4th Grade Week of January 25
Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Still, and Ms. Franks
CFES 4th Grade Updates
Dear CFES 4th Grade Families,
We are so impressed with the weather instruments that our fourth graders designed!! The creativity and problem solving skills they shared when presenting was fantastic. They did a great job presenting their projects.
Request: This week, fourth grade will embark on a text feature hunt. 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. Thank you in advance!
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: humanitarianism - promotion of human welfare and social reform
Quote: "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." Helen Keller
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:
Students may decorate a box or bag to collect Friendship notes (aka. Valentine's with KIND notes written on them.). 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.
Friendship Notes and Boxes/Bags need to be brought Friday, February 12th.
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: This week we will continue our decimals unit.
Students will:
· represent the value of the digit in whole numbers through 1,000,000,000 and decimals to the hundredths using expanded notation and numerals.
· determine the corresponding decimal to the tenths or hundredths place of a specified point on a number line
Ways to help at home - Dinner Table Talk!
· Write a number on a sheet of paper. Have your child write the number in many different ways. (Include decimals). For example, 256 may be written as two hundred fifty-six, 2 hundreds + 5 tens + 6 ones, 200 + 50 + 6, and (2 × 100) + (5 × 10) + (6 × 1).
· Give your child a receipt from a grocery store purchase. Have your child write the total amount spent in expanded notation.
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:
We will continue 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: Next week in our nonfiction unit, we'll begin learning about the different text structures that author's use when presenting informational text. We'll study a different structure each day like description, problem-solution, sequence, cause and effect, and compare and contrast. Students will practice reading different examples of non-fiction with the purpose of identifying the text structure and explaining WHY that structure is best to INFORM the reader. We'll conitinue using Scholastic News each week as we study nonfiction always looking for the CENTRAL IDEA of the entire article and each of the article's subheadings.
Writing: Expository essay writing is in full swing. We've started reading examples of essays to NOTICE the structure and components of the essays. We learned how to break down a prompt to identify the topic and the charge. Next week, we'll focus on writing a thesis statement. Students will be working on one complete essay for a few weeks. Slowly, we'll make our way up to writing a FULL essay in one week. Baby steps first! : )
REMINDER: ONE great way to prepare your child at home is to start talking about their LIFE EXPERIENCES. Remind them of stories about people, places, and things that they've experienced. Think of positive and negative experiences. Encourage them to think of times when they worked towards a goal, overcame a challenge, were inspired by someone, learned a lesson, tried something new. The list is endless. However, a BANK or TREASURE CHEST full of story seeds will help your child get off to a successful start. We've begun to collect these in our Writer's Notebooks. THANK YOU.
Vocabulary:
Unit 8 begins Monday. The test will be Thursday, February 4th. Students will study the words in class and will work on an assigned page each day in their books for homework. 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 continues as we look closely at the problems and successes of the Republic of Texas. Students will create a mini broadcast to share their learning this week.
Upcoming Events
2/4: Unit 8 Vocabulary Test
2/9: Mrs. Still's Gender Reveal (more details coming soon)
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
2/17: TEA Reading Interim Assessment
2/18 Dress Like a Detective
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