Room 204 Update October 27, 2013 Spring Street School Mrs.

Liportos class

General Information With the cold and flu season just around the corner, it is likely that there may be more student absences. If your fourth grader is going to be out or late to school, I would appreciate if you had a moment to send me an e-mail just to let me know if they are sick, or going to be joining us later that day. This is helpful so that I can get homework or classwork together as needed. Thanks in advance. Thank you for all of your help returning the pedometers and logs on Friday. The students were very excited about this healthy initiative. They are looking forward to the next time they get to wear them. Our Halloween party is on Thursday from 1:45-3:00. Students are encouraged to bring their own special snack for the festivities. Please make sure the snack does not contain any nuts. Thank you to our room parent, Allison Galvin, for organizing the fun! We are looking for some donations of spring bulbs that we can plant. Each year the fourth graders take some time to go out in front of the school and plant some bulbs so that in the spring it looks extra nice outside. If you are out anywhere in your travels in the next week or so and see

a bag or two of bulbs, we would appreciate the donation! Also, if your family has any gently used balls that our classroom could use for recess (soccer balls, kickballs, nerf balls, etc.) the kids would be grateful to have them for use outside. Thank you! IMPORTANT DATES *Halloween Party- Thursday, October 31st, 1:45-3:00PM * Parent Conferences No school, Tuesday November 5 *Fourth Grade Chorus Concert- Thursday, November 7, 7:00PM SSS Gym * Veterans Day Monday, Nov. 11 No School *Thanksgiving Break- Wednesday, Nov. 27Friday, Nov. 29 *MCAS Long Composition Tuesday, Mar. 18 *MCAS English Language Arts Wednesday, Mar. 26- Thursday, Mar. 27 *MCAS Math Tuesday, May 13Wednesday, May 14 Homework Please remind students that their planners can be a great resource for them at night when doing their homework. There are a number of charts, maps and other tools inside of it that can help a frustrated fourth grader in a pinch! This week spelling packets will once

again go home. Reading logs will also be due on Friday. I will encourage the kids all week to stay on top of their homework so they are not swamped on Halloween (Students, the secret number this week is 0.25, the decimal that is equal to ). Language Arts This week will be moving away from the comprehension strategy of questioning and focusing on fix-up strategies. I was impressed with the work the students did on their baseline open response writing last week. The kids included many details from the text and seem to have a good handle on the format of open response writing. Next week we will take a closer look at how to make their responses even more thorough by adding in explanation of why they chose the text evidence for that question. Writing This week we will begin to look at informational writing. Well start by discussing how this type of writing is different from other types we have worked on so far. Then we dissect some exemplars and work on some writing together as a class. Math We will be working more with decimals this week in math. Students will be able to convert between fractions and decimals and order them according to their size. Tuesday morning Math Club this week will be focusing on decimals. Please have your student there for 8:00am if he/she would like to participate. EVERYDAY MATH FAMILY LETTERS online address:

http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/4 th-grade/view-family-letters/

If you cannot access them, please let me know. Social Studies We have begun mapping the East Region and will learn more about its economy by using an interactive map this week. States and capital information will be coming home soon; East Region flashcards are on the class blog. Science This week the students completed their Rocks and Minerals assessment. Overall they did very well! They were able to clearly show all of the information they have learned so far in science. This week we will dive deeper into the rock cycle. Well continue to discuss the various ways that rocks can change over time and draw the cycle in our science notebooks. We will also take some time to work on the laptops to check out the Rocks and Hounds site. For a preview, you can visit the site at home: http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow1/oct98/c reate/ Happy Birthday!!! Ryan Vroman 10/31

*Specials*
MUSIC: Tuesday 10:45-11:25 AM ART: Wednesday, 11:25-12:05 PM Health: Thursday 9:15-9:55 AM CHORUS: Friday 10:45-11:25 AM

PHYSICAL EDUCATION: Friday 2L25-3:05 PM MEDIA: Every Other Wednesday, 2:45-3:00 PM

As always, your questions/comments are welcome. Please send me an email or a note to school. Kristen Liporto