Sulima's Scoop - Week of January 31

Weekly Reminders:

*Review spelling pretest on Monday (30 words).

*Review spelling test on Friday (I will choose 20 of the 30 words).

*Failure notices issued on Friday.

*Movie Night on Friday, 6:30-8:45.

Plan Ahead:

*Valentine's Day Party on Monday, February 14. Please no edible goodies with Valentines.

*No school on Monday, February 21 - Presidents' Day.

*PTO dine-out on Monday, February 21 - Noodles and Company.

*Spring Pictures - Thursday, February 24.

*End of Trimester - Friday, February 25.

*ISAT testing begins on Monday, February 28.

Homeroom Happenings:

Science - We will continue our Electricity unit. We will focus on current electricity. The children will draw and construct different types of circuits.

Social Studies - We will finish our "Just Look" books. The children will also need to start studying for the Midwest map test. The test will be on Tuesday, February 15. The children will need to know the correct location and spelling of each state in the Midwest. As before, each capital will be worth 1/4 bonus point.

English - Our adjective unit will begin this week. We will focus on what is an adjective, adjectives after be, and using a, an, and the.

Spelling - The children will take a pretest on 30 review words. If your child receives 100% on the pretest, they will be done with spelling for the week. If your child does not receive 100%, they will need to do the workbook pages throughout the week. Their test on Friday will be on 20 of the 30 words. The test will be done in cursive.

Reading - The reading strategy that we will be studying next week is summarizing. When reading passages, it is not necessary to recall every word. Instead, we will practice using main ideas and supporting evidence to summarize a passage. While reading, a good reader finds the main ideas, whether they are stated or implied. Then, the reader must find supporting evidence to support the main idea. This support may be in the form of details, examples, explanations or descriptions.

Accelerated math Menu:

Monday-Symmetry. HW: WB pg. 122.

Tuesday - Transformations. HW: WB pg. 123 (top only).

Wednesday - Tessellations. HW: WB pg. 123 (rest of page).

Thursday -Quiz on lessons 6-9. Problem Solving. HW: Review Extended Response problem done in class.

Friday - Problem Solving. HW: Review Entended Response problems done in class.

Sulima's Scoop - Week of January 24

Weekly Reminders:

*Spelling pretest on Monday.

*District Spelling Bee on Tuesday at 10:00. Good luck to Robert and Emmanuelle!!!

*Spelling test on Friday.

*P.T.O. Bingo Night on Friday.

Plan Ahead:

*Failure Notices issued on Friday, February 4.

*Valentine's Day Party on Monday, February 14.

*No school on Monday, February 21 - Presidents' Day.

*Spring Pictures on Thursday, February 24.

*End of 2nd Trimester on Friday, February 25.

*ISAT testing begins on Monday, February 28.

*Parent Teacher Conferences during the week of February 28 ~ Reading students.

Homeroom Happenings:

Science - We will begin my favorite unit this week, Electricity. The children will be experimenting with simple circuits and static electricity. We will also learn about electrical currents.

Social Studies - The children will continue working on their "Just Look" projects. If your child does not have their research finished after class on Monday, they will need to finish at home before Thursday.

English - On Wednesday, we will be taking our next pretest. The children will get their contracts back on Friday. They will have the weekend to decide on their enrichment option. I will meet with each child on Monday, January 31. We will begin this unit on Tuesday, February 1.

Spelling - Our spelling words this week follow a "VCCV" pattern (vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel). Please have your child practice the words on the practice sheet. The test, on Friday, will need to be done in cursive.

Reading - The reading skill that we will work on this week is the identification of characters, setting, and plot. Students will fill out story structure maps as they read fiction to help them organize their thoughts and identify the main characters, setting, and plot.

Our second book club discussion will be on Tuesday. The children are finishing the book for this discussion. To be prepared for the discussion, children must have their books and completed discussion sheets. The children should fill out the prediction section on the discussion sheet. They are predicting what would happen next if there were more chapters in the book. I will be collecting and grading this set of discussion sheets.

Accelerated Math Menu:

Monday - Congruent and Similar Figures. HW: WB pg. 116.

Tuesday - No math due to District Spelling Bee.

Wednesday - Quiz on lessons to this point. Perimeter. HW: WB pg. 119.

Thursday - Circles. HW: WB pg. 120.

Friday - Circumference. HW: WB pg. 121.

Sulima's Scoop - Week of January 17th

Weekly Reminders:

*No school on Monday, January 17 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

*Papa Passero's PTO Dine out on Monday. http://www.ccsd66.org/PTO/FundRaisers/Papas.pdf

*Chess Club permission slips due on Tuesday.

*Chapter 4, lesson 2 science quiz on Tuesday.

*Fourth grade spell-off on Tuesday.

*Spelling pretest on Tuesday.

*Unit 1 English test on Thursday.

*Spelling test on Friday.

Plan Ahead:

*PTO Bingo Night on Friday, January 28.

*Movie Night on Friday, February 4.

*Valentine's Day Party on Monday, February 14.

*

Spelling Bee News:

Congratulations and Good Luck to Robert and Adarsh who will represent our class in the fourth grade spell-off on Tuesday.

Homeroom Happenings:

Science - We have now completed chapter 4, lesson 2. The children will take an open notes/book quiz on Tuesday. We will not have a test on this chapter. During the week of January 24, we will begin our study of physical science.

Social Studies - The children have chosen an important person from Black History. They will be researching this person this week. Their research will then be organized into paragraphs. They will be word processing these paragraphs to put into a book called "Just Look".

English - The Unit 1 test on Sentences will be on Thursday, January 20. The test will cover: sentence vs. fragment, statements, questions, commands, and exclamations, subject & predicate, simple subjects, simple predicates, and correcting run-on sentences. Enrichment projects will also be due on the day of the test.

Reading - The comprehension skill that we will be focusing on this week is drawing conclusions. Good readers use details in a story to draw conclusions about characters and events. Students may use graphic organizers to gather details from a story to draw conclusions. They will learn that it is possible to draw more than one conclusion from the same details.

Accelerated Math Menu:

Monday - No school.

Tuesday - Geometric terms. HW: Geometry worksheet.

Wednesday - No math due to Argonne Field Trip (Trinco & Bell)

Thursday- Triangles. HW: WB pg. 117.

Friday - Quadrilaterals. HW: WB pg. 118.

Sulima's Scoop - Week of January 10th

Weekly Reminders:

*Classroom "practice" spelling bee on Monday.

*Spelling pretest on Monday.

*Reading MAPs testing on Monday (homeroom students)

*Field Trip to Argonne Labs on Tuesday, 9:30-1:30.

*Dan Kirk Juggler Assembly on Wednesday at 12:30.

*Classroom spelling bee on Thursday. Two winners will go to grade level spell-off.

*First book club discussion on Thursday. Students must have book and discussion sheet.

*Math MAPs testing on Thursday (homeroom students)

*Spelling test, in cursive, on Friday.

Plan Ahead:

*No school on Monday, January 17.

*P.T.O. Dine-Out Fundraiser at Papa Passero's on Monday, January 17. Click here for more information: http://www.ccsd66.org/PTO/FundRaisers/Papas.pdf

*Straight A's recognized at Board Meeting on Tuesday, January 11, 7:00.

*Bingo Night on Friday, January 28.

*

MAP testing: Once again, we will be taking MAP tests on Monday January 10th and Thursday, January 13th. Please make sure your child gets a good dinner and a good night's rest before these tests. Also, make sure they have a healthy breakfast and a healthy snack on the morning of these tests.

Argonne Labs Field Trip: We will take our field trip to Argonne Labs on Tuesday, January 11. The children are to bring a sack lunch/drink. Also, all visitors to Argonne must wear long pants and closed shoes. Students are expected to be on their best behavior at all times. We will be involved in 4 learning labs: Spectrophotometers, Superconductivity, Science of Toys (scientific method), and (just added...only for our visit on Tuesday) Forensics. Thank you to Mrs. Edwards, Mrs. McGlynn, and Mr. Hoffman for volunteering to come with us on this wonderful field trip.

Homeroom Happenings:

Science - We will continue learning about the human body. This lesson covers the nervous system, skeletal system, and muscular system. The children will take a quiz on this material on Tuesday, January 18.

Social Studies - The children will be collecting information about important people in Black history. Midweek, they will choose one of these people to research further. We will be making a special book, called a "Just Look" book about our famous person. On Wednesday, January 19, we will watch a movie about Ruby Bridges. This movie displays the important part she played in the Civil Rights Movement.

English - We will continue working on Unit 1. This unit focuses on the sentence. During the week the children will be involved in lessons on subjects & predicates, simple subject, simple predicates, and correcting run-on sentences. The test on this short unit will be during the week of January 17.

Spelling - The children are doing a wonderful job on their cursive writing. Thank you for encouraging them to practice at home. We will take our pretest on Monday and our final test on Friday.

Reading - This week the children will work on identifying the problem and solution of a story as they are reading. Most stories involve a problem for the characters to solve. The solution to the problem may come after others have been tried.

Mrs. Sulima's Reading Class -Your child is going to be involved in their first 4th grade book club on Thursday. They will need to bring their book and completed discussion sheet. As a club, the children have decided what chapters they are to read for this first discussion. Please make sure your child does not read ahead....I know they will be tempted. It is very frustrating when the children are discussing the book and a member shares information from a chapter that the rest of the club has not read.

Accelerated Math Menu:

Monday - No math due to MAPs testing.

Tuesday - No math due to the Argonne Field trip (Beseth, Cavoto, & Sulima).

Wednesday - Measuring, drawing, and identifying angles. HW: WB pgs. 113 & 114 due Friday.

Thursday - No math due to MAPs testing.

Friday - Polygons. HW: WB pg. 115.