God's Most Amazing Creatures...: It was a WONDERFUL first week of school!

Hello, 4th grade parents! We have had a WONDERFUL first week of school!

The students have learned many new routines and have played some fun games to get to know one another. We have eased into the transition of all the core classes, with the exception of Reading and Spelling. We will begin that on Monday! I have had so much fun getting to know your kiddos. This group is so creative, excited to learn, and truly care for one another. I am so proud to be their teacher already! We have welcomed our new kiddos with open arms, and are becoming a little classroom family. :) It is such a beautiful thing to witness. Besides all of the fun we have had, I have highlighted just a few things below that we have learned this week:

RELIGION- This week, we began studying and learning from our new Religion books! We discussed the Creation Story, and the Fall into Sin. We learned how the days of Creation are connected, and how God’s intricate plan is awesome! We discussed the vocabulary words about God: He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent! (Please ask your kiddo what those mean!) We discussed our blessings, and read Bible verses sharing the power of God. Last year, all full-time students received Faith Alive Bibles from school. Please send these back to school because we will use these every day in Religion class. Our new full-time students received a new one this week. By the end of this school year, your kiddo will be a pro at looking at and finding Bible verses, with their favorites highlighted or underlined.

Our first memory verses are our theme for the school year: “Endure” FROM Hebrews 12: 1-3.

Next week’s MEMORY:

8/27-“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

8/30- “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

LANGUAGE ARTS- We used our reading and writing skills when we created our time capsules, which we will put away and get back out in May to see our many changes. We traced our hands and feet. We also filled on surveys about our Favorite Things, wrote a letter to our future selves, took a mad minute, and created selfies. We practiced a lot of cursive this week, and reviewed the letters l, h, k, i, e, u, j, and p. The students were introduced to Judy Blume, the Author of the Month, this week, and they love her! We read Freckle Juice and began Tales if a Fourth Grade Nothing.

Next week, we will have our first Literature unit (Because of Winn Dixie), and we will have our first spelling test next Friday. Spelling words, and our challenge word will come home on Monday in the assignment books. They will always be in this weekly note, and they are online for you to access on our blog. I ask that your child take their reading book home at least once a week to review the story at home. We will read it here several times, as well. We will have a comprehension test over the selections on Fridays as well. Next week, we will also begin English, where we will identify complete and incomplete sentences. Monday the students will also receive information about book reports, when they are due, and what is expected. They are reading Newbery Award winning books. I know that is a lot of information…So, please let me know if you have any questions! Thank you!

SPELLING WORDS for the Week of August 30^th:

Story: "Because of Winn Dixie" (Chapters 1-7)

blade, gray, past, afraid, magic, delay, amaze, drain, maybe, break, sale, hang, stain, glass, raft, jail, crayon, fact, stale, steak, fraction, trait

Challenge Word: peculiar

MATH- We took our first mad minutes and I assessed where each child was in this process. Many of them already know their multiplication facts, and that is wonderful! We completed some Problem Solvers, which takes real world math problems, and breaks them down, so that they can solve and experience them. This is such good practice! We also finished our first two lessons in our new math books. We talked about how we are math “superheroes” and what our math talents are. We also reviewed simple fractions and how they are a big part of our world. Next week, we will finish up the chapter called “Math in My World” and begin the chapter about “Place Value.”

SCIENCE-We began reading about how our world is connected in our science books from the Missouri Department of Conservation. We learned the difference between living and non-living things. We went on a field investigation and looked within our schoolyard to find all evidence of living and non-things outside. We recorded these in our field journals. We saw a bullfrog, some killdeer, and spotted Swamp Milkweed, Blue Vervain, and American Pokeweed around our school. (Thank goodness for plant-identifying apps!) ;)

ART-We created funny Cursive Creatures and self-portraits with a “Who Am I?” riddle! Check these out in the hallway!

As a reminder, HOMEWORK FOLDERS will come home this afternoon filled with graded work. There was not much this week, but I wanted the kiddos to get into the habit of placing work there. If a paper just has a star on it, please know that it was looked at or discussed, but it was not for a letter grade in the grade book. All papers with percentages on them are put in the gradebook. Please empty these and return the folder on Monday. Although we did not have very many assignments this week, anything with a letter grade B or below can be “redone” for half credit per answer, and turned back in on Monday. So far, everybody is doing very well and working very hard!

Next week, SPECIAL CLASSES begin! We will begin Writers’ Workshop, Art, P.E., Music, and Computers.

Have a blessed weekend!

Kim

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