book.  

Spelling-We will review words that are commonly misspelled as well as individual words that are tricky for us.  We will have a test on Friday.

Social Studies-We will work in groups to create an original battle flag for the Texas Revolution and will make a flip book with events from the revolution.  We will start our Texas heroes research by the end of the week, but they won't be due for a few weeks.

Dates to remember:

Monday, March 27-Wear college shirts. Writing Club 2:50-3:50. Bring in food for our food drive.

Tuesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Test

Friday, March 31-Reading Response Letters due.  Spelling test. Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

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

Tuesday, April 4-9:00 PTA General Meeting

Wednesday, April 5-Early Release Day, Kona Ice Sales

Thursday, April 6-Food Drive Ends

Friday, April 7-Reading Response Letters Due, Spelling Test, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green.

Saturday, April 8-Empty Bowl Event-We hope many of you will join us at The Festival on April 8 from 11-2pm at Cedar Ridge High School - for more information, visit emptybowlsroundrock.com or on social media @rremptybowls

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

Sincerely,

Pam

Hi,

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break with lots of time for family fun.I am excited to see all of the children tomorrow and hear about their adventures.

Writing Camp!- Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be our amazing fourth grade Camp Write Along!!!!!!!  We will write most of the day and engage in some fun camp activities.  Your child can bring in a sleeping bag or blanket, pillow, small stuffed animal,and flashlight. They can dress in camping clothing during Writing Camp.

Camp Letters-Thank you to those families who have sent me letters already for their campers. I encourage you to write a letter to your camper. You can ask family members also to write about camping experiences, write about writing, write to tell your camper how much you miss your camper while he/she is away at camp, or whatever!  Be creative!  We will have a mail call each day and many families send a letter for each day. You can send letters in or you can email them to me and I will print them out. In the past receiving letters at Writing Camp is a big deal for the kids.  Thank you in advance.

Monthly Reading Challenge for March-Read a book with at least 300 pages!  We are working on our stamina, so our March challenge is to read a book with at least 300 pages. This will count as 2 books on our 40 book challenge.  Hopefully, your child took advantage of spring break and read a lot. I can't wait to read your notecard about your book! Happy Reading!!!!  

Spring Break Challenge-A reading log came home for our Spring Break Challenge!  You were asked to read at least 100 minutes over spring break. All students who read at least 100 minutes and turn in a completed log, will get to choose a prize.  The students, who challenge themselves and read the most, will get to choose first.  I can't wait to hear about the amazing books read over the break.

Dates to remember:

Monday, March 20-Writing Camp-Wear camp clothes.  Service Club from 2:50-3:50-Spring Break Reading Challenge Logs are due! No spelling words this week.

Tuesday, March 21-Writing Camp

Wednesday, March 22-Writing Camp-Family Fun Night at Zaxby's-6:00

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

Monday, March 27-Wear college shirts. Writing Club 2:50-3:50.

Tuesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Test

Friday, March 31-Reading Response Letters due.  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

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

Tuesday, April 4-9:00 PTA General Meeting

Wednesday, April 5-Early Release Day, Kona Ice Sales

Friday, April 7-Reading Response Letters Due, Spelling Test, Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple or green.

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

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Hi,

Happy Texas Independence Day!  Mrs. Tennyson's last day with us was Friday, and Mrs. Moellenberg comes back on Monday!  Spring break starts next Monday....but we still have a very busy and fun-filled week ahead!

Monthly Reading Challenge for March-Read a book with at least 300 pages!  We had a great time celebrating reading informational books and now will work on our stamina and our March challenge is to read a book with at least 300 pages. This will count as 2 books on our 40 book challenge.  Since we have spring break, you will have more time to read!!!!!  I can't wait to read your notecard about your book! Happy Reading!!!!  

Spring Break Challenge-A reading log will come home this week for our Spring Break Challenge!  Be sure to read at least 100 minutes over spring break. All students who read at least 100 minutes and turn in a completed log, will get to choose a prize.  The students, who challenge themselves and read the most, will get to choose first.  My hope is that students are motivated to push themselves to read A LOT over spring break (and always) and get lost in their books.  I am excited to read more over spring break!  Students are welcome to send me an email and share about their books.  They are also encouraged to share their books on Google Classroom!

Author Visit on Wednesday-Nathan Hale-Nathan Hale, author of One Dead Spy and Alamo All-Stars, will visit our school on Wednesday.  The third, fourth, and fifth graders will hear him speak.  There will be books on sale.  An order form came home last week.  We are excited to hear him speak and tell about his Alamo book!

STAAR Ready Math Test on Tuesday-We will take this test on Tuesday to determine each child's strengths and areas that still need work.  

Writing Camp!!!!!!-Camp Write Along is our fourth grade activity to help us have fun as we get ready for Writing STAAR.  Our classroom will be transformed into a campground.  The students may bring sleeping bags and pillows.  Wear camping clothes and get ready to write!  We will have camp sing alongs with the whole fourth grade.  It is a great time to pull together all we've learned and practice some more to be able to show our stuff on March 28.  Writing Camp will be March 20, 21, and 22.  Get ready campers!!!!!

Let's read about our week:

Reading-We will continue to read and discuss dramas and compare them to fiction writing.

Writing-We will examine expository writing and highlight and label parts of an expository.  We will also read the introduction, reasons, and conclusion of an essay.  The details sentences will be cut into strips and the students will organize the details and examples by putting them with the appropriate reason and put them in order create a strong flow.  We will also write using sensory details and figurative language.  Be sure to write over spring break!

Grammar-We will continue to work with apostrophes and compare possessives and contractions. We are also discussing differences between plurals and possessives. We will look at lots of sentences and notice when a comma is used because the sentence is compound or a list of actions or things.  We will also notice when a comma is not needed and as always we will identify complete sentences (independent clauses) and incomplete sentences (dependent clauses).

Spelling-This week we will review tricky words and most of our lists will be independent words.  Be sure to practice at home.

Social Studies-We and will perform a reader's theater of the book, Voices of the Alamo. We also will choose a hero for our Texas Heroes projects.  There are websites bookmarked for each of the Texas Heroes on our Bartholomew Bat Blog. http://pambartholomew.blogspot.com/p/social-studies-links.html  Scroll down and you will see heroes like Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, and Jane Long. Those projects will be due after spring break.

Dates to remember:

Monday, March 6-Wear college shirts. Service Club from 2:50-3:50 PTA Family Fun NIght at Hat Creek

Tuesday, March 7-STAAR Ready Math test-PTA Meeting at 3:15

Friday, March 10--Reading Response Letters due, Revising and Editing Homework Due, Reading Passage due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, March 13-Friday, March 17-Spring Break-Spring Break Reading Challenge!

Monday, March 20-Writing Camp-Wear camp clothes.  Service Club from 2:50-3:50-Spring Break Reading Challenge Logs are due!

Tuesday, March 21-Writing Camp

Wednesday, March 22-Writing Camp

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

Monday, March 27-Wear college shirts. Writing Club 2:50-3:50.

Tuesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Test

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

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Hi,

We had a great week and a fun Valentine's Day Party!  Thank you to Mrs. Alexander and all the parents who helped or donated for our party. We had a fun time and loved all the treats!

STAAR Ready Reading-We will take the STAAR Ready Reading test on Tuesday. This will help us determine areas of strength and things to work on in reading.  

District Reading Test-We are finishing up our individual reading assessments this week.  This also gives us a window into reading strategies used by individual students and helps us focus instruction so your child will continue to improve in reading.

Monthly Reading Challenge for February: Read 3 Informational Books and write notecards for each one.  Include: Title of book, genre (informational) 3 interesting or surprising facts learned and why you thought they were interesting,  2 questions you still have about this topic, 1 thought or feeling about the topic (These sentence starters may help: 

This makes me realize...., 

I used to think..., but now I think...., 

I agree that.... because....

I disagree that ... because....

This makes me wonder.....

These will be due on Feb. 28

Let's read about our week:

Reading-We learned about drama and ways that a script is written, then read aloud the reader's theater, The Unstoppable Ruby Bridges.  We also read lots of informational books and our book club books and wrote responses. We will continue learning strategies to read nonfiction.

Writing-Expository writing is our focus. We are in the process of drafting, revising, and editing, these opinion pieces.  We are working on exciting leads with a clear central idea, specific reasons with examples, and strong, satisfying conclusions that push the reader to think about the topic.  We will finish our final copies by Friday.

Grammar-We will use apostrophes and compare possessives and contractions. We will use mentor sentences and will sort sentences as well as write sentences using both contractions and possessives.

Spelling-This week we will read the poem Ations by Shel Silverstein and will practice spelling many of those ation words and we will talk about their meanings. We will also have individual words.  Talk to your child about patterns in the words as you are studying spelling.http://www.qu-i-x.com/ations.html

Social Studies-We finished reading and taking notes on the historical fiction book, Remember the Alamo. This gave us an overview of the Texas Revolution.  This week we will begin studying key events and making notecards with drawings and facts to create a timeline.

Dates to remember:

Monday, Feb. 20-No school for students

Tuesday, Feb. 21-STAAR Ready Reading test

Wednesday, Feb. 22-Group and Spring Photos

Thursday, Feb. 23-Student Art and Frame sale

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

Monday, Feb. 27- Wear college shirts. Wriitng Club 2:50-3:50

Friday, March. 3--Reading Response Letters due, Revising and Editing Homework Due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green. Hoe Down for grades K-2.

Monday, March 6-Wear college shirts. Service Club from 2:50-3:50 PTA Family Fun NIght at Hat Creek

Tuesday, March 7-STAAR Ready Math test-PTA Meeting at 3:15

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

Monday, March 13-Friday, March 17-Spring Break-Spring Break Reading Challenge!

Monday, March 20-Writing Camp-Wear camp clothes more info to come. Service Club from 2:50-3:50-Spring Break Reading Challenge Logs are due!

Tuesday, March 21-Writing Camp

Wednesday, March 22-Writing Camp

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

Monday, March 27-Wear college shirts. Writing Club 2:50-3:50.

Tuesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Test

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

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Hi,

We had a great week and I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend.  Enjoy the Super Bowl!

Our Valentines Party is coming up.  I will ask the students for some suggestions and will get a sign up genius out this week.  Your child is welcome to decorate a box or bag at home that he/she can use as a valentine mailbox.  I will have bags available in class for anyone who doesn't make a decorated box or bag at home. If your child is passing out valentines in class, he/she needs to  have a valentine for ALL classmates.  Thank you in advance for including everyone.

Here is a list of the students in our class.  

Jacie

Robby

Matthew

Emily

Randall

Ihsan

Lillian

Roy

Jack

Kai

Bella

Aubrie N.

Evan

Hannah

Aubrey P.

Jameson

Max

Bracken

Brianne

Mason

Gage

Joy

Monthly Reading Challenge for February: Read 3 Informational Books and write notecards for each one.  Include: Title of book, genre (informational) 3 interesting or surprising facts learned and why you thought they were interesting,  2 questions you still have about this topic, 1 thought or feeling about the topic (These sentence starters may help: 

This makes me realize...., 

I used to think..., but now I think...., 

I agree that.... because....

I disagree that ... because....

This makes me wonder.....

These will be due on Feb. 28

Let's read about our week:

Reading-We will read informational text as well as some historical fiction.  We will examine literature that deals with civil rights and we started some book club books this week.  We will read independently and discuss our books in our groups. Last week, we read an article about the history of Brown vs. the Board of Education .  We took notes and discussed this case. We watched a Brainpop video on this topic.  We will continue this week with a read aloud of The Story of Ruby Bridges. Talk to your child at home about civil rights and that we need to treat all people with respect and appreciate all of our differences.

Writing-Our students wrote great personal narratives with lots of specific details and great voice.   This week we will gather new entries about our opinions with supporting reasons and examples to support those opinions.  We will work on adding specific details and lots of revising and editing to make our essays clear, concise, and interesting to read. Talk to your child about their opinions.  Have conversations about these opinions and use some of these sentence starters to help keep the conversation going. When they stop talking say: "What does that make you realize?" Then they can respond, "This makes me realize....."  Lots of discussion and supporting ideas with examples in conversation will help them apply these skills to their writing.

Sentence Starters to keep the conversation going:

This makes me realize...., 

I used to think..., but now I think...., 

I agree that.... because....

I disagree that ... because....

This makes me wonder.....

Grammar-We will continue our study of strengthening sentences by combining them and using openers to enhance meaning.  We will also look at flipping the subject to make our sentence beginnings more interesting and make our word choice stronger.

We will also look at correct ways to punctuate these sentences and which ways make our thoughts clear to the reader. Keep encouraging your child to find amazing sentences in his/her reading.  Talk about what makes a sentence effective and clear and different ways to rearrange a sentence and still keep the same complete thought.  Keep talking about sentences and grammar and how fun it is to experiment with language.

Spelling-This week we will work with words ending in ion. We will also have individual words.  Talk to your child about patterns in the words as you are studying spelling.

Social Studies-Last week, your child was an Empresario and read letters from potential colonists.  He/she evaluated the letter to decide whether to invite the person to come live in his/her colony.  It was very fun and interesting to hear the reason given.  We will begin talking about the Texas Revolution and Santa Anna.  We are reading aloud a historical fiction novel called Remember the Alamo to get some background knowledge and spark some discussion before reading facts in the textbook.  Soon we will work on reading biographies of some Texas Heroes and presenting projects about them.

Dates to remember:

Monday, Feb. 6-College Shirt Day- Service Club after school 2:50-3:50-Jump Rope for Heart this week

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

Thursday, Feb. 9- Progress Reports come home

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,

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