Welcome to Mr. Polk's 4th Grade Blog

4th grade Language Arts and Science

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

(Monday) August 29

Greetings parents and students of Mr. Polk's classes. I apologize for not blogging yesterday. As I told the class yesterday, it is very important to have a positive attitude (lifeskill this week) daily. On Sunday, when planning for science, I accidentally cut my hand when trying to open one of the gigantic tubs. Two lessons learned here: don't grow impatient because you can't find the scissors and use a knife, and to have a positive attitude even when bad conditions arise.

Anthony J. Angelo, author of The College Blue Book, once said, "Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine." I reminded the students yesterday to bring their own sunshine (positive attitude) daily even when they are having a bad day, or had a bad weekend. It's such a small thing, but it pays big dividends to end up having a great day!

In class Monday, we began our science unit. The first couple of days will be for getting acquainted with the science notebooks (which Mr. Polk is providing). For now, we are going to keep the notebooks in the classroom. That way, we shouldn't have any lost books, or have to go back to the locker to get them. We are going over the template on how to construct their notebook. There will usually be no homework with the science kits. Grades will come from their participation with their notebook, participation with their groups during lab time, and also science bell-ringer worksheets. There will also be assessments (quizzes and tests that they will be graded on) at the end of a unit.

We also began doing Word Wisdom. Students should be familiar with this workbook from last year. We will use it as our homework piece during Science week.

Homework from Monday night: Word Wisdom: Read pp.6-7 (Do p. 8)-Due Tuesday.

If you are wondering if we are doing Spelling, we will have Spelling words during each Language Arts week (every other week). I will try to send a newsletter with the list of words for that week.

Have a great week!

~Mr. Polk

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