April 9th-13th, 2012



• Notable person Biography:  Students will choose their famous person from history. They are required to read a book on their notable person and complete research through the Internet and our wireless laptops. Their final project will be our “wax museum” presentation and a written biography, Friday, May 18th at 9:00-9:45 a.m. More information to follow.

• Assessment Day: Friday, April 27th. Students will attend school by appointment only. Information to follow.  If you have any questions please call me.

• Special pricing for movie theatre snacks! For just $4.00 students may buy a kids pack that includes a drink, popcorn and fruit snack candy. We will need to let the theatre know about how many students will be interested in this special offer.

• Chimpanzee Movie Field Trip:  Friday, April 20th! The remarkable story will be a treat for our students. Special showing celebrating Earth Day and correlating with our ecosystem science unit. Buses will depart at 9:15 a.m. and return for lunch.
•  Wednesday, April 11^th, no school, furlough day

• Young Writer’s Conference, April 20^th 8:00-8:50 a.m.: Student’s will share a published or polished piece of writing including small moments, short stories, poems, essays, or other writing pieces.  A light breakfast will be served, a certificate of participation, a journal and pen will be given to each student participating.  All students in my class are encouraged to attend and share a selection of their writing.

• Needed:  For our last social studies unit the kids will be working with regional maps of the United States, Colorado, and Africa.  By this time in the school year their colored pencils are either non-existent, missing colors, or in pretty sad shape.  It would be great if you could re-supply your student with a fresh set of 16 colored pencils, a working hand-held pencil sharpener, and pencil eraser caps. 

1.  Students are asked to reuse and create something from trash!  Our current science ecosystem discussions have keyed on creating less waste for our environment.  Students are challenged to turn trash to treasure and design something different from trash.  A few picture examples are given below. Each treasure should be no more then 8 x 8.  These treasures will be displayed in the library once completed and turned in on Friday, April 13th.

Examples from Mrs. Myer's daughter, Molly:



2.  Students need to come up with three notable people from history and be prepared to submit these names on Monday. Students must be sure that there are  books and internet resources availiable to them on each person. The list of three will be narrowed down to one.

3.  Math Game:  Adding numbers to 20. 

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/math_games/addition/math-lines-20.html

March 26th - 30th, 2012

Happy Spring Break!  No homework on the blog for this week!  However, you will be required to keep reading and filling out the reading log.  If you didn't get a reading log, print one off of this web site, or make your own. Enjoy your time off of school.  You've worked hard and deserve a break!

I'll post again next weekend.

March 19-23, 2012

This week we have Mrs. Atkins as our returning guest on the blog…

Watch her video on the left!

1.  Create a flow map to represent the sequence of events that occur in the following activity. Oh, and have lots of fun doing it!! Your teachers sure did :) 

Now all you have to do is follow the directions that appear in front of you on the screen!

2. Continue working on your Book Report!

3. Both assignments are due Friday, March 23.  

Thanks for having me as a guest this week on the blog! I miss all of you, and I’m already looking forward to the next time we’re together again!!

March 12 - 16th, 2012



·         Students did a fantastic job on CSAP testing this week.  I’m proud of their hard work and dedication to doing their best!  Thank you to all the many parents that provided healthy snacks.  Also, a big thanks to Mrs. Ranta for organizing snacks for us.

• Report Cards were sent home on Friday. Please sign and return the envelope. You may keep the report for your records.

·         Talent Show, Friday, March 16th.      

·         Spring Break:  March 26^th- 30th, 2012.

·         Comp Day, No School on April 2^nd.

·         Needed:  A good home for our birds over spring break!

MATH

Memorize the following basic measurements:

12 in. is 1 foot
3 feet is 1 yard
36 in. is 1 yard
5,280 feet in one mile
10 mm is 1 cm
100 cm is 1 m
1,000 m is 1 km
2 cups in 1 pint
2 pints in 1 quart
4 cups in a quart
4 quarts in a gallon
16 cups in a gallon
8 cups in 1/2 gallon

Practice some measurement conversions.

Be able to convert yards to feet...   6 yards = _____feet....6 x 3 = 18 feet

Be able to convert feet to yards...    24 feet = _____yards...24 divided by 3 = 8 yards

Be able to convert inches to feet...24 inches = ____feet...24 divided by 2 = 2 feet

Be able to convert feet to inches...6 feet = _____inches...6 x 12 = 72 inches

Be able to do basic metric conversions as well!

Review the math vocabulary from last weeks Blog one more time. 

http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/

Be able to identify perpendicular lines, parallel lines, and intersecting lines. 

Be able to identify and describe the basic geometric shapes: polygons, rhombuses, trapezoids, right triangles, and equilateral triangles.
Know the basic 3-d shapes: cone, sphere, cube, rectangular prisms, pyramids, cylinder, etc...

Be able to identify acute, obtuse, right, and straight angles.

March 5th - 9th

TCAP will begin on Tuesday.  The first two days are the Long Write component of the assessment.  The first day you will be given a prompt, time to plan using a FLEE map, and finally compose your rough draft.  Wednesday is the second day.  You will get a whole hour to reread your rough copy, revise, edit, and compose your final copy.  You all have worked very hard on your writing and you all are super ready for this task! 


The next four sessions are reading comprehension and writing.  The final three sessions are math. 


So, remember to get to bed early and eat a hearty, healthy, protein-packed breakfast.  Our testing time slot is 11:00 to 12:15 each day. A healthy snack will be provided.

 
March 16  Talent Show
March 21  PTSA 2:30 to 3:30, Vault 5:30
March 26 - 30  Spring Break
April 2  No School, Teacher Comp Day
April 11 No School, District closed
April 25  Early Release Day, dismissal at 1:10 pm
April 27th  Assessment Day #4
May 4th No School, District closed

MARCH BOOK REPORT

This month's book genre is Student's Choice.  The format is a Cereal Box Book Report.  It is due March 23rd. 


Directions for a Cereal Box Book Report...

Cereal Box Book Report

Due anytime the week of March 19, 2012

Supplies Needed

Cereal box

White paper (to cover front, back and sides of box)

Scissors, ruler, glue, markers, crayons, other craft supplies

Optional Supplies

Colored paper (to cover front, back and sides of box)

Format

Front Cover of Box

Ø  Title of Book

Ø  Author

Ø  Your Name

Ø  Label:  My Spring Book Report

Ø  Simple illustration or border

Side Panels

Ø  Detailed description of the setting(s)

Ø  Main character descriptions

Back of Box

Ø  PLOT…Write a detailed summary of your book, including any problem(s) and solution(s)

Ø  Keep the ending a secret, either leave it out or cover it up

Inside of Box

Ø  A fully colored picture of your favorite part of the book with an explanation of why this was your favorite part

Ø  At least 3 connections that you had with/to the book.

Ø  Collect artifacts that represent the book.  For example, if your main character loves Twinkies, you could put a Twinkie in the box.  One child read How to Eat Fried Worms and filled his box with gummy worms and ketchup packets to share with the class after presenting his book report.

MATH


Visit the ixl.com website every night and take advantage of the free minutes.  Stay in the fourth grade section. 


Focus on the following topics:

Measurement: Compare and Convert Customary Units (N.1)
                     Compare and Convert Metric Units (N.2)
Time: Elapsed time (O.5)
Geometry: P.1 to P.4, and P.6 to P.8
Decimals: T.2
Functions: H.1 and H.2
Data, Charts, and Graphs: J.1 through J.7

AND

Visit the on-line math dictionary and review all the geometry vocabulary from our last math unit.

http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/

Look up and review:

point, line, ray, line segment
horizontal, vertical,diagonal, intersecting, parallel, and perpendicular lines
right, acute, obtuse, and straight angles
polygons, quadrilaterals, rhombus, triangle (all types)
parallelograms, squares, rectangles, and trapezoids