October 23, 2011

Upcoming Dates

October 24-28 Red Ribbon Week

October 25 Motivational Productions to go with Red Ribbon Week

October 28 Vocabulary Test Lesson 4

November 4 George Ranch Field Trip

November 4 Spelling Test

Math

We have been learning about large digit multiplication and division and estimating with these skills too. This same skill will continue next week. We will also continue stations.

Please make sure your child is studying his/her math facts 10 minutes every night.  The timed tests are a mixture of addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication.  If your child knows addition and subtraction well, then spend most of the time practicing division and multiplication.

Social Studies

We have wrapped up our study of the regions of Texas.  For the culminating project, each child chose a region of Texas and created a travel brochure to show everything he/she has learned about that region.

Our next unit of study will be about the earliest Texans.

Science

We have been studying about tides and the water cycle.  The students also have continued to watch their cylinder gardens grow, and Mrs. Pappas has continued her lessons with us.  Next week, we will begin studying the layers of the earth and the change of the earth's surface.

Reading

We have been studying character traits.  We have learned the definition of a character trait and discussed how we can identify different traits that we could see in our reading with characters.  We have also discussed how and why characters change throughout reading a story. Our book clubs are continuing and we will wrap those up soon. We will begin to read and study feature articles and dive into finding the characteristics of these types of articles.

Writing

We have been studying poetry and the students have each written a Halloween poem.  We talked about making sure to include strong verbs and adjectives for good description. We will use our writing time in the coming week to study feature articles too, and make the connection with our reading.

October 5, 2011

Welcome to Miss Lindsay's 4th Grade Class News!

This blog will keep you informed of all the happenings in our classroom and upcoming events in our class this year.  I have put dates in for October.  Please remember that Vocabulary and Spelling Tests are alternating weeks. We will always have them, and when I update the blog, you will see the dates.  I will also continue to email you all about upcoming tests as well. My hope is to update this every 2 weeks. 

Dates
Oct. 7 - Spelling Test
Oct. 10 - Holiday
Oct. 14 - Vocabulary Test Lesson 3
Oct. 18 - Class Picture Day
Oct. 20&21 - Early Dismissal/Fall Conferences
Oct. 24-28 Red Ribbon Week


Social Studies
We are learning about the Regions of Texas.  We have studied all 4 regions:  Central Plains, Great Plains, Mountains and Basins, and Coastal Plains.  Throughout our study, the students have learned the location, land features, major cities, natural resources, and extra/special information about each region.

Math
We have studied 2 digit divided by 1 digit long division with and without remainders.  The students have learned the algorithm and how to implement model drawing with word problems.  We will continue division next week too with 3 digits divided by 1 digit. The students have also started stations and reviewed past skills.

Reading
Each student has received his/her Book Club book.  The students have been placed in groups based on interest, and each group will read their book together and sometimes independently.  We have been working with inner conversation and recording thought that are happening in our minds while reading.  We have also been talking about inferences and predictions and recording these as well as we are reading our books.

Writing
We have been working on our editing skills with our editing paragraphs and also implementing them in our papers.  We have also been working on a paper where the students are writing about a time that he/she was surprised.  As the writing has continued, we have implemented different writing strategies to make the paper stronger. One strategy is the snapshot strategy where the students each took a part or scene from his/her paper and worked on that one portion to make that area stronger for the paper. We have also been working on making our verbs stronger and showing actions verbs.

Science
We have been learning about seasons, night and day, and the moon phasese.  Our Cylinder Gardening has started with Mrs. Pappas, and this will continue for about another 5 weeks or so.  The students planted their seeds and we are now watering and waiting for the results.  Mrs. Pappas is coming weekly to teach the students about seeds and plants.