Quarter one is done! This year is flying by so quickly. It is always incredible at this time of year to stop and think about how far we have come and realize that we still have so much time left to enjoy!!

Thank you SO MUCH to all of the families that made the time to come out and see Ms. Poland and I for conferences over the past few weeks. We realize everyone is busy with work and/or family obligations, but we really do appreciate getting to know each of you. Spending some time face-to-face discussing the incredible things our students have done is invaluable to us and to our students!
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Thursday Megan Wise, meteorologist from NBC12, stopped by to share about her job measuring the weather and reporting on TV!  Check out our students on the morning news Saturday morning or visit Megan Wise’s Facebook page.
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In Reading, fourth grade learned how to draw conclusions/make inferences in a fiction text. Inferences are educated guesses about something from a text where students will need to use their prior knowledge and clues from the text. Conclusions are judgments or a decisions that is made after reading a text. The students enjoyed reading books like How I Saved My Parents From Green Beans and The Strange Case of Origami Yoda to make inferences and draw conclusions. Fifth grade started looking at TEXT STRUCTURE. This is a fundamental standard that will come up again and again. It is also often seen on reading assessments! Text structure refers to how the author organized the text to help convey his/her message to the reader. There are five main organizational patterns that we will look at: chronological order/sequence, description, problem/solution, cause/effect, and compare/contrast. While not every text has a clear structure, we are looking at what key words we can identify to help us determine the main structure of the text.

In writing, both groups are working on making a class book of our writing. These will go out to be published on November 23rd. More details will come home soon if you are interested in ordering a copy as well. Students are writing about their favorite holiday traditions. I have loved getting to hear about the unique and fun things that families do together.

In social studies, fifth grade wrapped up Henrico History by presenting our advertising projects. Fourth grade is in the middle of our Jamestown unit. We took our quiz on standard VS3 a-c! This covered reasons for colonization, why they chose Jamestown, and the charters. The students really enjoy this song about Jamestown!! 
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Next week: 
READING:
4- We will continue looking at drawing conclusions/making inferences.
5- We will continue our study of text structure while looking at cause/effect, problem/solution, and description.

WRITING: Continue our tradition writing project.

SS:
4- We will continue our Jamestown unit by looking at the government of Jamestown, the arrival of women and African Americans, and hardships faced by the settlers. Here is a study guide for our entire Jamestown unit in case you want to discuss it at home!
5- We will continue discussing the five themes of geography.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS FOR UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Monday, 11/12: PAW Achievement Trip to see Junie B Jones play at Hermitage HS!   This is a FREE trip, but students need signed permission forms (sent home Wednesday). Parents are welcome to chaperone.  Please contact me if interested!
• Tuesday, 11/13: Veterans’ Day Assembly
• Friday 11/16: IB applications due for fifth graders! PTO Spirit Night at Panera!
• Monday 11/19: Picture Day!
• Tuesday, November 20: Report Cards Sent Home
• Wednesday, November 21st to Friday, November 23rd: Thanksgiving Break
• November 24th: On  our class will have a second visit from the Young Scientist program. I sent home reminders with students today (Friday) about who has already paid and who has not so that when permission slips come home, you will be aware if you have already covered it!
• Christmas Mother: Trevvett is collecting non-perishable food items November 12-16 to support Henrico Christmas Mother. We need canned food, crackers, cereal, pasta, and peanut butter. Please send in what you can!  Click here for details.