Weekly Reminders:*No school on Monday due to Columbus Day.
*No spelling lesson this week.
*Tuesday we are following a Monday schedule.
*Science quiz on weathering, erosion, and sinkholes on Tuesday.
*Northeast Map test on Tuesday.
*Book Fair on Thursday, 6:30-8:00.
*Social Studies quiz (open notes/book) on Friday.
Plan Ahead:
*Early Dismissal (11:00) on Wednesday, October 22.
*Halloween Parade/Party on Friday, October 31.
Classroom Happenings:
Science: We are really "digging deep" into our Earth Science study with lesson 4 on soil. We will compare particle sizes in different types of soil, describe what soil is, and explain how soil forms and differ.
Get the "dirt on soil" at: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/soil/
Take and Underground Adventure at: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/undergroundadventure/virtual_tour/index.shtml
Is soil made through magic? Find out at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/education/squirm/skQ1.html
Solve the case at "Soiled Again" http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/case2/index.html
Social Studies: Now that we know about the land of the northeast, we are going to move on to explore what resources are common in this region. I am looking for a few volunteers to bring in some goodies to help make these resources more memorable. If you are interested, please contact me, and I will let you know what you can send in to help make this possible. The students will be taking an open book/notes quiz on chapter 4, lesson 2 on Friday.
Accelerated Math: This week we will continue our unit on data and statistics. On Tuesday, we will focus on summarizing data using mean, median, mode, and range. On Wednesday, we will return to the computer lab to finish our double bar graphs. The children will also explore the other kinds of graphs that OpenOffice Calculator (Excel) can make. During the rest of the week we will work on graphing data and reading graphs. Our graphing will include: bar graphs, line graphs, pie graphs, and pictographs.
Spelling: We are taking the week off of spelling due to the shortened week. Please note: most four day weeks we will do spelling. The next unit is a more difficult one, and the fourth grade team felt a full week would be better for the children.
English: We will continue with our unit on sentences. This week we will cover subjects and predicates, simple subjects, simple predicates, and correcting run-on sentences. Since we are not doing spelling this week, my plan is to do English on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. These lessons will conclude this chapter. Our test on sentences will be on Thursday, October 23.
Reading: We will finish A Family Apart this week. The children have been doing a wonderful job on GIST summaries and character traits. We will have a comprehension test (children can use their book) on Thursday. They will not have a reader's response on this test. It will be multiple choice, true & false, and one question on character traits.
