Hello,
There was a lot of excitement today. I didn't give them any homework. I don't think the excitement was school related. I hope they have a great night tonight. Please don't send them in with mounds of candy unless they are donating it to our Sweets for Soldiers program. Ms. Smith, fourth grade teacher, got Coffin School involved with this program last year. Any unwanted or excess candy can be brought in and will be sent to our overseas troops. I think it is a great idea and am glad she shared it with us. A orange note went home with the details.
During writing time, we focused on what makes a story scary. The class came up with: suspense, a problem, stretching out the scary parts, strange noises, paranormal activity and caring about the characters. They practically ran back to their desks to start their stories. Most of them were including their classmates in their stories. We only had time to share brief plot lines. I'm hoping some will get read aloud as they get finished later on in the week.
Spelling words are back! After a hiatus, our Sitton Spelling Program is back. Students have ten words written in their assignment books that they will be tested on at the end of the week.
I just got an email letting us know that fourth graders will not be receiving letter grades until the end of the second quarter. We have new report cards and now we need to make grades consistent across grade levels. An A in my class has to mean the same as an A in another fourth grade class. The first quarter report card will have 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s on specific skills to indicate whether or not a child is proficient in those skills. All teachers will grade the exact same skills. If a teacher has covered a skill that others in the grade have not, they are not allowed to fill in a ranking for that skill. Every teacher at every grade level must fill in grades for the same skills. We can talk about this during conferences. I'll be sending out possible times this week.
Happy Halloween.
Mr. Shea
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