Welcome to 2017!!!

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Welcome back to a new year!  It was a great December, full of celebration and fun! Now, as January chills our bodies, our minds must heat up with lots of new learning!

Math:  We are onto Unit 4, which now combines all four operations (+-x/) in solving story problems.  We are learning beginning algebra and how fun that can be!

Writing:  We continue to write personal essays and we are learning the formal structure that supports writing a good essay.  Literary essays are the final portion of this unit which we are aiming to get to by the end of this month.

Reading:  In combining our unit of informational reading with our social studies unit on government, it makes for some great classroom discussions on how our government works and why we can have faith in it!  We also get to see how informational writing has different structures used to convey information to the reader.

Science:  Mr. Bowen is teaching away on the Sun, Moon, and Earth unit!  Ask your students about what they are learning and let me know if you have any questions!

Keep up that reading every night and MobyMax fluency practice!  We are seeing great gains in all of our students!  Thanks for sending me such a SUPER-DUPER bunch of KIDS!!

Student Blogs Coming Soon!!

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kidsSoon you will see a new feature attached to our classroom blog: individual student blogs!  The purpose of this activity is to promote connective reading and writing, cooperative learning, and responsible digital citizenship.   Our students are excited to have a platform in which to share their learning, talents, and abilities with other students.

Parent Permission & Guidelines

A letter was sent home yesterday explaining our new student blogs.  In order for your student to participate, please read through the letter, as well as, the student rules for blogging.  Be sure to discuss with your student why these rules are important.  Please read both copies, sign them, and send them back in to school.  We can’t wait to get started!!

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appleWow!  What a great start to the school year!!

First, a big shout out of “THANKS” to our parents for sending in all the great school supplies!  You really make a difference!  Thanks for the support.

Next, what a FANTASTIC bunch of fourth graders I have!  Thank you for sending me such neat kids. Already I can tell these guys are great thinkers filled with great ideas!  It is going to be a fun year of learning and growing together.

Homework and Math

This week, we begin full throttle into our fourth grade curriculum.  Your student should be bringing home a nightly folder that has daily mail in it.  This year we are going to try something new for homework.  On Monday, a sheet will come home for the week that’s entitled “Weekly Homework Sheet“.  On this sheet, you will see each day of the week on a grid.  Under each day will be 3 math problems.  These will be problems that relate to the current day’s math lesson.  It will be important for your student to practice what we’ve learned at home.  Please have a daily conversation with your student to see if they understand the math for the day and check over their problems with them.  Sometimes, hearing a concept explained to them by more than one person, can help them learn the skill at a deeper level.  Thanks in advance, for helping me out with this.  If your child is struggling with a concept, jot a note on the grid and we will tackle it in the classroom again one on one. Another resource you can use to help your child understand a concept are some of the videos I have posted by math operation under “Classroom Tutoring” at the bottom of the blog. These may be helpful in explaining a concept that is hard to get.  You can also email me if you have questions or need further explanations.

Homework and Reading

On the Weekly Homework Sheet mentioned above, there is also a square on the grid to have your student write the title of the book they are reading at home and the number of minutes that they have read per night.  This will count as their Reading Log.  Fourth graders are expected to read at least 20-30 minutes per night in a chapter book at their guided reading level. Research has proven that children become better readers when reading at least 90 minutes per day. We are working on increasing our reading minutes here at school, as well as, reading nightly at home.

Homework and MobyMax

Finally, there will be one last square on the grid to check off for fluency math practice on MobyMax.  Your 4th grader will be expected to be fluent in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts.  One great way to practice this is online with MobyMax.  Your student will have a log in and password and should be practicing at least 5 minutes nightly.

So altogether, your student should really only have 30-40 minutes of homework a night.  He or she should be keeping track of it him/herself as we are promoting responsibility and independence strongly in 4th grade. I hope this explanation helps to know what’s expected and let me know if you have any questions!  Thanks!

-Mrs. Q

Boiler Troubles!!

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brrrr Hi Everyone!

Now we know why it felt so cold yesterday, don’t we guys?! I kept saying to the kids, “It feels so cold in here.” Our room is usually a bit colder, so I never gave it a second thought! So what a surprise today to find out we had a broken boiler.

Ok, gang! Well I have a few reminders for you this afternoon and evening!  First, please be sure to get some time in reading today.  Get lost in a good book.  I have been reading one on one with every student in our class and the levels are going up!  Yahoo!  Currently, level R is where you need to be for this marking period.  So many of you are there and past R!  Keep up that good reading practice!  Just like anything you want to be good at, you must PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!

Which leads me to . . .  Moby Max and Math Facts Pro! That’s another thing you can spend time working on today!  All it takes is 5 minutes daily to improve your math fact fluency!!  No more counting on fingers!!  Know those facts!!  You will be so glad you learned them and it will truly help you in math!!!

Done with all of that? Then maybe you might be able to print an article or two on the animal you are researching to bring to school tomorrow.  That way you will have facts right at your finger tips that you can highlight and then paraphrase onto your notecards.  If you really want to, I would love for you to blog about what you have learned so far on your blog as well!  This is Optional though.

Most of all, I hope you have a good day!    -Mrs. Q                    winterkids

 

 

Odds and Ends!

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Hi Fourth Graders and Families,

We are off to a great start! I have lots to talk to you about in this post, and let me begin by thanking you, parents! Thank you for sending me the nicest, kindest, most loving learners in the world! Also, thank you for sending in all of those fabulous supplies that will last in our classroom the year through. I KNOW without a doubt that this will be a terrific year!

Walkathon!

Our ONE school fundraiser will be held this coming Thursday, Sept. 24th. Your fourth grader came home with a packet for raising donations. Our goal this year is for each student to contribute $25! Get out there, Mrs. Q’s class, and let’s see if we can win the limo ride!! Be sure to wear comfy clothes (ninja eagles, right guys?!) and tennis shoes on Thursday and bring a water bottle for the walkathon.

Pictures on Monday 9/21

Put your best shirt on and do your hair for your fourth grade picture! We will have them taken sometime in the morning this coming Monday.

Homework

Your fourth grader will be coming home with math homework MOST Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It is always due the next day. Reading for 30 minutes, five nights a week is a must as well. Check the twitter feed on the left side of this page for homework assignments. Students should be writing down their reading times at night on sticky notes to bring to school, so they can write their times on their book logs here at school.

I think that is everything for right now! Have a great weekend! -Mrs. Q

A Butterfly Blessing!

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Hello Friends and Families! I hope everyone is having an enjoyable summer! I am sure missing ALL of my students and looking forward to starting back to school in a month or so. I have been traveling with my husband this summer. We have gone to Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and North Carolina! While in Maryland, we visited Brookside Gardens where they have 100’s of butterflies.  One landed on me.  It must of thought that I was a big, pink flower!  LOL! Someone told me that when a butterfly lands on you, it is blessing you. I definitely feel blessed! I have been so blessed by the many students I have had at Georgetown Elementary.

How’s your reading practice going? So far, I have read 3 books! Can you beat me this summer? I hope so! We’ll see how many more books I will read by the time school starts! Also, I hope you are enjoying MobyMax. That’s a great site to challenge yourself on.

One other thing I have been doing is baby-sitting my granddaughter. She is almost one year old and walking! It has been fun having time with her. We take lots of walks and guess what her favorite word is?  No kidding – it’s “book”! She loves to read already at 1!

I hope you all have been having as much fun as I have! Please write a comment back to this post and let me know how you are doing! Miss you bunches everyone!

Million Words!

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one million wordsCongratulations Million Word Winners! There are 3 winners in our class!  Their names are Jennifer, Bethany, and Seth (who was the best out of everyone in the whole school with 5 million words!!!). Even though Jen did really good, so did Bethany! And we are very proud that the kids in our school have gone to extremes to read.  And if you come to Georgetown we have this celebration every year at the end of the year.

By: Coen, Talia, and Seth!

Pizza Hut Reading Program!

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PizzaCalendars are going home this week for the Book It Pizza Hut Reading Program.   The BOOK IT! Program is all about turning kids who read because they have to, into kids who read because they WANT to. Through BOOK IT!, your child has the opportunity to earn a certificate for a free Personal Pan Pizza from Pizza Hut by filling out this calendar and by meeting monthly reading goals that are set.  Return this calendar at the end of the month to receive this certificate.  There is no purchase necessary and the pizza can be taken to go.  The goal we have set for fourth grade is to read at least 30 minutes a day.
HAPPY READING!!

Great First Week!

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IMG_0262Wow!  What a great start to the school year!!  First, a big shout out of “THANKS” to you parents for sending in all the great school supplies!  You really make a difference!  Thanks for the support.

Next, I want to say what a FANTASTIC bunch of fourth graders I have!  Thank you for sending me such neat kids. Already I can tell these guys are great thinkers filled with great ideas!  It is going to be a fun year of learning and growing together.

This week we begin into the full throttle of our fourth grade curriculum.  Homework will be coming home in math towards the end of the week.  Your student should be bringing home a blue or black folder that has daily work and homework in it.  Please have a daily conversation with your student to see if they have homework and check over their papers with them that they have completed in class.  Occasionally, I will write a note at the top of a paper to you, parents, if I think your child may need extra reinforcement of a concept at home.  Sometimes, hearing a concept explained to them by more than one person can help them learn the idea at a deeper level.  Thanks in advance, for helping me out with this.

Our library day is Wednesday.  Your child is being asked to read every night for a minimum of 20-30 minutes.  We know that children should be reading at least 90 minutes of every day to continue to grow at becoming a good reader.  We are trying to get in 60 minutes of reading here at school (of course, we will building up to this every day).  So if you could encourage your reader to get in the habit of reading nightly, this will help us reach the goal of 90 minutes per day.  Your child will be bringing a reading log back and forth to school to help track these minutes in their reading folders.  Please help your child to remember that it should be brought back to school every day.

Ok!  I guess that’s enough info to digest for now!  Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great week!

-Mrs. Q

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