The Silver Scoop
January 19-22
Our Class Shows PRIDE
On the "Facts Track"
Upcoming Events
The PRIDE convocation has been rescheduled for Friday, January 29 at 2:15 in the gym. Parents and other relatives are welcome to attend, but the parent will need to submit names of those coming ahead of time. You should receive a form in your child's take-home folder on Tuesday or Wednesday that can be returned with this information. These names submitted will be checked against PowerSchool to be certain that they are in there, and everyone will be ID'ed at the door. The parents of those students who are receiving special recognition at this awards convocation have been contacted.
Little Quakers Academy is sponsoring a family skate night at Hot Skates in Avon on Thursday, February 4 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. $5/person admission includes skate rental, and non-skating adults are free!
Our Valentine's Day party is coming soon! Christy Nunley, Josh's mom, is organizing the party and sent home a red flyer on Friday with all of the information. Volunteers are needed to supervise activity stations, and several supplies need to be donated, too. You can sign-up on Volunteer Spot using this link: http://vols.pt/uA9mTw Your help is GREATLY appreciated!
This week's special schedule:
Tuesday--Library, Wednesday--Music, Thursday--Art, Friday--Gym
Last Week's Learning
Before Shaking
Shaking Fun!
After Shaking
After the "Rain"
What We Are Studying This Week
DOL/Word Work -- This week we are doing Daily Paragraph Editing Week #9, and there will be a quiz on Friday. We are on Word Work Week List #19 on test vocabulary words, and there will be a test on Friday. For the test, the students need to know the spellings and definitions of the 10 vocabulary words and also the spellings of the 5 core words. This week's words: accuracy, argument, challenge, concentrate, consider, determine, error, judgment, restate, select. Core Words: business, eight, minute, especially, necessary
Math -- We have finished Topics 1-10 and are now skipping ahead to Topic 14 on Measurement. This week we will do Lessons 14-1, 14-2, 14-3, and 14-4. The students should become familiar with the customary units for measuring length (inches, feet, yards, miles), capacity (fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts, gallons), and weight (ounces, pounds, tons). They do not have to memorize the equivalences for these units, but they should be able to choose appropriate units for measuring different objects. We will also begin converting between units; however, the students will be able to use an equivalency table to help them with this. There will be homework on Wednesday and Thursday.
Science -- We will finish Lesson 3 on volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides. These are events that change the earth very quickly, as opposed to weathering and erosion that take place very slowly over a long period of time. There will be an assignment over this lesson on Tuesday. We will also read two science readers called "Changes to the Earth's Surface" and "The Ground Beneath Our Feet" that summarize a lot of information the students have been learning from our textbook. There is an assignment over these readers, but students should be able to complete it in class.
Reading -- This week the students will read the nonfiction text "The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon" from the blue reader. Before reading this text, though, the students will read two different leveled readers about space. The first, called "One Giant Step," provides an overview of the Apollo 11 space mission that took astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on their historic moonwalk in 1969. Then, the students will read a book about the history of space exploration and will make a graphic source, such as a timeline or a chart, to organize important information from the book. (Our reading skill for the week is understanding graphic sources.) On Friday, we will finally read the story from the blue basal reader, where the students will learn about the unsung hero from the Apollo 11 mission, Michael Collins. Collins did not get to walk on the moon, but he did pilot the Columbia spacecraft while Aldrin and Armstrong took the lunar module to the moon. There should not be any reading homework this week, but there will be a story test on Friday. (The students have to finish their Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi flip chart before completing a vocabulary activity on Tuesday, and students who do not finish in class will have to finish for homework.)
Language -- On Tuesday, the students will finish their Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi flip charts that we began last week. Then we will focus on the trait of Word Choice, looking specifically at how we can use dynamic verbs in our writing. In grammar, we will review the 8 parts of speech by identifying them in sentences from the Grammar Town book. The students are doing really well with this! Soon we will be ready to start Part 2 of Grammar Town on parts of a sentence.
Social Studies -- The students will read a packet about the causes of the Revolutionary War and will answer some questions about the reading as we go. The "Chapter Checkup" at the end of the packet may be homework on Thursday.
This Week's Cartoon
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