August 27, 2012

Welcome to a new school year! I'm very excited to be back and teaching fourth grade, and we have a lot of fun activities planned for the beginning of the year. Right now, I am working with the students on organization and setting up routines and procedures. This will help the rest of the year run smoothly, especially as students have more independence in reading and writing and the ability to make more choices. In the beginning of the year, we focus on learning about the writing process (exploring, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) in English and classification and animals in science. We'll begin discussing the Ten Commandments and learn comprehension strategies in reading.

We will begin spelling this week, which will mean weekly spelling tests. These will alternate between testing the definitions from the vocabulary in the book and testing on the spelling of words from their own lists. Starting today, students will also have regular reading and math homework.

Don't forget that our Back to School Night is this Thursday, from 6-8. We also have a three day weekend, with no school on September 3 for Labor Day.