Happy New Year! A big thank you to Ms. Covin for ending the 2018 school year with a fabulous party and making our holiday so bright! Now, it is on to 2019, with new learning discoveries and the start of a wonderful semester. This is traditionally the most challenging semester in fourth grade. I appreciate your assistance in getting your child to bed at an appropriate time and reinforcing good study habits at home and helping your child understand that effort is related to quality work.
SCHOOL SUPPLIES: This is also a great time to re-fresh your child’s supply of glue sticks, colored pencils, and sharpened pencils. Many students have misplaced some colored pencils and most of them have used up their glue sticks and the eraser on their pencils! Please put your child's name on their supplies.
NIGHT WRITES: Night Writes are beginning this month. We have designed a Night Write packet that came home this week in your child's homework folder. PLEASE help your child keep track of this. The first Night Write is due on January 29. HOW IT WORKS - Each month will begin with a choice menu of prompts. They are to circle one prompt that they would like to take to final copy. They then must work through all steps of the writing process. Each step has a page in their booklet as well as some pointers and a given time frame to help with pacing. Please feel free to use this as a tool to help work with your child on the development of their ideas, grammar, spelling, word choice, organization etc. In doing so, though, we still ask that the piece remains authentic to them. As a parent, you could conference with them about their idea to make sure they are on the right track and again with the editing and revising. Please try not to over help and rewrite the composition for them (Believe me, I know it is hard to resist at times!) Thank you again for your support with their writing. Your work with them, as always, is invaluable. We will stress in class that pacing is important. Your child should “chunk” the various steps of the writing process so their final composition will be thoughtful and the very best work possible. A composition written in two days is not quality work!
READING RESPONSE: Students are required to complete Character Traits in Google Classroom this week. The expectation is a complete, thoughtful answer. Our class is enjoying reading There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom.
CHARACTER: Our character word for January is helpful!
Units of Study:
Reading- Traditional Literature
Writing- Homophones of there, their, they're; expository writing
Spelling- Unit 12
Math- Fractions
Texas History- Texas Revolution
Upcoming Dates:
January 21- MLK Day; no school
January 22- Report cards go home
January 24- STEAM Night 6-7
January 29- Night Writes due
Thank you for reading my newsletter. Communication is key!
Mary Jo