I can’t believe that it’s already the end of September! I am very proud of this class for putting forth so much effort in school, and being kind, responsible students! Also, it was nice seeing so many parents at Back to School Night on Thursday evening. Thank you for all of your continued support!
*Important Announcements For This Week*
*MAP Testing: We will conclude our MAP testing this week. The MAP tests stand for “Measures of Academic Progress,” and are personalized assessments adapted to each student’s learning level. We will take the Math MAP test on Wednesday 9/26. Your child does not need to study for these tests. We will begin testing promptly at 8:30 each day. Thank you for your help with this!
*Important Forms Needed: Some families have important forms that still need to be completed and sent back signed. I put out copies of these forms on Thursday night, or if you were unable to come on Thursday night they were sent home with your child on Friday. Please return the green Student Information Record and/or the HCPS Code of Conduct on Monday.
*Stinger Fund: Safety continues to be Short Pump Elementary’s number 1 priority. This year we hope that you can support us in this effort. Please consider donating to the Stinger Fund, which is made up of direct donations to support instruction as well as safety. We need to raise at least $15,000 collectively to reach our goal. The way we figure it is if each family in class donates at least $25, it will cover instructional materials of my classroom that the PTA financially provides each year and allows each class to have its own walkie talkie, an enhanced security measure. Thank you for your support with this!
*Gifted Information Meeting for Parents: Our school will hold a Gifted Identification Information Session for families on Wednesday, 9/26 at 9:00 am in the cafeteria.
*What Are We Learning In Class?*
*Language Arts:
During our whole group lessons this week we will continue to work on specific reading skills and strategies. This week we will begin working on identifying the main idea in nonfiction. We will learn a strategy called “VIP” where students will learn to look for a “Very Important Part” and not focus on the small details that may not be as important. I will model this for students while we read a text altogether, and then they will have the chance to practice using a graphic organizer. Later in the week we will use the “boxes and bullets” strategy to organize our main idea and details. This is a great strategy for students to use as they read nonfiction and one that I hope to see them use throughout the year. I have found that it really helps students understand nonfiction text when they can organize their thoughts into a graphic organizer.
On Friday, students will complete a nonfiction comprehension assessment on the computer.
During the week, we will also continue practicing our small group rotations. We will practice “Read to Self” and “Work on Writing” in class, remembering the expectations that we discussed last week. While students are in these rotations, I will be pulling students one at a time to assess their beginning-of-the-year reading level. So far I see that my students LOVE to read!
*Math:
We will continue with our unit on Place Value this week. We will review rounding to the greatest place on Monday, and then learn how to round to a given/specific place in a number. Students will take a Rounding Quiz on Wednesday 9/26. Then I will assign the class a “Working Study Guide” that we will check in class on Thursday. The class will take the Place Value Test on Friday 9/28. As a reminder, the unit tests we do in 4th grade will all be done on the computer with a program called “PowerTest” (they used this program in 3rd grade also). However, students will ALWAYS have scratch paper on their desk to use during the test. We will have a class discussion about the importance of using paper to write things down, and not just doing everything in our head. This is going to be an important skill to practice this year!
We will also continue with our “Mad Minute” activity in class to begin our Math block. Thank you for helping your child practice those basic math facts!
*Social Studies:
We will be finishing up our VA Geography Unit this week! Students should be reviewing nightly in preparation for the VS.2abc & VS.10b Test on Tuesday, 9/25.
At the end of the week, we will begin our next unit which will be about the Virginia Indians (VS.2defg). We will learn the names of the three major language groups, the three tribes that spoke these languages, and where each tribe was located in Virginia. I will be teaching the class another “brain trick” to help them remember this information, so be sure and ask your child what this is on Friday.
*Science:
This week we will continue with our unit on Scientific Investigations (4.1). On Friday we learned about the tools that scientists use when completing experiments. Your child will need to know the name of the tool, what it measures, and the units that the tool is measured in. There will be notes about this in your child’s science notebook. We will also complete a tools sort in class to see if the students can determine which tool would be used in different real-life scenarios. This sort will be glued into your child’s science notebook.
Also, we will conduct another experiment in class. We will be testing paper towels to see which one absorbs the most water. Ask your child to explain to you what his or her hypothesis was, and if they can tell you the independent variable, dependent variable, and the constants in the lab. The class will be completing a lab sheet on this lab, and at the end of the week, your child will take a short quiz on the lab. Students will need to study the lab sheet to help them for this quiz.
Finally, students should have been working on learning the scientific method vocabulary for the last 2 1/2 weeks. This week, students will take the Scientific Method Vocabulary Quiz on Wednesday 9/26. Please check in with your child to see how he or she is doing with learning the meaning of these very important vocabulary words.
As always, thank you for all of your support! Have a great week!
-Mrs. Jacobsen