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Hi there. I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. It is nice to have cool weather and not so much smoke in the air these days.
This week is going to be packed. We are going to start our new small groups in reading, which means all that practice of completing a to do list in a given amount of time while Ms. Erickson is working with small groups is going to come into play WITHOUT Ms. Erickson reminding kids to use their time wisely. For some, this may be more difficult than for others. Some, may be taking home more homework this week. Once they figure out how to use their time in class wisely (every single second) they should have no problem finishing everything in class. But, it is new, so it may take some getting used to. We have practiced some, but now we will see how the real deal goes. :0)
Spelling words this week are homophones. These are tough because not only do they have to spell them correctly, but they also have to use the correct form in the correct situation. I will send home the sentences I will read during the test. Please use these or others you make up while quizzing kids this week. Even if they spell the word correctly this Friday, if they don't have the correct homophone in the correct blank then I will have to mark it wrong. Remember: homophones sound the same but are spelled differently and mean different things. Thanks for your extra help on these this week.
In math we will take our Ch. 1 test on Monday. Wow! That was pretty quick for all those skills. Never fear, we will always continue to practice those skills throughout the year to avoid test and forget syndrome. We will spend the rest of the week estimating, over and under, and brushing up on our adding and subtracting skills with and without a calculator.
In science, we will finish up our hurricane art with Mrs. Hankin's class on Tuesday. We will also finish up our Hurricane Hunter unit/story. Ask your child what a hurricane hunter does. If you would like to be a hurricane hunter write YES in the planner. If not write NO in the planner. Those that have it will earn $20 on Monday. Let's see how many brave parents we have out there!!! We will end up the week taking a look at how the weather can fuel wildfires. Boy, this one should hit home!!
In SS, we are reading to move on in both MT History and our Regional Studies. Kids were told they could bring home their Fallen Rock books (if they bought them) for you to share all over again with them. I spoke with the author this weekend and he said the next book is coming out in January!! How cool is that??? He said there is a lot more with Valor the wolf in Part 2. COOOOOOOOL! I can't wait to get my hands on that one. Now that we have traveled across the US with Fallen Rock and Running Water we are now ready to dive into breaking up the US regions and studying those states in each one. That means, starting not this week but the next, you will see states and capitals of the region we are currently studying come home and posted on the side of this blog. Kids will need to learn them by memory. They will be quizzed on each unit. The quizzes will be matching so spelling is not a concern in the 4th grade. Kids will look at a numbered blank map. They will have to match the number with the correct state. Then next to each state, they will have to write the matching capital from a word list. At the end of the 4th grade it is expected that kids know all 50 state locations and their state capitals. I will post games they can play to practice this when we get closer to the big 50 test. We also have a fun song that helps remember them. BUT...the best way is to have flashcards made at home and practiced. Keep practicing the old ones too so they stay fresh in kids heads. Why do we do this??? Well one, it is required, and two, kids will hear states and capital names daily in the news for the rest of their lives. It is more meaningful to kids throughout their life into adulthood to be able to place the location of the US when hearing it on the news. I know I sure wish my teachers would have drilled them into my head when I was a kid. It is much harder to learn them as an adult, and there are times I honestly still find myself looking at a map. We will start on the NE side of the US and work our way across.
In MT History, we will quiz out of the basics and dive into the Native Americans that were here long before us. We will continue to fill up our notebooks with fun activities. Kids will get a review sheet for the quiz on Tuesday tomorrow. They will have time to fill it out in class tomorrow. They may NOT bring home their notebook EVER! If they lose it or forget it, it is way too hard to start over or catch up when they bring it back. Please practice the review tomorrow night (that will be their homework). Kids will take the test on Tuesday. They had a lot of fun building these items in class, so remembering them should not be difficult at all. They do not need to know how to spell them perfectly. As long as I can figure them out it is fine. However, if you want them to spell them correctly that is up to you. :0) There are some hard ones though.
In language, we will work with plural nouns ending in a y. KIds will need to know how to spell them correctly using the rules for y plural nouns. We will also learn to identify if a plural noun is regular or irregular.
In CC meeting, we will finish up our character warrior unit with a really fun project. Kids need to bring in their cardboard if they still haven't. A HUGE thank you to all those that have brought in extra and a HUGE HUGE favor to Robby's grandpa for the cardboard sheet donations! Kids will be making their very own character shield. On the shield they will be writing a goal for each character trait for the year. These goals will allow them to grow in specific areas and raise that EQ to a fourth grade level, which means that their maturity level should go up! Yay! They will then decorate and mount their paper shield onto a cardboard one with handles in the back. We will cover them in tinfoil. I know I have some tinfoil at school, but if you have extra or feel like donating a roll I am sure we could use more. Finally, we will be making ourselves into knights. I have taken a head shot of each child to be printed out. They will then mount that on paper and use a knight costume I have printed off to knight themselves up! Too cute. Can't wait for you to see all of these in the hall when you come for your parent teacher conference at the beginning of November. Both 4th grades will be doing this.
Last Friday, I brought in donuts and Sunny D orange juice for a special treat. I do this every once in awhile when I notice kids have built up a lot of cash. I then offer it to kids for a price of their fake money. This one was $500. Now, kids were shocked at the high price, but I told them that this is for kids that have gone above and beyond the call of duty and deserve to buy it. We also talked IN LENGTH that they have three field trips coming up. two of which they have to buy into for $500 each. So, I told them to budget and put that money aside. Then to look at what they had left and decide if they wanted to buy into breakfast. We talked about how sometimes, even as adults, we buy things before we pay our bills and then we find ourselves in trouble. We talked about how responsible people pay their bills first then see what they have leftover for fun. Tough lesson. I had MANY buy in, so hopefully everyone took my advise. I do know that so many kids have a lot of money (into the thousands), so I wasn't that surprised honestly. These are good kids and they deserve a treat on me every once in awhile. Ask your child how much money they have in the wallet right now. Ask them if they bought a donut and juice on Friday. Have a real world discussion on it together. If you do this, write MONEY in the planner for another $30 reward.
We ended last week by playing bean bag horseshoes for our team building activity. As you can hear on the video, they were working on the skill of cheering on people from the opposite team and encouraging all members to do their personal best. Sounds like they got it. They are really getting into these team building activities!!!
Lastly, weekly reports came home on Friday. Please sign and return only the front page on Monday. Those that do will earn $50. Those that don't will move their owl. Please discuss the checked areas with your child so they know strategies they can use to correct these behaviors. I am proud of all kids, and I am seeing so much improvement in behaviors already! Thanks for being on the Erickson team!!! I couldn't do it without you!
Well, my fingers are worn out from typing. :0) Have a wonderful Sunday!
Ms. Erickson
