Hi, 4th Grade Parents! We have had a WONDERFULLY AWESOME second week
of school! It’s been super-busy as we
have transitioned into all the core classes, as well as beginning Specials!
Several reminders:
*Homework Folders will come home this afternoon filled with
graded work. Please empty these and
return the folder on Tuesday (usually Mondays!). Anything with a letter grade lower than a B
can be “redone” for half a credit per answer, and turned back in when they
return to school the next week. (Except
tests, please.) So far, everybody is doing very well and working very
hard!
*If you have not done so already, please send back in your
child’s Faith Alive Bible. (New
students received theirs this year!) We
use these almost daily during Religion class.
Thank you!
*Also, if you have not already sent in your signed Behavior,
Internet, and Handbook forms, please do so.
(This is the last page of the handbook.)
Thank you!
*Graded work is recorded on Sycamore. Please take time to see how your child is
doing. You will also be able to see
their missing assignments, and remind them to get their work in! This week has been very transitional, as I
have been learning how each child learns and works. The students are learning what lessons and
work time looks like in 4th grade.
Thank you for your patience and help with this.
*4th graders will be taking our MAP Growth Assessments
during the week of 9/9.
What is a MAP Growth Assessment?
It is a measure of what your student knows and how they
are growing academically. Timothy
Lutheran School will be assessing students three times each school year for
academic growth; early September, early January, and late April/early May. Our September testing window begins September
5th. If you would like to understand
more about this new tool for guiding us in the planning of our instruction,
take time to read the attached Family Guide to MAP Growth.
You may also find resources that include videos at this
site:
https://www.nwea.org/family-toolkit/
*The first PTL (Parent Teacher League) Meeting is right
around the corner! PTL provides a great opportunity to support Timothy through
fellowship and fundraising. This year, PTL is helping with the financial needs
of the TLS School Board’s strategic plans. We would love to have you join us!
The meeting is Tuesday, September 10th, at 6:00 PM. If you have any questions,
please email Kate Kuecker (kate@twitchetts.com)
*Oasis Family Night: Families, life is crazy busy and we all
long for some time to be restored, to reconnect, and to refresh. Join Timothy
Lutheran Ministries again this year for Oasis! Wednesday, September 11th from 6-7:30pm. Come
share a free meal, fellowship, and spend some time in God’s Word. It’s a little
Oasis in the midst of the busy. Please scan the QR code to RSVP by September
8th.
Here is what we have been up to this week:
RELIGION-We’ve been talking about Abram and Sarai, and God’s
many promises to Abraham, and to us. We
had the mature discussion about Abraham choosing not to wait on God’s timing on
his birth of a son, but to take matters into his own hands. Our God forgave Abraham, and while there were
consequences, He was able to turn those choices into blessings! We related this to our lives today. We discussed Jacob and Esau, and Jacob’s
family, and how we need to be careful in
our relationships with our families and friends. We need to love, serve, and honor one
another. We have been following our classroom
Bible timeline and discussing how each of these families leads to Jesus, our
Savior. Next week, we will focus on the
family of Joseph and on God’s many blessings in our lives.
At the beginning of the week, the kids write a prayer on a
piece of paper…something that is on their heart or mind. They can alter or change this prayer during
the week, as they need. At the closing
of each day, we pray these prayers! At
the end of the week, I pass out these prayers to the students. They don’t receive their own, so they can
pray for someone else all weekend…So, if you see these little slips of paper
coming home, that is what they are! How
blessed we are that we have the privilege to take our needs to God in
prayer!
MEMORY for Next Week:
9/3- Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility
against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” ~Hebrews 12:
1-3
9/6- The Old Testament
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
LANGUAGE ARTS- We read the first six chapters of the novel, Because
of Winn Dixie. We LOVE this story,
and have had some great discussions about character-building, and some fun
stories of antics of our pets! (I have
to say, every time I read this story, I think of my own pup…to me, she looks so
much like a black Winn-Dixie!) We
analyzed the characters, wrote summaries of the chapters, and studied the new
vocabulary words. We took our first
reading and spelling tests today and the students did very well! The students also received information about
their first book reports. They have each
picked out a Newbery Award winning book to read, and understand their
projects. This information should be in
their homework folders. We also worked on using editing symbols this week, as
we corrected sentences with grammatical and spelling errors, in something called
a DOL (Daily Oral Language). Busy, busy!
SPELLING WORDS for the Week of September 6th:
Story: “Because of Winn Dixie” (Chapters 7-15)
admire, magnet, contest, method, custom, rally, soccer,
engine, sudden, finger, accident, mitten, intend, fabric, flatten, rascal,
gutter, mammal, happen, cannon
Challenge Word:
concoction
MATH- This week, we finished up our chapter about what “Math
Is…” Yesterday, we began reviewing place value and the vocabulary words digit
and period. Next week, we will
work with putting numbers in standard, word, and expanded forms. We will also read numbers up through the
millions, and work with ordering numbers, and using place value to round. We have also been working hard on memorizing
our multiplication facts in class. We
are up to our 2’s! They are really
starting to realize the importance of learning these!
SCIENCE-We have been discussing ecosystems, communities,
organisms, and populations within our habitats here in Missouri. We discussed what plants need in order to
live and emphasized the space needed for both animals and plants to survive. We had short object lesson concerning space,
and how it would be hard to thrive without enough. Students wrote short stories called “A Day in
the Life of a Crowded Plant.” We shared these
in class. We also went on another nature
hike through our wetland, and took notes on living and non-living organisms
that we spotted. We looked for communities. I have some great scientists in here!
SPECIAL CLASSES
ART- We learned what a horizon line was and studied some
Expressionistic artists. We then drew
landscape drawings with a horizon line.
We will study primary, secondary, and tertiary colors next week and create
color wheels with tempera paint. Then,
we will begin painting in our horizon pictures with that Expressionistic
style!
MUSIC-We had our first classes with Mrs. Beckie
Hatcher! 4th grade is going to learn so
very much this year from this amazing teacher!
WRITERS' WORKSHOP- We read the story "How I Spent My Summer
Vacation" and discussed sequencing and chronological order. We then talked about our own summer vacations
and began writing down important events and are going to shape these into our
won written work.
COMPUTER LAB-We learned how to log into the school laptops,
and how to create a document on Google Docs.
Each student wrote a friendly letter to me, (with all 5 parts), and I am
in the process of wring all of them back!
Only our class shares a Google Docs account under my name. Your child is welcome to use this at
home. Please just send me a private email,
and I will send you the information to log in at home. We have promised one another that we will be
gracious and respectful of each other’s private folders within this account, as
we publish and work on our written work here in our classroom this year.
P.E.-This week we learned the correct way to stretch, run
our laps, and we reviewed body skills like skipping, galloping, hopping,
jumping, crab walk, grapevine, and bear walk.
We had some fun in relay races!
This was such a FUN week!
As always, thank you for your prayers and guidance as we travel through
this school year together. Have a
wonderful and safe, LONG Labor Day weekend!
God’s Blessings!
Kim
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