| DECEMBER 2008 NEWSLETTER
Dear Parents:
It was nice seeing all of you during conferences. I appreciate all
of your support at home and look forward to continued success with your
children. I hope all of you had a nice Thanksgiving and enjoy the upcoming
holidays and New Year.
Students are doing a wonderful job completing their work and are
enthusiastic to learn more. They are continuing to enhance their reading,
writing, scientific, social studies, and mathematical skills. We have
covered and will be studying a variety of new information in all subject
areas. This month will be another exciting one full of challenges and
further academic advancement. The following is an update on what we did and
what we will be doing in each subject area:
Math:
This month, we are continuing to work on the math unit, Decimals and
Their Uses. This unit involves the decimal concepts of fraction
relationship, money, estimating, adding and subtracting, and measurement.
Student activities related to this unit include creating a grocery list with
prices, measuring objects, creating place value charts, and managing a
savings account. Class discussions revolve around how decimals are used in
the “real world.” Our next unit, Big Numbers, Estimation, and Computation,
will entail extended multiplication facts, estimating sums and products, big
numbers, measuring distances, exponential notation, and rounding. Previous
multiplication skills will be applied to this unit and extended further.
Students will complete related activities such as estimating weight of
objects, tracking map distances, multiplication wrestling, practicing
various algorithms, place value puzzles, fact boxes, etc. The Everyday Math
Student Reference Book (SRB) should go home with the students each day so
students can have a reference for their homework. This book also guides
parents on some new math concepts to help their child with their homework.
In addition, look for study links and parent letters on my website.
Reading and Language Arts:
In reading class, we have a variety of books that we are currently
reading. Students are finishing up their literature circle reading books
and will complete a book review related to these books. We are currently
reading the literature strand book Stone Fox as a whole class. Students are
doing a great job analyzing characters, comprehending parts of the story,
identifying story elements, picking out problems and solutions, summarizing,
creating and asking inferential questions, and making predictions. Various
related activities to this book are character webs, Venn-diagrams,
discussion cubes, and event murals. In guided reading groups, students are
working on various reading comprehension strategies. Students are enjoying
these small group activities.
We are currently working on an array of skills to enhance students’
writing. Students are developing detail and description within their work.
Students have practiced this through prompts, journal entries, constructive
responses, and other various activities. Writing activities this month will
include elaborative paragraph development, practice prompts, book reviews,
business letters, journal entries, and revising and editing practice.
Spelling is also being emphasized in language arts, along with the
given spelling and vocabulary activities. Students are encouraged to look
up words and have proper spelling within their homework and classwork
assignments. Students are also learning about the application of verbs,
nouns, adverbs, adjectives, and proper spelling. Various activities are
completed in a spelling workbook. Lists are differentiated based on their
pretest to meet the needs of all ability levels.
Science:
Students are really enjoying the science investigation on Magnetism
and Electricity. They are completing several related labs such as magnets
reaction to each other, testing the magnetism of objects, detecting magnets,
etc. Soon they will be completing current electricity labs such as making a
complete circuit, a switch, a motor run, a conductive indicator, and a
parallel and series circuit. Students will be given a study guide on the
overall unit of electricity, which incorporates magnets and current
electricity. Students are encouraged to study this guide each day. Ask
your children about these exciting labs and what they have discovered by
doing them.
Social Studies
Please see Ms. Des Biens’ website regarding social studies updates
and homework. Her website is
http://newfairfieldschools.org/meetinghouse/amccullough/.
Technology:
I like to incorporate technology whenever possible within my
classes. Students will be using computers to conduct research, play math
games, complete Task Stream interactive learning, and make presentations.
Students can look forward to continued computer use related to our
curriculum.
Class Meetings and Organization:
We are continuing our class meetings. Students have learned to be
better communicators and to get along with each other through these
meetings. I am very thankful to have such a responsive group of students.
The students show respectfulness when working in groups and are really
coming together as a team. I am impressed by how well the children work out
their differences to get along.
Developing organizational skills is important for fourth graders.
To help develop these skills, desks are cleaned weekly, assignment pads are
checked daily, organizational checklists are given as needed, and we go
through folders monthly to get rid of old papers. Students are required to
have a folder for each subject and keep papers pertaining to those subjects
within these folders.
Other:
Special thanks to the parents who have volunteered their time and
contributions for class activities, parties, literature circles, bulletin
boards, field trips, and presentations. Thank you for coming in during
conferences to meet with me. I appreciate your input and encouragement. If
you would like to volunteer for class parties, bulletin boards, literature
circles, field trips, math stations, lunch help, computer research and
presentations, please contact my room mothers Mrs. Forsberg and Mrs.
Gaffney. They are coordinating volunteers for me this year. Please check
my website at http://teacherweb.com/CT/MHHS/Dudas for important dates,
announcements, homework assignments, student news, etc.
In addition, we are still collecting box tops. Please check your
child’s assignment pad daily to keep updated on assignments and events.
Assignment pads are to be initialed each night so parents are aware of
upcoming assignments and tests.
Thanks and Happy Holidays,
Bill Dudas
Email: wdudas@new-fairfield.k12.ct.us.
Phone: 312-5905
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