Learning Update 9.24.11

It was another great week in our classroom. Here's a bit of what we've been up to, served up in picture form and with questions to help you get more in-depth answers out of your fourth grader! :)

(Click the picture to view it larger) 5 Regions of WA. Ask your student to tell you some differences between them. Why do those differences exist?

Students are well in to the realm of writing personal narrative stories. Many have chosen a favorite entry and developed it as a seed story, and they now are starting in on writing a second seed story. Each bullet point on this chart represents a different focus lesson we did--usually on different days. Ask your student to tell all the true, exact details of their seed story to you. Also ask them to explain this chart.

Our Principal, Mrs. Otley read Amelia Bedelia. Ask your student to explain what an idiom is. What are some examples of idioms that Amelia interprets incorrectly?

Read to Someone. We partner read some more about Regions of Washington and specifically about the rain shadow effect and climate.

We waded in to Mountain Language by working together with a partner. Soon this will be a weekly routine that students will complete individually.

Our Mountain Language board. Ask your student to explain some of the 

Rain Shadow Effect Pictorial. Ask your student to explain how the rain shadow effect works. How does this effect influence the climate of the Coastal, Western Lowlands, and Columbia Plateau regions?

We learned some important information about the Western Lowlands (our region) that sets it apart from other regions.

Just Right books. Ask your student to explain this concept to you. What happens when we only read easy or hard books? What happens when we read just right books?

School News 9.23.11

Parent/Teacher Conferences:  We are excited to announce that this year you will be signing up for Parent Teacher Conferences online.  Conferences will be held Wednesday, November 30^th and Thursday, December 1st.  Look for the email from your teacher with the link to sign up at the end of September.

Box Tops Contest Coming Soon!:  Look for a Box Tops contest among the classes in October. Keep saving those Box Tops to help your class and your school!

Grizzly Spirit:  To show our Grizzly Spirit, please wear your Grizzly Gear every Friday.

Grizzly Gear Orders Due by October 15th!:  All new online ordering this year. You'll find the Grizzly Gear link right on the PTSA website at www.grandridgeptsa.org  Full online catalog, all new logos and apparel, optional personalization too. Don't miss out, order today!

Feed Gilman:  

Does your car need one of those cool paw magnets you've seen?  All families who donate to the Feed Gilman campaign will receive a paw magnet.  Display it proudly knowing you're helping support classroom programs such as author visits, assemblies, reading support materials, writing study units, and much more that would otherwise go unfunded.  Gilman is our school mascot and he's a bear hungry for a great education!  Look for the bright green flyer in your back to school packet, or download it from the PTSA web site atwww.grandridgeptsa.org 

Start Saving Those Books!:Now that the kids are in school, it’s a great time to clean out those bookshelves!  On October 13^th we’ll be holding our school’s second annual children’s BOOK SWAP at Grand Ridge.  Please start saving those gently used children’s books now.  We’re looking for picture books and chapter books of all genres that are appropriate for elementary aged students.  You may drop off your donated books to Grand Ridge Elementary September 26-October 7th.  If you would like more information, or would like to lend a hand in organizing this fun event, please contact Sara Winnick at swinnick@ihmail.com.  If you have any questions please contact Kim Goodman at  grptsavpevents@gmail.com

ARTISTS WANTED! 

2011- 2012 REFLECTIONS PROGRAM

“DIVERSITY MEANS…..”

Submissions due: Thursday, Oct. 27^th.

For more information go to:

http://www.grandridgeptsa.org/programs

Committee Chair Meeting:
Do you chair a PTSA committee, or would you like to?  We are having a meeting on Thursday October 6th at 9:30 in P7.  We will go over a lot of helpful information with regards to working on any PTSA programs or events.  Come learn who to contact, what you need, where inventory is, and how to get into our new storage container!  Please email Carolyn Kennedy (carolynk2@hotmail.com) if you have any questions.

ATTENTION RUNNERS: -  Crawl, Walk or Run to the Issaquah Run at Salmon Days Thanks to the Issaquah Rotary, the Foundation will once again be the beneficiary of a portion of each October 2 Issaquah Run entry fee. Last year, the Foundation received a donation of over $9,500 from proceeds. Celebrate Healthy Kids and Healthy Communities.  Join the fun as an individual runner, or grab your friends and form a team. It’s easy. Go to issaquahrun.com  for more information.

SCHOOL CALENDAR
September 29....... Vision and Hearing Screening
October 13.....Ecosystems and Food Webs-Kate Poaster Science to Go-4th grade.
November 2 ..........SOAR -4th Grade

Learning Updates

Happy Friday! Thank you for making this year’s Curriculum Night such a success. It was a pleasure meeting you and I look forward to a great year of partnering with you.  If you were unable to attend, your child should have brought home all of the handouts and a copy of my presentation in their Friday Folder.  Please let me know if you have additional questions/comments. Here is our classroom update:

Our terrific class!

Math Game. Playing Polygon Pair-Up

 

These are the 5 regions of Washington. Ask your student to tell you some things learned so far.

Math

• This week we finished Unit 1 with a lesson on Inscribing Polygons, once students got the hang of it, they were able to create some fancy designs.
• We reviewed for the test with a couple of brainpop videos and a review worksheet.
• Students took the test on Thursday. I’m waiting for a few more absent students to return and take the test before grading/sending them all home
• Friday we started Unit 2: Using Numbers and Organizing Data. 
• Attached to my email is the Family Letter for this Unit, please keep it handy.

Unit 2’s three main areas of focus are:

• Examine different uses and equivalent names of numbers and review the base-ten place-value system
• Review procedures for addition and subtraction of multi-digit whole numbers.
• Reintroduce and extend ideas about data collection, organization, display, and analysis. 

Reading

• Continued to read aloud There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom. Ask your child about their favorite part. Also, is it right/just that Bradley (who used to be a bully but has changed) is treated badly by other kids now? Why/why not? 
• We also discussed the way we choose books, how to choose just the right book, why readers abandon books and we reinforced the difference between types of fiction and types of non-fiction, as well as some major categories of books within fiction.
• We learned that Reading is Thinking. We noticed and shared ways we’ve been thinking as  we read.
• The class is doing a fantastic job of building up their stamina for Read to Self; ask them to share the success of their efforts with you.

Writing

• Students collected entries about their lives by writing about small moments of special places, special people, and objects that sparked memories.
• We discussed the difference between ‘watermelon’ topics and ‘seed’ stories and through examples, the class identified if the story was a watermelon (a big topic) or a seed (a small, clear moment). 
•  Also learned about the difference between summarizing and actually telling the story with all the true, exact details from the movie in our mind 
•  The purpose of this exercise is to help students focus their writing within a topic using specific, significant details.

Social Studies

• We are continuing with our study of the Regions of Washington.  This week students learned about the five regions of Washington through a pictorial that divides up our state by region. 
• Ask your child what the five regions are (Coastal Region, Western Lowlands, Cascade Mountains, Okanogan Highlands, and Columbia Plateau).
• So far we have region, landform, geography and climate on our class dictionary.
• We watched a Brainpop Video about Latitude and Longitude
• Did some mapping work in partners with some large desk maps of Washington state. We looked at physical features, latitude/longitude, precipitation amounts, and talked about how these factors contribute to differences between the 5 regions in our state.

Thank you for your overwhelming support of our learning, it is truly appreciated. 

Happy Weekend!

 

School News

The Book Swap 
The Book Swap is coming up on October 13th. Look for more info to come.
 
Feed Gilman

Who is Gilman? He is our school mascot and he's a bear hungry for a great education! By donating to the Feed Gilman campaign you are giving money that goes directly to the classroom for enrichment items such as author visits, assemblies, science labs, reading support materials, writing study units and much more!  Look for the bright green flyer in your back to school packet or download it from the Grand Ridge PTSA web site at: www.grandridgeptsa.org

Grizzly Gear
Grizzly Gear orders due by October 15th
We have online ordering this year.  You'll find the Grizzly Gear link on the PTSA web site at www.grandridgeptsa.org.  There is a full online catalog, all new logos and apparel and optional personalization too.  Don't miss out, order today!

Box Tops
It's almost time for our Box Tops contest among the classes... so keep saving those Box Tops!

Mark Your Calendars

·         September 29….Vision and Hearing Screening

Behavior Contract

9/6/2011

Dear Mr. Herzberg’s Class,

Thank you for letting us know that you needed the link to the contract. Below, you will find the link to the policy. If you click on that and read through the entire document, you will find a second link. The second link takes you to the form that you will print and sign.

If you need any help, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Lederman & Mrs. Otley

1. Click here to review our Behavior Expectations for 2011-2012.

Learning Updates

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN ROOM 264

September 2, 2011

Outstanding is the best way to describe our first few days of school.  This week was spent getting to know each other, establishing classroom routines, setting guidelines and expectations, and delving into some curriculum areas.  The year ahead will be one of discovery, learning, and fun for all of us.  Our class has 24 amazing students and I am looking forward to a positive and memorable year. 

Communication with parents is important to me and to your student, please take the time each week to check out this site to see what has been happening in your child's classroom.  Talk to them about it and ask them to share their feelings and experiences.  Please feel free to email or call me with concerns whenever they arise.

FOCUS ON CURRICULUM

Math:  This week students began Unit 1: Naming and Constructing Geometric Figures, in our Everyday Math program.   Unit 1 has five main areas of focus:

• To introduce students to the Student Reference Book,
• To practice using geometry tools,
• To classify quadrangles,
• To explore and identify polygons, and
• To review and practice addition and subtraction facts.

As you are out and about with your student help them to identify places where you can see geometry in the world around them. 

This week student identified, labeled, drew, and named lines, line segments, and rays.

1. Ask your student to identify the figures below.
2. Ask your student how the figures are named.
3. Ask your student to identify the properties and relationships of the figures below.

 

 

 

Answers: 

Ray CD, Line  XY (YX), XZ (ZX), or YZ (ZY), and Line segment AB or BA

A ray has an endpoint and goes on forever in one direction.

A line has no endpoints and goes on forever in both directions. 

A line segment has to endpoints.  Line segments are part of lines and can be measured.


Reading:  This week we worked on building stamina during Read to Self.  We also talked about how reading is thinking, the different ways students select books to read, and the difference between easy, just right, and challenging books.

Ask your student what their responsibilities are during "read to self" and what the teacher's responsibilities are.

Student:  

• Get started right away.
• Stay in one spot.
• Read quietly.
• Read the whole time.

Teacher:

• Work with groups and individual students.

Over the next few weeks students will be building stamina in this area.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Morning Drop Off:  Our class has being doing a great job following the morning routine for entering the building. Now that our students know how to find our classroom, we will begin letting them show off their leadership skills. On Tuesday, September 6^th, students may wait in the undercover area without parent supervision. Miss Julie, one of our EAs, will dismiss grade levels when the bell rings. She will begin with 5^th grade and work her way down to Kindergarten.

If you walk your child to school, you and your child may wait in Grand Central until the first bell rings. At that time, your child may enter the building and come to our classroom.

Thank you for helping your child learn our morning routine!

PE Attire:  Please encourage your child to wear appropriate footwear on PE days.  Students go to PE on Tuesday and Thursday.

Meet the Teacher Forms: Thank you so much to everyone who has already returned all of the classroom forms and questionnaires.  I would appreciate all classroom forms to be returned ASAP.

Friday Folder: Please look through your child’s folder this weekend. Students should return the folder on Monday with your signature.  Next week look for the "update form" to be included in the Friday Folder.  This form will also need to be signed and returned. 

SCHOOL CALENDAR

September 5......... No School, Labor Day

September 14........ Curriculum Night, All Grades, K-2 6:00-6:45pm, 3-5 7:00-7:45pm

September 15........ Picture Day (for those who didn’t have them taken during TCoB)

September 29....... Vision and Hearing Screening