Hello and welcome to this Thanksgiving week! I can't believe the snow is falling and we're already here. Since it's a short week, we will not be doing our usual scheduled activities. However, we are still learning and we will be doing some great projects.
Math- I gave a pre-test for ch. 5 today and the students did quite well! The official test will be given next Monday after a 30 minute refresher. What this means for you and your student is that it will be important to keep those skills sharp during the break. I'm not asking for a lot, just a few review problems every couple of days. I will be sending home a worksheet that will help them with this. Language Arts- We will be learning about using and recognizing simile and metaphor as a literary device. We started a Nearpod lesson today, and will be finishing it tomorrow. We are also going to be finishing up with a Sensory Thanksgiving Poem that we began today. There is no Lexia this week. Our reading specialist has asked us not to do any minutes. Utah History-- We will be finishing up with a Utah National Parks art project that we began before our study of the Democratic Republic of the Congo a few weeks ago. Science-- Tomorrow, we will be doing a stem project with turkey cutouts from our Mystery Science modules. It will focus on inertia and gravity. That's it for the week. Please have a wonderful break and Thanksgiving holiday!! I am grateful to be your students' teacher!! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
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Hello and welcome to a new week. First things first. This Thursday, 11/21, the entire 4th grade will be singing at our annual Culture Night. We will be meeting in the cafeteria at 5:30, and we will be going onstage at 5:45 to sing the Congolese song that we have been diligently practicing. It is not required, but we would love to have every 4th grader there. It is truly beautiful, and I hope you will come and listen.
Math-I can hardly contain my excitement as I type this. My class got an average of 96% on the chapter 4 test! I am so happy that this class worked so hard on Reflex. It really paid off. Please continue to have your students do a little Reflex each day. Knowing those facts will change EVERYTHING about their future ability to do math well. We have begun double-digit by double-digit. Many of you helped your students over the weekend. Thank you! We will be having a test on Ch. 5 the Monday after Thanksgiving. My hope is that your students will be so well prepared that it'll be a piece of cake. A review sheet will be coming home over the break, and I will review for 30 minutes Monday morning before the test. Language Arts- Our story selection this week is "Adelina's Whales". It is an expository photo essay text. The skill of the week is Fact and Opinion. In grammar, we will be working on helping verbs. The spelling words for most of my students will be homophones, which can be a little tricky, so make sure students spend enough time on Spelling City. Science- I have really enjoyed teaching physics and Newton's Laws. We will be doing a few stem projects to reinforce the concepts, and there will be a test at the end of this week or at the beginning of next week. Utah History- This is the last week that we will be learning about the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Please come to our hall on Culture Night on Thursday after our performance of "Banaha" in the theatre. We have compared and contrasted different facts about the USA and DRC, and we will be making colorful African necklaces out of paper plates. Thanks, everyone! It is such a pleasure to work with your students. I really do appreciate each child, and recognize how much love and effort you give to all of them. Let me know if there are ever any questions or concerns. Hello and welcome to College Week! This week, we will be focusing on the importance of college and developing the habits that will lead to success in higher education. Thank you so much to Mandy Nielsen for decorating my door (Go Weber State!). This week, we will also be preparing for ELA's 10th annual Culture Night on Thursday, 11/21. The country we are going to be spotlighting is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.The 4th grade will be singing a traditional Congolese song in the theatre at Culture Night. Please have your student in the cafeteria at 5:30, and we will be going on stage at 5:45. It sounds amazing! Please come! If you're not familiar with Culture Night, the fourth grade will be making some traditional arts and crafts that represent the Democratic Republic of the Congo that will be on display in our hall.
In language arts, we are starting a new in which we will learn about patterns in nature. Our story selection is "The Man who Named the Clouds". This week, we will be practicing using context clues. We will also be learning about action and linking verbs. The other skill that we are practicing is narrative poems. We have a jump on this skill, as we have been singing/memorizing The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. Please utilize Spelling City for spelling and vocab words. This term's book report genre is fantasy, and the information can be found under the Book Reports tab. In math, we will be finishing our work in ch. 4. We will practice multiplying across zeroes tomorrow, on Tuesday, some test review pages will come home, and then on Wednesday we'll take the test. I have been very pleased with test scores so far. Please make sure you review the material with your student on Tuesday to make sure that he/she is ready for the test, and to take on the next concepts, which are double digit by double digit multiplication. Science has been a blast. It has been so fun to teach Newton's Laws of Motion. The students have really worked hard to grasp the material. These lessons also provide opportunities for class projects to test the laws and see them in motion. We will be studying the Second Law which states: The acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object. I have been teaching the students that force=mass x acceleration. We will be doing some experiments with little jets made from straws this week, and we will also be having a quiz on what we've learned so far. Social Studies--As I stated earlier, we'll be doing activities related to The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Thanks for all you do! Please message or email with any questions, comments, or concerns. Have a great week! Hello Everyone! I hope that your Halloween was fun, and you enjoyed that extra hour of sleep! Let's dive in!
Math- We are continuing our work with double digit by one digit multiplication. It's all uphill from here, so make sure that your student understands this important math skill. This week we'll be learning how to multiply across zeroes, and use the distributive property in multiplication. We will also be practicing story problems. I'm aiming to have the ch. 4 test next Monday or Tuesday, 11-4, so that you can have the weekend to review with your students. Language Arts- Our story select this week is "So you Want to be President". It's another expository text and is the last story in our Teamwork module. We will be working on the "cause and effect" text structure, as well as suffix "ly". We will also be focusing on Main Idea and Details, and plural possessive nouns. A quiz that we took today on singular possessive nouns showed the class at 85% comprehension, so hopefully they'll catch on to the next topic fairly easily. I have put the 2nd Term book report information on the language arts page. I found that there were about 5-6 students who did not turn in their Term 1 book reports. Unfortunately, this dropped their grades from A's and B's to C's. The book reports are worth 50 points, so please make sure that your student completes it. Science- We will be studying more about Newton's laws of force and motion. We will be finishing up some group posters as well as making some more stem projects that will illustrate the different laws. Utah History- Because ELA is a history-based school, each November we take the time to spotlight a different country for our annual Culture Night. This year we will be learning some of the songs, games, art, and traditions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 4th grade will most likely be performing one such song during our Culture Night on November 21. More info to come about a specific time. That's all for now! Please email or Dojo me with any questions. PS Mrs. Fluckiger has sent me 70+ pictures that she took during our class party. I would like to post them on Google photos, with only our class with the link. I never post any pictures on social media, and I want to be sensitive about any parents who would rather not have me post pictures on Google photos. They are so cute, and I know that I would want to see them if it were my child. Please let me know if that's a problem for you. Otherwise, I'll go ahead and post them. |