Transcript Welcome to the 5th Grade @ KCSMA

Mrs. Agresta
Mrs. McMasters
Mrs. Sims
Ms. Abraham
Mrs. Harris
Mrs. Jones
Mr. Page
Welcome to 4th grade at KCSMA! We are thrilled to be back at KCSMA for the 2015-2016 school year. We are
excited about the opportunity to work with you and your child, and are looking forward to a happy and productive
school year. We have set up access to information on our 4th grade class web site. You and your child will be
expected to check this web site for assignment and activity information. As always, posted information is subject to
change. You will find announcements and helpful course work information there. Please take advantage of this
valuable resource. Once there, you will be able to view and print any of the information. To access the information:
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Go to http://www.kcsma4thgrade.weebly.com
◦ There is a main page with general information
◦ Each page may contain attachments for documents that are used on a regular basis or contain information
you may find helpful.
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The 4th grade is a very busy year. We will be working extremely hard this year. There are only 180 days for
your child to prepare for 5th grade! You are being provided with a list of expectations for your 4th grader.
Please take time to review and discuss all expectations with your child before the first day of school.
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This year there will two separate 4th grade rotations.
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Mr.Page and Ms. Jones will rotate with Mrs. Harris and Ms. Abraham. Mr. Page will teach Reading and Social
Studies, Mrs. Harris will teach Math and Ms. Abraham will teach Science and ELA. Mrs Jones will rotate with Mr.
Page’s homeroom and assist teaching all subjects. The students on this team will have 3 academic rotations
each day in addition to specials, lunch, and recess. This team will have homerooms upstairs with 5th grade.
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Mrs. Agresta will rotate with Mrs. McMasters, and Mrs. Sims. Mrs. Agresta will teach Reading/ELA.
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Mrs. McMasters will teach Math. Mrs. Sims will teach Science and Social Studies. The students on this team will
have 3 academic rotations each day in addition to specials, lunch, and recess. This team will have homerooms
downstairs on the 3rd and 4th grade hallway.
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If you have any questions or concerns or if you would like to schedule a conference, or volunteer to help out,
you can contact us by email at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Phones are reserved for emergency use
only during the school day, as any phone call interrupts the lesson and results in a loss of valuable instructional
time. Please make sure your child knows if they are carpool or ASP each school day. Once again, welcome to
the 4th grade at KCSMA.
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Let’s work together to make this the best year ever!
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All fourth graders must have internet access at home for assignments.
Fourth Graders are expected to demonstrate independence and self-reliance. They are required to be responsible for recording all homework and
assignments, and turning in all completed work ON TIME. They will have exactly 180 days to become competent in all the subject areas. To that end, we
expect the following things each and every day:
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Come to school on time, in proper uniform, and ready to learn. This includes having homework, materials, and supplies ready. Sloppy, crumpled, ripped,
and/or incomplete assignments will not be accepted. All homework is due the school day after it has been assigned, unless otherwise noted in the
agenda.
Agendas are to be updated accurately by the students and signed by parents every day.
Please check our blog, www.kcsma4thgrade.weebly.com, to keep up to date on assignments, test dates, and other academic information.
Binders are to be brought to school every day, and are to be kept in good order. This means planning on replacing binders when they become torn or
rings don’t work. Graded work, vocabulary, handouts, class work, and homework are to be FILED . This means securely placed in the rings, in the proper
section of the binder and kept for review and reinforcement until the end of the grading period. At the end of each of the four grading periods, the work
should be removed and placed in an “At Home” binder for Milestones Review. Check each teachers blog for specific items to keep or remove.
Classroom phones are to be utilized only in the case of an emergency. Items left at home or forgotten do not constitute an emergency. Any incoming
calls to the classroom phones are a disruption to the teacher and students. Please reserve these phones for emergency calls only during our regular
school hours of 7:00 am to 3:00 pm.
Please send only healthy snacks – NO candy, chips or “junk food”. Water bottles are recommended. However, water bottles may contain unfrozen water
only; no powdered add-ins will be allowed. Drinks other than water will not be allowed, except at lunch.
All classes will use a community restroom. Proper restroom etiquette is expected from all students using any restroom. Each student is expected to
leave the restroom clean! Fourth grade students have the opportunity to use the restrooms between each class period. If your child has a medical
condition requiring the need for additional bathroom breaks, please provide a doctor’s note to your child’s homeroom teacher.
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Toys are not allowed at school! Any toys brought to school will be collected by the teacher and will only be returned, in person, to a parent. Toys not
picked up after 1 week will be donated to a local charity. Any item causing a distraction to a student is considered a toy, including water bottles.
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If your child requires prescription glasses, hearing aids, etc., please be sure they are in good repair and are brought and worn to school every day.
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Birthdays: You may send a small individual treat for each student, but please check with your child’s teacher to accommodate student food allergies.
All treats will be passed out during lunch in the cafeteria to your child’s homeroom only. We do not have “birthday parties” at school. Private party
invitations may not be given out at school.
Naturally, by fourth grade, we expect appropriate school behavior and compliance with all of KCSMA procedures every day!
Courtesy and respect are a must!
Homeroom Supplies (donated to homeroom teacher
for use by all students):
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All homeroom supply items available from
Perimeter Office Products
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2 large boxes 2-ply Kleenex (pop up kind)
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1 large roll of Paper Towels
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2 large containers of disinfectant wipes
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2 large packs of wide ruled paper
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2 500 page reams of copy paper 20/lb/84
brightness
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Girls: 2 narrow expo markers/6 glue sticks
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Boys: 2 highlighters/2 rolls of Scotch Tape
The following must be assembled and ready to use
on Day 1(and replaced when necessary):
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One 2” Heavy Duty 3-Ring Binder with 8 labeled
plastic tabs
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Also in the binder, one three ring vinyl/cloth
pencil pouch
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Pencils, pens, glue stick, eraser, and tape go in
the pencil pouch
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Labels should read:
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Reading Skills
Reading Vocabulary
Language
Writing
Math
Science
Social Studies
Paper
Personal Supplies (brought to and from school each
day):
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Needed daily starting from Day 1:
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Backpack that fits into a 15x15 cubby/locker (no
wheels; lunch bag and coat must also fit into the
same cubby/locker)
Personal Supplies to be replenished from home daily:
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Unbreakable water bottle with your name on it.
◦ Paper
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Uniform sweater/sweatshirt with your name in/on
◦ 4 sharpened pencils (NO MECHANICAL PENCILS!)
it.
◦ 1 red pen
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Total fees: $35.00 Includes workbooks for Math,
Science, and Social Studies, and a journal for each
subject.
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1 blue pen
glue sticks
tape
eraser.
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Our 4th grade classes will have the option to view some PG rated movies that directly
coordinate with the Georgia Professional Standards and our lessons in class.
These movies were chosen for their correlation to the particular subject matter being
taught.
In addition we schedule fourth grade fun days from time to time where a fun movie
is shown.
Some homerooms also play a movie during carpool.
Although the overwhelming majority of these are Disney movies some are rated PG.
Some examples of the movies that we show are:
Nim’s Island
Hoot!
Disney’s Tall Tale
Sign of the Beaver
Because of Winn Dixie
How to Eat Fried Worms
If you would like to have your child opt out of any or all of these movies, please send a
written note in your child’s agenda.
Thank you so much!
ENGRADE is the grading system we use to input all of your child's grades. Their grades are
electronically averaged as they are input, and what you will see is their current letter grade, current
grade point average in each subject, and all of their individual test and assignment grades.
***Please note that the grades are weighted, so averaging all grades together from different
categories will not equal the grade you see for your child.
Tests/Projects = 50% of the overall grade
Quizzes = 30% of the overall grade
Homework/Classwork = each 10% (Homework grades are either 100% if fully completed or 0%.)
A=90.0 to 100.0+
B=80.0 to 89.9
C=74.0 to 79.9
D=70.0 to 73.9
F=0 to 69.9
ACCESS TO SIGN UP FOR ENGRADE
http://www.engrade.com/students
Please click on the Sign Up box
Enter your entire code
Create you account
Once you are on this web page , enter the entire code that was given to your child in the box.
The format will be: lagresta-xxxxxx-xxxx (the x's represent your private access information)
If you have a problem, please email me at [email protected]
After you register, please use the same web address to access your grades.
**LOOK FOR YOUR CODE TO COME HOME THE FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL.
PARENT NOTE: 3’s earned in prior grades are not equivalent to your child being an honor roll student.
This is the first year your child will be earning letter and number
grades. We find that this is a huge adjustment for parents and
students. Grades are the documentation of your child’s work
reported to you by their teacher.
Students are most successful when they come to class prepared to learn:
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by having a good night’s rest
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Please keep this in mind when scheduling extra-curricular activities
and vacations.
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getting to school earlier than the scheduled start time
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staying at school for the full school day
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having all of their supplies every day
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being afforded a place at home in the evening to do homework and
review lessons.
PARENT NOTE: 3’s earned in prior grades are not equivalent to your child being
an honor roll student.
We normally have 2 field trips during the
school year.
◦ Cobb County Safety Village
 This will be scheduled by Cobb County
 Cost is about $15.00 depending on bus costs.
◦ Cobb County Youth Museum
 Cost is about $20.00 depending on bus and museum
costs. Scheduled for November 19th and 20th for 3
sessions. Each homeroom will attend 1 session.
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Some of the main concepts of 4th grade Social
Studies are: Native Americans, landforms, economic
activities, wants and needs, supply and demand,
European exploration, the 13 colonies and colonial
regions, the American Revolution, citizenship, rights
and responsibilities, representation, branches of
government, The Constitution, women’s rights, and
abolition.
Individual/group research projects to be completed in
class…students will be expected to make their own
decisions based on the instructions and the project
rubric.
Social Studies will be incorporated into our guided
reading activities in reading class.
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Guided reading lessons will be themed to the
current topic of study in science and/or social
studies, and all will directly correlate to state
standards.
Vocabulary expansion and comprehension will be
emphasized across all genres, with ongoing
discussion and comparison/contrast of ideas.
Some of our major genres include folk tales
(Native American, colonial US and international),
historical fiction, contemporary fiction, poetry,
and reading for information in non-fiction, factbased books and articles.
Students in fourth grade will continue to develop the skills necessary to
become excellent communicators through their writing. Some of these skills
include:
• Recognizing and using common spelling patterns
• Correctly using capitalization and punctuation
• Identifying complete and incomplete sentences and using editing skills
to make necessary corrections
• Identifying and using basic parts of speech (nouns and pronouns in their
singular, plural, and possessive forms; verbs and their tenses; adjectives
and adverbs in their comparative forms)
• Understanding and using the various sentence types to enhance writing
Writing will be undertaken in all subject areas. Students will practice writing
personal narratives, informational reports, and persuasive essays as well as
poetry, fact-based short responses, and other types of extemporaneous
composition.
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We will be using Harcourt “Go Math” materials.
We will incorporate all of Georgia’s 4th Grade Math Common
Core Standards into our KCSMA 4th Grade Math Curriculum.
4th Grade Common Core Standards are posted on our blog.
Testing will be as follows:
◦ Beginning, Middle and End of the Year Benchmark Tests
◦ 7 Unit Tests – graded; Error Analysis extra credit available.
◦ 11 Module Tests – graded – no extra credit available.
◦ Occasional quizzes - graded – no extra credit available.
◦ Milestones in April
Our days will include: homework review, warm-up, whole group
instruction of the daily lesson(s), and small groups.
Mrs. McMasters’ and Mrs, Harris’ blogs will have homework for
students AND parents to check on (as often as possible), as they
are subject to change due to school activities and other
unforeseen events.
Online homework will be assigned. Please make sure your child
has internet access on a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
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As we begin our new school year I would like to explain how we will assist our students to analyze
the errors they make on their 7 unit tests only. It is imperative that students become increasing
aware of their thinking and understandings..
The Error Analysis form on the 4th grade website at www.kcsma4thgrade.weebly.com can be used
after each unit test.
Your child will be expected to completely analyze each error they have made. The students will
complete the graphic organizer for each wrong answer to correct their incorrect thinking.
They may need additional forms, as there is only space to analyze 2 answers on each form.
All Error Analysis forms are due the next school day after your child received their graded unit test.
Please look for these tests in your child’s binder.
To encourage your child to analyze their errors, they will be given a 2 point credit for each
completed error correction they turn in on the Error Analysis form, if the form is completed and
returned on the day after they receive their graded unit test.
A plain piece of notebook paper can be used in place of the Error Analysis form. It should be
blocked off and follow the format of the actual form. All 5 sections of the graphic organizer must
be complete.
Late work is not eligible for the additional test point credit.
Incomplete forms will not be eligible for the additional test point credit.
Only Unit Tests are Eligible.
Module Tests/Quizzes, Projects, Classwork, and Homework are not eligible.
Thank you for supporting your child’s continued understanding of math concepts.