This Week in Literacy Nov 29-Dec 3

Welcome back! I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.

This week we will be having interim (formally named Benchmark) testing. Please make sure this week your child gets a good night sleep and a healthy breakfast. The tests are spread out over 4 days. Two days on writing, one day of reading and one day of math. Science and Social Studies are not assessed.

Coincidentally, our next unit, albeit quite short, is CSAP prep. We will learn test taking strategies and building test stamina.

Book Club will still happen on Wednesday at the regularly scheduled time.

Thanks,
Noah Rabinowitz

Fun and Formalities info

What: Join us for a FREE class to Check out what Fun and Formalities is all about!

When: 3:45 to 4:50 Monday, November 29th at Westerly Creek

RSVP: Class size is limited, so YOU MUST RSVP!

RSVP by emailing Tara, tara@funandformalities.com , your child's name, grade level and homeroom teacher.

More details to come once you've registered. Check us out on the web at www.funandformalities.com


Sincerely,

Tara Walling

Fun and Formalities
"More than just manners"
office 303-722-7208
cell 803-269-6313
tara@funandformalities.com
www.funandformalities.com

4th Grade Writing Celebration (MONDAY)

Your are invited to our writing celebration. 4th graders have published thier non ficiton feature articles and they are AWESOME! We will have two sessions both on Monday, one at 10:15-11 and another at 1:45-2:30. Both classes will have their writing out at both times. It will be an open house format where people can roam around and read the different pieces.


Thank again ,
Noah

Enrichment

FYI...

The afterschool enrichment program and to register: http://www.myenrichment.com/Default.aspx?tabid=32748 or they can go to www.myenrichment.com and click on Westerly Creek.

November 15-19

Book Club is on Wednesday at 11:00 and 2:30.

Remember, Book Club notebooks are due on the Tuesday before each meeting. Please look at your child's notebook. Thank you for bringing in hot coco too!!!

Their feature articles are due this Friday. You should have received a letter about their requirements earlier in the week. Next Monday we will have an open house for others to view their feature articles. Please attend. Times will be made on Friday.

In reading we are looking at various types of text structures, with emphasis on comparing and contrasting. On Wednesday we will watch a power point and write an essay based on our Venn diagrams. Thursday we will add finishing touches to our Feature Articles.

On Friday, the boys and girls will meet with their 1st grade book buddies, take their spelling test, and learn about alliteration in Poetry.

Thank you for your support.

This Week in Literacy

Writing: Feature Article rough drafts are due Tuesday. We plan to complete our final copies by next Friday and have our writing celebration the week of Thanksgiving. After the rough drafts are done, students will meet in response groups to get feedback from peers. After students will revise their rough drafts and then edit using COPS. We will also add text features.

Spelling: Unit 10, Due Friday

Book Club: Notebooks are due Tuesday. Book Club will be on Wednesday at 11:00 and 2:30. Book Club last around 45 minutes. Thank you for all the volunteers and those who dropped off supplies.

Reading: We are looking at text structure. Text structure deals with how the text is organized. Last week we studied 'time order' texts. Time order texts uses signal words like first, next, last, before, etc. Cuase and effect, compare and contrast, timelines are other types of text structre as well.

Chipotle Fundraiser for Westerly Creek on 11/17/10 from 4-8pm

http://ra.chipotle.com/email/10-den-397.htm

First Week in November

The sugar is starting to wear off!

This week we are developing more non-fiction reading strategies. We "skim" the surface of an article by first looking at text features. This gives us a general idea of the article. From there we ask specific questions that we hope the text might answer. Now we "scan" for keywords that might provide the answer. Skimming and scanning are great comprehension skills to acquire and apply. They also come in handy when answering csap questions.

For our feature articles we are in the prewriting stage by working on our outlines. On Tuesday, we practiced three ways to hook the reader with great leads. On Wednesday we will discuss conclusions. Next week we plan on drafting.

Book club starts wednesday! Boys and girls will get their books and notebooks. Lemonade will be served!

Thank you for attending your chilld's conference! We are glad you came.

Book Club

Hello 4th Grade Parents -

I am helping Mr. Rabinowitz coordinate the 4th graders' book club and we are looking for parent volunteers to help facilitate the book clubs and provide refreshments. The book clubs will meet for 45 minutes once a week on Wednesdays starting in November. The students will choose a book based on their interest and then meet once a week for four weeks to discuss the book with other students while sipping hot chocolate or lemonade. Parent volunteers get to read the books along with the students and help direct discussion during the weekly meeting. The book clubs are nicely structured and should be a fun volunteer experience. ( I did book club with the third-graders last year and loved it.) Mr Rabinowitz's homeroom will meet Wednesday mornings at a time to be determined and Ms. Grant's homeroom will meet Wednesday afternoons at a time to be determined.

Please click on the slyreply link below and sign up to help facilitate a group or bring refreshments. Thanks!

http://www.slyreply.com/Event/EventDetails.aspx?eid=U0pI8sXKMyw%3d


~ Missy (Lily's Mom)

Book Fair Info

The Scholastic Book Fair will be held in the Westerly Creek library from Monday, October 25th through Friday, November 5. The book fair is an important fund raiser for Westerly Creek Elementary. Our 2 Book Fairs in the 2009-10 school year raised over $9000 in books and supplies. Most teachers from Westerly Creek and Stapleton 3 received funds from those book fair proceeds to purchase materials for use in their classrooms.

There is a great selection of affordable books for kids from ECE through 5th grade (and beyond).
Our book fair this year falls during some big events including Parent/Teacher Conferences, Student Halloween Parade, Election Day and Literacy Day so we really need a lot of volunteers.

TO VOLUNTEER - Please follow the link below to sign up for 1 or more shifts:
http://www.slyreply.com/Event/EventDetails.aspx?eid=B0fhsWQNQ5A%3d

Book Fair Hours:
Monday, October 25 9 – 6:00 Book Fair Sales, Teacher Conferences
Tuesday, October 26: 8:30 – 6 Book Fair Sales, Teacher Conferences
Wednesday, October 27: 8:30 – 9:30, 11:30 – 1, 2:15-4:15 Book Fair Sales & Halloween Parade
Monday, November 1: 8:30 – 9:30, 11:30 – 1, 3:30 – 5:30 Book Fair Sales
Tuesday, November 2: 8 - 6 Book Fair Sales, Election Day
Wednesday, November 3: 8:30 - 9:30, 11:30 - 1:00, 3:30 - 5:30 Book Fair Sales
Thursday, November 4: 8:30 – 9:30, 11:30 - 1:00, 3:30 - 5:30 Book Fair Sales
Friday, November 5: 8:30 - 9:30, 11:00 - 2:00 Book Fair Sales, Thanksgiving Lunch & Literacy Day

This week

Friday we left the school boundaries and took our classroom outside. We painted what we saw using watercolors and wrote complementary poems that we will later revise. (i took pictures ) We write poetry every Friday. Ask your child about their experience. On Monday, we analyzed an author's stance in a feature article. We also found non fiction texts around the school to show that non fiction texts are everywhere. Tuesday we will focus on "I wonder..." questions to help comprehend non fiction texts. Wednesday we will do another pre book club activity.

Thank you for your support.

Our warm up message question was how many states begin and end with the same letter.

Today's happenings

First we made predictions and then followed up with a discussion from the following lecture.

http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html

The rest of the day was centered around understanding text features in non-fiction texts.

Please take a survey

Stapleton School Survey 2010

The SUN Education Committee requests your participation in a 20 question online
survey. The second half of the survey pertains to the configuration,
programming, and name of our newest school. Please complete the survey by
Wednesday October 20. Survey results will be used by Principal Raisch to guide
focus groups and make recommendations to the Board of Education and DPS about
Stapleton 3. Thank you!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/StapletonSchoolSurvey2010

Writing Celebration

Our personal narratives our done and it is time to celebrate. The boys and girls will be reading their writing to their classmates as we nosh on some food. Stop by and hear their stories.

Week of October 5, 20210

Dear 4th grade blog followers,
This week we will publish our personal narratives. On Monday we continuted to edit and revise. Students used rubrics to score other writing pieces to improve the quality of their writing.

Spelling is a review unit this week and in reading we are adding more strategies good readers use to solve meaning problems. Both classes now have a problem of the week (P.O.W.) as a a literary enrichment.

Conference sign ups are posted on our doors. conferences are are schedule after school on October 25th (for Mr. Rabinowitz's homeroom) and 26th (for Mrs. Grant's homeroom). In addition, we will have a limited number of slots availiable the week before after school.

I am very proud of them and they are coming together as a class.

This week

In addition to getting a large couch, we are drafting our personal narratives. In reading workshop, we practiced using our schema to activate prior knowledge before and during our reading. Previous lessons dealt with punctuation clues and rereading parts of texts. On Wednesday, we went to our first assembly. There was a presentation about recycling in schools.

Ridding the classroom of "good job"

Follow the link to read the article
http://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm

Week of September 13-16

Dear 4th grade families,

Time for Kids has arrived. We will be using them weekly in many ways. The articles are especially useful for our upcoming unit on non-fiction feature articles.

Spelling Words related short i and long i vowel sounds.

Ask your child about one of our brain breaks. Can they demonstrate them to you?

Our classroom library is growing, thank you for the donations.


Mr. Rabinowitz

website for dance matt typing

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml

Happy Rosh Hashanah

Dear fourth grade familes,
We have completed two of our three interim assesments.

"The primary goal of the interim testing program is to assess how well students are progressing toward proficiency on state standards addressed by the curriculum throughout the school year. The test results provide detailed information to assist school staff in meeting the instructional needs of their students." (DPSk12.org)

If you would like more information about school assessments visit
http://testing.dpsk12.org/index.html

Please don't forget to sign your child's weekly reading log.

Thanks,
Mr. Rabinowitz

Student Directory Form

The form is at www.westerlycreekpta.com and there is a green link that says Student Directory Form. It is super easy and the more families fill it out, the more families we can invite to participate in volunteering and direct giving (for money for your classrooms!!!!)

http://fs21.formsite.com/wcgrade3/form932850592/index.html?1283277095664

Week #2; last week of August

Dear 4th grade families,
We are in our second full week of school. Many students have started their new classroom jobs. Students took home their spelling for the week. The spelling worksheet is due Friday or earlier. Reading and writing lessons will relate to launching the workshop format. On Monday, we discussed the various purposes for reading. Don't forget to be in line to start school at 8:55, not walking towards the line. Back to school night is Tuesday at 6:00.

Happy trails,
Mr. Rabinowitz

What is the next letter in this series? J, F, M, A, M, _, _, _, _, _, _, _,

Full Week #1

Good Afternoon fourth graders and fourth grade families,
This week we started reading workshop and writing workshop. Students took a Unit 1 pre-assessment, spelling assessment, created self-portraits, and practiced many our daily routines. Their homework is to write down the following word on their planners: RUHBARB. In writing, we are working on our animal masks, which should be complete by Friday. The mask will be up by Back-To-School-Night.

That is all for now! Leave a comment or email me at Noah_Rabinowitz@dpsk12.org

Many Thanks,
Mr. Rabinowitz

Welcome back

Dear 4th grade students and families,
I hope you are all having an enjoyable summer. I am writing to you as I hear distant rumbling thunder from my house. Before long we will back in the classroom. Until then, think about the book you are currently reading and last paragraph you wrote. Begin to plan out where you are going to do your homework.

Happy Trails,
Mr. Rabinowitz

Summer info

Dear 4th grade families,

Welcome to my blog. Here you will find frequent postings regarding 4th grade. Always feel free to email information you want regularly posted.