Social Studies

Social Studies is one of those subjects that does not have a "FCAT" (now FSA) test correlated to it, but it still remains high on the priority list. Today the students brought home Social Studies work that you are welcome to check over. I know many of you were concerned about this grade. These three assignments will be graded and added to help boost the Social Studies grades.

Here are some expectations that the students should follow in order to complete their assignments:

1. Each section that is based on a heading should have 3-4 bullet points from the section in the text. 
2. Each section that has blank lines at the bottoms asks for a summary. The summary should be based on the entire text of that section. Each summary should be 5-7 sentences and include text-based evidence or details from the bullet points above.
3. Some sections of the text ask specific questions. Please make sure these are completely answered. 

Thanks for your support and all your efforts to help enforce the level of expectations at home and school.

Close Reading

Last week we began a new reading strategy that Duval County is fully supporting. It's called a close (s- as in sight) read. There are three parts to the close read that we started last week. Here is a brief synopsis of these steps:

• Part 1- read the text and review the vocabulary words that are unfamiliar
• Part 2- annotate the text focusing on the main idea of the text
• Part 3- answer text-dependent questions

A close read is a strategy that helps the students better understand the text by reading the text multiple times, using the vocabulary words to increase understanding, and answering questions that can only be answered by diving back into the text.

Here is a chart that explains some of the steps to completing a close read:

Feel free to ask your child about the importance of a close read. What was their favorite part of this process?

Week 4

Swim America! 

Swim America is a "field trip" to the Fletcher High School swimming pool. The kids are given the opportunity to swim and learn about the 4 specific strokes that are used for competitions. This year we unfortunately have only 3 days in the pool. We will be swimming on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week (that's the 15, 17, and 19th). Our time is from 8:45-9:45 am. Please send your child with his/her swimsuit on, sunscreen on, a change of clothes, and a towel. If your child is used to goggles, please pack these, as well. Swim America is a great week for all of us!

Here is the basic rundown of our days next week:
Monday- come ready for SA, swim from 8:45-9:45, come back and change, head to lunch, second half of the day will be dedicated to instruction
Tuesday- full day of instruction
Wednesday- come ready for SA, swim from 8:45-9:45, come back and change, head to lunch, second half of the day will be dedicated to instruction
Thursday- full day of instruction
Friday- come ready for SA, swim from 8:45-9:45, come back and change, head to lunch, second half of the day will be dedicated to instruction

With all of this being said, PLEASE RETURN THE SWIM AMERICA PERMISSION SLIP TOMORROW OR ASAP!

Thanks for all your help! Oh, and maybe do a dance to the weather gods for no rain :)

If you would like to volunteer, please fill out the bottom half of the permission slip with the days that you can volunteer. We always enjoy the help and the kids love to see their parents in a bathing suit.

Starting Week 3

 The three-day weekend sure did go by quickly! Hope you were able to enjoy yours.

Our Monday, I mean Tuesday was packed!

Today the kids received some important information:
1. Individual FCAT data from 3rd grade
2. A green sheet that explains the importance of PTA and many misconceptions we have about it
3. A blue sheet that explains some information about Open House and if you would like to join us in the SAN PABLO ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE at 7:30 on Thursday

Grammar homework was also given today for the first time. We are not doing spelling words this week. The grammar homework introduces a rule, "Comma in a series," has the students edit some sentences, and write some sentences of their own using the rule. See what I did there??

Feel free to ask your child about the importance of annotations and the rules you should follow when annotating! We are wrapping this topic up by the end of the week.

Week 2 Events...

This week has been a busy one. Here is a recap of the week:

• received spelling homework for the first time
• explained each spelling activity and how to successfully complete them
• established expectations for homework
• discussed the importance of reading at home and introduced Accelerated Reader
• annotated different examples as a class, in groups and individually
• learned how to make sure our annotations are effective
• began to understand the difference between annotating everything and annotating the important things
• Worked on a prewrite activity as a class, in a group and individually

Looking forward to next week we will learn how to:

• make use of our annotations
• complete a prewrite on our own
• begin learning about our social studies curriculum

Some important notes:

• the class website has every spelling list for the first nine-weeks; feel free to review these ahead of time if you feel your child could benefit
• the class website also has a resource that explains AR in depth

Sorry for only one post this week ~ I will get better at this!

Parent Homework!

You read that title correctly, all parents have homework this weekend. The students were sent home with a "Parent Questionnaire." The 4th grade team would like to know more about your child from your point-of-view. The kids thought it was a great idea until they read some of the questions..."Why are you asking my mom this?" "What if my dad tells you the truth??" Needless to say, I was laughing as they went through this emotional roller coaster. Thanks for filling this out for us. It is due by September 4!

We have officially started WRITING :)

With testing starting this week, Mrs. Scott and I decided to stick with writing lessons and start the more involved reading lessons next week. The kids in Ms. Gilbert's homeroom learned how to take a broad topic and narrow it down into three main writing points. They also learned how to make sure they can add details to those writing points. We discussed an "Epic adventure with my dad" and learned that although some writing points might be easy to come up with, they might not be that easy to add details about. The writing points we focus on must contain some details so it is easy to continue the writing process.

CGA testing did start today, as well. The district is focusing on making the sessions shorter so there is less testing. We have completed one day of testing and have five more. The sessions are only an hour long. Our switch times are a little off so that each homeroom gets the same amount of instruction time.

Gate A...

Alrighty, San Pablo Parents~ 

New dismissal procedures are in place and successfully working. "Gate A" is our latest addition. Gate A is the second black, locked gate that is located near the cafeteria. If you are physically walking to meet your child somewhere outside at the end of the day, your child is now a "Gate A" dismissal kid. Just to review the options for dismissal:

1. Bus Riders

2. Car Riders (you remain in your car, all the way around the car riders' line and the patrols escort your child to your car from the loading zone)

3. Gate A (you do not want to wait in the car riders' line and will walk to pick up your child at school. Meet Mr. Johnson at Gate A to pick up your child)

4. Boys' & Girls' Club

5. Walker/Biker

Also some more important information~ 

We took a walking field trip to Mrs. Scott's class to learn about narrative writing. Feel free to ask your child what kinds of topics he/she wrote about in his/her journal. Each child was expected to come up with 12 topics that he/she could easily write about.

First Week of School!

Wow, this week is flying by! As you might know, there are many papers that need to be signed, filled out and returned. Please have this completed ASAP as we are trying to get all our information together.

Some of you might be wondering about the dynamics of our team. I worked with Ms. Gilbert two years ago on the kindergarten team. We were a co-teach and it was so much fun to be working with a friend. As a matter of fact, Mariah and I have known each other since we were in diapers. That's right- our moms have always been friends and they met when they started teaching together at Fletcher High School. Now we have officially come full-circle and Ms. Gilbert and I are teaching together. One of the greatest values our team offers is teamwork. Mrs. Scott, Mr. Bernstein, Ms. Gilbert and I all work together seamlessly.