Main Service Times: Main - 9:30 & 11:00 AM | Evening - 7:00 PM | Arabic - 1:15 PM
Miss C. Schenk
4th Grade« November 2009 | Main | January 2010 »
December 17, 2009
Extra Credit Opportunities 2nd Quarter 2009-2010
The most I extra credit I am allowed to give is enough to raise an overall grade in a subject by 3-5%. The following assignments can be completed to earn those points.
Bible: Students may do a timeline on the unit we just completed about Israel’s judges. Students may earn up to 10 points on their test grade. Projects must 1) include every judge that we have learned about, 2) include at least 5 facts about each judge, 3) be neat, 4) be attractive, 5) be in the correct sequence.
History: Student may earn 5 points added to their grade either in the test category or in the homework category. (Please choose one and write it on your assignment.) Students may complete the unit 2 review on p. 128-129. Students must do all of the sections except “reading on your own.” You do need to complete the unit review project as part of the review. The review must have at least 80% of the questions correct in order to count. If less than 80% is correct student will have one chance to correct it and turn it in a second time.
Language: Students can earn 10 points to add to either test grade OR 4 points added to their homework grade. Points can be earned by choosing a paragraph from a chapter book that is at least 8 sentences long and explaining the punctuation and capitalization rules. For example, if the sentence said, “Sue walked through the Acacia Park on a clear summer day.” You would write that Acacia Park is capitalized because it is a proper name and summer is not capitalized because it is a season. Things that need to be explained are capital letter, quotation marks, commas, colons, and end marks.
Math: Students may do supplement lessons found at the back of the book. Each lesson will earn 2 points added to a test grade. A student may do up to ten lessons for extra credit. The lessons will only be awarded credit if 3 or fewer answers are incorrect. If more than 3 are incorrect, students can redo the assignment to try again to meet the guideline. The lessons that may be done are (17, 18, 22, 24, 26, 29, 30, 34, 35, 40, 41, and 47.)
Reading: Students can earn up to 8 points added to their test grade. Students can earn 1 point for every 15 minutes of reading they complete. The book must be a grade level chapter book or the Bible. After the 15 minutes of reading, students must write a 5 sentence summary of what they have just read.
Science: Students may earn up to 7 points to be added to their test grade. Students may complete the following projects to earn up to 7 points per project:
1) Complete the investigation activity on p. A 142-143. (Note you need at least 2 weeks to do this project. Some materials are required.) You must write a lab report based on the questions.
2) Complete the investigation activity on p. A 130-131. (Note this project takes several days to observe.) You must write a lab report based on the questions.
3) Choose a biome and do a project on the biome. You must include what types of plants and animals are in the biome as well as where your type of biome is located. You can do a report, a poster, a game, a quiz, etc. Be creative.
Spelling: Students may earn up to 30 points using the following options:
1) Write a story with all the spelling words from one of the lists (10-15). The story must be spelling correctly, be neat, have all the words from the list used correctly, and make sense. (It can be make-believe, but it has to contain words used correctly in proper sentences.) = up to 15 points
2) Write the spelling list 5x each (use lists 10-15)=5 points
3) Write each word from a list (10-15) in a sentence. =5 points
Writing: Students may write a descriptive paragraph for two points added to either their essay or class work grade, whichever is lower. Students may choose the following topics: 1) an explorer that we have studied in history, 2) a mission (you may not do San Juan Capistrano or the mission you did for your report), or 3) a Bible character we have studied this year. The paragraphs must be at least 10 sentences long, contain appropriate grammar and punctuation, and contain at least 1 word picture.
All assignments are due on Monday, January 11th. No extra credit will be accepted after that date.
Friday, December 18th
Dear Parents,
We’ve made it to Christmas vacation! I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus’ birth. Happy New Year too! Next time I see you it will be 2010! Thank you for all the gifts that I received this week. You all know me pretty well judging by what you picked out.
You should be receiving lots of tests back in this week’s Friday folder. If you child got a C- or lower, it will say “parent signature” on their test. Please sign and return those tests by Tuesday, January 5th. I am especially proud of how our class did on language test 4. Every single person passed with the lowest score being 75%. The class average was a high B. The Bible tests are graded on a curve. I realized that we did not spend the time necessary studying the order of the judges. In order to make up for that section, the test is grade out of 79 instead of the original 87. The final grade on your test should be boxed.
When we get back from vacation our first spelling list is #16. The test will be on Thursday, January 7th. We will be starting new units in almost every subject. Ask your child to share about them with you.
The second week that we come back we will be having a special event called Walk Through California. There is an invitation in your Friday folder. I have also included the lyrics to a song that your child needs to learn for this event. This is a “field trip” though we will be on campus in the arboretum. It is a fun morning filled with activities, games, etc. all about California history. You are invited to join us on Thursday, January 14th from 9:15-11:45. Please do not bring younger siblings. We encourage your child to dress up for this event. The kids can dress as any California related thing like a gold miner, product of our state (grapes, etc.), missionary, rancher, explorer, etc. Each student has been given a vocabulary card to learn. Please help them memorize the definition and find the answer to the question on the bottom. They will need to know both of those things at our event. If your child loses their card, they will lose participation points in history. No exceptions! Each child must bring the card with them the day of the event even if they already know the information. Sometimes people get nervous and need a “cheat peek” at their card. That happens to even the best students so please make sure they have the card.
In this week’s folder you will also find directions for building your mission model. They are not due for a long time, but I know people want to start early. You can use any materials to build your model. Be creative! However, if you are using food, don’t start your model until much closer to when they are due. The missions are due May 5th since Open House is May 6th. Please do not bring them earlier OR later than May 5th. Plan to help your child carry it up to the room.
Have a great vacation! I’ll see you back on Monday, January 4th.
God bless,
Miss Schenk
December 10, 2009
Friday, December 11th
We’re in the final stretch of school until Christmas break! Progress reports should have been mailed out yesterday. Most people got a letter for at least one subject. If your child received an “F” in writing, it is not necessarily a cause to panic. There are two weighted categories in our scoring, essays and class work. So far, there is only one grade in the essay category. If your child did not turn it in, they got a 0. Therefore, their current grade cannot be higher than 50%. Please make sure they turn it in. The grade will be more accurate of their overall progress once there are a few more assignments added in.
You should be getting several tests home this week including math, books of the Bible, spelling, and some read and thinks. The science test that they took today will not be in this Friday folder. You should also be receiving the grading sheet for the California mission report. Most of you did an amazing job. The biggest reason people lost points was for not turning in their rough draft with the final draft. Without it, I could not see if they had made the appropriate revisions or if the final copy was drastically changed from the rough draft. Sadly, it automatically lowered the grade to a B-. The rubric shows the grade out of 15. It is weighted in the computer so that it is worth 60 point. Therefore if you take your score and multiply it by four, that is your score out of 60. I will be keeping the actual reports to display for Open House.
Next Monday is a busy day! It is our Christmas party, gift exchange, and Christmas program. Please remember to bring your breakfast item with you this coming Monday, December 14th. At our party, we will be doing several crafts, playing a game, and eating our breakfast buffet. Remember to bring a wrapped gift for the gift exchange. There is a $10 limit. Please mark if it is for a boy, a girl, or suitable for either. The all school Christmas program Monday night is mandatory. Students must find me to check in with me at 6:45 p.m. They must also stay for the entire program including the last song which the whole school will be singing.
Here is the list of test dates for the week. Please keep in mind that you will not be home much Monday night because of the Christmas program. Spend some time on the weekend studying to make sure you’re prepared.
Monday, December 14th: Descriptive writing test
Tuesday, December 15th: Language test unit 6-capitalization
Wednesday, December 16th: History test ch. 5 AND Bible test: Judges Unit 4
Thursday, December 17th: Math test lessons 46-50
Friday, December 18th: Spelling Test list 15
One study strategy to try is to have your child teach you a lesson. If someone cannot teach a concept, they do not really understand it. Have your child teach you how to add fractions, or what a Nazarite is, or about the three types of Spanish settlements in California.
Remember that Friday, December 18th is a minimum day. School gets out at 12:00 and students must be picked up NO LATER THAN 12:30.
Monday, January 4th- Come back to school after Christmas vacation
God bless,
Miss Schenk
December 04, 2009
Congratulations! Our class has earned another game time by earning class points. We will redeem our class points for a game period on Tuesday, December 8th. The period will be 11:30-12:15. Students may bring board games or video games. The same rules from last time apply. All games must be E rated and have your name on them.
Our classroom Christmas party will be on Monday, December 14th from 8:30-10:00 a.m. I decided to have it on Monday to make sure those people who are leaving early will still get to participate. We will be making crafts on this day, eating a breakfast buffet, and having our gift exchange. See this week’s Friday letter for some information about the gift exchange.
I will be putting the party on the PIP website in the next few days if you would like to sign up. I am also asking each child to bring the one item.
Please bring: _________________________________________________
to our classroom party on Monday, December 14th.
Thank you! Merry Christmas!
Miss Schenk
Friday, December 4th
Dear Parents,
I can’t believe we only have two more weeks before we get out for Christmas break. We have a half day on Friday, December 18th which starts our two week break. We did a Christmas project this week that is outside our door. We heard the song “What Can I Give Him?” at the Glory of Christmas. In it a child says that he can’t give a gift like the wise men, but he concludes he can give his heart. Stop by our room to see what our students would give to God.
The last books of the Bible test is on this Monday, December 7th. Students need to be able to write all of the books of the Bible in order from Genesis through Revelation.
Monday is also our next math test on lessons 41-45. Please help your child student, especially if they are missing more than 5 on their nightly homework.
Our spelling list for next week is list 14. Our test will be on Thursday as usual.
Progress reports will be mailed next Thursday. You will only be receiving progress report if you have a grade of C or below.
Next Friday, December 11th, is the next science test on chapter 5. Please help your child study. It is important for them to know the vocabulary but also to be able to take information they know and use it to answer critical thinking questions.
Our all school Christmas program is on Monday, December 14th. Remember that your child’s attendance is mandatory and is a part of their music grade. Please make sure that you stay all the way to the end. The last number of the night is an all school song.
The week before Christmas we will be wrapping up a lot of units which means we will be having a lot of tests that week. Some days have two tests. I tried to somewhat spread them out, but I know there are still a lot. Some of you may be leaving for vacations early. If you haven’t done so already, please let me know what days you will be missing so I can have your child take tests early and make up the work they will be missing. Here is a list of tests that week:
Monday, December 14th: Descriptive writing test
Tuesday, December 15th: Language test unit 6-capitalization
Wednesday, December 16th: History test ch. 5 AND Bible test: Judges Unit 4
Thursday, December 17th: Math test lessons 46-50
Friday, December 18th: Spelling Test list 15
Our class voted to do a gift exchange for Christmas. Please buy a present not to exceed $10 and bring it in wrapped. Please indicate on the tag if it is for a boy, a girl, or if it can be for either one. We will play some kind of game to pick the presents. I think we will do this early on the week before we get out. I know some students won’t be here on Thursday or Friday, so we’ll probably do the gift exchange on Monday or Tuesday. See next Friday’s letter for more details.
God bless,
Miss Schenk
