3rd & 4th Grade Updates
Week of January 16
There are many useful links for extra practice at the end of this newsletter. Please review and use them!
Library Books
There are many class library books that have still not been returned. If your child has some of our books (which are a mix of Holy Rosary owned books and my own personal books), please have your child return these immediately. If you do not know which books your child borrowed, I am happy to give the titles that they took home over the Christmas holiday.
Homework
Homework completion is becoming an issue. I am sending daily emails regarding each subject for which students come to class unprepared. Homework should take only between 30-60 minutes to complete in total. Homework is a reinforcement of what we have done in class, as well as a preparation for the next day, and an indication to me of who has understood the material and who needs extra help.
With the exception of our daily math class, students have two days (or more!) to complete their assignments. This allows them time to also ask questions if they did not understand the concept or come to me to get the homework assignment if they were absent on Spanish class days. Thank you in advance for ensuring that your child completes their assignments.
Working Together to Build Marble Mazes
Putting Our Reactions to the Test
Researching States in the Computer Lab
What is Happening in Our Classes?
Each morning during the second half of the school year, students will complete a word of the day activity. This includes using reference materials to look up the definition, synonyms, antonyms, and part of speech as well as writing an original sentence and drawing to illustrate their understanding of the word. I am very pleased that many students have already started incorporating these new words into their daily language use.
Third grade started reading Un domingo súper especial by Beverly Clearly on Friday. They should have taken home a copy of our Senderos text to complete their vocabulary homework assignment. We are working on agreement of nouns and adjectives and subjects and verbs as we continue to improve our writing and formal language skills.
Fourth grade will be reading Dos oseznos, a short play based on a Miwok myth. We are working on stem-changing verbs, having started with e to ie stem changers. Students' homework for Tuesday is to conjugate the 5 stem-changing verbs that they wrote in their Language Arts notebook and write four sentences using those verbs. This is the same activity we have completed twice in class and once as a homework assignment. This week we will study verbs that change e to i and o to ue. See the links below for more ways to practice these verbs. Fourth graders will have a quiz on Thursday over stem-changing verbs and a spelling test on Friday. Be sure to practice, practice, practice!
Science
We are nearing the end of our study of some of the human body systems. We have seen the circulatory, respiratory, digestive and currently the nervous system. This week we will be working on the nervous system, will watch a few short videos as well as complete a couple in-class activities testing our nervous system. Following our study of the body systems, students will complete their culminating project of a mini-book to show their understanding and knowledge of these systems.
Math
Fractions have been our main focus since returning to school and we will continue working on them this week. Some skills we are working on are adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators, equivalent fractions, expressing a fraction in simplest terms, fractions as part of a group, and real-world problems with fractions. Students need to be practicing these skills daily and IXL is a great way to do so. If you need your child's login information, please let me know. Fractions are very fun, but can be challenging to some students. Understanding and mastering this year's concepts are vital going forward, especially for our 4th graders as they enter 5th grade. Don't forget to continue reinforcing those basic computation skills as well!
Social Studies
We are now learning about the different states. Each student has selected a state at random to research. Ultimately each student will create a brochure or poster with important information about their assigned state and give a brief oral presentation in class to share what they have learned with their classmates.
Links for Additional Practice
Spanish Reading Activities
- Epic! (online and app; your first month is free): http://www.getepic.com
- Short readings with comprehension questions (zip files under "bloques de lecturas"): http://www3.gobiernodecanarias.org/medusa/eltanquematematico/Lengua/Lengua.html
- Readings with comprehension questions (auto corrected): http://www.aplicaciones.info/lectura/lecturap.htm
- E to IE stem-changing verbs: http://studyspanish.com/grammar/test/stemie
- E to IE stem-changing verb worksheet with answer key: http://printablespanish.com/free/StemChangingVerbsWorksheets.pdf
- E to IE stem-chaning verb quiz: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=stem-changing-verbs-eie
- All stem-changing verbs: https://conjuguemos.com/verb/135
- All stem-changing verbs: https://personal.colby.edu/~bknelson/SLC/presente_stem_change.html
Agreement Activities
- Adjective Agreement: http://www.myspanishgames.com/fun-Spanish-grammar/adjectives.html
- Adjective Agreement Quiz: http://studyspanish.com/grammar/test/adj1
- Adjective Agreement with answer key: http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/quizzes_noun_adjective_agreement_1
- Present tense verbs: https://conjuguemos.com/verb/133
- Present tense verbs: http://studyspanish.com/grammar/test/regverb1
Fractions
- IXL: http://www.ixl.com (Both grades should look at the following sections: Under third grade math: Understand Fractions, Equivalent fractions, Compare fractions, Operations with fractions; Under fourth grade math: Fraction equivalence and ordering; add and subtract fractions with like denominators; Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators)
- Fractions in Spanish with explanations and some activities: http://www.disfrutalasmatematicas.com/numeros/fracciones-menu.html
- Equivalent fractions game: http://www.primaria.librosvivos.net/archivosCMS/3/3/16/usuarios/103294/9/5EP_Mate_cas_ud4_fra_equiv175/frame_prim.swf
- Adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators game: http://www.math-play.com/fractions-board-game/fractions-board-game.html
- Simplifying fractions worksheet with answer key: https://www.mateslibres.com/fracciones/simplificar_fracciones_facil_001.php
- Simplifying fractions (proper and improper) worksheet with answer key: http://www.mathworksheets4kids.com/fractions/simplify/reduce-1.pdf