Halloween pictures!

They all had such a fabulous time! Thank you to those of you that volunteered or helped out with the party! It was a tough day, but also a fun one :)

I met with Mrs. Harney this morning, who will be the student's sub until next Wednesday. She has subbed at Lemme many times and is now familiar with our classroom routine. If there is anything you need in the next week and a half before Mrs. Wieskamp's arrival please contact Carrie Martinez, or our instructional coach, Judith Armstrong.

Martinez.carrie@iowacityschools.org
Armstrong.judith@iowacityschools.org

Students have an orchestra fieldtrip on Wednesday, November 13th, which will be Mrs. Harney's last day. There is no school on Thursday, November 14th due to parent teacher conferences. Mrs. Wieskamp will start on Friday, November 15th.

I met with Mrs. Wieskamp today and she is fabulous. I have no doubt that the students will feel comfortable and taken care of in her hands! If there is anything you need starting November 14th, please contact Deb at:

Wieskamp.Deb@iowacityschools.org. I will not have either of the substitutes checking my school email, rather they will communicate through their own account. Mrs. Wieskamp will not be updating this blog, however she will be communicating through email and provide classroom updates in paper copies to be sent home.

I also met with Judith Armstrong today (busy day!) and walked her through what I would like to share with you at conferences. They will occur as scheduled and I have completed the reports. I know it is not the same as having me there, but she knows the kiddos too!

I hope you know how much I care about each and every one of your children. It has been very difficult to say goodbye for a few months. I have done everything I can to make sure they have a smooth transition! Thank you all for your support and patience during this time.

Until 2014,
Ms. Shapleigh

October 28th- November 1st, 2013

Hello 4th grade parents! Here is a quick curriculum update of what we will be covering in class this week:

Reading: Our main selection is called Dear Mr. Winston, which is a story from a larger compilation of stories called "When I Went to the Library." Our essential question this week is: Why would someone make an insincere apology? Our comprehension strategy is forming generalizations and conclusions about a story and also questioning events that happen along the way.

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week centers around vowel + r sounds.
1. spark
2. prepare
3. cheer
4. tear (as in crying)
5. scarf
6. scare
7. repair
8. earring
9. scarce
10. weird
11. sharp
12. rear
13. spare
14. gear
15. hairy
16. compare
17. alarm
18. harsh
19. upstairs
20. square

Writing: Last week the class did an AMAZING job writing spooky Halloween poems! They are hanging in the classroom as we speak! :) This week we are focusing on writing a response to a prompt or question.

Math: We are in full swing of Unit 4 on decimals. This week we will be focusing on estimating and comparing with decimals. This weekend's homework was to find examples of decimals at home or in the community! This helps student's conceptual understanding of decimals and helps put it into the context of real life. Unit 3 tests were sent home this weekend- Please sign them and return them with your child tomorrow so that we can put them in our data binders! :)

Social Studies: We finished up Chapter 2 on map skills and geography and have started Chapter 3 on "The Peopling of the United States." In this chapter students will learn about the contributions of five different ethnic groups and how they influence culture today! We will be completing a class collage on diversity as well.

Other events/reminders:
Reading logs will be due this Friday. Please help your child total up their minutes and sign their calendar. The goal was 200 minutes this month! We have 15,000 minutes as a class but would love to add a couple thousand more!

Halloween is this Thursday! The Halloween parade will be at Lemme at 1:00pm and we will march outside. After that we will have a classroom party. Students may bring their costumes to school and will change into them right before the parade! :)

Have a great week!
-Ms. Shapleigh

October 21st-25th, 2013

Hello 4th grade parents! What a crazy week- Iowa Assessments AND a special visit by a famous author: Jacqueline Davies! AND, forecast tomorrow: SNOW!? It can't be winter yet, can it? Remind your little ones to come to school with hats, gloves, and proper outerwear so we can all stay warm! :) Here is a quick overview of what we will be doing in class this week:

Reading: Our whole group Language Arts resumes this week with the essential question: How would you make someone comfortable in a new place? Our main selection, Me and Uncle Romie, centers around our big idea: We express ourselves in many ways. Our comprehension strategy this week is all about understanding characters' motivations and actions.

Writing: This week we will be writing our own poetry! We will focus on using sensory words, metaphors, and personification to help our readers visualize our poems.

Spelling: This week's pattern revolves around vowel sounds.
1. aloud
2. bald
3. hawk
4. south
5. faucet
6. proud
7. claw
8. tower
9. stalk
10. couple
11. howl
12. false
13. dawn
14. allow
15. drown
16. pause
17. fault
18. cause
19. amount
20. cloudier

Math: Tomorrow is the Unit 3 test. The students have been working very hard this unit! Later this week we will begin Unit 4 on decimals. Students will be sent home with family letters tomorrow night- this is filled with important concepts, vocabulary, and answers to home links. Though we are moving onto decimals, it is still recommended that basic facts (fact triangles, flashcards) are practiced on a daily or at least weekly basis. Repetition is key in automatic recall of facts, even later in the year! :) Just a reminder- Students may take a Student Reference Book home for a period of time or particular unit that they struggle with- all they have to do is ask and we can check it out in their name.

Social Studies: We have been practicing various map skills and concepts this past week! Students have practiced finding specific points using latitude and longitude and completing geography "challenges." These are fun, interactive activities that involve the use of elevation, population density, and annual rainfall maps. This week we will be finishing up Chapter 2 by reading about the Mississippi River.

That is all for now! Conferences are in a few weeks- You will be getting a confirmation slip sent home soon to ensure that we are all on the same page and ready to meet. Thanks everyone and have a great week!

-Ms. Shapleigh

October 14th-18th, 2013

Good afternoon 4th grade parents!

Thank you all SO much for donating pizza money and/or helping out with the party on Friday! It makes my job so much easier! You all have been such a great support to me this year. The kids had a blast in their PJ's, too! As you know, this upcoming week is Iowa Assessment testing. We will be testing Monday through Friday morning. Thank you all so much for signing up to bring snacks! If you need it again here is the link:

IA Assessment Snacks

This will remind you what to bring when! We also are in need of 2 more slots filled, just for gum on Thursday and Friday. The kids love the snack part of the testing! :)

This week in math we will be continuing with multiplication and division and delving further into word problems and number stories. Thank you for your continued support in making sure homework is turned in on time and that they are practicing some type of flashcards every night! The test will be next Tuesday, October 22nd so they will still be receiving homework this week.

We will not have spelling this week or a regular Language Arts schedule. We will be starting our Social Studies: Alive! curriculum this week as well! It has been a very busy couple of weeks so thank you all for your continued participation in your child's education! More updates to come soon- Have a great week! :)

-Ms. Shapleigh

October 7th-11th, 2013

Happy weekend 4th grade families!

I finally got out to Wilson's Orchard this weekend! It was a bit overcast and chilly when I went but not too bad where I couldn't pick up some yummy goodies and pumpkins to decorate the classroom with! :) Here is a quick curriculum update of this upcoming week:

Reading: Our essential question this week is, "How can movies express facts and opinions?" Our main selection, Coming Distractions: Questioning Movies, will center around all things cinematography! This will help us practice our comprehension strategies in a fun way. We will be working on finding fact versus opinions within a text as well as summarizing a piece of writing.

Writing: This week we will be focusing on writing responses to literature and drafting opinion pieces. After two weeks we have finished our fictional narratives! Some student's final pieces of work were up to 12 PAGES! Amazing work. The stories are now published in a giant binder and are a part of our classroom library! :)

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week focuses on vowel sounds with the letter o. ("ooh" sound as in bloom and the sound in cook) Students have been performing fabulously on spelling tests- thank you for your continued support at home! Here is this week's list:

1. bloom
2. cookbook
3. tool
4. shampoo
5. put
6. wool
7. stool
8. proof
9. prove
10. group
11. brook
12. foolish
13. bush
14. crooked
15. booth
16. raccoon
17. hook
18. groom
19. roof
20. soup

Math: We will be starting Unit 3 this week. Unit 3 has four main sections/goals:
1. To review strategies for solving multiplication facts and to help students work toward instant recall of multiplication facts
2. To continue to practice interpreting data and units of measurement
3. To practice solving number stories and word problems
4. To provide practice with number sentences

In this unit we will focus the majority of time on multiplication and facts and word problems. Both of these concepts can be tricky for some students because it involves higher-order thinking, logic, as well as extending on knowledge of basic facts. We ask for continued support at home for practicing flashcards- triangles will also be sent home every night with students. After initial pre-tests of the unit, the facts that are the most difficult for students are 6's, 7's, 8's, and 9's. Ultimately automatic recall of facts is important, but also conceptual understanding. (Teaching the "trick" with 9's, 7 x 8 is really the number 7 added up 8 times, etc.) A family letter will be sent home with students on Monday with basic information about the unit as well as answers to home links. Students will be sent home with Unit 2 tests mid-week- We ask that you sign these and return them so that we can graph our scores in our data binders and see our improvement from the pre-test!

Science: Tomorrow marks the end of our Earth Materials unit! Students received an assignment this weekend to pick some rocks to bring to school on Monday to share with the class. There is also a riddle assignment with it- After your child picks some rocks out, they will write a riddle for you describing one of them (describing basic properties) and you have to figure it out! Any family participation would be much appreciated, they can do it with friends as well!

We will not be having science tests this year, rather "3, 2, 1" checks. (Three things I learned in this unit, 2 questions I have, 1 of my favorite science activities was...) The standards of our science unit are based upon their participation in investigations and ability to record data accurately- Memorizing vocabulary is not the goal of these hands-on investigations! We will be starting social studies next week- More details to come soon!

Other events/reminders:
Thank you SO much for supporting your child with their reading logs! We had 24/25 students turn in their calendars- Such a fabulous improvement. As a class, we have read 15,322 minutes for the month of September and 22/25 students met their goal of 200 minutes! (Obviously many went way over their goal!) Our class goal was 10,000 minutes, so to celebrate we are going to have a PJ Day this Friday! (I haven't told them its next Friday yet!) This will be the same day as our Lucky 7 Pizza Party! Thank you to our room parent, Julie Gros-Louis for making a sign-up sheet on bringit.com in order to make this happen! Any donations you can submit would be much appreciated. It means so much to the students to know that their fabulous behavior and hard work can be rewarded and recognized in fun ways.

Phew! I know this was a long one but there were lots of items to cover. Thank you for all that you do and have a fabulous week.

-Ms. Shapleigh

September 30th- October 4th, 2013

Hello 4th Grade Parents! Happy Monday! I hope you are all having a great start to your week. Here is a sneak peek of what we will be working on in class this week.

Reading: We are starting Unit 2 with the Big Idea of: We express ourselves in many ways. Our essential question for the week is "How are old and new fairy tales alike and different?" Our main selection this week, Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude, combines traditional fairy tales with modern stories in a fun and unique way. I can tell the students are already excited to read it! Our comprehension strategy this week is comparing and contrasting and working on using details to make inferences within a text.

Writing: We are drafting and publishing our final copies of fictional narratives! What budding authors these 4th graders are! It has been so much fun to read and edit the work of such creative minds. :)

Spelling: This week's pattern focuses on various ways we hear the vowel u. ("You" in refuse, "ooh" in fruit, and "uhh" in bunch)
1. bunch
2. fruit
3. argue
4. crumb
5. crew
6. tune
7. juice
8. refuse
9. truth
10. young
11. clue
12. trunk
13. amuse
14. suit
15. rude
16. trust
17. dew
18. stuck
19. rescue
20. brush

Math: This week we are finishing Unit 2 on Data and Multi-Digit Addition and Subtraction. We will spend the next two days reviewing and will have our unit test this Thursday. Students will be given a review sheet in class tomorrow.

Science: This week we will be continuing/wrapping up our Earth Materials kit! We had a special guest visitor today who graciously shared his knowledge and amazing rock finds with us! Thank you Chuck Hix, Noah's grandpa! The students light up at the sight of a shiny, interesting, or sparkly rock! :)

So cool!!! :)

Friendly reminders:

Book orders are due next Monday, October 7th! Simply go to Scholastic Book Clubs and enter in our classroom code: LLQB3 to buy books for your child and help the classroom earn rewards!

Your child's September reading log is due TOMORROW. Please help them add up the minutes and sign the sheet so that we can work toward our class goal of 10,000 minutes by December! Thanks and have a great week! :)

-Ms. Shapleigh

September 23rd- 27th, 2013

Hello 4th grade parents!

What a beautiful fall day outside! I keep hinting at Matt that I want to visit Wilson's Orchard soon and enjoy this fall weather- hopefully you all get a chance to get some time outside this weekend. I had so much fun at the Carnival on Friday- (How about those whistles!?) It was great to see some of you! It always fills me with joy when I see how excited the kids get about events like that- I even remember mine from elementary school, we called it the "Fun Fair!" I looked forward to it all month! Here is a quick update on what we will be working on in class this upcoming week:

Reading: Our essential question, "What motivates one character to help another?" continues to influence discussion about our big idea for this unit: Helping brings out the best in us. Our main selection, Stormalong, is a traditional folktale that will help us better infer the motivations of a story's characters. We will also be focusing on predicting the events of a story and reading with expression.

Writing: Students will be starting rough drafts of their very own fictional narratives! Last week we discussed and brainstormed various ideas for creative stories and started pre-writing. This week we will be starting the writing process by revising, editing, and publishing our work! :)

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week focuses on homophones! These are tricky because they are words that sound the same but mean something different. Here is the list:

1. wait
2. weight
3. heard
4. herd
5. days
6. daze
7. heel
8. heal
9. peek
10. peak
11. sent
12. scent
13. cent
14. feat
15. feet
16. vain
17. vein
18. vane
19. miner
20. minor

Phew! If you practice words with your child, emphasizing the sentence or context that they are in is extremely important. It is a good listening activity, too! :)

Math: This week we will continue learning about various aspects of displaying data and be reviewing terms such as median, mean, mode, and range. We are also going to spend significant time on addition with three digit numbers! If you attended curriculum night you may remember that I mentioned there are various ways to compute addition and subtraction problems. Our goal is to give students many methods for their "toolbox" so to speak, but Iowa Core Curriculum stresses knowledge and usage of the standard algorithm. (The way we all learned in grade school, which is "carrying over" a place value). Please keep this in mind as you help your child with homework these next few weeks! Thanks for all your support! :)

Science: This week we will be testing various minerals based on properties. We will be completing a "scratch test" to test for hardness and also trying to see which minerals have calcite in them! We are studying four different minerals but students don't know which ones are which. We are classifying them by completing various experiments, just like geologists do! Here are some pictures of our geologists at work! (Some of my other ones didn't save!) :(

We also did a Reader's Theater last week with our small group books- The students love these! I was a part of one of them but I got a snapshot of the other two groups!

REMINDER: Picture day is tomorrow!! Send your child to school with their order form and looking great so it can go without a hitch! :)

Have a great week everyone!

-Ms. Shapleigh

September 16th-20th, 2013

Hello everyone!

Finally, some rain! My parents were in town this weekend to look at reception sites for the wedding and today was not a very beautiful day to look at them, however we really needed it! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Here is a sneak-peak at this upcoming week in terms of curriculum:

Language Arts: Our target comprehension skill this week focuses on identifying the important themes in a story. Our main selection, The Power of W.O.W.! pairs with the essential question of the week: How can characters' actions inspire us to do good things? We will also be focusing on analyzing and evaluation different aspects of a story.

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week focuses on the long "o" versus short "o" sound. (octopus vs. oval) Your child's spelling tests were sent  home with them this past Friday. Here is this week's list:

1. block
2. shown
3. oatmeal
4. wrote
5. fellow
6. scold
7. coast
8. odd
9. locate
10. slope
11. throat
12. host
13. online
14. shock
15. solve
16. known
17. remote
18. stock
19. boast
20. globe

Writing: This week we will be discussing, planning, and drafting fictional narratives.

Math: We will be starting Unit 2 in math this week. The Unit 2 Family Letter was sent home this past Friday with your child. Unit 2 is called Using Numbers and Organizing Data. In this unit we will be discussing various aspects of data (analyzing graphs, mean, median, and mode, etc.) as well as reviewing place value concepts. Unit 1 tests will be sent home with your child sometime this week!

Science: We will be finishing up our investigations with our "mock rocks" and moving on to observing crystals and testing/categorizing different types of rocks based on various properties. Many students have been very excited about this unit and have brought rocks to share with the class- At the end of the unit we will have a day devoted to sharing rocks that students have either made, bought, or found. If your child is super excited about showing the class their rocks please remind them that there will be time later on to share! :)

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

-Ms Shapleigh

September 9th-13th, 2013

Hello 4th Grade Families!

Thank you all SO much for attending Curriculum Night last night. I know life can be busy and hectic but it means a lot to show up for your child and support their education (and teacher!) I know there were a few who couldn't make it due to other obligations, which is completely understandable, so I'd like to share my presentation with you if you are interested. I sent your child home with the papers today if you were unable to make it, so check their Leopard Books! :)

Curriculum Night Presentation

I am also so impressed with the volunteer sign-up and the willingness and support you all have shown me these past few weeks! I am so grateful to have such supportive and caring parents! Here is a quick curriculum update of what we've been doing in class this week:

Reading: Our main selection this week, How Tia Lola Came to Stay, ties in with our big idea for the month with the essential question: What happens when one person helps another? Our comprehension strategies include visualizing as we are reading and discussing cause-and-effect relationships.

Writing: This week we are discussing dialogue and how it presents itself within writing. We are also completing lots of writing during reading rotations that center around our readings from the week.

Spelling: This week's pattern focuses on the long "i" and short "i" sound. (icecream vs. igloo) You should have gotten your child's spelling test sent home on Tuesday. Students are completing a graph individually in their Leopard book to track their progress, so if the lists mysteriously go missing you can always check the graph out to see their scores week to week!

Math: We have finished up our work with polygons and have spent this week reviewing for the test tomorrow! This week students should have completed their practice test and were sent home with more review materials today.

Science: We are moving a bit slower in science due to the early releases, but today student finally got to work with their "mock rocks" again! Students took time to break apart the rocks with "picks" like real geologists. They sorted the materials that were found inside the rocks and identified them as minerals. I spent the day today at the Grantwood AEA Center learning about our next science unit- Physics of Sound! All of these kits are so fabulous and fun- I am excited for students to get going on these!

Have a great rest of your week and stay cool! The weather looks like it is going to finally calm down a bit- what a relief! I am so excited!

-Ms. Shapleigh

September 3rd-6th, 2013

Hello parents! Hopefully you are having a relaxing and enjoyable holiday weekend! It seems the weather is finally cooling down, which is exciting for me. I love fall! Here is a quick curriculum update on our plans for this upcoming week:

Reading/Writing: This week our comprehension strategy is discussing an author's purpose for writing a particular story. Our main selection, "My Brother Martin" discusses the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. This ties in with our essential question for the week: How can an author show what it takes to be a leader? While writing this week we will be focusing on word choice.

Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week focuses on words with the short "e" sound as well as the long "e" sound. (Ex: eel vs. egg). You should have received your child's spelling test results this Friday in their Leopard Book. Here are this week's words:

1. west

2. steep

3. member

4. gleam

5. fresh

6. freedom

7. speed

8. steam

9. beast

10. believe

11. speck

12. kept

13. cheap

14. pretend

15. greed

16. shelf

17. least

18. eager

19. reason

20. chief

Challenge

1. release

2. restaurant
3. creature
4. echo

They will also receive a hard copy of the words tomorrow. Starting this week, students will only be tested on ten spelling words, however they are expected to study all twenty words, as they will not know which ten will be chosen for the test. There will be four challenge words every week, which are optional (and encouraged) to study but not required. Thank you for your continued support in helping your child prepare for these tests!

Math: We are continuing our work in geometry by discussing polygons. This week will focus on using compasses to draw circles as well as work with parallelograms. We have been having a blast in this unit by coming up with fun ways to remember geometry vocabulary. Last week we explored different shapes and their properties with straws and twist ties!

Science: This week we start our work in science! Our unit focuses on rocks and earth materials. The students are so excited!

Other news/announcements: Please check your child's Leopard book for a sheet on the classroom homework policy, as well as their September reading log. Many of you have experience with the reading logs, as students participated in 3rd grade. We ask for your support in making sure your child is reading at home every night and recording it. At the end of the month they are expected to add up their minutes, ask you to sign their sheet, and turn it in for credit and fun rewards! I have very high hopes for the class for homework completion and responsibility with the logs- they are doing so well already!!! If you have any questions about these items do not hesitate to contact me. 

Thank you and enjoy the rest of your week everyone! :)

-Ms. Shapleigh

Welcome!

Hello 4th Grade Parents!

Welcome to Ms. Shapleigh's classroom blog! I use this site as a communication tool and have loved it so far- I hope you do too! A couple of things you will find on this blog are:

1. Quick curriculum updates on what we are learning in class (This includes weekly spelling lists)
2. Reminders and requests
3. Upcoming events
4. Occasionally I will post pictures of fun, special things we are doing! :)

I update this blog often (usually weekly) and will send you all an email with the link to the site after I do so! A little bit about me as we kick off this school year...I am SO excited to start a brand new year off at Lemme! I taught 3rd grade with Mrs. Johnsen and Mrs. Nove last year and am thrilled to have Mrs. Schettler and Mrs. Dane as my new teammates! I'm originally from Madison, Wisconsin and moved to Iowa City to go to the University of Iowa, which I graduated from in 2011. I have a passion for learning and teaching, as well as for children of any age! A fun fact about me is that I recently became engaged this May...and was proposed to in front of the Lemme Leopard!!

I was at school working the Sunday away and Matt just couldn't wait until I got home! :)

My goal this year is to aid in the development your child- Socially, emotionally, and intellectually. It is also to teach them new concepts, cultivate a love of learning, and become one more adult in their life that they trust and respect. I hope that they continually come home excited about what they learned at school and share their enthusiasm. I have an amazing group of students so far from what I have seen and I honestly cannot wait to see how this year unfolds! Please do not hesitate to contact me via email with any questions or concerns. Thank you for visiting and stay tuned for further updates! :)

-Ms. Shapleigh