Last Week
As we began to get more comfortable with each other we saw a few behavior issues creep into our classrooms on Tuesday and Wednesday (nothing unexpected!). By Thursday the kids had figured out that talking when they shouldn't be talking, and not following directions weren't going to bode well for their Class Dojo points, and they were quickly back on track. This is pretty typical of week 2, and you may have seen some Class Dojo points deducted from your child's account. Please don't be overly concerned if you see this happen on occasion, but do talk with your child about what happened and encourage them to meet classroom expectations. If a behavior is truly a problem, Mrs. Hudson and I will be sure to contact you.
On a happier note, we started our specials classes last week! The kids were excited to go to Art, Music, Spanish, and PE! We missed Technology because of Labor Day, but we'll start that class this week We'll also have Chapel for the first time this week :)
We had our first Spelling test on Friday and most of the kids did really well! If a child struggled with several words, I asked them to study those words over the weekend so I could retest them on Monday. In case you were wondering how I grade the tests: the 20 regular list words are worth 5 points each, and the 5 bonus words are worth 1 point each. For each regular word that is correct, 5 points are added to the score, and for each bonus word that is correct, 1 point is added. Students never lose points for incorrect bonus words, only regular words. (A few students work with a shorter list that has 10 words, and those words are worth 10 points each.)
This week in...
Bible
Please send a bible to school with your child this week. They will need to have one to participate fully in our bible lessons going forward. We're walking through the book of Acts and learning about what the disciples did after Jesus had ascended into heaven. Last week we talked about what it meant to be an eyewitness (as the disciples were to Jesus' ministry), and this week we'll study Jesus' ascension.
Social Studies
The 4th graders have zoomed through their Geography review unit and will be ready to take the assessment on Wednesday of this week. I'll be sending home their Social Studies notebooks on Tuesday night so they can study (please return them on Wednesday!). If you'd like to help them review, here are a few links that should be helpful:
Continents and Oceans Game (our curriculum names four oceans, and this game names five, but we've talked about this, so it shouldn't confuse the kids)
Hemispheres Powerpoint (this is the same one that we used in class)
Latitude and Longitude video (just for fun...we watched this in class)
Literacy
We'll continue to do beginning of the year assessments this week, and will learn how to write a Reading Response letter. Last week we talked about the fact that reading is thinking. We made a list of all the different kids of thinking we do as we read like: making connections to something we've experienced or read about, questions we have, pictures or movies that we see in our heads, predictions we make about what will happen next, etc. The kids wrote some of their thinking on a sticky note as they read, and when they asked why I wanted them to do that, I told them that it helps me to 'see' their thinking because I can't see into their brains! Reader Response letters will do the same thing. It will give me an idea of what they're thinking about as they read, and this will help me guide their learning. Your child will write a letter to me once each week during our reading time, and I'll write back to them. The letters will be kept in their reading journals.
Homework
I changed the homework contract a bit by adding the spelling list to the contract itself, rather than attaching a separate piece of paper, and I copied the Tic, Tac, Toe sheet on the back...less chance of losing anything AND we're saving paper!!!
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns! Keep scrolling down to see some pictures from our week :)
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