Announcements:
Christmas
Tree Lighting: Monday December 8th 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.
