Good Afternoon,  

Thank you for reading the first newsletter of the year!  This is where you will find important information about upcoming tests, special events, and our schedule for the week.

A big thank you for all of you who were able to attend Back to School Night!  Again, communication is essential to the success of your child's school year.  Please call me or email me anytime with questions or concerns or happy thoughts.

The PowerPoint, outline, 4th grade packet, enVision PPT, and other information are now up on the website.  Go to our page, click on "Forms and Documents" and you will find the resources in the "Back to School Night" folder.

Our first early release day of the school year is next Tuesday, August 27th.  Dismissal is at 2:00pm.

On Monday, your child will bring home the first round of our homework.  They will have a spelling list attached to their pre-test.  As discussed last night, if they score 90% or higher on the unit list, they will receive the challenge list.  All spelling lists are located on our class website under the "Assignments and Activities" tab.

Please hold off on going to the parent log in because we just figured out that you also need a parent code to sign up.  That is individual to each student and will be distributed late next week. 

A note from the new Strings teacher:  It was so great meeting your 4th graders yesterday.  I hope that you all received the Strings Enrollment Packet.  If your child chooses strings, please fill out and return the enrollment form as soon as possible.  When your child has his/her instrument, please send it to school.  I will put finger tapes on instruments next week.  We will meet for the first time as a class on September 5th.  Thank you for your support.

Have a wonderful weekend!

The Student will learn to:

ELA (English Language Arts): 

Reading: Life Stories

• refer to details and examples in a text to determine author's purpose.
• demonstrate understanding of synonyms in word meanings.
• use knowledge of adjective suffixes to read accurately unfamiliar words in context and out of context.  
• engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry our assigned roles during inquiry.

Writing:  Setting Up Writer's Workshop

• identify and produce different kinds of complete sentences (declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, & imperative).
• understand what Writer's Workshop should look like and sound like.
• "turn and talk" during Writer's Workshop.

Math: Multiplication and Division - Meanings and Facts

• recognize multiplication as repeated addition of equal groups used in arrays and comparisons.
• use patterns to find products with factors of 2, 5, and 9.
• use multiplication properties to simplify computations.
• use the Distributive Property to find products of the factors of 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 by breaking apart problems into simpler problems.
• recognize patterns and be able to continue the pattern.
• use and draw models to solve division problems.
• use arrays to write and complete multiplication and division fact families.
• identify multiplication facts related to division facts in order to solve division problems.  
• draw pictures to problem solve multiplication situations and use the pictures to write number sentences. 

Social Studies: Geography 

• use latitude and longitude to find locations.
• define key landforms and bodies of water.
• identify key parts of a world map.
• identify major physical features.

*Geography Unit Assessment 9/4/13 - Study guides will come home middle to late next week.

Monday - Day 2: Music

Tuesday - Day 3: Art

Wednesday - Day 4: Computers

Thursday - Day 5: Spanish/PE

Friday - Day 1: Spanish/PE

I will send Scholastic Book Club flyers home each month.  If you would like to order books, you can do so one of the following two ways: 

1. send the order form back in with a check
2. click the link below to order online with our class code - FZPKM 

I will close out each order at the end of each month and the books should arrive about a week later.  Thank you!