I hope that your weekend is going better than mine. Beau seems to be having round two of the 24 hour flu. Needless to say, we will both be napping later. I just feel so helpless when my kiddos are sick. Don't you? That being said, having a snuggly little boy who wants nothing but his mama is nice too. :0) It will be a day of Cars and Cars 2 for us. Let's just hope I don't catch the bug as well. To top things off, my older sister, brother in law, niece, and nephew live in North Carolina and I am watching tornadoes go over their area on the weather channel as I type. Texting with her from her bathroom. Many of us remember those scary skies from our Father's Day tornado a few years ago. So scary and again helpless from a far. Sunday will surely be a better day! :0)
This week's academics:
Math: We will bring out the fraction strips and find equivalent fractions. Then, we will create our own using the golden rule: whatever you do to the numerator, you also have to do to the denominator. Later in the week, we will learn to compare fractions with unlike denominators. Apples and oranges on that one. :0)
Lead 21: We will continue through space. It has been quite the journey learning about constellations, mythology, technology on Earth, technology in space, and now we will head into what our future will look like when it comes to space. I doubt you or I will ever make it to the moon, but our kids or their kids just might be that lucky! We will also start our small group leveled readers. Kids will focus on fact and opinion throughout selection one. This skill is not as easy as one would think. In 4th grade, it is not as easy just thinking basic prove it or not prove it. It is a little more complex. Many times kids agree with the opinion, so they believe it to be fact. It is important that they don't confuse it with true or false. They will have plenty of practice before it is counted for a grade.
Language: We will be writing our pen pals back and really taking a look at how our friendly letters will differ from a business letter.
Spelling: Base words that end in consonant + y change into an i before adding a suffix. Kids will have plenty of practice this week with that. Everyone will do the same list this week, due to some activities we will be doing. Alternate list will return next week.
Science: Animals and animal reports. We have two more projects to do in Snowology as well. Speaking of science, ask your kiddo about the lab we did on Friday. Kids had to become birds and use their fingers like beaks to pick up one worm (pipe-cleaner) at a time. Then kids had to record how many of each color they collected. After doing this 4 times, kids realized that the ones that had green paper rarely picked up a green pipe cleaner. Those that were on yellow paper, rarely picked up a yellow one. This lesson brought up a specific vocabulary word dealing with animals staying safe from predators by blending into its surrounding. If your child can share with you the vocabulary word for this, write it in the planner for $10 on Monday.
Social Studies: We will continue to study our SE region. The kids are starting to figure out what is noteworthy in SS. Dates, vocabulary words, people, and historical facts are what they want to record in their notes. So far, we have written the notes together. By the end of the week, kids will read a selection and take their own notes. They will then have a quiz using only those notes. Before doing this, we will have done it together 5 times. I am confident that they will be able to do it all on their own. Life long skill there...especially in college!
MT History: We will begin to take a look at the actual history of MT. We will start with the American Indians that were here long before European's came over. What was their life like before all the confusion? Kids will find out this week.
CC Meetings: MLK Jr and civil rights. We will be reading MANY books about this topic. In celebration of MLK Jr's birthday on the 15th, we will be taking a look at all he did. MLK Jr is one of my personal heroes and on many occasions, I have been called Rosa Parks Jr, by many of my friends and colleagues. I am always standing up for kids and looking out for their best interests. Nothing makes me more angry or frustrated than when I see kids being treated unfairly or bullied. I have never feared anyone or anything that stands in the way of making sure those issues are solved quickly. Hence the nickname I have gotten at times. :0)
Next, next Monday (the 20th) is actually MLK Jr day on the calendar. Kids are off that day, but teachers are in meetings. So, we will also be doing a lot of fun projects in CC Meeting the follow week as well. Kids will need to purchase their tri fold board for this. They may start to bring them in anytime this week. They will need to have them for sure by Tuesday, January 21st. They will need to get the medium sized board. It is not the giant one (like they need for science fair). It is not the tiny one either. It is the one that is 40 inches by 28 inches. I got mine at Walmart for less than $3. Kids will display all of their fun projects for MLK Jr., Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, and the Little Rock 9 on this board. We will hopefully display them in the library for all to see.
Arrowhead Reef night is approaching. Make sure you mark January 30th on the calendar for some splish splah fun! Emma, Beau, Zach and I will be there hitting the slides! We may even make a night out of it and stay the night. Fun! It is $10 a person. Arrowhead gets $4 out of that. It is from 5-9 pm. We sure hope to see a bunch of you there. I would love to hang with the kids in a fun way! Thanks PTA for putting this together!
Quarter 2 is coming to a close. It is hard to believe we are almost halfway through the 4th grade. I am proud to say that we are right where we should be academically. We do have two standardized tests coming up in March-April. We will take the Smarter Balanced (Common Core Standardized Test) and the MAP NWEA's. I am not a big test person, so I don't put a lot of pressure on kids for either of these. It is just another day to me and another way for kids to shine, shine, shine. All we can ask is that they do their best, just as I expect every day. For my class, it is a time of celebration of learning rather than a stressed out you better pass this test atmosphere. I already know each and every child in my classroom is smart and growing. That is what matters to me. They will be ready, prepared, and most of all they have the BELIEVE power instilled in them to rock any and every test I put in front of them! :0)
Trevor was once again or star of the week. He brought some legos and his United Airline fly pack. He shared some more artifacts from his trip to Korea. He is so knowledgable about Korea, and it is so fun to listen to his excitement about it. I could just see him becoming a reporter one day. :0) Trevor ended his sharing with his fox friend. It was funny that when Trevor first heard the song, What does a Fox Say, he was in bed with this little guy. Awesome! Thanks for sharing with us again Trevor.
I would like to throw out a couple of happy thoughts to some families: Congratulations to Max's family on moving into their new house. Max sure was excited on Thursday! Warm thoughts for Nicolas's and Liam's family as they say goodbye to important family members. My thoughts are with all of you during this difficult time. A big congratulations to Tyler's mom getting engaged over the holiday break. How exciting! Safe travels to Riley's grandparents as they come home from a trip. I know that Riley missed you both! A big hug to Amanda. I hope to see you back in class on Monday. We missed you on Friday. I so enjoy about hearing all about your kiddos lives outside these four walls. They share so much during our feelings time during our daily CC meetings. Relationships matter now and forever.
I would like to wrap up this post by sharing with you the last two points from the article I presented all week. I sure hope that it hit home with you as much as it did me. Being a parent and a teacher at the same time often makes it hard to remember these points when looking at my own children's educations. Have a wonderful weekend!
Ms. Erickson
