Post #20

Dancing fish, Hidden Figures, Chinese New Year, World Experts- it's been a busy week in fourth grade!       
               
  

Some of the girls are displaying their dancing fish. They are not as easy to make as you might think. So what are dancing fish? The girls listened to a fable about fish and copied the decimals that they heard. They practiced changing decimals to fractions. Next they watched a tutorial and made their own fish.  They measured the fish and fish snack food in centimeters and millimeters. We spent a good chuck of time reviewing for Tuesday's cumulative (Unit Four) math test. 

Be on the look out for speeding tickets. Several girls came up with this fun idea. They created the speeding tickets to be awarded to girls who are speeding in fact fluency. Tickets will be issued each Monday. I love when they come up with these kinds of ideas.

Our "Friendship Machines" are almost ready for display. Business cards are completed and most have finished their writing. The business cards are so clever. Take a look. This is the time of year when friendships can get prickly and spirits are fragile. Please take a minute to talk to your daughter about our class mantra, "Always show more kindness than is necessary." Ask you daughter about the friend writing they did after listening to "You've Got a Friend."

Hidden Figures is a great movie and I'm so glad we were able to experience it as a class. We will talk about the movie, it's message and the history involved in the coming weeks.

This morning we had a class discussion about homework, keeping organized, developing a study plan, etc. Our lives are busy and I explained to the girls the importance of having a timeline for long range assignments and completing weekly homework. I promised them if they finish fourth grade strong.... they will begin fifth grade strong. We look at the homework calendar first thing on Monday mornings but it might be wise to review it over the weekend.

Spanish with Mrs. Scozzaro is AWESOME!

A few notes:
* Lend a Helping Paw- Outreach Project 1/23-2/6. Click here for details
* NEAP Testing- Please click here to read the details.
* "Growing Up Healthy" class begins on 2/6/17 (The course website will be posted on the Fourthie site next Friday.)
* Valentine's Day Celebration on 2/14/17. Everyone should bring a container to hold their valentines.
* "Insider's View to Middle School" for parents 3/28 @ 8:30. Dorothy Suskind will send additional information as the time gets closer.
* Special Week Sign-up Emily will be our Special Week girl.

* Homework is posted for the week for family planning. 

* Carpool Helper Calendar- Isabelle and Peyton will represent our class next week.

The Gold/White Cheer Rally is on Friday, February 3rd at 10 am.  In preparation we would like to invite your daughter to song practice on Tuesday and Thursday of next week.

Details:  Tuesday, January 31 and Thursday, February 2, 7:40 am.  Gold Team meets in the LS Assembly Room; White Team meets in the LS Multipurpose Room

Spirit Week Dress Up Days:

Wednesday, February 1 - America Day (wear your red, white, and blue!)

Thursday, February 2 - Arts and Sports Day (dancer, artist, soccer player, your choice!)

Friday, February 3 - Gold/White Spirit Day

Girls- Your mystery blog question...... How many vowels are in your Spanish teacher's name?  Post your answer here. 

Post #19

 Welcome Farina!

We were all excited to welcome Farina to our class. Farina lives in China and is going to be a Fourthie for four weeks. She fit right in with this tight knit group of girls.

The girls are in the friendship business. This week's writing lab started with an interesting concept from Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola's friendship machine inspired the girls to create their own machine that fosters, promotes, and builds friendships. The girls described their company and their friendship machine. They are in the process of illustrating the machine's design. And since they are the president, founder, or CEO of their company, business cards were needed. This was a lot of fun! I'll post a slideshow of all cards next week. Take a look at Isabelle's and Meg's:

History4fourthies has taken us back to the 1900's. The girls watched and reviewed a early silent movie that had special affects. They were not impressed, but I imagine fourth graders in 1903 were pretty thrilled. The girls compared/contrasted the first Kellogg's cornflakes box to present day and wrote about who deserves the honor of being on the cereal box. They presented their cereal boxes to the class in a 30 second speech. I love when they summarize and speak confidently to an audience.

The first fact check of the third quarter was division. And a BIG SHOUT out to the girls for doing a great job. Working with decimals was real world this week; the girls balanced an imaginary checkbook. Several were 100% accurate their first try. We looked at fractions as decimals and vice a versa. The Hidden Figures movie trailer involved decimal problem solving too.

A few notes:

* Special Week Sign-up Grace will be our Special Week girl.

* Homework is posted for the week for family planning. 

* Carpool Helper Calendar- Aseye will represent our class next week.

* Thursday (1/26) field trip to watch the movie Hidden Figures. Details here. Please sign the consent form if you haven't already done so. We are so excited to have all 140 fourth grade SAINTS in the same theater to watch this movie.

* The girls are choosing their World Language for fifth grade. The letter is in their work folder and due back by 1/27. Mrs. Dorian has been out on maternity leave and didn't have a chance to speak with the girls. Here's a quick video explaining Chinese from a few middle schoolers:

Girls- Your mystery blog question...... How many fourth grade saints will see Hidden Figures on Thursday?  Post your answer here. 

Post #18

Wow! What a week. Despite the snow day and late openings, this group of Fourthies kept the "Lamp of Learning Burning."
The girls were busy working with decimals. They added, subtracted, ordered, and compared decimals. They played games with decimals. They learned about dental hygiene while problem solving with decimals. Yes, it was a little gross. Ask your daughter about the importance of lining up numbers and including zeros. Fact checks will switch to division next week. We will continue reviewing division facts for several weeks. I have included a detailed summary of your daughter's fact checks in her work folder. Frequently missed facts are listed on top. Please encourage your daughter to focus on those facts.

We finished reading All of a Kind Family. The drama filled ending caused quite a stir! We will begin a new novel study after the girls finish the next book project. They will continue reading their animal book and note taking for several weeks.

Creative writing was shared via a Padlet this week. They read each other's writing and wrote a complimentary note to their weekly partner. I love how genuine they are when we do these kinds of activities. Three Word Thursday creative writing took the girls out of their comfort zone. The challenge to use 3 random words became greater when they were asked to also use a random picture. A few girls had difficulty saving their 3WT on a Piclit but came up with clever workarounds.  Piclits were saved in Google Drives and will be displayed around the room.

Now might be a good time to tour your daughter's Google Drive and Quia accounts. She can show you her Wordly Wise progress and writing samples.

I've written about Newsela in the past because it is such a fabulous tool. Newsela recently added leveled primary sources. This allows the girls to read historically significant speeches and documents on their reading level. The girls read Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a Dream Speech." We discussed segregation and Civil Rights. The girls "performed" a reader's theater about the life MLK Jr.

Personal Learning..... I love the buzz in the classroom on Thursday afternoons when the girls are all doing something different. Some are writing stories, others working on enrichment math or creating artwork, and then there is Fuzzbert.

Several weeks ago the girls started creating a home for a troll, affectionately named Fuzzbert. They used scraps of stuff- boxes, paper, ribbon, and lots of imagination. They designed and decorated his home. They add to Fuzzbert's habitat every week. The girls work cooperatively using their creativity and innovative spirit. Life is good when you are a Fourthie:) 

A few notes:

* Special Week Sign-up We will continue to enjoy Catherine's cat inspired special week (Grace is up the week of 1/23)

* Homework is posted for the week for family planning. 

* Carpool Helper Calendar- Ellie will represent our class next week.

* 1/26 field trip to watch the movie Hidden Figures. Details here.

Girls- Your mystery blog question...... What day are we going to see the movie Hidden Figures? Post your answer here. 

Snow Day #1

Post #17

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you had a fabulous Christmas and vacation. I so appreciated the generous class gift card and the fun comments the girls included. This will be a short post- I don't know if you heard but my baby is getting married on Saturday! This is my current state of mind:

I love how nine and ten year olds bounce back from a two week vacation with energy and enthusiasm. They were ready to jump right back into the curriculum. And we did.

Our new math unit involves decimals. We spent time reviewing this week and practiced ordering and comparing decimals as well as adding and subtracting. The girls understand the importance of lining up decimals and adding zeros. We had a heart to heart about the importance of ABSOLUTE, 100% fact fluency from here on. The girls will take a MEGA fact check next Friday (the 13th) and I am confident they will do well. History4fourthies, drawing, and personification played a part in math this week. The girls worked with factor pairs, read more about the 21st century, and included personification in their writing during math stations.

 They sang and chanted multiplication facts, factor pairs, and multiples to create abstract art with their voices.  Here's an example:

The "artwork" was described in a detailed paragraph. Then the girls took their knowledge of parts of speech and practiced identifying words in their own writing. Love their creativity.

We are just about finished with our novel study, All of a Kind Family. The next book project will involve animal research. Each girl checked out a book featuring an animal. Some are factual and other are novels that include an animal(s) as the main character. Many have already started note-taking and searching for animal articles in Newsela. Their independence is taking off.

A few notes:

* Homework- For family planning.

* Special Week Sign-up Catherine will be our Special Week girl next week.

* Carpool Helper Calendar- No class representative this week.

Girls- Your mystery blog question...... What kind of cake should I bring to school to celebrate Jayne's wedding and Buddy's Bday? Post your answer here. 

I'll post some adding pics here. Stay tuned.........