Weekly Rewind

Do you know what lethargic means?

If not, as a fourth grader! We have chosen the word "lethargic" as our new Word of the Week. We made posters to celebrate and advertise the word to the other students in our school. They look pretty cool! We chose the word because the recent weather has been making us all feel very lethargic.

Also! On Friday we spent time discovering the magic of Maurice Sendak's classic story Where the Wild Things Are. As everyone knows, the book has been turned into a film that is being released this weekend. Check out more information about the movie here!

Kindergarten Buddies!

Starting a few weeks ago, our class began helping out Ms. Dykhuis's kindergarten class during Enrichment time each week! We visit them every Thursday to work on reading, writing and even science! So far we have spent most of our visits exploring with our five senses outside, reading story books and practicing writing names and sight words.



Over the course of the year, we will visit with our kindergartners and help them learn to be great readers and writers! Ms. Dykhuis and Miss Davis are setting up pen pals between students to give everyone a special friend for the whole year.

Math Games

Each week in math, we spend time learning some fun new games!

This week we have been playing a game called fishing for digits. It is a great tool to help students recognize place value. You only need two people, a pair of calculators and a pencil to play this fun game! Try it at home.

Directions for "Fishing for Digits"
1. Each player secretly enters a 6 digit number into their calculator. Make sure you know how to read it!

2. Player 1 goes "fishing for digits" by asking Player 2 if they have a certain digit in their number.
Example: "Do you have any 6 in your number?"

3. If Player 2 DOES have a 6 in their number, they say the place value for that digit out loud.
Example: "Yes! I have one 6. It is worth 6,000!"

4. Player 2 then must subtract that value from their number. Player 1 gets to add that value to their number for guessing correctly!

5. If the digit that Player 1 guesses does not exist in Player 2's number then they each + or + zero (0) and swtich turns.

6. Now it is Player 2's turn to guess a digit for Player 1. The same rules applying with each player adding or subtraction correctly.

7. Each player has 5 turns guessing. At the end of 5 turns, the player with the largest number on their calculator wins!

Try playing this at home without a calculator for extra practice adding and subtraction.

Jamestown Adventures

We have begun our Jamestown Unit in social studies. To kick it off, we spent the morning exploring the land around the Jamestown colony and pretending to be ship captains sent from England in 1607. The Jamestown Adventure website is designed to give students a chance practice decision making skills just like colonists did over 400 years ago. Can you help the colony survive?


Students will receive a study guide for the Jamestown Unit in Thursday folders. They will have an assessment on Thursday, October 8th.

Virginia Jamestown SOLS:
VS.3 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the first permanent English settlement in America by
a) explaining the reasons for English colonization;
b) describing how geography influenced the decision to settle at Jamestown;
c) identifying the importance of the charters of the Virginia Company of London in establishing the Jamestown settlement;
d) identifying the importance of the Virginia Assembly(1619) as the first representative legislative body in English America;
e) identifying the importance of the arrival of Africans and women to the Jamestown settlement;
f) describing the hardships faced by settlers at Jamestown and the changes that took place to ensure survival;
g) describing the interactions between the English settlers and the Powhatan people, including the contributions of the Powhatans to the survival of the settlers.

National Festival of the Book!

This weekend we are celebration the National Festival of the Book in Washington, DC! This event was created a few years ago through the Library of Congress and is a great way for students and parents to not only see some of their favorite authors, but also to get an opportunity to listen to them reading their very own books! Some authors even do book signings where you can get a copy dedicated just to you.

Here are some of my favorite authors that will be there to celebrate:
-Stephen Kellogg
-Sharon Creech
-Lois Lowry
-Judy Blume
-Kate DiCamillo
-Jon Sceiszka
-David Shannon
-Mo Willems

And Parents! There are authors for you to celebrate too - James Patterson, Paula Deen, Nicholas Sparks and John Grisham to name a few.

I will be there all afternoon - hope you will too!

Things to Look Forward to This Week

Tomorrow starts off with week number three of the 09-10 school year!

Here are a couple of things to look forward to over the next five days:

-- Back to School Night is on Tuesday, September 22. The PTA meeting begins at 6:30pm in our cafeteria and then Back to School Night starts at 7:00 in our classrooms. We will be spending time going over the expectations for our fourth graders and spend some time getting to know the classroom and the curriculum. I hope to see everyone there!

-- Tuesday and Wednesday will mark our first quizzes of the year! Tuesday we will have our first math quiz! It will be about geometry and the students will review the material in class on Monday. A study packet of questions to know will come home that night to prepare. Additionally, Tuesday will be a social studies quiz focusing on the geographic regions and features of Virginia. Students should know the different regions, border states, bodies of water and land features of our great state. Look for information to come home on Monday!

-- Scholastic Book orders are due back Friday, September 25th! Choose come great books and bring back the order for by Friday. The more you buy, the more books we get for our classroom!

Happy Bonus Day

Today we celebrated our very first BONUS DAY of the year!

Bonus Day is a time where students are rewarded for their positive behavior in the classroom. Every other week, everyone who has maintained a proper standard of behavior for the two-week period is rewarded with EXTRA RECESS! A full explaination of Bonus Day was sent home in Thursday Folders this week. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions!