Early Out the Rest of the Week

School will be released 2 hours early the rest of the week.  It sounds like all of the kids got to where they needed to be on Monday after school.  Remember to have a plan in place.  It is also helpful to have a daily plan in place before the kids leave for school.  Having that plan in place with the kids before school is a much better alternative than daily calls to the office for what the child should do after school. 

There is homework in math tonight.  Most of our math so far has been review and the kids are doing a great job. 

Spelling words should being coming home today.  I have a list of 500 words 4th graders should be able to spell by the end of the year.  Most of them are easy words and I would be willing to bet that most kids already know how to spell a majority of them.  We are going to start the year's spelling with some of these words. 

The spelling routine can be somewhat confusing at first.  At the beginning of the week each student is asked to spell 20 words on their pretest.  I then check those 20 words and let them know how many they will be tested over at the end of the week. 

If the student misses.....

0 words - then they are only going to be asked to spell the challenge words on Friday.  If they get the challenge words correct their score for the week would be 25/25.  They will not be asked to spell the first 20 again.  This is their incentive to try hard the first time. 

If the student misses.....

1-5 words - then they will be tested over 1-20 on Friday. They may attempt the challenge words and they will be checked but they will not count toward their score.  Their best possible score would be 20/20. 

If the student misses.....

6 or more words - then they will be test over 1-10 on Friday. They may attempt the rest of the words and they will be checked but they will not count toward their score.  Their best possible score would be 10/10. 

Hot, Hot, Hot

Due to the excessive heat school will be letting out 2 hours early both today and Tuesday.  Please use this as an opportunity to make a plan for what students should do if schools is suddenly let out early.  Keep this plan updated or discuss it on a daily basis when weather looks like it could cause and early release.

I would also encourage all students to bring a water bottle with them to school.  I do ask that it is water and only water.  We have a nice new drinking fountain that has cold water so they may fill them up at school during an appropriate time if needed.

There is homework in math today.  I expect students to have homework completed when they get to school.  If they don't they may come into the room in the morning to finish it or ask for help.  I will then spot check the homework to check students understanding.  Students will need to have their homework completed to go out for morning recess. If something happens to their homework it can be printed off by following the Math Homelink link on the blog. 

Stay cool!!!!

Week 1 Is In The Books

The students have just finished their first week of 4th Grade!!!!  We had a great start to our school year minus the extreme heat that we lacked for a portion of the summer.  It sounds like the heat could be even worse next week.  The students are welcome to bring water bottles to school to try and stay cool.  We are scheduled to be in school full days next week but with the forecast the way it is there may be a chance of some early outs.  Keep tuned for those.  I will announce them on the blog and Twitter and the radio would also have them on. 

Today in Reading we worked on the Fluency portion of our Cafe Menu.  Fluency is a key building block to becoming a great reader.  We talked about several different strategies readers use to help them to become fluent readers.  We also started writing rough drafts for personal narratives.  Most kids are writing about something they did with their families over the summer.

In Math we reviewed some geometry terms.  I hate to say it but with the 4 day week and the 2 early outs the kids' first homework of the year will be due on Monday.  It will be a simple Math worksheet over the geometry terms that we reviewed. 

FFA students at the high school are once again selling Homecoming t-shirts.  Order forms are coming home with kids today. 

I hope everyone enjoyed their first week of school, kids and parents alike.  I know I did!  Have a great weekend!!!

Time for Full Days

I already missed a day of blogging on the second day.  It is a main goal of mine to write on it each day and I promise to try and do that.

I think we have covered most of the expectations for the classroom and school.  Most of these expectations were review for students as they have already gone to school here for a couple years.

Today we will be starting some reading and math activities.  Look for the Unit 1 Family Letter for Math tonight in your child's take home folder.

Your child should be bringing home a planner each night along with their take-home folder.  I do ask that each student gets their planner signed or initialed by someone at home each night.  This could be a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc.  My hope is that you will take a minute each night to talk to your child about what they did that day and if there is anything they need to do as homework to be returned to school.  I really appreciate your cooperation and participation with this.  

Day 1 is Completed

Day 1 is over, only 179 days left!!  Haha!  It was great to get all of the kids back to school today.  I can already tell that this is going to be a great group of kids to work with.  Below are a few photos from our day. 

Working on our About Me posters to share. 

4th graders starting off the year by walking on the track. 

Welcome Back

Welcome back to school!!!  I'm sure many of you feel the same way that I do when I think summer went by way too fast.  I had a great summer and even though it went by very quickly I am anxious to get the year started.  This year will be a learning year for me as well as I start my first year in 4th grade.  I look forward to meeting each student and getting to them as we have a great year together!