The Ticehurst/Flint Newsletter
The Week of Sept. 9-13, 2013.
From Mrs. Ticehurst
We began our first literature circle novel, "The One and Only Ivan" the very first week of school. The book is fantastic and the kiddos continue to enjoy all that we do with it. Doing lit circles is a great way to practice "what good readers do"- predict, question, visualize, make connections, summarize, determine cause and effect, etc. Each day after our reading, we answer a "Question of the Day" and do a "Job" related to the book and the skill that we are focused on for that day. Reading MAP is on September 13th!!!
WRITING:
We wrote a summer story and began working on our "All About Me" posters the very first week of school. Our focus then shifted to the 4 Types of Sentences. Most recently, we began studying Parts of Speech, nouns and adjectives (hence, "Adjective Man" :-) in particular. This upcoming week we will move on to verbs and adverbs. Grammar will be a huge focus this year! The kids also completed "Wanted Posters". They were a lot of fun- you should ask your kiddo about it!!!
SOCIAL STUDIES:
Our first Social Studies Unit is titled, "A Land Called Texas". We took a "tour" around Texas, stopping to explore each of the 4 Regions along the way: Mountains and Basins, Central Plains, Great Plains & Coastal Plains. Part of your child's homework for this week will be making a travel brochure on one of those regions.
From Ms. Flint
MATH:
Week one, we started the year with reviewing third grade knowledge about graphs. We introduced the single and double bar graph. The second week of school we worked on place value. The students should have knowledge of place value into the thousands from third grade; this year, we added the millions. The students have also been learning about number forms (standard, expanded, and word) and ordering/comparing numbers. This week we have continue to work on all of those skills and start working on addition and subtraction. The students will eventually be adding and subtracting up to three digit numbers.
SCIENCE:
Week one we started our "Communicating as a Scientist" unit. We set up science notebooks and discussed how they are used by scientists. We also discussed lab safety and performed our first science experiment, which I'm sure your students have told you all about! :) I love how excited the students are when we perform experiments. Last week we learned about observations, inferences and collecting data. We performed our second experiment, titled "Drops on a Penny". In this experiment, students were able to make some great predictions, technical drawings, and work effectively with group members. We had our first science test today and tomorrow we will start our unit on "Diverse Plants"!
Field Trip
4th Grade Field Trip
WHENTuesday, Sep. 17th, 9:30am
WHEREDallas Museum of Art
Don't forget that our field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art is Tuesday, September 17!
PLEASE BE AWARE THIS IS ALSO PICTURE DAY AT SCHOOL!
4th grade will be the first ones to take pictures that morning and we are sure the majority of you do not want your child's picture in their McGowen shirt! If this is the case, please make sure you have their McGowen shirt packed and ready to slip on as soon as they have smiled pretty for the camera! Walking shoes are a priority this day too!
Field Trip Details:
Cost: $2 for students & parents are FREE!
Volunteers: We would like several volunteers for this day! Please let us know if you can accompany us this day to help! You must first be background checked by MISD!!! If you will be volunteering, and would like to drive your child home FROM the DMA, please let us know so that we can get you the permission slip for that. Children may not ride TO the DMA with parents!!! Also, parents may ride the bus only if there is room available!!!
Departing from McGowen: 9:30
Returning to campus: 2:00
Lunch: MUST bring a sack lunch that is totally disposable.
Website: dallasmuseumofart.org
Location: 1717 North Harwood Dallas TX 75201
Phone: 214-922-1200
Reminders
- Be sure to sign your child's planner each night. Homework will go out each week on Friday, and be turned in on Thursday of the following week. If students haven't completed the packets by Thursday, they will join us for a lunch bunch to work on completing them. Thank you so much for helping with this at home. Your child will have a Spelling Test every Friday!
- Our class is in need of the game "Boggle". If you are interested in purchasing, please contact Mrs. Ticehurst first, just to make sure that it has not already been purchased! Thank in advance!!!
- If you haven't already joined the PTA, please do so!!!
- The Guidance Focus for this month is RESPONSIBILITY!!!
- Thank you to everyone who participated in the Cookie Dough Fundraiser! This money goes to buy great things for our school!!!
- ALSO, PLEASE GO OUT AND VOTE IN THE TRE ELECTION!!!
Things To Look Forward To:
September 17th- Field Trip & Fall picture day & Chick Fil A night
September 18th- Progress reports will go home
September 19th- Science MAP
September 21st- MISD Learning Expo @ MBHS
September 24th- PTA Purple Cow Night
September 27th- Mav Fan Jam; 2012 Volunteer Approvals Expire
September 30th-October 4th- September Novel Presentations Due!!!