4th Grade Owls and Bees

My name is Susan O'Neill, and I am your child's language arts teacher for this school year. I plan to send you a weekly update about upcoming assignments for language arts, which includes reading, vocabulary, spelling, and writing.

I do my best to send out updates on Thursday or Friday for the following week, so please check your e-mail for newsletters like this one.

Right now I am still gathering information about your child. My students took a reading benchmark today using standards that should have been mastered by the end of third grade. Students have written both personal narrative and expository samples, and they have taken a spelling inventory. I am a huge advocate for cursive, so I also gave a cursive pretest since fourth graders should be able to write in cursive by the end of third grade. The information from all of that pretesting shows me that we have great opportunity for growth this year, and I will do my best to help your child succeed.

Parent conferences will start towards the end of September and into October. October 9 is our designated conference day, but I will try to start some of them before that date. I will let you know when my sign up times are available.

Monday, 11

Patriot's Day-- wear red, white, and blue

Return signed note (sent home on Friday, September 8) to show that you have seen information about the Journeys home reader assignment

Start reading assigned story from Journeys book: Beacuse of Winn-Dixie with paired passage Because of Book Ends. There will be a quiz on Thursday, September 21, and the best way to prepare is to read the selections SEVERAL times throughout the week to build fluency and comprehension. I encourage parents to read with their child for the first read through. Students are required to use their books on the quiz. We do not expect them to memorize the story. They need to be thoroughly familar with it, though.

First spelling list sent home. The test will be next Friday, September 22 (not this week).

Tuesday, 12

Spirit Night at Chick Fil A

Read Journeys assignment (all or part of story)

Study spelling

Wednesday, 13

Boosterthon Fundraiser kick off assembly-- be on the lookout for your child's Boosterthon packet

Read Because of Winn Dixie and Because of Bookends (all or part of story)

Study spelling

Thursday, 14

Continue reading Because of Winn Dixie and Because of Book ends

Study spelling

Friday, 15

By now, your child should have read through Because of Winn Dixie and Because of Bookends at least twice. Please let me know at this time if I need to assist your child at school with the assignment.

I added all of the e-mail addresses that were on the Getting to Know You forms. If you want me to change an email address or remove one, please let me know.