October 29 -- November 2

Dates to Note: 

November 2

• No school for students

November 5 & 6

• No school for students

November 8

• Jamestown Field Trip
• Arriving back in the evening

Parents,
     Please make sure you have returned the Jamestown Permission Slip. With this trip quickly approaching, we need to make arrangements. 

Have you signed up for a parent-teacher conference?

     As a school, we are working hard on social-emotional education. In fourth grade, we began lessons during morning meeting that concentrate on these goals. The second book in the series of lessons is My Secret Bully. 

Please ask your child about:

• What kinds of things we are doing to keep our classroom safe and friendly so that everyone will feel welcome and want to come to school every day?
• What bullying is?  
• Why it's not okay to leave someone out on purpose?
• What ways we can make sure everyone has someone to play with at recess or eat with at lunch?

Reading Update

Website

  Or TFK as we call it has proven to be very challenging for the students. You can help at home by discussing the topics, especially the heavy vocabulary. This week's article focuses on the upcoming election. Some tough words are:

• Majority
• Polls
• Endorsed
• Primaries
• Chambers
• Agenda

Math Update

Related Activities to Try at Home

The activities described here are related to the mathematics in Unit 3. Use the activities to enrich your child’s learning experience. Modeling Division Situations At school, students are solving word problems that represent various types of division situations. Encourage your child to help you solve situations that come up in your daily activities. Here are some examples: “I baked a batch of 48 cookies for the bake sale. I need to put them into bags of 5. How many bags of 5 can I make? What can I do with the extra cookies?” “There are 180 players who will play baseball in teams of 9. How many teams can they make?”

How Did You Solve That? Ask your child to tell you about

how he or she is multiplying and dividing. Show that you

are interested in these approaches. Because these strategies

may be unfamiliar to you, listen carefully to your child’s

explanation; you might even try to do a problem or two

using the new procedure. Let your child be the teacher!

Content Update-

Mrs. Canalichio's Homeroom: Begins a unit on Force, Motion, and Energy with Mr. Thompson.

Mrs. Elsie's Homeroom: Begins a unit on Plants with Ms. Shifflett. 

Ms. Shifflett's Homeroom: Begins a unit on Virginia Geography with Mrs. Canalichio.

Mr. Thompson's Homeroom: Begins a unit on Technology with Mrs. Elsie. 

October 22 --- October 26

Dates to Note: 

October 24

• Information about the Jamestown Field Trip coming home. Please read and send back ASAP.

October 25

• Plant test for Thompson's class
• Force, Motion, & Energy Test for Shifflett's class
• Virginia Geography Test for Elsie's class

November 2

• No school for students

November 5 & 6

• No school for students

November 8

• Jamestown Field Trip
• Arriving back in the evening

Parents,
     We are finalizing our trip to Jamestown that will take place on November 8th. A field trip form will be coming home this week outlining all the information. Due to the nature of this trip, chaperones are needed, but the amount is limited. Classrooms will hold a lottery for parent chaperones. Please indicate at the bottom of the field trip form if you would like to be considered for the lottery.  

Keep your eye out for an email coming home concerning parent-teacher conferences!

     As a school, we are working hard on social-emotional education. In fourth grade, we began lessons during morning meeting that concentrate on these goals. Last week we read the story Just Kidding, in which a young boy learns how to deal with a bully. You can help with this at home by asking these questions...

Ask me about....

• What kinds of things we are doing to keep our classroom safe and friendly so that everyone will feel welcome and want to come to school every day?
• What bullying is?  
• Why it's not okay to leave someone out on purpose?
• What ways we can make sure everyone has someone to play with at recess or eat with at lunch?

Reading Update

Website

  Or TFK as we call it has proven to be very challenging for the students. You can help at home by discussing the topics, especially the heavy vocabulary. This week, some tough words were:

• Breed
• Instinct
• Stray
• Vulnerable
• Conservation
• Peril

Math Update

We have learned the area model for multiplying numbers. This is an excellent strategy for solving more complex multiplication problems. We are not yet ready to share the algorithm for multiplication yet, so please refrain from doing this at home. It is extremely important that they conceptually understand multiplication and area model is a great way to do this. 

Content Update-

Mrs. Canalichio's Homeroom: Finishes the unit on technology.

Mrs. Elsie's Homeroom: Finishes the unit on Virginia Geography. 

Ms. Shifflett's Homeroom: Finishes the unit on Force, Motion, and Energy.

Mr. Thompson's Homeroom: Finishes the unit on Plants. 

October 15 -- October 19

Dates to Note: 

October 18

• Morven Farm Field Trip

October 19

• Picture Day!
• Movie Under the Stars

Parents, if your child was one of the 6 students chosen from his/her class, we'll be sending home a letter early this week with reminders for Thursday afternoon. Thank you to all of those that showed interest! We're already in the planning stages of having Morven Farms come to SRES for a kick-off event for all the 4th and 5th grader. More details soon. 

Keep your eye out for an email coming home concerning parent-teacher conferences!

Reading Update

Website

  Or TFK as we call it has proven to be very challenging for the students. You can help at home by discussing the topics, especially the heavy vocabulary. This week, some tough words were:
dubbed
refugee
optimistic

Math Update

Classes are starting a new unit about multiplication and division called Multiple Towers and Cluster Problems. During this unit, students will build on the work they did in Unit 1. Students will be solving multiplication problems with 2-digit numbers, division word problems, and problems about multiples and number relationships. Throughout the unit, students work toward these goals: 

Students will work on multiplication and division again later this year in unit 7, when they will solve problems with larger numbers and share a variety of solution strategies. In our math class, students spend time discussing problems in depth and are asked to share their reasoning and solutions. It is most important that children accurately and efficiently solve math problems in ways that make sense to them. At home, encourage your child to explain his or her math thinking to you. Please look for more information and activities about Unit 3 that will be sent home in the coming weeks.

Content Update-

Mrs. Canalichio's Homeroom: Continues a unit on technology.

Mrs. Elsie's Homeroom: Continues a unit on Virginia Geography. 

Ms. Shifflett's Homeroom: Continues a unit on Force, Motion, and Energy.

Mr. Thompson's Homeroom: Continues a unit on Plants. 

October 7 -- October 11

Dates to Note: 

October 18

• Morven Farm Field Trip

October 19

• Movie Under the Stars

Reading Update

Website

  We will continue to use this resource throughout the school year. Students will be taking weekly quizzes on each magazine. Please look for these coming home in the Friday Folders. 

Math Update

We will be taking our Graphing test at the end of the week. You can help at home by asking your child to answer questions about a graph and to create a graph out of given data. Here are some examples of questions to give you more guidance: 

Content Update-

Mrs. Canalichio's Homeroom: Travels to Mrs. Elsie's room for a unit on technology.

Mrs. Elsie's Homeroom: Travels to Mrs. Canalichio's room for Virginia Geography. 

Ms. Shifflett's Homeroom: Travels to Mr. Thompson's room for a unit on Force, Motion, and Energy.

Mr. Thompson's Homeroom: Travels to Ms. Shifflett's room for a unit on Plants.