Not much time left in the year. I'm still amazed at how fast it has gone by. I still have a few fun things planned for the end of the year in addition to our regular grade level end-of-year activities. You should be hearing about them in the days to come.
Some things to keep in mind...
SKY SOX
Don't forget to sign and send the permission slip along with $5.00 cash for Sky Sox day by MONDAY so we can make the deposit and buy the tickets.
4TH GRADE AUCTION
Also, keep sending in those auction toys for the end-of-year auction. I have room on my shelf for those who want to send them to school now.
SUMMER SCHOOL
If you're interested in summer school for your child, let me know and I'll send a registration form home in your child's Friday folder. The cost is $80.00 (cash or money order only--the school won't accept personal checks).
IMPORTANT DATES...
***May 1--NO SCHOOL--Assessment Day
***May 2--NO SCHOOL--Literacy Day
***May 8th--Sky Sox Field Trip
***May 23--Last Day (1/2 Day) 4th grade auction
Reading Counts:
Our Class total has exactly 1200 Points right now!! Yippee! It is still possible to reach our goal of 1600 by the end of the year.Here are our individual prizes for this year...
25 points...Homework coupon
50 points...Move next to a friend for one week
75 points...Thirty minutes of free time or computer time
100 points...Pick a free book from my book box
125 points...Ms. Kravitsky brings you lunch150 points...Order a free book of your choice from scholastic
175 points...Choose one of any of the previous prizes
200 points...Special prize
250 points...Gift certificate for the movies plus snacks!
All students are capable of reading at least 100 points worth of books by the end of the year. However, more reading and less video games/TV would make the higher level prizes attainable, too!
Math:
We are finishing up with "Data and Graphs", and students will also be introduced to some more advanced concepts in multiplication, division, fractions and so forth.
Fourth grade has started our yearly Math Club for those students still struggling with their multiplication facts. Each day (M-Th) during afternoon recess, students practice their facts using a different method for each session. On Fridays, they have recess as usual. We're hoping to have close to 100% of our fourth graders proficient at mult. facts by the end of the year. Our class is 79% proficient--the highest percent in fourth grade--and we have 3 more students getting very, very close:)
Some of the students have moved onto more complex concepts--and yes, they're still timed!! These quizzes don't affect students' math grades. They are only to let students challenge themselves. And boy, do they! The students really enjoy progressing to the next quiz. These are the types of quizzes I am using this year, listed in order of difficulty...
100 multiplication facts
100 division facts up to 81
100 division facts up to 144
100 mixed facts (mult., div., sub., and add.)
30 order of operation problems
54 addition of intergers (positives and negatives)
54 subtraction of intergers
Every students is working at his or her own level. Most of our students are on division to 144 or higher!
Writing:
We are working on persuasive paragraphs and also covering a unit on nutrition during this time. We will write some poetry the last two weeks of school.
Reading:
Students are enjoying reading a novel in small groups. We've been in small groups all year, but the texts we study usually change week to week. At the end of the year, I like to choose short novels for each group as it gives students something to look forward to for every reading group session.
Our novels right now are...
James and the Giant Peach...We love the creativity and fun of this novel.
Class President...This novel emphasizes how important it is to think positively about our abilities. If we think we can do it, we can. If we think we can never do it, we never will.
Call it Courage...A exciting novel about survival
We also are reading the book "HOLES" as the class read aloud. Most of us have read the book, watched the movie, or both. But, this is a story that is worth hearing more than once!
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Volunteers
If you can't come to the school because you're a busy mom/dad with little ones who keep you busy at home during the day, or a busy parent who works, but would still like to help out with projects to improve the classroom--let me know! I can send home tasks with your child that can be worked on and sent back to school-------e-mail me and I'll get back to you about how you can help. Or if you can come to school for a couple hours here and there, just not regularly, that is perfectly welcome and appreciated as well!******************************************************************************
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Ms. Kravitsky reserves the right to make silly errors and stupid jokes on her webpage as typing with this font makes her go googly-eyed and become very tired!
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