January 22- February 1

We've had a great two weeks since winter break. The students were eager to share all about their winter breaks and the fun activities they did. Below you will see an overview of the next two weeks.

Language Arts
Our spelling and vocabulary words for Lesson 8 come from our Social Emotional Learning (S.E.L.) curriculum. The students will be assessed on Friday, February 1st. Below is the list of words and definitions.

Word List:Lesson 8 SEL (Social Emotional Learning)

_______________________________

Lesson #8

Test Date : February 1, 2019

Vocabulary Definition

empathy(n) the ability to feel or understand what someone else is feeling

respect(v) to act in a way that shows you care about other people’s feelings

perspective(n) the way you look or see something, point of view

assertive(adj) to have the ability to communicate what you need want in a respectful way          

passive(adj)      the inability to communicate what you need, inactive

aggressive(adj) demanding and not thinking about others’ perspective

complex(adj) not easy to understand or explain

compassion(n) when you do something to show you have empathy

conclusion(n) to make decisions without having all the information

responsibility(n) showing ownership of your actions and behavior

Historical Fiction book talks are due on January 31st!  The one area that continues to be a challenge for some students is making eye contact with the audience. Many students just read their notes, not engaging with the audience.  Please help your child in practicing their book talk and timing them. Don't forget about the RAH calendar. To earn the points the following must be present: correct total of at least 100 minutes weekly, a parent signature and brought back on time.  Finally, as you listen to your child's book talk, ask yourself if the story makes sense! Do you have enough information to make sense of the book? If you have questions in your mind, please help your child to add and explain more. Thanks for your help! Also, don't forget that for this book talk, students needed to choose an item/object that relates to the specific time in history that is represented in the book, as well as giving 3 facts about that time period. We have allowed for more time on this book talk (from 2-3:30 minutes).

Writing: Our writing progress is coming along!  So far, we have covered a variety of writing skills: brainstorming realistic fiction topic ideas, creating believable characters, developing a story arc to show rising action, conflict and falling action, and "showing, not telling." We will move into character's emotions and thoughts, hooking the reading into the story, and finally, having a balance of actions, thoughts/dialogue and setting descriptions. We've noticed that at this stage in a young writer's development, students focus on character's actions (i.e. Jack went to the baseball game. Jack bought some popcorn. Jack watched the game and then went home). We are trying to encourage students to have dramatic scenes that leave the reader wanting to know more!  We will begin drafting our realistic fiction stories very soon! Students will work through a checklist to guide their writing.

Social Studies
This week we are finishing up our study of the Southern Colonies. We are learning about the geography, culture, climate, natural resources, and people of the Southern Colonies. The students will be finishing their Southern Colonies cooperative group project and will then present this information to their peers through slide shows, brochures, skits, or handouts. Students will be graded through a presentation rubric and assessment at the end of this section.

As a culminating activity to learning about the New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies, we will celebrate with a fun day on January 25th. We will veer from our normal schedule and participate in colonial activities throughout the morning and lunchtime. We are all excited to simulate what life would have been like in colonial times. Remember to bring in one clean athletic sock for the craft that day. Also please have your child come to school dressed in their colonial clothes so we can start Colonial Day right away. Your child can bring clothes to change into after lunch, if they wish.

Science:

After Colonial Day we will take a break from Social Studies and jump back into Science.
Our next unit is Earth Science! We will address the following power standards during this unit:

• Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an

explanation for changes in landscape over time. (4-ESS1-1)

• Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering

or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation. (4-ESS2-1)

• Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impact of natural Earth processes
  on humans. (4-ESS3-2)

Math:

We are almost at the end of Unit 4 in Math. We will review in class this Wednesday and Thursday and the test will be on Friday afternoon. Our next unit will start with the study of fractions. Lessons will include decomposing fractions, adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators, word problems, and mixed fractions. Many students are working on a new game called Prodigy. Once students have mastered Reflex Math (multiplication and division facts) they will go onto a more challenging game that has them apply their facts into new concepts. I have asked the students to keep fresh on their facts by using Reflex Math at least once a week still. Once they have mastered those facts I don’t want them to forget all they learned.

If your child would like to complete the extra optional Math review please have them find it in Google Classroom Math.

SEL:

Our next topic in SEL is about understanding complex feeling and respecting different perspectives. With videos, role-playing, and partner work, students will study these topics! Also don't forget to try to take some time to complete the SEL homelink that is sent home. It is optional but a good way to connect to what we are studying in class.

Monday, January 21: No School, Martin Luther King Day

Friday, January 25: Colonial Day (Send your child to school in colonial clothes and a colonial lunch)

Math Test, Movie Night

Monday, February 4: No School: Institute Day

Thursday, January 31: Book Talk Due (and RAH sheet)

Friday, February 1: Lesson 7 Spelling and Vocab Test

Wednesday, February 20: Portfolio Night (A sign up Genius email will go out in a few weeks)

Jan. 7-Jan. 18

Jan. 7- Jan. 18

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful break, filled with family, friends, fun and relaxation! My exciting post-surgery news is that I am walking (at times more of a hobble) WITHOUT crutches! I can see the strength building day by day in my knee which is a relief for me. Here is an update on the next couple weeks.

Language Arts:

We will resume our spelling/vocab activities.  Lesson 7 words connect to our math unit.  Please see the list below:

Please remind students to complete at least 4 Spellingcity activities and the meaningful sentences activity on Google Classroom. For your reference, I don't post these Google Classroom assignments until the words are introduced in class.

We hope you enjoyed reading your child's Important Book. Our gift to you was also a learning experience!  Students modeled their writing after The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown.  Students practiced writing well-developed paragraphs: main idea, details and conclusion. We were very impressed with the finished products.

Along with The Important Book, we will continue to spend much time on our narrative fiction writing!   This rubric outlines how your child will be graded. Our rough drafts are still a ways away!

Historical fiction book talks are due on January 31st!  We have been so impressed with the improvement on the book talks! Please keep encouraging your child to make eye contact and engage with the audience. This book talk is very close to the others we have done, with the exception of adding more details about the historical time period when explaining the object. If they can't sustain eye contact for an extended period of time, more work needs to be done! Don't forget about the object and RAH calendar. To earn the points on the RAH calendar the following must be present: correct total of at least 100 minutes weekly, a parent signature and brought back on time. Finally, as you listen to your child's book talk, ask yourself if the story makes sense! Do you have enough information to make sense of the book? If you have questions in your mind, help your child to add and explain more. Thanks for your help! Here is the graphic organizer students were given.  This rubric will be used to assess the students as they give the book talks.  Please note that the time limit is now between 2- 3:30 minutes to allow for the added requirement. 

Social Studies:

We have now finished both the New England Colonies and the Middle Colonies. To allow students the opportunity to teach the class a specific topic about the Middle Colonies, we put the students in small expert groups. Each group was responsible for first learning about their assigned topic, creating a presentation and finally teaching the class about it. Overall, students did a great job! Most created slideshows and other visuals to enhance their topics. Many also created a review game using the Chrome Books (like Kahoot or Quizzizz). Students were graded using a rubric under the categories of 1) public speaking skills 2) reporting information 3) use of visual aid 4) notetaking and 5) vocabulary words. We will do the same procedure with the Southern Colonies, as students were highly engaged and motivated to teach their peers. We will switch up the groups for this round, but the goal is about 2-3 students per group. Goals for next round: working on making eye contact and engaging with the audience and finding perhaps other fun ways to present material to the class. We definitely have some teachers in the making in our class! Smaller assessments were given for both the New England and Middle Colonies. The final assessment will be after the Southern Colonies projects. 

Colonial Day:

A letter went home before break outlining this very fun and educational event that fourth graders truly enjoy! Please refer to this letter again for your convenience.  Colonial Day will be on January 25 in the pm.  We highly encourage all students to dress the part!  Please note all students need to bring in at least one clean, long, athletic sock for a colonial craft activity.  THANK YOU!

Math:

We are currently on Unit 4 (Multi-digit multiplication). Last year, students were exposed to multi-digit multiplication but did not master the skill. This year, they will need to be proficient in the skill using partial products. Many love the lattice method, but they are encouraged to solve the problems using other ways. Without the automaticity of multiplication facts, students may fall behind as we get into harder concepts. Please help your child learn his/her single digit multiplication facts. Reflex Math is a great tool for this. Students that have gotten 100% fact fluency on Reflex Math have moved on to Prodigy, which is another math game online that is application of facts. Here's the link if you want to check it out:

https://www.prodigygame.com/

Coming up in math is the 4th open response! A major goal for students is to learn how to EXPLAIN and model both in words and pictures how a problem was solved. We've come a long way but will continue practicing this with every unit.

Here is the link to Unit 4:

http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/4th-grade/em4-at-home/

Social Skills:

While I was gone, Mrs Tomlinson used our SEL (Social Emotional Time) to create The Important Books. This coming week we will jump back into our Second Steps program. We will continue discussing how to deal with those that are different from us or those that have a different perspective.

Important Dates:

Mon., 1/7: Classes resume

Wed., 1/9: Junior Achievement in the pm

Fri., 1/18: Vocab/Spelling Lesson 7 tests, Discovery Science in pm and Mid-Trimester Reports go home 

Mon., 1/21: No School, MLK Jr. Day 

Fri., 1/25: Colonial Day in the pm

Thur., 1/31: Historical Fiction Book Talk due

Thank you for your support and let me know if you have any questions!