Welcome to our first full week of fourth grade!  Today we began our regular schedule and routine.  We had music at 12:30 and will again have music at 12:30 on Wednesday.  We have PE on Tuesdays and Thursdays, also at 12:30.  Tomorrow we will have our first science lab.  We begin with life science and will get our hands dirty as we examine some nonliving things such as gravel, rocks, soil, and water.  Our computer times in grade four are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:00.  Each student will have a login name and password to use on the Spelling City website.  On the site will be our weekly spelling words, our social studies vocabulary, and our science vocabulary.  Each set of vocabulary is listed by chapter number.  We begin with the first chapter of each subject.

Today is our first day of homework.  All students have a page of math (spiral review page 1) and spelling words to study.  They will also have accelerated math (ACC math) three times a week, although often they have time to finish their ACC math during the day.  I give a spelling pretest on Thursdays.  If they get a one hundred they do not have to take Friday’s spelling test.

I have assigned the first book to read for our September book report.  Each student is to read a Judy Blume book.  Most students borrowed one from our classroom library.  The book should be completed and in class on or before September 12th.  We always write the book reports IN class.

Today we began our first unit in reading.  This unit’s focus is poetry.  We will explore a variety of poems and related terminology.  Students will keep a reading journal for their poetry responses, vocabulary, and poetic techniques.

Enough for now!  I have much to discuss with you on Wednesday, August 29th, at 6:30 when we gather for Back to School night.

Blessings,

Mrs. Sharon Redmond