What's Happening in Room 34..........

Important Announcements:

• The students created our Class Mission Statement this past week. After brainstorming and discussing our expectations of 4th grade, the students and I developed the following mission statement below.  It will be displayed in our classroom and said orally each morning.

•  The mission of of our 4th grade class is to learn new things and build new friendships. We will do this by working hard, helping others and learning from our mistakes.  We commit to being kind to others, responsible, organized and positive.  We will do this so we can be the best we can be.

• Scholastic book orders are due this Friday.  You can send in the order or order through our class blog.  The link is a top tab. 

• The students came home with a school-wide leadership application on Friday.  If your child is interested in having a school-wide leadership role, the application needs to be completed and returned by September 1st. We will also have classroom leadership roles beginning in a couple of weeks.

• The students have completed their ALEKS pre-assessment.  I encourage students to work on ALEKS at home.  A good topic to start with is place value because it is our current topic in math.  If your child needs help with a concept, please help through the "explain" option and encourage your child to answer independently. Assisting too much with your child's progress on ALEKS will not be beneficial when he/she is completing a Knowledge Check on his/her own in the classroom.  All Knowledge Checks need to be completed in the classroom and not at home.

Dates to Remember:

Monday: Strings begin (your child's schedule has been e-mailed to you)
Tuesday:  Last day to turn in chicken coupons for the fundraiser

Friday:  Scholastic Book Orders Due
                Cookie dough fundraisers due

What's Happening in Our Room....

Reading Workshop:

• This week the students will continue to work on their reading stamina.  As a class, they have read without becoming distracted for 11 minutes!  Nice work!!  We will continue to work towards our class goal of 20 minutes.
• The students will brainstorm and write their personal "At Home Reading Plan".  It will be coming home this week to share with you.
• We will begin to study genres this week, and the students will begin documenting completed books in their reading notebook.

Writing Workshop:

• The students will continue to generate writing ideas through different activities.  Last week, the students created a Neighborhood Map and a Heart Map as they wrote down memories and things they love.  This week, the students will focus on special people in their lives.  

• The students have been working on their writing stamina in the classroom and enjoy sharing their writing!
• After reading the book, The Best Part of Me, the students will follow the same format and create a paragraph explaining their best part of themselves. We will create a class book with the published pieces.

Math:

• We will continue to work with place value this week.  They are expected to read numbers up to the millions place, identify each place value and the value of each digit.  They will be working on ordering and comparing larger numbers this week.
• The students will be tested over the 3's on Friday!  They should be practicing their facts every evening.

Science:

• We will begin our Earth Science Unit this week.  The students will learn about the layers of the earth and Pangaea as they do fun hands-on activities.