Just a few thoughts...I am sending home a Scholastic book order form. As last time, you may order online instead of having your child return the form to school--choose the method that works best for you! If you'd like to order online, go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. Our class username is spry 4 and the class password is room 11. One additional benefit for our classroom of ordering online is that it earns us extra books :)
Although students have taken the chapter 15 math test, please continue helping them hone their measurement skills (estimating distances, quantities, etc.). They will see these kinds of problems again, and knowing measurement units and being able to appropriately compare them are very useful life skills. We are now studying negative and positive integers. Students love the relative novelty of negative numbers!
If you have any ideas about a Spring Fling project for our class, please let our room moms, Mrs. Sullivan and Mrs. Van Weele, know. We don't want to wait until the last minute!
We will be joining the other 4th grade classes for a "Pioneer Picnic" for our Valentine's Day party, on Thursday, Feb. 11. Students will still exchange cards, and we will do some pioneer-related activities at different stations in the morning--probably starting after morning recess, 10:50 A.M.--and then have pioneer-appropriate food for lunch. More information will be sent home next week. I'm hoping to get several parent volunteers to help with the activities and the lunch, so check your schedule and if you can help, please contact Kristin, Amy, or me. Thanks!
Enjoy another 3-day weekend!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Happy Friday! The class has had a wonderful start to the new year, working diligently, as before. Thank you for helping them set their new goal or goals for the second trimester. By reflecting on strengths and weaknesses, as well as interest, and then setting goals accordingly, students can help themselves stay focused and better judge for themselves how much progress they are making.
IMPORTANT DATE! All fourth grade students will be going to on a field trip to Sacramento on March 23. Students will be traveling by bus. We will need parent chaperons, who, unfortunately will have to drive (We wish there was enough room on the buses!). Students must be at Rancho on March 23 by 7 A.M. We will return from Sacramento about 4 P.M. Students will be visiting the State Capitol, a history museum, and Sutter's Fort. It will be a wonderful trip! Contact me or our field trip coordinator, Pam Allan, if you can help chaperons the trip. If you have any questions, please ask!
In math, students have been working this week on measurement, both customary (inches, feet, yards, miles, cups, pints, quarts, gallons, etc.) and metric (millimeters, centimeters, decimeters, kilometers, milligrams, grams, liters, etc.). We have also spent a lot of time practicing how to most accurately read a ruler (Have you correctly lined up the ruler? Can you figure out how to determine what the measurement is? Can you determine what the measurement is, rounded to the nearest 1/2 inch or to the nearest centimeter?). In addition, we have practiced measuring common items and estimating distance and capacity. For example, students have spent time measuring or trying to estimate the length/distance, capacity, or weight of things that they encounter regularly in their daily lives. Being able to readily visualize how much liquid we have if we have 1 cup or 1 pint or 1 gallon or 1 liter is an important skill. Being able to realistically estimate length and distance (What are the dimensions of our classroom? How tall is the bookcase? How far is my house from Rancho School?) is an important skill. I hope you will find time to help your child continue to practice throughout the school year. Of course they have also spent time practicing converting measurements from smaller units to larger units (divide) and from larger units to smaller units (multiply).
We have started reading The Pioneers Go West, to start us thinking about the westward movement. We will be reading this book over time, just as we did Island of the Blue Dolphins. Pioneers is a wonderful book, and we are very fortunate to have a full class set since this book is now out of print. Have your child tell you about how the Stevens party crossed the Big Muddy (and have them tell you what river the Big Muddy actually is!).
Students will begin sharing their final assignment for Island of the Blue Dolphins today. They wrote some very interesting chapters!
We are continuing to work on punctuating dialogue. If your child needs more practice or review, have them use Writers Express (each child has one in their desk). We are also beginning to focus on writing summaries. You can help by talking to your child about their reading and asking them to identify the main idea and the important details that help us understand that main idea.
We have been investigating mock rocks to start our Solid Earth unit. We will complete the first series of investigations next week. Students were quite enthusiastic about making observations and taking apart their "rocks."
Thanks to the State, the District, and the PTA, we now have a document camera in the classroom. Every classroom at Rancho will have one by the end of the school year. The first classrooms to receive them are the 4th and 5th grade classrooms. I just received mine yesterday after school (Many thanks to Alex Obukhov for helping me!). I have a lot to learn, but I already love it! There are still things that need to be connected (like the DVD/VCR player), but the beauty of the document camera is that you can easily project the image of any material so that the entire class can view it at the same time (a bit like an overhead projector, but without having to make copies or pictures). For instance, I will be able to project the image of a page in a book by just placing the book under the document camera. I will be able to show websites, student work, etc. It will be interesting to see how it works out.
And lastly, thank you again for the generous class gift. Your thoughtfulness was greatly appreciated. Have a great weekend!
IMPORTANT DATE! All fourth grade students will be going to on a field trip to Sacramento on March 23. Students will be traveling by bus. We will need parent chaperons, who, unfortunately will have to drive (We wish there was enough room on the buses!). Students must be at Rancho on March 23 by 7 A.M. We will return from Sacramento about 4 P.M. Students will be visiting the State Capitol, a history museum, and Sutter's Fort. It will be a wonderful trip! Contact me or our field trip coordinator, Pam Allan, if you can help chaperons the trip. If you have any questions, please ask!
In math, students have been working this week on measurement, both customary (inches, feet, yards, miles, cups, pints, quarts, gallons, etc.) and metric (millimeters, centimeters, decimeters, kilometers, milligrams, grams, liters, etc.). We have also spent a lot of time practicing how to most accurately read a ruler (Have you correctly lined up the ruler? Can you figure out how to determine what the measurement is? Can you determine what the measurement is, rounded to the nearest 1/2 inch or to the nearest centimeter?). In addition, we have practiced measuring common items and estimating distance and capacity. For example, students have spent time measuring or trying to estimate the length/distance, capacity, or weight of things that they encounter regularly in their daily lives. Being able to readily visualize how much liquid we have if we have 1 cup or 1 pint or 1 gallon or 1 liter is an important skill. Being able to realistically estimate length and distance (What are the dimensions of our classroom? How tall is the bookcase? How far is my house from Rancho School?) is an important skill. I hope you will find time to help your child continue to practice throughout the school year. Of course they have also spent time practicing converting measurements from smaller units to larger units (divide) and from larger units to smaller units (multiply).
We have started reading The Pioneers Go West, to start us thinking about the westward movement. We will be reading this book over time, just as we did Island of the Blue Dolphins. Pioneers is a wonderful book, and we are very fortunate to have a full class set since this book is now out of print. Have your child tell you about how the Stevens party crossed the Big Muddy (and have them tell you what river the Big Muddy actually is!).
Students will begin sharing their final assignment for Island of the Blue Dolphins today. They wrote some very interesting chapters!
We are continuing to work on punctuating dialogue. If your child needs more practice or review, have them use Writers Express (each child has one in their desk). We are also beginning to focus on writing summaries. You can help by talking to your child about their reading and asking them to identify the main idea and the important details that help us understand that main idea.
We have been investigating mock rocks to start our Solid Earth unit. We will complete the first series of investigations next week. Students were quite enthusiastic about making observations and taking apart their "rocks."
Thanks to the State, the District, and the PTA, we now have a document camera in the classroom. Every classroom at Rancho will have one by the end of the school year. The first classrooms to receive them are the 4th and 5th grade classrooms. I just received mine yesterday after school (Many thanks to Alex Obukhov for helping me!). I have a lot to learn, but I already love it! There are still things that need to be connected (like the DVD/VCR player), but the beauty of the document camera is that you can easily project the image of any material so that the entire class can view it at the same time (a bit like an overhead projector, but without having to make copies or pictures). For instance, I will be able to project the image of a page in a book by just placing the book under the document camera. I will be able to show websites, student work, etc. It will be interesting to see how it works out.
And lastly, thank you again for the generous class gift. Your thoughtfulness was greatly appreciated. Have a great weekend!
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