Dear_________________,
I am very glad you are in my class this year. We will be covering many topics throughout the school year. I hope you are ready to learn new information in math, science, social studies, and of course to read some awesome books. We will be doing activities in all subjects to help the learning be fun! You will be given many opportunities to show your creative ability after completing a book or unit of study.
I need your help in making this year successful. I plan to work very hard, as you will be working hard also. When you don't understand, when you have an idea to share, or when you are upset about something I will be a good listener. I expect you to be a good listener too and to give your best effort everyday.
We will agree on classroom rules and consequences and I expect everyone to follow those rules so that we can have a wonderful year! Welcome again to fourth grade!!
Sincerely,
WELCOME TO FOURTH GRADE
I am looking forward to working with your child and you this year. We have a lot of fun, hard work, and learning ahead of us. The purpose of this handbook is for you to know more about our classroom. If you have questions once you have read it, feel free to contact me.
Communication between student, teacher and parent is vital to the success of the classroom. I welcome your comments and suggestions, as well as those of your child. I would prefer that you leave messages for me during school hours. I will return your call as soon as possible. As the school year begins, you are aware of the busy schedules we all must keep up with. Because I am a teacher, mother, and wife the evening hours become quite hectic. However, should an emergency arise, I would certainly be happy to receive your phone call at home. A cooperative effort from everyone will help our year run smoothly.
I will do my part to keep you as informed as possible about the progress your child is making in school. Newsletters will be sent home weekly either on Monday or Tuesday. Please ask your child for this letter and read it carefully. I will include activities, field trips, upcoming tests and projects. Graded assignments and tests will be sent home in a folder on a weekly basis. The folder should be returned with a parent’s signature the following day. Papers and tests that need to be fixed and signed will also be included. Mid-quarter reports will be averaged and sent home to you halfway through each quarter. Please realize that it is your child's responsibility to give you any correspondence which has been given to him/her, so it would be very helpful if you could check your child's take-home folder on a daily basis.
The parents at Immaculate Conception are wonderful! The cooperation, communication, and support is what makes our school so special. Thank you for all you do.
A LOVE AND LOGIC CLASSROOM
1. I will treat you with respect, so you will know how to treat me and others.
2. Feel free to do anything that doesn’t cause a problem for anyone else.
3. If you cause a problem, I will ask you to solve it.
4. If you can’t solve the problem, or choose not to, I will do something.
5. What I do, will depend on the special person, and the special situation.
6. If you feel something is unfair, whisper to me, “I’m not sure that’s fair,”
and we will talk.
7. Have books, materials, and assignments ready when class
begins.
8. All books must be covered.
REWARDS CONSEQUENCES
- "LAFFY-TAFFY BREAKS" - Walk at recess
- “LAFFY-TAFFY MOVIE” - - Writing ways to improve behavior
- Chance tickets for water - Loss of privileges
drawing weekly. - Phone call to parent
- Certificates for - Sent to the principal
behavior/academics
- Visit with the principal
- Earn chances to be used
* No late assignments
* Cooperative behavior
WORK RULES
1. Please turn in work when it is due!
2. REMEMBER: NO NAME - POINTS OFF. NEATNESS COUNTS!
3. Give your best effort on all assignments.
4. Write answers to questions in complete sentences
and in cursive, unless you are given a choice.
5. Place the correct heading on all assignments.
On top blue line Name Date Subject Page # Class #
WORK CONSEQUENCES
1. Loss of privileges, special events, or daily recess time.
2. If your work is below average, you will be given an opportunity to fix your
work and have your parents sign it to raise your grade.
3. Late assignments will be completed for partial credit, points will be subtracted
for each day late. This also applies to assignments which are
left at home. Phone calls home to have work delivered are not allowed.
Students will lose the privilege of Freaky Friday and receive partial credit when turned in.
PENMANSHIP
D'Nealian cursive will be used in our classroom this year. Handwriting is important in all subject areas. Except for a review period at the beginning of the year and various handwriting activities throughout the year, I do not "teach" handwriting as a separate subject area. It will be evaluated through all subject areas in which handwriting is used. Part of an acceptable work sample from your child will include the legibility of the handwriting. We must encourage neatness and legibility in cursive handwriting at all times.
The following are topics and subjects that we plan to cover during the school year.
MATHEMATICS *SCIENCE (Mrs. Tombleson)
Basic Facts and Number Concepts The Solar System
Place Value Properties of Matter
Rounding The Human Body
Time and Measurement Electricity and Magnetism
Multiplication Facts Weather
Division Facts, Minerals and Rocks
One and two-digit divisors Simple Machines
Geometry Classifying Living Things
Fractions Ecosystems
Decimals
Graphing, Statistics, and Probability
*SPANISH
LANGUAGE ARTS SPELLING
Shurley Method
Daily Oral Language Houghton Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary
Singular/Plural Nouns
Parts of Speech
Types of Sentences READING
Common/Proper Nouns 1996 Houghton Mifflin series
Possessives Literature Sets
Pronouns One book report or activity per quarter
Creative Writing Recreational Reading
Pizza Hut Book It (optional)
RELIGION
Choosing between good and evil
Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation
10 Commandments STUDY SKILLS (averaged in with reading)
The Great Commandment Various Research Projects:
Beatitudes One play ( The Great Kapok Tree)
Saints Program
*SOCIAL STUDIES (Mrs. Hukriede) Banana Countries
Travelog Biography
Geography of the 5 Regions of the U.S.
Study of Missouri
*COMPUTER ART
Keyboarding Skills Seasonal art activities
Internet Skills Projects related to thematic units
PowerPoint Art Attack Program
*MUSIC * PHYSICAL EDUCATION
*Taught by someone other than myself
MISCELLANEOUS
RESTROOM POLICY: The children have time to use the restroom before the school bell rings, morning recess, and lunch time. Students will be allowed to use the restroom at other times throughout the day by signing out. Only one student may be gone at a time.
FIELD TRIPS: We welcome you to join us in our field trip(s). We may need volunteer drivers. We are planning to visit the synagogue in December, the Springfield Symphony and the History Museum of Springfield in May. More details will come later about other field trips.
BIRTHDAYS: Birthdays are special days for everyone and I enjoy sharing these special times with the children. You are welcome to send or bring nutritional snacks for the class if you choose. I do ask that you let me know one day in advance to be sure we have an appropriate time available to celebrate. I usually like to celebrate right after the lunch period. Children may celebrate their half birthdays.
INVITATIONS: Invitations to parties may not be passed out during class time. If every child in the class is invited, then your child may pass invitations out during recess. Otherwise, I ask that you invite by phone or mail, to avoid hurt feelings.
BOOK ORDERS: Book orders will be passed out on a regular basis. This option is there if you choose to purchase books. Please send a check made payable to the Book Company, usually Arrow Book Club.
BOOK REPORTS: There will be a book report project due each quarter.
ABSENCES: If you know your child will be absent, it would be very helpful if you let me know. If the absence is unexpected, I will collect necessary work for the student throughout the day and will prepare an assignment sheet to be picked up at 3:15 p.m. or the following day.
MAKE-UP WORK: For one day’s absence make-up work should be completed within 2 days. It may be turned in before that time if it is completed early. If your child is absent for longer than 1 day, I will alter the due date for assignments.
HOMEWORK: There are several projects that will be initiated at school, but may need to be completed at home or the library. Math is one of the subjects that requires daily assignments. Sometimes these class assignments will not be completed during the school day. Seatwork in any subject that has not been completed during the school day automatically becomes homework and is due at 8:15 a. m. the following day.
DOCTOR/DENTIST APPOINTMENTS: It is quite helpful if these appointments could be scheduled after school hours. I realize this may not always be possible. If your child will be arriving late or leaving early from school, I would appreciate a short note. All work will be made up.
TARDIES: The beginning of the day is extremely important to everyone. We take lunch count and attendance. We take care of business, visit, and talk through the schedule for the day. I frequently collect work and have special announcements to make. Many children benefit immensely from this transition time into the school day. It also creates a terrible disturbance to the teacher and other students to have someone interrupt a lesson already in progress. Please see that your child arrives at school on time! Even though school begins promptly at 8:15 a.m., it would be helpful if your child arrived by 8:10 so they could get organized for the day.
GRADING SCALE: Springfield Catholic School District has created the following new grading scale that will be consistent throughout the system:
A+ = 100% B+ = 92% C- = 84% D+ = 75%
A = 94% - 99% B = 86%-91% C = 83%-77% D = 71%-74%
A- = 93% B- = 85% C- = 76% D- = 70%
Sometimes a system of +10/10 points is used for daily assignments.
RECREATIONAL READING: In addition to the three literature sets we will be working on this year, students will also be reading daily from a book of their choice. Students are assigned to read 30 minutes each night, Sunday through Thursday. Please try to make reading a priority for them in the evening, as it is the key to their success in all subjects. We will be participating in the Pizza Hut Book It program October – March.
SPELLING: We will be using Houghton Mifflin Reading Spelling and Vocabulary Consumable workbook. We will have a weekly spelling test over these words.
INFORMING YOU OF SPECIAL NEEDS:
1. Saints/Rain Forest Costumes
2. Banana Day - students may wear yellow
3. Field Day - White T-shirts to be tie-dyed
SUPPLIES
NEEDED…
This year our class will be involved in many exciting projects.
We need your help in gathering a few supplies and materials that may be
needed throughout our school year.
Please be saving any of the following materials you would like to donate to our
class. I will let you know in my
weekly letter what we will be working on.
Lots of helping hands and smiling
faces!
J
Chance/Point
Store items:
Art Supplies:
Tub of Laffy-Taffy
squiggle eyes
mechanical pencils
buttons
erasers
ribbon rolls (1/4 in green, red,
pens and grading pens
pink, blue)
stickers
Christmas Ribbons
(2”-3”
in. wide-wire preferred)
water bottles
tacky glue
used paperback books
yarn ( black, red, orange, turquoise,
bottled water
yellow, brown, etc.)
any free advertisement
glitter/sequins
items such as:
paint brushes
clipboards
pipe cleaners
pens/pencils
multicolor feathers
hats/T-shirts
packages of white or pastel wash cloths
sunglasses
paper towel rolls
Crystal light packets
Plastic fruit containers (rectangle boxes)
Dollar store items
Tie-dye kits at Hobby
Lobby or Michaels
Cool “used items”
felt or rain forest material
Class Snacks
pretzels
Microwave popcorn
Animal Crackers
Other
fresh fruit
“Pump” hand sanitizer
Thank
you very much for your contributions!
4th Grade Supply List
(Make sure everything is labeled)
Students may bring bottled water
Loose-leaf wide-lined paper
Backpack ~ double strapped
Plastic expandable file folder (5-8 slots)
Crayons & markers
#2 pencils, pre-sharpened
Handheld pencil sharpener (not battery operated)
2 red pens or pencils
Ruler (metric & inch)
Colored pencils
2 black sharpies
Good scissors
Small glue and 2 glue sticks
Old sock for eraser or a small eraser for dry erase markers
2 packages Expo Dry Erase markers (4 color pack) Not odor free
Zippered pencil/supply case (zip lock bags also work)
2 spiral notebooks (single subject and not perforated)
5 fabric book covers
Boys ~ 1 large canister of disinfectant wipes
Girls ~ 2 large boxes of Kleenex
*Assignment notebook will be provided
A smile and eager to learnJ
Reminder: Please send all monies in a labeled envelop with student’s name, 4B, and what it’s for.
Lunch Prices (Debit type card)
$1.75 per lunch (student) $2.00 per lunch (adult)
$0.50 for milk, juice, or water