Dear Parents and Students,
It was so great to see you last Tuesday night at Back To School Night!! Thank you for coming and sharing your time with me! I know that God has placed each and every one of you and your children into my life for a reason and I really look forward to seeing what He has in store for us. We have had a great time of laughing, learning and worshipping our God! I have tried to re-cap a few important things in the newsletter for those of you who were unable to attend.
At Back To School Night I had parent sign-ups to work in the classroom and still have some openings for those of you who are interested. Please e-mail me if any of the times below work for you. Those who already signed may begin this week!! 🙂 Also, don’t forget to get a visitor’s pass from the office before entering the classroom. Thank you!!
Monday 10:30-11:30 Cheryl Higginbotham
Tuesday 10:30-11:30 _____________
Wednesday 10:30-11:30 Eunice Evans
Thursday 10:15-11:00 Jaime DeGroot (every other)
Friday 10:30-11:30 Dawn Thompson (every other)
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Starting next week, September 2nd, I will only be sending out one monthly newsletter announcing the activities and events along with all the Bible Verses and Spelling Words for the entire month. Much of the information is repeated each week and this will also give you an overview of what’s coming each month. You can access it online each week and I will also be sending a hard copy home as well. Any other special announcements that come up during the month will be sent home in your Communication Folder or sent by e-mail. Thank you!
HEAD ROOM MOM
A BIG thank you to Jennifer Singer (Dawson’s mom) who is serving as our Head Room Mom this year!!! You may contact Jennifer by e-mail at jennifercsinger@gmail.com or call or text her at (479)-774-8419. I appreciate your kindness, loving spirit and giving of your time to serve our class!
POWERSCHOOL
Please check your child’s grades on Powerschool weekly and let me know if anything needs to be changed. Remember, I am not the only one grading assignments and we are all human and will make mistakes. Please save your child’s work each quarter in a file at home and send in anything that doesn’t coincide with Powerschool so I can make the change. Also, be checking to see which assignments your child might be missing and have them complete them for a grade. By 4th grade they are responsible for remembering to turn in their homework. Remember, your child may re-do any assignment below a 70% that comes home in Monday’s packet for a better grade. If they are going to make changes, please return it to me by the end of the same week so it doesn’t pile up at the end of the quarter. Thank you for your support and for helping your child succeed!!
HOMEWORK
Any work not completed in class, such as math, reading. language or spelling, is considered homework and needs to be returned the following day. Students not finishing their work that night are subject to finishing it the next day at recess or lunch before they play. Please communicate with me if there was a valid reason as to why a child was not able to complete an assignment. Thank you for your partnership in this area.
HONOR ROLL/MERIT LIST
At Back to School night I attached the requirements for the Honor Roll and Merit List certificates. If a student receives honor roll all 4 quarters, they will also be awarded with a trophy at the end of the year awards ceremony! Please note that citizenship grades will count towards earning Honor Roll, as well as academic grades. If your student has any N’s or P’s in their character development grades or academic subjects, this will disqualify them from earning Honor Roll. They will still be able to qualify for Merit List.
GRANDPARENT’S DAY
Grandparents Day is on Friday, September 13, 2013. It is a fun day for the children to spend with their grandparents. If their
grandparent is unable to come, feel free to invite a close, senior family friend. The schedule is as follows:
9:30-9:50 AM K-12 Pick up schedules
9:50-11:40 AM K-12 Visit classrooms
11:40-12:25 PM K-12 Lunch
12:25 PM K-12 Say Goodbye to grandchild
PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES
Parent conference forms will be coming home next week on Tuesday, September 3 with your child’s Communication folder. Please sign and send your form in before Monday, September 16th. Early dismissal will begin on Monday, September 23rd at 12:00. Early dismissal will be each day of the week through Friday, Sept. 27th. Please assist each other by being on time to the scheduled conference as we have only 20 minutes per conference. At conference time we can focus on strengths and areas for future growth together. I am looking forward to seeing each of you!!
STUDENT COUNCIL ANNOUNCEMENT
Student Council is a team of students who play a vital role in every school. Participants share ideas and interests to promote school wide events, fundraisers, and service projects. Student council promotes responsibility, commitment, and collaboration among students. On Monday, students in grades 3-6 will be given the opportunity to apply. Those who desire to be an active leader must complete and return their application by 8:00 AM on Wed., August 28. Those who are elected must be willing to commit to the following responsibilities for the 2013-1024 school year.
Responsibilities of Representatives:
-Attend meetings twice a month to discuss ideas
-Work at special events
-Help with school service projects
-Serve as a positive role model to other students
-Maintain excellent academic and behavior status
-Pray together and for our school
A total of 12 students will be selected based on academic performance, availability, leadership and demonstration of responsibility.
Thank you,
Mrs. Hancox
MATH
Last week we continued our math lesson on place value and rounding and this week we will be finishing it up. Our first test will be 
NEXT Wednesday. Students will receive a “Chapter Pretest” to complete at home on Tuesday night to help them review the skills in Chapter 1. Please look over it once they have completed it and have them fix their mistakes to make sure they understand the concepts. These will be due on Wednesday, the day of the test. They may need to bring their math books home to use as a guide.
At Back to School night I also addressed the Math 4×4 Rewards, which are as follows:
4th grade Math Club (Pass multiplication facts)= Ice Cream Party & Lifetime members (Pass through Mixed Facts) = Pizza Party
LANGUAGE ARTS
The first week of school we began reading an exciting novel as a class titled, Trouble River, which ties into our 4th grade Social Studies curriculum! We are completing a literature study guide together in class so that the students can recall how to answer questions in complete sentences and use proper grammar and punctuation. We reviewed vocabulary and also learned to locate similes, metaphors and uses of personification in the text. The next novel we will read together and discuss, but more and more they will learn to answer questions on their own.
WRITING
Last week students began their first Expository Writing piece on a “Summary of a Story” to prepare them for their first benchmark test. We completed a practice summary after reading a familiar story, The Three Little Pigs. We will continue using familiar children’s stories or novels to help them learn to summarize using an opening sentence, a key word outline and proper grammar and punctuation.
READING COUNTS PROGRAM
As I mentioned at Back To School Night, the Reading Counts Program has not yet been updated with the new classes. I have encouraged children to continue to read books and then as soon as it is set up, they can take their quizzes. They may take quizzes in class or online at home with adult supervision. They are not allowed to use their book to answer the questions. Go to Fresno Christian’s website and choose Grades K-6 on the home page then SRI & SRC and then click on Scholastic Reading Counts. They will need their username and password to access this from home. They will only be required to take 5 quizzes this quarter as part of their Reading grade.
At Back to School night I also addressed the Reading Counts Rewards which are as follows: 100 points= Ice Cream Party & 500 points=Pizza Party
BIBLE VERSE
Character Trait: Wisdom
Reference: Proverbs 9:10
Bible Verse: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
SPELLING WORDS
Week 3-Pattern Words-Short e
1. hotel
2. selfish
3. meant
4. breath
5. instead
6. several
7. leather
8. Mexico
9. protect
10. already
11. connect
12. pleasant
13. seventeen
14. everybody
High-Frequency Words
15. music
16. during
Vocabulary Words
17. envelope
18. entrance
19. expedition
20. exclamation
Challenge Words
1. obedience
2. authority
3. character
4. Hebrews
5. bonus
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
September 2 NO SCHOOL-Labor Day
September 10 Elementary Pictures
September 14 HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE!
September 18 School dismissed @12:00 PM Teacher In-service
September 22 HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWSON!
September 23-27 Parent Teacher Conferences-Noon Dismissal
September 25 HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE & SKYLAR!!
Thank you all for continued prayer for our class, for me, and for our school. I am so blessed to be part of your lives this year!
MRS. FERGUSON