Northeast Reading Celebration

Reading Across America

We will have our first reading celebration on Friday, November 2. The children brainstormed ideas for the party & voted on their favorites. The winner was a "pajama party" with movie & popcorn. Children may wear appropriate pajamas or "lounging around" clothes on Friday. They may also bring a blanket and stuffed buddy. If you have a G rated movie (approx. 1 hour) that you think the class would enjoy, please bring it in on Friday. Again, we will vote for our favorite of the choices brought in. Congratulations to those who brought in their Northeast Reading Log! **Please remember that these reading logs will be counted as a reading grade.**

Sulima's Scoop - Week of October 29

Reminders:

*No school on Monday, Oct. 29 - Teachers' Institute.

*No spelling lesson this week.

*Picture Retakes on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Students must have their original picture packet with them to receive retakes.

*The Northeast Reading Map (reading incentive) is due on Wednesday, Oct. 31.
*Halloween Parade will be at 1:15 on Wednesday, Oct. 31.

*Halloween Party will be at 1:30 on Wednesday, Oct. 31.

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HALLOWEEN NEWS:

Halloween costumes should be brought to school in a bag. The children will only have about 5 minutes to change into their Halloween costumes. Their costumes should be simple. If possible, they should bring a costume that can slip over their clothing or works with the clothing they wear to school. They will not be dressing in the washrooms. The boys will be dressing in one classroom and the girls will be dressing in another classroom. Mirrors will not be provided.

Please remember we are trying to limit the number of sugary sweets in our school. If you are planning on sending in treats for your child to pass out to their classmates please refrain from sugary sweets - non-edible goodies would be a great substitution.

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Fourth Grade Field Trips/Presentations:

A permission slip for "all" our fourth grade field trips/in-school presentations will be sent home on Tuesday. One payment for all these wonderful experiences is requested. Details on each field trip will be on the district website. Please read through the information online and mark these important dates on your calendar. I will post reminders on my blog, and your child will write reminders in their assignment notebook closer to each date.

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English:

This week we will cover simple predicates and correcting run-on sentences. All students are with me for both of these lessons. If your child has not finished their English enrichment, they will need to finish during relaxed reading, if they finish work on time, or for homework. We will fill out our "how to study" sheet on Thursday. The test on Unit 1 - Sentences - will be on Tuesday, November 6.

Reading:

We have now finished reading Charlotte's Web. Early this week, we will watch the musical version of Charlotte's Web. We will make comparisons to the book throughout the movie.

Throughout the school year, we will work on reading responses (like those found on the ISAT test). We will work on a reading response as a class, based on Charlotte's Web, on Thursday and Friday. Your child worked on reading responses in third grade using a "hamburger" model. We will use the same model in fourth grade.

Science:

This week we will be exploring food chains and food webs. We will only have science 2 days this week due to Teachers' Institute on Monday and Halloween on Wednesday. Next week we will finish chapter 3 by discussing changes and human influence on food webs. We will also fill out our "how to study" on Wednesday, November 7. Our chapter 3 test will be on Friday, November 9. Mrs. Cavoto's students will take the test in their own class.

Social Studies:

Visit Mrs. Cavoto's Blog for the latest and greatest Social Studies news. Mrs. Cavoto will be finishing the Northeast in early November. I will start the Southeast with the class when she concludes the Northeast study.

Math: (Mrs. Sulima's Math Students Only)

We will continue to take a target test each day in math. It is very important that your child studies their facts each and every night. They can take their target test in whatever order they would like to.

On Tuesday, we will relate multiplication and division facts using fact families. On Wednesday, we will have a special activity due to Halloween. We will also learn hints for X9, X7, X8, and X12 this week. This hints are wonderful strategies to use to figure out the answer to a multiplication problem, but the quickest way is to memorize the facts.

Website of the Week:

Carve a Halloween Pumpkin online at:

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html

Helpful Sites - Charlotte's Web Test

Here are a few sites to help in the studying process for the Charlotte's Web Test on Friday.

Charlotte's Web - Chapter Summaries

http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/charlotte/summaries.htm

Charlotte's Web - Study Guide/Chapter Summaries

http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-charlottes-web/

Charlotte's Web Activities

http://www.gamequarium.com/charlottesweb.html

Charlotte's Web Online Quiz

http://www.familyeducation.com/quiz/0,1399,22-14762,00.html

Charlotte's Web Quiz

http://www.quia.com/quiz/157462.html

Charlotte's Web Mystery Quotes

http://www.pocanticohills.org/charlotte/quiz.htm

More Online Quizzes

http://www.geocities.com/ljacoby_2000/charlottequiz.html

Hope these will help!

"I" group does not take this test. Their Character Diary will be due after reading on Friday.

Sulima's Scoop - Week of October 22

Reminders:
*Students need recorder for music class on Monday.
*Soccer test will be on Monday.
*Wear your slippers to school on Friday.
*Unit 8 Spelling Test on Friday.
*Charlotte's Web Test on Friday. ("I" group does not take.)
*Character Counts Assembly will be on Friday afternoon.
*No school on Monday, Oct. 29 - Teachers' Institute.
*Picture Retakes on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Students must have their original picture packet with them to receive retakes.
*The Northeast Reading Map (reading incentive) is due on Wednesday, Oct. 31.
*Halloween Parade will be at 1:15 on Wednesday, Oct. 31.
*Halloween Party will be at 1:30 on Wednesday, Oct. 31.


HALLOWEEN PARTY NEWS:
Halloween costumes should be brought to school in a bag. The children will only have about 5 minutes to change into their Halloween costumes. Their costumes should be simple. If possible, they should bring a costume that can slip over their clothing or works with the clothing they wear to school. They will not be dressing in the washrooms. The boys will be dressing in one classroom and the girls will be dressing in another classroom. Mirrors will not be provided.

Please remember we are trying to limit the number of sugary sweets in our school. If you are planning on sending in treats for your child to pass out to their classmates please refrain from sugary sweets - non-edible goodies would be a great substitution.

Spelling:
This week is a review week in spelling. We do not take a pretest on review weeks. The children will have a spelling activity for each evening. On Friday, we will be taking a special kind of test. This test will ask the children to choose the word that is misspelled out of a list of words. The test will assess whether or not your child understands the rules we have covered in lessons 1-7. The words on the list, sent home on Monday, are not necessarily the words that will be on the lesson 8 test.

English:
We will continue our Sentence unit. This week we will cover commands & exclamations, subjects & predicates, and simple subjects. Many children have started their English enrichment projects. The students will be graded on their use of classroom time, quality of project (content), attractiveness of projects, and mechanics (capitalization and punctuation).

Reading:
On Monday, we will finish our first novel, Charlotte's Web. The children have been working on understanding some of the interesting vocabulary E.B. White used throughout Charlotte's Web. They have also worked on comprehension and visualization. On Tuesday, the children will begin a flap book project. This project will ask the children to identify the Title, Author, Setting, Main Characters, Problem, Solution, and their feelings/opinions about the novel Charlotte's Web. A grading rubric will be in your child's reading pocket. This project will be due on Friday. We will be taking a test on Charlotte's Web on Friday.

Science:
This week we will begin our unit on Ecosystems. We will discuss the living and non-living things found in an ecosystem. This week we will also discuss how these things interact with each other. The main concepts covered will be photosynthesis, producers & consumers, and scavengers & decomposers.

Social Studies:
Please visit Mrs. Cavoto's Blog to find out what the children will be learning in social studies.
http://ccavotoccsdorg.blogspot.com/

Math:
We will begin chapter 3 on Monday with a pretest. The children spent a great deal on multiplication and division in 3rd grade. We are giving the pretest to find out if any students need enrichment throughout chapter 3. This week, we will also begin "Target Tests." A letter will be sent home on Monday regarding "Target Tests." Please read through this letter with your child to help them understand our expectations regarding the memorization of multiplication and division facts. In class we will go over the properties of multiplication, using arrays to represent multiplication facts, and hints for X2, X4, X5, X10, X3, X6 and X11. The children should practice their multiplication facts each night.

Websites of the Week:
Checkout the Ecosytems/Biomes on Enchanted Learning at...
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/

Review the vocabulary for the Charlotte's Web test on Friday at...
http://www.wordcentral.com/home.html

Worm Race Results...

Both classes have now had their "worm races." The children did a wonderful job using what they learned from our worm observations and their own personal observations to create winning race tracks. Evan and William's worms were the first place winners. Thank you to the parents for their support during our worm study. From digging for worms to helping your children create their race tracks, your support has made this a successful learning experience.

Sulima's Scoop - Week of October 15

Reminders:

*Lesson 7 spelling pretest on Monday.
*Mrs. Cavoto's Worm Races are on Monday.
*Early Dismissal on Wednesday - 11:00.
*Book Fair on Thursday from 6:45-8:00.
*Lesson 7 spelling test on Friday.

English:
We will begin Unit 1 this week on sentences. We will discuss what is needed to make a complete sentence. On Thursday, our focus will be on statements and questions. This should be a review since we already worked with these 2 types of sentences during our punctuation and capitalization unit.



Reading:
We will continue our novel study - Charlotte's Web. This week we will be reading chapters 11-20. Throughout the week, we will work with some of the unique vocabulary that E.B. White uses in the novel. We will also do a visualizing activity. Please watch your child's assignment notebook - most evenings they will need to read a chapter for homework.


Science:
Mrs. Sulima's Class - We have now completed our Worm Study. The children used the scientific method throughout this unit. We will be using this process throughout other units this school year. Our class will be taking the first half of the week off from science to allow Mrs. Cavoto's class time to catch up with us. At the end of the week, we will begin our study of ecosystems.
Mrs. Cavoto's Class - We will begin the week with our "Worm Races." Let's the best worm win. Throughout the rest of the week, we will be working on our "wormy wonders" research. I was planning on a quiz on Thursday, but I don't think we will be ready for it. Instead, the children will complete the quiz at home. It will be due on Monday, October 22. They may use their notes, the Internet, or tradebooks to complete this at-home quiz.

Social Studies:
Please continue to check out Mrs. Cavoto's Blog for the latest news in Social Studies.

Math: (Mrs. Sulima's Math Students Only)
On Monday, we will fill out our "how to study" sheet. The test will be on Friday, October 19. The children will also complete a checkpoint review on Monday. On Tuesday, the class will work together to complete a word problem and T-chart. The children should look over this problem before the test on Friday. They will have a problem on the test that will be similar to the one we do in class. We will allow the children to look at the sample we did in class during the test. We will review for the test on Thursday. Please help your child study for this test. Remember to write down how your child studied and sign the "how to study" sheet to receive 2 free points on the test.

Website of the Week
Have some Halloween fun at:

http://www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/halowen/games.htm

Sulima's Scoop - Week of October 8

Weekly Reminders:
*Lesson 6 Spelling Pretest on Tuesday.
*Check your child's grades online - we are half way through the trimester. (Please note: Some grades have not been posted yet.)
*Lesson 6 Spelling Test on Friday.
*Wormy Wonders Quiz on Friday.
*School Spirit Day on Friday.


English:
We will be taking our next English pretest on Wednesday. Our next unit review correctly writing sentences. The children will bring home their contracts on Thursday. They will need to choose their enrichment by Friday. We will begin our sentence unit on Tuesday, Oct. 16.

Reading:
Oink! Oink! This week we will begin our first novel unit - Charlotte's Web. The children will be involved in vocabulary, visualizing, questionning, and word study activities throughout this novel. This week we will be reading/listening to chapters 1-10. Some of this reading will need to be done at home. Watch your child's assignment notebook for assignments.

Science:
Mrs. Sulima's Class- What an exciting race we had on Friday. Those worms were just squirming along. Our winning worm was Evan's worm, followed by Jeff's worms, and the third place prize went to Dana's worm. I was very impressed with how the students used what they learned in our observations to make an effective race track.
This week our class will work on finishing our wormy wonders research. We will have a quiz on this information on Friday.
Mrs. Cavoto's Class - This week we will finish our worm observations. We will find out whether our worms like moist or dry areas and whether worms can detect odors. The class will also work on beginning our wormy reserch. On Thursday, I will share the guidelines for our worm race tracks. The children's track will be due on Monday, October 15. We will have our races on Monday. Our "wormy wonders" quiz will be on Thursday, October 18.

Social Studies:
Mrs. Cavoto will continue the Northeast Study with the children. Visit her blog at http://ccavotoccsdorg.blogspot.com/ to find out more.

Math:
On Tuesday, we will review how to subtract across zeros. Mrs. Swaekauski and I will be splitting the class to cover this difficult concept. On Wednesday, Mrs. Swaekauski will teach the children a game to practice the concepts of adding and subtracting with regrouping. On Thursday and Friday, we will practice the concept of making change. One day we will focus on making change by counting coins. The other day we will use subtraction to make change. Our checkpoint review will be on Monday, October 15. This will cover subtraction with regrouping (2 through 5-digit numbers), subtracting across zeros, and making change. Our test on chapter 2 will be on Friday, October 19.

Website of the Week

Have some "oinking" fun with these
Charlotte's Web Learning Games.

http://www.gamequarium.com/charlottesweblearning.html