Mrs. Gilpatrick’s Monthly Newsletter

(October)

Important Dates to Remember:

*Monday, November 11th- NO SCHOOL- Veterans Day

*Tuesday, November 12th- Veterans Day Pancake Breakfast

*November 27th-29th- Thanksgiving Break

*Friday, December 6th-Trimester 1 ends 

Friendly Reminders:

*Please make sure to initial or sign your child’s Agenda Book each night so that I know that you have seen the papers in their Shark Folder and homework assignments. 

*For the Holiday Food Drive, 4th grade is looking for donations of cream of mushroom soup, canned green beans and fried onions.  It ends Monday, November 18th. 

Ask your child about:

*Read aloud- The Tiger Rising, by Kate DiCamillo

*Read aloud- Touch Blue, by Cynthia Lord

*”Growing Ideas About Characters”

*Noticing patterns in a character’s actions

*Why might a character act like this? What are the character’s desires and how are they achieved? 

*Do you notice anything about the character that the author repeats?

*Author’s craft- what does the author do on purpose and why?

*How did Rob, Sistine, and Rob’s dad change throughout the book? 

*Story elements- characters, setting, plot, theme

*Noticing important objects, moods/feelings to interpret the story 

*Using evidence from the book to prove theories about characters

*Complexity of characters- How is Rob in The Tiger Rising, complex?  How is the character in the book you’re reading complex?  How can you prove it with evidence from the book?

*Realistic fiction writing- developing believable characters, setting and plot.

*Following the “arc” of the story scene by scene.

*Show, don’t tell- how to effectively describe a character

*What feeling did you make a poster on?

*When do we start a new paragraph? 

*Why do we use paragraphs in our writing? 

*Revising vs. editing- Pruning out, adding in vs. correcting spelling and punctuation

*Editing with a lense in mind- a different color for spelling, grammar, punctuation, paragraphs and capitalization. 

*Sitton Spelling Unit 2 Assessment 

*Began Unit 3- reviewed spelling patterns for long /a/; and that adding an h to certain consonants makes a new sound. These are called digraphs (ch, th, wh, th, ph).

*Homophones and how they are important for our writing and reading

*Fall Poetic devices

*Everyday math Unit 1 Assessment and Unit 2 Pre-assessment

*Began Unit 2 in Everyday Math: Multiplication and Geometry

*What is the difference between a factor and a multiple?

*Square numbers and patterns

*The area formula of a rectangle

*What is a formula? How does it help us?

*Prime and composite numbers

*Open response--- Little and Big- Making predictions based on information given and making mathematical arguments to support those predictions.  

*Analyzing conjectures and arguments of others, then revising your own.

*Classifying triangles by kinds of angles or lengths of sides

*Classifying quadrilaterals by common attributes or properties

*Following the Engineering and Design Process to create blades for a windmill

*The 5 Map Essentials

*Using the cardinal directions on a compass rose

*Investigating a big map of the U.S.

*Lobster Lore Presentation

*6th grade buddies

*Ecomaine Presentation on composting.