We are off and rolling following our 3rd week of school! Some great things are happening -
* We are compacting for math now. Your child may go to another class based on their math needs. We have had some adjustments with remembering homework, so it is important to reiterate how essential copying down the math homework from your math teacher's agenda is - since it may not be the same.
* Class T-Shirts: Thank you to all of you who pre-ordered a class shirt! They will be green Ford Elementary shirts, same basic mustang design. The cost is $10, and Mrs. Losure is placing the order ASAP. Please send in a payment made out to Ford PTSA, and we can fill out the order form for you - just indicate the size.
* Sending out smiles from Ford Elementary: A special thanks to Tate's mom, Mrs. Coston who came in this week to do a wonderful service project with us! She brought along craft supplies for the students to decorate goodie bags for ill kids at Children's Hospital, then stuff them. We're hoping everybody learned a lesson about appreciating our own health, and how important it is to spread cheer to those in need. Thank you!
* Mystery Reader: Thank you to all who signed up for a slot on the Mystery Reader calendar! Thank you to Mrs. Kastensmidt for coordinating this for us, too. I was overwhelmed that there are more volunteers than slots. At this point we're only scheduling it for every other Friday due to time constraints, but as the year progresses and we get into more of a routine, I may find that we can open it up to every Friday. Stay tuned!
* What's going well: The students did some beautiful writing in class this week! We've been concentrating on adjectives and similes, and how they can liven up our writing. We studied engaging the reader by starting off describing the setting, and writing about "My Favorite Place." As a warm-up, I put the students into teams to describe a postcard, using as many details as possible to see if we could guess which one it was. The results blew me away! They were so beautiful and full of description - I can't wait to see what kind of authors we become this year.
* Have a wonderful, restful Labor Day holiday - and we'll see you back bright and early Tuesday morning! GO DAWGS!
Our Week in Review 8/29
Vocabulary or Spelling?
Well, the answer is both, really, just not at the same time. To minimize confusion, we will be rotating a unit of each. Last week we started with the Vocabulary Workshop workbook, Unit 1. We had an assessment over them today. There is some overlap, however. Today, the students got their spelling list for our first unit of spelling. These words will continue until the following Thursday, spelling test day. For homework, students need to choose 3 activities to complete from the Tic-Tac-Toe board that went home today. These are due on test day. They are not limited to just these activities, and if your child needs extra assistance to learn words, they can complete more choices. We will continue to focus on words for writing in spelling this year , instead of just the phonics/spelling patterns, and we will be looking for these words to be spelled correctly throughout their daily assignments in other subjects. Let me know if you have any questions, and I also wanted to pass along the publisher's website for extra vocabulary games and practice. It is: www.sadlier-oxford.com
Welcome Back!
Welcome back to another great year at Ford Elementary! We had a fantastic first day - we took a "Pop Quiz" on our teachers, interviewed and introduced a partner, and spent time getting to know our rules and routines. Some talking points for you and your child this week: ask them about the 25 books campaign, their goals for 4th grade, anything they're apprehensive about,their favorite special, Mustang Madness, and how it feels to be back! I hope you are as excited to get this year underway as I am. Whether it's studying weather, space, explorers, the early colonization of the United States, or long division - I know we will have a wonderful time growing and learning in 4th Grade! Writing across the content areas will be a big focus for us this year, both as preparation for next year's 5th grade writing assessment, as well as making our kids effective written communicators for life.
I appreciate all the support that Ford parents are known for, and hope we can work hand in hand to develop strong, creative, independent learners. If at any time you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at kristen.waddell@cobbk12.org, or my co-teacher at heather.fritts@cobbk12.org. Here's to the next 179 days of learning!
What We Will Be Studying
Math
* Place value millions through hundredths
* Rounding numbers
* Data/graphs/tables
* Division facts
Social Studies
* Principles of economics
* Native American cultures
* Map skills
Reading
* Narrative reading story elements
* Poetry elements
* Reading with fluency
English
* Shurley English method of diagramming sentences
* Parts of speech
* Types of sentences
* Subject/Predicate
Writing
* Steps to beginning a writing piece
* Narrative writing elements
Supplies & Volunteers
You all are so amazing with the amount of supplies that came in with the students on the first day! We are quite well-stocked with pencils, dry erase markers, post-its, index cards, glue sticks and paper. I also want to thank Mrs. Vroman for sending in treats for our treat box, and Mrs. Povich for the donation of playing cards and Band-aids! Please make sure your child has the red plastic folder from the school store for the Friday communication, as well as the Vocabulary workbook. The 1-inch binder we requested was actually for a writing folder that stays at school, so if your child wants to carry their agenda back and forth to school in a binder, please send in an extra to use for writing. It can be a plain white Avery-type one. I am also looking for old "family-friendly" magazines we can cut up, and asking all parents to start saving the tubes from your paper towels for our upcoming Native American craft project. (can you guess what it is?)
I was thrilled to have so many of you sign-up to volunteer in our classroom this year! You are awesome with your willingness to help, and share the burden. I think we actually have three terrific moms volunteer to be co-room moms, and one of their first duties will be to create a class directory to keep us all in touch. I am also covered on the Fundraising and Reading Parent volunteers- but we still seek an Earth Parent to lead one science lesson per month (plans and materials provided), as well as someone willing to be our Fine Arts parent. (no actual artistic talent required) Even if you have never served in either of these roles, if you could come donate your time once a month to "guest-teach" we would greatly appreciate it! You will receive training on what to teach, and it adds so much to our standard curriculum. If you have any questions before you commit, please let me know. I will need to fill these positions as soon as possible. Be on the lookout for emails from Mrs. Losure, who will be coordinating our "Mystery Readers" this year and will need weekly volunteers to come in and read to our class. Again, I appreciate all you've done to help your childrens' 4th grade year get off to a terrific start!
Interacting With Math @ Home
We are beginning the year in 4th grade with a review of place value, and practicing our multiplication fact fluency. Next, we will transition into mastering our division facts, and extending place value to the tenths and hundredths places. At our Open House parents meeting we will be talking to you about "Math Compacting," which is a method of grouping students based on their math needs and skills. For those of you who want to have a little something "extra" for your kids to do at home that relates to math, I wanted to share with you a wonderful website created by the publisher of our math series. It contains extra practice, games, and resources for further math study. I encourage you to visit and bookmark the site soon, but you will need your child's math textbook to access it the first time. The address is http://www.harcourtschool.com/menus/signin/author.html?seriesid=21&preview=true Log on and have fun! Additionally, we are very fortunate this year to have a new textbook series in both Social Studies and Science that are very interactive and have consumable workbooks to accompany them. Harcourt also publishes our Science series, so more information on the related website for it will be coming soon.
A Note to Parents about Agendas
Just a quick reminder about agendas. They are purchased each year for the student body by PTA to help our kids build organizational skills that will take them through middle school. Your child should bring this very important tool home nightly. If you don't see it, ask for it! The student is in charge of keeping up with writing their homework assignments down, as well as spelling/vocabulary words, and specials days. The student will also keep track of their nightly reading in the agenda, as well. That way there is no seperate reading log to lose track of, and you can at a glance check homework, reading, and any discipline reminders or communication from us and initial at the bottom of each day. It is the student's responsibility to bring it to an adult to sign. I will be stressing this with the kids, and following up by checking their agendas each morning. As part of our behavior plan, missing/icomplete reading logs cost a "stick", and if homework is not written down properly, it usually means missing assignments - which has the same consequence. Please also use the front clear pocket for all monies (in the correct payment envelopes) and transportation notes. In the past I have found that a small 1/2 inch or 1 inch binder helps to protect the agenda when it travels back and forth from school to home, but that is up to you. If a child forgets their agenda at home, they are usually unprepared for class, which also has a consequence on our behavior plan.
All About Ms. Waddell
As I can't wait to get to know each of you better, I thought you might like to know a little bit about me! This is my 9th year of teaching, and I'm returning to Ford for my second year teaching 4th grade. Most recently, I taught 2nd grade in Paulding County at Baggett Elementary, but before that I spent 5 years in Smyrna at Nickajack Elementary, working some of that time for our own Mrs. Peggy Pepper! In my spare time I enjoy riding bikes with my family on the Silver Comet Trail, scrapbooking, reading, and movies. We have three pets at home, our black cat, Kitty, our black kitten, Buddy, and our dwarf hamster, Humphrey. (who will soon join our class) I am a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and I get back there whenever I can to visit my family. I have lived in 5 states in my life, but Georgia has been home for the past 12 years. I spent all of my college years in California. That means I actually got to see Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco play on the same team together, and I was there for the "Big One," the major earthquake of 1989. I spent my first year after high school in an art college, but then transferred to the University of California, Davis to complete my degrees. I actually had a whole other career before I began teaching - in the computer field, but I returned to education when my daughter Haley was born in 2000. I have been married since 1998 to my own southern hero, my husband Joey. He is a firefighter for Dekalb County Engine 15, and one of the few people around here actually born and bred in Marietta. We are both the babies of 3 children, so are used to getitng our way! Together we like to work out at the Y together, or jog on the Silver Comet. We spent most of our summer in the pool, and didn't take any major vacations this year, but I did attend my 20th high school reunion back in O-hi-o. I can't wait to hear what you all did this summer!
