News From Grade 4
Week of November 10th
Again, the vibrant background of the newsletter is a photo taken by one of the kids. I thought this might bring a smile with all our snow!
Language Arts
For our writing time, Ms. Fischer is leading the science fiction unit. The kids are learning the characteristics of the genre from listening to various stories. They will be writing their own soon. The kids are also completing reflection sheets for conferences. For reading, we've been looking at vocabulary roots and affixes connected to our science studies.
Math
In math, we've been looking at interpreting bar graphs and line graphs from the shape of the data. We're moving into a series of investigations that use the context of getting ready for a turkey dinner. The kids will look at different properties of multiplication including the commutative and distributive properties and proportional reasoning. Ratio tables (t-tables or charts) and open number lines will be the models emphasized. We'll focus on communicating and justifying how the problem is solved, as well as looking at various ways of arriving at the solution.
Social Studies
We've started with our state memorization. Each week, students get a study sheet to use at school and one to take home. We sing the state song at least once a day to practice. Tests are on Friday; these are cumulative, so it's very important that the kids keep up with each week's work.
Science
In science, we're continuing our look at earth materials. The focus is on comparing rocks and minerals, making observations, and describing properties. Students are using Thinking Maps to take their notes and then practice writing complete paragraphs.
Miss Gaab's Contact Information
Email: gaabj@district279.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/apps.district279.org/gaab/home
Phone: 763-213-3860