Things to Remember this Week: 

• “Getting Ready for Science” chapter test on Wednesday.  The end of chapter review will be assigned for Monday homework, a review game on Tuesday in class, and test on Wednesday.
• P.T.O. meeting Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m.
• Progress Reports will be sent home Wednesday, October 8.

READING

We will begin our novel study Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo this week.  This is a wonderful story about how a lonely girl’s world is turned upside down when she meets a scruffy dog at the local Winn Dixie grocery store.

We will read the book out loud in class, with partners, and independently.  Most work will be completed in class; however, there will be evenings when children are expected to read a chapter or two for homework.  Students will keep thinking notes, character charts, answer various comprehension questions, and complete response activities throughout the book.  In addition, there will be quizzes every 5 chapters or so. 

WRITING

• Students will review the stories that have been collected in their writer’s notebook and select one to develop into a narrative story.
• Strategy:  Storytelling over and over.  Students will have the opportunity to practice telling their story over and over to help relive the moment and remember clear details.
• Strategy:  Writing a great lead to pull in the reader. We will use various published works to look at the first sentence of the story to see how the author draws in the reader.

MATH

UNIT 2- Using Numbers and Organizing Data

Overview of Unit that will be outlined in the letter coming home on Monday:

• Explore how numbers are used in everday life
• Read, write, and say numbers up to 100 million
• Add and subtract with regrouping
• Collect, organize, and analyze data

This Week:

• Extended Response - students will practice answering an extended response question.
• World Tour Stop:  Washington D.C. - read information about Washington D.C. and identify the ways numbers share important information.
• Name Collection:  Finding various ways to write the same number
• Place Value:  Define whole numbers, review place value chart

SCIENCE

• Review chapter in class
• End of chapter review for homework on Monday
• Jeopardy game in class on Tuesday to review vocabulary and main idea
• Chapter Test on Wednesday

SOCIAL STUDIES

• Reading a street map
• Using cardinal directions to move from point A to point B
• Reading the map key to identify symbols on a map

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This is a very busy week!  Thank you for checking in!

• Unit 1 Math Test is on Tuesday - Students will receive a review packet on Friday to be completed for homework. We will review it in class on Monday.  Students have been encouraged to keep all math papers in their math folders to help review.  At the end of the week, the folders can be cleaned out and all geometry papers can stay at home.
• Map Skills Quiz Thursday- Students will have a quiz on the oceans, continents, and basic map skills.  A world map has been glued into the social studies notebook.  Students will receive a blank map with a word bank to fill in the information.  There will be multiple choice questions on topics like map legends, boundaries, map symbols, etc.  Students have a packet with these topics.
• Book Response #1 due Thursday - Students are to write a book recommendation for a book they have recently read independently.  We worked on a sample recommendation in class for the story Mr. Lincoln’s Way.  Students received a copy of this to remind them what is expected as they work on their own response.  Students have been encouraged to write a rough draft before writing on the form that was sent home on Tuesday 9/16.

• SCIENCE NIGHT at Murray - Preparing for Your Science Fair Presentation.  Jason Franzke the area 15 Math and Science Coach will be presenting on September 25, 2008 6:00 to 7:30.  Families of students in grades 4-5-6 are invited to attend.

• No School Friday  - Teacher Inservice Day, no school for students.

READING

• Read Alouds include:  Lightning by Stephen Kramer
• Reading strategy:  Merging new information with prior knowledge while reading nonfiction. Students will be listening to the “inner conversation” they have as they read informational texts.  This will be modeled in class and practiced while reading their science books.
• Independent Reading:  Continue to take “thinking notes” while reading independently.  Work on ”Thinking and Evidence” graphic organizer in class and for homework. 

HOMEWORK:  Read for 30 minutes each evening.  Keep thinking notes.  A couple of nights this week students will be bringing home an additional graphic organizer to find evidence in the text to support their thinking.

WRITING

Continue work on Personal Narrative Writing - This week students will be pushed to take the giant step to move away from summarizing to become a storyteller.

• Writing Strategy:  Include true, exact details from the movie you make in your mind.
• Writing Strategy:  Building stories step-by-step. 
• Choosing a seed idea to develop into a story

SPELLING

Since there is no school on Friday and the students have other tests, there will be no spelling list assigned this week.  We will return to the Spelling routine on Monday 9/29.

MATH

• Unit 1 Test Review on Monday
• Unit 2 Test on Tuesday.  The following concepts will be on the test:  Points, lines, line-segments, rays, triangles, polygons, quadrangles, parallel lines, intersecting lines, parallelograms, identifying the radius of a circle.
• Strategies for solving math extended response problems.  Extended Response is when students are given a multi-step problem.  After solving the problem, students are expected to explain how they solved the problem step-by-step.  This is a skill that is developed over time and we will work on it throughout the year.

Social Studies

• Study world map to place the continents and oceans.
• We will review map skills including reading a map legend to identify boundaries, capitals, land features, and major cities.
• Quiz on Thursday

SCIENCE

• Lesson 2:  Inquiry skills scientist use
• Read Lesson 2 in class and for homework
• End of lesson review - completed in class and will be graded

Things to Remember this week:

• First Book Response has been assigned.  Students are to write a book recommendation for a book they have recently read independently.  We worked on a sample recommendation in class for the story Mr. Lincoln’s Way.  Students will receive a copy of this to remind them what is expected as they work on their own response.  The book recommendation is due Thursday, September 25.
• Please have your child at school no later than 8:30.  We get to work right away and don’t want them to miss a thing!
• Please sign off on your child’s agenda. This helps me to know that you know your child has completed his/her homework.

READING

• Read alouds this week include:  Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair, by Patricia Polacco, nonfiction selection Lightning by, Stephen Kramer.
• Reading strategy:  Finding evidence in the text to support our thinking. Students will take their thinking notes and expand up their ideas by returning to the text.  We will be using a graphic organizer to help with this concept.
• Reading strategy:  Merging new information with prior knowledge while reading nonfiction. Students will be listening to the “inner conversation” they have as they read informational texts.  This will be modeled in class and practiced while reading their science books.
• Independent Reading:  Continue to take “thinking notes” while reading independently.  Work on ”Thinking and Evidence” graphic organizer in class and for homework. 
• Each child should have at least one independent book finished by now.  Only books that have been finished can be used for the book recommendation activity that is due on Thursday, September 25.

HOMEWORK:  Read for 30 minutes each evening.  Keep thinking notes.  A couple of nights this week students will be bringing home an additional graphic organizer to find evidence in the text to support their thinking.

WRITING

• Continue work on Personal Narrative Unit
• Writing Strategy:  Zoom in to tell the most important part of the story
• Deciding if the story is a watermelon story or a seed story
• What a writing conference will look like and sound like

SPELLING

Students will be studying words with short and long “e” this week. On Monday students will take a pretest, sort the words by spelling pattern, and receive the homework assignment that is due on Friday. The test will also be on Friday.  Please encourage your child to study 5-10 minutes each evening.

 

MATH

• Lesson 1.5 - Identify properties of polygons. Differentiate between convex and concave polygons
• Lesson 1.6 - Drawing Circles with a Compass . Students will learn safety rules, strategies for drawing circles, properties of circles.  Vocabulary includes:  circle, radius, center, compass.
• Quiz on Wednesday over:  points, line-segments, lines, rays, polygons including: triangles, squares, rectangles, rhombuses, kites, parallelograms, pentagons, hexagons, octagons.
• Basic Facts quiz on Friday

HOMEWORK:  Nightly homework will be given. It is typically a Study Link or Journal page.

 

SCIENCE

 

We did not make it as far as I would have liked in science last week.  This week we will:

 

• Read Lesson 1 in class and for homework
• Note-taking strategies for nonfiction text
• End of lesson review

SOCIAL STUDIES

• Name the oceans and continents
• Read a bar graph to compare and contrast land area of the 7 continents
• Possible quiz at the end of the week - students will lable a blank map with the continents and oceans

Thank you for checking in!

Ms. Finke

 

The first week of 4^th grade was a success and I look forward to all of the great things we will do this year.

 

Things to remember this week:

 

• Back to School Night is Tuesday, September 9
• All forms should be returned to school ASAP
• School supplies should be at school.  Please remember your child is responsible for these materials for the entire year
• Please sign-off on your child’s homework agenda each evening.  This helps me to know that you know your child has completed his/her assignments. 

 

This week in class we will be working on the following:

 

• Strategies for organizing materials
• Community Building Activities including problem solving strategies and what to expect in our weekly class meeting
• Strategies for completing homework and returning it to school the following day

 

READING

 

• Read Alouds this week include:  The Donkey and the Rock, by Demi, Mr. Lincoln’s Way, by Patricia Polacco, The Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco.
• Identifying the types of thinking we do as we read (make predictions, ask questions, author’s message, etc.)
• Recording thinking on “thinking notes” (post-it notes that are placed in the book to identify the child’s thinking throughout the book).
• Talking about our reading in whole group and with a partner
• Why readers sometime abandon books
• Differentiating between fiction and nonfiction
• Exploring the various genres in fiction including:  traditional literature (folk tales, fairy tales, myths), historical fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy

 

HOMEWORK:  Read 30 minutes every evening.  Write 3 “Thinking Notes” each evening.  Keep the notes in the independent reading book.  Ms. Finke will check-in with students individually to monitor progress.  Students will receive further guidance in class regarding what this looks like.

 

WRITING

 

• Begin Personal Narrative Unit of Study.
• Students will learn strategies to generate topics for writing.
• Students will begin “collecting” stories and seed ideas in their writing notebook

 

HOMEWORK:  Students are encouraged to decorate their writer’s notebook with pictures of important people and interests in their lives.  By decorating writer’s notebooks, students learn to use their notebook to help inspire their writing.

 

SPELLING

 

Students will be studying words with short and long “a” this week. On Monday students will take a pretest, sort the words by spelling pattern, and receive the homework assignment that is due on Friday. The test will also be on Friday.  Please encourage your child to study 5-10 minutes each evening.

 

MATH

 

We have begun work in our Everyday Math book. On Wednesday, a parent letter was sent home to explain to you what topics would be explored in Unit 1.  This letter includes vocabulary, concepts, and parent help for homework.  If you haven’t seen the letter yet, please ask your child to give it to you.

 

• Lesson 1.3 – Constructing Angles, Triangles, and Quadrangles
• Lesson 1.4 – Classifying Quadrangles by their Properties
• Review:  points, line segments, rays, lines, angles, triangles, quadrangles
• Basic Facts Quiz on Friday

 

HOMEWORK:  Nightly homework will be given. It is typically a Study Link or Journal page.

 

SCIENCE

 

We will begin our science curriculum by exploring various tools scientists use for standard measurements.  We have a new supporting science text that will be used throughout the year to support the explorations and experiments completed in class.

 

• Exploration:  Measuring liquids and length with nonstandard units
• Read Lesson 1 in class and for homework
• Note-taking strategies for nonfiction text

 

HOMEWORK:  Read and take notes on assigned pages. 

 

SOCIAL STUDIES

 

The first part of the quarter will be spent working on Map Skills. This week students will:

 

• Study, compare, and contrast, a world map to a U.S. map
• Use a Map Legend to identify:  state capitals, world capitals, state boundaries, and international boundaries.