Great First Week!

With the first week under our belts, I wanted to send you the first weekly update!  It was a great first week. We spent some time getting to know each other and building a community. My hope is that you child feels safe and ready to learn. We heard updates about strings from the new music teacher at Lakeview, Jennifer Danner. If your child is wanting to participate in strings, they should have brought home a form for you to sign to get them an instrument. Please let me know if you have questions about that!

Each week I will try and send an update with things to expect in the week to come. If you ever have questions, please don’t hesitate to email me back, or give me a call at school.

Math

We are learning the objectives in Chapter 1: Place Value. Our test for this will be on Friday, August 21st. This will mean there will be no homework next weekend in math. Math facts will become a part of the 4th grade objectives. The 4th grade expectation is that students learn their basic multiplication and division facts and demonstrate that understanding by scoring at least 45/50 in 3 minutes on a timed fact test. We will be starting those timed tests soon. Check out my blog for internet resources as well as the homework for the chapter we are on. If your child forgets their homework, you can print it at home.

Unit Studies

Our homeroom class will begin Science this week. Our first unit is Ecosystems. The District Common Assessment or DCA will be on Friday, September 5th.

Reading and Spelling

This coming week we will be starting Unit 1 Week1. Each week we will have an Essential Question that we try to answer. This week’s question is: Where do good ideas come from?  Our stories will all be Fairy Tales.  This week’s skills are: making predictions, sequencing, synonyms and types of sentences.  To start the year off right, we are going to take the weekly test this week as a class. You will not get a score at home since it will be done together. 4th grade will be testing on Wednesdays this quarter. This will including spelling tests. This first week we will not have words go home. We will be giving a placement spelling test to see which list is the best fit for your child (approaching level, on level, or beyond level). Words will come home on Thursday for next week’s spelling test that will take place onWednesday, August 26th.  Each week we will also have 8 new vocabulary words that you child is responsible to learn. These words are posted on the blog; some practice will take place at school, but it will be good to practice at home as well. This year there will be weekly reading homework in the form of Scholastic News. We will also have monthly book reports due, starting in September.

Writing

This week we will finish our Launch Unit that is preparing the students for writing personal narratives. 4th grade is a big year in writing. Tomorrow your child will be asked to bring a special object or photo that reminds them of a story they can write. We take the Nebraska State Accountability Writing test at the end of January. Before we begin preparation for that assessment, we will do a unit on analytical writing or writing to answer questions about a text.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, Aug 25th – First PLC Day – Students dismiss at 2:18

September 29th and October 1st – Parent Teacher Conferences (please call the office to sign up for a conference if you have not yet done so)

Wednesday, September 30th – Pioneers Park Field Trip – parents are encouraged to join us – be sure to fill out the Volunteer Form at LPS Volunteer (on the LPS homepage)