Word Sort Words -- Week of 4/30

This week we are learning words that have an unaccented final syllable on the -er -ar and -or.

-er
other
mother
weather
cover
silver
under
father
flower
spider
rather

-or
color
doctor
favor
flavor
mirror
motor
rumor
tractor
harbor

-ar
collar
dollar
solar
sugar
grammar

Thursday, May 3

4th Grade Field Trip

Latta Plantation



Program on: Soldiers of the American Revolution

This program examines the times and lives of the soldiers in the American Revolution, from 1775 to 1783. Discussion on the political, social, and military aspects of the War for American Independence will also be explored. An interpreter will be in historic time period apparel and will demonstrate the life of a soldier through living history presentation that includes camp life, military equipment, uniforms, medicine, food, and military tactics. The loading and firing of a Brown Bess Musket, used by the British as well as the American Patriot, will be included in the demonstration.

We will also take a tour of the house and do candle dipping.

Children on the Wildcat meal plan will be provided a picnic lunch.

Others need to pack a brown bag lunch and drink.

Poem in Your Pocket Day!

Thursday is national "Poem in Your Pocket" day! We are asking all Trinity students and teachers to come to school on Thursday with a copy of a beloved poem in their pocket. Students do not need to memorize the poem, although they are certainly welcome to. It can be long or short, rhyming or free verse, serious or pensive.

Word Sort -- Week of 4/23

Word Sort 30 focuses on unaccented final syllable (-le, -el, -il, -al)

-le
cattle
saddle
couple
angle

-el
model
level
angel
novel
cancel
vowel
travel

-il
until
April
fossil
evil
pencil

-al
final
total
metal
signal
local
journal

oddball
fragile
special

Let's Memorize Those Fifty Nifty United States!

In the final few weeks of school, students will memorize the location of the 50 states! We will tackle a region each week. This week, we will look at the Southeast. Students will be responsible for correctly spelling each state, labeling the state on a map, and knowing the state's abbreviation (i.e. N.C. is North Carolina). Students ARE NOT required to memorize the capitals; however, we told them that if they would like a challenge, they are welcome to try. Check in your student's homework folder for the map of the Southeastern states that they will be  tested on this Friday.

Word Sort -- Week of 4/16

This week's word sort focuses on the unaccented final syllable (le)

VCle
title
cradle
able
table
rifle
bridge
bugle
cable

VCCle doublet
little
middle
settle
bottle
apple
paddle
giggle
battle

VCCle
simple
tremble
single
muscle
sample
jungle
handle
candle

Exciting events this week...

It's going to be a BIG week! We will be busy with a new unit in math, poetry in Writer's Workshop, book clubs in Reader's Workshop, the Boston Tea Party in Storypath, and a whole lot more! Take a look at the exciting events your fourth grader will be participating in this week:

Tuesday:
We will return to the Metro School. It has been so long since we were with our Metro friends!


Wednesday:

The North Carolina Dance Theatre will come to Trintiy to do a lecture demonstration for all of our students. The performance will be in the gym form 10-11. They will incorporate a variety of material to teach the children about theatre.



Thursday:

Salt and Pepper

By José Cruz González

"Salt’s family has a secret. His grandfather can’t read or write, and the Old Man’s shame and silence make life hard on the two grandsons he is raising on his own – so hard that Salt’s brother Andy leaves to join the Marine Corps. When Salt meets Pepper, the daughter of a migrant farmworker, her love of books sparks his own interest in the world of words. Together, Salt and Pepper discover a mysterious box of postcards that reveal the truth about his family’s past and leads them to a more hopeful future. A regional premiere, this thoughtful drama explores the burden of illiteracy, and the bonds of family and friendship."

-- taken from the Children's Theatre website



Friday:

                 Holy Humor Chapel
                 8:00 am in gym

Learning Poems by Heart....

We have challenged the students to learn a poem by heart by this Friday. We hope they will commit many poems to heart over the coming weeks.

 

How To Eat a Poem
by Eve Merriam

Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
            may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, wherever you are.
You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.
For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

Poetry Websites

Click to visit these great poetry websites for kids!

Poetry Study

We are about to begin our study of poetry. Our hope is that students will be immersed in reading, writing, and reciting poetry. Can you please check your bookshelves at home and see if you have any volumes of poetry that you'd be willing to share with our class for the coming weeks? Many thanks in advance! Enjoy these poems about poems written by Charles Ghigna.

	A Poem Is A Spider Web A poem is a spider web Spun with words of wonder, Woven lace held in place By whispers made of thunder.
	What's A Poem? A whisper, a shout, thoughts turned inside out. A laugh, a sigh, an echo passing by. A rhythm, a rhyme, a moment caught in time. A moon, a star, a glimpse of who you are.

Word Sort -- Week of 4/10

This week's word sort focuses on the er = / ur /, ear = / ur /, and ear/ere/eer sounds.

er = / ur / 
mercy
sermon
serpent
hermit
thermos
kernel

ear = / ur /
early
earthquake
learner
pearly
rehearse
yearn

ear/ere/eer
nearby
teardrop
spearmint
yearbook
appear
dreary
severe
sincere
adhere
merely
career
cheerful

Happy Easter!

Wishing your family a joyful Easter holiday! We hope everyone has a restful long weekend. We look forward to seeing you at the 4th grade performance on Tuesday afternoon.

Schoolhouse Rocks Costume

A reminder from Mrs. Postle about our upcoming performance:

Costumes: Most the characters in the show are portraying students. They should be wearing their TES uniform. Just a reminder; blue, white or green polo shirt, and khaki shorts, pants, or skirts.

The following characters have a little different of a costume. Please make sure they bring their costumes in a bag by Tuesday morning, April 10th.

Mr. Anderson needs a jacket and pants.
Nine planets need to be dressed in their planet color (red for Mars, green and blue for Earth, etc.). A shirt and a pair of khaki pants work just fine.
Presidents need long pants and white shirt with jacket.
Interplanet Janet needs to look like a super hero.
Michael Jordan needs a basketball shirt and workout shorts
Doc Watson needs jeans and sunglasses.

Boston Massacre

Samuel Adams asked Paul Revere, an artist and silversmith, to make an engraving showing the Boston Massacre. Many prints were made and distributed all over the colonies. Ask your student if you think this print seems accurate? Why did Revere depict the event this way?

Performance

You Are Invited to the

4th Grade Performance

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

2:30 PM
Dickson Dining Hall

Reception to Follow

Personal Words this Week (4/2)

This week the personal words will be sentences in which students must fill in the blank with the correct forms of:

• there
• their
• they're
• there's
• theirs
• to
• two
• too

The students will therefore not have personal words to practice this week. 

Will's Birthday Book

Storypath: Colonial Boston

Ask your child about the Ropewalker incident that happened on March 2, 1770.

Read Aloud

"When his father returns East to collect the rest of the family, 13-year-old Matt is left alone to guard his family's newly built homestead. One day, Matt is brutally stung when he robs a bee tree for honey. He returns to consciousness to discover that his many stings have been treated by an old Native American and his grandson. Matt offers his only book as thanks, but the old man instead asks Matt to teach his grandson Attean to read. Both boys are suspicious, but Attean comes each day for his lesson. In the mornings, Matt tries to entice Attean with tales from Robinson Crusoe, while in the afternoons, Attean teaches Matt about wilderness survival and Native American culture. The boys become friends in spite of themselves, and their inevitable parting is a moving tribute to the ability of shared experience to overcome prejudice. The Sign of the Beaver was a Newbery Honor Book; author Elizabeth Speare has also won the Newbery Medal twice, for The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Bronze Bow."

--written by Richard Farr
-- from www.GoodReads.com

 

Math Update

Your student will be delivering home the Parent Letter for Unit 7 on Monday afternoon to let you learn more about our current math work. Our big focuses will be understanding volume and calculating measurement equivalents. Students will be creating boxes and physically placing "units" into them. They will come to understand how volume is calculated in cubes and in rectangular prisms. We will also spend time converting weights and masses, capacities, and time. This is those fun calculations such as how many ounces are in 8 pounds, how many cups are in 10 pints, how many seconds are in 4 minutes, etc. This will be a quick unit with an assessment on Friday, April 13.

Word Sort Words - Week of April 2nd

Although we will not have class on Friday, we will still have a word sort this week, and the spelling test will be on Thursday instead of Friday. That means that Wednesday night's spelling work will be to practice for the spelling test. This week's focus is on the "er," "ir," and "ur" sounds. Here are the sorted words:

er
nervous
person
perfect
certain
mermaid
perhaps
service

ir
thirty
firmly
dirty
birthday
thirsty
birdbath

ur
sturdy
purpose
further
hurry
purple
turtle
furnish
during
Thursday

oddball
spirit
every

Reading Strategies

Good readers are constantly stopping to think as they read, to ask questions, to analyze a character's motivations, and to make predictions. Over the past few weeks we have been learning some new strategies to apply as we read to take us to a new, more thoughtful level of understanding and interacting with our books.

Golden Lines
When reading you may come across a sentence that is beautifully written and begs you to read it again. It has meaning that applies to the book you're reading but also applies to life outside your book. These lines often point to the theme or big understanding in the book. An example from Pam Munoz Ryan's book Esperanza Rising is, "Wait a little while and the fruit will fall into your hand."

Contrasts and Contradictions
You will notice this in your books when a character acts out of character. Readers get to know their characters so well, and they begin to feel like our friends. When an author chooses to have a character say or do something that doesn't fit with his/her personality, it stands out to a good reader. It leads you to wonder what is going on with the character to make him/her act that way. What does this reveal about their inner conflict or emotions?

Tough Questions
A tough question is leading, insightful, thoughtful, and probing. Often in our books a character is asked a tough question either by himself through internal dialogue or by another character. What does this show you about the character, and how will he/she respond?

Ah-Ha!
As our beloved characters travel through  trials and tribulations, they will periodically have an Ah-Ha moment. This will be when he/she realizes or comes to understand something that therefore changes his/her thinking and actions. Fans of Oprah are familiar with her famous Ah-Ha moments! Good readers will wonder how does this change things? How will the character respond?

Again and Again...
As good readers read, we'll often see things come up again and again. It might be an object or a phrase. There must be some reason the author keeps including it, and it's our job as a reader to stop, take notice, and try to understand what it might mean or represent. These are recurring images or motifs in a book. Often the recurring object will represent some idea much bigger than the object itself.