October 16, 2009
STUDENT PARTIES
As I stated in the e-mail to you yesterday, our class has elected to plan and
run their own parties this year. The class decided that they wanted to ask
for $10 from each family. That cash will be divided among each party group to
buy snacks, decorations, and games. I will make sure the party planners stick
to a budget and govern themselves well. Thank you for supporting their efforts.
DAYS OUT
Next Week I will be out of town for the last half of the week for personal
reasons. I have planned to have Mrs. Aspegren substitute for me. She knows
the children in Room 14 very well and I have pre-planned most of our
activities with her. The week after next, I have more district training at
the District Office and Lauren will sub for me again.
HALLOWEEN
As we get closer to Halloween, I wanted to give you a few notes:
• The parade will be on Friday, October 30th after recess at 10:30am
• Our classroom party will be from the end of the parade to lunch.
• No weapons or over- grotesque (bloody) costumes.
• There will be on opportunity for children to change into their
costumes at recess from 10:10 to 10:30, during recess.
• We will have regular classroom lessons after lunch
TECHNOLOGY
This week we completed our MapMaker activity where students practiced using
Microsoft Word features like: cut & paste, format layering, format coloring,
line thickness, create basic shapes, color fill, creating text boxes, create
map keys, and more.
Our next project will involve Power Point Presentations.
MATH FACTS
At the start of 4th grade, students are expected to know their math facts:
addition, subtraction, multiplication & division.
I am happy with the progress we are making with our new Everyday Mathematics
curriculum, however I need to spend more and more time helping students master
their math facts. This has and will continue slow our progress.
As a grade-level Ms. Naqvi, Mrs. Watson, and I have recently agreed to use the
same math facts assessment program where students will test out of the program
upon mastery of each operation.
This week we took some of these addition assessments, so look for them to come
home today and next week.
Side note:
In Room 14, 12 students have mastered multiplication facts, 12 have not.
MATH GAMES
The math games rotation on Thursdays with Mrs. Watson help students practice
their facts as do the EDM online games. Let me know if you need more support
to practice facts at home.
PARENT / TEACHER CONFERENCES
I now have every child’s conference time and date scheduled. Thank you in
advance for meeting. If you need to reschedule our meeting please give me a
day’s notice, and we’ll find a new time.
WRITING
This week we wrote mini reports on one of the four California State Regions.
We used a planning sheet, gathered information from text books, online, and
our CA Weekly Studies Newspaper, and published the reports after using
different editing strategies.
LITERACY
We continue working through the core literature story, In The Year Of The Boar
& Jackie Robinson. We have had great conversations and reflections.
MATH
We are currently working with data analysis, range, median, mode, mean, and
types of data collecting. We are also working through different strategies
like partial sum, partial difference, and column difference. Feel free to ask
you child about any of these topics.
1st GRADE BUDDIES
Every Tuesday we continue to work with our Room 6, 1st grade buddies for 15
minutes. This is a great chance for our fourth graders to be leaders,
listeners, and friends.
No newsletter next week.
Have a great weekend!
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October 9, 2009
No newsletter this week.
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October 2, 2009
The Palo Verde Harvest Fair
The Palo Verde Harvest Fair will be Sunday, October 4th, from 3 – 5 pm at Palo
Verde School. This is a fun family activity that offers carnival games with
prizes for the kids, a bake sale with hot dogs and goodies made by our own
Palo Verde families and the opportunity to meet and socialize with other Palo
Verde families. Admission is FREE – I hope to see you there!
Palo Alto Walks & Rolls Day 2009
Wednesday, October 7th is the annual citywide Palo Alto Walks & Rolls Day to
promote safer streets, healthier bodies, a greener planet. Palo Verde
families let’s join in! Give your car a break and Walk & Roll to and from
school on October 7th. If you have any questions or for more information
contact Silvie and George Pierce at silviep (at) att dot net.
Have a great weekend!
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September 24th, 2009
NO SCHOOL ON FRIDAY & MONDAY
There will be no school this Friday and next Monday for students.
Friday is a staff development day and Monday is a local holiday.
ERB TEST
Each student did his/her best and we had a very productive hour on Tuesday,
creating our rough drafts, and Wednesday, committing to our final drafts.
Results will be mailed to you in a few months. I can also talk with you about
this test and others during our parent/ teacher conferences that will begin in
November.
WORDLY WISE
This week students created their first Wordly Wise story and finished their
lesson 2 activities in their WW Books.
EVERYDAY MATH
Given this short week, and the ERB test we had very short math lessons this
week. We did, however introduce new math tools that we practiced using in all
subject areas.
IN THE YEAR OF THE BOAR AND JACKIE ROBINSON
This week we began our investigation in to the Palo Alto 4th Grade Core
Literature Book: In the Year of The Boar and Jackie Robinson, written by Bette
Bao Lord. We will have in depth discussions, activities, and reading sessions
during the next month and a half.
1ST GRADE BUDDIES
I’m sure that you have already been informed about our class meeting with our
1st grade buddies in Room 6, Mrs. Mason’s class. Each child has a buddy that
he/she will meet with on most Tuesdays for 15 to 20 minutes. Typically these
are literacy sessions where students will read to each other, help with 1st
grade projects, or do team building activities.
Have a great 4-day weekend!
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September 18, 2009
WALK-A-THON
This morning we had a fun time walking and raising money for Palo Verde! Palo
Verde’s 5th annual Walk A Thon was organized by our own Room 14 Super Aide,
Lauren, and was raising money for student lunchtime activities such as noon
art, games, YMCA and walking club. We had a great time, got some exercise,
and made some money. Thank you for your support and contributions!
RESPECT
During this week’s assembly we kicked-off our first character trait for the
year: Respect.
For the next month or so, I’ll be looking for students who display this trait
and they may be recognized at one of our upcoming assemblies. If your child
is selected I will let you know with a flyer that will be sent home. Respect
is only one of five character traits that we will be focusing on this year.
HOMEWORK
This week I had a few conversations with parents regarding the ease of homework.
Next week we will ramp-up homework to much more of the 4th grade expectation.
I just do/did not want to overwhelm any students at the start of the year.
SPELLING & WORDLY WISE
Wordly Wise Story #1: Next week students will create a story, in cursive,
using three (3) or more of their Wordly Wise words. The story must be
original and not a copy of the example in the book. I will provide a new
Composition Book that will be sent home on Monday. This story will be due
next Friday, and every other Friday after that, when we take the Wordly Wise
Spelling test.
TECHNOLOGY
This week students continued the mapmaking project that focuses on geography
and the specific details of maps.
ERB WRITING TEST
Next Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, all 4th grade students will be
taking the ERB Writing Assessment.
You may ask, “What are the basic elements of the ERB Writing Assessment Program?”
The ERB Writing Assessment Program provides a direct measure of writing
ability by asking for a writing sample from each student. Schools may test
their students at five levels: Elementary (grades 3-4); Intermediate (grades
5-6); Middle (grades 7-8); Secondary (grades 9-10), and College Preparatory
(grades 11-12). Within each level, students write on the same prompt
regardless of grade. The same scoring criteria are employed for each level.
Modes of discourse and scoring standards change over the five levels of the
Program, keeping pace with the progressively more sophisticated writing skills
acquired by students as they move through the grades.
Have a great weekend!
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September 11, 2009
Book Orders:
Thank you to Arjan's mom for sending out the book orders forms this week. The
due date for those will be Wednesday, September 16th.
Mathematics:
We've been working with regular, convex, and concave polygons along with using
a straightedge, a compass, and creating inscribed 2-D figures. We also spent
time exploring two math websites that can be found on our classroom links
page: CoolMath.com & AplusMath.com
Writing:
This week we did a 17-minute quickwrite about the "First Two Weeks of School"
and we worked with Microsoft Word, including the drawing function.
Additionally, we practiced using the typing program on the website BBC Typing.
CA History:
We began working on CA geography.
Wordly Wise & Core SP Tests:
Today's test went really well. I'll have those back to you next week. The
core spelling tests have been recorded and returned.
Have a great weekend!
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September 4th, 2009
NEWSLETTERS
I collected everyone’s e-mail address(es) at Back to School Night and I sent
an e-mail to everyone (and this Newsletter). This newsletter is also being
sent home as a hard copy, so you can let me know if you have not received an
e-mail from me. If that is the case, please send me and e-mail. This will be
the last hard copy newletter.
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT
It was great to see so many parents at Back To School Night! It was a
pleasure meeting those of you who were able to attend.
2nd WEEK REVIEW
This week students continued to exercise their strengths at building a
classroom community.
We literally start our days with a 20-minute academic warm-up in class, and
then move outside for a 10-minute physical warm-up activity.
California State History has been our main focus in social science with
emphasis on CA’s symbols.
In math we have been working with our new math adoption: Everyday Mathematics.
Our first few lessons have been on line, rays, line segments, angles, and
polygons.
During science rotations in Ms. Naqvi’s class students began their
investigation with Earth Solids.
Finally, students enjoyed their first music and PE classes which were held
this week.
HOMEWORK
Next week I will further explain our Wordly Wise Vocabulary Program which will
consist of several components.
ROOM 14 WEBSITE
It is my hope that every student in our class grows more comfortable
and familiar with technology this year. In an effort to incorporate
technology into each student’s life I have created our classroom web site that
all students and parents can access. It will have daily homework assignments,
newsletters, previewed websites and my e-mail address. If you have not yet
visited this site, please visit it at:
http://teacherweb.com/CA/PaloAlto/TreborWinslow/index.html
VOLUNTEERS
Early next week I will contact you regarding your volunteering in room 14.
NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY!
Have a great 3-Day Weekend!
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August 28th, 2009
Welcome to 4th Grade!
Welcome to an exciting new year at Palo Verde, which will be full of learning,
new experiences and fun. We are off to a great start in Room 14. All the
students in our class seem eager to be back in school, excited to see their
friends, and prepared to learn: especially science and social science.
Mr. Winslow
This marks my eighth year at Palo Verde and I am very excited to be teaching
4th grade again. Last year my class and I had a great time going through the
4th grade curriculum for the first time. This year I’ll be able to expand on
those experiences and build new extensions to these healthy challenges. The
warm welcomes from students and parents have been fantastic and I can already
see that we have an exciting year ahead of us.
Back to School Night
Please join us for Back to School Night on Tuesday, September 1st (7:05pm –
8:05pm). I will discuss 4th grade curriculum, my homework policy, and
behavior expectations. I look forward to seeing you all.
First Week Review
This week students were introduced to classroom “norms”, procedures and
practiced emergency drills. Additionally,
we discussed conflict resolution skills and safety around our campus. We
practiced several team-building activities, which allowed us a chance to get
reacquainted with others we missed during the summer. Students also took
several beginning-of-the-year assessments: district math assessments, a
writing prompt, and a 4th grade “100% Words” spelling test.
4th Grade Rotations
At Palo Verde, 4th grade students are very lucky to have the opportunity to
have a science, poetry, and technology experience every Friday. Thanks to our
Palo Verde PTA funding, Site Council support and your parent contributions we
have enough laptops that all our 4th graders will have access to technology to
better support their learning and study habits. Every Friday Ms. Naqvi will
teach the Poetry, I will teach technology, and Mrs. Watson will teach three of
the four revised science units. These 4th grade rotations proved to be a
success last year and we all look forward to building on those success again
this year.
Trebor L. Winslow
