Janice Earnest

November 9, 2009

Two weeks until Thanksgiving!  Wow!  We are moving right along in here! 

I am sending home an AR print out in your child's folder today.  Hopefully you find several AR test have been taken with a score of 80% or above.  If your child is taking AR tests but failing them, this will only lower their total percentage thus hindering them from receiving the AR money.  The reading log is a great tool in encouraging your child to read on a daily basis. 

There is also a field trip form in this weeks folder.  Please notice our field trip to the Youth Museum is not until Monday, 12/14.  We will be returning to the school in time to eat lunch here so no sack lunches are needed for this trip.  If you are interested in chaperoning, please let me know.

We wrote in our agendas the specials calendar for the rest of 2009.  Now that sounds strange - doesn't it?   If the days change again we will change them in our agendas. BUT hopefully we are good until after Christmas Break.

Academically:

• math - division - keep practicing multiplication facts
• English - nouns (singular, plural, common, proper)  verbs ( linking, helping, action, tenses)
• Reading - Wordly Wise #7, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
• Spellng - sort 13
• Science - simple machines
• Soc St - Explorers (Study Guide will go home on Thursday, 11/12)

Tests this Week:

• Friday, 11/13                              Grammar
• Friday, 11/13                              Spelling
• Wednesday, 11/18                      Wordly Wise
• Thursday, 11/19                         Social Studies, Explorers

Dates to Remember:

• Tuesday, 11/10                          Chick-fil-a Night
• Wednesday, 11/11                     Veteran's Day Breakfast
• Friday, 11/13                             Hat Day/Spirit Day
• Friday, 11/13                             Fall Festival
• Monday, 11/16                           Stevie B's Night
• 11/23 - 11/27                            Thanksgiving Holidays

November 2, 2009

Can you believe we are already into November?   WOW!!!!!  We have three weeks until Thanksgiving Break! So little time, so much to get done!

You are only getting this newsletter today.  Graded papers will come home on Wednesday.  Remember tomorrow is a teacher workday, so no school for the children. 

We have four students running for Student Council.  They are Jorden Powser, Luke Catton, Morgan Joiner, and Hailee Worth.  We will vote as a class on Friday, 11/6 for our Student Council Rep.  Good Luck to all!

We had such a fun time on Friday with our masks.  Thanks to all who helped make this fun time such a success!  We even sang to our Book Buddies at the end of the day.  It was a lot of fun.

Academic this week:

• Math - multiplication 3 digit x 2 digit, beginning division
• English - finishing verbs, plural nouns
• Reading - main idea with Gooseberry Park and Wordly Wise #5
• Spelling - Sort 12
• Science - Force and Motion\
• Social Studies - Explorers

Tests this week:

• Wednesday, 11/4                              Wordly Wise #6
• Thursday, 11/5                                 Science Quiz over notes
• Friday, 11/6                                     Grammar Test
• Friday, 11/6                                     Spelling Test

Important Dates:

• Tuesday, 11/3                                 Teacher Workday
• Thursday, 11/5                                PTSA General Meeting
• Friday, 11/6                                    Spirit/Hat Day, AR Store, Student Council Elections
• 11/23 - 11/27                                  Thanksgiving Holidays

October 26, 2009

Thanks to all who have sent in supplies for our mask making project.  We can't wait to trick or treat our fourth grade classes on Friday afternoon!  We will be making our masks Wednesday and Thursday.  We will work on them a little each day.

Fire Safety finished up today and ran a little differently than I had planned.  The firefighter checked their books with them and then administered the post test letting them use their corrected workbooks.  Needless to say, their grades should be really good!  Hopefully I will have those back to you in next Monday's folder.

I have met with many of you already and have enjoyed the time getting to know  you.  If you have not met with me yet and would like to set up a time, just let me know and I will work out a time to meet.

I have really been stressing neatness with the class.  Your child has two upcoming grades that are a matter of copying correctly and neatness.  One is the Social Studies Chart on Indians.  I will take up the chart on the day of the test and grade it.  I am looking for accuracy in notes taken on the chart and neatness.  I have offered the students blank charts if they wanted to recopy their old one and make it neater.  This is also a good way to study for the quiz.  The other grade will be in reading.  We are making a main idea/setting booklet for our novel.  I am writing the main idea and setting on a piece of chart paper.  The students will once again be graded on accuracy and neatness.

On Friday, 10/30 I will take up reading logs for the month and issue new ones for November.  Please be sure to have your child's reading signed and turned in by Friday.  Also Monthly Memorization will be Friday as well.  For those of you who have memorized The Star Spangle Banner, be ready to recite it on Friday and receive your $50.

This week academically:

• Math - multiplying a two digit number by a two digit number (Keep working on those facts!)
• English - verb tenses
• Spelling - sort 11
• Reading - Wordly Wise #6 and Gooseberry Park (main idea and setting)
• Social Studies - Native American Indians (Students finished filling out their charts on Friday and will be tested on Thursday.  There is also a map that shows the locations of each Indian Tribe studied.  Know the chart and the map)
• Science -  forces and motion

Dates to remember:

• Friday, 10/30                             Spirit Day
• Friday, 10/30                             Mask Parade
• Tuesday, 11/3                            Teacher Workday
• 11/23 - 11/27                             Thanksgiving Holidays

October 13, 2009

Well it looks like the "bug" has finally hit home.  And what an ugly bug it is!  I hope that I will have my voice back soon.  It is very challenging figuring out ways of communicating with little sound.  But today was a good day.  The children have been very kind and gracious.  I am very thankful for their behavior today.

You will find a couple of flyers in the Monday Folder.  One pertains to Fire Safety with important instructions and due dates.  Please notice that page 2-3 and 11 of the Fire Safety booklet are due Friday, 10/16.  The quizzes that go with sections 2 - 6 will be due Thursday, 10/22.  Remember this is a huge part of your child's health grade for the 2nd nine weeks. The words to memorize from the Star Spangled Banner are on the second flyer.  Children must say the title and author's name before reciting the first verse. 

Our Fire Safety field trip is Monday.  I have received permission slips from all the students!  If you volunteered to chaperone for this field trip you more than likely will have to provide your own transportation.  We will be leaving the school around 9:00 AM and returning around 1:45.  We will eat our lunches at the Safety Village.  Remember to wear tennis shoes and girls are not to wear skirts or dresses.  Parents chaperoning will want to bring their own lunches as well.  We will have an ice chest for our classroom to keep things cool.

Picture Retakes are Friday.  If you were absent the day of pictures, you will have your picture taken Friday for the year book.  Also report cards go home on Friday.  I sent out an email during the flood about meeting with parents after report card distribution.  I have heard from of few of you.  I can meet after school until 3:30 on Mon, Wed, Thurs, and Fri.  On Tuesday, 10/20 I will be available until 4:15.  I have to leave and pick up my own children in the afternoons.  But over the course of the next couple of weeks I would like to meet with you and discuss your child's report cards, strengths, what we need to work on, etc.  Let me know what works best for you and I will send you a time and date. 

Academics this week:

• Math - multiplication (know those facts) and decimals
• English - verbs (helping, linking, action and tenses)
• Reading - Wordly Wise #5 and Gooseberry Park
• Spelling - Sort 9
• Science - Force and Motion
• Social Studies - Native American Indian Charts (will need to know for quiz)
• Health - vision and hearing

Upcoming Tests:

• Friday, 10/16                           Spelling and Grammar
• Wednesday, 10/21                   Wordly Wise #5
• Thursday, 10/22                       Native American Indian Quiz

Dates to Remember:

• Friday, 10/16                           Spirit Day/Hat Day
• Friday, 10/16                           Picture Retakes
• Friday, 10/16                           Report Cards
• 10/19 - 10/23                          Bus Driver Appreciation Week
• Monday, 10/19                         Fire Safety Field Trip
• Wednesday, 10/21                   Early Release

October 5, 2009

Well, we are starting to see signs of the sick bug in our room.  I have stressed the importance of washing our hands before we put them near our face and not sharing snack or lunch with our friends. With that said, if your child is absent due to illness for a lengthy period of time, please feel free to come up to the school and get their missed assignments.  I am not always on top of things, but I will take the time to gather your child's assignments together so they will not get too far behind.  Hopefully I am not talking too many of you!

I am sending home a reading log today.  I hope this will encourage your child to read at home.  Your child will receive a dollar a day for reading at least 20 min and having your initials on the chart for everyday your child reads.  I will take these up at the end of each month.

We are also going to start having a monthly memorization.  I will pay each student $50 to memorize the saying, important document, song of the month.  This month's memorization will be the Star Spangled Banner.  Now parents, I am not talking about the cute way our children sang this song at the ball games, I am talking about word for word memorization.  The deadline for this will also be Oct. 30.  When your child is ready to say the memorization he/she just has to tell me and we will go from there.

Don't forget we are collecting snacks for our firemen this week.  Please have snacks to the school by Thursday.  Snacks will be delivered Thursday afternoon.

This week academically:

• English - irregular verbs
• Spelling - Sort 8
• Reading - finish Wordly Wise #4, Reading Groups
• Math - multiplication
• Science - Weather (2 worksheets for grades this week) Tale of Two Cities graphs were due today

• Social Studies - Native American Unit starting with the Inuit Tribe

Tests this week:

• Wednesday, 10/7                               Wordly Wise #4
• Friday, 10/7                                       Spelling and Grammar

Dates to Remember:

• Tuesday, 10/6                                   Chick-fil-a Night

• Wednesday, 10/7                              Walk to School Day

• Thursday, 10/8                                  PTSA Meeting

• Friday, 10/9                                      Spirt Day/Hat Day

• Friday, 10/16                                    Report Cards go home

• Monday, 10/19                                  Field Trip for Fire Safety

• Wednesday, 10/21                            Early Release

September 28, 2009

Hopefully this will be a "normal" week!  The class did a great job coming back in on Thursday and settling down.  We got a lot done in our three day week!  This week we are going to be working hard and covering a lot of ground.

Thank you to the parents who came in and helped us with our apple tasting.  It was so much fun!  I think some of the children enjoyed the dips more than the apples, but needless to say they ATE!!!! We played a fun game of Apple Millionaire and it was amazing the apple facts we learned.  We had some pretty smart parents helping us with the answers (Mrs. Heckstall!)

I am really stressing to the children the importance of reading.  When your child comes to fourth grade the best way to increase their reading skills is for them to READ!!!!!!!!!!!!  I know to some reading is not a pleasure.  Trust me, I have a son where this is the case.  I just finally had to make a designated time for him everyday to read.  He started reading before he went to bed at night and believe it or not, my sophmore in high school will read for pleasure!!!!!!!!!  We had to search high and low for books he liked, but we did it together.  Point is, I'm not as concerned with AR points as I am concerned that your child finds books that he/she likes and wants to read.  I want them to improve with their reading skills and enjoy reading at the same time.

I don't know if your child told you or not about free doughnuts!!!!!  Doughnut was a spelling word last week and it reminded me of the deal that Krispy Kreme has.  For up to six A's on a report card your child can receive 6 free doughnuts (any flavor)!  So with my three children we sometimes get up to 18 free doughnuts!!!!!!!!!  Just for you FYI.

This week in Academics:

• Math - graphing and multiplication (work on those facts)
• English - Verbs (action, helping, linking, present, past, future)
• Spelling - sort 7
• Reading - George's Marvelous Medicine - hopefully we will finish this week and start another novel next week, look for a grade on inferencing this week
• Science - Water/water cycle/weather - Students are recording temperatures for 2 cities in the US (Buckhannon, WV and New York City, NY) as well as making a bar graph.  The students will be recording temperatures each day at school from weather.com.  I am keeping a chart in my room with the recorded temperatures if your child misses a Saturday or Sunday.  This project is due Monday, 10/5.
• Social Studies - we are finishing up economics and will test on Thursday, 10/1.  The students received their study guides last week so that they could begin to prepare for the quiz.  We will be starting our Indians unit on Friday. 

Upcoming Tests:

• Thursday, 10/1                      Economics Quiz
• Friday, 10/2                          Spelling Sort 7
• Friday, 10/2                          Grammar (look in DOL notebooks for what is to be on quiz)
• Monday, 10/5                        Science Project Due
• Wednesday, 10/7                  Wordly Wise #4

Dates to Remember:

• Friday, 10/2                         Spirit Day/Hat Day
• 10/5 - 10/9                          Public Safety Appreciation Week (see orange flyer)
• Tuesday, 10/6                      Chick - fil -a Night
• Friday, 10/16                       Report Cards
• Monday, 10/19                     Fire Safety Field Trip
• Wednesday, 10/21               Early Release

September 15, 2009

We are continuing to step up to the plate in our room.  I am really stressing right now for the students to take pride in their work and check over every diretion and written word before turning in a paper.  I am seeing a lot of careless work and it is starting to impact grades.  Fourth grade is a big year and we are going to rise to the occasion.

Progress Reports will be coming home Monday, 9/21.  Please look for these in your child's Monday Folder next week.  Grade averages as well as behavior grades will be on these reports.  You will need to sign and return your child's Progress Report the next day.

Volunteers are needed for the Media Center.  Drop in or come by to sign up.  We appreciate any time you can offer.  (7:00 AM - 3:00 PM)  Please contact Wendy or Julia in the media center if you have any questions.

This week in academics:

• Math - expressions and input/output
• English - we will be starting verbs and continue with subject/predicate
• Reading - George's Marvelous Medicine, Wordly Wise #3
• Spelling - Sort 5
• Science - Water cycle/weather (project on water cycle due Thursday) Students will begin to chart weather for two cities using weather.com
• Social Studies - finishing map skills, starting economics

Tests this week:

• Wednesday, 9/16                          Map Skills Test
• Thursday, 9/17                             States of Matter- Water Cycle Quiz
• Friday, 9/18                                 Spelling Sort 5
• Friday, 9/18                                 Grammar (look in DOL notebook for items on quiz)
• Wednesday, 9/23                         Wordly Wise #3

Dates to Remember:

• Wednesday, 9/16                        Picture Retake
• Friday, 9/16                               Ident-A-Kid
• Friday, 9/16                               Spirit Day

September 8, 2009

I don't know about any of you, but I actually labored on Labor Day!  So much for sitting and relaxing on this Labor Day Holiday!  I did get to sleep in as I hope all of you did and caught up on some ZZZ's. 

We had a great store on Friday.  Thank you so much for your donations.  The only things we really need right now are sodas both big can and little can.  What a treat!

I am really working with the children right now on being responsible and taking pride in their work.  Please help me with this by checking your child's homework at night and encouraging your child to give their best.  I continually stress to them that when they put their name on their paper it is a representation of who they are. 

Fourth Grade will start fire safety on October 12.  There will be a field trip for fire safety this year on October 19, from 10:00 - 1:00.  It is by Jim Miller Park.  We will leave the school about 9:15 and return around 1:45.  Your child can buy a sack lunch or bring one from home.  The choices from the cafeteria will be turkey/cheese or PBJ.  Parents may attend for free, but will need to be prepared to provide their own transportation.  Let me know if you will be interested in going.

In this week's folder you should find graded: grammar quiz, math quiz, science quiz, and spelling test.  If you are missing any of these grades let me know.  I'm going to try to remember to put what graded papers will be in your child's folder each week.  This way, papers cannot be "accidentally" lost.

This week in academics;

• math - graphing and expressions
• English - subject and predicate
• reading - George's Marvelous Medicine
• spelling - Sort 4
• science - water cycle weather ( no quizzes this week, but be prepared for a quiz at anytime over notes in the future)
• social studies - map skills - finishing unit and will be starting economics

Tests this week:

• Wednesday, 9/9                          Wordly Wise
• Friday, 9/11                                Spelling Sort 4
• Friday, 9/11                                Grammar Quiz (check DOL notebooks)
• Wednesday, 9/16                        Social Studies Map Quiz (study guides in binder)      

Dates to remember:

• Friday, 9/11                               Spirit Day/Hat Day

August 31, 2009

We are going strong in Fourth Grade!  We talked about the importance of giving 100% everyday and making wise choices that will help us mature into fourth graders.  Fourth Grade is a big year for students.  Not only does the work load increase and more quizzes are taking place, but it is a big year for responsibility and organization.  I am very glad to see that every child in this room has a binder with dividers.  Just a heads up to those who are continuing to find organization a bit of a challenge, the dividers with pockets are the best.  This way if holes are not punched in worksheets handed out, the child can put it in the pocket of their divider for that subject.   I am working diligently at teaching your child organization skill and following directions.  We have come along way in these past few weeks and we have a long way to go.  Rest assured I am with your child each step of the way.

AR is up and running!  We will start taking AR tests and our classroom quilt will be beautiful.  Please make sure reading is a daily activity in your child's life.  It is the number one way to improve reading comprehension.

Please look for any papers from PTA to come home on Thursdays.  This will now be the designated day to send home information from our PTA.  So check your child's binder each Thursday for any important information from our PTA.

This week in academics:

• Math - Estimating sum and difference
• English - common and proper nouns
• Spelling - Sort 3
• Reading - Shared Reading -George's Marvelous Medicine, Wordly Wise #3, Guided Reading - Hurricanes
• Science - Scientific Method, Water Cycle and Weather
• Social Studies - Map Skills

Upcoming Tests:

• Friday, 9/4                                 Spelling Sort #3
• Friday, 9/4                                 Grammar (types of sentences, common/proper nouns)
• Wednesday, 9/9                         Wordly Wise #3
• Thursday, 9/10                           Map Skills Quiz

Dates to Remember:

• Tuesday, 9/1                              Chick-fil-a Night
• Thursday, 9/3                            Target Parent Meeting  6:00 PM   Media Center
• Thursday, 9/3                             PTA Meeting
• Friday, 9/4                                 Spirit Day, Hat Day
• Monday, 9/7                              Labor Day

August 25, 2009

It was great to see most of you at Open House.  I hope you all left more informed and more excited about fourth grade.  Fourth grade is a big year and responsibility is a key to being a success this year.  I hope you all will work with me in preparing your child for the next step in their education.

We covered Wordly Wise today in class and the test tomorrow.  I even provided them with an example on the LCD projector of what the test would be like tomorrow.  We made flash cards and corrected section D today.  Starting the Wordly Wise #2, your child will be bringing Wordly Wise home every night even if they finished it in class.  Please check over this with your child and then return it the next day.  It should come home in the reading section of their binder and should come back in the reading section of their binder.  Several children are rushing to finish Wordly Wise during class time and not taking the time to fill in with correct answers.  Hopefully this will solve that problem and also prepare them in advance for the test on the following Wednesday.

We do have tests in fourth grade that require study time and effort.  I will type in upcoming tests on every newsletter so please look for these dates so that you have ample time to study with your child.  Spelling and Grammar will be every Friday and Wordly Wise will be every other Wednesday.  Science and Social Studies will be announced in advance.

To study for Grammar Quizzes use your child's DOL notebooks.  Any notes or worksheets we have worked on during the week to prepare for upcoming quizzes will be in there.  Also look at sentence corrections from Monday - Thursday of the correct week.  We are on Week 3 this week.

We had a great store on Friday.  The children really seemed to enjoy it.  I hope this encourages them to give 100% everyday.  Thank you all for your donations!  It was great!

Academically this week:

• Math - comparing numbers and rounding
• English - common and proper nouns
• Reading - The Magic Finger, Hurricanes     Reading Skill - sequencing and inference
• Spelling - Sort 2  (look for word list in binders)
• Science - Water cycle and Weather
• Social Studies - Map Skills

Upcoming Tests:

• Wednesday, 8/26                                    Wordly Wise #1
• Friday, 8/28                                            Spelling
• Friday, 8/28                                            Grammar

Dates to Remember:

• Thursday, 8/27                                      Picture Day
• Monday, 8/31                                        AR Kick Off     4th/5th 1:30 - 2:00
• Tuesday, 9/1                                        Chick-fil-a   Night