This is a week full of fun and excitement for the students! Fall Festival is Friday and I know that most are excited about trick-or-treating on Saturday. We also have our class pumpkin carving on Tuesday and will enjoy looking at the pumpkins for the rest of the week!
Class pictures on Wednesday. Your child should wear their regular uniform- not have to be a chapel uniform.
I have noticed that no one in our class has ever brought offering for chapel. Students are telling me that they forget. These offerings are used for positive things, services, or causes in our community. Please consider talking with your child about bringing a small offering.
Word Study:
The Y-rule was the focus of our sort last week. Here are the rules that were discussed and practiced so that you can help your child if you see that they are not applying these in their writing pieces:
The Y Rules
1)If the letter before a final y is a vowel, the y doesn’t change when you add a suffix.
vowel + y = don’t change to i
2)If the letter before a final y is a consonant, the y changes to i when you add a suffix.
consonant + y = change to i,
3)Exception Alert! If the letter before the final y is a consonant, but the suffix begins with an –i, then the y stays! Consonant + y (suffix beginning with i) = don’t change to i
Math
Unit 4 began on Friday. This unit focuses on Decimals and Their Uses. Reading decimals can be challenging for some students so I wanted to give a few cues that might be helpful for you if you are helping with homework.
- The decimal is read as "and" so for example: 0.1 is read zero and one tenth
Also, all students are working on an app to help with multiplication fact automatcity. If you would like to download either of the apps that we use for your child to practice at home, that would be beneficial. These are Math Cards (for 4th grade) and Times Table (looks like 7xt on the app pic).
Social Studies
We have finally made it to the exciting part of writing our Explorer's story! The students began putting their explorer's story on Storyboard That.This is a website that allows the students to create a 3 square graphic novel/comic. These will be published this week. The students will then share them and they will go in their Bare book.
I have graded the students' Early Explorers test. This was their first test with essay components on it. I can tell that not all students took my repeated suggestion to review the material throughout the unit and the week before. This test is a very good learning time for the students and a time that I can show how the study skills I have been giving them will help on a test. We will spend an entire class period going over the test before it comes home. Social Studies is a subject with a lot of content knowledge so I will continue to work with the class on how to review, learn, and prepare for tests.
Reading:
The students turned in their reading response to the book that they read in book clubs, so we are officially finished with book clubs. We will take a week or so for students to read a realistic fiction book of their choice before we move into nonfiction.
Writing:
In Writing, we will continue with a grammar study and review. Our focus during the next two weeks in grammar is sentence errors. These include run-on sentences, subject/verb agreement, comma use, etc.
Writing homework this week:
Write me a letter telling me about your study habits.
- In the first paragraph, tell me what it means to you to study. I know that this is something that is newer to you so be honest and tell me what you know, or think about studying for a test.
- In the next paragraph, tell me about how you best study and get assignments completed. Do you like quiet, silence, is some noise okay, etc? Where do you like to sit? Do you prefer completing writing assignments on the computer or on paper? Do you like for a parent to help you, or just check over your work when you finish?
- After that, write a paragraph telling me how you prepared for the Early Explorers Social Studies Test. Write as much as you can so that I can understand your preparation. Be honest. If you didn’t prepare much, tell me about that, but also tell me what you did do.
- Last, write a paragraph about how you plan to learn and practice study habits in fourth grade. These may be things that I have mentioned to you already. Or maybe something that a parent suggested. Or maybe, you still don’t really have any idea about what it actually means to study so tell me about that. What can I do to help you prepare for tests or larger projects?
- Fall Festival on October 30th (half-day) Students must arrive at school in full costume. Students may not wear costumes with a violent or terrifying theme. Children who do not wish to wear costumes may consider the day a non-uniform day (NUD). There will be a noon dismissal on for all Lower School children.
Class pictures on Wednesday. Your child should wear their regular uniform- not have to be a chapel uniform.
I have noticed that no one in our class has ever brought offering for chapel. Students are telling me that they forget. These offerings are used for positive things, services, or causes in our community. Please consider talking with your child about bringing a small offering.
Word Study:
The Y-rule was the focus of our sort last week. Here are the rules that were discussed and practiced so that you can help your child if you see that they are not applying these in their writing pieces:
The Y Rules
1)If the letter before a final y is a vowel, the y doesn’t change when you add a suffix.
vowel + y = don’t change to i
2)If the letter before a final y is a consonant, the y changes to i when you add a suffix.
consonant + y = change to i,
3)Exception Alert! If the letter before the final y is a consonant, but the suffix begins with an –i, then the y stays! Consonant + y (suffix beginning with i) = don’t change to i
Math
Unit 4 began on Friday. This unit focuses on Decimals and Their Uses. Reading decimals can be challenging for some students so I wanted to give a few cues that might be helpful for you if you are helping with homework.
- The decimal is read as "and" so for example: 0.1 is read zero and one tenth
Also, all students are working on an app to help with multiplication fact automatcity. If you would like to download either of the apps that we use for your child to practice at home, that would be beneficial. These are Math Cards (for 4th grade) and Times Table (looks like 7xt on the app pic).
Social Studies
We have finally made it to the exciting part of writing our Explorer's story! The students began putting their explorer's story on Storyboard That.This is a website that allows the students to create a 3 square graphic novel/comic. These will be published this week. The students will then share them and they will go in their Bare book.
I have graded the students' Early Explorers test. This was their first test with essay components on it. I can tell that not all students took my repeated suggestion to review the material throughout the unit and the week before. This test is a very good learning time for the students and a time that I can show how the study skills I have been giving them will help on a test. We will spend an entire class period going over the test before it comes home. Social Studies is a subject with a lot of content knowledge so I will continue to work with the class on how to review, learn, and prepare for tests.
Reading:
The students turned in their reading response to the book that they read in book clubs, so we are officially finished with book clubs. We will take a week or so for students to read a realistic fiction book of their choice before we move into nonfiction.
Writing:
In Writing, we will continue with a grammar study and review. Our focus during the next two weeks in grammar is sentence errors. These include run-on sentences, subject/verb agreement, comma use, etc.
Writing homework this week:
Write me a letter telling me about your study habits.
- In the first paragraph, tell me what it means to you to study. I know that this is something that is newer to you so be honest and tell me what you know, or think about studying for a test.
- In the next paragraph, tell me about how you best study and get assignments completed. Do you like quiet, silence, is some noise okay, etc? Where do you like to sit? Do you prefer completing writing assignments on the computer or on paper? Do you like for a parent to help you, or just check over your work when you finish?
- After that, write a paragraph telling me how you prepared for the Early Explorers Social Studies Test. Write as much as you can so that I can understand your preparation. Be honest. If you didn’t prepare much, tell me about that, but also tell me what you did do.
- Last, write a paragraph about how you plan to learn and practice study habits in fourth grade. These may be things that I have mentioned to you already. Or maybe something that a parent suggested. Or maybe, you still don’t really have any idea about what it actually means to study so tell me about that. What can I do to help you prepare for tests or larger projects?