The Silver Scoop
December 7-11
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This week's special schedule:
Monday--Art, Tuesday--Gym, Wednesday--Computer Lab, Thursday--Library, Friday--Music
What We Are Studying This Week
DOL/Word Work -- This week we will do Daily Paragraph Editing Week #6 with a test on Friday. This week's test will have some sentences for students to label parts of speech, too. In Word Work, we are on List #16 on the prefixes mis-, non-, and re-. Students need to learn the meanings of each of these (mis=wrong, non=not, re=again) and the spellings of 20 words that use these prefixes. There will be a spelling test on Friday. This week's words: misplace, nonsense, reread, repack, misfortune, remove, mishandle, nonstop, recover, reseal, misbehavior, reunion, nonfiction, rebound, mistreat, readjust, misprint, nonprofit, nonstick, misquote.
Math -- We are beginning Topics 9 and 10 on division. This week we will do Lessons 9-4, 10-4, and 10-6 on the long division algorithm. Students will learn the steps using the mnemonic device: Does McDonald's Sell Cheeseburgers? This will help them remember: Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Check, Bring down. There are some excellent websites that walk students through long division. Check out the links below. We will begin with single digit quotients and will work our way up to double and triple digit quotients. In 4th grade, the students will only learn to divide by 1 digit divisors. There will be homework on Wednesday and Thursday.
http://www.kidsnumbers.com/long-division.php
http://www.softschools.com/math/division/long_division/
http://www.thegreatmartinicompany.com/longarithmetic/longdivision.html
Science -- This week the students will read a Science A-Z book on Heat Energy. There is a vocabulary activity and an open-book quiz that go with the book that will be completed in class. The students are learning the difference between conduction, convection, and radiation.
Reading -- We are in the middle of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the students seem to be enjoying the silly, unexpected things that happen to Alice. This week we will read and discuss Chapter 6-10, which will include the famous Mad Hatter's tea party and croquet with the King and Queen of Hearts. There is an assignment over Chapter 5-8 that we began last Friday that will be due this Thursday. As with the last assignment, the students will complete many parts of it in class as we are reading. The long answer portions will require the most effort from the students and should be error-free with supporting evidence from the story.
Language -- This week the students will learn about the last of the 8 parts of speech: interjections. On Thursday they will have fun building sentences by putting together the 8 different parts of speech, and they will practice identifying them in each other's sentences. In writing, we will review organizational patterns, such as problem/solution, compare/contrast, sequencing, etc., and then the students will write their own short essay comparing and contrasting two things. We will use an online tool from the Read.Write.Think. website to help with this.
Social Studies -- The students will read excerpts from an Indiana Studies Weekly newspaper about the early people of Indiana, including the Paleo-Indians, Mound Builders, and Eastern Woodland tribes. There will be an assignment over this on Wednesday. On Thursday, the students will have a quiz over these Native American groups. We made a study guide / timeline last Friday that will help your child review for the quiz.
This Week's Cartoon
Dork Diaries series, by Rachel Renee Russell
I Funny series, by James Patterson
Middle School series, by James Patterson
Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, by Jeff Kinney
My Weird School series, by Dan Gutman
I Survived series, by Lauren Tarshis
Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, by Rick Riordan
Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
Gregor the Overlander series, by Suzanne Collins
The Spiderwick Chronicles series, by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
Series of Unfortunate Events series, by Lemony Snicket
Ramona series, by Beverly Cleary
Fudge series, by Judy Blume
Mrs. Kara Silver
4th Grade Teacher
Clarks Creek Elementary
Plainfield Community Schools
Email: ksilver@plainfield.k12.in.us
Website: http://www.plainfield.k12.in.us
Location: 401 Elm Drive, Plainfield, IN, 46168
Phone: 317-839-0120