Weekly Update January 3rd-7th

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fantastic winter break. It was a great time to catch up with family and friends. I know we were busy at our house playing with all the toys that Santa left for Charlie and Nick!

A special welcome to Elizabeth! Elizabeth is joining our class this week. We are so excited to have her in room 221!

Here is what we will be doing as we ease into 2011!


Math: This week we will begin Chapter 12. Multiplying two-digit and three-digit numbers is officially here! Remember that the math book is online
http://www.eharcourtschool.com
Log-in : tfourth
Password: pass
I will be providing students graph paper to work these multi-digit problems. The biggest problem I anticipate is keeping the numbers neat and organized! Hopefully graph paper will help!

Reading: All groups have finished their book club books. Not all groups were able to meet before due to the snow day and winter party. We will begin new book club groups and guided reading groups this week.

Writing: This week we will begin our expository writing piece. We will be doing some prewriting activities. Each students will choose one person to research and write about. More details will be given in class.
Students will continue to write 10 minutes a nights for homework. I have decided to modify this requirement to be 3 days a week instead of 4 days a week. On Fridays I will check the journal for 3 10 minute entries.  

Word Study: This week I will be giving students a word study inventory. This inventory is a 20 word test but it does not count for a grade. It is a tool to help me better place your child in word study groups based on their individual strengths and weaknesses. Do not expect words and contracts to come home until late in the week or early next week.

Science: We will begin studying electricity this week!

Enjoy the last few days of break! See you soon!

Weekly Update: December 13-17

The winter concerts have been RESCHEDULED for this Wednesday, December 15th.  The 4th grade will perform at 7:00 and the choir will perform at 8:00. 

Math- We are working toward 2-digit times 2-digit multiplication!  This wee we will continue using strategies to solve multiplication problems (using zeros, distributive property) that will prepare us for the next steps.  We will take our Chapter 11 test this Thursday. The study guide will come home a day earlier than normal (on Tuesday). I realize that with the winter concert being rescheduled the students will not be able to do all their studying on Wednesday night.

Reading- This week we will continue looking at nonfiction text structures. We will focus on table of contents, bold faced words, captions, diagrams, and the index. As a weekly reading response this week students will be looking for nonfiction books at home and identifying the nonfiction text structures they find in these books.

I have been very impressed with our book club discussions recently!  We are truly becoming a class of readers who can discuss our books with our peers! Way to go!

Writing–Persuasive writing continues!  The students have been working on writing a persuasive letter to you, their parents, about an unusual pet they would like to have. The polished pieces are due this Wednesday. I am impressed by some of the arguments the students have come up with on this topic. After reading the letters you may just want to buy a monkey, dolphin, or DRAGON for under the Christmas tree (yikes!).

In writing we have also discussed some no excuse expectations in writing. We are identifying writing expectations that MUST be present in all our our writing, NO EXCEPTIONS. Some ideas we have generated are:

• Capital Letters
• Beginning of a sentence
• Proper Nouns
• Punctuation
• Correct use of commas in a series
• Correct use of the friendly letter format

We will continue to add to this list in class. 

Word Study- We will have our word study test on Thursday. Remember this week the word study test focuses on some no excuse words.

Fun Holiday Games

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/operation_snowman/

http://resources.kaboose.com/games/santa-flibriks.html

http://www.multiplication.com/flashgames/HolidayPractice.htm

http://www.thekidzpage.com/freekidsgames/games/alllights/christmaslights.html

Stocking Assignment

Today each student was given a stocking (thanks for the donation Mrs. Schlaker!)

The assignment is to pick one character from a read aloud book  (The Big One-Oh, Magic Half or Stolen Children), book club book, or independent reading book. Then, they are to decorate the stocking fitting that person's personality. Students should then add at least three items that they might expect to find in that character's stocking. What talked, at length, about this project today. Students will present their stockings on Monday. Have fun and be creative!

Baby, it's Cold Outside!

Stay inside and and play some math games!


http://media.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/drag_race/drag_race.swf
 
http://media.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/demolition/demolition.swf

http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/mathsmulti.html

http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/mathsdiv.html

http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/apples/savetheApples.htm

Hats for Haiti

Jaimi has raised over $140 selling Santa hat earrings! All proceeds go to help the orphans in Haiti. We are so proud of Jaimi! She will be selling earrings at the winter musical this Sunday. They are $3.00 or 2 for $5.00.



General Rules for Making POSSESSIVE NOUNS

http://www.english-zone.com/spelling/possessives.html


Exceptions

Of course, we’re talking about the English language, so we’re going to have some exceptions to the rule. While grammar books and style guides don’t necessarily agree on how to determine these exceptions, most consider a word’s pronunciation. Here is what a few of the books say:

■“If pronunciation would be awkward with the added -’s, some writers use only the apostrophe. Either use is acceptable.” (Diana Hacker, A Writer’s Reference)

■“Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is [such as Achilles' and Isis'], the possessive Jesus’, and such forms as for conscience’ sake, for righteousness’ sake.” (Strunk and White, The Elements of Style)

■“With some singular nouns that end in -s, pronouncing the possessive ending as a separate syllable can sound awkward; in such cases, it is acceptable to use just an apostrophe.” (Kirszner & Mandell, The Brief Holt Handbook)

■“Since writers vary in the use of the apostrophe, it is not possible to make a hard and fast rule about the apostrophe in singular words ending in s.… Punctuate according to pronunciation.” (John E. Warriner, English Grammar and Composition)

Weekly Update December 6th-10th

Here is what is going on in our classroom this week:

Don't forget that Wednesday is an early release day! 

Please remind students to bring winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves! Winter has arrived....brrrrrrrr!

• Math–We are working toward 2-digit times 2-digit multiplication!  Last week we worked on 2-digits times 1-digit. We will take our Chapter 10 test on Tuesday. A study guide will come home tomorrow evening.  If you have been looking for little blue math quizzes we have taken a break from them for awhile. We have been spending more time doing guided practice, classwork, and small group instruction. I will let you know when to look for the quizzes to come back!

• Reading–This week we will continue to review inferences and work on proving our answers using the author's words (proof from the text). I was very pleased to see the book summaries students turned in on Friday! They did an excellent job!

• Writing–This week we will continue working on our persuasive pieces about unusual pets. We are working on a five paragraph letter (introduction, 3 supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion). We have been thinking hard about how to argue against opposing viewpoints, and have been spending a lot of time developing quality arguments and making an outline.  Students have the option to finish their choice piece for extra credit or as their nightly 10 minute writing assignment (this is optional). I enjoyed reading the students' nightly writing assignments! Each week the writing homework is worth 4 points (one point for each entry). 

Our class is working very hard to have quiet transitions. This is a very exciting time of year for the students and we have become very talkative in class.