May 13, 2012

Math:  Geometry is all around us, both two dimensionally and three dimensionally.  In unit 11 students have been learning about the properties of various three dimensional geometric solids, using a lot of vocabulary such as faces, bases, edges, vertices, congruent, parallel, polygon, and more.  Quiz your child on the various properties using objects from home.  You may want the Student Reference Book handy!  Along with three dimensional objects, students have been working to find the volume of rectangular prisms.  Students have also been weighing and estimating the weight of objects.

This week students will learn how to subtract negative and positive numbers from each other.  I often use the phrase, “take away” instead of “subtract” because it helps me think about how to solve the problem.  If I take something negative away, I end up better off.  If I take something positive away, I end up worse off. 

Our unit 11 test will be next Tuesday.  Students will start unit 12 next week focusing on rates, such as miles per gallon, items per package, etc.  Unit price will be included in this.  A great experience for students is going to the store to find or calculate unit prices by taking the total cost divided by the number of ounces or items in a container.

Literacy: Students have been revisiting how to determine importance while reading non-fiction.  We are reading about our current science unit, setting our purpose for reading, and using headings, bold words, pictures, and our inner conversation to decide what is important to remember.  Students are using FQR charts (Facts, Questions, and Responses) to take notes on their reading.

This week students will use their knowledge of reading non-fiction and note-taking to start some research on an environmental problem, on a pioneer in the environmental field, or on an environmental solution.  This will be nicely connected to our science unit on ecosystems and environmental issues.  Students will create a visual and oral presentation which we will hopefully share with others!  We will keep you posted.

Science:  I hope, by now, you have heard exciting news coming from our ecosystems unit!  Fish and snails are having babies, crickets are nibbling on our plants, and the isopods are disappearing to dark places in the terrariums.  Students have been thinking about interdependent relationships to understand how one thing affects many other things.  This week, students will connect their aquariums and terrariums to understand how land and water ecosystems affect one another.  Take a hike, go in your back yard or garden, and have conversations on how things in those ecosystems affect one another.

Notes:  Our Sullivan’s Woods and Madison trips have been a great success.  Thanks for getting forms and money in to make these trips possible!

Heritage Hill is coming up on May 24^th.  We did have an overwhelming response in favor of sailing.  A note will be going home soon.  Keep an eye out for that!

April 24, 2012

Math: Have you heard about the purple transparent mirrors that we get to use in our current math unit? They are fun and are helping us learn about the properties of preimages and images, lines of reflection, and symmetry. Students are realizing that a reflected image is the same distance from the line of reflection as the original image (preimage), and that reflections are congruent, but flipped. This is a short math unit, so we will probably test next Thursday. Please make sure to look over and discuss the unit 9 math test, which came home yesterday, with your child.

Literacy: April is National Poetry Month, and a perfect time to teach and learn about poetry. In reading we have been learning about various types of poems, such as haiku, cinquain, free verse, concrete, and limerick. In writing we are trying out the different formats and including literary devices/figurative language, such as simile, metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and personification.

Students are still involved in book clubs; reading, writing about, and discussing a historical fiction book at this time.

Social Studies: Did you know that approximately 95% of the milk produced in Wisconsin is made into cheese? Wisconsin is the 5^th largest cheese producer in the world! No wonder we are the “Cheese-heads!” This week we will wrap up our unit on Wisconsin’s Developing Economy. Students have been learning about various industries in Wisconsin, such as logging, farming, dairy, and manufacturing, noting how technology made a huge difference in production.

Our field trip to Madison on Friday, May 11^th, will be a great way to review what we know about state history and government.

Our field trip to Sullivan’s Woods on Wednesday, May 2^nd, will be a great way to kick off our upcoming science unit on ecosystems and the environment.

We will be sending home another field trip form for Heritage Hill this week! Sorry for all of the forms—4^th grade trips happen to work best in the spring!

April 1, 2012

Math: This week we will be wrapping up unit 9 concepts, but will not test until the Tuesday after Spring break. Unit 10 will be a far cry from fractions, decimals, and percent, and instead will focus on symmetry, lines of reflection, patterns, and negative numbers.

We have been working hard to make conversions between fractions, decimals, and percent. A couple of helpful hints: if a fraction does not have 100 as the denominator, such as 2/5, make an equivalent fraction that does have a denominator of a 10 or 100, such as 4/10, or 40/100. This makes it a lot easier to convert to a decimal and percent. If the denominator of a fraction is a 4, say the fraction as a “quarter.” The students know how to write the decimal for $0.25, or $0.75, which then helps them write the percent as well.

Literacy: Has your child shown you their “Storybird” account yet? As a wrap up to our traditional literature unit, students are using “Storybird” to help them write a fairy tale, tall tale, or myth. Students are required to include the elements of that genre, and the fiction writing strategies we’ve been working on to make a fun story. This is due on Thursday.

As a tie in to our social studies unit on immigration, students have been listening to many short accounts of Wisconsin immigrants’ experiences and making written responses to the stories. They have been challenged to imagine what it would be like and to take the perspective of that immigrant or family.

This week students will start a poetry unit. I will be exposing students to many different kinds of poetry. Students will be reading poetry and finding poetry that they like. After Spring break, we will begin writing our own poetry, trying different styles, and including figurative language, and literary devices like onomatopoeia, alliteration, simile, metaphor, and personification to help us.

Social Studies: We have had some guests in 4^th grade to help us with our learning! As you saw in the “Traeger Tales” Representative Hintz visited our class to discuss government. Our own Traeger ELL teacher, Bee Vang, gave an excellent presentation on her Hmong immigrant experience. And finally, on Thursday, Mike Breza, from the Oshkosh Public Museum, came in dressed as a lumberjack to kick off our lumbering unit. We will learn about Wisconsin’s developing economy from logging, farming, manufacturing and tourism.

March 12, 2012

Math: Perimeter and area will be the focus for unit 8. Students will discover real-world applications for both by thinking of tiling or carpeting floors, painting a room, or building a fence around a yard. Students will understand how to use the length x width or base x height formula to find the area of a rectangle or parallelogram, and how to use ½ base x height to find the area of a triangle. At home, these concepts can be practiced by finding the area of walls and floors, as well as the perimeter of wallpaper borders or floorboards. The unit 8 math test will be taken the week of March 19^th.

Literacy: When is the last time you’ve read a fairy tale, like Cinderella, or a tall tale, like Paul Bunyan? It has probably been quite a while, but they are stories that stay in our minds because they have been around for so long and there are so many variations of them. We have been reading a lot of traditional literature lately to examine the common and varying elements of the different genres within this literature. Our knowledge of story elements has helped us have great discussions about these books. Ask your child what a tall tale is and how it’s different from a fairy tale. This week we will focus in on legends and myths, and next week we will dive into fables.

We are working to wrap up our fictional stories in writing. Students have been using their knowledge of story elements to weave together a story with a character that has a goal, who has had some conflicts reaching that goal, and who, by the end of the story, has changed in some way. We are also working on paragraphing in fiction, writing to create movies in our readers’ minds, and showing versus telling. Stories are due Monday, March 19^th.

Social Studies: Did you know that the first capital in Wisconsin was in the small town of Belmont? Did you know that we were the 38^th state to join the United States? Students understand that when a state forms, it has its own government. Ask your students about our mock legislature. Discuss the current bills and campaigns going on in our country and state, and the responsibility of citizens to be informed.

Our next unit will be on immigration to the United States, and more specifically Wisconsin. Students will learn about the effects and influences immigration had on immigrants and on our state. They will discuss push and pull factors, and the hardships many immigrants endured. At home, talk about your family’s immigrant story if you know it. Discuss traditions you may have that came from the countries your family emigrated from.

February 20, 2012

Math: We have been living and breathing fractions! Students are understanding that the amount that a fraction represents is based on the whole. 1/2 of the students in our class may be 11 students, while in a different classroom, 1/2 of the students may be 10 or 12 students. We have practiced fraction-of problems with a deck of cards, something you could do at home. What is the fractional amount of hearts? Of kings? Students are also learning to make equivalent fractions by using the equivalent fractions rule: You must multiply or divide the denominator and numerator by the same number. The numerator and denominator of 3/4 can be multiplied by 4, for instance, to make the fraction 12/16. Students will be taking the unit 7 math test next Wednesday, and the Open Response test on Thursday of next week.

Literacy: Have you ever asked someone to tell you about a book or movie, and then regretted asking because the person gave you way too much information? That is where summarizing comes in. We have been practicing finding the important elements in a story, then making written summaries based on those elements. One of the elements of a story is characters. Students have been learning about how characters are developed by authors; through their looks, their actions, by what they say, and by what other characters say. Students are recognizing that main characters typically change in at least one of the aforementioned ways by the end of a story.

Students are excited to begin book clubs this week! Students will be involved with a small group of classmates who are reading the same book. Each student will be responsible for making sure to read the assigned pages on time, being prepared with written thoughts on their book, and then contributing thoughts to the group discussion.

In writing, students are using their knowledge from reading to help them write effective fictional stories. We have planned our stories based on the story elements, have worked on how to begin our stories (no more "Once upon a time..." unless it's a fairy tale), and will work on writing scenes that include action, dialogue, and description about the setting. We always look to the experts--the books we love to read!

Science: Did you hear about the bones? Last Thursday, our room erupted when students were able to don some gloves and literally dig into the marrow of long bones from a cow. Sounds gross, but students were amazed to discover that the long bones in our arms and legs make blood cells and store fat! We are learning about how all of our organ systems are involved in movement. This week we will think about the importance of our diet and exercise in keeping our bodies healthy.

Stay tuned for dates and times for our Human Growth and Development lessons.

Social Studies: After we we wrap up our science unit, next week we will begin our social studies unit learning about how Wisconsin became a state, state symbols, how laws are made, and civic actions.

January 30, 2012

Math: On Thursday students will take the unit 6 math test and complete the Open Response for unit 6 on Friday.

In unit 7, students will be focusing on understanding fractions, what they are, how we add and subtract them, how we make equivalent fractions, and then, how those fractions compare with decimals and probability. Students will each have a fraction card set that will really help them with their understanding. Students will be using pictures, blocks, and paper and pencil methods to develop our knowledge of fractions. At home, please help your child by pointing out how you may use fractional amounts in cooking or other aspects of daily life. Use dry macaroni noodles, beads, pennies, or anything else that you have a lot of, to show how to group items equally into halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, etc. Discuss how division and fractions are related.

Literacy: In reading we have started to learn about the elements of a story. In 4th grade, students break fictional stories down into elements or parts. The beginning of a story includes the introduction of the characters, setting, and goal/problem of the main character(s). The middle of the story includes the main events which are directly related to the goal/problem of the character(s). These events usually involve conflicts which make it difficult for the goal to be reached. Toward the end of the story, we reach the climax, or turning point in the story, which leads the main character(s) to either reaching his/her goal or not (the resolution). Students will be practicing mapping out various stories that we have read demonstrating their understanding of the elements.

Story mapping will help students as they move into their next writing project, which they've been so anxious to write all year--fictional stories. With their background knowledge of writing personal narratives and reading and hearing many fictional stories this year, and doing an author study, they now have the experience they need in order to write fiction. Aside from story elements, we will be focusing on making sure to have a good mixture of dialogue and description, and on paragraphing in fiction. Students will spend many days analyzing how authors paragraph based on characters speaking, the setting, etc.

Science: Our human body unit has begun with a lot of excitement. Students were introduced to our "new students" Bob and Fred, who will help us on our journey to learn about the organ systems, how they work together, diseases and injuries related to the systems, and how we can make healthy choices for a healthy body. This week students will begin a group project in which each group will be the "experts" on an organ system. Each group will research the organ system they are assigned to and teach the rest of the class about it. Each group will have an outline of a body, then draw and label the organs in the body, and provide facts about the system around the outline of the body.

January 17, 2012

Math: This week you will see the Partial Quotients method of division in action. Don't forget to look at the Unit 6 Family Letter or the Student Reference book for more information on how this method works. If your student is struggling with this homework, or any homework, please let me know in the agenda, and I can give extra support at school.

Literacy: Our students are so excited about gmail and google-docs! Our media specialist, Ann Reise, has been working with our students to introduce these great tools. Students have been made aware of the importance of being safe online, and the importance of asking for permission from teachers and parents to use the internet. Please be involved in what your child is doing online.

One of the exciting features of gmail is google-docs. Students are able to create documents that can be shared, commented on, and/or edited by teachers and students. This allows students who have internet access at home, to work on writing projects and to give and get feedback on their projects right at home. We will be experimenting with this this week. One of your student's assignments is to type one paragraph of their author essay into google-docs. On Thursday, Mrs. Reise will show us how to effectively share, comment on, and edit the work.

In reading we are discussing how and why we form opinions of characters. Their actions, words, looks, and how other characters interact with them all play a part in building our opinions. We are learning that if we give an opinion, it is important to back it up with evidence from the text or our background knowledge. Students will also be thinking about how our opinions sometimes change as we get more information. We call this synthesizing.

Science: Students have presented their PowerPoint presentations on the invertebrate group they researched. They all did a great job! This week we will look into how organisms are formed by cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems. Students will gain a general understanding of some of the organ systems animals have. This will lead us right into our next science unit on the human body, where students will focus on how our various organ systems play a part in helping us move.

Note: Calling all parents! The PSC is looking for nominees for president and secretary. If you would like to be more involved in your child’s school please consider one of these positions. Currently there has been no interest. You could share the position with a friend if you don’t want to do it all alone. The PSC offers many great community building opportunities for students and families. Please talk with your neighbors or sign yourself up! Contact Mrs. G. or one of us if you are interested or want to know more.

Monday, January 2, 2012

I hope you had a great winter break! 2012 is here! This is a look into how our class will start off the new year.

Math: This week we will wrap-up unit 5. Students will review for the unit 5 assessment next Monday, then take the written test on Tuesday, followed by the unit 5 Open Response on Wednesday.

In unit 6, students will be introduced to the Partial Quotients algorithm for division. Just like with all of the other Partial ______ methods, students solve parts of the answer in multiple steps, then add the parts together for the final answer. Again, this method helps students think about place value, and promotes mental math. Angle measurement and angle drawing will also be introduced in unit 6. Students will use full and half-circle protractors (provided in class) to both draw and measure given angles.

Literacy: In reading students will learn how to evaluate an author that they enjoy. We will complete an author study together, as a class, based on the author, Patricia Polacco. We will analyze what she does as a writer to engage her readers, and the common themes in her books. Students will then do something similar with an author of their choice.

After we spend some time on the commonly misused homophones "there," "their," "they're," and "your" and "you're," we will write about our author study. Students will build their skills of writing a non-narrative piece focusing on forming a thesis statement, paragraphing, and supporting opinions with evidence.

Science: Before break we began our animal structures unit which we will continue until the end of second quarter. Students will understand how animals are classified according to certain characteristics. They will understand the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates, and we will compare the complexity of organ systems amongst the major animal phyla. Small groups will create a short PowerPoint on an invertebrate group. This group will be responsible for teaching the rest of the class about this invertebrate group.