Mrs. Boye's 4th Grade Class

Walk for Wellness in March

Have you heard about the 'Walking Wellness' excitement at Keheley?  For any newcomers to Keheley or for anyone just needing a refresher, during the month of March we will be counting our steps and recording our mileage on a classroom chart.  Every student was given a pedometer during PE on Monday and the students are excited about how many steps they were able to cover in one day. We are recording the steps, plus the mileage we walk around the track and field area and keeping a weekly total. Now I bet that you are asking, "How does this involve me?"  Well, for every mile you or your family members walk, they can be included in our weekly total.  Just send in a note at the end of each week sharing the amount of miles and I will add it to our total.  You are also invited to walk with us at the Straw Walk on March 27.  We will give you a specific time closer to the date and you will be able to walk with the fourth grade students.  We would love to have you walk with us.

We are in the final stages of completing the research paper as our culminating activity for third quarter, which concentrates on Informational Writing.  The students did a great job following the writing process and ending with a wonderful project.  I had one child tell me as he read his final draft that he felt like an author.  What a success!

As we begin the fourth quarter, we will continue to work in the daily guided reading groups, and to work on our writing skills.  The fourth quarter writing standard is persuasive writing.  Along with this writing standard, we will continue to practice the conventions standards and review some of the grammar material from the first and second quarters.  We will also be instilling into our students the importance of using the correct forms of there, their, and they're;  it's and its; and  to, too, and two. 

Dates to Remember:

March 12 - Skate Night at Hot Wheels, 6-8 PM

March 13 - Spirit Day

March 13-27 - Book Fair in the Media Center

March 27 - Straw Walk

February News

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents who were able to attend the conferences this past week, or were able to speak with me on the phone.  I truly enjoyed sharing your child's successes with you.  Please know that your concerns are very important to me, also.  If you ever feel the need to contact me, please do so via e-mail or through the front office of Keheley.

As always, February will be an important month of learning.  We will begin our research project on endangered animals on February 4. Our focus will be informational reading and writing for the remainder of the third quarter.  We will continue to stress proper punctuation, parts of speech, and conventions, along with the proper process of researching and writing an informational paper.

As Valentine's Day approaches,  please read the following statement from our administrators and help us honor our bus drivers:

Please review and utilize the attached flyer regarding the third annual National Love the Bus program. The Love the Bus program is an effort to encourage an understanding between drivers, parents, students, and school personnel. It is also an outstanding way to show appreciation to the drivers at your school. Please encourage participation in this program – Your Cobb County School District, Transportation Department THANKS YOU! Log in to: www.LoveTheBus.com  

Important Dates in February

February 3 - 3rd Grade PTA Performance, 7 PM

February 4 - Early Release Day

February 5 - Boxtops Due

February 6 - Sock Hop, Grades K-2, 6-7 PM, Grades 3-5, 7:30-8:30 PM

February 12 - Hot Wheels Skate Night

February 13 - Spirit Day

February 16 - President's Day - No School

February 19 & 20 - KIDS Program - 4th Grade

February 23 - Chick-Fil-A Night

 

Happy New Year!

I hope that all of you had a wonderfu, restful winter break.  We are gearing up in fourth grade for a lot of learning to take place in the third quarter.

In reading we will continue guided reading with leveled books and will concentrate on the following standards:

Comprehension
Prediction
Fluency
Story elements
Vocabulary
Foreshadowing
Metaphors
Similes

In English we will begin the new quarter with a review of the parts of speech.  The writing standard for the third quarter is informational writing.  We will be working throughout the quarter on a research project which will include researching and gathering information using various forms of nonfiction materials, recording facts, and then a culminating writing assignment demonstrating our writing abilities.

Some important dates in January:

January 8 - Spelling Bee, 8:30 AM

January 9 - Spirit Day

January 19 - Martin Luther King Day - No School

January 26 - 30 Conferences/Early Release Days

December News

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving.  It is hard to believe that the students have now begun the countdown to the winter holiday break.  How quickly the time goes!

During the month of December we will be working on fables, folktales and tall tales in reading.  This is a fun unit and the students enjoy the exaggeration and various characters that are involved in this genre.  In English we will continue to work on parts of speech and conventions and will be using these skills as we complete story starter writings.  Ask your child what creative ideas they came up with for the following  story starter;  "Where do all of the missing socks go when you take the clothes out of the dryer, have finished matching clean socks, and there is just one sock missing?"  Fourth graders can be so creative!

Please participate in Net Day Speak Up!
Cobb County School District has committed to having at least 10% of our students and teachers take the online survey. Because we will have access to our aggregated school and district data, this is a great opportunity for students, teachers, and parents to join in a local and national dialog about significant and timely issues impacting education today.  The survey may be accessed until Dec. 19 at http://www.cobbk12.org/instructionaltechnology/speakup/speakup_survey.asp

Hope to see all of you at Breakfast with Santa!  If I do not see you before the winter break, have a wonderful and restful holiday and I hope all of you enjoy the extra time that you have with your children and families.

December Dates to Remember:

December 4 - Hot Wheels Skate Night 6-8 PM
December 5 - Spirit Day
December 6 - Breakfast with Santa 9:30 - Noon, School Book Fair
December 8 - 12  School Book Fair in Media Center
December 10 - Kindergarten Performance 8:30 - 9:30 AM
December 11-12  Family Holiday Lunch
December 13 - Robotics Team Competition
December 16 - Bruster's Ice Cream 6 - 8 PM
December 17 - Giving Tree Ends
December 19 - Holiday Sing Along - 1:30 - 2:30 PM
December 22 - January 5  Winter Holidays - No school

  

Survey responses requested

Please read the following message from Ms. Jackson and respond to the survey as soon as possible. 

Thank you for your time.

Mrs. Boye

Parents,

The Cobb County School District encourages you to participate in the online fall survey for the new standards-based report cards.  As part of the ongoing development process, a survey link has been posted to the Cobb District website to gather input on the recently distributed K, 1, and 2 report cards.    Please visit www.cobbk12.org to respond.  The survey will be open until Dec. 1, 2008.

Thanks, 

Ms. Jackson

November Update

We are looking forward to a variety of opportunites for learning in the month of November. 

In Language Arts we will be looking for connections to Literature.  Being able to relate to the characters and the situations they face in the stories we read make them more meaningful to us and make our reading more enjoyable.  We will continue to work on the four parts of speech in English and the proper usage of verb tense, nouns and proper nouns.  Response to Literature is our writing topic for the second nine weeks of the school year.  After completing the leveled books that we are currently reading, we will look for connections to our particular characters or story and complete a writing activity based on this area of study.

A quick reminder to please put your child's name in the outerwear that he/she brings to school.  The Lost and Found is accumulating many jackets, sweatshirts, and sweaters that cannot be returned to children because they are not labeled.  If you are missing articles of clothing, please remind your child to check the Lost and Found, which is located in the cafeteria along the side wall.

Dates to Remember:

Saturday, November 8 - Fun Run 8:30 AM at the track

Thursday, November 13 - 4th Grade Performing Arts Field Trip to the Cobb County Youth Museum

Friday, November 14 - 4th grade Book Exchange in the Media Center

November 24-28 - Thanksgiving Holiday, No School

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope that all of you are able to enjoy the holidays sharing them with family and friends.

October News

Attending the Keheley Fall Festival this past weekend was a great way to kick off the fall season.  Thank you to all of the PTA parents who worked so hard and shared all of their talents to make this a successful event.  The students, parents, and teachers alike, enjoyed the beautiful weather and fun activities.

As the school year progresses, we will continue to work hard on writing and grammar.  Our narrative writing piece will be finished at the end of this week and we will then move on to study response to literature.  We have completed work on subjects and predicates and will cover common and proper nouns and adjectives as the second quarter begins. 

The students are enjoying another title in our series of leveled reading books.  We spent the first quarter studying some of the areas of figurative language and will revisit this material periodically throughout the remainder of the school year.  Be sure to ask your child to give you examples of idioms, palindromes, puns, jokes and similes. We had a lot of fun learning about this colorful type of literature and sharing some jokes and puns with our fellow classmates.

Please be aware of the following important dates in October:

October 7 - PTA - 2nd grade Performance, 7 PM

October 9 - Hot Wheels Skate Night, 6-8 PM

October 10 - Spirit Day

October 13 - Columbus Day

October 14 - Innisbrook Pickup

October 15 - Early Release - Innisbrook Pickup

October 20-24 - Red Ribbon Week

October 21 - Report Cards

October 22-23 - Jump Rope for Heart

October 24 - Spirit Day

October 27 - Cookie Dough Sales Begin/Chick-Fil-A Day

September Update

We continue to work diligently in our Fourth Grade class. Thanks to all of the parents who are signing the agendas daily and staying up to date with your child's accomplishments in the classroom. It is great to have such support from home. Thank you also for completing the weekly Dear Parent spelling page with your child. It really is amazing to see how quickly the students master skills taught in the classroom when they are reinforced at home.

The remaining weeks of September will be very busy. We will be finishing our chapter books in reading and moving on to work on the content area leveled books from our new science series. This will reinforce the subjects taught during Science class in the upcoming weeks; weather and water. We should be able to get some good discussions going after all of the tremendous storms occurring throughout the United States at the present time.

In Language Arts, we will be focusing on narrative writing and will complete essays in this area of writing in the next two weeks. We will concentrate on organization, 'hooking' our reader and description. After our rough drafts are complete, we will be working on the skill of editing. I look forward to having some great stories to share with our fellow classmates!

If you received a PTA form last week, please consider joining. The PTA at Keheley is fabulous and organizes so many activities that make Keheley a wonderful school for our students. Also, please send in any Boxtops for Education that you have collected during the long summer months. We have started collecting them in the classroom, but I know there are more out there!

Reminder: Tuesday, September 16th, is the first early release day of the school year. It is also voting day at Keheley for SPLOST. Please get out and vote.

As always, if you have any questions about your child's progress, please e-mail me or call at school and leave a message and I would be happy to speak with you.

September News

It's hard to believe that we have completed three weeks of school.  We are enjoying getting to know each other and transitioning into Fourth Grade.  Switching classrooms is going well, and the students are gaining organizational skills as they prepare to travel back and forth between Mrs. Biello's and my classrooms.

We have spent the past two weeks studying rhyme and rhythm during our Language Arts block.  The students participated in choral reading and worked in groups to create their own couplets.  It was an exciting study which culminated with an author visit on Reading Celebration Day.  Ms. Diane Z. Shore entertained us with her stories of writing success and signed copies of her books for the students.  We will continue to share her books during our 'Read Aloud' time in the classroom.

One other area of study has been the four types of sentences.  We will review this knowledge as the year progresses and we continue to develop our writing skills.  We will concentrate on parts of speech, simple and compound sentences, and subject and predicate throughout the month of September.  All of these skills will promote successful writing practices for the students.

Please update your September Calendar with the following dates:

September  1 - Labor Day - No School

September  2 - SPLOST Information - 6:30 PM
                      PTA Meeting and Standards Based Curriculum Night - 7:00 PM

September  5 - PTA Movie Night on Keheley's Soccer Field

September  9 - Innisbrook Orders Due

September 11 - Hot Wheels Skate Night - Free Ice Cream

September 12 - Spirit Day

September 16 - Early Release Day 12:30 - Dismissal
                        Brusters Night 6-8:00 PM

September 26 - Spirit Day

Fourth Grade Expectations

Thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend the Open House on Thursday, August 14.  It was nice to see so many interested and involved parents.  I look forward to working with you throughout the school year providing a positive and successful environment for your child.  Below I have made some clarifications regarding homework, agendas, and take home folders. 

Homework assignments will be listed daily in the agenda.  Please sign the agenda every night so the communication remains open between school and home. 

Math - You can expect daily homework in math, but the students may be completing an assignment that has already been partially completed in the classroom.

Spelling - The students are given a Sitton Spelling pretest every Monday.  The list of words for the week will also be written in the agenda.  On Wednesdays the students will bring home the 'Dear Parent' page from the unit.  Please complete this with your child and discuss the skill.  Weekly tests will be given on Fridays.

Reading - I ask that students read for 20 minutes each night.  We have attached a Reading Log to the front of the agenda, please encourage your child to record his/her completed books on the log.  I do encourage them at school, also.

Other subject areas - Classwork not completed during the allotted time will also be sent home for homework.  This assignment will be recorded in the agenda by your child at the end of the day.

Agenda - Students are expected to copy down the homework for the evening into their agenda.  This should help you keep track of what we are doing in class.  If the homework is completed during the school day they may put a check next to it to indicate completion. 

Accordion Folders - In fourth grade we use the accordion folder for safe keeping of papers we will need again in the future.  These should be placed in the specific subject area section so the students can easily locate them.  If you would like to examine their work in the evenings, please replace the work in the file so the student can continue the work the following day.  If the papers do not have a message or mark from me, please leave them in the file so your child will have them at school when needed.  We will periodically clean out the folders in the classroom.

Take Home Work - Students will bring home a folder on Tuesdays with any notes from the school and all completed and graded work for the week.  Students may correct any assignments with low grades, but all corrections are due on Wednesday of the same week.  Please let me know if you are too busy on Tuesday night and I will give an extension on corrections.  In the folder will also be a sheet informing you of missed work or if there were behavior problems during the week.  Please discuss any missed work or other issues with your child, sign the folder and return it to school on Wednesdays.  The Fourth Grade Teachers feel that this will be an excellent communication tool for both school and home.

If you have any questions or feel that the assignments are not getting correctly recorded, please feel free to contact me.  I check my e-mail daily, but not necessarily throughout the day.  lynn.boye@cobbk12.org

I am looking forward to a fantastic year of learning with your child!