Week of 10/24

Fall is in the air now! I was so happy to have real Fall weather over the weekend, and it was wonderful to see so many families at the carnival on Saturday!


A few reminders:

• It's Red Ribbon Spirit Week this week. We will show our spirit for being drug-free:
• Monday: wear red to because we are REDy to live a drug-free life.
• Tuesday: wear favorite sports team jersey because we are teaming up against drugs.
• Wednesday: wear silly socks because we want to "sock it" to drugs!
• Thursday: wear a hat  - "hats off" to being drug-free
• Friday: Riverside spirit wear/blue because we make "beary" good choices
• We have begun our United Way campaign to benefit those in need in our community. Please send in change/dollars to contribute to this great cause. The girls and boys of Riverside are having a competition - who will raise the most money??
• Book orders went home last week and are due on Monday, 10/31. If you order online, you get a free book and our class gets a free book!
• Keep sending in Boxtops - they earn lots of money for Riverside students!! They are due November 1st. Maybe our class will WIN this month!
• Remember to be check ParentVue for your child's current grades. If you don't have login information yet, you must pick that up from the office; I am not able to send that home.
• Field trip to the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown is on Monday 11/21. More information coming home soon!

 Language Arts: 
Skills/strategies: Homophones, roots/affixes, context clues

I will be starting DRA testing with students this week. Once all testing is complete, I will be sending home results and goals for the year. Please be sure that your child is reading nightly. Studies show that daily reading shows significant growth in vocabulary development and overall achievement. We want our kids to LOVE books, so we must work together to foster that love of reading. 



Math:
We are exploring decimals. So far we've learned how they are related to money and the place value of decimals to the thousandths place, rounding, and comparing/ordering decimals.This week, we will learn fraction/decimal equivalents. There will be a decimals test early next week on everything we learned about decimals. Remember to use the portaportal site to review math concepts at home: http://www.portaportal.com/ 
I sent the login information via email. If you need it again, just email me: devon.day@nn.k12.va.us


Virginia Studies:
The kids are loving our exploration of the Native Americans. There will be a test next week on everything we've covered on Native Americans. Please be sure your child is reviewing notes when they are sent home (will be noted in agenda); they are learning a lot of information and if they are not studying, they will not understand the material. Thank you for your support on the home front! :)

Week of 10/17

It was a glorious weekend and I hope everyone was able to be outdoors to enjoy it!

• Remember to wear blue Monday to take a stand against bullying. Wednesday is Unity Day, and we will be united by all wearing orange and marching in a parade at school in the afternoon - NNPD and Menchville marching band will be joining us!
• The Riverside Fall Carnival is Saturday from 11-3. Remember to send in ticket orders - fliers went home last week! You get some free tickets if you pre-order by Wednesday and/or volunteer at the carnival!

Language Arts: 
Skills/strategies: Cause and effect, roots/affixes

I will be starting DRA testing with students this week. Once all testing is complete, I will be sending home results and goals for the year. Please be sure that your child is reading nightly. Studies show that daily reading shows significant growth in vocabulary development and overall achievement. We want our kids to LOVE books, so we must work together to foster that love of reading. 



Math:
We are exploring decimals. So far we've learned how they are related to money and the place value of decimals to the thousandths place. This week, we will learn to compare and order decimals, as well as round decimals. There will be a decimals quiz early next week. Remember to use the portaportal site to review math concepts at home: http://www.portaportal.com/ 
I sent the login information via email. If you need it again, just email me: devon.day@nn.k12.va.us


Virginia Studies:
We have finished our geography of Virginia unit. Graded tests will be coming home this week; please have your child review and correct the errors, using his/her Virginia Studies notebook, and return the test to school. We will be placing them in a binder for review before the SOL test in the Spring. We have also been learning about the branches of Virginia's government and will be starting our unit on Native Americans this week. Please be sure your child is reviewing notes when they are sent home (will be noted in agenda); they are learning a lot of information and if they are not studying, they will not understand the material. Thank you for your support on the home front! :)

We won!!

Our class won for 4th grade...most participation for Beary Blue Friday!! We won 10 tallies, which got us to 100 tallies!! Way to go!!

Week of 10/3

Happy October! I am excited to see all of you on Tuesday at 6:30 for Back to School Night! I'll be sharing information about what we do each day in class, as well as field trip information, and general classroom expectations and goals for the year. Shop at the Book Fair from 6-7:30 in the gym!

Here's what we'll be working on this week:

Language Arts: 
Skills/strategies: character traits, drawing conclusions, context clues, homophones, roots/affixes

We'll also continue our unit on the New York Times Bestseller, Wonder, which will cover many reading strategies and skills, as well as lead to great classroom discussions. The kids are loving it, and often ask if we can read more - I LOVE that!! 

Please be sure that your child is reading nightly. Studies show that daily reading shows significant growth in vocabulary development and overall achievement. We want our kids to LOVE books, so we must work together to foster that love of reading. 

Math:
Reminder: There will be a quick check-up on rounding/comparing on Monday. There will be a whole numbers test on Wednesday. This will cover place value, rounding, and comparing numbers. Our next unit will be investigating decimals. Remember to use the portaportal site to review math concepts at home: http://www.portaportal.com/ 
I sent the login information via email a couple of weeks ago. If you need it again, just email me: devon.day@nn.k12.va.us

Virginia Studies:
We will continue our exploration of the regions of Virginia. I will be sending the VA Studies notebook home each night to review the regions learned so far. There will be a test on Friday on the geography of Virginia (bordering states, water sources) and the regions of Virginia.