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Welcome to Fourth Grade Miss Smith 2007-2008 About Miss Smith! Hi! My name is Miss Smith and I’ll be your teacher for this school year! This is my tenth year at Memorial school and I love teaching fourth grade! I’m originally from the Clarks Summit (near Scranton) area and have lived here in Bloomsburg since 1994. I graduated from Bloomsburg University with both my undergraduate in Elementary and Early childhood education and my M.S in Curriculum and Instruction, with a concentration in Educational Technology. I love teaching fourth grade because of all of the fun and exciting things we get to learn and do! I’m really looking forward to being your teacher and I know we’ll have an awesome year! Our Classroom Welcome to Fourth Grade! I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with your child this year and am looking forward to a school year filled with many new and exciting things! I promise to help your child learn and develop to the best of his/her ability throughout this school year! (And hopefully we’ll have just a “little” bit of fun!) Please read through this newsletter in order to learn a little bit about how things work here in Room # 208! If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please don’t hesitate to drop me a note or contact me here at the school (784-7885.) Through working together, I’m confident that we’re going to have a fantastic school year! As always, thank you for your support of your child and of Memorial School! Agenda Books and Homework (yuck!) Each child has been given an agenda book. This book will be used for writing down all assignments and important information. Please check the agenda book every night to insure that your child is completing all assignments. Missed homework assignments will receive a zero and students will have to complete the work at recess. Homework assignments do affect students’ final grades, as well as help them review concepts learned during the school day. It is extremely important that your student complete all homework assignments. In the case of a family emergency that prevented your child from doing his/her homework, please contact me in the morning through a note or phone call. Each student will receive a reading log for each month. There will be a standing assignment of reading for 20 minutes every night. After your child has completed the assignment, please initial the log. Logs will be collected at the end of each month and students who have completed all assignments will receive a reward! Behavior Appropriate behavior is expected at all times, both in and out of our classroom. Students demonstrating inappropriate behavior will receive two warnings. If the behavior does not change, they will receive lunch detention. Repeated lunch detentions will result in loss of classroom privileges, such as parties, field trips, etc. If the inappropriate behavior continues, students may be sent to the office or require a parent/ teacher/ principal conference. The students are all aware of these policies and have signed a behavioral contract stating that they will abide by the following three rules: Respect the bodies, feelings and belongings of others. Always put my best effort in all work that I do. Have fun and enjoy fourth grade! I thank you for your support in advance in helping me to enforce these rules so that our classroom is a safe, risk free and fun learning environment ! Assessment and Test Folders As much as I hate to disappoint all of the hopeful students out there, we do have tests in fourth grade! A variety of forms of assessing your child’s progress will be used this year, including graded homework and classwork assignments, projects, tests and quizzes. Most times, students will receive a study guide prior to a big test. Please help your child study by reviewing the information that is on the study guide, as well as any additional information they have been given. After tests have been graded, they will be put in a test folder to be signed and returned. Each test needs to be signed and returned within two days so that there are no “surprises” at report card time! Tests will then be kept in the folder until the end of the quarter, when they will be sent home. Occasionally I keep assessments for student’s yearly portfolios. Spelling Spelling is an integral part of our Language Arts program. Students will receive spelling lists on Monday and will have assignments each night. It is very important that they review these spelling words throughout the week to prepare for the spelling test on Friday. During short or extremely busy weeks we may substitute other language skills work in the place of the routine spelling lists! Everyday Math As you already know, BASD has adopted a new elementary math program entitled Everyday Math. The program was developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project and focuses on enabling elementary children to learn more in math and to retain and apply that knowledge throughout their lives. The program is organized into six content strands, including: 1. Operations and Computation 2. Numeration 3. Patterns, Functions and Algebra 4. Data and Chance 5. Measurement and Reference Frames 6. Geometry Fourth Grade math students work in flexible grouping between the three teachers so you may hear that your child has a different teacher for math. This not only allows each student to receive additional help when needed, it also helps to prepare the children for fifth grade and middle school, where almost all classes are switched. This is our second year in the Everyday Math program and I am extremely impressed with the students’ performance! I look forward to seeing what exciting learning experiences year two brings! Reading Our elementary schools will be working with an exciting new reading program from Houghten Mifflin this year! The program focuses on integrating reading skills and strategies with exciting literature. It also emphasizes writing and editing skills. We are excited to work with the new series and look forward to beginning it sometime in the next few weeks! Paperwork/ Letters Home All important papers will either be sent home in the front pocket of the agenda book or in the Thursday communicator folder. Please be sure to check this folder thoroughly as it contains important information about upcoming events! Organization I cannot stress enough the importance of organization of materials this year. Students have folders for every subject and are clearly aware of my expectations as to quality of work and organization. Please help your children stay organized by frequently helping them clean out their book bag, keeping extra papers at home and enforcing home routines. I will strive to help your children develop organizational skills here at school but I will definitely need some help from your end at home! Website Beginning the week after Fair, I am planning to update weekly our classroom page on the school’s website (http://bloomsburgasd.schoolwires.com/bloomsb urgarea/site/default.asp). Please feel free to browse our website and explore! I will be posting spelling lists, long term homework assignments, projects and upcoming events. I will also provide a link to some of the websites we’ve been using in the classroom! Please let me know if you have any ideas to be added to our webpage! Friday Journals The Friday Journal is a weekly writing assignment that our room will be doing! Each week (we may skip a few here and there!) , your child will write a letter to an adult at home describing his/ her week at school! The letter will go home on Friday and needs to be returned with a signature on Monday. Although I know we all have busy schedules, I ask that you take the time to write a sentence or two back to your child! It’s a great way to encourage communication and the kids really enjoy reading their “letters” on Monday morning! Science/ Social Studies Fourth Grade Social Studies focuses on our wonderful state of Pennsylvania! Students will be exploring the geography, history, economy and current events of Pennsylvania through a series of investigations and projects! Science classes cover a variety of topics, including agriculture, environmental protection, wetlands, technology and industry! Wish List Parents often ask me if any supplies are needed for the school year. Here at Memorial, we provide all of the academic supplies that your child will need. However, if you wish to contribute something else to our classroom, below find a list of things that we can always use! Again, please do NOT feel it necessary to send something inthese are just ideas for those that would like to. Thank you in advance! Liquid hand soap Clorox anti-bacterial wipes Tissues Paper towels Fabreeze Air Effects (neutralizes odors) Ziplock plastic bags- any size! We’re going to have a GREAT YEAR!