Be as creative as you want, using "it was a dark and stormy night" as the start of your Halloween paragraph! It can be silly, creepy, weird, or anything else you think of! Have fun!


(Remember to use the same rules we have in class with what is appropriate for scary stories.)

Reading- In reading, we've been focusing on dictionary skills and increasing our vocabulary.

Writing- Students are learning how to correctly use dialogue in their personal narrative stories.

Math- We are currently working on Unit 3- Multiplication, Number Sentences and Algebra. We have been reviewing and practicing our basic multiplication and division facts. If students have not mastered these, they need to be practicing these at home! This is the ground work for much of the harder math we will be doing later this year.

Social Studies- We have been exploring geography and Washington's 5 regions- Coast, Western Lowlands, Cascade Mountains, Columbia Plateau, and the Okanogan Highlands. Your child is becoming an expert on one of these regions.

Upcoming Events:
Sat. Oct. 22- Book Orders Due online
Fri. Oct. 28- Spooky Spaghetti Night, 6:30-8:30
Sat. Oct. 29- Tjaden's Halloween/Birthday Bash
Mon. Oct. 31- Eager Reader minutes due
Mon. Oct. 31- Halloween Party, 2:30-3:40
Tues. Nov. 1- PTA Skate Night, 6-8pm
Fri. Nov. 4- Dad's Day at Recess, lunch recess- 11:50-12:15

Ask your child about:
-what their expert region
-how they did on their two multiplication timed tests
-their personal narrative stories they're writing

We will be having a Halloween party on Monday, October 31st from 2:30-3:40. Students may bring the(appropriate, non-violent) costumes in their backpacks to school. They will get changed right before the party. Costumes should be easy to change in and out of so they can get changed in the classroom. My party planners are getting the party organized. If we need parent volunteers, money, or food donations from you, we will be asking you shortly. Thanks!

Eager Reader is a PTA sponsored program that rewards and reinforces reading! It is a 7 month voluntary program designed to improve students’ reading skills and to develop a love of reading. Since we require a 20 minutes of reading each night, I would expect that most kids would participate since they are already doing the reading and this program offers incentives and reinforcement for that reading!

Here is how the program works:
• The program began October 1 – your child can keep track of their minutes in their planner.
• At the end of the month, you will need to submit the total amount of minutes they read for the month. You can submit the minutes as often as you want. Submit minutes here: http://www.sunsetsockeyepta.org/eagerreader/recorder/ (I think you will need to re-register even if you registered last year).
• Each month, students will receive a prize based on the total minutes read.
• All prizes will be given to the teacher and put in the student’s mailbox to take home.
• Students who earn books will be allowed to pick out their book during lunch on the assigned book award days.
• Minutes read are accumulated throughout the year so prizes can always be earned.
• Make sure to turn in the tally on each due date - even if your student has not read enough to earn the listed prize, they will just add to them for next month.
• If students read enough minutes, they will be invited to the Eager Reader party in the spring.

You can find more information about Eager Reader here: http://www.sunsetsockeyepta.org/EagerReader/index.asp

Remember, the first due date is October 31st, but you can be turning in minutes along the way.

The 4^th grade team is in desperate need of 2 liter bottles for our new science curriculum!!!  Right now we have 83 bottles and we need a total of 284 bottles.  Please, please, please send in as many bottles as you can (if you don’t drink soda there are lots of tasty kinds of flavored seltzer water).  Please make sure they are 2 liter bottles and have lids.  We need them by Friday, October 21^st (the sooner the better though).  Thank you in advance for all your help.  Please spread the word to family and neighbors

Book Club Order Due Date: October 22

Online Ordering Information
Web address: http://www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: HCP22

Dear Parents,

Now it's easier than ever to find the perfect books for your child -- shop our NEW online Book Clubs Web site. Choose from a much-wider selection of books than in the printed flyer. Plus, you can send your orders directly to me online and use your credit card to pay.

Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.*

It's so simple! Here's how it works:

• SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the "Register" button in the "First Time Here?" section. Register for your own user name and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me.

• SELECT the books you'd like to order -- choose from thousands of titles -- many more than in our monthly flyers.

• SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child's books will be delivered directly to my classroom.

Ordering online is fast, easy, and secure.

Of course, you can still order using the form from the printed flyer. But why not see for yourself how convenient it is to order online?

Thank you,
Mrs. Ness


P.S. This will probably be the only book order before Christmas, so if you wanted to purchase any books for your child, this would be the time to do it!

Next time you go to Starbucks, ask the counter for the postcard that allows you to donate $10 FREE. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $10 to any project you would like to donate to on http://www.donorschoose.org/. Sunset’s Global Reading Challenge Club has a $300 project on there to raise money for 5 more sets of books for the Global Reading Challenge. That’s just 30 people shopping at Starbucks and entering the information. Starbucks offer ends November 8th!

You can see Sunset’s project here:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=656120&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=project&utm_campaign=TellAFriend?utm_source=dc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sendfriend

Also, when shopping on Amazon, use this link first. http://www.amazon.com/?ie=UTF8&tag=issaqschoofou-20&link_code=ure. Every purchase will donate 8% back to Issaquah Schools Foundation.

Thanks for supporting Issaquah schools!

Yahoo, your children have all now successfully completed my Netiquette course and final exam! They should now be netiquette experts and know how to act while on the Internet. The concluded this unit with a final ceremony in which each student received their own Netiquette badge. You can see below how proud they are to have earned their badges (which they get to wear to the computer lab every week).

If you would like to learn more you can visit the parent site at http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents. And if your child wants to continue learning, there are lots of fun activities and games at the student site: http://www.netsmartzkids.org/.

Last week we had our first ever class store! Thank you so much for your donations. We'll be doing class store every month, so as you find things, please keep sending them in!


Our cashiers.



Two of our girls showing off their Nessy Bucks they earned throughout the month.

Some of the goodies at the class store.



Our banker!



October is National Book Month. What is a book that you recommend that other children your age should read during National Book Month? Explain why this is one of your favorite books.

We will soon be announcing information about the Global Reading Challenge, but before we open it up to 4th and 5th grade students, we are trying to track down more copies of each book.

You can see the list here: http://www.kcls.org/kids/whattoread/grc.cfm#booklist. We are happy to accept used or new books of the titles on the library page. If you have a copy and would like to donate it to Sunset's Global Reading Challenge, you can either just donate it until the challenge is over (March) or permanently donate it to Sunset.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look through the list and checking to see if you have any of these books at home!