This Thursday night is Open House. Please plan on attending. We will go over many key points for 4th graders to be successful. I will also explain some of our basic procedures that you have been reading about. Please come with any questions you have about the 4th grade year in general. Let's save personal questions about specific kids for our one on one conferences. Thanks.
So many of you have contributed to our gift card basket for Saturday Live. A special thank you to Avery, Noah L, Josh (again :0)), and a beautiful little girl that may not be named on here. :0) Our basket is going to be so fun!!!! The last day to contribute is this coming Friday.
This weekend, if your child is in my Lead 21 class, your kiddos had some homework. It was not doing homework, but it was thinking and discussing homework that involved interacting with you! In their take home folders, they have a menu of choices for their Unit 1 Inquiry Projects for our Heritage Unit. There are 5 different projects they can choose from OR they can come up with one of their own. They will need to let me their choice on Monday. What am I looking for and grading? Kids need to be able to clearly present their understanding of how heritage is the passing down of things from the past from generation to generation starting with their ancestors. No matter which project they pick, they will need to explain the story behind it. I will be modeling this throughout the week as well with some examples of my own heritage. The presentation will be around 5 minutes in length. If students create their own project, they need to approve it with me on Monday. Once I write down their choice, it is locked in and there will be no switching. Projects will be prepared at home, and will be due in class this Friday to present. Please do NOT bring in projects early. I have no where to store them, and it ruins the element of surprise. If your child chooses the head outline collage one, I will trace their head on Monday for them. We went over all 5 projects in length, but if kids or parents have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. The ones in the pictures are just suggestions on the different topics. They do not have to be done in the same fashion. It is the idea that is the choice. How they present it and do it ti totally up to them. For example, if they chose the timeline one. They could also draw a family tree or some other way of displaying it. What matters is that they go from ancestors to themselves and not skip the order of generations. :0) I look forward to traveling back in time with all of your kiddos. If you would like to join us as well, we will be doing them on Friday starting at 9:30. If you have this discussion, please write the word HERITAGE in the planner for $10 on Monday.
The other day, we were reading about the Chinese heritage and their tradition of using chopsticks to eat with. I was surprised how many kids liked to eat Chinese food. So, I told them that maybe one day this week we could order lunch from Golden Phoenix and have it delivered and eat it the way they do. I would love to provide this for them for free, but that is not possible. So, I want to poll the audience. Would you be willing to send in money to pay for your child's lunch? We would do a little math lesson with the menu and add up our individual totals. Then, kids could bring them home for your approval, and the next day, they could bring in their money and we could order it. This would be totally optional, as I know some kids don't like to eat this kind of food. We would do it during our regular lunch time in the classroom. If you want your child to do this and are willing to pay their bill, please write FOOD in the planner. I will do the lesson with them this week. My guess is we would do the lunch on Thursday. It sure is fun to connect with our reading textbook! :0)
This week…
Math: Learning how numbers relate due to the place value they are in, rounding in real world situations, and counting and making change with money.
Lead 21: Continue to read about heritage. Be able to pick out important information from text. Show examples of Author's purpose. Antonyms and Synonyms.
Book Report: I checked in with each kiddo on Friday. I recorded the name of the book they will be doing their report on at home. I also wrote down what chapter they were on. Some of them need to get reading, reading, reading. Most, were right on schedule. They need to be done not this Wednesday but they next. Report forms will be coming home that day as well and reports will be due the following Monday. It is an easy one this time, and I will have modeled it in class so they know exactly what to do at home. In the meantime, read, read, read. At this point, they may NOT change books.
Language: Adjectives: kids will be able to identify if it is a what kind or how many adjective. Nouns: kids will be able to identify if it is a person, place, or thing and if it is singular or plural. Also, how to take a verb and add a suffix to the end of it and make it into an adjective.
Spelling: short and long i sounds. Alternate words will be available this unit to challenge those that got a 100% on Friday's test. Kids may decide if they want the alternate list or stick with the book. Congratulations to Carl, Cayden, Kyra, Landon, Reece, Claire, Laney, Avery, and a little girl who can't be named on here for being the first to have this honor. They will decide on Monday if they want to try the alternate list this week. Challenge, challenge, challenge! Many kids missed the 100% because they used capital letters when spelling. When this is done, the word is not spelled correctly and I have to mark it wrong. I made sure EVERYONE understood this before our test on Friday even started. It always saddens me to do this, but once they have it happen, it usually corrects itself. Drats.
S.S.: We will continue to follow Fallen Rock and his brother Running Water on their journey across the United States. They are now in the Rocky Mountains heading toward the Grand Canyon where they will collect a pouch full of water from the Colorado River. The kids are really enjoying the story and all the mini lessons it is providing. We are still trying to find a way to bring Bill Merical out here to visit. More to come on that in the Tuesday folders. :0)
Montana History: The three regions of our great state and what kind of land, plants, and animals live in those regions.
Science: We will finish up wind on Monday, have a cool whole class experiment on Tuesday, and be into Hurricanes by Friday. Wow…we are "blowing" through this weather unit! :0) Next week, kids will show their knowledge about the parts of a hurricane by making one using origami and another one using shaving cream and glue. Say what????? Wanna come help? More on that next Sunday. I will need volunteers that day!
FlyTime: Being trustworthy and a good sport. We didn't get to this last week due to Fallen Rock, but we will hit it this week. :0)
I leave you with some pictures of our Star of the Week last week. Mr. Carl shared more about himself. He likes to collect rocks and play basketball. Cool! Reece also brought in a special visitor. We got to meet Charley, his baby golden doodle puppy! Adorable. Anyone doubt that I love my job??? :0)
Have a fantastic Sunday! PE shoes on Monday.
Mrs. Grewell
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