Dear Parents/Guardians, We have had a great first two weeks of school! We are settling into our routines and digging into some hard work. The first week we were very focused on establishing our classroom community. As many of you saw at Open House, we worked through some social scenarios in small groups. The kids enjoyed acting in both the “good” and “bad” versions of their scenarios.
We are reading The Seven Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey. Some of you may be familiar with Steven Covey's book/program called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The book I am using was written by Steven Covey's son and is specific to children. I will read one story a month that focuses on one habit. We will follow up with class discussions and action plans as to how we can develop each habit. The habit we are focusing on this month, is "Be Proactive: You're in Charge."
This week we started Unit 1 in EveryDay Math. HomeLinks will be assigned as homework, Monday through Thursday. We will have math on Friday, but it will be our day to review the week's lesson and cover any material that needs to be gone over again. I also want to remind you again, that homework is meant to reinforce the lesson, but it isn't meant to be frustrating or cause tears. If the homework seems difficult for your child, please write a note to me and I will go over it with them the following day.
We started studying the first of six traits in writing, the trait of Ideas. We revised a paper together and they also worked in small groups to score two different papers with a rubric. They've also been working hard each day on Daily Language Review. I have the first week's work corrected and will be sending it home next week.
We have focused our attention in reading on how to choose a “just right” book. I'm continuing to model for the students how I choose a book. We have also discussed author's purpose and will continue to do some more work next week in both of these areas.
Our science unit that we are starting with this year is Force and Motion. We did a fun experiment yesterday with gravity. Ask your child about why they were standing on chairs dropping coffee filters!
The kids did a great job on Thursday and today on their NWEAs. They stayed focused, took their time and did their best. I'll have those scores out to you soon. They took a test in reading and in math. This a great assessment because it allows me to see where kids are and measure their growth through the year and it is also tailored to each student based on how they answer each question.
All of you have signed the two permission slips that have gone home. I realized that I should have included more information with each of them to explain what we're doing- my apologies! We will be going to a senior luncheon next Wednesday, the 21st, as a Community Service learning project. We will be singing three harvest-theme songs and serving dessert. The kids are really excited and have been working hard to learn the songs.
We will be going to Wiscasset on September 28th because the Commemorative Air Force in conjunction with the Texas Flying Legends Museum is presenting the Red Tail/Rise Above traveling exhibit. The kids will learn who the Tuskegee Airmen were and how they overcame so many obstacles to be allowed to train and fight as the first black U.S. Army Air Corps. This will tie nicely into our Social Studies famous Mainer unit when we talk about character traits. Thank you for the offer to chaperone and although chaperones weren't needed for these trips, they will be in the future! If you would like to come into the classroom to help, please email or call me and we can discuss how you can best help us.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns at any time! I am best reached by email at jbenn@rsu1.org or by calling the school. Our class blog is also a great resource for you. Please check it out at http://fourthgradepes.blogspot.com/.
Enjoy the weekend!
