4th Grade Expectations/Policies
*Fourth grade is a transitional year from the lower grades to the upper grades. It is an exciting step which brings added responsibility and increased independence. My goal as a teacher is to instill an enthusiasm for learning through all our experiences with our outlined curriculum. Please contact me if you ever have questions or concerns.
Homework
Homework in 4th grade should take approximately 40 minutes each night. This will consist of work not completed in class, additional assignments to help reinforce a concept, practice of spelling and vocabulary words, and daily math assignments. There will occasionally be homework projects assigned, such as state reports.
Late work that is not received when due is difficult to keep track of and will be noted in the CARES chart. If work is continually late, students may lose points or other privileges. To assist in tracking assignments, each child has a daily planner. Students write down the activities of the day, homework assignments and communications that I need to send home. Please check and sign these daily. Parents can use these planners to communicate with me also. These are a great tool to aid in organizing these children as they move into the upper grades.
Your child will be responsible to read 500 pages per quarter and record the books in his/her Reading Log. A book report will be due at the end of each quarter, with guidelines for the report coming home around mid-quarter. Books for the book report must be pre-approved by the teacher to ensure appropriate reading level/rigor.
A spelling pretest will be given every Monday. Study sheets will come home on Mondays to allow your child the entire week to study for Friday’s final spelling test. Vocabulary words will also come home on Mondays, with a test at the end of the week.
Discipline Policy
We will, as a class, maintain a positive, productive and safe learning environment. We will be using strategies from "Responsive Classroom." We will begin each morning with a class morning meeting, including greeting others, sharing, and a group building activity. Each child will have a CARES(Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy and Self-Control) chart in our classroom. Charts will come home weekly to be reveiwed and signed by you. I believe strongly in positive reinforcement and also in logical consequences. These will be noted in the weekly chart. Students will have reward time at the end of the week. Students with behavior notes or late/missing assignments will lose some or all of reward time.
Birthdays
We love to celebrate birthdays! Feel free to bring a treat in to share with the class on the day of their birthday (or school day closest if on a non-school day) - we will celebrate half birthdays for those with summer birthdays. We will usually have the treat during our morning snack time. Please send only enough treats for those in our classroom; students will not be permitted to deliver treats to others throughout the building.
PEMRICK BUCKS
In our class we will be using an economy system to help keep us on track. Students will be able to earn money(Pemrick Bucks) based on their hard work, behaviors and good choices. In turn they will be fined for late work, C.A.R.E.S marks and poor choices. Students will be able to use their money to buy items throughout the year both individually and as a class. They can also save their money for our end of the year Market Day.
