Sunday, October 29, 2017

Week of October 29 - November 2



Grade 4 Weekly Newsletter
October 29 - Nov. 2


Curriculum
Reading:
This week students will learn to build a larger understanding of their books. They will be encouraged to make interpretations as readers by adding up all the parts or elements of a story. They will consider the setting, recurring objects or images, the plot, mood/feelings and parts that connect to each other. They will ask themselves, “What might the life lesson be? They will try to use details from across a text to generate bigger ideas or themes. To help them do that students will stop and write long in their reading notebooks using the following sentences starters:
> In life…
> Sometimes …
> It’s important to…
> It’s hard to


This week’s lessons:
Lesson 14: Looking beyond Characters: Studying Other Elements of Story
Lesson 15: Looking through Many Lenses at Not Just a Scene - But at the Whole Story So Far
Lesson 16: Connecting Thoughts to Build Interpretations


Essential Questions
  • How do story events affect characters?
  • How and why do readers track how their characters change over time?
  • How do readers share and grow ideas with others?


Writing:
In this last bend of our unit, students will take their first steps away from personal opinions, which cannot truly be proven on the basis of evidence, to persuasive writing, in which the relevancy, sufficiency, and validity of the evidence is critical, and how you use the evidence an art. Students will work on gathering evidence from outside sources and unpack that evidence to connect it to their reasons and claim to construct a tightly focused argument. This will ready them to take the leap from opinion writing to argument writing next year.




This week’s lessons:
Lesson 16: Moving from Personal to Persuasive
Lesson 17: Persuasive Inquiry into Essay
Lesson 18: Letter to Teachers: Broader Evidence
Lesson 19: Connecting Evidence, Reason, and Thesis


Essential Questions
  • How can I use my ideas to develop an essay which is well-organized and persuasive?
  • How can I become more independent?
Mathematics:


This week we will be continuing Module 3: Multi-Digit Multiplication and Division


Essential Questions:


  • What strategies can be used to compare multi-digit whole numbers?
  • How do patterns in our number system help in understanding mathematics?
  • How can strategies be used to solve multistep word problems?
  • How can the reasonableness of a solution be determined?
  • How are multiplication and division related?


The lessons are as follows for this week:


Lesson 1: Use multiplication, addition, or subtraction to solve multi-step word problems, including multiplicative comparisons.
Lesson 2: Use multiplication, addition, or subtraction to solve multi-step word problems, including multiplicative comparisons.
Lesson 3: Mid Module Assessment
Lesson 4: Assessment Reflection
Lesson 5: Solve division word problems with remainders.


Parent Tip Sheets: Topic A, Topic B, Topic C, Topic D.


Here is the LINK to the Growth Mindset video we began to watch at Back To School Night. We suggest you watch it with your child and discuss what might create a positive math classroom at school. How can you build a positive math relationship with your child?
Social Studies: Connections with History
Essential Question:
  • How do geography and people connect to build a nation?
We will be finishing up our map making activities this week. Students have made a physical map, an American tribal sites map, and a natural resources map. We will then talk about the maps, looking at where and why the tribes settled where they did. We will also talk about how the tribes used the available resources in the area that they settled.

Grade 4 Homework:
Daily homework tasks will be written into student pl anners each day. Tasks may include reading for 20-30 minutes per night, writing for 10 minutes per night along with additional mathematics work. Homework may differ according to teachers and students. Any mathematics homework that students find challenging please advise their homeroom teacher so they can progress accordingly. Homework is not meant to be impossible, challenging for students to grow their brains, but not impossible!


Guidance News– How to Be Assertive
“Don’t be a monster. Don’t be a mouse. Be assertive. Be YOURSELF!” – Dr. Pat Palmer
This week students will practice assertiveness skills.  Assertiveness means standing up for personal rights in direct, honest and respectful ways.


Students will learn the 3 ways people tend to act in order to get their needs met. Passive behavior (like a mouse) includes ignoring the problem or being unclear with personal rights, needs or wants. Passive behavior is disrespectful of personal rights and needs. Aggressive behavior (like a monster) includes yelling or demanding behavior. Aggressive behavior is disrespectful towards others. Assertiveness is the balance between passive and aggressive behavior. With assertive communication there is respect for others and for personal rights and needs.
Assertive behavior includes:
1.     Facing the person you are talking to
2.     Keep your head up and shoulders back
3.     Use a calm, firm voice
4.     Use respectful words that start with an “I” statement. Such as, “I am having a hard time concentrating. Please stop talking while the teacher is talking.”


Upcoming Events
·   Sunday, Oct. 29th - Storytelling workshop for parents (8:30 am - 9:30 am, 1st floor Common Room)
·   Monday, Oct. 30th - Early Release Day (All students dismissed at 11:30 am)
·   Tuesday, Oct. 31st - House event assembly, (7:55 am - 8:25 am). Parents are welcome.
·   Wednesday, Nov. 1st - Monday schedule (After school activities remain as a Wednesday)
·   Wednesday, Nov. 1st - 21st Century Libraries for Parents: Digital Citizenship (8:00 am to 9:00 am, MHS Library)
·   Wednesday, Nov. 1st - Parent MAP Session (9:00 am - 9:30 am, MS Room 115)
·   Tuesday, Nov. 7th - ES Assembly - 5K (7:55 am - 8:25 am, ES Hall)


News
Core Value
The Core Value for October is Responsibility.

CAT4 Results
Dear Grade 4 Parents,
On Monday, October 30 the individual student results of the CAT4 will be distributed and sent home. The letter provides a brief explanation of your child's results as well as sample questions.  An information session for parents will take place on Wednesday, November 1 at 9:30 am in Middle School 115.

Thank you for your continued support.
David Chadwell
Director of Teaching and Learning

MAP Parent Information Session
We will hold a Parent Information Session on MAP Testing and Results on Wednesday, November 1 at 9:00 - 9:30 in Middle School 115.

We will discuss interpreting individual reports, look at recent results for CAC, and answer any questions.
David Chadwell
Director of Teaching and Learning

Counseling Corner
Positive Discipline
A hot topic among psychologist, educators and parents revolves around the possible effects of technology on children and adults. While we want to make sure that our children are keeping up with technology we also want to make sure that their interpersonal skills are developing appropriately. Positive Discipline has included some very practical ideas on how to support a balance between technology and healthy interpersonal growth.  Limit Screen Time


Carey Harris Dana Purpura
Guidance Counselor School Counselor

ES Library
21st Century Libraries for Parents: Digital Intelligence
Santha Kumar, CAC’s Director of IT, will be repeating his presentation on digital intelligence and how to foster it in our children. We will be repeating this session on Wednesday, November 1, 8:00 to 9:00 am in the MHS Library. All are welcome.

ES Library Closed this Monday afternoon
The ES library will be closed this Monday, October 30, at 12 noon as the staff will be attending meetings on this Early Release Day.

Kenn Nesbitt Author Visit - November 7 to 9
Poet and performer Kenn Nesbitt will be visiting CAC from November 7 to 9. He will be presenting sessions with all the ES grade levels and with the MS language arts classes. He will present to the whole ES on Thursday, 7:55 am to 8:25 am, in the ES Hall. Parents are welcome!

Announcements
From Aquatics
Cairo Challenge Series
We will be awarding medals to the top 3 male and female finishers in each grade at the beginning of our next house event the morning of October 31.

Age Group Swimming Invitational
The Age Group Invitational is coming soon! We will be hosting other schools at CAC on November 10 & 11. This year, 8 and under swimmers will once again have their events on Friday afternoon. They will be joined by those 9 and over swimmers doing 200 and 400 meter events. The remainder of the 9 and over events are on Saturday. All details can be found here.

Time Trial Results
Great job to all swimmers at last week’s time trials! Results can be found here.

Awards
Age Group Awards will be held Tuesday, November 14 from 3:15 pm - 4:30 pm in the main gym.

Softies
Softies and Extended Season are back this year, but with some changes. We will be combining these two programs and extending the option to join to Grade 3 this year. Instead of doing it at night after JV and Varsity practice, Softies will be a part of the ASA program. Practices will be Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, from 3:15 pm - 4:00 pm. Two days are required, though swimmers are able to attend all three if they choose. This is open to swimmers in Grade 3 and up that have completed at least one season of Age Group swimming. Please sign up through the upcoming ASA signups for trimester 2. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Coach Matt at mlautenbach@cacegypt.org.
After School Activities
Mark your calendars
Session​ ​​1 ends on the week of November 5 - 9. All parents are most welcome to watch/join their children’s last day/s of the activities during this last week. This does not apply to Production. If your child is in production, please review this link for the Production Timeline

Session​ ​​2​ coming up!
Sign up open on the ASA website during the week of November 12-18 (open for ​7​​​ days​ including a weekend​)
Schedules e-mailed to parents on Tuesday, November 2​1
Session begins on the week of November 26
Click here for the ASA Website
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Activities Coordinator, Ms. Ereeny (egergess@cacegypt.org)

Repeated Announcements
After School Activities
Feedback
Two more weeks! before we end this current session of activities. Thank you to those who submitted the quick feedback form. We love to hear your feedback so we can always improve this program. Please click on this quick  Feedback Link
Tortoise Club
We would Love to hear your questions, comments and information about the Tortoises in the enclosure. Please click the link below to share any interesting information or ask any questions:
Those will be will be reviewed by Mr. Said and the club members and will be published in the Tortoise Club web. page.
Link to the :Tortoise Club Page

International Festival
The International Festival is one of our main fundraising events of the year. It is scheduled to take place on March 16, 2018. If you’d like to volunteer and help us make this year's International Festival a success, please send an email to Kourtney LaGesse at cacinternationalfestival@gmail.com




Sunday, October 22, 2017

Week of October 22-26



Grade 4 Weekly Newsletter
October 22-26


Curriculum
Reading:
Students will draw on everything they have learned so far regarding growing ideas about a character to develop theories and debate their opinions using evidence from the text.


This week’s lessons:
Lesson 11: Finding Complications in Characters.
Lesson 12: Debating to Prompt Rich Book Conversations
Lesson 13: Grounding Evidence Back in the Text


Essential Questions
  • How do story events affect characters?
  • How and why do readers track how their characters change over time?
  • How do readers share and grow ideas with others?


Writing:
This week students will finish drafting their first persuasive essay. They will organize their evidence (mini-stories, lists and facts) in folders so that all the material they have to support that reason is in one place. Next, students will study all their evidence and decide which pieces of evidence to use and in which order they should place them. When thinking of order, student will be encouraged to use either chronological order or to rank their evidence from least to most powerful/emotional/surprising. Students will use the same strategy to decide which of their reasons come first when drafting.




This week’s lessons:
Lesson 11: Building a Cohesive Draft
Lesson 12: Becoming Our Own Job Captains
Lesson 13: Writing Introductions and Conclusions
Lesson 14: Revising Our Work with Goals in Mind

Essential Questions
  • How can I use my ideas to develop an essay which is well-organized and persuasive?
  • How can I become more independent?
Mathematics:


This week we will be continuing Module 3: Multi-Digit Multiplication and Division


Essential Questions:


  • What strategies can be used to compare multi-digit whole numbers?
  • How do patterns in our number system help in understanding mathematics?
  • How can strategies be used to solve multistep word problems?
  • How can the reasonableness of a solution be determined?
  • How are multiplication and division related?


The lessons are as follows for this week:


Lesson 1: Interpret and represent patterns when multiplying by 10, 100, and 1,000 in arrays and numerically.
Lesson 2: Multiply two-digit multiples of 10 by two-digit multiples of 10 with the area model.
Lesson 3: Use place value disks to represent two-digit by one-digit multiplication and extend to three- and four-digit by one-digit multiplication.
Lesson 4: Multiply three- and four-digit numbers by one-digit numbers applying the standard algorithm.
Lesson 5: Connect the area model and the partial products method to the standard algorithm.


Parent Tip Sheets: Topic A, Topic B, Topic C.


Here is the LINK to the Growth Mindset video we began to watch at Back To School Night. We suggest you watch it with your child and discuss what might create a positive math classroom at school. How can you build a positive math relationship with your child?
Social Studies: Connections with History
Essential Question:
  • How do geography and people connect to build a nation?
Lessons 4-6 deal with student mapping. This week, students will copy a physical map onto their map template, showing mountains, highlands, lowlands, rivers, etc. Students will then put American tribal sites onto the map as well as the natural resources that the tribes used. Following this, students will show how the tribes moved from place to place.

Grade 4 Homework:
Daily homework tasks will be written into student planners each day. Tasks may include reading for 20-30 minutes per night, writing for 10 minutes per night along with additional mathematics work. Homework may differ according to teachers and students. Any mathematics homework that students find challenging please advise their homeroom teacher so they can progress accordingly. Homework is not meant to be impossible, challenging for students to grow their brains, but not impossible!


Guidance News– How to Be Assertive
“Don’t be a monster. Don’t be a mouse. Be assertive. Be YOURSELF!” – Dr. Pat Palmer
This week students will practice assertiveness skills.  Assertiveness means standing up for personal rights in direct, honest and respectful ways.


Students will learn the 3 ways people tend to act in order to get their needs met. Passive behavior (like a mouse) includes ignoring the problem or being unclear with personal rights, needs or wants. Passive behavior is disrespectful of personal rights and needs. Aggressive behavior (like a monster) includes yelling or demanding behavior. Aggressive behavior is disrespectful towards others. Assertiveness is the balance between passive and aggressive behavior. With assertive communication there is respect for others and for personal rights and needs.
Assertive behavior includes:
1.     Facing the person you are talking to
2.     Keep your head up and shoulders back
3.     Use a calm, firm voice
4.     Use respectful words that start with an “I” statement. Such as, “I am having a hard time concentrating. Please stop talking while the teacher is talking.”


Upcoming Events
  •    Tuesday, Oct. 24 - No assembly this week
  •   Wednesday, Oct 25 - Digital Intelligence workshop for parents,
                       8:30 am, MS/HS Library
  •    Thursday, Oct. 26 - Halloween parade 2:30 pm. Parents are
                       welcome.
  •    Friday, Oct. 27 - Halloween Carnival from 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
  •    Sunday, Oct. 30 - KG-Gr.2 Reading/Handwriting Parent Session,
                      8:00 am
  •    Monday, Oct. 30 - Early Release Day (All students dismissed at
                      11:30 am)
  •    Tuesday, Oct. 31 - House event assembly, 7:55 am - 8:25 am.
                       Parents are welcome.


News
Core Value
The Core Value for October is Responsibility.  Your children will be hearing

Rescheduling Parent MAP Session
The Parent MAP session has been rescheduled for Wednesday, November 1st at 9:00 am. It will be held in Middle School Room 115.
This will be a 30 minute session to provide assistance with interpreting MAP results and to see overall trends at CAC and the world.  Fall results will be provided.
Age Group Swimming
The first meet of the year for the Age Group swim team is Time Trials, held tomorrow, October 20 at CAC. You can find all information about the meet in the waterlog found here.

If you cannot attend, or have any questions, please email Coach Matt at mlautenbach@cacegypt.org
The Age Group Awards will be held on Tuesday, November 14 at 3:15 pm.

After School Activities Feedback
We still have 3 more weeks before we end this current session of activities. Thank you to those who submitted the quick feedback form. We love to hear your feedback so we can always improve this program. Please click on this quick  Feedback Link

Tortoise Club
We would Love to hear your questions, comments and information about the Tortoises in the enclosure. Please click the link below to share any interesting information or ask any questions:

Those will be will be reviewed by Mr. Said and the club members and will be published in the Tortoise Club webpage.
Link to the :Tortoise Club Page

Mark your Calendars
Session​ ​​1, ends on the week of November 5 - 9. All parents are most welcome to watch/join their children’s last day/s of the activities during this last week. This does not apply to Production. If your child is in production, please review this link for the Production Timeline

Session​ ​​2​ Coming Up!
Sign up open on the ASA website during the week of November 12-18 (open for ​7​​​ days​ including a weekend​)
Schedules e-mailed to parents on Tuesday, November 2​1
Session begins on the week of November 26
Click here for the ASA Website
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Activities Coordinator, Ms. Ereeny (egergess@cacegypt.org)

From the ES Library
21st Century Libraries for Parents
How to Help Develop your Child’s Digital Intelligence
Life in the 21st century is sometimes too digital. If you would like to be able to help your child manage his/her screen time and think critically, please attend the training on Wednesday, October 25th at 8:30 am in the Cairo Room of the MS/HS Library, led by Santha Kumar, Director of Information Technology.

Kenn Nesbitt visit - November 7 to 9
Poet and performer Kenn Nesbitt will be visiting CAC from November 7 to 9. He will kick off his visit at the ES assembly on November 7, and will present to grade levels in the ES and to language arts classes in the MS. Mr. Nesbitt is an engaging, dynamic performer and we are in for a big treat!

Free Little Library
Our Free Little Library is a community sourced book swap for all of us. The idea behind the FLL is “Take a Book, Leave a Book.” We’re really good at taking books, but we need to get better at leaving books in it. Please consider leaving books that you really enjoyed so that others in the community can also enjoy them. Questions? Come see us in the ES Library.
Announcements
Halloween Carnival
The Halloween Carnival will be held on Friday, October 27th, from 2:00 - 6:00 PM. Ticket sales will start Sunday, October 22nd and go until Thursday, October 26th during pick-up and drop off at the front gate.

Repeated Announcements

Halloween is on Thursday, October 26th
This is an exciting day for our students and to ensure everyone has a fun 2017 Halloween we ask that you read the information below. If you have any questions please email your room parent or class teacher.

All students come dressed to school as long as their costume will not interfere with their learning. Students in PreK put their finishing touches on between 10:00 am - 10:30 am before their class photo courtesy of Sheerefa and Ragia parent photographers and other classes after 10:30 am depending on their photo booth time.  Room parents will arrange for a couple of parents to help with this and support the Halloween booth photo. Students will enjoy a pizza, cupcake, juice lunch followed by grade/class activities facilitated by Tota Vonta our head of room parents and her team. All parents are welcome to join us at 2:30 pm in the ES division for our parade. Our route this year will be around our division and parents can line the route and enjoy the fun! Celestine and Nina, volunteer yearbook parents will be supporting us to capture our 2017 Halloween fun!  

Parents will pay a lump sum for all activities/parties by October 19 to class teacher/aide including 40 LE for Halloween party food. See below link for Elementary Parties:

After parading, all students will move to the ES lawn where everyone will be invited to join our student dancers in a fun Halloween dance. Grade 4 will be dismissed from the ES lawn.

THANK YOU to everyone for supporting our 2017-2018 Halloween activities.

Lost and Found
Part of educating students at CAC is encouraging independence through increasing responsible behaviors. We constantly encourage students to label their items so that they are easily identified and returned back to the owner. It is also important that students know what to do when they lose any of their items.
Here is what we advise students to do when they report a lost item:
1- Look everywhere (lost & found table/class/playground/inside backpacks/home ,etc,...)
2- Ask Others (friends/teachers/parents/siblings,etc,..)
3- Ask parents to report to the lost and found link. Upper grade students can do this too.
4- Use the same link to report when item is found.
In order to support our students and community members with the above process, we created the below Lost and Found link to help us keep track of lost and found items.
Click here for the LOST AND FOUND Report LINK