Good Afternoon and Happy Thursday! To take care of the earth, our school is participating in a Green Lunch Challenge. This means students are trying to pack as little waste as possible when bringing a lunch. 4th Grade M-Step testing begins Monday! One motivator for the kids is a little snack. If you are interested in donating a class snack, please send it in at your earliest convenience (we have 25 children - no nuts). Some donation items include: Gum, mints, crackers, graham crackers, juice boxes, granola bars, goldfish, water bottles, fruit snacks, apples… If you are interested in donating an item that needs to be eaten that day (bagels, cheese sticks, bananas, apple slices…) please email me and we can work out a day. Volunteers: Next week we are taking a break from Fluency and Rocket Math so that we can get adjusted to the M-Step schedule. I'll send home a calendar next week for May and June volunteering if you're interested in signing up. Here's what is happening in our regularly scheduled school day: Word Study: This week we had normal word study - tests tomorrow. Next week we will review old concepts and prefixes/suffixes. Writing: Our next unit of writing is Literary Essay. Students will compose essays about the books they've read, focusing on the characters or theme. We've been trying some 'close reading' strategies to help students find details and develop theories using those details. Math: This week has been dedicated to finding equivalent fractions. Thank you for your help with this at home with any unfinished work that your child may have brought home. We will be working on comparing fractions with different numerators and denominators next week as well as finding similarities between fractions and decimals. Reading: Even though our formal book clubs have ended, many students remain in clubs or partnerships and we will continue to practice ways we talk about what we read. We will also practice some close reading strategies to aid in the literary essay unit. Social Studies: We are wrapping up the Midwest region this week. They enjoyed working on one of Henry Ford's assembly lines and designing a mall of their dreams, like Mall of America. Students will take their Midwest region map and open book tests next Wednesday. Science: Our study of soil took a quick break this week due to time constraints, but we will continue with our permeability lab and soil review next week. Enjoy some pictures from our Writing Celebration last week!
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Welcome back! It sounds like everyone had a fun-filled spring break. It also sounds like many of you visited a variety of museums over break... nice!
Today is the beginning of our LAST quarter of this school year. That means students will need to earn 10 new points this quarter. 3rd Quarter report cards will come home on Friday. Some students have 'graduated' from fluency practice this week and others will follow in their footsteps as we finish up the year. They've made great progress with fluency, but as always it's good to practice from time to time at home! Word Study - We are continuing to review common spelling mistakes and affixes. New lists will begin next Monday. Writing - Students will be finishing their informational books and we will celebrate later this week! Our next unit of study is literary essay. Math - Today students began comparing fractions - ask them about the rules for comparing fractions with the same numerator or fractions with the same denominator! There will be a homework sheet tomorrow. Reading - Students are wrapping up their book clubs but many are choosing to continue meeting even after our official book clubs are over. Students will be learning some "close reading" strategies this week that help them determine a story's theme or the author's purpose. Science - We will wrap up soil this week with a few labs and a study guide. There will be a soil test late next week. Social Studies - We began the tour of the midwest this week. Students are thinking about how the Midwest got the nicknames "America's Heartland" and "America's Breadbasket." They will learn about this region's economy, geography and history along the way! |
AuthorCindy Kaump Archives
June 2017
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