We’ve made
it through another week and we are also moving towards the end of the first
quarter. Very soon I will be sending out
an email about Parent Teacher Conferences.
These conferences are established as an opportunity to discuss your
child’s report cards. They are short,
only 10 minutes, and are focused on going over each area of the report
card. One thing to keep in mind is that
if you have other concerns about your child, we can meet at a different time to
go over those concerns. I have non-duty
hours that are available to meet when you do have concerns. You may email me or write me a note in your
child’s agenda if you are in need of additional time to discuss, in depth,
concerns you have with your child’s progress.
On Tuesday
we will be attending the Symphony at Van Wezel.
This is considered a formal event for school. Students have two options. They may wear their traditional school
uniform. The other choice is they can
come to school in their best clothes-something they would wear to a special
occasion. This would include long pants
and a dress shirt for the boys and a fancy dress for the girls. One of the goals of the symphony is to teach
the children that performing arts is an opportunity to enjoy themself in a
formal setting. The other goal to is to expose them to wonderful music around
them. Every day they are exposed to
wonderful music that they don’t tend to notice.
The Sarasota Symphony plays these pieces along with an announcer who
shows them how it impacts their every day life.
This year should be extra fun as they are playing pieces from Star Wars
and other science fiction sources. We
will be back in time for lunch, so there are no special needs for that. Students may bring a change of clothing for
when we get back.
We continue
to work on 2 digits by 1 digit multiplication in class. We will be heading into 3 digits and 4 digits
by 1 digit multiplication. This is just
an extension of the pattern into larger numbers. The key to success right now is
multiplication facts. We examine our
abilities by checking for skill first-do we get the steps that we need to take
in the skill of our math. Then we check
for accuracy-are we getting our facts correct.
Right now, most of the errors are landing in the second area. It is key that multiplication facts are
memorized. We use them every day of our lives, so it is, truly, a life skill
beyond 4th grade. You can
work with your child with flash cards, online sources, and even timed tests at
home. Please take time to work on
memorizing the facts with your child.
We have
started our first novel in reading, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One of the key concepts we will be practicing
with Charlie is Author’s Purpose. Last
year students learned that Author’s Purpose was to entertain, inform, or
persuade. In 4th grade,
students are expected to experience feelings and thoughts of authors. This is frequently called Author’s
Perspective. Students were shown a Power
Point about Roald Dahl’s life so that they could see why he writes what he
writes. One simple thing to do with your
child as they are reading is to ask them what they think the author means in
their writing or why they wrote a particular thought or action. Many things in fourth grade move into this conceptual
level of thinking-why do things occur and what is the mean of the occurrences. That is the transition that is taking place
as you see the stories we are reading and the work that we are doing come
home.
As always,
if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me or send in
a note.
Have a Great Week,
Mrs. Santello:O)
