Weekly Update

Announcements:

• Poetry and Popcorn:  Thursday, February 19th at 2:30pm.    It's time for our annual Poetry and Popcorn.  Parents are invited to come in and listen to students read aloud their own poetry.  It's a beautiful event and we hope everyone can attend.  If you can donate popcorn, that would be fantastic.  Please email me before Wednesday. 

• Trip to Hyundai rescheduled for February 27th.  Better late than never!  A reminder email will be sent again next week.  

Assignments:

Math Project:  Adjusting a Recipe.  

We will begin this Tuesday.  Projects are due Thursday, February 26th.  

Reading at Home:  

In a couple of weeks, we will launch Historical Fiction as our next unit in reading. Some students had a hard time completing assigned reading in our last round of book clubs.  The historical fiction unit is based primarily on book clubs, and it is crucial the students are doing their reading homework in the evenings.

 Starting this week, all students will be logging their reading on a simple reading log.  While some students enjoy logging on their electronic devices, for ease of tracking, I am requesting that all students log their reading on the paper sheet that I provide them tomorrow.  On this sheet, we are asking for title, minutes read, and a parent signature.  

The end-of-year reading comprehension level for fourth grade is a level T.  This is a very challenging level and most students are not there yet.  Of course, all students make progress at their own rate, and we understand that, but it is important to note that in fifth grade, grade-level texts are much more complex.  It is also important to note that the single biggest factor to improved reading comprehension is time spent reading.

While we regularly give independent reading time at school, conference with students to improve their comprehension skills, I just want to stress again how important reading at home is.  If your child is getting bored with books, switching to picture books is a GREAT way to spice things up.  Picture books come in every reading level and are easy to share with parents and siblings; they also usually take about twenty minutes to read.  Please send me a quick message if your child is resisting his or her reading at home and I can work with him or her to make it a little more exciting.  

Report Cards

As you might know, report cards can be viewed online this coming Thursday, February 19th.  A few notes about this trimester's report cards:

***As we are in the middle of the solar energy unit, students have not been fully exposed to the content or skills needed to meet the solar energy science standards.  All students received a "Developing" mark, and those standards will again be assessed on the final report card.  

Curious About the Specifics?

I absolutely love Student Led Conferences, but I also understand that it's important for teachers and parents to communicate about how a child is doing in school.  I welcome conferences to discuss student progress and individual goals.  If you'd like to set up a twenty minute conference, please email me with a time that works well for you.  Before school or Mondays, and most Fridays after school are the best times for me, but I can also be flexible.  

This week in 4E......

Science:  Solar Energy

With so much happening in recent weeks, we haven't had enough time to really focus on the importance of our solar energy unit.  Solar energy may very well be the future, and we want to ensure that this unit gets enough time!  In the coming two weeks, science will take the main stage in class.  We will integrate learning about energy into our language arts blocks, and specifically the ways we can harness solar energy ourselves.   

This week, students will:

·                Explore different types of renewable and non-renewable energy sources.

·                Learn about the history of solar ovens.

·                Work in teams using Design Thinking to create and test a solar oven.

·                Work in teams to design an experiment to measure the affect of color on temperature.  

For the solar oven design project, the ovens will be made in teams, at school.  Students might come home and investigate resources they have at home (for example, card board boxes) and bring them to school, but the creation of the solar ovens should be done at school, together with their teams.  

Language Arts:

Students have loved the poetry unit, and we are excited for our Poetry and Popcorn on Thursday.  We will be using some illustrating techniques from Lauren Stringer to enhance our poetry.

We will also do some final edits to our Literary Essays which will be due Tuesday February 17^th.

While we wrap up poetry, as mentioned, we will integrate some solar energy reading and research into our language arts time.  Students read about and discuss different renewable and non-renewable energy sources.  They will also read about different solar oven projects that are in Haiti, Kenya, and right here in India.  

Math:  Adding and Subtracting Fractions and a Math Project

This week, students will:

Add and subtract fractions conceptually (using manipulatives and pictures).

Adjust a recipe that has fractions.

Math Project:  Adjusting a Recipe

On Monday, students will choose a simple recipe that has at least four fractions in it.  Using this recipe they will complete a project where they must adjust the recipe for different numbers of people. This requires them to multiply and divide fractions.  

 We will give the students some time in class to work on the project and ensure they know how to figure out the problems and what is expected of them.  However, students will be assigned the completion of this project as homework.  It is due Thursday, February 26th.  

Have a great week!