This Week in Our Room

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK:
Thursday, Sept. 27 - 10:00am and 7:00pm - 4th grade music program performance in the gym
Friday, Sept. 28 - MAP TESTING for MATH
Friday, Sept. 28 - EARLY DISMISSAL at 1:20pm


Last week, we were quite the busy group.

In MATH, we started chapter 2 on estimation and factors. The student really struggled with this concept, but after many lessons spent on this, I think most of the students gained a better understanding of estimation. We moved on to factors, and a lot of the students had a hard time with this due to the fact that they weren't comfortable with their multiplication facts. I encouraged the class to study their basic multiplication facts at home every night for at least 5-10 minutes. We will be starting a multiplication calender much like our reading calendar in the very near future for this, so please make sure your student is working on these each night. We will be starting multiplication timed tests this next week as well, so be looking for that to come home. We continued the week with common factors between two numbers and then finding the greatest common factor of those two numbers as well. The students seemed to do well on this, but many of them had to use their multiplication charts to help them with their facts. I could not remind them enough how important it is to know these facts since we don't spend time learning them in fourth grade. We will continue with chapter 2 this week, which will move on to multiplication of two and three digit numbers. If your child is having difficulty with multiplication, this week may be a struggle for them. Please know that by helping them practice their facts each night, they will get better and better in no time.

In READING, we did Centers for Week 2. These centers focused on the vocabulary words, synonyms and antonyms, letter writing, and a technology center where the students were able to make a baseball card for a character in the story we read last week. This helped them focus on character traits, which was our focus skill.
We also had our first week of small, leveled reading groups. I met with the students in small groups and read a short story with them and we discussed the vocabulary words, character traits and motivations, as well as comprehension. The students seemed to enjoy these groups. We will meet in these groups every other week. We will be starting a new story this week with new vocabulary words, so be looking for new vocabulary words to come home.

In SOCIAL STUDIES, Mrs. Whitten finished the first week of her unit on the Southwest region of the United States. The students have really enjoyed learning about these four states. Each child was put into a research group to learn more about one of the states. They each have jobs they are responsible for completing in order for their research to be complete. They will present their research projects next week, provided they are done with their projects. We will take pictures of their projects and I will be posting them on the blog, so be looking for these! The students have been working very hard on their research, so they are quite proud of their work. We will continue working on these this week, hopefully finishing them up and presenting them by the end of the week.

In SCIENCE, we have continued to record data on our soybean plants. The students have found that the plants in the dark are growing! They were quite surprised by this, however, they did notice that the plants in the dark are not turning green or producing as big of leaves as the plants in the light. We will continue to look at these this next week to see if the students can come to any conclusions on whether plants can grow in the dark.

The students have been working very hard in music for their music program that will take place this week. Our performances will be on Thursday at 10:00am and 7:00pm. Please make sure if your student has a speaking part that they will be able to make it to both performances if possible.

I wish all of you a very nice upcoming week! If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.