4th Grade Week of February 1
Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Still, and Ms. Franks
CFES 4th Grade Updates
Dear CFES 4th Grade Families,
It's hard to believe it's almost February! Your continued support and graciousness are appreciated. We are thankful to be part of the CFES family!
Updated February Lunch Calendar
Classroom Request for Math: grocery store ads and/or restaurant menus (for adding/subtracting decimal activities)
Classroom Request for ELA: We are requesting school appropriate magazines and newspapers to be sent to school with students. They will search for text features to display on our "FEATURING: Text Features in Non-Fiction" wall. They will cut and paste these features on our wall.
Please be sure your student remembers to bring his/her water bottle to school every day to refill at the filtered water stations.
Our CFES Great Expectations focus this week will be:
Life Principle: problem-solving - creating solutions; finding answers
Quote: "Problems are nothing but wake-up calls for creativity." Gerhard Gschwandtner
Please be encouraged to discuss with your child what the quote and life principle means to them and help make life connections to reinforce.
BLT - Behavior Learning Targets - Students revisited the expectations for behavior this week. We reviewed how they will always be given a reminder of the expectations if they can't meet them independently. However, if a student requires teacher support to meet the BLT, they will be receiving a lower score. 3- proficient, 2- Approaching, 1- Needs Improvement. BLT's are reported on the report card each semester.
Please click HERE for the updated Specials Schedule for the 3rd grading period.
Have a great week!
Love,
Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Still, & Ms. Franks
Kindness Week 2/8-2/12
Friendship & Kindness Week:
This year, we're creating a week-long celebration for Friendship and Kindness.
Students may do the following to prepare:
Decorate a box or bag to collect Friendship notes (aka. Valentine's with KIND notes written on them.). White bags have been provided at school. They will be allowed to attach a treat as long as it is store-bought and packaged. Please note - we'll send everything home. Teachers will provide a list of classmates in Schoology.
UPDATE: Friendship Notes and Boxes/Bags need to be brought by Wednesday, February 10th.
Weekly Homework
Students will also be given a Math page each week reinforcing concepts learned in class along with a spiral review! Pages will go out on Monday and are due back on Friday. These are NOT graded but will help students begin to build some practice of responsibility at home. We will also continue practicing vocabulary at home. Please see this link for suggested vocabulary practice at home. Please encourage your child to complete these at their own pace. THANK YOU!
Growth Mindset
The Iceberg Illusion
Big Life Journal Blog
Tools to help children grow up to be positive, resilient, confident human beings who strive to achieve great things in life.
Math & Science Updates
Math and Science Resources:
Students have access to Education Galaxy, IXL, Flocabulary, and their online math/science textbooks through Clever. These are great resources for practicing all fourth grade skills!
Math: Decimals Unit Test will be on Friday, February 12 - STUDY GUIDE HERE
This week we will continue our decimals unit.
Students will:
- represent decimal numbers on a number line (tenths and hundredths)
- use the standard algorithm to add and subtract decimal numbers through the hundredths position
- align digits by place value positions when adding and subtracting numbers
- solve problems that involve adding and subtracting decimals and locating decimal values on number lines
Ways to help at home - Dinner Table Talk!
· Have your child use a ruler or measuring tape to measure (in centimeters/tenths) the length of different objects at home and record their items/measurements in a table. They could compare OR combine the lengths of different objects.
· Have your child look at on online menu or shopping site and list what they would want to order/purchase and add up the total. Tell them if they had, for example, $20 to spend, what amount of money would they have left ...
Weekly Math Homework:
· Homework Sheet:
· Study multiplication facts (0-12) for at least 10 minutes each night. The following suggestions are a few resources/ideas for at-home practice.
Science:
Science Test - Units 8 & 9 on Wednesday, February 10 Study Guide will be posted soon.
Our unit test will cover: Water Cycle, Weather, Changes to Earth (Weathering, Erosion, & Deposition)
We are continuing our unit over weathering, erosion, and deposition next week. It is important for students to understand that the processes of weathering (breaking down of rock), erosion (movement of sediment), and deposition (dropping of sediment into a new location) like the water cycle, is continuous and can be caused by forces of wind, water, and ice. These forces slowly cause physical change to Earth's surface over time.
Vocabulary: weathering/weathered, erosion/erode/eroded, deposition/deposit/deposited/depositing, density, mass, force, wind, water, ice, gravity, sediment
Formations/Landforms created by weathering/erosion/deposition:
deltas, volume, sandbars, u-shaped valleys, v-shaped valleys, beaches, sand dunes, floodplains, canyons, rock arches, gorges, Barrier Islands, moraines, fjords, sedimentary, waves, glaciers, rivers, canyon, caves, coastline, glacier, coastline
Language Arts & Social Studies Updates
Reading: INFERENCE! This is one of the most unique and FUN skills to teach! We'll begin our unit with short Pixar clips and photographs as students begin to infer by asking, "I see...", "I know....", "I infer...." Then we'll move into practicing this reading skill in short nonfiction passages and over the course of the week, we'll be reading full articles. A great activity to start practicing at home is asking questions of your child while you are watching a movie or show together or reading a chapter of their book together. Ask them what they see (text evidence), what they know (schema), and what they infer (new meaning or understanding by putting the two pieces together. INFERNCING is a puzzle for the brain. It's making connections and using what we know to make new meaning. Have FUN at home!
Writing: Expository essay writing is in full swing. Students wrote an expository essay (start to finish) this past week as sample writing. This writing will be used to determine your child's strengths as a writer and areas that need to be developed. Next week, we'll review and wrap up our hook/thesis writing before we punch out our claims and details. Students will learn a variety of strategies to develop their details as they write to support their claims.
Vocabulary:
THE SCORES FOR UNIT 7 WERE THE HIGHEST I'VE EVER SEEN! Keep up the great work!!
Unit 8 test- Thursday, February 4th. Please encourage your child to do additional study practices at home as we work towards familiarity and mastery of these difficult words. Vocabulary Book Online.
Handwriting:
Assignments will be found online and students will work in their blue cursive books. We'll work on a few skills per week.
Students may practice at home as well. Cursive is a beautiful skill to learn and become proficient in. It also assists students in READING cursive writing as well.
Social Studies: Unit 5: The Republic of Texas continues with the study of the most important people. Students will learn about Navarro, Houston, and Lamar.
Upcoming Events
2/4: Unit 8 Vocabulary Test
2/9: Mrs. Still's Gender Reveal (more details coming soon)
2/10: Science Test - Units 8 & 9
2/10 Ms. Franks' Birthday
2/12: Decimals Unit Assessment
2/12 Bring in Valentine Boxes/Bags & Kindness Cards
2/15: Student Holiday
2/16: TEA Math Interim Assessment
2/16 : Spirit Night at Rib Tickler
2/17: TEA Reading Interim Assessment
2/18: Dress Like a Detective
2/22: 100th Day of School!
Teachers
Mrs. Brown is THANKFUL for this year's adventure!
Miss Franks is ready to BLAZE the road in 4th Grade!
Mrs. Still LOVES the S'more-side of the FOURest
Teacher Contact Information
Mrs. Jennifer Brown
(281)357-4526 (Ext. 3841)
Mrs. Candice Still
(281)357-4526 (Ext. 3842)
Ms. Abbey Franks
(281)357-4526 (Ext.3843)
Conference Time: 9:45-10:35
Lunch 12:30-1:00