Weekly Update: Jan. 7-11

Weekly Update

Important Reminders:

• Our Magic House field trip is Thursday.  We WILL be back to school in time for lunch.  
• 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:

• Jan. 3 - School resumes
• Jan. 7-11 - Leader of the Week = Raquel
• Jan. 8 - Hannah's 1/2 Birthday
• Jan. 10 - Magic House field trip
• Jan. 11 - Mystery Reader
• Jan. 11 - Show Me Jumpers come to Concord
• Jan. 14-18 - Leader of the Week = Thomas
• Jan. 16 - Nate's Birthday
• Jan. 16 - Early Release
• Jan. 18 - Mystery Reader
• Jan. 18 - Ability Awareness Day
• Jan. 19 - Kaden's Birthday
• Jan. 21 - No School
• Jan. 25 - Family Bingo Night
• Jan. 29 - Hunter's 1/2 Birthday
• Jan. 29 & 31 - Parent Teacher Conferences 

Check Out What We Are Learning This Week:

Writing:  

We will begin Unit 3:Bringing History to Life.  Students will use the essay format they learned from Unit 2, as well as the narrative format they learned from Unit 1 to complete their information pieces about history.  Our writing will connect with our Reading and our Social Studies for this unit.  We will be writing about the Causes of the American Revolution, important people during that time period, the actual American Revolution, as well as arguing for and against the Patriots and the Loyalists.  

Reading:  

We are beginning Unit 3: Reading History: The American Revolution.  We will spend time reading articles about the American Revolution.  We will read about the Causes of the American Revolution, the important people during that time, as well as the two sides -the Loyalists and the Patriots.  We will be researching for our writing pieces.   

Read Aloud:

We are continuing to read The Wild Robot.  

Math:  

We began Ch. 8: Fractions last week.  We reviewed factors and multiples from our multiplication chapter, learned prime and composite numbers, and looked at equivalent fractions.  This week we will continue to look at equivalent fractions, how to write fractions in simplest form, comparing and ordering fractions, using Benchmark Fractions to compare and order, and we will work on problem solving using logical reasoning.  Our test is currently scheduled for Friday, Jan. 18.  I will post the study guide and some anchor charts to the classroom soon, and I will let you all know when they are there.  

***Knowing your multiplication facts is extremely important as we move forward in math, so keep practicing those facts!  We will continue to practice multi-digit multiplication and long division.

***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:  

All students will be given their new sorts on Monday.  We have decided to go back to testing after each sort instead of after each unit.  Based on the data we have from first quarter and then the data from second quarter, we found that the students were able to learn the words better, were able to continue to spell the words correctly in their writing, and were much more accountable for doing the word work during spelling time because they knew they were being tested over the words.  Therefore, ALL students will be testing over these new sorts on Jan. 18th.  This gives the students two weeks to work with these words.

We will continue to have sight word tests, however they will be every other week so that the students are only taking one "spelling" test a week.  Our next sight word test will be on Friday, January 11th.   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 began learning about the Causes of the American Revolution (Ch. 10) last week.  We started with The French and Indian War, The Proclamation of 1763, the Sugar Act, and the Stamp Act.  This week we will learn about the Quartering Act, the Townsend Act, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Intolerable Acts.  The students will be taking notes about each of the causes, as well as creating a timeline of the events.  We will be watching some Liberty Kids videos on The Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, Unites we Stand, The Midnight Ride, The Shot Heard Around the World, and the Green Mountain Boys.  As I said in my email last week, the Liberty Kids videos are a fun way for the kids to watch and learn about these important historical events.  There are 4 fictional characters that are in the videos, taking place in all of these events, in order to tell the story.  The rest of the characters, and all of the information, is true.  They are VERY educational!

Have a GREAT Week!