Weekly Update: March 25 - 29

Weekly Update

Important Reminders:

• Concord Expo is Tuesday, March 26.  Please make sure you check out the 4th Grade Expert Fair when you come to the Expo.  
• 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:

• March 25-29 - Leader of the Week = Jack
• March 26 - Concord Expo
• March 29 - Mystery Reader
• April 1-5 - Leader of the Week = Gunner
• April 3 - Early Release and Ability Awareness 
• April 4 - Concord Fun Run
• April 6 - Caroline's Birthday
• April 7 - Kate's Birthday
• April 8-12 - Leader of the Week = Nate
• April 16 - Cadence's Birthday
• April 19 - NO School
• April 22 - We DO have school - snow day makeup day
• April 29 - May 3 - Leader of the Week = Serah

MAP Testing Dates:

• MAP ELA  - April 29, May 1, and May 2.  We will test first thing in the morning (9:00) until 11:00/11:30, depending on the test.  
• MAP Math - May 6 and May 8.  We will test during the same time frame as the ELA tests.  

Check Out What We Are Learning This Week:

Writing:

We completed our Information pieces, and we are finishing up our posters and SeeSaw videos for the Expert Fair.  We will begin our Test Prep Unit on Wednesday.  In this unit, students will be given a prompt to write about using one of the types of writing we learned this year; opinion, narrative, and informational.  We will go over how to use FAT-P when answering a prompt, as well as how to draft, edit, and publish in one sitting.  

Grammar:

This week we will continue focusing on compound and complex sentences.  After the minilessons on these topics, the students will be using noredink.com for more practice and an assessment.  

Reading:  

We will begin our poetry unit this week.  In this unit, students will learn how to write poetry, as well as how to identify what a poem is about using evidence from the poem.  

Read Aloud:

This week we will continue reading another of my favorite read alouds, Among the Hidden.   This is the first book out of seven in the Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson.  This is a book about a fictional future in which drastic measures have been taken to stop overpopulation.  My students loved this book last year, and could not wait to read the rest of the series on their own.  I do have the entire series for our classroom library that I will get out for them once I finish the first book.  

Math:  

We will continue with Ch. 13: Perimeter and Area.  In this chapter, the students will learn how to measure perimeter, how to model and measure area, and how to relate perimeter and area.  We will also learn how to use a frequency table, as well as how to read and create a bar graph.  Our test will be Friday, March 29.  The study guide for this chapter is on our Google Classroom.

***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 Tuesday, March 26.  We will test over these sorts on Friday, April 5.  

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, March 29th.   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:

We are completing another Mystery Science Unit: Energizing Everything.  In this unit we will learn about energy, motion, and electricity.   This unit will encourage students to think about the energy that things need to move.  Students will explore how energy makes things go, from powering vehicles to moving one's body.  Students will experiment with rubber band racers to discover the relationship between how much energy is stored in a material and how much is released.  They will investigate the role that hills play in making roller coasters move and the energy transfer that happens when two objects collide.  Students will realize that thinking about the world in terms of energy helps them make sense of how and why things speed up and slow down.  Hands-on activities focus on engineering, testing hypotheses, and using results to develop their ideas.

 Have a GREAT Week!