Mystery Reader - Gwen’s Mom

Thanks so much for coming today and reading two very funny books to our class, “The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School” and “ The Day Crayons Came Home!”  We loves them!!!

Winter and Cardinals Decorations

We decorated for Winter and our upcoming Cardinals visit.  Check out our hard work!

Sunken Ship Expedition

As scientists exploring a sunken ship from the 1400-1500’s, we were looking for artifacts to tell us about the explorer’s expeditions.  As groups, we “dove” down to the ship, retrieved an artifact, researched the artifact, and then explained what that artifact showed us about how and why Europeans came to the New World.  8 dives would be completed over the course of two days of exploration.

Leader of the Week - Riza

Weekly Update: Nov. 26-30

Weekly Update

Important Reminders:

• This week we are collecting personal care items for Helping Hands.  If you are able to send some items in, that would be awesome!
• Picture Retakes are Tuesday, Nov. 27.
• We will be going to the Scholastic Book Fair on Wednesday and Thursday as a class.  If you wish to send money for your child to purchase books from the Book Fair, please make sure to put the money in an envelope with your child's name on it.  Thanks!
• PLEASE practice multiplication facts!  The students need to really know them quickly, and without having to use strategies to solve them.  We will be starting multi-digit multiplication and long division soon, and having those multiplication facts memorized will be a HUGE help!  On Google Classroom (just log in with your child's username and password, then save that to your computer, and you will then have access whenever) I put some multiplication websites and game directions under the "classwork" tab and then under the "Websites" topic.  Thanks for your help with practicing these facts!

• Please remember to check, and initial, your child's planner every night.  Homework and important notes are written in the planner daily.  Thanks for your help with this!
• Please send a snack with your child that is NUT FREE every day, as we do not eat lunch until 12:10.  Thanks!

Important Dates to Reember:

• Nov. 26-30 = Leader of the Week - Riza
• Nov. 27 - Picture Retake Day
• Nov. 28-Dec. 1 - Scholastic Book Fair
• Nov. 30 - Mystery Reader
• Dec. 1 - Winter Festival at Concord
• Dec. 3-7 = Leader of the Week - Destiny
• Dec. 4 - Alen's Birthday
• Dec. 5 - Early Release and Buddies
• Dec. 5 - World Holiday Celebration
• Dec. 5 - Garden Glow - Lindbergh Night at the Botanical Gardens
• Dec. 7 - Mystery Reader
• Dec. 10-14 = Leader of the Week - Hunter
• Dec. 20 - Winter Parties
• Dec. 21 - End of the Second Quarter
• Dec. 21 - Half Day of School
• Dec. 22 - Jan. 2 - Winter Break
• Dec. 27 - Concord Family Bowling at 2:00
• Jan. 3 - School resumes

Check Out What We Are Learning This Week:

Writing:  
We are continuing Unit 2: Personal and Persuasive Essays.  We completed our personal opinion essays, and are moving on to writing persuasive essays.  We are going to tie this writing piece to our PBL Question: How can we educate others about the importance of understanding extreme weather.  We will develop our thesis question and reasons together as a class.  We will use the notes we have been taking about hurricanes during our reading time to help support the reasons with evidence.   

Reading:  

We are continuing Unit 2: Reading Informational Books.  We will be learning how to synthesize different texts when taking notes.  We will continue to identify the different text structures and text features.  

Read Aloud:

I will continue reading the book Out of My Mind to the class.  This is an amazing book about an extraordinary eleven year old girl who is the smartest kid in her school, but no one knows it because she is stuck inside her head.  This book allows for some very heart warming conversations about acceptance and inclusion.  I LOVE this book!  

Math:  

We will be finishing up Ch. 6 this week.  We will be dividing larger numbers, numbers with zeros in the quotients, and multi-step division word problems.  We will review on Thursday, and our test will be Friday, Nov. 30th.  

**A picture of the Long Division anchor chart, and the Ch. 6 study guide are on the Google Classroom.**

***Knowing your multiplication facts is extremely important as we move forward in math, so keep practicing those facts! 

***In order for students to show mastery with a standard, they will be doing "Check-ins" throughout the year to show that they didn't just memorize the skills for the test, but that they retained the skills, thus showing mastery.  My goal with the check-ins is to make sure that the 4th grade Math Standards are mastered by all students by the end of the year! ***

Spelling:  

We will begin learning the patterns of the words for our next spelling sort in our units.  We will also take our next Sight Word test on Friday, Nov. 30th.  Remember these are the words that do not follow a pattern, and need to be memorized.  Students will need to not only spell the words correctly, but be able to read them in order to "pass" this group of words.

Social Studies:

 We will begin Ch. 4 this week.  We will focus on answering the question "Why do people explore?" We will also be reading and learning about different important explorers.  We begin this chapter with a pretty fun activity, so stay tuned for a post on the Blog with pics.  

Have a GREAT Week!

The Rock Cycle with Starburst

After learning about the rock cycle, we completed a lab today using Starburst to demonstrate the parts to the rock cycle.

Sediments 

Sedimentary rock

Metamorphic rock

Magma

Weekly Update: Nov. 19-23

Weekly Update

Important Reminders:

• This week for Helping Hands we are collecting cleaning products.  Thanks for your continued help!
• Since the students collected over 100 items in the first week, they voted on Electronics time as their reward.  Electronics Time will be tomorrow.
• PLEASE practice multiplication facts!  The students need to really know them quickly, and without having to use strategies to solve them.  We will be starting multi-digit multiplication and long division soon, and having those multiplication facts memorized will be a HUGE help!  On Google Classroom (just log in with your child's username and password, then save that to your computer, and you will then have access whenever) I put some multiplication websites and game directions under the "classwork" tab and then under the "Websites" topic.  Thanks for your help with practicing these facts!

• Please remember to check, and initial, your child's planner every night.  Homework and important notes are written in the planner daily.  Thanks for your help with this!
• Please send a snack with your child that is NUT FREE every day, as we do not eat lunch until 12:10.  Thanks!

Important Dates to Remember:

• Nov. 20th - Wacky Day
• Nov. 21-23 - Thanksgiving Break
• Nov. 26-30 = Leader of the Week - Riza
• Nov. 27 - Picture Retake Day
• Nov. 28-Dec. 1 - Scholastic Book Fair
• Nov. 30 - Mystery Reader

Check Out What We Are Learning This Week:

Writing:  
We are celebrating our Opinion Essays tomorrow.   

Reading:  

We are continuing Unit 2: Reading Informational Books.  We will be learning how to synthesize while reading two texts about the same topic.  ***I uploaded pictures of the text features anchor chart and the text structures anchor chart to our Google Classroom on the "Reading" topic.*** 

Read Aloud:

I will continue reading the book Out of My Mind to the class.  This is an amazing book about an extraordinary eleven year old girl who is the smartest kid in her school, but no one knows it because she is stuck inside her head.  This book allows for some very heart warming conversations about acceptance and inclusion.  I LOVE this book!  

Math:  

We began Ch. 6: Divide by a One-Digit Number last week.  We will continue working on Long Division, interpreting the remainder, placing the first digit, and using the Distributive Property and partial quotients. Long Division is a hard concept, with many steps.  We will continue to spend time in small groups practicing this concept.   Our test is currently scheduled for Friday, Nov. 30.  

***Knowing your multiplication facts is extremely important as we move forward in math, so keep practicing those facts! 

***In order for students to show mastery with a standard, they will be doing "Check-ins" throughout the year to show that they didn't just memorize the skills for the test, but that they retained the skills, thus showing mastery.  My goal with the check-ins is to make sure that the 4th grade Math Standards are mastered by all students by the end of the year! ***

Spelling:  

There will not be a sight word test this week.  We will continue to work on the patterns in the sort we are currently on.  

Science:

We will be learning about fossils and erosion this week, as we finish up this unit.

Have a GREAT Week!

Mystery Reader - Aislyn’s Mom

Thanks for coming today, and sharing the first chapter of 3 different awesome chapter books!  “The Incredible Magic of  Being,” “Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library,” and “Four Stars” are great books!  Way to get these kiddos excited about new books!  

Happy Birthday (Sunday) Armin!!!

Red Cross Pillowcase Project

The Red Cross visited us today to discuss being prepared for emergencies.  They gave each student a pillowcase to fill and have ready in case of an emergency (not a fire!).  Their visit today was another way for us to learn about extreme weather so that we can help educate others, which is part of our PBL project!