Team4@Cornelia
Mrs. Carlson, Mr. Erickson, Ms. Gesme, Mrs. Laven
January 21, 2015
Upcoming Field Trips
On Tuesday, February 3, Mrs. Carlson and Mr. Erickson's classes will travel to Mill City Museum to learn about how water wheels powered the flour mills in Minneapolis. This supports our Water unit in science, taught by Mrs. Laven.
On that same day, Ms. Gesme and Mrs. Laven's classes will go to the Bakken Museum and Pavek Museum of Broadcasting to learn about electricity. This supports the Electricity and Magnetism unit, taught by Mrs. Carlson.
Watch for permission forms in your child's mail. Bag lunch and beverage are needed. Parent chaperons are welcome.
The entire 4th grade will also be attending the Edina Pops Concert on the morning of February 26. This is a special one hour performance for all the 4th grade classes in the entire school district. A permission slip will be sent home in a couple of weeks. Parent chaperons are not needed for this field trip.
Reading Updates
Informational Text
During the second semester, we will focus primarily on informational text, using selections in our reading anthology and science texts about the human immune system: Body Warriors and Has a Cow Saved Your Life? Our unit will focus on these standard benchmarks:
Science Benchmarks:
4.4.4.2.1 Recognize that the body has defense systems against germs, including tears,
saliva, skin and blood.
4.4.4.2.2 Give examples of diseases that can be prevented by vaccination.
Reading Benchmarks:
4.2.1.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
4.2.2.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.
4.2.3.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
Remind your child to make informational texts one of her/his choices the next time you go to the library or bookstore.
Cornelia Elementary School
Math Updates
We are currently working in Unit 7. This unit is a review of fraction ideas previously introduced, and extends knowledge by developing a good understanding of equivalent fractions. Unit 7 also provides informal activities related to chance and probability. Unit 7 has four main areas of focus:
1. Review fractions as parts of a whole (ONE), fractions on number lines, and uses of fractions.
2. Guide students as they order fractions and find fractional parts of sets and regions.
3. Provide practice identifying equivalent fractions.
4. Review basic ideas of probability, comparing predicted and actual results, and guiding the application of fractions to chance experiments.
Fraction Lessons: videos
http://www.helpingwithmath.com/by_subject/fractions/fra_teaching_fractions.htm
Fraction of problems: video
http://etube.edina.k12.mn.us/ecademy/features/BYqJhm9U9dEPM4NEaYp9
In Unit 8 students will:
1. Review perimeter and area concepts
2. Develop formulas as mathematical models for the areas of rectangles, parallelograms, and triangles.
3. Explore applications of area with scale drawings.
Social Studies Updates
In fourth grade Mr. Erickson teaches the Geography units to all students while the other social studies units are taught by homeroom teachers. The bold print indicates power standards (standards which receive the most time and attention).
North America’s Physical Geography Unit State Standards:
- Choose the most appropriate data from maps, charts, and graphs in an atlas to answer specific questions about geographic issues in the United States, and also Canada or Mexico.
- Locate and identify the physical and human characteristics of places in the United States, and also Canada or Mexico.
- Use photographs or satellite-produced images to interpret spatial information about the United States, and also Canada or Mexico.
- Create and use various kinds of maps, including overlaying thematic maps, of places in the United States, and also Canada or Mexico; incorporate the “TODALS” map basics, as well as points, lines and colored areas to display spatial information.
- Use latitude and longitude on maps and globes to locate places in the United States, and also Canada or Mexico.
- Name and locate states and territories, major cities and state capitals in the United States.
- Name and locate countries neighboring the United States and their major cities.
North America’s Human Geography Unit State Standards:
- Locate and identify the physical and human characteristics of places in the United States, and also Canada or Mexico.
- Explain how geographic factors affect population distribution and the growth of cities in the United States and Canada.
- Explain how humans adapt to and/or modify the physical environment and how they are in turn affected by these adaptations and modifications.
- Use data to analyze and explain the changing distribution of population in the United States and Canada over the last century. (Also discussed in O of P unit)
- Describe how the location of resources and the distribution of people and their various economic activities has created different regions in the United States and Canada. (History standard)
- Use maps to compare and contrast a particular region in the United States, and also Canada or Mexico, at different points in time.
Impact of Geography on Agriculture & Regions (including Economics) State Standards:
- Define the productivity of a resource and describe ways to increase it.
- Describe a market as any place or manner in which buyers and sellers interact to make exchanges; describe prices as payments of money for items exchanged in markets.
- Analyze the impact of geographic factors on the development of modern agricultural regions in Minnesota and the United States
Origins of Local People/Immigration Unit State Standards:
- Identify and locate on a map or globe the origins of peoples in the local community and state; create a timeline of when different groups arrived; describe why and how they came.
- Use data to analyze and explain the changing distribution of population in the United States and Canada over the last century.
- Use maps to compare and contrast a particular region in the United States, and also Canada or Mexico, at different points in time.
Civics: Government Unit State Standards
- Identify the major roles and responsibilities of elected and appointed leaders in the community, state and nation; name some current leaders who function in these roles and how they are selected.
- Describe tribal government and some of the services it provides; distinguish between United States and tribal forms of government.
- Describe how people take action to influence a decision on a specific issue; explain how local, state, national or tribal governments have addressed that issue.
- Apply a reasoned decision-making process to make a choice.