Weekly Reminders:*Wormy habitats due on Monday.
*Short and Long a and e spelling pretest on Monday.
*Magazine Sale Kick-off on Monday.
*Beginning Band Parent Meeting on Monday at 7:00.
*Chapter 1, lessons 6-10 "check your progress" math quiz on Wednesday.
*Beginning Band Conferences on Wednesday and Thursday.
*Short and Long a and e spelling test on Friday.
*Unit 2 - Noun test on Friday.
*First magazine turn in on Friday.
Plan Ahead:
*Worm race tracks due on Tuesday, September 21.
*Second Magazine Turn-in on Tuesday, September 21.
*PE Soccer Test on Wednesday, September 22. (Look for study guide on Friday, September 17)
*No School on Friday, September 24 - Teacher Institute.
*Last Magazine turn-in on Tuesday, September 28.
*Picture Day on Thursday, September 30.
Homeroom Happenings:
Science - Our Worm Study will begin on Monday. Please have your child bring in their worm habitat on Monday. This unit will allow the children to learn more about and go through the steps of the Scientific Method. We will ask questions, make our hypothesis, form a plan, test our hypothesis, collect data, and draw conclusions based on our results. The children will also learn about variables and the need to control variables during this study.
Social Studies - We will finish our government unit this week. The test on chapter 2, lessons 2 and 3 will be sometime during the week of September 20. Lesson three focuses on the rights and responsibilities we have as U.S. citizens.
English - Our study of nouns will come to an end with two days on Plural Possessive Nouns. On Wednesday, we will fill out a "how to study" sheet. Since many children get home and have no idea how to begin studying for a test, we will brainstorm as a class at least five ways the children can prepare for this test. If your child writes how they studied (at least two ways) for the test and has a parent sign their sheet, they will receive two bonus points on their test. We will review on Thursday. The children will take their first English test on Friday.
The test will cover the following lessons:
*What is a noun?
*Common and Proper Nouns
*Singular and Plural Nouns
*Nouns Ending in y
*More Plural Nouns
*Singular and Plural Possessive Nouns
Spelling - The children will work on their first spelling unit from our reading series. This first list reviews words with short and long a and e. We will take a pretest on Monday. If your child passes with a 90% or higher, they will choose challenge words for the week. They will do activities with their challenge words in their spelling spiral. If your child does not pass the pretest with 90% or higher, they will be working on workbook pages from our reading workbook. Regular spellers, and any challenge speller that would like to raise their pretest score, will take the spelling test on Friday.
Reading - This week, we will read a story called Akiak that is written by Robert Blake. Akiak is about a world-famous Iditarod Race that takes place in the Alaskan wilderness. While we are reading, we will focus on story structure. We will use a story map to look at how a problem and its solution affect the story’s plot and characters. The children will also be working with the following vocabulary: blizzard, checkpoint, courageous, experienced, musher, and rugged. You may want to have your child review these key words with the e-game at http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr06/gr4/gr4_th1_sel1.html.
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Accelerated Math Menu: (This "menu" is subject to change!)
Monday - Estimating Sums and Differences. HW: Workbook pg. 8.
Tuesday - Adding Three or More Addends. HW: Workbook pg. 9 & "check your progress" quiz tomorrow on lessons 6-10.
Wednesday - "Check your Progress" quiz on lessons 6-10. HW: None.
Thursday - Subtraction with Zeros. HW: Workbook pg. 10.
Friday - Larger Sums and Differences. HW: None.
