May 14, 2012
A Note from Mrs. D.
Dear Parents,
First, thank you for all of the tokens, from beautiful flowers to the delicious luncheon, of your appreciation last week. It was a lovely week, and the fourth grade team could really feel the love!
Next, it's that time again...MCAS. The Math exams are this week, Wednesday the 16th and Thursday the 17th. Please be sure your child eats a healthy, substantial breakfast each testing morning, and has a good night's sleep each night before. The fourth graders have worked hard in preparation for these exams, and are ready to tackle this math challenge.
Thank you so much for your continued support this year! It's hard to believe we're in the home stretch.
Best,
Mrs. D.
March 30, 2012
A Newsflash brought to you by the fabulous fourth graders of Room 225!
April showers bring May flowers!
Happy Spring, everyone!
MCAS is over, and all of fourth grade is relieved, at least until May! We asked some fourth graders to share their feelings about this.
Abby: "I'm overjoyed that it's over!"
Jillian: "MCAS is irritating!"
Hazel: "Yummy...ice breakers!!!"
Izzy: "It's fun, but I'm glad it's over."
La La La! It's concert time on April 13th at 9am in the Dallin Gym. Don't miss our Apple Pie Themed concert. Yummy! So what else have the fourth graders been up to these days? Read on to find out.
In Reader's Workshop, we've been focusing on all things MCAS, which is full of multiple choice and open response questions. Before the testing, we practiced test taking strategies, such as highlighting the questions before we read the text and making a T-chart to plan our open response answers. "If we didn't practice these, we don't think we would have done very well," reported many students. "I think it's a good indicator of student progress, but it's a little much, over the top," some teachers said. Thanks to the practice, we all felt more comfortable doing the actual test. Now, though, we are back to normal. No more MCAS practice, and our realistic fiction unit of study is back on track. We all need to reread our reading group texts because it's been so long!
In Math, we are working on fractions. We also have a math fractions test on Wednesday, April 4th, so study that study guide! The kinds of fractions we have learned are mixed numbers, improper fractions, equivalent fractions, and simplest form. Another topic we're learning about is combinations. For example, a question might ask, "Mrs. Boss has 3 blouses: Red, white, and pink, and 3 pants: white, tan, and navy. How many different outfit combinations can Mrs. Boss wear?" A strategy we can use to solve this is make a t-chart and write out the possible combinations. We're hard at work in math class, and even in homeroom where we've started learning about decimals!
In Social Studies, we're continuing to learn about the different regions of the United States. So far, we've learned about the northeast and southeast regions, and we're now studying the midwest region . As a part of our midwest study, we've listened to the style of music from this region, folk music. After listening to the song, "Home on the Range," we are writing and performing our own versions of the song in groups. Ask your fourth grader to sing his/her version for you. It is fun to learn all about our country's states!
BOOM! A pool of lava erupts out of a volcano and at the sight of the volcano, you will find bunches of black rock. This is the first classification of rock, Igneous Rock, which has been around since the Earth formed. Now, let's head to the beach. Here, you'll find Sedimentary Rock, the second classification of rock. The sediment that was carried by the water you see has piled up in layers. These layers harden to form a rock when pressure squeezes the layers together. Sediment includes sand, dirt, shells, fossils, and mud. Lastly, you should probably grab a shovel. We're going to dig underground to find Metamorphic Rocks, the third and final classification. These rocks form when already existing rocks are heated and squeezed so that the rocks flatten and their properties change. Now, on to the study of minerals. We'll let you know what we learn!
The fourth grade writers successfully tackled the challenge of writing a five paragraph narrative for the MCAS Long Composition exam. With their strong leads, powerful word choice, original similes, and rich details, the fourth graders created well-written pieces. Now, we will begin our study of persuasive essay writing. Mrs. D. knows that we will enjoy this unit because every fourth grader has opinions that they love to share!
We hope you've enjoyed getting a glimpse of the fourth grade happenings. Oh, did we mention that there's no school on Friday April 6th and that April Vacation is just a few weeks away? We could use a break! Thanks for reading!
March 16, 2012
A note from Mrs. D.
Dear Parents,
I would like to inform you of the upcoming MCAS testing dates. On Tuesday, March 20th, all fourth graders will complete the MCAS Long Composition Exam. On Thursday, March 22nd and Wednesday, March 28th, the fourth graders will complete sessions 1 and 2 of the Reading Comprehension Exams. Please be sure your child eats a healthy, substantial breakfast each testing morning, and has a good night's sleep each night before. The fourth graders have worked hard in preparation for these exams, and are ready to tackle the challenge.
Another important date to note is the Spring Concert. Ms. Havelin is excited to announce the "Slice of Apple Pie" themed concert on April 13th at 9:00am. The fourth graders look forward to sharing their American folk songs and ballads with you!
Our classroom supply of cleaning wipes and tissues has diminished, after our winter colds. Your donations would be greatly appreciated, as allergy season is just around the corner, and we love to keep our classroom clean!
Thank you,
Adriane DiPasquale
February 7, 2012
A note from Mrs. D.
Hello Parents,
I would like to inform you that for a short time, we will replace our journal writing homework on Mondays and Wednesdays with MCAS practice assignments. In class, we are doing strategy work and examining former MCAS questions. You will see this work come home on Mondays and Wednesdays. If you have any questions, please feel free to send a message.
Thanks!
Mrs. D.
December 20, 2011
Down the chimney you go into the fourth grade fireplace! You're about to feel like a kid on Christmas morning opening up the stockings of information and ripping open the presents of education. You're about to guzzle down sweets as we guzzle down knowledge. The holiday spirit lights up the faces of electric scientists. Come into our cozy library, open up a good book, sit in a squishy arm chair, curl up in front of the fireplace with sparks of ideas coming from your mind as you read about the happenings in our fourth grade!
Once upon a time in Writer's Workshop, the class of Room 225 was working on their special moment writings. Some kids were eagerly drafting, while others were searching through the thesaurus trying to find that powerful word choice. From sensory details to interesting dialogue, our stories are masterpieces of our life experiences. These masterpieces started as ideas that we brainstormed, then timelined. As we wrote our rough drafts, we stretched out our writing by adding details that made our story complete. We hope our strong leads grabbed your attention!
Welcome to the world of Roald Dahl! Mrs. DiPasquale has been meeting with Dahl fans in guided reading groups. The texts are abouut crafty witches, ugly twits, amazingly smart kindergarteners, and the Big Friendly Giant, himself! Our independent assignments include everything from scavenger hunts to designing our very own golden tickets. Oh, and did we mention that we're reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as our shared read aloud? Dahl's world of unique word choice, intriguing events, and unfortunate characters make reading a blast!
Let's run around the math universe! In math, we're tackling multiplication and pre-algebra! In pre-algebra, you use pictures or letters that translate into numbers. In multiplication, we have worked with arrays, which are rows and columns of blocks. We have been playing games like tic tac toe, I have who has, and bingo to work on our multiplication facts. Also, we are currently working on division stories bringing our multiplication skills to the next level. Stay tuned for more details...
Have you ever heard of the metal tungsten? Well, the fourth grade electric scientists can tell you all about it. It is the metal used to make the filament inside a light bulb. Why tungsten, you ask? Tungsten has the highest boiling point of all metals, so it can handle the extreme heat of some light bulbs. We've been building all kinds of circuits in science class. We use special holders for D-cells and bulbs, and there haven't been any explosions...yet! We have also learned about insulators, materials that electricity cannot travel through, and conductors, materials through which electricity can travel. We tested objects in the classroom and from a "mystery bag" to learn about what materials conduct and insulate electricity. We are looking forward to building more and more complex circuits, and hopefully without any explosions!
Welcome to the world of Mills. The Mills has recently had us complete a test on immigration. The main immigrant groups we studied were the Asian Americans, European Americans, American Indians, and African Americans. The Mills assigned every person in our class to a group and we learned as much as we could! Now, we are studying the Northeast region of our country. We have learned about assembly lines, and even got to practice how one works. The Mills was the boss who checked the chocolates that we wrapped, and if we didn't produce enough passable items, we were fired!
Thanks for joining us along another spectacular fourth grade journey. We wish you a happy holiday season with family and friends, and we look forward to new beginnings in the new year!
November 30, 2011
REMINDER:
Early Release Dates for Parent-Teacher Conferences:
Thursday, December 1st
Monday, December 5th
Wednesday, December 7th
Dismissal is at 11:15am.
Please read the following notice regarding Dallin products:
Happy Holidays Dallin Families,
With the holidays upon us and the shopping frenzy we are all in, why not get yourself, your spouse, your child or actually anyone in your family one of the new Dallin Products now being offered!!
We are now taking pre-orders for Grey Dallin Hooded Zip-Up Sweatshirts! Only $25 for youth and $35 for adults. The Dallin logo is on the upper left side of the sweatshirt!
Another new offering is a Long Sleeve Dallin T! Now you can show your Dallin Pride all year long with our long and short sleeve shirts.
Our final new product is a Stainless Steel Water Bottle. It is 25.4 ounces and BPA free. It has a wide mouth for easy ice cube insertion and it comes with a clip.
We are attaching an order form for you to fill out. Be sure to put your name, address and phone number at the top of the order form. Please make checks payable to DALLIN PTO and send the forms and the check to school in your child's folder in an envelope marked "Dallin Products" by December 6th.
We will announce pick up times for orders in the next week or so, but you will definitely have your order by Dec 23rd.
Please feel free to email either of us with any questions.
Thank you,
Margaret mkohler@nclc.org
and
Simona - mona3712@yahoo.com
October 17, 2011
Welcome, fellow Earthlings, to the intergalactic learning bubble of fourth grade! This newsflash is the first edition that is written by the fourth graders. During a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, we said goodbye to our old sidewalks and crosswalks and hello to our brand new ones from MassDOT. Thank you to MassDOT for keeping the children of Dallin safe! Last week, we also participated in a national event called "Let's Jump!" Kids across the country did jumping jacks in an attempt to break the Guiness world record for number of jumping jacks done in a minute. Guiness world records is still tallying up the totals, so we don't know yet if the record was broken. GO AMERICA! This week is the Dallin Book Fair! Stop by after school to take a peek. We will be back in a few weeks to invade your minds. This message has been sent by the awesome aliens, Audrey, Christina, Hannah, and Izzy.
Travel the world with us in Social Studies! We started off the year by learning the compass directions, including the cardinal and intermediate directions. We have also been working on our picture dictionaries, which are drawings we made of Earth's many geographical features. Now, we are learning a lot about our sister city, Teosinte, El Salvador. Did you know that many kids there go to school outside near a plaza? Soon, we will be writing pen pal letters to the kids of Teosinte! Reported by Maren, Varun, and Aidan
Grab a magnet and go! That is, if you want to make a temporary magnet! If you want to make one, you'll need a permanent magnet, a magnetic object, and a paper clip. First, you place the permanent magnet on the magnetic object to magnetize it. Think of it as all the atoms in the magnetic object lining up like soldiers, and once they are in place, the object can act like a magnet. Then, hang the paper clip from the object and watch it attract! Some of our temporary magnets have been attracting for a whole week! Also, we have been using a seesaw balance to try to break the force of attraction between two magnets. On one side of the balance, you have the two magnets attracting, and on the other side is a cup where you add washers to see how many it would take to break the force of attraction. Did you know that even the earth has a magnetic field? Written by Scientists David, Rory, and Tyler
We welcome you to math! In math class, our teachers are Mrs. Sherburne and Mrs. Scott. After we finish the day's activity, we can work on a game called Zuples, which are mixed up math puzzles. Another thing we do is estimating with birds, coins, and marbles. We had a sheet with birds on it, and we had to estimate how many were on the sheet. Also, we have been using some technology in the class. The ELMO document camera is a highly efficient overhead device in color. Mrs. Sherburne uses it to show a math problem on the board. We are having lots of fun in math class! Written by Natalie, Elena, and Ben
Books, Books, Books! In Room 225, we love books! In fact, our classroom is stuffed full of books, with 31 bins to be exact. That doesn't count all of the books on display, and in our science area, too! While we are reading, we use comprehension strategies so we can understand the story. We connect, predict, picture, notice, wonder, and figure out. Sometimes we write our strategies and thinking on post-its, Active Reader Reports, Strategy Slips, and sometimes in a Reader's Letter to Mrs. D. This week we are excited about turning the next page and meeting with our guided reading groups for the first time. We will be reading books by Roald Dahl for an author study. During Reader's Workshop each day, you'll see the kids of Room 225 nestled in their book nooks curled up with a just right book! Written by Hazel, Abigail, Petra, Adriana
Sharpen your pencils for Writer's Workshop! In our writer's notebooks, we have been writing snippets about special moments in our lives. We have come up with ideas about moments with people, places, and objects that are important to us. Some kids are writing about a funny story with a pet or a memorable time with a parent. We are going to be learning about how we can add sensory details to our writing to make our stories come alive. We know you will be impressed when we share some of our writing with you. We hope you enjoyed reading this, and we bid you farewell! From Patrick and Connor
A note from Mrs. D. :
Student Council will begin the first week of November. The fourth graders may make speeches next Tuesday, October 25th, to their homeroom class explaining why they want to run for Student Council Representative. Anonymous voting will take place the same day, and two representatives from each homeroom will be elected. Students must be able to attend the monthly first Thursday meetings at 7:45am. Best of luck to those running!
October 5, 2011
Dear Parents,
Tomorrow is Back to School Night at Dallin! The evening begins at 6:30pm in the gym with greetings from Ms. Rossi. Following her remarks, you are invited to attend the fourth grade teachers' presentation in Room 225, Mrs. DiPasquale's homeroom. The presentation will run at 7:00pm and again at 7:30pm. We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow evening!
Fondly,
The Fourth Grade Team
September 27, 2011
Dear Parents,
Greetings from fourth grade! We are off to a great start, and I am so impressed with how well the children are settling into the routines and responsibilities of fourth grade. Just take a peek at your child's Reader's Notebook binder as it comes home each day, and you will see some examples of the great thinking we're doing.
There are some important dates to note this week. This Thursday, September 29th, there is no school in observance of Rosh Hashanah. Friday is Picture Day, and you can send in your payment with the picture order form or purchase online at www.coffeepond.com. Next Tuesday, October 4th, is an early release day at 12:30pm. Also, we have Back to School Night on Thursday, October 6th at 6:30pm. This is an adult-only evening and a chance for you to hear about all of the things your child will learn in fourth grade. For future updates, you can always check the calendar page of our website, as I add events frequently.
There are a few costs that we ask parents to help out with this year. As a part of the nonfiction reading, we use National Geographic Explorer Magazine in fourth grade. In addition, we have purchased homework planners to help your child with organization skills and keeping track of assignments. The combined cost is $7.50. You may send in cash or a check made payable to me, Adriane DiPasquale.
I look forward to seeing you all at Back to School Night! We're going to have a fabulous year in the fourth grade!
Fondly,
Mrs. D. :)
August 2011
Greetings incoming fourth graders!
I hope you are having fabulous summers filled with adventure and lots of reading! As you begin to prepare for the beginning of fourth grade, you are probably wondering what supplies you will need to purchase for the school year. Please visit the "Important Documents" page of our class website to read and print the "Welcome letter/supply list." I look forward to meeting you all on September 8th, the first day of fourth grade!
Enjoy the rest of the summer!
:) Mrs. DiPasquale