Spring Creek Cardinals
4th Grade Newsletter September 2016 Edition
Welcome to 4th Grade at Spring Creek Elementary!
We have noticed that many of our students would benefit from a binder to hold their folders and writers notebook all together and in one place. Talk with your student and see if that is something that would help them be more organized.
Interested in purchasing a Yearbook this year? Place your on-line order at www.balfour.com. Enter "Spring Creek Elementary" in the search bar and select our school from the list. Click on the "yearbook" selection and add it to your shopping cart. Place your order early to receive a discounted price of $20. Questions? Contact Mari Gomez at marilisagomez@gmail.com or 956-821-3745.
We would love for you to join your child for lunch. Just a reminder that we ask you to eat lunch with your child only. If a grandparent, aunt, uncle etc. plans to visit, even just once for lunch or special events, they need to be listed in the office on the "pick up" from school list. I know your child may not be picked up by this person, but being on the list lets our staff know the parent approves of this guest.
If you have further questions regarding this, please check with the office.
11:00 – 11:30 Mrs. Eberle’s Homeroom Class
11:03 – 11:33 Mrs. Mann’s Homeroom Class
11:06 – 11:36 Mrs. Dungan’s Homeroom Class
11:09 - 11:39 Ms. Loke’s Homeroom Class
11:12 - 11:42 Mrs. Hugghins’ Homeroom Class
11:15 - 11:45 Mrs. Seydler’s Homeroom Class
Here is a link to our presentation if you were unable to attend our parent orientation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Fc1S1RClOhtAJOB_QKd92KcXLNlxzsGCvwO2cp7V-BE/edit?usp=sharing
Mrs. Eberle and Mrs. Seydler
Mrs. Dungan and Mrs. Hugghins
Mrs. Mann and Ms. Loke
MATH Update
For the month of September, we will be exploring more about place value, from the billions place all the way to the hundredths place. This includes writing numbers in “Expanded Form” and “Expanded Notation” as well as finding the value of a digit in a numeral. Rounding numbers up to the 10,000 place value is another concept students will learn this month. We will also be practicing adding and subtracting numerals with the place value position ranging from the billions place to the decimals place of the hundredths. We will look at how a number with a decimal will be placed on a number line. Finally, we will begin exploring how decimals are related to fractions when working with tenths and hundredths.
Also, students will be practicing their fluency by using the program XtraMath. Look for flash cards coming home for your child to practice as their homework. Students start with addition. Once they are able to master all of the facts from 0-0 to 9-9, they will move on to subtraction, then multiplication and finally division. Students are welcome to use the program at home as well to increase their math fluency of basic facts. Knowing the facts fluently frees up working memory to allow your child to focus on the process of the math concept they are learning rather than spending part of that working memory trying to figure out the math fact as well.
READING/WRITING Update
Reading Language Arts
Wow, what a great start to the school year! Your child is actively participating in class, engaged in reading, and diving head first into writing. Be sure to ask your child about things we have done in class, such as volcanoes and Coke, collecting in our notebooks, and the 25 book challenge! We have started our first read aloud, The Books of Elsewhere by Jacqueline West. Ask your student to tell you about the main character, Olive, and her adventures in the old stone house on Linden Street.
During the next month, students will write their first composition. We have been gathering our thoughts in our writing notebooks up until now, but soon will choose a topic to develop and write a draft. I will be creating a digital portfolio for each child and will notify you when the first draft is uploaded.
Students will continue to develop their reading life. We will focus on thinking while we read in order to develop deeper meaning from a book. Students will stop and jot about questions they have while reading, predictions, interesting events and how the book makes them feel. You can see a list of things "I can jot about..." in the front of their readers notebook.
In spelling, students will review past spelling patterns for short and long vowels and r controlled vowels. New rules we will study are when to double letters at either the middle or end of words and when to change y to i. Grammar skills we focus on in September are parts of speech, and complete subject and predicate.
BOOK ORDERS ARE HERE!
Your child should have brought home a scholastic book order. I encourage parents to have students choose one book and do chores to earn the money to purchase a book of their choice. If you would like to order on line please use the online codes: Mrs. Dungan's LQQT3 or Mrs. Hugghins' Q9XZT
Requests for donations:
If anyone has the following sitting around the house, we would love to incorporate it into our classroom: used legal pads for drafting, yoga/stability balls, desk height stools, bean bag chair, or backrest pillows with arms.
Don't forget to check out Mrs. Dungan's website for updates on homework or other tips to help your student: www.mrsdungansclass.weebly.com
SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES Update
For Science we are building a foundation of solid measuring, observation and inquiry skills so we can use them all year long. This week we will discuss lab safety then begin applying our science skills to the properties of matter, how heat affects matter and measuring mass and volume.
We are also very excited to start our Fall container garden! Have your student bring a container from home of any shape or size that has a hole in the bottom of it so that the water can drain out. If you want to send seeds, that would be great. We do have some for students to pick from.
In Social Studies we finished looking at the symbols of Texas and designing our own flag. We will move on to "finding Texas" interpreting data related to Texas' place in the world, regions of Texas, geographic factors that contributed to our growth. We will then turn our focus to historic documents of Texas and the U.S. Constitution.
Each week students will have a weekly quiz to see if they are understanding the concepts we cover that week. Be looking for this quiz in their Monday folder.
Don't forget to check out Mrs. Mann's website: http://mann4thgradeclass.weebly.com/
Students can study their vocabulary at home and parents can see what is on our calendar each week. In addition, each Friday you can read our student blogs!
What else is happening this month?
Spring Creek Elementary
Website: http://sc.csisd.org/
Location: 2450 Brewster, College Station, TX
Phone: 979-694-5838
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CSISDSpringCreek
Twitter: @sc_elementary