Kids' Corner
News from our classroom...

August/September 2008

 

Welcome to fourth grade!! It is with pleasure that I welcome your child to our classroom. We can all look forward to an exciting and rewarding school year. We both play an important role in your child's education. It is important that we work together so that your child benefits most. Please contact me by email, phone or note anytime.

To help make each day as productive as possible please respect the following:

**If you are planning to send treats to school for birthdays or holidays, I strongly recommend box or pouch type drinks. We need to be mindful of the computer equipment. Birthday celebrations will be held one day each month. Please check the calendar link for those dates. If you would like to coordinate treats with the parents who have children with the same birthday month as your child, please feel free to do so. That would help you to plan quantities and not have leftovers to take home.
** If your child must leave during the school day, you must got to the Office and ask for them to be dismissed. Please do not come directly to the classroom. This procedure is necessary for the safety of all students.
**If your child is not going home in their usual manner, please send me a note. Without a note, I am required to send them home according to their normal routine.
**Please leave toys, electronics, candy and gum at home.

So just what are we going to do this year?
Read on for a sneak peek into the answer to this most popular fourth grade question.
READING
  
MATH

Read...read....read....read. Reading is so important in everything that we do. Our reading series is called Treasures published by MacMillan/McGraw Hill. This is an integrated curriculum for Communication Arts. We will spend some of the year with a variety of literature sets ("real" books, as the kids sometimes say) that are leveled.

Regardless of the books being used, my goal is to have your child begin at a level that is comfortable and stretch and push to reach as high as they can.

I expect students to read a minimum of twenty minutes each night. Book report forms are in the classroom and book reports can be written on books from our classroom library, school library, Marshall Public Library, or student's personal libraries. Eighteen book reports are required for a Reading Circle Certificate.

  


Our math curriculum includes the topics of:

  • problem solving
  • adding/subtracting larger numbers
  • multiplication
  • division
  • money
  • time
  • graphing
  • geometry
  • measurement
  • fractions


LANGUAGE/SPELLING

  
SOC. STUDIES & SCIENCE

Many language skills will be imbedded in other subjects. Specifically we will work on:

  • paragraph formation and organization (Power Writing)
  • capitalization and punctuation
  • revising and editing
  • summarizing
  • spelling strategies

Spelling lists can be found by following the link in this website and your child should have the word list in their Agenda each week. Our spelling lists are words that are integrated with our reading units. Therefore, we will use those words in a variety of activities and assignments each day. However, your child will benefit greatly from a small amount of daily practice at home each day. Spelling tests will generally be on Fridays.

 

  

Social Studies:

  • Missouri past and present
  • Government: local, state, and national
  • Geography
  • Economics

Science:

  • EarthWorks
  • Ecology
  • Matter & Energy
  • Force & Motion
  • Earth Systems
SCHOLAR DOLLARS

Classroom money can be earned for a variety of things including
but not limited to the following:
signed Agendas
respectful behavior
returned homework
signed and returned forms
organized workspace

Get ready to have fun spending for things such as:
extra recess
excused assignments
real estate swapping (save up for this one)
classroom movies
special Scholar Dollar parties

FISH PHILOSOPHY

As the year begins and progresses, you will probably be hearing your child talk about the fish philosopy. This is a philosophy that the Marshall teachers had the opportunity to learn about during one of our PLC training days. Since then, I have been exploring and reading more about this concept and believe that it will reinforce the "community of respect" philosophy that is the motto of my classroom world.
So, just what is the Fish Philosophy?

The following excerpt is taken from Schools of Fish by Philip Strand, John Christensen, and Andy Halper.

"Few people show up quite like the fishmongers of Pike Place Fish in Seattle. Their work is cold and exhausting, yet they bring so much energy, creativity, and poetic surprise to the job that people come from around the world just to watch. Kind of like observing a classroom... team-taught by Billy Crystal, Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein, and Maya Angelou.

After filming at Pike Place Fish several years ago, ChartHouse Learning analyzed hours and hours of footage to put its collective finger on what made that workplace so engaging. ChartHouse zeroed in on four essential ideas.

*Despite continual distractions, the fishmongers were consistently present for customers and for each other.
*They constantly looked for ways to be creative and have fun while working - and found that they accomplished even more.
*They connected with customers, and people just passing by, for no other reason than to brighten their day.
*No matter what the situation, each fishmonger took responsibility for consciously, actively choosing his attitude.

These behaviors were not written in the fish market's strategic plan, but Chartouse Learning recognized them as something every one of us can do to be more alive at work, at home, and in the world. Mindful that an idea, like a child, needs its own identity to grow and flourish, ChartHouse named the four practices:
-Be There, -Play, -Make Their Day, and -Choose Your Attitude. The Fish Philosophy was born.

The Fish Philosophy has been introduced to millions of people around the world through a video called 'FISH!' and a book of the same name. It's a positive, common language that gives individuals and organizations a foundation for building vibrant relationships."