Happy Thursday! This has been a short week! We are trying very hard to get used to the routines of 4th grade. Some are really struggling and some are all ready there. The beginning of the year tends to be difficult getting them back in the swing of things. They have begun getting homework this week. I know I will be giving out late slips. It will be fine. They will learn quickly once they see the late slips going out. Please be patient with your students. Sign the slips for them but know that we are working on getting organized. Please be sure everything stays in the expanded file. The only times things are thrown away from them is if we do it at school. IF you think it's too full, have them come to me and I will help them clean it out. Many important items get tossed when parents clean out the folders. I am looking forward to a great year! Thank you for sharing your children with me.
Language Arts - We are finishing up our first story. It is a fun story. I was hoping the movie was still on Netflix so I could show it but it is not. Let's talk about spelling. I do not send a list of spelling words home each week for the students. They have a spot on their assignment book where they can write them. It also appears on the worksheets that come home on Tuesday and Thursday for homework. You are welcome to copy that. Because students all learn at different levels and certain spelling rules are harder for some then others, I change up my spelling for those who struggle. All students will take the pretest of 20 words on Monday. If they miss more than 10 words they will get a shortened list. I will give them a printout of the words and highlight 10 words that they will practice for Friday. Your student may get a shortened list one week but not another. I need for these lists to stay in their expanded file because we will pull them out and use them on Wednesdays. If you have any questions about spelling and how it works let me know. I have them students take their language arts tests online. We will be doing that every Friday.
We worked on prefixes re-, un-, and dis- this week, a little bit with subjects and predicates, and focused on nouns.
Math - We have been working on base ten blocks, and place value charts this week. The students struggle putting a number onto a place value chart. This is the basis for all math so I am not comfortable moving on. I like to be sure students are fulling grasping the concept before we go on. This chapter is meant for review but I am finding I may need to find some time to really review it. That's okay. I want them to learn, understand and feel confident about what they are doing. This may be a slow moving subject for a while.
Social Studies - We are reviewing the 5 regions of the United States. We are only covering the first lesson in chapter 1 because that is the most important. We will then move into chapter 2 and cover the whole chapter and test over it. This is focusing on the Government and other important things about the USA. I try to get us quickly to the regions so we can make sure we are focusing on the regions of the United States and learning those. We learn a lot with each region.
We have practiced our tornado drill and fire drill twice all ready. I walked them to our spots one day and then we have done a school wide practice for each. Today we will be doing a practice of walking to our "safe" place if there was an emergency that would cause us to evacuate the building. You should have received a letter from Mrs. Simmons about this. It could be as small as a train derailment to as big as a school shooter. I hate even saying that but we have to. In the world we live in, we just have to prepared for anything. We found out this summer you as families need to be prepared or thinking just when in Wal-Mart.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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