I hope your families had a wonderful extended Thanksgiving break! I enjoyed a few days down in Carmel with my family - chilly but beautiful! As we move into the last three weeks before our winter break, here are some upcoming highlights:
* We will have a Scholastic Book Faire starting next Saturday, Dec. 4 in the GLC - the book faire will continue through Friday, Dec. 10, with an evening session followed by a holiday sing-a-long on Thursday, Dec. 9!
* First trimester report cards will be sent home this Friday, Dec. 3 - please review the report card carefully with your child, noting areas of strength and those that need improvement. Please return the signed report card envelope ONLY in the Friday folder. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about your child's performance thus far in the school year.
* We will begin our next science unit, "Magnetism and Electricity" tomorrow with a pre-test and KWL charts. This is one of our most popular science units, with many hands-on experiments!
* We will begin "response to literature" instruction over the next few weeks - your child's response log will be an important part of that instruction process. More information will follow later!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Room 17 Wins WalkAround Trophy!
Great News! Our class received the upper grade trophy today at the WalkAround assembly for most laps walked during the WalkAround last month! In addition, several students received trophies for most laps walked in fourth grade, including Katie Patton, Aayush Shah, Shaunak Bhandarkar, and Derek Xiang! We have some energetic walkers in this class! Other students received prizes for Tuesday treats every Tuesday, and some received voucher awards for a free WalkAround sweatshirt, and free admittance to Dilworth Math and Science Fairs. We also are thankful for all the encouragement provided by parents and your generosity in donations. It was announced today that WalkAround raised over $91,000 for our school! We are all grateful for your continuing support of our school through both cash donations and the many extras that you provide for our classrooms!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Latest Update from Room 17!
We are moving along very quickly in order to accomplish many of our goals before the Thanksgiving break next week! In language arts, we will complete our class novel, "Island of the Blue Dolphins" this week. Students will be allowed to use the summary folders they've been working on since we started the book for their final comprehension test on Friday.
In math, students took a pre-test for Unit 4 (Ch. 8 and 9) which covers algebraic variables and function tables. We will finish this unit before the Winter Break.
You may have noticed some information coming home about our "Drug Education" unit which will end this week. Please talk to your child about drugs (both legal and illegal) so that they are knowledgeable about the dangers of these substances. After Thanksgiving break, we will start our second science unit - "Magnetism and Electricity" - this is a very "hands-on" science unit which they usually love! Students will bring home their science folders and tests from our first unit, "The Solid Earth" with their report cards on Dec. 3.
In Social Studies, we are working on our California Native American projects in groups of 3- we had finished the research, and will type up information paragraphs and decorate our posters for presentation. We have also begun learning about explorers who came to California in the 17th and 18th centuries.
We will begin practicing for the Geography Bee after Thanksgiving break - students will have the option to participate in the classroom "Bee" - the top 2 finalists from each class will continue to the Championship Bee later in January.
Just a reminder - please make sure your child uses the "Spelling City" website at least 30 minutes per week - since I do not monitor their computer time, please ensure that they are practicing the games and using the practice tests before our weekly quizzes on Fridays.
Thank you!
In math, students took a pre-test for Unit 4 (Ch. 8 and 9) which covers algebraic variables and function tables. We will finish this unit before the Winter Break.
You may have noticed some information coming home about our "Drug Education" unit which will end this week. Please talk to your child about drugs (both legal and illegal) so that they are knowledgeable about the dangers of these substances. After Thanksgiving break, we will start our second science unit - "Magnetism and Electricity" - this is a very "hands-on" science unit which they usually love! Students will bring home their science folders and tests from our first unit, "The Solid Earth" with their report cards on Dec. 3.
In Social Studies, we are working on our California Native American projects in groups of 3- we had finished the research, and will type up information paragraphs and decorate our posters for presentation. We have also begun learning about explorers who came to California in the 17th and 18th centuries.
We will begin practicing for the Geography Bee after Thanksgiving break - students will have the option to participate in the classroom "Bee" - the top 2 finalists from each class will continue to the Championship Bee later in January.
Just a reminder - please make sure your child uses the "Spelling City" website at least 30 minutes per week - since I do not monitor their computer time, please ensure that they are practicing the games and using the practice tests before our weekly quizzes on Fridays.
Thank you!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Accepting Responsibility
As your child continues to mature physically, we also want to assist them in developing emotional maturity. One of the main components of maturity that we want to foster in fourth graders is learning to take responsibility for their actions. In primary grades, their emotional "intelligence" is still growing slowly. By fourth grade, students need to accept, and be held accountable for responsibility in their actions.
How can you nurture this quality in your child? Begin by talking to them about how we all experience different emotions and ideas, like anger, joy, and jealousy. But, as we get older, we must learn that other people don't CAUSE these emotions or behaviors - we create them ourselves. For example, often I will see a student doing something unacceptable such as bumping against another student without apologizing. When I talk to the student, their first response is usually, "Well, he did "such and such" to me first". Accepting responsibility means acknowledging your own behaviors in a conflict and taking the first steps to resolve that conflict by talking it out with the other person. I encourage students to use "I-words", such as "I felt angry when you pushed me out of the game". This reduces the hostility and "defuses" the situation. Just as you encourage your child's academic abilities, help them develop the emotional and social skills needed to work out differences with their peers. They'll thank you for it later!
How can you nurture this quality in your child? Begin by talking to them about how we all experience different emotions and ideas, like anger, joy, and jealousy. But, as we get older, we must learn that other people don't CAUSE these emotions or behaviors - we create them ourselves. For example, often I will see a student doing something unacceptable such as bumping against another student without apologizing. When I talk to the student, their first response is usually, "Well, he did "such and such" to me first". Accepting responsibility means acknowledging your own behaviors in a conflict and taking the first steps to resolve that conflict by talking it out with the other person. I encourage students to use "I-words", such as "I felt angry when you pushed me out of the game". This reduces the hostility and "defuses" the situation. Just as you encourage your child's academic abilities, help them develop the emotional and social skills needed to work out differences with their peers. They'll thank you for it later!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Update for Last Week!
Everyone had a great time at our Halloween parade and party last Friday, 10/20 - a huge "thank you" to all the parents who contributed items and/or helped out at our class party!!
Students turned in their "story quilt" book reports last week - later this week they will "present" their book report to the rest of the class. I am very impressed with the hard work that many students displayed with their reports! Their book report grade will be based on the rubric that was on the last page of their report!
Lots of new books coming out - the new "Diary of A Wimpy Kid" is released next week, and you can purchase it for a lower price by ordering through Scholastic Books! All book orders are due by Friday (11/5) - either online orders or paper orders.
We have just started Chapter 7 in Math which covers "order of operations" and other algebra functions. This chapter might be a little more challenging for your child - please be sure that they can simplify expressions and understand how "order of operations" works inside expressions and equations.
Students are working in groups of 3 on their "Native American" projects - each group chose one California Native American group and will complete research on that group in the library and the Tech Lab. Later, they will collaborate on a poster, and make a group presentation to our class!
We are almost finished with our science kit "The Solid Earth" - students will take the final test and turn in their science notebooks on Thursday for grading. Remember - no school on Thursday, Nov. 11 or Friday, Nov. 12!
Students turned in their "story quilt" book reports last week - later this week they will "present" their book report to the rest of the class. I am very impressed with the hard work that many students displayed with their reports! Their book report grade will be based on the rubric that was on the last page of their report!
Lots of new books coming out - the new "Diary of A Wimpy Kid" is released next week, and you can purchase it for a lower price by ordering through Scholastic Books! All book orders are due by Friday (11/5) - either online orders or paper orders.
We have just started Chapter 7 in Math which covers "order of operations" and other algebra functions. This chapter might be a little more challenging for your child - please be sure that they can simplify expressions and understand how "order of operations" works inside expressions and equations.
Students are working in groups of 3 on their "Native American" projects - each group chose one California Native American group and will complete research on that group in the library and the Tech Lab. Later, they will collaborate on a poster, and make a group presentation to our class!
We are almost finished with our science kit "The Solid Earth" - students will take the final test and turn in their science notebooks on Thursday for grading. Remember - no school on Thursday, Nov. 11 or Friday, Nov. 12!
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