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.