October 28, 2011

Important News: As you know, WKCE testing starts next Wednesday, November 2nd, for our 4th graders. Please make sure that your child gets good sleep and healthy foods for meals. Fourth grade is an especially important year for the WKCE as students are tested in all subject areas.

Thank you so much to those who volunteered to help with our Halloween celebration on Monday, October 31st! Students will be able to change into costumes (if they choose) at approximately 1:30. We have been asked to allow only 5 minutes for students to put their costumes on, so please keep this in mind as you and your child plan for Monday.

Math: Students have been working to understand the relationship between multiplication and division, understanding patterns in multiples of numbers, and playing games to help them with their fact knowledge. Games that could be played at home include "Baseball Multiplication," "Multiplication Top-It," and "Beat the Calculator." Ask your child how to play, or look up directions in our Math Student Reference Book. Students who already know their multiplication facts quickly can focus in on practicing division. Throughout the year, students will be taking 3 minute, 50 facts tests to measure their progress.

Due to WKCE testing, studylink homework will be irregular. Some days we will not have time to learn new concepts, but this will be a great time to practice facts at school and at home.

Literacy: In preparation for the WKCE testing, students have been looking at sample language arts questions to determine which sentence in a paragraph does not belong, where to best insert a given sentence in a paragraph, and how to use transition words to create a more fluent paragraph. Next Monday and Tuesday we will be looking at how best to take a reading test, by looking at the questions before the reading selection, and finding words that signal literal comprehension versus deeper comprehension.

In reading we have also been working on word accuracy. Ask your child to share some strategies he or she has to accurately say words that may be unfamiliar at first glance. We have been working on making meaningful chunks of words, finding words within words, and taking off prefixes and suffixes to make the rest of the word more manageable.

In writing, we have been looking at what authors of personal narratives do to make a great story. Students have learned that thinking about emotions and turning points in their lives elicit emotions. These are some ways we have generated ideas for our new personal narratives. Ask your child what his or her personal narrative is about.

Social Studies: Did you know that Wisconsin was once almost all covered with glaciers? Have you ever been to the western part of the state to the beautiful hills and valleys? Student are learning about the effects glaciers had on the land, and how much of the Western Uplands were not touched by glaciers. Wisconsin was thought to be like the western part of the state is today, until it was flattened by glaciers. Many lakes and rivers were formed by the scraping and melting of glaciers.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be learning about the Early People of Wisconsin and the similarities and differences between these groups. We will be thinking like historians, who must use various clues to piece history together.