Weekly Update: Nov. 5-9

Weekly Update

Important Reminders:

• Please send a flashlight with your child to school on Monday!
• Helping Hands begins this week with food week.  Please send in as many food items this week as you can.  Thank you!
• Jingle for Jammies is on Tuesday - wear your pjs to school, and bring money to donate to Helping Hands.
• November Scholastic Book Orders will be coming home on Monday.  All orders will be due on Friday, Nov. 9th, so that books will be here before the Thanksgiving break.  If you want to order some books as Christmas presents, let me know, and I can hold them in my room for you to pick up.  
• 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. 5-9 = Leader of the Week - Jillian
• Nov. 5th - Helping Hands campaign begins
• Nov. 6th - Jingle for Jammies
• Nov. 7th - Happy Birthday Alex and Riza
• Nov. 7th - Early Release & Buddies
• Nov. 9th - Veteran's Day Assembly
• Nov. 9th - Mystery Reader 
• Nov. 12-16 = Leader of the Week - Peyton
• Nov. 16 - Mystery Reader
• Nov. 18th - Happy Birthday Armin
• 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 continuing Unit 2: Personal and Persuasive Essays this week.   We are working on adding "mini stories" to our paragraphs to support our reasons and examples.  We will also work on writing an introduction to hook our readers, and make them want to read our essays.     ***I uploaded pictures of the Essay anchor charts for this unit  under the "Writing" topic on our Google Classroom. ***

Reading:  

We will continue our next Reading Unit: Reading Informational Books this week.  We will continue to focus on the different Text Structures in informational texts.  The students will begin taking notes about hurricanes using the text structures we spent the last few weeks learning.  We are beginning our research to help us answer the question, "How can we educate others about the importance of understanding extreme weather."  This will be our driving question for our PBL unit.  ***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 will continue working on Ch. 5: Multiply with Two-Digit Numbers.  This week we will continue to practice using the Turtle Head method to multiply by two-digit numbers.  We will also do some multi-step word problems, as well as review for the chapter test.  The link to the video below is attached below, and I also posted a link to the video on our Google Classroom under the "Math Study Guides and Anchor Charts" topic.  There are two anchor charts for Ch. 5 under this topic as well.  Our Ch. 5 test will be Wednesday, Nov. 7th.

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

Turtle Head Multiplication Method

***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 Sight Word test on Friday, Nov. 9th.  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.

Science:

This week we will be completing the Mystery Science unit: The Birth of Rocks.  In this unit we will explore volcanoes, the rock cycle, weathering and destructive forces, and erosion, natural hazards, and engineering.  Each day we will complete a lab that will help us to explore these topics.  Stay tuned for pics on the Blog of these fun and interactive labs.

Have a GREAT Week!