Monday Already!

Wow!  Hard to believe that it's Monday already!  Thank you to all of the parents who came to Back to School Night last week.  I was so glad for the chance to meet you.  I will send home my contact information tomorrow.  I apologize for the delay.
Tonight is your child's first night of regular homework.  Remember to post or e-mail any questions.  I will check from home tonight.
This week's objectives are mostly on the same theme as last week.  In math, we are working with whole numbers to round, order, and compare.  We are continuing to read our novels, while learning how to apply the reading skill of questioning and summarizing.  Currently, we are free writing as we set the stage for more focused writing throughout the year.  In science, we will continue to talk about the scientific process.  Stay tuned for information on Science Fair, which will be at the end of October.
Remember: do that homework!

Busy Week Ahead

Hope everyone had the chance to rest up over the Labor Day holiday because we have a busy week in front of us.  The students took their first math assessment last week on place value.  That means this week will be spent reviewing place value with those students who still need a little help, and moving forward into ordering, comparing, and rounding numbers.  We will begin our first novel.  Some students will be reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and others will be reading The Great Gilly Hopkins.  Two of my favorite books!

We have a couple of special events this week.  Thursday is Back to School Night, beginning at 6:00 pm.  Then on Friday, we are having a member of the fire department come to talk with the class about the important role that first responders play during an emergency.  It's going to be a busy week, but one that should be a lot of fun!

Down to Business

This week will be our first full week of class.  We are getting a hang of the procedures and will continue to practice those throughout the next several weeks.  This week, though, it is time to begin the academic part of 4th grade.  The math lessons this week will focus on place value.  We'll be building on what you learned last year by learning about numbers up to 1,000,000.  During guided reading, we will read a short story titled "The Luckiest Man," which is about Lou Gehrig.  We'll use this story as a way to introduce setting, characters, and plot.  In writing, we are going to set up our notebooks and start thinking of topics we about which we might like to write.

I'd like to remind everyone about Back to School Night on September 8.  Since we no longer have parent-teacher conferences, this is a great chance for us to meet one another.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there!

2011 Welcome

What a great start to the 2011-2012 school year!  We spent the day learning the classroom procedures and expectations.  Everyone followed directions and was eager to participate.  The day went by so fast!

Hopefully, everyone has seen the discipline plan and the homework policy.  These are new this school year, and I will be discussing them further at Back to School Night on September 8.  Please sign and return just the bottom half of the second page as soon as possible.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

For the rest of the week, we will continue to perfect the classroom procedures and set the stage for a successful school year. 

I will be updating the blog by Monday of each week.  On the weeks that we don't have school on Monday, I will have the blog updated by the next school day of the that week.

New Year Welcome!

Welcome back everyone!  You have reached the blog that I talked about in the newsletter I sent home.  I hope that you will check back frequently to stay updated on the class happenings.  I am also going to work on an e-mail group so that I can send notifications when I have posted updates.

Today was a pretty good first day back.  The students seem to get along really well.  We covered a lot of procedures, and we'll finish with the last few tomorrow.  Some students even wanted to take books home already! 

I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone on Back to School Night on September 9.  This will be a chance for you to see what being on "Team Cannon" is all about.  That evening is also the book fair in our cafeteria.  Please look for further information with specific times.