Hi everyone!

This week, we have our DTE assembly on Wednesday. Students will be learning about different forms of energy, renewable, and nonrenewable resources. Each student will receive a free kit from DTE to take home and discuss with families. You will receive a survey to fill out about the kit.

Math: Students will have their mid-module assessment on Thursday, October 11. We will be reviewing in class tomorrow and Wednesday. Students will also bring home a review to study. For additional resources to study, I suggest the parent tip sheets attached to my blog, reviewing any classwork or homework that students bring home, and allowing your students to log onto Zearn, which is the online component that pairs with our math program.

Reading: We are reading books about severe weather that pair with our Earth science unit. The strategy we are working on is identifying main idea and supporting details from informational text. This is something we will revisit throughout the year.

Social studies/science: Students are finishing up their book about landforms. In social studies, we will be beginning to study the different regions of the United States. In science, we are going to take what we have learned about landforms and discuss changes to the Earth over time- what did the Great Lakes used to look like, how have mountains changed over time through erosion and weathering, etc.

Writing: We are finishing up our first drafts of our storm narrative and are going to begin revising/editing before we write our final copy.

Spelling for the week:
1. person
2. interest
3. district
4. trim
5. adopt
6. strong
7. common
8. timber
9. grin
10. blog
11. question
12. experiment
13. hypothesis
14. solution
15. conclusion

Have a great week!

Good morning everyone!

Here are a few updates for this week:

Math- We are making progress! Students took a short quiz on Friday so I could monitor their progress and check for understanding so far. They brought home the quiz yesterday, and scores are uploaded on Parent Connect. I am hearing many students say that the math is getting ‘easier’ and making ‘more sense’ as we go along, which is wonderful! Please continue to have patience with our new math program and look for any homework helper sheets that come home. Thank you to Mrs. Reda for helping to staple and organize all the homework so that students don’t have to bring the homework book back and forth!

We have also been working on individual math goals. Our focus will be progressing students through the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) using algorithms as outlined in the Common Core State Standards. You can ask your child which goal they are working on, and they also have it written down in the back of their math journal.

Writing- We are working on a narrative about a storm. Students are focusing on including sensory details, and organizing their thoughts into complete paragraphs. You can ask your child what topic they have chosen to write their storm story about.

Reading- We are starting reading groups this week finally, as testing is just about finished! You can look for your child to bring home a folk tale or legend as their first reading group book.

Science/Social Studies- We have a nice connection between these two subjects, as we are working on map skills and geography in social studies, while beginning to talk about landforms and natural earth processes in science. Today, we will start mapping the location of Earth’s many volcanoes!

Spelling- Our words for the week are written in each student’s planner, but here is a list just in case.

1. today
2. ache
3. estimate
4. phrase
5. trade
6. parade
7. became
8. arcade
9. education
10. glacier
11. geography
12. region
13. direction
14. transportation
15. Midwest
16. landform

I am always available by email if you have any questions. 🙂

Good afternoon everyone!

Thank you so much to all those who attended the classroom meeting last week. I will attach the presentation as a page on my blog (to the left) for those of you were unable to attend.

Tonight- Students are bringing home their first Eureka Math homework sheets. There are 2 pages that go with every lesson’s homework- one is a homework helper sheet that is to provide students and parents with tips/notes, then another page that has the homework questions. Students are only to complete numbers 1 and 2 tonight. Encourage them to try their best! We are all still adjusting to this new program.

Spelling words are written in the student planner. Our first test will be this Friday, September 14.

Reminders for the week:

Thursday, September 13 6 to 7:30 PM is Open House! Hope to see you all there.
Friday, September 14 is a half day. Dismissal at 11:45 AM.

As we start this third week of fourth grade, please keep reminding your students of our 4th grade expectations. We are working hard to train our brains to focus, be respectful, and to work on smooth transitions from one subject or class to another.

Have a great week!