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The 4t h Gr ade Tr opi cal Ti m es

Novem ber 1, 2013 Vol um e 5 Van Wer t El em ent ar y www.vanwer t cougar s.net

A Peek at Our Week

Conf er ences In your chi l ds Fri day Fol der wi l l be t he f orm t o si gn up f or conf erences. Pl ease t ake send t he com pl et ed f orm back as soon as possi bl e. Conf erences wi l l be schedul ed i n order recei ved. We al l l ook f orward t o di scussi ng your chi l ds progress wi t h you. Hal l Mal l s
Our f i rst Hal l Mal l f or 2013-14 was a huge success! It was so i nt erest i ng t o see t he ki ds creat i vi t y com e t hrough i n t he product s t hey m ade and sol d. It em s f or purchase were j ewel ry, baked goods, basebal l cards, t oys, spi ri t cl ot hs, t o nam e a f ew. We cant wai t t o see what s i n st ore f or t he next one at t he end of t he 2nd ni ne weeks!

419.238.1761

Upcoming Events 10.30 Report cards went home 11.1 Fall parties in afternoon 11.5 Ch. 3 Math Test 11.8 Spelling/Vocab test 11.12 Conference forms due

Just a Note...
Repor t Car ds
Yest erday report cards wen t hom e for t he 1st Nin e Weeks. Please t ake t he t im e t o look over your childs progress an d discuss st ren gt hs an d weakn esses. Set a goal t oget her of ways he or she can im prove. Developin g a plan t oget her builds accoun t abilit y an d m akes success t hat m uch m ore sweet !

Fal l Par t y Thank you t o t he parent s who sent i n goodi es and/ or suppl i es f or our Fal l Part y t oday! What a ni ce way t o end t he week!

Good luck to the VWHS Cross Country team at State!

Grading Scale 94-100 A 86-93 B 77-85 C 70-76 D 0-69 F

Our newest 4 grade scientists have been working on setting up their ISNs Interactive Student Notebooks. Each students notebook contains a Table of Contents, Words Worth Knowing vocabulary section, class notes, practice pages, a section to record grades, and a pocket to keep loose materials. These have worked well for creating our own science manuals as we work through our first chapter on matter.
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We have been working on the Associative, Commutative, Identity, and Zero properties of multiplication , and Ones and Zeros in division. They will need to be able to solve equations for the unknown and solve word problems using multiplication and division. The students need to know the vocabulary words found on page 185 in their journal. The test is scheduled for Tuesday.

A new group of students entered the world of Ohio for the 2nd Nine weeks. They learned state facts such as state bird, state flower, state animal, and even the state beverage (tomato juice) etc. Students were tested on these OH facts today. Next week we will begin the Ohio Studies Weekly. This newspaper will be our resource instead of the social studies textbook. Go Bucks!

Indian Captive, by Lois Lenski, has been introduced to fourth grade students. Due to the complexity of the text most reading will be done together in class or in smaller discussion groups. The exciting piece to this unit is that many skills and strategies will be practiced and ties into Ohio History. Students will be quizzed about every 3 chapters to check their comprehension. Students will spend 2 weeks exploring 10 spelling/vocabulary words which will later be tested. Encourage your child to use these words in their daily speaking vocabulary.

Students are on the cusp of being ready to publish their narrative writing pieces. Before doing so we learned how to properly self-edit using an editing checklist. Then students worked with an editing buddy to evaluate their writing at an even deeper level. This allowed them to make any additional necessary revisions before starting their published anthology. Many of our lessons have also centered on discussing the Fourth Grade Narrative Checklist as well as the Fourth Grade Narrative Rubric. The writers were able to see not only what they are expected as fourth graders to do, but what writing might look like at a second and third grade level as well as a fifth grade level. This was very eye-opening for many causing them to reflect about their own level of writing.