Ms. Barry's Parent Corner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: Important Dates in Ms. Barry's Class
1.Reading  and Spelling tests each Friday unless specified. 
2. Grammar quizzes may be weekly or bi-weekly please check your child's agenda book for assessment dates.
3 Quizzes may be administered weekly within any subject area.
4. Unit 2 Factors and Multiples vocabulary quiz # 2 will be next Thursday, Sept. 17th Please review the all of your vocabulary words, examples of factoring, finding multiples, commutative, associative, and distributive properties with your child.
2. I have divided my Language Arts Class into 3 teams. These are flexible groupings that may change throughout the school year. It is mostly used for guided reading and to manage the instruction of certain Language Arts lessons. Certain subjects may be taught whole group depending upon the lesson for the day. 
 Gazelles- Spelling, Grammar, and Reading tests will be  every Friday unless specified. Please take note of information in your child's agenda book or on their weekly lesson guide packets.
Rabbits & Chipmunks- Spelling and reading tests  will be given  every Friday afternoon. Their reading test and Grammar quiz will be weekly or biweekly depending on the level of material to be covered. Please note information in your child's agenda books regarding weekly assessments.
3. Twice a year I organize a "Hang Out Activity" with my students and their families. It is a great way to get to know each other: laughing, talking, and learning all at the same time. This year since we won't be having any school sponsored field trips I thought it would be an excellent idea to  start the planning stages of this outing. Our first activity will be Sunday, October 11th at the Painted Potter @ Discover Mills Mall right next to the huge skate park. We will meet there from 1-4 P.M. It will be loads of fun to paint pottery, laugh, talk, and have a great time hanging out with each other. Interest slips will go home the week of Sept. 14th.
4. Our first book report will be about a captivating mystery book. All book report information will be given out on Friday, Oct. 2nd. Students will be given a book report packet that will explain all of the details regarding the expectations of the final book report. All book reports are due on Friday, October 30th.
 
     
 

Text Box: Learning Focus
 · Math– We are staying busy in math! Currently, we are working on unit 2. The topics include commutative property, associative property, the distributive property. We are also learning how to effectively multiply 1 and 2 digit numbers, prime, composite, and square roots. The students should be working hard to stay on top of homework and studying daily.
· Language Arts- we are learning about various strategies to help the reader understand main idea, realistic fiction,  suffixes, root words, and prefixes, fact and opinion, compare and contrasting, cause and effect,  characterization, sequencing, and author's purpose. As well as Simple and Compound Sentences. Our grammar quiz will be on Friday, Sept. 18th.
· Writer’s Workshop– we are working on  our personal narratives and writing Fables, which is a story in which characters learn or teach a lesson. We are also beginning to go into a more in-depth writing more detailed paragraphs as well as using figurative language within our writing.
· SScience Unit # 2- We have started unit 2 which is all about the Weather. In this unit we will be learning about the different types of weather instruments used to detect the weather, terms like cold and warm fronts. On Wednesday, Sept. 16th Fourth Grade will be visited by the traveling Weather Bus from channel 11. A meteorologist will talk to the students about the different aspects of weather, the instruments used, as well as sharing more about what his/her job entails as a meteorologist.   Please review with your child the definitions and daily notes in preparation for our unit 2 assessment on Wednesday, Sept. 30th. Please use flashcards, make word games etc. to prepare for each unit test.