Mr. Jamison

Week of November 16, 2009

Here are the spelling words for the last week before Thanksgiving break;

Sort 12 Words:

er = /ur/ sermon, serpent, hermit, thermos, kernel

ear = /ur/ earthquake, learner, pearly, rehearse, yearning, earnest, searching

ear/ere/eer teardrop, spearmint, yearbook, appear, dreary, sincere, adhere, merely, cheerful

Important Dates and Math Help

Where is the year going?  Time is moving by too quick.  It was great seeing all the family and friends at the "Family and Friends Luncheon."  All the student enjoyed the food.  Remember, there is no school 11/23 - 11/27 for the Thanksgiving Holiday. 

November 17 is Chick-Fil-A night and the fourth grade teachers will be hosting.  Please join us that night for some good food, games, and conversation.  I look forward to seeing all the students.

Progress Reports went home today (11/12/09).  Please review the reports with your child, sign, and return the next day.

Math Help!!

The students have been working hard multiplying 2 and 3 digit numbers by 1 and 2 digit numbers.  We have been practicing two different ways of finding the products; using partial products and regrouping (the traditional way most of us are used to).  The students will need to be able to multiply using partial products first so that they understand why they do the steps of the traditional (regrouping) method.  I have attached two powerpoints that we did in class as help.

Download Partial_products

Download Multiplying_by_Two-and_Three Digit

Hopefully this will help explanation both methods.

Week of November 2

Hopefully everyone enjoys their Halloween.  Be safe and have fun. 

Congratulations to the students for winning the school's pumpkin contest in celebration of Red Ribbon Week.  Mrs. Cash came up with the great idea for the pumpkin and the students worked hard to decorate the bats for the pumpkin. 

Spelling Words for the week (Sort #10):

/war/ - wardrobe, warning, warden, warrior, quarter, quarrel, swarm, dwarf, backward

/wor/ - worse, world, worry, worthy, worship, worthwhile

/wa/ - waffle, wander,squat, squash, squabble, squad

Upcoming Events:

• November 4 - No school
• November 5 - PTA Arts Night
• November 11 - Family and Friends Luncheon for 4th grade
• November 17 - Come see the 4th grade teachers at Chik Fil A night.
• November 23 - 27 - No School (Thanksgiving Holidays)

Thank you to all the parents that attended the parent/teacher conference.  Remember if you have any questions regarding your child's progress you may schedule a conference with me at any time.

Week of October 26

Spelling words for the week - Sort 9

or in 1st Syllable - order, forest, normal, forty, florist, northern, forward, corner, chorus

or in 2nd Syllable - record, perform, ashore, before, explore, ignore, adore, inform, afford

Oddball - sorry, reward

Math Challenge Extra Credit

Math students, here is the math challenge for Monday.  Solve it and earn some extra credit and a homwork pass:

    Use the digits 2, 4, 5, and 10 to create a math equation with the solution of 6.

Symbols to use: plus +, minus - , divide, times x, equals =, parenthesis ().  Remember, all the numbers have to be used but not all the symbols.  You must follow the order of operations.

Week of October 19, 2009

Sort 8 Spelling Words

ar in 1st syllable - market, carpet, harvest, marble, hardly, partner, pardon

Long a in 1st syllable - parents, haircut, dairy, barefoot, careful, barely, fairy

Long a in 2nd syllable - aware, despair, repair, declare, beware, impair, compare

Oddball - toward

Parent - Teacher Conferences:

Conference schedules will be coming home on Monday, Oct. 19.  Sorry for the delay.  If the time and/or day does not work then just let me know by letter, phone, or email and we will be able to reschedule.

Extra Credit

For all the students in my math class - if you would like to earn a couple of extra points and a prize then write an expression for problems number 4 and 5 from the powerpoint we did in class.  Remember: I don't just want the answer, I want the expression with the answer.

Download Mathematical Expressions pp 2

Week of October 13

Spelling List for the week:

au - author, autumn, laundry, caution, faucet, sausage, haunted, August

aw - awkward, lawyer, awesome, gnawing, gawking, flawless

al - always, almost, halted, already, salty, although

oddball - laughed, all right

News and Notes

• Our field trip to the Youth Museum was fantastic!  The students had fun taking part in reenacting parts of the Revolutionary War.  Yes, even I participated.  Pictures of the field trip will be posted in the class next week.  Feel free to stop by and check them out.
• To celebrate Red Ribbon Week, the school will be having a pumpkin contest.  Each class will be asked to decorate a pumpkin to go with the theme "The Future Relies on You and Me - Drug Free"  If there are any creative parents out there that would like to assist the students with decorating a pumpkin let me know.  Last years winner was Mrs. Slayton's class with the very creative idea of covering the pumpkin with Dum Dum lollipops and the slogan "Don't be a dum dum, don't do drugs."
• Report cards will be coming home on Friday, Oct. 16. In the Tuesday folder I placed a conference request letter inside.  Please read over the letter and send it back ASAP. 

Important Dates:

• Wednesday, Oct. 21 is Early Release.  Students are dismissed at 12:10
• Wednesday, Oct. 28 is picture retake day
• PTA Book Fair is currently going on.  Stop by with your child to buy some very interesting books.

Multiplication Information

In math many of the fourth grade students are beginning to work with multiplication and division.  Some of the skills will be review to begin with then we will move into new skills.  Attached you will find information about the multiplication/division topics and more importantly, the process by which the teachers will be teaching multiplication.  This process is called partial products which varies slightly then the traditional method of multiplying.  Please read over the examples so that you are familiar with what each student will have to show.

Download Partial product information

Spelling List for Week of Oct. 5

Week of Oct. 5 the students will be working with vowel patterns oy, oi, ou, and ow and sorting them into sounds in the 1st syllable, 2nd syllable or oddball.

1st Syllable - moisture, poison, noisy, loyal, pointed, powder, coward, thousand, county, counter

2nd Syllable - amount, allow, around, about, avoid, annoy, employ, appoint

Oddball - trouble, double, southern, doughnut

News and Notes

Our field trip to the Youth Museum is scheduled for Friday, October 9.  If you wish for your child to attend please turn in the permission form ASAP if you have not already done so.  Our class will be going at 11:30 and plan on returning about 1:30. The students will be purchasing sack lunches from the school that day if they will not be bringing a lunch from home. 

The PTA Book Fair begins October 12.

Be on the lookout for report cards.  The end of the 1st nine weeks will be October 9 and report cards will be coming home about a week after that.  I will be sending a conference request letter home to schedule conferences sometime during the week of October 19.

Agendas are an easy and quick way to communicate daily between home and school.  Please make sure to check agendas for any notes, behavior updates, homework assignments, and spelling lists. 

AR Update - although we got started late with the AR points and goals, the students have been busy reading and taking AR tests.  Your child's AR goal is located in the front cover of his/her agenda along with his/her reading level. 

Curriculum News -

• Spelling Lists will be in your child's agenda every Monday with a spelling test every Friday
• My math class will be moving on to Multiplication and Division beginning Monday, October 5.  The following is a great site for practicing multiplication facts: fact practice  Also ask your child daily what the fact of the day was at school.  Each day the students at Nickajack will have a fact of the day to focus on.  The fact will change daily.
• What's the best way to become a great reader - Make reading a habit! Encourage your child to read daily for 30 minutes and record it in his/her reading log.
• Writing - We are writing personal narratives in class.  The students have some great stories to write about.  Ask your child what story he/she is working on.  Your childs writing will be shared at conference time.
• We will also be working on the food pyramid in Health for the next week.