September 3- 6

I hope that everyone enjoyed their long weekend.  For our short week this week, we have a lot to do!  Buckle up, and here we go!

In Math, students will work on counting money and making change, comparing and ordering money, rounding numbers and money, and making tables.  All concepts will be reviewed and placed in their Math Notebooks.  You may ask your child about the notebook and take a look at the concepts being addressed with your child's progression on each concept.

This week in Science, we begin reading chapter 2.  We will test by Friday.  Please understand that these are open book tests.  After we have covered the lessons, students are still able to use the book to assist them in testing.

In Reading, we will continue with Sarah, Plain and Tall and the Literature Circle jobs that accompany it.  We will address the Memo Master.  This "job" is writing a letter to or as a character in the story.  This addresses the letter format and familiarity with the characters.  Next, students will work on Intellectual Illustrator.  This asks the students to pick a passage that helps them paint a picture in their minds.  They then illustrate and tell why they chose this passage.  Finally, students will work on Discussion Director.  This "job" has students write open-ended questions.  These are questions that do not have "yes" or "no" answers.  These questions promote deeper thinking and, hopefully, and strong discussion about the reading.  Finally, students will complete Literary Luminary.  This asks students to take a deeper look at a passage that may evoke a certain emotion.  Hopefully the students are enjoying their work with these jobs, as well as the text itself.

In Writing, students will look at what writer's write.  (We didn't get to this last week)  We will then dive into the grammar skill of capitalization.  Students in the fourth grade need to know to capitalize the pronoun "I", states, countries, counties, proper nouns, holidays (not seasons), the words at the beginning of a sentence.  They will complete a series of lessons in the classroom and then write a brochure for Disney World, addressing each capitalization rule that we address in class.

We will begin Spelling this week.  We will use the Sitton Spelling program which focuses on spelling patterns.  Tests will not be on any certain day, but as we finish addressing certain concepts.