Happy September!

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!

We have a lot packed in to our next 2 weeks before fall break! If you do not already have a conference scheduled to go over your child's 1st quarter report card, they are bringing home another sign up sheet today- please check yellow folders for those.

All students should be bringing home an info note about our first field trip. We will be visiting Old Salem on Friday October 25th. The cost for students is $21 and all STUDENT money is due before fall break. Parents who would like to chaperone will pay at Old Salem the day of the trip. Please see the letter for more details.

As we wrap up this quarter we will finish up our work with realistic fiction in both reading and writing. In math we will spend the rest of this 9 weeks looking a little deeper into multiplication and starting to multiply larger numbers- keep working to memorize those multiplication facts! 

A few other important things:

Our canned food drive will continue until this Friday, 9/6. 

HES STEM night will be this Thursday from 5:30-7:00, if you plan to attend please RSVP here: 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4aafa72aa0f58-hesfamily


Congratulations to our first 2 Terrific Kids of 2019-2020, Natalie Kunz and Seamus Hester!

Important Upcoming Dates:

September   12   Old Salem field trip money due
                    13     last day of the 1st 9 weeks

October        8     beginning of the 2nd 9 weeks

November   11   No School- Veteran's Day

Happy Friday everyone!

Your child is bringing home several important papers today. They have an envelope that contains their interim report, a letter to sign up for report card conferences, and their math EOG scores from last year. You may remembered these were not released with reading scores because it was a "re-norming" year for math scores.

Next week is going to be an exciting week in 4th grade. We will have a local poet in residency with us, Mr Philip Shabazz. He has been doing week long poetry residencies with us for many, many years. Students will generate ideas and learn to write AMAZING poetry in just a few sessions with him. BIG thanks to the PTA for continuing to find this cultural arts experience. 

Be on the lookout next week for detailed info about our first field trip. 

Important Dates:

Aug 22     Picture Day, HES Spirit Night at Whit's
Aug 23     No School- Teacher Workday

Sept 2     No School- Labor Day
Sept 5     STEAM night at HES
Sept 13   Last day of the 1st 9 weeks

Hi Everyone-

We are off to a great start to week 3 and I have lots of stuff to share! (Some of this will be a repeat if you were able to make it to Open House.)

I would like to thank everyone SO much for all of the school supplies that you donated! My cabinets are overflowing and I can't thank you enough!

For most of this quarter in Reading our focus will be on developing good independent reading habits and deeply studying characters. Our new read aloud book is Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. Most of our lessons will be about describing characters and using what we know about them to make reasonable predictions and inferences.

In Math we are reviewing and extending what students learned in third grade about multiplication. We are using many different strategies to solve and memorize the basic multiplication facts (or times tables) and apply what we know to larger numbers. For example, if you know that 6 x 4= 24 you can easily find that 60 x 40= 240. Students are encouraged to use hit the button or other activities to practice their multiplication facts at home for 120-15 each night.

In Social Studies we are learning about the location and geography of NC. Students are learning to read maps for lots of different types of info and to locate NC in relation to the world and locations within NC.

In writing we are working to grow an idea or “small moment” into a story. We have started this week by creating an idea for an "extra" chapter to our last read aloud book. Given what we know about the different characters and patterns in their behavior we have started building a chapter where the mischievous character continues to annoy his older brother as much as possible!

Do you ever get frustrated because you ask your child what they did today and all you get is a, “Nothing” from them? Here are a few specific questions you could ask this week to hopefully get a little info about what we do each day.

• From our read aloud book- Can you explain Rob’s “suitcase”? How is the author using an imaginary suitcase to describe a character to you?
• What do writer’s do to stretch an idea into a paragraph and then into a story?
• What region of NC do we live in? What are some other cities/town in our region? Can you name a city or town in each of the other 2 regions of NC?

Please read below to see our class rules and consequences:

Class Rules:  

1. Be kind

2. Be Safe

3. Be respectful & polite 

4. Listen & Follow Directions

5. Focus on yourself & do your best

Consequences:

1st reminder- warning

2nd reminder- “Strike” 10 min of silent lunch

3rd reminder- “Strike” 20 min of silent lunch

If a student receives a strike it will come home for you to initial that night and should be returned to school the next day.

Homework Reminder:

Students are required to read for at least 20 minutes in their independent book each night for homework. They are always welcomed to read more :)

Hi Everyone-

We are off to a great start for the 4th 9 weeks! Below you will see a brief summary of topics we will cover this quarter.

In reading we have reviewed much of the poetry work we did earlier in the year with local poet, Mr. Shabaaz. We focused specifically on an author's message and identifying mood and theme. We will also spend some time reading Greek mythology and identifying allusions and their origins (for ex- "Herculean effort", "Achilles heel"). Then we will review all of the reader's statements from the first 3 quarters to identify and practice how those types of skills are assessed on the EOG's. 

In math we are working on geometry. We have focused on vocabulary so far, working with words like, parallel, perpendicular, acute, right, and obtuse. We will continue to work with vocabulary and move into learning to use a protractor to measure and draw angles. We will also do some work with metric measurement before we begin reviewing for the math EOG's.

In science we are in our food and nutrition unit. So far we have learned about vitamins and minerals- what our bodies need and what foods to find them in, and different types of sugar. We will also learn about fats, planning healthy meals/snacks, and students will get some time branch out and research/write about a nutrition topic of their choice- for ex, food allergies, how much sugar is too much, 'sometimes ' foods vs. 'anytime' foods, nutrition for athletes, etc.


Students should continue to read at least 20 minutes in their independent book for homework each night, Monday-Thursday. 

Also, please help your child remember to keep their computer charger at home and CHARGE THEIR COMPUTER EACH NIGHT.



IMPORTANT DATES:

April 17        General PTA Meeting    6:30pm
April 18        Spring Picture Day
April 19        No School- Good Friday
April 22-26   Spring Book Fair

May 27         No School- Memorial Day
May 29         Reading EOG
May 30         Math EOG

June 7         Last day of 4th grade- students dismiss at 11:30

Believe it or not, we are almost 3/4 of the way the way through 4th grade!

Here are a few updates and reminders for our last week before Spring Break.

As I mentioned in the last update, we will celebrate the end of our integrated reading/writing/social studies unit with a student created Civil Rights Museum. Students have chosen topics or questions to study and create a museum display to teach others about their topic. The museum will be Thursday March 14th from 10-11:30. We hope you can join us!

Another exciting event next week will take place Tuesday, 3/12. Thank to the generosity of our PTA we will have an in school field trip to wrap up our rocks and minerals unit, at NO COST TO STUDENTS. Students will get to see lots of geodes and fossils and crack their own geodes to keep.

We are TENTATIVELY planning to visit the Greensboro Science Center on Thursday April 25th. If we get word that the trip has been approved before break we will send home more info, including final cost. If not, please look for it soon after we come back. If you are interested in chaperoning this trip you may go ahead and complete the background check.


Please help your child remember to keep their computer charger at home and charge their computer each night. Also, many students headphones haven't made it this far in the year. If your child needs a new set, Mrs. Lovingood has earbuds available at the school store for $1.

Important Dates:
March 15     end of the 3rd quarter, report cards go home

April 8         first day of the 4th quarter
April 19       no school- Good Friday
April 24       Field Day

May 27       no school- Memorial Day
May 29-30  EOG's

Class Update 2/11/19

There are so many exciting things going on in 4th grade right now!

Lots of people have asked about exchanging Valentine cards. Your child is welcome to bring cards to exchange just before we pack up on Thursday. We will not have a party, just a few minutes for those that made cards to be able to pass them out. If your child chooses to make valentines, please make sure they make one for every classmate.

Maddie     Dylan     Jackson    Noelle     Alex     Sarah     Camille     Aydan     Carter     Eli

Kayden     Rihanna     Jack     Mickenzie     Rebecca     Finn     August     Addy     Wyatt     Theo

Brendan     Conner

This week HES is holding a canned for drive. Please help us collect non perishable food to send to the OCIM food pantry.

This week in reading we will begin historical fiction book clubs. Students are grouped across the grade level and may be working with either myself, Mrs. Garrison, Mr. Kaji,  or Ms. Sinicrope. All students are reading books set during some part of the Civil Rights Era. We will begin with predicting, then move to describing how characters change across a text and making connections between our book club books and recent read alouds.

Today in science we began our unit focused on rocks and minerals. We will spend a few weeks studying the different types of rocks and how they are formed and then spend a few weeks on different types of fossils.

In math we are wrapping up adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers and also looking a how to find a fraction of a set. (For example- 3 is 1/3 of 9)

In writing students have created research questions based on our study of the Civil Rights Era. After finishing up their research they will create an exhibit for our 4th grade Civil Rights history museum. The museum will be open for you to visit on Thursday March 14th from 10-11:30- more info to come on this later!

Important Dates:

February 25-       Teacher Workday (all of OCS)
March 15-           end of the 3rd 9 weeks, report cards go home
April 8-               first day of the 4th 9 weeks
April 19-             no school- Good Friday

Happy New Year & Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a fun and relaxing winter break!

Thank you so, so much for all of the kind and thoughtful gifts that you shared with me!

Here is an overview of what we will be working on for the next few weeks in 4th grade:

Reading & Writing:

This quarter the 4th grade will be reading and studying non-fiction texts in the context of historical events, as well as historical fiction in its application to real-world events. This unit offers the opportunity to combine ELA and Writing standards to maximize student engagement and take-away. The 4th grade uses the Civil Rights Movements of the United States from the Restoration Era to the 1960's as the content vehicle to deliver these lessons, focusing on major historical figures and events that contributed to the Movement. Students will begin learning about the real-world history of the Civil Rights Movement by reading non-fiction historical texts; we will be reading both 1st-hand and 2nd-hand accounts to give students factual background knowledge about the environment and factors that contributed to the Civil Rights Movement, identifying and ordering events and their consequences. Some of the events we will be reading about include:

• The Greensboro 4, and the Sit-Ins
• The Birmingham Riots
• The Selma March
• Martin Luther King, Jr., and his non-violent protests and influence
• Montgomery, Alabama
• The Washington, D.C. March and the I Have a Dream Speech

Math:

Week 1: Basic Fractions 3rd Grade Review

Week 2: Fractions (Equivalent, Unit Fractions)

Week 3: Fractions (Comparing)

Week 4: Fractions (Comparing)

Week 5: Decimals

Week 6: Fraction/Decimal Conversion

Week 7: Adding/Subtracting Fractions & Decimals

Week 8: Adding/Subtracting Fractions & Decimals

Week 9: Review & Assessment

Science:

We will begin the quarter with our brief but interesting unit about phases of the moon. This small unit focuses on the cause of day and night and how the appearance of the moon changes.

A few reminders:

 PLEASE remind your child to charge their computer each evening. Most days we use computers in class for at least one or two activities and things run much smoother if everyone has a working computer.

Please also help your child to remember to bring a sweatshirt or jacket each day. Unless it is extremely cold or raining we will be having outdoor recess.

Beginning this quarter there will be a slight change in our classroom behavior policy. For the first half of the year students who did not earn a strike (the yellow slips used as a consequence/home communication for breaking a classroom rule after being reminded of the rule) each day earned a dum dum at the end of the day. Now students who make it to the end of the day without getting any strikes will get a “Dolphin Dollar”. Over the next few weeks the students as students begin to accrue money they will help me determine a list of things to spend their Dolphin Dollars on. Some possibilities include:

• Wearing a hat for a day
• Working with their shoes off
• Sitting with a friend from another class at lunch
• Working in my reading chair
• Exemption from a lap at recess