May Update!

Green Bean Green Houses- Studying Plant Germination

It seems as though we are being reprieved from our long winter with this beautiful weather!  Here's what has been going on and what is coming up next.

Reading-Last week we worked on comparing and contrasting similar themes in multiple texts.  We read two picture books that dealt with African American's living during times of segregation.  The students did a great job of finding the theme which was: friendship overcomes all obstacles.  We also talked about symbolism and how the author used objects to show segregation, such as a fence and a pool.  Students will continue to work on finding similar themes in multiple texts through short readings.

Creating Tidal Pool Creatures

This week week we are discussing the differences between firsthand and secondhand accounts.  We read some journal passages from Christopher Columbus, John Smith and William Bradford, followed by similar passages from Encyclopedias and discussed our prior knowledge about first and third person points of view.  Students are now examining primary sources from the Lewis and Clark expedition and Ellis island and comparing them to secondary sources dealing with the same topics.  They are looking for key pronouns, text structure and focus of each text.

Creating Tidal Pool Creatures

Writing - Before vacation, informative writing was introduced to the students.  Each student made a list of things they were experts in and chose one topic to expand on.  We reviewed very structured ways to begin and end informative writing, mainly dealing with including a "focus statement" in their introduction and using "transition words" to start a conclusion.  We also talked at length about how to organize the middle paragraphs of informative writing using graphic organizers.
This week students selected two tide pool creatures that they wanted to research in preparation for our upcoming field trip.  Students will be writing comparatively about the two creatures and will incorporate much of their background science knowledge about how animals meet their needs in this paper.  All students have been given their Google accounts and have been actively using them to work on their papers.  We will continue to focus on informative writing and comparative writing for the remainder of the year.

Creating Tidal Pool Creatures

Math- We finished our unit on customary and metric measurement of solid objects and began our brief unit on capacity.  It is important for the students to understand solids and liquids are measured differently.  Capacity strictly deals with the measurement of liquids, while using feet, inches, yards, centimeters, millimeters, meters, etc. deals with the measurement of solid objects.  Students also need to be sure to label their answers.   After this unit on measurement we will be moving on to our final unit of geometry, primarily dealing with different quadrilaterals and how to measure angles using a protractor.

Creating Tidal Pool Creatures

S.S.-After a long break from Social Studies to prepare for Science testing, we are back on track.  Students will be quizzed on the Midwest states and capitals this coming Thursday May 14th.  Students are also working on learning about the landforms, climate, people and living and working in the midwest.  We are including literature about Lewis and Clark in our readings.  

Science- As you may have heard through talking with your child we spent the weeks leading up to Science testing preparing the students by reviewing science concepts they have learned throughout the years.  The students conducted experiments to practice their inquiry skills and work on their science writing.  Students taught each other various concepts through "mini lessons" and practiced their test taking skills.

Creating Tidal Pool Creatures

Seeing as our main focus concepts for science have to be covered before testing, we are able to incorporate some extra science through our reading and writing lessons.  Students are currently researching tidal pool creatures and will move on to studying the Rainforest until the end of the year.

Upcoming Important Dates


June 10th Fieldtrip #1  URI Bay Classroom Narragansett Salt Marsh  9am-3pm
June 16th Fieldtrip #2  Smith Appleby House Smithfield  12pm-3pm


All pictures are of the students creating a creature that could survive in a tidal pool using odd materials.  Each material they used had to have an adaptation that helped the animals meet their basic needs, which they presented to the class.

March Update

Some of us have really had enough of the snow!

It's almost spring!  The February blog update is buried under three feet of snow, so I apologize for that.

Here's what we've been up to!

Ordering Adjectives

Reading-We have covered and reviewed so many topics including theme and finding common themes across fables, tall tales, and our books.  We also examined some figurative language through our readings, such as similes, metaphors and hyperbole's.  A few weeks ago students compiled a book made of idioms such as: it's raining cats and dogs, hit the lights, and you are on thin ice.  We have been reading a whole class book called There's A Boy in the Girl's Bathroom.  The name at first makes the student's laugh and while the book has plenty of humor, it is a story about a boy's journey to gain acceptance by his peers, teacher and father.  We have had some great discussions about friendship, kindness, responsibility, and helping each other.  Since we have had so much practice with themes across many different types of literature, we are now thinking about how can we write about them comparatively using compare and contrast signal words such as; similarly, alike, on the other hand, etc.  

Working in teams to come up with adjectives

Writing- This past trimester, students gave their opinions on many different topics from the best gift, to their stance on school uniforms, lunch lines in our own cafeteria, hot lunches, pets and more.  Students were able to write a five paragraph essay by stating their opinions and giving three detailed reasons with examples to support their opinion.  This time really helped us to understand how to get our writing organized.  Our next unit is expository writing.  Students are already diving in with a presentation on the person they chose for their biography.  We will be continuing work on our compare and contrast writing, as  students need to be able to write comparatively about two non fiction topics that are related.

Tall Tale Research

Math-We have just finished our unit on fractions.  This always tends to be a difficult unit for students.  There are so many concepts for them to learn in one chapter, finding common denominators, adding, subtracting and multiplying fractions, reducing, and finding equivalent fractions, but we made it!  This is a skill that will need to be reinforced throughout the rest of the year and will show up in their math for years to come.  We are moving on to decimal notation and finding equivalent decimals for fractions.  This unit consists of two chapters.  The first is about understanding decimals and their correlation to fractions, the second is how to use decimals.

S.S.  We have finished our unit on the South and will be moving on to the Midwest soon. 

Science- We completed our matter unit a few weeks ago and just finished a two week unit on force and motion.  In order to demonstrate the fact that forces come in pairs (pushes and pulls) and that we can predict the speed and direction of an object based on force and mass, students conducted experiments by pushing each other around on scooters, making ramps of different elevations to push toy cars down and also used a model of a sled to pull different weights in.










I'd like to congratulate Caroline and Betti for being our classroom spelling bee champions.  It was quite the competition that lasted for almost an hour in our classroom. Both advanced to the school spelling bee where they competed against the fifth graders and other fourth graders from our school.  Betti was the runner up of the school bee.  I am so proud of them both! 

January Update

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday and some vacation time.   I know it was a much needed break for the students.  Things were very hectic leading up to the vacation and chorus concert, with lots of celebrations and festivities, so it is nice to be settled back into a normal routine.

At this point in the year we will be assessing the students in reading and math to see how much progress they have made since the beginning of the year.  You might hear them speak about taking a test on the computer or reading independently with myself or Mrs. Furtado.  We will then use this information to form new groups for intervention in February.





Reading-The students finally finished their guided reading books of Shiloh, Secret School and Stone Fox.  When we read in groups we focus on practicing fluency, looking back in the text to answer questions and we discuss characters and problems as we read.  We will now be studying the differences between myths, legends, fables and tales.  Students will read a variety of each type of story.  We will further examine theme and point of view and we will be working on comparing and contrasting different stories.

Writing- We have been working on opinion writing since the end of the 1st trimester and will continue to do so until the end of this trimester.  As you may have heard, before the holiday, students wrote about what the best toy was, in their opinion.  They have learned how to write an introduction and clearly state their reasons with elaborating details for each reason.  An opinion essay should be five paragraphs long.  We recently wrote an opinion letter on the issue of the lunch line that is too long and brainstormed, as a class, how it affects our lunch and how we might be able to possibly fix it.  The students are learning that by presenting facts to back up their opinion, they are making a stronger argument.

Math-  It was a long road through multi-digit multiplication and long division, but it seems we have reached the light at the end of the tunnel.  The students have mastered multiplication, although we always need practice recalling our facts quickly.  The test on long- division is tomorrow, and everyone has been working hard to understand the process and how to check their work.  Students should also be able to identify the parts of a division problem, such as the divisor, dividend and quotient.  Our next concept is a really big one: Fractions!  It is a difficult concept, especially when we get into equivalent fractions and mixed numbers.

S.S.- We will be beginning our unit on the South region of the United States.  Students will soon be completing a map of the states and capitals and will be tested on the location and spelling of them.  We will study the landforms and climate of the southern region, the people that settled there and live there now and living and working there in the present day.

 


Science- Recently we have been working on the different ways to measure matter.  Students are able to find the mass of an object by using a balance scale, students are able to find the volume of regular shaped objects by measuring their height, length and width and multiplying all three. Students are able to find the volume of an irregular shaped object by placing it in a graduated cylinder and finding out how much the water level rises.  We will now be focusing more on the properties of matter and how certain kinds of matter are composed.  We will then move into the transfer of heat energy, followed by a short unit on light and force and motion.  

December Update

December Already?!?

 It was so nice to meet with so many of you before Thanksgiving.  I hope everyone enjoyed some time off!

Thank you for having your children complete and return the Scholastic News packets.  Any work they did, truly helped them to stay the course as we get ready for another extended vacation in a few weeks.

Reminders:  

Wednesday December 3rd -Holiday Shop

Thursday December 4th-Northeast States and Capitals Map Quiz (spelling counts)

Friday December 5th- Be Unique Spirit Day- be the best you!

Friday December 12th- all unwrapped gift donations for our Gingerbread family are due.
Tuesday December 23rd at 10:30 - Town Meeting

Holiday Vacation begins on Wednesday December 24th and school begins again on Monday January 5th. 

Here's what we've been up to and what we are up to in 4C...

Reading - Students have been working on identifying the theme of short readings.  They must also provide two pieces of evidence from the text to support their theme.  We will be working on numerous themes throughout the year and the children will be very familiar with them by the end.  Next we are going to take an intermission from theme to revisit the concept of inferring.  Inferring is when you use what you know (your schema) and what the text says to draw conclusions about a characters feelings, thoughts, motivations or even what is happening in the book.  We will then start to discuss points of view from which a story is told.  We will talk about first person and third person and identify the point of view in a story as well as write from different points of view. 

Writing- We have finished our Narrative unit, which included both personal and fictional narratives.  The students wrote two of each.  Many of you had the opportunity to look through your child's binder to see some of the writing.  Although, only a few pieces make it to publication, the students have been doing lots and lots of writing and through conferences, I have really gotten to know them as writers.  Our next unit for the whole semester is Opinion Writing.  Students will learn how to back up their opinions with reasons and how to organize their writing to really make their audience understand their views.  This is my favorite unit of writing personally!

Math-We have made it to the big leagues in math!  We have entered double digit multiplication.  Our first lesson was today and it went pretty well!  We start small and work our way up to four digits on the top and no more than two digits on the bottom.  I know I am being redundant, but please make sure your child is still practicing their multiplication facts each week.  Knowing them will make this whole process much easier to understand and is the reason we have our mad minutes twice per week.  We will be starting long division before the break!

S.S.- We have finished our unit on the Northeast and are having our map test this Thursday.  Some of the students have completed flip books or brochures about a Northeast state that are hanging up in the classroom.   We have begun our short unit on Rhode Island and the students have read about Roger Williams.  We will be continuing with the history of Rhode Island and  next we will be visiting the Midwest region.

Science- We have finally finished erosion.  We've have done plenty of experiments and the students are ready to move on.  This week we will be beginning our Matter Unit and we will have lots of fun experiments with that as well.  This unit is slightly less messy than the last one, but still lots of fun.

Here are some pictures from our final erosion experiment.  The students were testing out the effect of wind erosion on sand dunes and seeing if dune grass actually can prevent erosion.