Fun! Fun! Fun! Fractions are so Fun!

Fun! Fun! Fun!  Fractions are so Fun!

Tomorrow is half-way day!!!!  We will spend our day doing fractions and finding out just how much fun they can be!  Thank you all for your wonderfully kind donations to make this event possible!  The students are going to have a ball learning about fractions and they don’t even know they will be learning.

Poetry Out- Loud Junior

We will hold our class competition on Tuesday morning at approximately 8:30 a.m.  Mrs. Barrutia will judge our class and I will judge her class.  The top three contestants will then compete in the Grammar School completion on Thursday at 10:00 a.m., in the multi-purpose room.  On Thursday we had everyone recite their poem for their grade and the competition promises to be stiff!  What amazing poets our 4^th graders are.  Parents are welcome to attend the poetry events.

Brrr....It is cold out there!

I hope everyone survived the snow day!  My family spent it in front of a fire with no school work by any of us!  (That does not happen often here.)  We are in for a busy week, but as you have figured out they are all busy for us!  Here is what you can expect:

Monday – I would like to do the tests we missed on Friday, but I will gauge the kids and determine if that is a good idea.  If they seem to need an extra day we will review on Monday and test on Tuesday.  We will have an AimsWeb Winter Benchmark test on Monday, all grades 4-8 will be doing one on Monday and Tuesday

Tuesday – Thursday -  We will begin fractions in math and continue with meteorology and Robin Hood

Friday – We will have our regular tests and one on meteorology.  We will also be creating a poetry book.  I need your help with this one! Please see below.

Poetry Book: we are going to be creating a really cool poetry book for each child and we need your help!   Each child will be creating a 10 page book to highlight the poetry they create this year.  Each page will be decorated and then the student’s poetry will be placed on the page.  If you could send any of the following by Friday:

·         Scrapbooking paper (just your scraps will work out) If you are inclined to purchase something – JoAnn’s has a 50% off coupon and scrapbook books of paper can be purchased for $10 with that coupon.  Here is the link to that coupon:  http://www.joann.com/coupon/?cm_mmc=Bing-_-Brand+-+Coupons-_-Coupons+%28E%29-_-joann%27s+coupons_Exact&utm_source=Bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=joann's+coupons&utm_campaign=Brand+-+Coupons&002=2366114&004=875614939&005=9079001056&006=1036925590&009=e&011=joann's%20coupons

·         Ribbon – any scrap ribbon,  raffia or lace would be fun to use

·         Buttons – Do you have old shirts you are getting rid of?  Cut the buttons off, or those extra buttons that come with your clothing that you never use would be great too!

·         Cardstock straps

·         Cute cutouts or old cards we can cut up

·         Use your imagination we can use it!

As always THANK YOU for helping us make 4^th grade Fabulous!

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a fantastic break!   I want to thank everyone for the warm holiday wishes and thoughtful gifts!  My family and I had a very relaxing break and enjoyed a lot of time together.  Although I enjoyed my time off, I was happy to be back at school to welcome each of your children back to 4^th grade.

January is a busy time for us and we are already as busy as bees.  Following is an outline of what you can expect to see in the coming weeks:

·         Math:  double digit multiplication

·         Science: Meteorology

o   Students will need to do a daily weather journal.  They are expected to watch the weather forecast each evening, find it online, or read it in the newspaper.  These will be checked each day and should be in your child’s homework section

·         Literature

o   Robin Hood

o   Poetry – Xavier has decided to have a Jr. Poetry Out Loud Contest

§  Each student will be given three poems to choose from and they will be required to memorize and recite the poem in class

§  The Logic and Rhetoric schools participate in this event annually and it is tied to a regional and state competition.  We decided we should extend this incredible event to include our Grammar school at the school level. Be on the look-out for more information.

·         Grammar – types of sentences and irregular verbs

·         Excellence in Writing – addition of quality adjectives to the required dress-ups for essays.