Reading:
In reading we completed our animal literature circle books. Students worked on vocabulary with these stories and searched for synonyms in a dictionary and thesaurus. Students also worked on questioning while they read. We discussed the type of questions that come up in our reading. Students took a quiz over their story today.
After checking reading notebooks this week a few students are getting behind in their home reading. Students should have 12 response entries in their notebook by Saturday, October 25th. The October reading calendar will be added to this nine weeks grade. It is worth half of the students' homework grade, so please check to make sure your child is completing their reading. This homework grade could drastically affect their nine weeks grade.
Science:
Our matter unit is concluding in science next week. We will have our unit test on Wednesday, October 29th. This week we focused on changes in matter. We learned that when matter changes from different states it is a physical change. For example, an ice cube melting or changing from a solid to a liquid is still a physical change. Physical changes are usually changes in appearance or size, shape and color. On the other hand, chemical changes are changes in the particles of the matter. Burning and rusting are examples of chemical changes. Please help your child prepare for the unit test next week. This will be their last grade in science this nine weeks.
Writing:
We completed an informational report about spiders this week. Our focus with report writing is creating strong main ideas and concluding sentences. Students grouped the related facts and put these into one paragraph. Then they had to create a main idea for their paragraph. Students also focused on an introductory sentence and concluding sentence for the whole report. These came home earlier this week.
Math:
In math we began our decimal unit. Students need to remember to line up their decimals when adding, subtracting and comparing decimals. Some students are still making silly mistakes, because they aren't taking the time to line up their decimals. We will begin to use our decimal knowledge to measure also. Students will be converting various metric measurements using their decimal place value. We will practice this next week. Students should have already brought in a candy bar for some fun math next week. If they haven't done so please send one in on Monday.
Fall Festival is next Tuesday! All 4th grade students will rotate through all the other 4th grade classes for some fun math review activities. We do these switch days near the end of every nine weeks and try to focus on different subjects. Students seem to really enjoy them!
Also don't forget that our first field trip will be next Thursday. Students should dress for the weather and bring a packed lunch in a disposable container.
Thanks!
Mrs. Stratton
"You can't learn
if you don't make a mistake."
-Mirei