Spelling Patterns Test 3/4/2016

Conversations Hearts Revising and Editing Test

Good Evening parents,

Below is the assessment we took today. The past three weeks in class, we've been working on transitional phrases and homophones. Below are two screenshots of the test (Front/Back) to show how work should be shown. Also, the answers are circled so that you can cross check with your student's answers. Students were mostly tested on questions 3-6. Please text or email if you have questions.

Homophone Presentation

Good afternoon parents,

This upcoming Friday, all students will present a poster presentation regarding homophones. Homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently AND have different meaning. Each student was assigned one set of homophones today in class. They were responsible for writing down their assigned homophone, as well as all of the others (which will be tested next Friday!) Below is an example of a poster. It must include the word, a picture and a sentence. During the presentation, students must also present a hand signal to help students remember the differences between words.

These homophone groups will be tested next Friday. The students will not need to know how to spell them, rather, they will need to know how to use them in a sentence.

meat	meet	for	four	pair	pear	waist	waste
know	no	hour	our	dye	die	whole	hole
it’s	its	so	sew	herd	heard	knew	new
hear	here	ant	aunt	bored	board	piece	peace
road	rode	sea	see	bare	bear	break	brake
red	read	threw	through	two	too	to	they’re
there	their	bye	buy	by	write	rite	right

Glimpse at Texas A&M Field Trip

Good afternoon students and parents,

I am very excited to announce that 4th grade will participate in two field trips this semester. One of the trips is a great honor and privilege for the fourth grade students of Life School Oak Cliff. On Friday, April 29th, we will be attending my alma mater, Texas A&M University. This trip is a big deal for several reasons. One is that Texas A&M University is located approximately 170 miles away from Dallas and requires about 3 ½ hours of driving. For those students who are able to attend, this means waking up early because the bus leaves at 6am in the morning in order to reach the university campus by 10am. Last year was the first year of the trip, and we had an amazing time. We took part in a campus tour where the students learned a lot about college and later participated in activities such as rock wall climbing, zip-lining, and giant swings. While this year may be slightly different, I am excited for what it has to offer. I am writing this letter because we will be hosting a question and answer session for any parents interested in having their child attend the field trip. While this Q&A event is yet to be scheduled, I want to inform every parent that attending the Texas A&M field trip is a privilege that must be earned by each individual student.  Only students who exhibit behaviors representative of the fourth grade team and Life School Oak Cliff Elementary School will be allowed to attend. We will be sending more information in the coming weeks!

Sight Words for Dec. 11 Quiz

Good Evening parents,

I know that I have not posted anything in awhile, but this upcoming week (December 7-11) we have several important benchmarks. Please ensure that your child is fed and well-rested each day. Also, it is important that students bring a number two pencil! Here are the sight words for our quiz on December 11.

Irregular verbs

swim/swam
swing/swung
take/took
tear/tore
throw/threw
meet/met
wake/woke
wear/wore
write/wrote


Homophones:

wear/where
meet/meat
threw/through
bored/board

CUPS editing strategy

Good Afternoon Parents,


This is a very important post. Just a reminder about how the homework has changed--students will NO LONGER have to complete journals as part of homework. Instead of journaling, students will complete a one page worksheet. I am highly encouraging all parents to be the students of their child. I want the students to teach parents how to label answer choices and plug in answer choices. This homework should take less time than journaling. The sight word quiz will be on Friday, Nov. 20. Here are the sight words for that quiz.


1. shake/shook
2.sing/sang
3.speak/spoke
4.spring/sprang
5.steal/stole
6.rode/road
7.bear/bare
8.groan/grown
9.they're/their/there


Below is a video about CUPS. Students should be using CUPS as a testing strategy to label their answer choices and prove them either correct or incorrect. Below the video is a copy of the homework that shows students how to label correctly.

 

 

Front side (how to ca

 

 

 

 

Backside (How to label answer choices)

Good Evening Parents,

This past week students took their nine week assessment. It was only 6 questions, but it was a good overview of everything that has been taught since the beginning of the school year. This grade will NOT appear on the first nine weeks report card, however, because we took the test after grades were due. Please remember that our MINTS project is due tomorrow, Tuesday October 12th, 2015. If you are confused on how each card should look, you can check below for three different examples. There is also a video posted further back about how MINTS works. I have also posted an example of the nine weeks test below so that you can retest your student if you would like. Please email, text or call if you have any questions.


Sight words for the week

hang	hung	hide	hid
know	knew	lay	laid
lead	led	lie	lied
light	lit	lose	lost

Homophones for the weekà    peace    vs.     piece;         two/to/too

 

Nine WEEKS test  

 

Below is an example of three MINTS flashcards. On the front should be the example, and on the back should be an explanation (MINTS) for why the example needs to be capitalized.