I hope your students share my enthusiasm after our first week of fourth grade. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone and learning about their interests. I am very pleased with the way everyone has adjusted to my rules and routines, and we have already made some inroads into our curriculum. 

   In Social Studies, we began reviewing map skills learned in third grade. We will be extending this to using grids to locate places on a map, and also using a map scale to calculate distance on a map. I think students will enjoy acquiring these skills. Even though we use GPS almost exclusively now to navigate, there may be times when we have to rely on our map skills! 

   We will be having our visit from the Fire Safety Village this coming week, followed by our visit there next Monday. This is a very exciting trip for students, and they come away from it much the wiser about safety in many aspects of their lives. 

   In Math, we are learning about place value, and will be spending considerable time on this. It is fundamental to many math concepts, and therefore important that students have a very good grasp in this area. 

   Students will be taking their Reading Inventory and Math Inventory assessments in the next two weeks, which will help them to set goals for their reading and math this year. 

   Please don't hesitate to contact me should you have any concerns.