Classroom Update - Week of July 30th

Upcoming Events / Reminders:

• Please make sure that you have taken the time to fill out the Student Information Sheet for my class, as well as the one for the front office (pink cardstock).

• Please take the time to read the classroom handbook (it will be in your child's LIGHTHOUSE binder tomorrow or you can view it now on the classroom website). Once you have taken the time to read it, please initial the cover, so I know that you have seen it.

• If you have not signed up for the Bloomz app, please do so. I will be using this site to communicate and share classroom happenings regularly, so I really hope everyone takes the opportunity to join. Directions on how to access the site/app were sent home in Friday Folders last week.

• The Go Play Save School Fundraiser will be starting tomorrow. More information will follow soon!

• Ident-a-Kid for Track 4 will be held on Thursday, August 9th. More information will follow soon!

• Next Thursday, August 9th is Track 4's Open House from 6:00-7:30PM

• Friday, August 17th is an Early Release Day. School will be dismissed at 1:15PM.

• Check out the clubs on the MES webpage. There are many new ones that are being offered this year and new ones being added.

• Labor Day is Monday, September 3rd. There will be no school that day.

• Friday, September 28th is an Early Release Day. School will be dismissed at 1:15PM

• Track Out Day for Quarter One is Friday, September 28th.

E.L. Education:

This week the students will be starting their first module with the EL 4th grade curriculum. The text that the students will be delving into is Love That Dog by Sharron Creech. Throughout this unit, students will be introduced to poetry through this book, as it is a novel that is written in verse and includes poems by famous poets that the students will analyze, as well.

The central guiding questions that the students will focus on are:

• What makes a poem a poem?

• What inspires writers to write poetry?

Working to become ethical people is the habit of character emphasized in this unit. These are the specific skills students will focus on:

• I show empathy. This means I understand and I share or take into account the feelings, situation, or attitude of others.

• I behave with integrity. This means I am honest and do the right thing, even when it’s difficult, because it is the right thing to do.

• I show respect. This means I appreciate the abilities, qualities, and achievements of others, and treat myself, others, and the environment with care.

• I show compassion. This means I notice when others are sad or upset and try to help them.

Some of the specific literacy skills that the students will focus on this week are:

• Analyzing what is happening in the novel and how Jack (the main character) feels about it.

• Identifying characteristics of poetry and determining their theme.

• Summarizing poems and to compare poetry to prose.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Read poetry aloud with your student and invite him or her to find poems or a poet that he or she particularly likes.

• Help your student practice reading aloud fluently and accurately.

• Talk to your student about the meaning of the poems he or she is reading and what inspired the poet. Encourage your student to find evidence of that inspiration in the poems.

Math:

This week in math, the students will be working on graphing. They will be exposed to a variety of different graphs (bar graphs, line plots and frequency tables) and be expected to create and analyze them based on the data they provide. They will also work on coming up with questions that will help them in examining the data, as well.

Some important math terms the students will be learning are:

• Bar Graph - a graphical display of data using bars of different heights

• Categorical Data - data represented by characteristics or personal preferences, for example: names, ages, food or clothes.

• Numerical Data - data that is measurable and represented by numbers

• Line Plot - a graph that shows frequency of data along a number line

• Frequency Table - a table that lists items and shows how many times they occur

Students will take their first assessment on these skills on Tuesday, August 7th.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Point out graphs to your child in magazines or newspapers. Have them tell you the type of graph that it is, whether it is numerical or categorical, and then ask them specific questions about the information the graph is telling you (both literal and inferential).

• Give your child meaningful data points and have them create the best graph to display the information. Have them create their own questions that could be answered by the information in that graph.

Social Studies:

This quarter in Social Studies, the students will be learning about economics in North Carolina. They will start the unit by learning about some of the important vocabulary terms and learn about important principles such as supply and demand and market economy. The students will be learning more about economics through articles that they will include in their social studies notebooks, picture books, and an interactive game that simulates what it is like to run a successful lemonade stand. The students will be given a list of important economics term for them to study and learn for an upcoming vocabulary test that is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, August 14th.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Help them study the economics vocabulary words with them.

• Discuss real world examples of supply and demand