Greetings from 312 Judy Blume Boulevard!

Mrs. Caunitz

            Mrs. Caunitz is pleased with the adjustment the children have made to 4^th grade in Cottage Lane.  We’ve made new friends, mastered routines, and learned so many new skills!

 As readers, we are now able to “dig deep” to identify the theme, or the big thinking in the text.  We have analyzed the story elements of literature while reading and rereading for meaning and understanding.  Making meaningful connections to the text, world and the other texts will be ongoing throughout the units.  As writers we will continue to develop responses to literature as we read.  Through our responses, we have shown the reading strategies we are practicing on a daily basis, for example, making predictions, asking questions and making inferences.

Our focus of the Theme unit in English Language Arts was heroes not only in the different texts we read but heroes in our lives and the world.  We realize that heroes exist in our lives each day but sometimes aren’t noted.  Throughout our unit of study, we have defined heroes as people who are recognized for special achievement in a particular field.  We recognized Mr. Mendez, the father of Justis in our class, who is overseas at this time.  Our class worked so hard to let Mr. Mendez know that he is our hero along with his fellow friends that are with him in Afghanistan.  Letter, pictures, and various items were sent to Mr. Mendez.  When we heard he received them, we were thrilled!  We can all be heroic in the little things we do in everyday life.   Being helpful to others, saying kind words, meeting difficulties with courage and standing up for what we believe in are qualities that we face in our everyday lives.      We have definitely been doing a wonderful job in Mrs. Caunitz’s class!

As mathematicians along with Ms. Erickson, Dr. Aaron and Ms. Vega Cabrera’s class, we have demonstrated our understanding of place value by reading and writing numbers through the millions.  We are continuing to increase our mastery of basic facts to make it easier for us to add, subtract, multiply and divide larger numbers.  Do you know we even went shopping in Shop Smart Grocery Store on Judy Blume Boulevard?  We strolled down aisle by aisle and stayed within our budget to purchase items, like frozen foods, cereal, office supplies and toys.  Wow, we definitely have learned about the value of money.  After we shopped for a couple of days, we went out to dinner at Café Caunitz on Judy Blume Boulevard.  Boy, it sure is expensive when you go out to dinner!  Through estimating the exact cost we were able to order appetizers, dinner, dessert and a beverage.  Some of us saved some money and shared an appetizer or a meal. Now we are busy having so much fun exploring algebra.

We are looking forward to the many upcoming activities and lessons that make grade 4 such an exciting year.  We thank all of you for your help, guidance and support, for you are very important to us!