October 22-November 2

Oct. 22-Nov. 2

Hello everyone! The students enjoyed a fun spirit week last week and the book fair is always a big hit. Thank you to all the families that donated change for our Change Wars! Lots coming up in the next two weeks:

Reading:
The next focus skill for reading will be author's purpose and perspective.  Students will learn and interact with this skill and be tested on Friday, 11/2.  Students often confuse author's purpose and perspective. An author's purpose is the reason an author decides to write about a specific topic. Then, once a topic is selected, the author must decide whether the purpose for writing is to persuade, inform or entertain.  The author's perspective, or viewpoint, is how the author feels about the subject. 

Our next set of words are homophones.  Homophones are words that sound the same, but have different meaning and spellings. While the spelling is relatively easy, knowing which homophone to use in context is the focus.   We will be interacting with the words in a different order than what is shown here.  The test will be on Friday, Nov. 2. Here is the list for your reference:

In writing students will be learning how to develop believable characters by giving characters struggles and motivations. Students will be working on developing realistic fiction stories. We will need your help in editing and offering your students some feedback as we draft our stories.

October Book Talk, 10/31:

Book talks are coming soon! I know some students are a bit nervous about speaking in front of the class but I am CONFIDENT they can do it! Remember, students should have filled out the graphic organizer and RAH calendar and practiced their book talks!  Book talks should be practiced enough times that students have familiarity with them and can look up and make eye contact and engage with the audience. I am not collecting or grading their organizers since I grade based on the student's talking.  I am also timing them and the requirement is 2-3 minutes. Please sign, review totals and return the RAH calendars. The rubric explains exactly how students will be graded and we are expecting proficiency, not the advanced category.  Advanced is challenging to get at this time of the year. Don't forget an object too!

Science:

Students really enjoyed our bird beak simulation and learned specifically how animals have specific body structures that help them survive and thrive in a particular environment.  Along with animals, plants also have specific internal and external structures that help them survive in an environment. Students were engaged in watching our celery experiment and understanding the importance of the stem of plants. Students learned that the xylem carries all the water and nutrients to the rest of the plant parts. The following standards were addressed in our lessons:

• describe  internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction

• compare and contrast different structures and functions of a plant

Our next lessons will be on sensory receptors. The students will eventually be building their own animals to survive in a specific habitat.  This will be a big project grade with specific requirements. The students will take what they learned in our Life Science unit and create an animal that has adaptations to help it survive. The project is explained in detail in a packet (coming home this week) which should stay in your child's home folder. There are due dates in the packet to help break down this project. The first due date is Thursday, 10/25 and the planning pages are due on this day. These are the first two sides. The students will draw a sketch of their animal and label important structures and list the materials that will be used to create the 3D model. On Tuesday, Oct. 30 the students should bring in materials to start the project. Students will have THREE class days to work on their project. Please check in with your child to make sure he/she knows what materials should be gathered.  There is no need to run to the store and spend money on materials. Try to use things found at home! A list is given in the packet. At home you can brainstorm and discuss your child's ideas and guide them but the goal is to finish the project in the three classroom work days. Whatever is not done in class will have to be done at home. The due date is Monday, November 5. I will be using a hot glue gun in class but NO STUDENT will be allowed to touch the hot glue gun.  We have found that regular glue just does not hold the materials together at all. From previous years, the hot glue is the best option, but again, only I will be using it to help students at school. If you have any issues with this, let me know.

Math:

We have just a few more lessons in Unit 2. Recently we worked with units of time, multiplicative comparisons and classifying triangles and quadrilaterals. We will end the unit with line symmetry and patterns. Students are getting very well adjusted to the math routines and enjoying guided math stations.   Please encourage consistent use of Reflex Math as often as possible. Printing out home links is always a great option, should your child forget them at school. Please bookmark this site:

http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/4th-grade/em4-at-home/unit_2/

The test for Unit 2 will be on Thursday, Oct. 25.  Here is an extra optional study guide if you want additional review:  (We will also do a study guide in class this week)

Extra Study Guide Unit 2

SEL: 
We are now on LESSON 3: Being assertive. The goal in this lesson is to teach the students assertiveness skills. We will practice 1. face the person you are talking to  2. keep your head up and shoulders back  3. use a calm, firm voice   4. use respectful  words

Important Dates:
Thur., 10/25: Math Test, plan due for Science Animal Project
Fri. 10/26: PTO Movie Night (6-8:30 pm)
Mon., 10/29: Discovery Science in pm
Tues, 10/30: Materials due and begin to work on Science project
Wed., 10/31: Mystery Book Talk is due, Spooktacular Walk and Halloween Classroom parties
Fri., 11/2: Spelling/Vocab Tests, 4 Spelling City Activities and Meaningful Sentences due
Mon., 11/5: Animal Projects due, conferences 4:00-8:00 pm (please check https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0b4faaaf22a3f58-fall4 for your time)
Tues., 11/6: NO SCHOOL, Election Day
Wed. 11/7: Conferences 4:00-8:00 pm

Oct. 7- Oct. 19

October 7-19

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall colors. 

Mid Trimester Reports were sent home on Friday. You'll notice there is a section for comments. Comments were given to students who were marked as Needs Improvement in the academic section or Developing in the learner quality category.  Please do not be alarmed if your child's comment section was left blank. Please sign and return only the envelope as soon as possible.

Reading

Over the next two weeks, our focus skill will be on finding story elements; more specifically, the following: conflict, plot events, and resolution. It is an important skill for fourth graders to master as it will help your child not only understand and appreciate the author's work, but it will help him/her with understand the requirements for Book Talks this year.

October Book Talks:

Our mystery book talks are due on October 31st. Students should be following the Book Talk
Organizer when preparing for their presentation.  A common mistake students make is giving a
"retelling" of the book. I am looking for specific elements: a creative hook, characterization
(complete with traits, actions and motivations of one MAIN character), summary (conflict, plot
events and solution, not a long summary of the book), one additional reading word with TEXT
SUPPORT, a closing and an object brought in that connects to the book in some way.   
Additionally, students should be between 2-3 minutes total.  In order to master this, practicing and
timing are a MUST! A sample Book Talk of the book Odd Velvet was sent home last week.

These book talks support oracy in the classroom. I am looking for good public speaking skills:
making eye contact, using good expression, and pacing. This is might be a challenge and many
students initially rely solely on their notes and have a difficult time looking up. Again, practicing
multiple times while being timed is an absolute must. One last word: when your child practices

his/her book talk with you, please take note if you can understand the story in general terms.
The summary should be clear enough for us to understand the story. I tell the students that they
are usually the only ones reading this book so summaries must be clear.

Also, please continue to fill out the RAH calendars. RAH calendars are due on Oct. 31st.
Students get graded on correct total minutes, parent signature, and filling out the calendar
correctly with minutes totaled up weekly and monthly.  

Global Read Aloud:
Longfellow's fourth grade is participating in the Global Read Aloud 2018. We have LOVED our book, Amal Unbound so far. Longfellow's awesome PTO purchased books for the fourth grade classes. More information is found in the letter below.

Word Work:
Our next set of spelling and vocabulary words are from our life science unit.

Math:

We began Unit 2 learning about square numbers, area, factors, and multiples. With all of these
topics, it is important for students to have automaticity with their multiplication and division facts.
Please continue to have your child use Reflex Max 2-3 times a week to help with this skill. This
program is available to us through the generosity of our PTO, so I want to stress the importance
of students spending time on the program both at school and at home. The goal is to achieve the
"green light circle" as much as possible. Also, here is the Everyday Math link for your convenience as
you help your child with Unit 2. Remember, home links can be printed at home if anything is
forgotten at school.

http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/4th-grade/em4-at-home/unit_2/

Coming up during the next few weeks: prime and composite numbers, units of time,
multiplicative comparisons, and classifying triangles and quadrilaterals.  

Science:

Students were really excited about our bird beak simulation and learning how animals have specific body structures that help them survive and thrive in a particular environment. Along with animals, plants also have specific internal and external structures that help them survive in an environment. Students will study various plants this week to identify plant structures.  We will also observe celery stalks soaking in water with various food dye. The objectives covered in these lesson are:

• describe  internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction

• compare and contrast different structures and functions of a plant

We will also be studying sensory receptors. The students will eventually be building their own animals to survive in a specific habitat. This will be a big project grade with specific requirements. More on this soon!

Social Skills:

Our next lesson in our Second Step Program is on listening with attention. Being able to listen with attention is one way to be respectful toward others. It's also an important skill for learning. There will be an optional Home Link sent home this week. Students that complete it will get a bonus ticket.

If you would like more information on what is covered in this program please see Second Step's
scope and sequence for Fourth Grade.

Important Dates:

• Friday, October 12: School Improvement Day; Grades 1-5 dismissed at 12:00; No Kindergarten
• Tuesday, October 16-Thursday, October 18: Scholastic Book Fair. Our class will go to the book fair on Tuesday afternoon.
• Thursday, October 18: Board of Education Meeting at Gill Administration Center, 7:30 PM
• Friday, October 19: Language Arts Assessments

September 24th-October 5th

Fall is in the air!

Let's hope fall weather is upon us! We survived the heat last week and I'm so thankful temps are cooling off the building! Students were troopers and we did try our best to get to cooler areas in the building and get through curriculum.   

Here is a look at the next two weeks:

Reading:

Overall, great job with our new spelling/vocab program.  The majority of the class did well on the spelling and vocab tests.  Students were able to learn our new online resource (Spelling City) and have figured out how to navigate through the options.  You should have received a pink half sheet indicating your child's scores on the tests. I walked around to make sure they were accurate. For future reference, you are always able to log on to your child's account on Spelling City to check out scores and activities completed. Directions were listed on the half sheet. Students can do any activity assigned to them on Spelling City that corresponds with the lesson we are on. They should complete the entire activity though, for it to count as finished.  In other words, starting "Hang Mouse" but then stopping midway will not register as complete. Every lesson the students will complete a Google Classroom Meaning Sentences activity. The sentences will be due (turned in electronically) by Friday, Oct. 5. For the last round of sentences, there were a number of students that didn't have this activity completed by last Friday. Students had to stay in at recess to complete the sentences. Please continue to check those assignment notebooks for due activities:) 

Our next list is the Lesson 2 Math Place Value/Geometry words. Below is the list for your reference. Remember that we will spend two weeks on this list.   We will require that students complete at least four activities on Spelling City before the test.  Please make sure your child is ready before the test on October 5.

We just finished characterization and tested on that skill last week.  The students learned that authors reveal characters through traits, actions. dialogue and motivations.  Students did well overall on the assessment!  Our next focus skill is comparing and contrasting.  We will read our next story in Storytown and interact with the text to compare and contrast characters, setting, and other events.  We will use venn diagrams as a graphic organizer to show what we know about comparing and contrasting.  The students will be assessed on this skill by Friday, 10/5.

In grammar, our next skill is subject and predicate. We will focus on the fact that each complete sentence needs to have a subject and predicate. We will also study fragments and how to turn a fragment into a complete sentence. Lastly we will learn about run-on sentences and how to edit run on sentences.

Book Talks- we will spend some class time modeling the book talks and discussing expectations this week. This week your child will bring home a competed sample of a Book Talk. We will connect SEL (social emotional learning) and Language Art by reading a book called Odd Velvet. I will then model the Book Talk note taking sheet. Please put this sample Book Talk in a safe place so it can be used as a reference in October. Students should have a mystery book picked out by now.  If they don't I will remind them when we go to book check out this week to check out a mystery book. Please make sure the book that's chosen is a "good fit" book.  See the poster below in helping to know what a good fit book is.  Play close attention to the "K" descriptor.  If your child doesn't know 4 or more words on any random page, the book is probably too hard and should not be reading it independently. Ask your child about our 5 finger rule!

Math: 

We are just about to the end of our first unit. Last week, we learned about points, line segments and lines. This week we will finish the unit by studying rays, angles, quadrilaterals and finding perimeters of squares and rectangles.  To prepare for the test, we will always review in class, with both a study guide and review games. The test is projected to be on Friday, September 28. I'm attaching another math review opportunity here for those that would like a second review option (not mandatory). This review should be printed or answers can go on a blank piece of paper. Students that fully complete this review will earn an emoji dollar! 

Unit 1 Additional Math Review

Finally, please be sure your child is going on to Reflex Math on the computer a few times per week at home. It makes a BIG difference. We play in school during math stations as well, but they don't always get the green full circle, which is the goal!  Thank you! 

Social Studies: 

We finished our first unit (Map Skills). Students did very well on this assessment last week. You should have seen this go home! Creative Cartographers Map Project is due Monday, tomorrow. Since this is a project, we expect quality/neat work. Please check over your child's work, using the rubric and checklist to check off requirements! Check for proper spelling and capitalization please! Students will be sharing out some of their favorite items from their map projects with the class on Monday.

Science:

We will be kicking off our first Life Science Unit involving plant and animal adaptations. Students will learn all about plant and animal adaptations and towards the end of next week the focus will be on bird beak adaptations.  Students will do a very fun and engaging simulation pretending to be birds to test out the various beak adaptations to best capture their prey.  We will represent various bird beaks and prey with gummy worms, Swedish fish, raisins and red kidney beans.  WE WILL NOT BE EATING ANY OF THIS.  I don't believe we have allergies in the class to these particular foods but a note will be going home asking your permission for the food items to be handled (not eaten) with specific ingredients listed in each item.  Please sign the note and return it as soon as possible. You should be receiving it by the end of this week.

Social Skills:
During the last few weeks, we learned and practiced a variety of social and emotional skills!  Our recent skill was all about showing empathy. Through websites, stories, and videos the students have mastered this skill. Our next focus skills for SEL is about listening with attention.



Important Dates:
Mon., 9/24: Creative Cartographers Map Project due
Fri., 9/28: Unit 1 Math Test
Tues., 10/2 Picture Retakes
Fri., 10/5: Mid-trimester reports go home. Please review, sign and return report card envelopes
Fri., 10/5: Spelling/Vocab Tests on the Lesson 2 Math words, Google Classroom Meaningful Sentences due ("turned in" on computers)
Fri., 10/5 Discovery Science

Sept. 4- Sept. 21

Welcome to our class blog! We had a wonderful first couple weeks of school and I've loved getting to know all the students.  I can already tell what a great group of students we have! I know this year will fly by and your students will grow by leaps and bounds!  Thanks for taking the time to come out to Curriculum Night. If you have any questions, please let me know. 

The purpose of this blog is primarily for parents.  Here you will find important information regarding our curriculum, activities, upcoming projects, and events!  I hope to update this blog about every two weeks.

The students will find their resources on Google Classroom.  Please note that parents can't access Google Classroom using their own personal emails.  Only students' school emails allow access to Google Classroom. We are trying to get students to be problem solvers and independent thinkers. The Google Classroom is much like a virtual classroom where students can find lots of resources. I will be assigning homework off of Google Classroom. Because of this, students should have access to the internet and a computer/tablet at home, with your permission, of course. If this is a problem, please let me know as soon as possible.

Language Arts:

Every two weeks we will have a new focus skill, spelling/vocab words and writing skill. Last week, we started our spelling/vocabulary program. There are 10 words on the list that are directly related to our Social Studies/Map Skills unit. While our main focus is on knowing the meaning of these words, we will also use these words for spelling. The students will have two weeks to focus on the meaning and spelling of the words. Students will be interacting with the meaning of the words and applying the meaning in context. The definitions can be challenging so I ask that you help your child learn the words throughout the two weeks. Every other Friday, we will assess on definitions and spelling.  Here is the first list for your reference:

Please note we will take three weeks for this first list since we have multiple days off these next few weeks.

Students will have a Google Classroom homework assignment for each list of words and should practice the words using SpellingCity.com.  I have modeled the Google Classroom activity called Meaningful Sentences and we have signed in and practiced SpellingCity.com two times already. Part of the $7.00 for resources that was on the supply list went to an upgraded premium account for SpellingCity.com. The expectation is for students to complete at least 4 activities on SpellingCity before the test. A list of the Unit 1 words also went home last week. Please keep these in a safe place for your reference.

Please remind your children to complete their RAH (reading at home) calendars.  The goal is to read at least 100 minutes a week.  This month we will model the book talk format.  More information to follow. 

Math

Last week we started our first unit in Math. The students completed a pre-assessment of fourth grade concepts.  This will help me to differentiate within the classroom throughout the school year. Pretests will not go home, but the tests at the end of the unit will go home for you to see. This first unit in Math is all about place value, estimating, rounding, multi digit adding and subtracting, and some geometry at the end of the unit. The following are the power standards we will cover in Unit 1:

Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers to solve number and word problems.

Compare two multi-digit whole numbers based on the value of the digits in each place, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.

Draw points, lines, line segments, rays, angles (right, acute, obtuse), and perpendicular and parallel lines.

For your reference, please bookmark this site below! Here you can find valuable information about the updated Everyday Math Fourth Grade curriculum.  An added bonus- you can download and print home links! If a student forgets his/her home link, there is no excuse not to get it done! See "Home Link Help"

Expect a home link nightly, except for Friday!

Everyday Math website

Please encourage your students to play Reflex Math at home!  The creators of the program explain that students must play at least 3 times a week to see improvement in fact fluency. We play about 3 times a week at school, but students are not always finishing the green circle. (The green circle is the goal for the day. If the green circle is mastered that means they have made significant progress.) Playing at home will only benefit your child even more!  We are aiming for 100% fluency in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This coming week we will spend two days solving a fun open response question. While the computation can be an easy task, explaining mathematical thinking can be more challenging. We will be working on this throughout each unit.

Social Studies:

Last week we started our first mini unit on map skills. We are reviewing some concepts about maps from previous years and moving into some more challenging topics, like latitude and longitude. In the coming weeks, we will put all our map skills together and the students will be cartographers and will create their own map with specific requirements.  This is always a very fun project that students remember about 4th grade. These are the power standards that align with this unit:

Utilize principle parallels and meridians on maps and globes to locate specific places.

Demonstrate an understanding of relative location by using it to describe and locate countries.

*Science will begin after our mini map unit in a couple weeks.

Social Skills:

This week we will start our social emotional program called Second Step. The first lesson focuses on the concept of EMPATHY.  Students will learn that empathy is the ability to understand and feel how another person is feeling. We describe it as "putting yourself in other people's shoes." We will learn a new skill with each lesson. At times, you will see optional home links that requires your participation.

Important Dates:

September 3: No school, Labor Day

September 7: No school in pm (Teacher Institute Day in pm)

September 10: No school, Rosh Hashanah

September 13: Discovery Science in pm & PTO meeting and dinner at 6:00 pm

September 17: Beginning Orchestra Registration at Cooper Middle School, 6-8:00 pm

September 19: No school, Yom Kippur

September 21: Vocab/Spelling Test on Lesson 1 map skills

Important Websites

Parents,
Please feel free to use these link so you can bookmark these sites for your child.

Reflex Math

Spellingcity

Everyday Math Homelinks Unit 1

Prodigy