Miss Stephens' Survivors

Marvelous May

WOW...where has the time gone!?!?!  I cannot believe that we are winding down the school year, although we have a lot of great things planned for the month of May.  As you know, the Boosterthon Fun Run has been postponed until Monday, May 11.  Please come cheer us on as we raise money for technology at Mountain View.  Thank you for your pledges!  The participation was phenomenal!  I am so proud of the Spartans!  We also have been rehearsing for our annual fourth grade musical.  This year we will be performing "The American Revolution".  Please mark your calendars for the morning of  May 19th.  Our end of the year celebration will be on Thursday, May 21st from 12:00-1:30pm.  The entire fourth grade will be having a Luau complete with refreshments, games, and music!  We certainly have a lot to celebrate.  This has been a great year!  I have truly enjoyed teaching your children and I am so pleased with their progress!  Thank you for all of your support throughout the year...I could not have done it without you!  Have a wonderful summer...please remember to keep reading and practicing your multiplication/division facts!!!

MAY DATES TO REMEMBER

MAY 11- BOOSTERTHON FUN RUN- 12:15 P.M.

MAY 12- ACCELERATED READER PICNIC

MAY 15- 3-5 FIELD DAY from 8:00-11:00am

MAY 19- FOURTH GRADE MUSICAL "THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION"- 8:30 A.M.

MAY 21- LUAU from 12:00-1:30pm

MAY 22- LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

Boosterthan Fun Run!

I hope your child brought home the Boosterthon Fun Run DVD and pledge book.  The students attended a high energy pep rally for the event and learned that the program will teach them how to DREAM BIG! The principles of the program are fitness (is fun), education (is exciting) and character (is cool).  Your child should have asked you to "press play" on the DVD and started thinking about getting 10 pledges. The school is very excited about this event and the possibility to raise significant funds for the Mountain View Foundation and technology, specifically.

The Boosterthon team will be visiting the classes everyday from now until the fun run on Wednesday, May 6th. Students will receive prizes for the levels of pledges they receive throughout the week and all students will receive a free t-shirt. There are classroom incentives also, so help support the class!  Please encourage your child to participate and get those pledges!  Please mark you calendars for the event - Wednesday, May 6th. We want every parent to attend and be "superfans" for our students. The schedule is as follows: 

Wednesday May 6^th: Boosterthon Fun Run!

9:45-11:00 (K-1st)

11:00-12:15 (2nd-3rd)

12:15-1:30 (4th-5th) 

Please visit the following website for more information!

www.boosterthonsuperfan.com

GO STEPHENS' SPARTANS!!!

I hope your child brought home the Boosterthon Fun Run DVD and pledge book.  The students attended a high energy pep rally for the event and learned that the program will teach them how to DREAM BIG! The principles of the program are fitness (is fun), education (is exciting) and character (is cool).  Your child should have asked you to "press play" on the DVD and started thinking about getting 10 pledges. The school is very excited about this event and the possibility to raise significant funds for the Mountain View Foundation and technology, specifically.

The Boosterthon team will be visiting the classes everyday from now until the fun run on Wednesday, May 6th. Students will receive prizes for the levels of pledges they receive throughout the week and all students will receive a free t-shirt. There are classroom incentives also, so help support the class!  Please encourage your child to participate and get those pledges!  Please mark you calendars for the event - Wednesday, May 6th. We want every parent to attend and be "superfans" for our students. The schedule is as follows: 

Wednesday May 6^th: Boosterthon Fun Run!

9:45-11:00 (K-1st)

11:00-12:15 (2nd-3rd)

12:15-1:30 (4th-5th) 

Please visit the following website for more information!

www.boosterthonsuperfan.com

GO STEPHENS' SPARTANS!!!

March Madness

Wow!!  Where has the time gone...we are quickly approaching our last 9 weeks of school for the year!  Please keep the following in mind for the month of March:

* Thursday, March 19th report cards go home.  Sign and return the white card in the envelope.

* Wednesday April 1st:  Last day to turn in Huntsville field trip money.  We will let parents know in a couple of weeks if you are a chaperone for our fieldtrip.  Please do not send in chaperone money at this time!

As we wrap up the third nine weeks we'll have some final testing before we move on.  Be on the look out for study guides and test dates.

You are now able to access the math and social studies texts on-line.  The math website is www.eharcourtschool.com.  Your students username and password were sent home yesterday.  I hope everyone enjoyed using the online textbook last night for their math homework!  The social studies site is www.eduplace.com/eservices.   Username is cobbstudent4 and the password is password.  The science link is soon to follow. 

As we move into the last nine weeks of school, we will be studying decimals with multiplication and division!  Ecology in science as well as finishing up The Birth of a Nation and moving on to Westward Expansion! 

Please take the time with your child to take the practice tests on www.georgiaoas.org.  These tests "mirror" the ones on the test next month.  Also, please utilize the Online Textbook features of this year's adopted textbooks. I sent home the username and password sheet back in January.  Please let me know if you need any help with any of these.

Thanks,

Miss Erica Stephens

February

 

I'd like to thank all of you for meeting with me to discuss your child's academic accomplishments during conference week.  It was nice to see you and personally communicate to you all that has been happening in fourth grade.  Please call, email or write to me with any questions, comments or concerns regarding your child.  Communication is key!

We are in the midst of our Revolutionary War unit.  They all did a wonderful job on their "Stamp Act" projects in class.  They are currently displayed outside our room but will make their way home shortly.  We will continue to learn about the challenges we faced as a new nation and the importance of Americans sharing certain democratic beliefs, both personal and civic.  Towards the end of these nine weeks we'll begin our unit on Westward Expansion. 

We are all simply loving learning about our solar system.  We worked hard on making a replica and hanging it in the hall.  We've studied how the position and motion of the earth in the solar system helps to determine the sequence of the phases of the moon.  We also learned what our solar system is made up of, why a year is 365 days, why a day consists of 24 hours and the reason for the seasons.  Our next topics will be stars, star patterns, more about the planets and constellations. 

Math is all about fractions and decimals.  This can be a tricky concept so we are putting lots of effort into learning it.  By the time this nine weeks is through we'll be able to add and subtract fractions with common denominators, simplify fractions, convert improper fractions into mixed numbers, convert mixed numbers into improper fractions, and add and subtract decimal fractions.  Soon we'll be learning how to represent and interpret mathematical relationships in quantitative expressions, use standard and metric units of measure to weigh objects and then compare the two, and use line, bar and pictographs to display data.  PLEASE continue to practice basic multiplication and division with your child at home.  I cannot stress enough the importance of your cld knowing their basic facts.

Our reading lessons have consisted of historical fiction books that are related to our Social Studies unit.  Not all children read the same books and most of the work is done in class but be sure to ask them about what they're reading.  We're going to be adding some non-fiction Science books to our reading curriculum as well.  Please be sure your child is continuing to read at home each night and the books they're choosing are on their level.  Since we are reading for information we are also writing for information.  Our Social Studies project is one example of this. 

I hope to see everyone at the Spaghetti Dinner on Friday night, February 20th from 6:00-8:00pm.

Miss Stephens

We are in the midst of our Revolutionary War unit.  They all did a wonderful job on their "Stamp Act" projects in class.  They are currently displayed outside our room but will make their way home shortly.  We will continue to learn about the challenges we faced as a new nation and the importance of Americans sharing certain democratic beliefs, both personal and civic.  Towards the end of these nine weeks we'll begin our unit on Westward Expansion. 

We are all simply loving learning about our solar system.  We worked hard on making a replica and hanging it in the hall.  We've studied how the position and motion of the earth in the solar system helps to determine the sequence of the phases of the moon.  We also learned what our solar system is made up of, why a year is 365 days, why a day consists of 24 hours and the reason for the seasons.  Our next topics will be stars, star patterns, more about the planets and constellations. 

Math is all about fractions and decimals.  This can be a tricky concept so we are putting lots of effort into learning it.  By the time this nine weeks is through we'll be able to add and subtract fractions with common denominators, simplify fractions, convert improper fractions into mixed numbers, convert mixed numbers into improper fractions, and add and subtract decimal fractions.  Soon we'll be learning how to represent and interpret mathematical relationships in quantitative expressions, use standard and metric units of measure to weigh objects and then compare the two, and use line, bar and pictographs to display data.  PLEASE continue to practice basic multiplication and division with your child at home.  I cannot stress enough the importance of your cld knowing their basic facts.

Our reading lessons have consisted of historical fiction books that are related to our Social Studies unit.  Not all children read the same books and most of the work is done in class but be sure to ask them about what they're reading.  We're going to be adding some non-fiction Science books to our reading curriculum as well.  Please be sure your child is continuing to read at home each night and the books they're choosing are on their level.  Since we are reading for information we are also writing for information.  Our Social Studies project is one example of this. 

I hope to see everyone at the Spaghetti Dinner on Friday night, February 20th from 6:00-8:00pm.

Miss Stephens

Spelling Bee

Here is the website to practice some spelling words before our class spelling bee on Wednesday, December 16th.

http://www.myspellit.com/index.html

Good Luck and Happy Spelling! 

Explorer Project

The Explorer Project was given out Wednesday in class!  I hope that everyone is excited about learning about their explorer and his voyages.  The project is strictly an at home project and it is due Monday, November 17th!!!  Please do not wait until the last minute to start researching.  If you have any questions please ask and I will be more than happy to answer them.  I have posted some wonderful websites that have great information on each explorer!  Happy Exploring :)

                                Individual Explorers          Explorers TImeline

End of October

October is almost over...where has the time gone!?!?  We have had a busy month extending multiplication and division, studying Native Americans, writing personal narratives, and diving into chapter books with our reader's response journals on Sign of the Beaver.

Here are some wonderful math sites to help students at home with extra practice on multiplication and division.

Snorks Long Division 

 

September!

I  would like to thank everyone for coming to curriculum night last Thursday.  I know that we covered a lot of information in a short period of time!  If you still have any questions, please let me know and I will be glad to help.  I really enjoyed getting to meet all of the parents and talk with everyone!  I am looking forward to having a wonderful year with you and your children.  If you were not able to attend please read the packet that I sent home regarding our classroom and sign and return the bottom portion of the packet.

I wanted to let everyone know where we are at the beginning of September.  We are finishing economics and will take a test on what we have learned this Friday.  In math, we will learn about algebraic expressions this week , multiples, prime numbers, and hopefully start multiplication by the start of next week.  We will test on lesson 2 in vocabulary on Tuesday and will get the lesson 3 words on Thursday.  In science, we will continue with water and begin predicting weather by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.  In social studies, we will review map skills for about 10 days before we begin Native Americans.

I also wanted to thank Mrs. Lehman and Mrs. Markanda for volunteering to be our co-room mom's this year!  They are already hard at work planning some wonderful activities for our classroom.  A HUGE thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to send in ice cream items for our budget celebration in Social Studies.  The children have really been working hard earning money in the classroom and understanding how to budget their money in order to purchase what they want on Friday.

Again if you need anything at all, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at Erica.Stephens@cobbk12.org and I will get back to you as quickly as I can.  Thank you for a terrific start to the school year :)

Miss Stephens

Welcome to 4th Grade!!

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome back all of our new 4th grade students.  We have an exciting, but challenging year planned .  The first week of school will be spent going over school and classroom rules as well as trying to establish a regular schedule in the classroom.  We will start math and health on Wednesday and will add more curriculum areas throughout the week.  We will go over this schedule and many other important things at the curriculum night on September 4th!  During the next couple weeks of school, we will be conducting several reading assessments.

Some things that you can expect to see this week that will continue throughout the year:

• Green communication folders will be sent home each night.  Please check the contents of these folders. We will check these folders each morning so this is a great place to send notes and other correspondence.
• Math - Expect to see math homework each night.  We will start the year off with understanding place value to the millions.
• Spelling - Students will bring home their first spelling list this week.  We will focus on these words throughout the week in class with activities and writing assignments.  Homework will go home on Monday and be returned on Thursday.  There will be a spelling test on Fridays.
• Vocabulary - All 4th grade students will be using Wordly Wise Vocabulary this year.  We feel that vocabulary is an important component of our curriculum as it encourages students to apply word meanings, think critically, and discover word relationships. Students will usually have one night of vocabulary practice each week.
• Health - This week will will conclude our short health unit on the "Challenge of Friendship."  Students will bring home a study guide next week for their first quiz!
• Social Studies/Science - We will begin this year studying Economics in Social Studies and Water/Weather in Science.
• Reading Logs - This year's reading log will come home on Mondays and will be checked the following Monday.  Please initial each night the minutes read, and whether the book was read to or read by the student.  Reading logs are required at Mtn. View. Each student needs to read 120 minutes every week.

I'm sure after reading this you might have many more questions.  Hopefully I will be able to answer these on curriculum night.  If you have any questions feel free to email myself or Miss Takash at any time.  We look forward to a wonderful year!

Thanks,

Miss Stephens

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Erica.Stephens@cobbk12.org      Stephanie.Takash@cobbk12.org 

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome back all of our new 4th grade students.  We have an exciting, but challenging year planned .  The first week of school will be spent going over school and classroom rules as well as trying to establish a regular schedule in the classroom.  We will start math and health on Wednesday and will add more curriculum areas throughout the week.  We will go over this schedule and many other important things at the curriculum night on September 4th!  During the next couple weeks of school, we will be conducting several reading assessments.

Some things that you can expect to see this week that will continue throughout the year: