Goodbye Peppiina!

Today was Peppiina's last day at AISC. She is returning to Finland this weekend. We will all miss her very much.
Peppiina, all of us in 4E wish you the best in Finland at your new school. We hope that write us all soon to tell us all about what you are doing and how you doing.

Thank you Eric for taking and sharing this picture.

Buddies

Today we got together with our 1A buddies. We read to them in the library and then took this group shot. We love our buddies!

December 15th-19th

Dear Parents,

We have a busy week ahead!  

Announcements:

Monday 12/15:  Field Trip to SPEED Trust 8:45-12:45

Tuesday 12/16:  Winter Holiday Party.  The fun starts at 1:30.  

Thursday 12/18:  Upper ES Winter Holiday Concert 2:00 pm FAC

As you can see, it is a busy week in 4E. When we are not on a field trip or celebrating the holidays, we’ll be working on our non-fiction books, exploring equivalent fractions, finishing up our data mining projects, and presenting our big ideas from our passion projects. Passion Projects was a 90 minute free exploration where each student was asked to direct their own learning and explore a passion of theirs to share with the class. Our Passion Project Presentations will be on Tuesday and Friday morning. Students will sign up for a time slot on Monday.

If I don’t see you at our holiday party, I hope that everyone enjoys a fun and relaxing Winter Break!

Concert Colors

Color Groups Orange and Violet  have to wear dark clothes, preferably black.  Definitely no whites, off-whites or other light shades.

Color groups Yellow and Red  have to wear red and/or white or combinations of red and white.

Color groups Green and Blue have to wear green and/or white or combinations of green and white. 

Thank you and apologies for sending this information so late.

Shireen Sarah Lazarus

Elementary Music Teacher

Nonfiction Text Features

Hey 4E,

Remember this important Text Feature Chart as you keep working on your nonfiction draft. 

Vocabulary Help

Ms. Lauren has started a vocabulary blog so parents know what is being taught in the class; there will be words from each content area and they will be updated regularly. We encourage you to look over them with your children at home. Please contact Ms. Lauren with any questions.  

Lighting the Christmas Tree

Tonight families from across AISC all gathered at the Hyatt Regency to light the Christmas Tree. Here are a few pictures from the night.

Christmas Tree all lit up!

Singers Singing

Hey, I know some of those singers!
It's Ryota and Akshaya!

Meeting Santa

Week of December 8-12

Announcements:

Christmas Tree Lighting: Monday December 8^th at the Hyatt Regency
Hour of Code: Tuesday and Wednesday December 9 and 10 during lunch. (students have received an email and are all encouraged to attend this global event)

Field Trip to SPEED TRUST:  Monday, December 15th, 8:45-12:45

Winter Holiday Party:  Tuesday, December 16, 2:00-3:15

Winter Holiday Concert:  Thursday, December 18th

Field Trip to Speed Trust:  4A will be taking a field trip to SPEED TRUST Monday, December 15th.  Read more about the trip here.  Permission slips will be sent home this week.  If you’d like to attend the field trip, there are some spaces for parents as well.  Please email me if you’d like to attend.  

Winter Holiday Party:  4E will have our Winter Holiday Party Tuesday, December 16th from 1:30-3:15.  This party is sure to be a blast for students and parents.  Not only is it a good opportunity to celebrate the holidays around the world, but it also marks the half way point of our time in fourth grade; it’s great to have a celebration before heading off for the three week holiday.  We hope everyone can come!  Thanks in advance to Aura and Nicole for organizing.

Language Arts:  Non-Fiction Research

The students have been so engaged and passionate in researching and becoming experts on their water related non-fiction topics.   In the coming weeks, we will be creating books in the iPad app Book Creator.  

Reading Skills:

·       Identifying academic vocabulary related to our topic and creating a glossary.

·       “Reading” the information in diagrams to learn more about a topic.

·       Identifying the main idea and details to summarize non-fiction texts.

·       Read closely the introductions and conclusions of non-fiction texts.

Writing:

·       Revising to add academic vocabulary to our writing.

·       Considering how diagrams might help our own writing.

·       Identifying the main idea and details within our own text and writing summaries.

·       Write our own introductions and conclusions of non-fiction texts.  

A note on Book Creator Book Creator is an iOS app sold in the iStore in two versions.  The free version allows for one book, and the paid version, for US$4.99, allows for unlimited books to be created.  No students are required to buy apps, but I am encouraging students with their own devices to download the free version to write their non-fiction books.  Some students have suggested that they might be able to bring in iPads in for this project.  If this is possible, it would allow students to work on the books both inside and outside of school.  If not, all students will have access to a school iPad for writing their non-fiction books in Book Creator.  

Math:  Equivalent Fractions

The Multiplication and Division Assessment was sent home this week. It’s important to remember that if your student has not mastered a standard (skill), we will continue to work on that skill as the year goes on.  We will do this in a specific, targeted way.  We are working toward mastery of all the standards for all of the students. Students are finishing their “Choose A Number” project, which is due Monday, and is a compilation of the skills they have learned in their multiplication and division unit.

This week we move on to fractions.  Our first targets for the unit are:

·                Identify equivalent fractions in models.

·                Drawing equivalent representations of fractions using models.

·                Decomposing fractions using models.  (ex: ½=¼+¼)  

Social Studies: Data Mining

We continue to work on Data Mining.  Hopefully, this project will be done and on the blogs for viewing before the holiday break.

Have a great week.

Weekly Update

Happy American Thanksgiving! I hope you had a lovely long weekend with family. I love this time of year as we are reminded to give thanks for all we have. It is important to stop, reflect and be thankful. This weekend, I was sitting in the sun and relaxing on India’s Goan beaches and I was so thankful for my experiences here in India both in and out of the classroom.  Everyday I get to work with an exceptional group of teachers, students and parents. I am a lucky lady!

Please read below to learn what’s happening in our units of study this week:

Tech Rotations: Monday Afternoon
We have another round of fourth grade tech rotations on Monday. Different teachers visit the room and teach students five different mini-lessons regarding technology. This session's lessons are:
**Leaving Quality Comments (led by Ms. MacDonald)
**Compfight/Creative Commons Photos (led by Ms. Carlina)
**Citation Machine (Led by Ms. T.)
**Digital Footprint (Led by Ms. Chris)
**Google Search Tips (Led by Ms. Priya)

Math:  Multiplication and Division Assessment

We took a multiplication and division assessment before break. It was a hard test. We knew it was going to be a hard test. The skills used will continue to be addressed throughout the year. Not surprisingly all students need to continue to work on multi-step word problems. Often students do the first step and miss the second part of the question. This is why we ask students to start a word problem by determining what the answer sentence will be, to determine what the problem is asking them to do.

We will review the assessment on Tuesday and send it home to share with parents. Remember, this is a continuing skill set. We will continue with word problems and long division this week. Next week, we will begin decimals and fraction equivalents.  More on decimals and fractions next week!

Social Studies:  Data Mining in South Asia

Students are working in partnerships on a Data Mining project to learn more about life in South Asia.  In this project, they create graphs on different data points, then make inferences about life in those countries based on that data.  For example, last week students looked up the literacy rates for men and women in ten different countries, including four South Asian countries and their home countries.  This week, we will create graphs, compare and contrast data, and make inferences regarding poverty, school-life expectancy, and life expectancy.  Data Mining is fun and so, so educational.  Be sure to ask your fourth grader what they’ve been learning in social studies this week!

Reading and Writing Workshop:  Non-Fiction Research and Non-Fiction Writing

This week, students will begin drafting a non-fiction piece of writing on a topic related to water.  We will have specific mini lessons in reading on:

**Note-taking strategies for non-fiction texts.

**Finding the main idea in a non-fiction text.

**Creating a vocabulary word bank and “using the lingo” of experts.

**Using photos and captions as ways to gather information.  

We will have specific mini-lessons in writing on:

**Drafting a non-fiction text based on what we know.

**Making a plan to research what we don’t know.

**Adding useful text features to a non-fiction text.

**Writing captions.

Have a great week, everyone!

Weekly Update

Announcements for the Week:

Field Trip: Rescheduled for Thursday, November 20^th

Field Trip:

It was unfortunate that our field trip was postponed due to rain last but we are rescheduling it for this coming Thursday, November 20th.  Please pack a lunch and come prepare students for a great day of learning about the world of organic farming!

Literacy:  Non Fiction: Water is Life

Last week, we began our non-fiction unit research unit by using an I see, I think, I wonder strategy to build our background and make connections to water.  Students will be thinking about water based on six different themes:  Water and People, Water and Conflict, Water and Land, Water and Technology, Water and Government, Water Changes/Water Stays the Same.  

On Monday afternoon, we will team up with 4A and visit the CIC with our librarian, Jett Willette, will give us an overview of the online and print resources we will use for our research unit.

In Reading Workshop this week we will focus on “Non-Fiction Reading Basics”:

·                Learn about different text features (bold face, italics, heading, captions) and identify how these help the reader.

·                Learn how reading non-fiction requires different comprehension strategies.  We will practice asking questions and making connections.

·                Read non-fiction texts in partnerships and share our thinking with others and in writing.

In Writing Workshop this week we will focus on categorizing water-related words and ideas and identify possible water-related topics.  We will:

·                Create a word bank of water vocabulary, then categorize the words based on our water themes.  

·                Group words together, and form topics.

·                Ask “Thick Juicy Questions” about our topics.

·                Identify possible topics, and think about what we know, and what we might like to find out about these topics.

Math: Multiplication and Division

We continue to work with multiplication and long division concepts, including function problems called “in and out boxes” which involve recognizing patterns and using algebraic thinking.  “In and Out” Boxes look like this.  

Again, the math objectives are:

·                Solve double digit multiplication problems.

·                Solve long division problems with a one-digit divisor and a four digit quotient.

·                Use reasoning skills to assess if your answer is correct.

·                Use an algorithm to check to see if your answer is correct.

·                Find factors of numbers through one-hundred.

·                Solve two-step word problems.

·                Discuss problems that have more than one right answer.

Social Studies: Life in South Asia

We will shift our focus this week to studying Life in South Asia.  We will begin with a big data mining project where students will compare and contrast different data points in South Asia and around the world.  We will consider, in the coming weeks, life expectancy, school life expectancy, poverty, and access to water.  This is a powerful unit!  Students will begin to see the discrepancies in the quality of life related to resources.  We hope that students will share some thoughts with their families.  Some of the things we will do are:

·                Create graphs comparing and contrasting data around resources.

·                Make inferences about life in countries based on what we see in graphs.

·                Expand our thinking in writing about graphs and data.

·                Work collaboratively to create a presentation about the data we research.

Ask your fourth grader about what they are learning in social studies this week!

Have a great week!