News for the Week of October 8th

I think we will finally be getting some much cooler fall weather this upcoming week!  Thank you all for coming to the parent/teacher fall conferences this past week.  I enjoyed meeting with all of you and discussing your child's goals for this year.

In math this week, we continued our unit on 2D shapes and sorting and classifying.  We found ways to fit smaller shapes into larger shapes in a variety of ways using pattern blocks.  We are becoming experts at our math stations during guided math!  We learned a couple of games where we used a spinner and put the shape that we landed on inside the larger shape on our game board.  The player that put down the last shape to fill the game board won.  We also learned a game called 5 in a Line that we will continue next week.  Next week, we will focus on 3D shapes in math.

In language arts, we read the book The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall and discussed what the author told mostly about in the story.  We came to the conclusion that the author mostly tried to teach us how an apple tree grows over the seasons.  We also had a lot of fun making Franken-Rhymes.  We created a Frankenstein craft and chose two words/pictures that rhyme to add to our craft.  Come and see them!  They are on our classroom doors!  We finished integrating social studies into our reading time by reading about one last historical figure that helped shape our  state, Jose Antonio Navarro.  Next week in language arts, we will learn about making connections when reading.  These connections are text to self, text to text and text to world.  During our word study, we focused more on syllables or word parts.  We sorted pictures based on if they had 2 syllables or 3 syllables.  Our class also continued work in our handwriting book and worked on forming some words, all uppercase letters and we started lowercase letters with the letter c.

In science, we began our unit on Forms of Energy.  We discussed what heat/thermal, light and sound energy are and what objects have one or more of these types of energy.  We studied a lamp and noticed light energy, as well as heat energy.  We also completed an activity where we rubbed a variety of objects on the carpet quickly and then felt to see if heat was created.

We will continue learning about forms of energy this upcoming week in science.

The Monkeys enjoyed their second week of reading buddies on Friday and were pleasantly surprised to each receive the book Mother Bruce from their reading buddy.  The books was also a gift from our librarian, library assistant, the counselor and our family support specialist.  

The Monkeys are excited to learn all about our new superstar this week, Noah!

Reminders

The fourth grade's Denim Drive ends on Friday, October 19th.  If you have any new or gently used denim you would like to donate, please do so this week.

Please be sure to check out the "Dates to Remember" below. 

Upcoming Dates to Remember: 

Oct. 17      Bush's Chicken Spirit Night, 4-7 p.m.
Oct. 19      Kona Ice, after school
Oct. 22-26 Red Ribbon Week
Oct. 26      PTA Run Wild Fun Run, 6 p.m.
Nov. 6        TAG Parent Referral Meeting, 6 p.m.~Library

Superstars & Birthdays:

Morris Superstar:

Noah!

Morris October Birthdays:

Siddhant-10/24