Benson/Bodrick News
News from the 4th Grade
November 16, 2018
Math News
We have worked very hard this week converting metric and customary units. We have added a lot of references to our math journals so that students can use them when working on ALEKS, homework, or even in class. We will take a test on Tuesday to show what we know. Math Stations and Study Island Assignment #5 are also due by Tuesday. Students have had several weeks to work on these so they should be about done.
When we come back from Thanksgiving break, we will continue on to Topic 6 in our math textbook on multiplying by multi-digit numbers. We will be learning different strategies to help us. Knowing our basic facts is the number one thing students can do to prepare for this unit. If they know their basic facts, they will be much more successful.
I will combine next week’s ALEKS topics with November 26th-December 2nd topics. Students can get a maximum of 20 topics for this combined week. They must do at least 7 topics.
No Math Homework Packet next week!
Science News
We have had a lot of fun learning about the planets in our Solar System this week. The class Google slide presentation is linked below so that you can see all of the hard work. We also came up with our own mnemonic devices to remember the order of the planets. These will be in Seesaw very soon--if you don’t already see them.
We started observing the moon this week. Students were given their moon log on Wednesday. I have also included it in Google classroom with the link to see the moon if it is cloudy or not out when students go to bed. They are required to observe the moon each night for 28 days so that they may see the moon make one complete cycle. Please remind them to do this everyday and not wait until the last week to just copy them off of the internet. They will learn so much more if they go out searching each night or morning for the moon. It is a great activity for families to take some time and look at all the amazing things in the night sky.
ELA News
READING LOGS
Reading logs are assigned every week. Students are expected to read for at least 20 minutes and then respond to their reading using the question bank provided in their binder for fiction and nonfiction books. Your child is only required to answer one question a night on the reading response sheet provided. Please check weekly - if not every night - to make sure that your child is completing this task. I will now be grading the logs based on the actual quality of the responses. Students will still receive a grade of 100 at the beginning of the quarter - but I will take off 1 point for every day that is not completed thoroughly. If the log is not submitted on Friday, students will lose 5 points from overall grade. If you have any further questions about the reading log, please do not hesitate to email or send a message via Class Dojo.
NO READING LOG NEXT WEEK
READING
This week students finished the fables they created on their own in their small groups. They put their finished stories in Google Slides and added artwork - either illustrated work that they drew themselves or clipart (some even created their own clipart using shapes!) After creating the Slides presentation they recorded voice overs in Screencastify! Many of the projects came out great!!! Here are a few examples,
Upon returning from Thanksgiving Break, we will conclude our unit on Folktales and Theme with a popular Brothers Grimm story, “The Fisherman and His Wife”. We will review previous lessons learned from literature we’ve already read and then read this more complex text multiple times for different purposes as we learn to analyze in order to respond to a text-dependent analysis. The theme is the lesson or message that the writer wants to get across in his or her story that can be applied to our everyday life - we call it THE MEssage (think about how it can be applied to me). I suggest (if they can) that as you’re home or traveling for the holidays, have your child continue to read - particularly a fictional piece and see if they can point out the theme!
Social Studies News
Upon returning from break, students will review the reasons for exploration - political, economic, and technological factors and review must know information about the European explorers Leif Eriksson, Columbus, Hernando de Soto, Magellan, Henry Hudson, John Cabot, and La Salle. An explorer note page with an overview of each explorer will be provided next week Tuesday for students to study over the course of the break. A labeled map of specific countries in Europe will be in their Social Studies Journal.
Next week Monday and Tuesday, students will finish presenting European Explorer Research Projects. The actual document with the expectations was emailed to all parents - and the project was expected to be completed in Sutori.
Fourth Grade News
Related Arts Schedule for the next 2 weeks
Pajama Day
We are having Pajama Day on Monday, November 19th. The students earned this as a school-wide incentive for earning PAWS each day for our best behavior. Children are allowed to wear modest pajamas to school. No bedroom slippers, however, because we will go outside and some may participate in PE.
Donuts for Dads
Donuts for Dads is Tuesday, November 20th @ 8am. We hope that many dads can make it out and enjoy a little treat.
Ending Thoughts
Thank you for sharing your children with us! Please feel free to email us with any questions. Click on our name below for a direct link to our email.
Thanks for sharing your children with us each day!
