Welcome to Grade 4!

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a wonderful April Break.  Over the last months of school, the students will be working hard to complete the 4^th grade units. We have less than 9 weeks to accomplish our goals, so we need to ensure focused and productive work. I have started talking to students about the responsibilities of an independent 5^th grader by always doing their homework on time and with excellent effort, becoming independent workers by using the resources provided (especially rubrics), and taking responsibility for their learning as a whole.  Please reinforce this message at home.  Continue to ensure students are doing their homework at the level they are capable.  Additionally, when they are confused please support them, but also remind them to inform me and bring their class folder home for the extra support they may need. 

As we continue with our subjects, I will update the website subject content to reflect what we are doing in class and add websites/Power Points that will help the students practice and review at home.

Thank you again for your continued support of your child and the whole of 4A!

Ms. Lucy

Dear Parents,

First of all, thank you all for attending the parentconferences. It is wonderful to see youall and discuss the “going-ons” in 4A! Iam looking forward to the next term and the units that we will becovering. 

In reading, we will continue to work in book groups wherestudents will be practicing reading strategies in books at their instructionallevel. These strategies are thenreflected in the online reading responses they are doing at home with theirindependent reading books. Pleasecontinue to support and encourage your child to read at home. 

In writing, we are working on information texts. We’ve started with compare and contrast andthen will move to how-tos. During thisunit, we will focus on organization, sentence fluency and conventions. I will be posting some websites in thewriting and grammar section of this website to help students practice andreview.

In math, we have finished geometry. The students overall did a great job withthis unit and developed a good understanding of shapes, area andperimeter. You will continue to seethese topics, as well as other topics we have covered, in review homeworksheets. In class, we will be moving intofractions, decimals and percentages. Soplease keep an eye on the math section of this website for links to goodresources for the students to use at home.

In science, we are continuing our life science unit. We’ve learned about animal life cycles andwill move into traits and structures/adaptation that help animals survive. The students will be doing activities andresearch to help them understand these concepts. I will also continue to add to the sciencesection of this website for students to have online resources to support theirlearning at home.

In social studies, we are continuing our study of the MiddleEast and North Africa. We have beentalking about the different topics we study when researching countries. Then students research this topic for theircountry. We have had great parentpresentations that have enhanced our knowledge of history and government in theMiddle East. We still have economy,geography, and culture. So if there areother brave parents who have knowledge in these topics, I would be happy tobook you in for a presentation!! Let meknow if you are interested and we can discuss it more. 

In other news, 4A is participating in the Landmark Games. These games have participants from schoolsfrom around the world. Each class picksa landmark and creates clues for that landmark. Each week for 3 weeks, we get 3 clues for each landmark. Students then do research to try to figureout the landmarks. We will be figuringout these landmarks at school, but this is a fun game that you can do with yourchild at home if you wish, as there are many landmarks to find. The clues have now been posted onhttp://www.kidlink.org/drupal/node/149 and you can check the landmarks page onthis website to know which ones your child should be working on solving. So let the games begin and enjoy!  

Thanks for continued support,

Ms. Lucy

February

We have now finished our first semester in 4A - it has gone so fast!!  I want to thank the students and parents for all your support as I have worked through learning about life at ACS and in Beirut as a whole.  We have worked hard this semester and will continue to do so next semester.... if not a bit harder!  

I look forward to seeing the parents soon for parent conferences to discuss 4A and students goals for the coming year in more detail.  

All the best,
Ms. Lucy 




Please note that the school is focusing on anti-bullying to build a better community.  We will have an assembly on January 18th from 2:40 to 3:15.  Parents are welcome to attend the assembly to see what we are doing at ACS and help reinforce some of these ideas at home.
Welcome Back from the Holiday!

I hope everyone had a wonderful break and enjoyed time with the family.  I have two quick and exciting announcements!

1 - The students have earned 50 read-a-thon points, which means they have earned a READ-A-THON.  They will have an hour and half of free reading time and will be able to bring in pillows and stuffed animals to make themselves comfortable! 

2 - Our classroom should be taking on a new look soon with new bulletin board designs and a cozy reading area - thanks to the wonderful work of our homeroom parents and some other parent helpers. 

Now it is December…

Hello!

The school year seems to be flying by at a rapid pace, and we are working hard in 4A to accomplish all our goals!! We have been introducing the Middle East in our literacy folktale unit, which will continue into our Middle East country reports in Social Studies. In science, we are continuing with life science – starting from cells and moving up to organisms and their environments. Our math multiplication unit is also coming to an end and we will now be building our math knowledge with measurement.  In reading, we will be getting into guided reading groups to develop our reading and responses to reading with chapter books. Please check the various pages on this website from time to time to get more information and some online resources the students can use to help them study at home.

During this holiday season, grade 4 is also going to be doing a service project. Our homeroom
parents, Jetti and Dina, have done much research and have found an organization in need. There is a female prison for undocumented domestic workers who are in need of many items. Each class will be collecting items to be donated to this grassroots organization and 4A will be collecting bags of rice. Please support your child in getting a bag of rice to donate. We hope that this service project will be one of many opportunities for students to give back to the community.

The homeroom parents, along with other class parents, are beginning and classroom restoration. Our
set-up has changed a bit now and our bulletin boards and reading area will be revamped shortly.  We are excited to have a more interactive and appealing classroom!

I hope you have a wonderful December!
Ms. Lucy

Happy October!!

I can't believe it is already October and we have been in school for a month!  It has been a wonderful and busy first month in 4A. 

We are learning new routines and getting to know the expectations of the classroom.  In order to keep our classroom respectful and focused on work, we have come up with a few systems that I would like to share with you all.  I also want to let you know the Grade 4 Halloween celebration information and introduce you to our homeroom parents.

First for good behavior in the class, the whole class can earn points.  When 50 points are earned, they will have a Read-a-thon (we are now at 25 points!).  Additionally, students can earn individual points for individual rewards.  For behavior that does not meet classroom expectations, students receive warnings.  I give warnings to students when they are not following the classroom expectations (not following directions, talking at inappropriate times, distracting other students, etc.). Their first warning is just a warning. The second requires them to move to a new place in the classroom where they can focus. At the third, they spend some time in another classroom to reflect on their behavior. After the fourth, they meet with me during recess to discuss their behavior and think of strategies that might help them respect the class rules. The fifth warning is a meeting with Sandra Hite, the elementary principal. If your child is being continually warned in the classroom, I will let you know. 

Now for Halloween!  As you know, ACS has a tradition of celebrating halloween.  We are going to continue this celebration in 4th grade, but with a more academic focus.  The students will come to school in costume on Halloween, but the costume needs to be linked to a book/story/poem they have read.  Please be creative.  There are books, stories and poems on everything - spiderman, wizards (Harry Potter), princesses (Sleeping Beauty), etc.  So please help them find a literary connection to the character they wish to be.  The students will need to have their character chosen by October 24th, because we will be using them during the week to celebrate Halloween and decorate the door to our classroom.  On the 31st, students  will wear their costumes to school.  We will do some fun activities in class and at the end of the day the students will receive a bag of sweets to take home.  In order for the students to have these sweets, we are requesting that you provide 18 individually wrapped candies for the classroom.  Our homeroom parents will then make goody bags for the students!!

Our homeroom parents for this year are Dina Kazzaz (Kamal's mother) and Jetti Colette (Zane's mother).  They will be generously giving their time to help make the 4A activities and events fun and run smoothly.  They will be contacting you about chaperoning field trips, sharing your skills in the classroom,  and helping 4A through out the year.  I look forward to working with them and all of you this year to give the students of 4A a great learning experience!

I hope everyone has a wonderful October!

Miss Lucy