Smith Publications
Newsletter of the Fourth Grade Champions week of August 22,2016
Upcoming Dates
8/22 Watch D.O.G.S. kick-off and free pizza! 6:00-7:00pm
8/23 DiscoveRoom Orientation for our class 10:45-11:00
9/5 NO SCHOOL
9/13 Reading Wall Redemption (We have not yet received these forms.)
9/15 Picture Day
9/20 PTO Meeting 3:00-4:00pm
9/23 Conference Invitations sent home
9/23 Mother-Son Treasure Hunt
9/29 CONFERENCE INVIATIONS DUE TO TEACHERS
9/30 Teacher work day. NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
Arizona Career and College Readiness Standards
A few standards that we have practiced this week.
English Language Arts
4.RL.1Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
4.RL.2 Determine the theme of a story, drama, or poemfrom details in the text; summarize the text.
Mathematics
4.NBT.A.1Recognize that in a multi-digit whole number, a digit in one place represents ten times what it represents in the place to its right. For example, recognize that 700 divided by 70 = 10 by applying concepts of place value and division.
4.NBT.A.2Read and write multi-digit whole numbers using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form. Compare two multi-digit number based on meanings of the digits in each place, using <, >, and = symbols to record the results of comparisons.
Health
4.S1.C1.PO1 Describe the relationship between healthy behaviors and personal health.
4.S1.C3.PO2Describe the key nutrients contained in the food groups and how these nutrients affect health and learning.
DIBELS
Kyrene School District uses Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessments to track students’ progress with reading skills throughout the school year.
Your child brought a “Home Connect letter” today (Friday, August 19th). This sheet contains information about your child’s performance on our first assessment. Please keep in mind, that while the DIBELS assessment may indicate that a child is “benchmarked” in the area of comprehension, that is not always an accurate depiction of the rigor that is required for classroom reading.
You will see a little “running” person for each assessed area (Fluency, Accuracy, Comprehension). If the running person is in the green area, your child is reading at an appropriate level for the beginning of fourth grade. If your child is in the yellow area, there are components of your child’s reading skills that need some reinforcement. If your child is in the red area, s/he is considered to have intensive needs in reading instruction and we will devise a specific plan to address those needs.
Your child has also received a record of his/her progress with DIBELS for the duration of his/her educational journey with Kyrene to keep in his/her ELA journal at school.
Fourth Grade Homework
The homework in fourth grade is checked off and entered in the online gradebook, then checked in class.
Students correct their own work, then bring home their corrections. The hope is that students will review their mistakes, as well as share with their parents.
Websites to Help You
(Fourth Grade is Hard!)
Engage NY: engageny.org
Fact Monster: factmonster.com
Khan Academy: khanacademy.org
Learn Zillion: learnzillion.com
YouTube(Really! Go to YouTube and search a homework topic!):
Zearn:zearn.org
Spelling
There is NO FORMAL SPELLING HOMEWORK. It is recommended that your child do the following, although it is not collected:
Monday:Write each spelling word correctly three times. Write four sentences, using at least one spelling word in each sentence. Use correct capitalization, spelling, and punctuation.
Tuesday:Write the spelling words in alphabetical order. Write four sentences, using at least one spelling word (Different than those used on Monday) in each sentence. Use correct capitalization, spelling, and punctuation.
Wednesday:Make a tree map organizing the spelling words into nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and other. Write four sentences, using at least one spelling word (Different than those used on Monday and Tuesday) in each sentence. Use correct capitalization, spelling, and punctuation.
Thursday:Take a practice spelling test and have a great speller check it for you. Rewrite any misspelled words correctly three times each. Write four sentences, using at least one spelling word (Different than those used on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) in each sentence. Use correct capitalization, spelling, and punctuation.
The students record the spelling words for each week in their student planners that are kept inside their 1 ½” that travel back and forth from home and school every day. They also write the words in their English Language Arts journals, which remain in the classroom. I have started to add the spelling lists to the website, but please do not rely on this! It is critical that the students learn responsibility for their own success.
Snow!
It’s REALLY COLD in our classroom, but we’re afraid to complain about it! It also tends to be very cold in the computer lab.
Please consider allowing your child to keep a jacket or sweater in the classroom.
There, They’re, Their
If you (or better yet, your fourth grader) notices spelling or punctuation errors “in real life,” we’d love to share these with the class!
Please email me photos of billboards/signage with errors or flyers with errors. We will see how many errors we can find! As long as the content is appropriate, screenshots from Facebook are often great sources of multiple errors!
LIKE THIS!!!
Please check out the Colina PTO website ( as well as the Facebook page ( AND the Kyrene de la Colina page ( ).
“Like” the Facebook pages to be kept in the loop of all things Colina!
Please TAG Colina PTO and Kyrene de la Colina when you have something fun to share!
Donations We Need
We have created a “Wish List” on as well. You can find it by selecting “Wish List,” (tab at top of page) “Find a Wish List or Registry,” (at side of page) then entering “.” There is also a link from our web page:
- Facial tissue/Kleenex