Room 204 Update September 15, 2013 Spring Street School Mrs.
Liportos class
General Information On Friday afternoons we will be running two different extension groups for math. These groups are designed to push those students that can go beyond the regular grade 4 curriculum. Math Olympiad and Math Stars will be run from 1:00-2:00 on Fridays and we need extra parent support to have these be successful. For Math Olympiad, we have had a graduate student from Worcester State University that runs the program in the past. Hes no longer able to help us out but is in the process of working with Worcester State to see if there is another student who can come help. Math Stars is a little bit easier than Math Olympiad. The parent volunteers would run the program (with instruction from the teachers) and help the students. Dont worry, we will make sure you are well prepared! If you can help us out in any way, please let me know. I know some of you mentioned at Curriculum Night that you thought you might be able to help, but an email confirming with your exact availability would be really helpful. Thanks! Scholastic Book Orders will be coming home on Monday. There will be a letter attached with all the details for ordering as well as some suggestions for
books. The students will be doing a lot of reading in class and (hopefully) at home as well. Scholastic can be an affordable way to pick out some new books, and our class receives points to get free supplies and tools. In the past we have held a great event called the Grandfriends Luncheon. This was when students could invite grandparents or other grandfriends (friends, neighbors, etc.) to have lunch with them. Typically the lunch-time was a little bit longer and involved a little more food than is in the typical school lunch. We had table clothes out, great conversation and fun! Were looking for some parents to help organize this with Mrs. Luby and Mrs. Montano, the cafeteria manager. If you are willing to help plan this, please let me know. On Wednesday, I sent home the link for conference sign-ups. If you have not yet signed up and would like a conference, please visit the following link:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080C 45A5A628A13-parent
The other day we sent over 1000 Boxtops down to the office! Thats over $100 for the school our class has donated in just three weeks! Thank you! Picture day is this Thursday.
IMPORTANT DATES *School Picture Day- Thursday, September 19 *Spirit of Spring Street School DinnerFriday, Sept. 27, 6:00-8:00PM * Columbus Day Monday, October 14, No School * Parent Conferences No school, Tuesday November 5 * Veterans Day Monday, Nov. 11 No School *MCAS Long Composition Tuesday, Mar. 18 *MCAS English Language Arts Wednesday, Mar. 26- Thursday, Mar. 27 *MCAS Math Tuesday, May 13Wednesday, May 14 Homework We will begin with our reading logs this week. The reading logs will be collected every other week (I will collect them each week at first while the students get into the routine) and I will keep track of how many minutes the students have read. At the end of the year students can receive medals based on how many minutes they have read. Let the reading begin! Your child should be reading regularly at least 4 nights weekly (this can include weekends) and all types of reading count, whether they are reading novels, magazines, newspaper, directions, reading with a grown-up, reading to a child, etc. Homeworkopoly has been going well so far. For the month of September, students can miss one homework assignment a week (as long as it is turned in the next day) and still get their roll for the game on Friday. After September, all homework has to be turned in on time in
order to receive the roll. I am always looking for help with purchasing the small prizes for the various prize bins in the classroom. If you are out and see pencils, bookmarks, erasers or other small trinkets that you would be willing to buy as prizes, I would appreciate it. Language Arts This week we will be starting our usual language arts routine. On Monday I will introduce the students to our Daily 3 packet for the week and describe to them how this will work. We will continue working on the reading strategy of Monitoring Understanding this week through whole class and small group reading, as well as Making Connections. The grammar focus will be on nouns, both common and proper. Writing
Student council information will be coming home this week. All students will be writing a persuasive speech stating why they should be picked for student council. We will discuss this in class this week and do the planning. The speeches will be written at home and will be due in class on Wednesday, September 25th from all students. Then, on September 27th, only those students wishing to be considered for student council will present their speeches to the class as an oral presentation. We will vote on one boy and one girl to represent our class this year. Our main focus for writing this week is the student council persuasive speech. If you come across any ads or anything in the media that uses persuasive language, please point it out to your
student and, if possible, print it out and send it into the classroom. Math We will begin unit 2 this week. This unit will focus on reviewing place value in large numbers and organizing data. The following link has a number of games that can be playing online to both reteach and extend students knowledge on the subject: http://sqworl.com/4b146k We will begin with our Wednesday morning Math Club this week. All students are welcome (Students- the secret number this week is 22, the day in September that the season of fall officially begins this year) from 8:00 to 8:30 to preview some of the concepts coming up in unit 2. EVERYDAY MATH FAMILY LETTERS online address:
http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/4 th-grade/view-family-letters/
up the dust and continue to compare our mock rock to real rocks. Happy Birthday!!! Dante Davolio 9/9 Ethan Kurtz 9/15 Caitlin Bird 9/21.
*Specials*
MUSIC: Tuesday 10:45-11:25 AM ART: Wednesday, 11:25-12:05 PM Health: Thursday 9:15-9:55 AM CHORUS: Friday 10:45-11:25 AM PHYSICAL EDUCATION: Friday 2L25-3:05 PM MEDIA: Every Other Wednesday, 2:45-3:00 PM
As always, your questions/comments are welcome. Please send me an email or a note to school. Kristen Liporto
If you cannot access them, please let me know. Social Studies Which direction are you going? This week the children will make their compass roses (with cardinal and intermediate points) and take part in directionality activities before moving onto map scales. Science This week we will continue to try to determine what the minerals are that make up our mock rocks. So far we know they have red gravel and shells in them, but after breaking them apart we are left with a big pile of dust. We will discuss how we are going to find out what ingredients make
