Dear Parents,
October has flown by and we are already headed toward Thanksgiving! Our November calendar is already filled with field trips and fun activities. Here are some important upcoming dates:
November 4th: Mr. Leech will be coming to show us some props and give us an overview of The Barber of Seville at 8:10 in the cafeteria.
November 4th: Dad's Camp out
November 8th: Field Trip to see the Opera, The Barber of Seville - Students should dress to impress!
November 9th: Early Dismissal - The students will be rehearsing for Annie from 8:30 - 10:00. I will be available for parent conferences this day starting at 1:00.
November 10th: Field Trip to the MFA Sculpture Garden and Glassell 10:30 am - 2:30 pm We will eat lunch at the site, so please send a lunch with your child. If you would like to attend this field trip please let me know. I need at least 2 parents to come with us, but more are welcome!
November 14th- The Mark Twain Book Fair Begins
November 15th - We will have a school wide Story Book Character Parade. Please encourage your students to dress as their favorite story book character. They may make posters or signs as well. We will be parading around the school at 9am that day. They may want to bring a change of clothes for the rest of the day so that they will be more comfortable.
November 16th: Student Led Conferences: This is an opportunity for students to share with you their goals, their portfolios, and other work that they have completed in class. You can come at 3:00pm. 3:30pm, or 4:00pm. Conferences usually last between 20 and 30 minutes. If you cannot come on this day, or at one of these times please e-mail me or send me a note and we can work out another time for you to conference with your child.
November 19th: Twain Soccer Tournament 1-5pm
November 23rd - 25th: Thanksgiving Holiday
Please put on your calendars the 4th Grade Holiday Musical: Annie! It will be on December 8th! I am a little bit excited :)
The Square One Art Fundraiser went home today. The student's really created some beautiful artwork! The stickers are for the students to keep. You can send orders to me and I will turn them in for you.
We will be doing some longer assessments in the next few weeks. We will take a reading, math, and writing test. I will use the information from these assessments to highlight areas in which we need to focus on in order to prepare for the upcoming STAAR tests.
We are working on our matter unit in science. We are doing lots of fun experiments and using lots of scientific vocabulary. Please ask your children about the experiments and what conclusions they drew from these activities.
In math we are working on fractions. We are currently focusing on equivalent fractions and adding and subtracting fractions. This is a big concept for fourth grade, but so far the children are doing a wonderful job! We are also working on probability as it goes hand in hand with fractions.
In social studies we continue to work on map skills and are learning so much about different areas of the world. We have also started getting our Time For Kids magazines. The students are really enjoying reading about current events and learning about life in various areas of the world.
We are finishing up "Small Steps" this week. I am so excited that the students have shown so much interest in this book! They beg me to read it each day. We will be going to LDC starting next week and reading "Call it Courage". It is a wonderful adventure tale about a young boy who lives on an island, but is afraid of the sea. I anticipate the children really enjoying this novel as well. As we read our novels we continue to work on reading skills, editing, and of course our writing!
Scarlet! We have received the bearded dragon, Scarlet for the next 9 weeks! The students love her and she seems to be enjoying the classroom as well. They are eager to pet and hold her but we are moving slowly so that she has time to get used to us. There is a sign up sheet outside the door if you would like to sign up to bring Scarlet food for the week. She eats collar greens, mustard greens, blueberries, carrots, mangoes, and super worms. Other fruits are welcome as well. Someone told me bearded dragons also like zuchini! (Thanks Noah!) If you would like to send food and are unable to stop by the room please feel free to e-mail me and I will let you know what to bring and which weeks I still need help.
Thank you for all of your continued support! The students are working together very well and it is really starting to feel like home.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Zirczy
