Fourth Grade Footnotes

#4 September 9-13, 2013 Fourth Grade Footnotes

Parents, I want to let you know that the children WILL NOT be reading a story out of their books next week, nor will the children have a spelling test. Therefore, the children will not have a spelling list nor will they have a Family Times coming home this week. The children will be doing their D.R.A.’s next week. This reading test takes a great deal of time and students who are not D.R.A. testing may have extra free time next week so please make sure they have a reading book in their book bags each day.

This year I am using the app Remind101. I introduced Remind101 to everyone who was at the open house. I only have 14 parents using Remind101. This app allows me to text important information to each of you when I need to do so. Please sign up to receive my text messages by texting (815)261-0491 with the message @mrshembe, and I will reply. Then you need to follow the directions on your texts.

Last Friday, we were able to celebrate “Grandparents Day” with some of our favorite grandparents. I hope you enjoy the pictures. I’m not sure who had more fun….the grandparents or the kids!!!

Parents, progress reports will be ready to view on Friday, September 20th. If you do not have access to the Internet and you need a hard copy of all progress reports and quarterly grades, you will need to send a letter requesting a hard copy of these to Mrs. Scanlan, our school secretary.

Our class is in need of wire hangers for a social studies project. We will be creating a mobile about the three branches of government. If you have any wire hangers that you could donate to our class it would be greatly appreciated. I need one for each student and we have 21 children in our class.

I am pleased to announce that we will be having Accelerated Reader for 4th graders. This means that the children will once again be able to earn prizes for reading. The children have also been asking me how to find out if a book is A.R. (Accelerated Reader) or not. If you would like to know whether or not a book is an A.R. book you can search the following url, http://www.arbookfind.com. Remember to use my website to help you with useful websites. Our school is once again collecting Box Tops for Education. Please send all of your Box Tops to school. The money collected from the Box Tops goes right back to your child’s education. Thank you for your help!!!

Your child will be taking a selection test every Thursday on the computers at school. I will be printing of these tests for you because I wanted you to be able to see your child’s score. I will let you know that due to budget constraints, I will be unable to print off these tests every week. However, you can keep track of your child’s test scores simply by going to www.pearsonsuccessnet.com and logging in using your child’s name and password. You can find your child’s user name and password in their binders located in the reading section. Simply go to www.pearsonsuccessnet.com enter your child’s name and password, as it appears on the paper. Then you will go to another screen. From there you will need to click on “Parents.” In the box that says “View Student Progress” you will need to choose Mrs. Hemberger-Reading Success Tracker 2008 G4. Here you will be able to keep track of your child’s reading test scores.

Parents, I want you to know that it is never too early to start preparing your child for the I.S.A.T. tests. You child and utilize a program for home called “STUDY ISLAND.” To go to this website you child will need to type in http://www.studyisland.com/ . Here they can begin to practice for the fourth grade I.S.A.T. tests that will be coming up this spring. The child’s user name is the first two letters of their first name, then their entire last name, with no spaces, then the at sign followed by CUSD10. The CUSD must be in all caps. For example, my first name is Tricia and my last name is Hemberger so my user name would look like this trhemberger@CUSD10. Their password is the child’s lunch account number. If your child is new to the district the password is trojans. When they log in they will need to change their password to their lunch account. This site will definitely help them perform better on their I.S.A.T.

If you are sending in cash for lunch money it needs to be sent to school in an envelope with the students name on it, their lunch account number, and my name. When cash gets put in the envelope the secretary does not know who it comes from and which account to credit. Thank you for your help with this matter.

Keep in mind these upcoming dates:

Friday, September 13th - Don’t forget to look at your child’s papers in the “Friday Folder.” Keep the papers and then sign the “Friday Folder” so that it can be returned on Monday. Please sign your child’s September Behavior Chart on the Week 2 line. Friday, September 20th – School Improvement / Students will be dismissed at 11:20 a.m. Don’t forget to look at your child’s papers in the “Friday Folder.” Please sign your child’s September Behavior Chart on the Week 3 line. Progress reports can be viewed online. Friday, October 11th – 2:00 Dismissal / Homecoming Monday, October 14th – No School / Columbus Day Friday, October 18th – End of the First Quarter Thursday, October 24th – All day Parent/Teacher Conferences Friday, October 25th – All day Parent/Teacher Conferences Friday, November 8th - School Improvement / Students will be dismissed at 11:20 a.m. Monday, November 11th - No School / Veterans Day Wednesday, November 27th - 2:00 Dismissal Thursday, November 28th – No School / Thanksgiving Day Friday, November 29th – School Not In Session Thursday, December 19th - 2:00 Dismissal Friday, December 20th – 2:00 Dismissal / End of the Second Quarter Monday, December 23rd – Monday, January 4th – No School / Christmas Break Monday, January 6th – All day Teacher Institute / Students Not In Attendance Tuesday, January 7th – School Resumes