Room 208 Update Week of September 3, 2012 Spring Street School Mrs.

Lubys class

General Information Well, weve made it through the first days of fourth grade! I hope your children are feeling comfortable and are ready to take on new challenges! Please remember to review your childs planner and sure he/she is checking it for homework each night. When homework is completed, help them put it back into planner for the next day. As time progresses, your child should be performing this task by him/herself (Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later!). Thank you so much for the class supplies you generously donated to our classroom! I am sure everything will be used in the coming months especially tissues as allergy and then, cold season begins! Also, I appreciate your Friendly House-Set For Success donations that will help many needy Worcester-area children begin their school year prepared! This past week the children took part in many team-building activities including making index card structures that would withstand a roll of masking tape! Everyone worked together well and were determined to make their structure strong. This week, we will continue teambuilding with our wall-buiding project that combines the engineering design process

with group work. I will be contacting you for parent volunteering help! Your child should be reading regularly at least 4 nights weekly (this can include weekends) whether it be a chapter book, kids magazine, or other appropriate reading materials. I realize it is difficult with family activities, so use your best judgment! Genre Bingo forms will be introduced in class this week so they can begin recording their reading selections. DRAs will begin next week in order for me to get an up-to-date evaluation of your childs reading fluency and comprehension. Calling all Volunteers! If you are available and interested in volunteering in our classroom in some capcaity or for copying (Fri., AM) please drop me a note. Usually, volunteers come in on a bi-weekly, rotating schedule. Please consider being a room parent for our class gatherings this year! I am sure 2 or more will be needed! Brief schedule overview: M/Th/F - Language Arts is in the AM and Math after lunch. T/W - Math in the AM, LA after lunch. SS is M/W at the end of the day. We will also be having Math Stars and Math Olympiad come early October and will need assistance on Friday afternoons probably from 1-2 PM.

We could use a parent or two to copy and put our math reference folders together in the next week; these folders are kept at home to help with homework, etc.-please contact me. Please drop me a note with anything you feel I should know about your childs learning styles and/or concerns that I should be made aware of. I as hoping to contact all families in the next week or so by phone. Curriculum Night is Thurs. 9/20/12 6:30-7:30 PM. Please meet in our classroom RM 208 (top of the stairs on the left) from 6:30-7:15. You will then move down to the cafeteria where our principal, Bryan Mabie, will speak to the group.

*Curriculum Night Thursday, Sept. 20 *All School Meeting Friday, Sept. 28 * Professional Development Day Fri.,10/5 Columbus Day Monday, October 8 * Parent Conferences No school, Tuesday, November 6 (sign-ups at Curriculum Night) * Veterans Day Mon.., Nov. 12 No School *Thanksgiving Break Wed. 11/21-23
Homework Date Assigned Due Date All Summer reading materials due on Tuesday, 9/4 Read 20 minutes each night! Writing Journal covers due 9-5 Personal Artifact 9-4 9-6 Math TBA Writing response 9-6 9-7 Other homework - TBA

Language Arts We will begin our study of engineering, technology and language arts with the story Yi Mins Great Wall. The children will gain an understanding of what engineers and and will build their own walls with a mortar mixture they come up with this week. The walls will have to survive a softball roll! This content-connected project provides the class with cooperative learning time, fun, and LA skills - vocabulary, sequencing, comprehension, and more fun! I will be asking for volunteers once we solidify our schedule! Since we miss Art on Monday due to Labor Day, Mrs. Lividini will meet our class on Friday morning! Two specials in one day priceless!

Writing

Last Thursday, we spent time in the outdoor classroom on the baseline poetry write. It was a beautiful day to be out and about! Friday, the children completed their baseline narratives and wrote about a fun summer activity The children will continue to write about themselves this week, and begin working on their summer book projects. Please make sure all paperwork and books (if you have them) are in school for Tuesday. We are still missing some four square book summaries.

Math EVERYDAY MATH FAMILY LETTERS can be found on-line this year! As in past years, they contain unit vocabulary, activities, and selected homework answers. You can find these newsletters at:
https://www.wrightgroup.com/support_info.h tml?sid=264. If you cannot access them,

and Wednesdays with Science on Tuesday and Thursdays. Science - from the desk of Mrs. Liporto We have an exciting year ahead of us full of hands-on discovery. The major units we will be studying are earth materials (rocks, minerals, and soil), simple machines/inventions, and electricity/magnetism. This week we will meet to discuss what a scientist is and go over some general science information before jumping into the world of rocks and minerals!

please let me know. Many of the children participated in XtraMath on-line last year. We will continue this fact practice this year. A few students mentioned it went too fast for them so we will also offer another alternative as available on-line. Unit 1 has the children reviewing and learning more about rays, lines, line segments, angles, and polygons of all shapes and sizes. This week we will continue these new concepts as well as begin using compasses to make basic circles and concentric circles (one inside the other!). * Multiplication Fact Practice Friday Social Studies Welcome to North America! This year in Social Studies we will be visiting the four major regions of the United States (East, South, Midwest, West) as well as taking trips to Canada and Mexico. We will begin our journey by learning and revisiting mapping skills such as the compass rose, latitude/longitude, map scales, and legends. Come along for a great time! Our class will typically have Social Studies on Mondays

Class Tidbits! Happy Birthday Isabella Palermo 9-6 Haley Coghlin 9-27

*Specials* Art: Monday, 9:15-9:55 AM Physical Education: Tues., 10:45 11:25 AM Music, Wed, 12:55 1:35 PM Health: Thursday, 10:00 - 10:40 AM Chorus: Friday 10:00-10:40 AM Media: Every other Wed. 9:10-9:30 AM As always, your comments are welcome. Please drop me an e-mail at school or at home. Barbara Luby