HOMEWORK

August 31, 2009
READING: read for 20 minutes
MATH:  use practice test and pages 4 to 23 to study for tomorrow’s test
SOCIAL STUDIES: finish reading pages 4 and 5 and answer questions
THINGS TO TAKE HOME:
Monday Packet
Scholastic Book orders
THINGS TO BRING TO SCHOOL:
book orders due Wednesday, September 9
Emergency forms due Wednesday, September 9
Math, 2 Reading and Science textbooks must be covered by Friday

August 31, 2009

Dear Parents,

I feel very lucky to be working with your children this year. What a wonderful class they are!  They are enthusiastic, eager to do their best work, fantastic listeners and very kind and helpful.  I am impressed by what good kids they are.  Last week, we worked on our goals and began our first writing assignment that will help us get to know each other even better. You will be able to see all these things in our classroom on Thursday at Back to School Night.  We also spent a lot of time learning classroom procedures.

Below is the schedule for our special classes.  Your children must bring their P.E. clothes to school on Wednesdays and will change into them at lunch recess.   Please be sure to label all clothing items.  Often uniform items get left behind in the restrooms, and we would like to be able to return them to their owners.  All these classes, except Band, begin this week.

Monday:                  Science Lab

Tuesday:                  Spanish

Wednesday:         P.E.

Thursday:                  Music, Band and Art (every other week)

Friday:                  Computers and Library

Tonight under Reading in your children’s assignment books, it says, “Read for 20 minutes.”  The more exposure that children have to the written word, the better readers and writers they become.  This is a very important part of their homework, so please make it a priority at home.   Over the next two weeks in class, I will be teaching your children how to write a brief summary of what they read.  In a few weeks, they will be doing this every night after they read.  For now, if I see your signature in your child’s assignment book, I will know that they read for at least 20 minutes.

Today your children have in their homework folders, their first Scholastic Book order forms.  This is a wonderful way to purchase inexpensive, appropriate, good children’s literature.  You are now able to place orders online if you prefer and here’s how it works:

1. Use the information below to access the Scholastic Book Clubs Web site.
2. Browse the titles with your child, and place your order with your credit card.
3. Your order will come to me, and your credit card payment will go directly to Scholastic’s secure server. There’s no need to send money to school.
4. After I submit the entire class’s order to Scholastic, your order will be delivered to our classroom for your child to take home.

www.scholastic.com/bookclubs

Class User Name: msroemersclass

Password: grade4

Both online and written orders are due on Wednesday, September 9.  Remember, if you send your order form to school, be sure to pay with a check payable to “Scholastic Books.”

Behind this is a letter describing what we will be learning in our first unit about place value through the hundred millions in math.  It reviews vocabulary and how to round numbers so that you can help your children at home. Tomorrow your children will have a quiz on Unit 1, Chapter 1.  Your children will bring their textbooks and a practice test home tonight so that you can help them study.  Begin with the practice test and then review lessons 1 through 5 if your child needs additional help.

Your children will continue to bring one of their textbooks home each night to be covered.  If you take time to look through the books, you will have a good idea of what your children will be learning this year. I am very excited to work closely with you and your children this year so that we can all have a fourth grade year full of a lot of learning and fun.  See you Thursday at Back To School Night.

Sincerely,

Ms. Tricia Heissenbuttel

Homework

Thursday, August 27, 2009
READING: Read for 20 minutes
LA:  finish Bio-Poem wksh, coloring head and tee-shirt
MATH:  wkbk page 5 (Green Sticker)
OTHER: cover Math textbook
THINGS TO BRING HOME:
Tuesday Envelope
THINGS TO BRING TO SCHOOL:
Tuesday Envelope

Wednesday, August 26, 2009
READING: Read for 20 minutes
MATH:  wkbk pages 3 and 4 (Green Sticker)
OTHER: cover Reading textbook
THINGS TO BRING HOME:
THINGS TO BRING TO SCHOOL :
Tuesday Envelope

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
READING: Read for 20 minutes
OTHER: Complete yellow goal sheet with your parents
THINGS TO BRING HOME:
Tuesday Envelope
THINGS TO BRING TO SCHOOL :
Tuesday Envelope

August 24, 2009

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to another school year.  My name is Tricia Heissenbuttel and I am very excited to be teaching your children this year.  Fourth grade is an important transition year.  Your children will be reading textbooks for content, will learn how to do research, will need to study for tests, will be writing their own homework in their assignment books, will learn to take notes, and will receive letter grades for the first time.  It is also a year full of excitement with our Science Fair projects, our California missions and Gold Rush simulations, our class musical called “Geology Rocks,” and our fieldtrip on a bus to Sacramento.  Together, I hope you and I can work to help your children be successful.

On the first day of each week your children will have in their homework folders a letter like this one.  The purpose of this letter is to tell you what we have done the previous week, what we will be doing in the upcoming week in fourth grade, and how you can help your child at home.  This letter will be stapled to your child’s work from the previous week.  On Monday nights, please take some time to review and discuss this work with your child.  This letter will also be posted on the 4^th grade blog at http://sjcschool.org/blogs/grade4/.  We are in the middle of changing servers, so this address is temporary.  As soon as the change in servers is complete, I will inform you of the permanent address.

Tomorrow your children will receive their assignment books.  Each afternoon before dismissal, I will stamp their assignment books after they have written down all their homework.   I ask that you sign this page at the bottom each night after your child completes her or his homework.  There is also a space that we can use to communicate with each other.  Each morning, I will check for those signatures and notes as I collect homework.  Homework, letters home, and other important information will go home in your children’s homework folders.  If these start to fall apart, feel free to replace them throughout the year. The only requirement is that they MUST fit into your child’s desk, therefore binders and other large folders are not acceptable.

Each week we will celebrate a Superstar in fourth grade.  I will send home a poster on Monday with the Superstar for the following week.  Your child will have a week to complete this poster.  The poster must be brought to school the following Monday, but if your child completes his or her poster earlier in the week it can be brought to school when it is completed.  This poster will be shared with the class and posted on our Superstar board.  Our first Superstar will receive his or her poster tomorrow and will return it on or before next Tuesday.

Beginning tomorrow night your child will be taking home one book a night to be covered and returned to school the next day.  Please take this opportunity to review the books with your children to get an idea of what we will be learning this year.

Tomorrow night you and your children will have a homework assignment to complete together.  I ask that you think about and discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses they possess.  Please focus on many strengths and only one weakness that you can help your child to work to improve over the first quarter.   Please make sure that this is a realistic and obtainable goal for your child and please stay away from stating a grade value in the goal.  Together, think of specific steps that your child can do every day or week to reach this goal.   This will be due on Thursday.  I will be sending home a card with the goal after Back to School Night that you can post somewhere in your home to track progress.  This card will be collected at the end of the quarter.

Please make sure that your child brings all of their supplies to school by this Wednesday.  Attached to this letter is a complete list of fourth grade supplies.   If an item is checked, it means that your child still needs to bring in that item.  All emergency cards, summer reading lists, summer school forms, sport transportation forms, Diocesan waivers, volunteer driver information, and medication forms are due Wednesday, September 9.  Many of these will be completed online this year, but you will need to print the Emergency Card, sign it and return it to school.  Although this will be a lot of work this year, next year you will use the same form and just edit it.  Therefore this process will be very helpful in the future.  Please be especially aware of the volunteer driver information form.  If you think that you may drive on a fieldtrip this year, please send it in with a photocopy of your license and proof of car insurance.  If fourth grade has 100% returned by this date, we will get a free dress day.  Let’s win it!

My niece’s wedding is this weekend in Annapolis, Maryland, so I will be out of the classroom on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  We are lucky enough to have two credentialed, former SJC teachers taking over for me, Mrs. Denise McCombie and Mrs. Erin Fuelscher.  They are wonderful teachers and will carry on 4^th grade as if I were here.

Feel free to drop by the classroom, introduce yourself and ask questions. I am looking forward to meeting you next Thursday at “Back To School Night.”  I am excited to work closely with you and your children to provide a fourth grade year full of fun and learning.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Tricia Heissenbuttel