October 30, 2014

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at conferences on Sunday! Conferences will last for ten minutes, and we'll go over your child's report card and progress in fourth grade so far. Since this is a large class, I am meeting with a lot of people that Sunday, especially between 8:00-11:00. Thank you in advance for being on time. Don't forget we turn our clocks back an hour that night, too.

I know everyone is excited about Halloween! Students are welcome to wear costumes to school tomorrow. If they have a mask, they cannot wear it while we're in the classroom, but can bring it to the Halloween Fun Fair. During the Fun Fair, students will receive some free tickets. Additional tickets can be purchased for 25 cents each. We'll also visit the book fair tomorrow if students would like to bring money for books.

Mr. Bennett has also asked the teachers to pass along the message about parking that was originally in last week's Tuesday letter. Please be sure not to double park, as this can be dangerous and cars do get ticketed. There is usually parking farther south on Whipple (which is the street by the door we leave from) or on the other side of Palmer Square.

The students' ofrendas look great! I'm going to leave them in the hallway until next week so that everyone can see them after conferences this weekend. I've also been very impressed with all the information students learned about their family members and how well they wrote about them. We presented about half of our projects today, and we will share the rest tomorrow. All of the students were very attentive and asked great questions during the presentations.

We finished our guided reading books last week. As a final project, students created their own Amazon listings on a poster, including a summary, review, and similar books they would recommend. I passed out our next book, The Bad Beginning, yesterday. We'll read this one as a whole class. It is the first in a series of 13 books, and I'd be happy to let anyone borrow the next book in the series if they've finished this one.

The students seemed to have learned a lot about the economy! They had very creative and well-thought out business plans. I mailed their poster contest entries, so we'll cross our fingers that we have some winners this year, too! In the last two weeks, we've been learning about government, including the difference between local, state, and national governments and the three different branches. We'll have a quiz next Friday on this topic.

In math, we're learning to multiply by two digit numbers and divide three digit numbers by one digit numbers. Many of the students have already gotten the hang of this, but some could use extra help! Please make sure they're looking back at their notes in their notebooks while they complete their homework, and let me know if you see them struggling at home, too.

Finally, in science, we just completed a unit on how the Earth is shaped. We studied mountains, earthquakes, erosion, weathering, and fossils. We also looked at landforms on other planets and how they are similar to Earth. We combined this activity with art by drawing pictures in pastels of other planets. Now, we're studying ecosystems and how energy flows throughout it. We began by observing all the living and non-living things in the ecosystem outside our school. You can see pictures from both of these activities below!

Free Everyday Math Apps

I just wanted to let everyone know that McGraw-Hill is offering several Everyday Math apps free today! I have the ones on fractions, multiplication, and division on my iPad at school already. These would be a great way for your child to practice his or her facts.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/mcgraw-hill-school-education/id413312889

Long Division with a 2 Digit Number Video

Here's another video, this time about two digit long division!

October 8, 2014

Students are going to have a chance to retake their math test this Friday, October 10. Many of the students did not do as well as I expected, especially since they forgot the difference between factors and multiples. This was especially disappointing since I knew this was a new concept and so we made a poster defining each, and I pointed out where it was in the classroom immediately before the test and told students they could come look at it if they needed to. We went over the test today, discussing how to read the problem carefully to figure out what it's asking and how to use the resources in the room. The test will have the same format, but with different numbers in the problems. Students should get their original test signed in order to retake it on Friday.

We also have tests coming up in social studies on Tuesday, October 14, and in religion on Thursday, October 16. In social studies, we've been talking about the economy. The students created business plans that explained the resources they'd need to start a business, who their investors would be, and the supply and demand they would have. We've also been working on posters for the UIC Economics contest. In religion, the test will cover the first three commandments and the covenant God made with Abraham.

For Hispanic Heritage month, students have been learning a song with Ms. Fox that comes from Ecuador. We'll share the song, the Ecuador flag, and some facts about the country with the school on Thursday, October 16. We are also learning about Day of the Dead. To celebrate this day, students are interviewing two people about a person who died that they would like to honor. We'll be writing paragraphs and creating shoebox ofrendas (or altars) for this person. We'll have time in class to create the altars on October 24, so please make sure your child brings in his or her shoebox and anything they'd like to put inside it on that day.

I sent home a Scholastic book order form on Friday. This one will be due on Tuesday, October 14. If you'd like to order online, simply click the link below. Scholastic is also having a promotion, where if students spend $10 they can get another book ($5 or under) for free. Students who wish to get a free book should let me know which one, as I need to enter that information from the teacher order page.


Finally, in science we are learning about forces that shape the Earth. We discovered how the Grand Canyon was formed by completing investigations about weathering and erosion. You can see those pictures below.

Our Visualizing YouTube Video

In reading class, we've been discussing the comprehension strategy of visualization. We practiced this last week while reading the book Koko's Kitten. Students drew the picture they saw in their head on the iPad, using Drawing Pad, and then used Book Creator to add text to explain their picture. I was able to upload most of these onto a YouTube video, which you can see below!