Welcome to Mrs. Nisely's Blog!

Friday, February 5, 2016

February 8-11, 2016

Valentine's Day Parties (February 11th, 2:30-3:30) - If students are planning on bringing in valentines for friends this day, they must bring in a valentine for each member of our 21-student class. Students may create a valentine bag or box to bring to school on the 12th.

Dates to Remember:

February 11 - Valentine's Days Parties (2:30-3:30)
February 12 - President's Day Weekend, No School
February 15 - President's Day, No School
February 16 - Class Pictures
February 24 - Early Release (1:00 pm)

Literacy - Weekly Reading Log (150+ minutes)

Math - As always, continue to practice your multiplication facts! See the "Classroom Resources" on the left hand side for math games and videos.

Friday, January 22, 2016

January 25-29, 2016

**All 4th graders are working hard to complete their Genius Hour projects! To help, Mrs. Wiley and Mrs. McHugh will be available before school for any 4th graders who would like to come in and work on their projects. They will be available at 8:00 on the mornings of the 25th, 26th, 28th and 29th. Please send Mrs. Wiley a quick email to let her know if you would like to come on any of these days at dwiley@jeffco.k12.co.us

Students are expected to continue working on their multiplication tables at home until completely mastered! Many students have studied for the in class test, and then have forgotten their facts during math! As we work on division and fractions in our math unit, a complete recall of multiplication facts is critical for success!

Classroom Supplies: We have run out of spiral notebooks for math! If you have any extra unused spiral notebooks at home, we would appreciate if we could use them for math.

Dates to Remember:

January 27 - Science Fair
February 5 - Space Odyssey Parent-Child Dance, 6:30 - 8:30 pm
February 11 - Valentine's Days Parties
February 12 - President's Day Weekend, No School
February 15 - President's Day, No School

Social Studies

Know these terms before Friday.

Key Terms

Agriculture- The practice of farming and raising animals

Asset- A useful or valuable thing, person or quality

Bonanza- A situation or event that causes a sudden increase in wealth, good fortune or profit

Bypass- To travel past or around.

Expedition- A journey or voyage by a group of people with a specific purpose

Expense- The cost required for something; the money spent on something

Incentive- A thing that motivates or encourages one to do something

Industry – Processing raw materials and manufacturing goods in factories

Natural Resource-Things that occur in nature that can be used for economic gain

Opportunity Cost- Losing a potential gain due to choosing one of many options.

Risk-A situation that exposes someone or something to danger, harm or loss

Transcontinental- Crossing a continent (usually refers to a railroad line)

Friday, January 15, 2016

January 19-22, 2016

Our class is participating in another donation drive for The Gathering Place. They are collecting travel sized hygiene products such as shampoos, lotions, soaps, mouthwash, etc. We prefer the small ones as many homeless people don't have room to carry full sized products on their person. Any help is appreciated!

Classroom Supplies: We have run out of spiral notebooks for math! If you have any extra unused spiral notebooks at home, we would appreciate if we could use them for math.

Dates to Remember:

January 18 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, No School
January 27 - Science Fair
February 5 - Space Odyssey Parent-Child Dance, 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Science -

Watch the science videos below. Think about the question to prove in science class this week: Whose day is longer, Earth or Jupiter? Write an explanation of how you know the answer to the question.

Literacy -

List the author's purpose for writing the following piece.
Constructed Response: In the text, Wildlife Refuge, give three examples why the writer thinks it's a good idea to take a field trip to the Wildlife Refuge.

Wildlife Refuge Field Trip

Dear Mr. Smith and Mrs. Nieto,

We have a problem. The wildlife here in the city is very limited. There is not a lot of opportunity to learn about conservation and wildlife preservation. If we took a field trip to The Wildlife Refuge, our problem would be solved. Trenton, Diego and I would like to take our class for a great learning experience. In addition, we will provide a study guide to students to identify the animals and provide information about conservation of endangered wildlife. If we went on a field trip, we will learn about the wildlife from around the world and how rivers provide a natural habitat for them to live and breed. This information would help us to understand the importance of science in our day to day life. We would use math to make a budget and figure out a way to earn money. These skills will be very useful again and again. We will learn how to make a schedule with target dates. This will provide us with a plan that covers the entire project from start to finish. The preparation of the study guide will require lots of research and organization of information. The first thing to do is research, research, research! Next, we will choose a fund raiser (with your approval, of course). This will earn money for the field trip. The parents will hopefully chip in their time and money, if we don't get enough. We will prepare a plan schedule. This will provide the dates that team members will need to accomplish the steps toward our goal. My competent adult model is the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. It shows us step by step how to plan a trip and what to see. Now, you are asking why should I approve a trip to The Wildlife Refuge? How does this improve student learning? Besides the fact that the project planning, fund raising, budgeting and reporting will provide an excellent learning opportunity, it will provide education. It will also provide awareness of wildlife and the importance of conservation. This project will be evaluated by its successful planning and its ability to involve our class in wildlife conservation. The trip will be evaluated by the student participation on the trip and a plan of conservation that identifies what we can all do to protect and respect wildlife so they will still be around when we have children.

Sincerely,

Your student

Friday, January 8, 2016

January 11 - 15, 2016

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a marvelous winter break!

Van Arsdale is helping with the Grub Club Food Drive. Grub Club is a bi-weekly program in which homeless and emancipated Jeffco students receive boxes filled with three days worth of food, as well as personal hygiene products. They are working to collect 1,800 pasta dinners, for homeless Jeffco students. Fourth grade is having a friendly competition to see which class can bring in the most dinners! The food drive will be running until January 15th, so you have until then to bring in your donations. Please note: these students do not have can openers, please donate canned pasta dinners with a "pop-top".

Our class is participating in another donation drive for The Gathering Place. They are collecting travel sized hygiene products such as shampoos, lotions, soaps, mouthwash, etc. We prefer the small ones as many homeless people don't have room to carry full sized products on their person. Any help is appreciated!

Classroom Supplies: We have run out of spiral notebooks for math! If you have any extra unused spiral notebooks at home, we would appreciate if we could use them for math.

Dates to Remember:

January 18 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, No School
January 27 - Science Fair
February 5 - Parent-Child Dance

Reading -

Remember, students will need to continue to complete their weekly at home reading and record their reading minutes by each Friday in their planners. The requirement is still 150 minutes of reading to meet fourth grade standards!

Science -

Please watch the following YouTube videos about the rotations of the planets in the solar system.

Friday, December 18, 2015

December 21, 2015 - January 1, 2016

Van Arsdale is helping with the Grub Club Food Drive. Grub Club is a bi-weekly program in which homeless and emancipated Jeffco students receive boxes filled with three days worth of food, as well as personal hygiene products. They are working to collect 1,800 pasta dinners, for homeless Jeffco students. Fourth grade is having a friendly competition to see which class can bring in the most dinners! The food drive will be running until January 15th, so you have until then to bring in your donations. Please note: these students do not have can openers, please donate canned pasta dinners with a "pop-top".

There will be no blog updates until after we return from winter break. Please have a restful, fun, wonderful winter break! See you in the next year!

Santa's Wishlist: Parents, if you are in need of some stocking stuffers, we have a small Santa's Wishlist at the bottom of this blog update.

Dates to Remember:

December 21 to January 5 - Winter Break
January 6 - Students return

No take home note or reaction sheet for winter break! The only homework over winter break required from student's is the Reading Log. Enjoy your holiday break!

We have been working very hard this year, and been very good, learning and growing as fourth graders (aka fifth-graders-in-training). Unfortunately, our supplies are dwindling! If you need some ideas for stocking stuffers, we are running low on spiral notebooks, pencils, composition books, and dry erase markers.