January News

     The students did an amazing job with creating their habitats. The next day after the Open House, we traveled to see all of the habitats and the student's that created them were our tour guides. They learned so much in such a short time. Thanks for coming out for the Open House.
     Report cards are coming home today in their Friday folders. If you have questions please give me a call or you can send a note or email.
     Valentine's Day will soon be upon us. The fourth graders have a standardized test in the morning called NAEP.  Student Leadership is planning some events for us for that day. In the afternoon we will be having an Author's Tea with the other fourth grade to share and celebrate our writing from this quarter. We would love to have snacks and drinks to share. If you can send in food please let me know. We will not be passing out valentines though. Thanks.
     In math we have been learning about prime and composite numbers and why they are prime or composite. We have been learning about interpreting graphs and the language of graphing.  We also taught our buddies how to play Yahtzee last week
    In writing we have written usually three of each kind of poem and then put one poem into final copy for their book. So far, they have written haikus, limericks, weather cinquains, winter poems, concrete/shape poems and color poems.
    We received our second pen pal letter from our Calais pen pals and wrote them back this week.
     In Four Winds we learned about air. First Margaret and Sara did a play. We also did lots of experiments. We put an egg on a bottle and inside the bottle there was fire. Because the air inside the bottle was hot, the air wanted to escape. So the egg fell through and the hot air went out. Then to get the egg out we poured hot water in the bottle.  Then the hot water warmed the air on the inside so the egg fell out again because the air wanted to escape. Then we made the parachutes with garbage bags. The weight was a washer. Then we went outside and launched then off the playground slide and timed how long it took them to get to the ground. We also made skits and the class had to guess what we were doing with air. After we got to keep little pieces of paper that can fly. (written by Payton and Claire)
     In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day we say a video about his life and talk about prejudice. Then we saw a video that explained how races came to be, how people develop prejudices and how people are working to over come prejudices.
     In social studies we have been learning about hemispheres and latitude and longitude.  We made popsicle stick props to help to learn some map terms.  On one side is written the words latittude and longitude, the backside has the words meridian and parallel and whether they are measured with N,S, E or W.  Here are some photos to show you what they look like.

Mini Course Open House

     The Open House for mini courses is Tuesday January 29^th   from 6:00-7:00. (note the change in time)

     Your child should report right to their mini course. They will be the tour guides there for the night. After they show you all that they have learned and created, you will be able to tour the rest of the habitats. Your child will stay in their habitat for the night. 

      The next morning our class will tour all the habitats and then students will return to the habitat that they studied to collect all the things that they made and to take their habitat down.  

      The students have worked really hard on their habitat and have learned a great deal.  I think you'll be impressed will all of their great work.

New Reading and Writing Goals

Today students set new personal reading and writing goals for the third quarter. They will be going home with your child on Friday. Please review the goals with your child, make changes as needed, sign and return them on Monday. I will make a copy for you and a copy for your child to put in their binder.

We also looked at a calendar and planned when projects should be started and when they are due. This is in your child's binder if you wish to see it.

A quick subject overview-In reading we have been reading and writing poetry. In math we are learning how to graph data, make math observations and the language of graphing (such as mode, median, range). In social studies we are learning about hemispheres and latitude and longitude.

Important dates
1/29 Mini course open house from 6:00-7:00 1/30 Pizza/snack sale ends
1/31 Send in money and order forms to school. Delivery should be in 2-3 weeks
2/1 Deadline to decide if you wish to chaperone for Boston Museum of Science field trip on 6/6-6/7
2/8 Stop recording for the Read-a-thon
2/8-2/22 Start collecting money for the Read-a-thon
2/22 Turn in Read-a-thon reading sheets, sponsor sheets and money

Fundraiser

Coming home today is a fundraiser called Club's Choice. There is a booklet with food choices like pizza, cookies, cinnamon rolls, pretzels and beef sticks.  If you choose to do this fundraiser, people should pay when they order. The checks should be made out to EMES. The order form and money are due back to school by 1/30/13. Delivery would be in two-three weeks. Let me know if you have any questions.

Transition Words

Transition words are the words or phrases that link sentences or paragraphs together to create a more cohesive piece of writing. Today and yesterday we worked on transition words that students can use other than the traditional first, next, finally and then.  Students were given a list of transition words and a picture book. They had to write a story based on the photos. When students were done writing about the action from that page they had to use a transition word to connect to the next page. The following day they shared their story and transition words with a small group.

Math Journals

We have started to create and use math journals/notebooks in class.  Math journals will be used to record student's learning, show their math thinking, for problem solving, as a math reference, a math dictionary and to show their learning.

Their math journal has a section that is a reference guide of skills taught in class.  Right now there are a few sheets glued in their notebook on procedures of how to borrow with regrouping, how to borrow when there are zeros, how to check your subtraction by adding, and two ways to multiply two digit numbers.  These notebooks are stored in their binder. If students are having difficulty with their homework please remind them to look in their binder at the notebook for help.

The unit we are currently working on in math  class now is called Describing the Shape of the Data.  Students will be organizing, recording and making observations about data. Another section of the math journal has the vocabulary of graphing-maximum, minimum, range, mode, median, cluster and outlier.  There are examples in the notebook of many different kinds of graphs and charts.  We created those based on the number of M & Ms in a package. This week we also compared the data and made observations about the height of first and fourth graders.



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Fundraising

Due to new policies, parents need to give permission for students to fundraise money for field trips. We are going to run two fundraisers to gather enough money to go to the Boston Museum of Science in June. One is a Read-a-Thon that will start on Monday and one is a pizza/snack sale. Students will only get the forms to use to fundraise if the parent permission slips are returned by Friday 1/11.

Monday will be Comfy Cozy Day to kick off the Read-a-thon.  This will be for all students, whether you returned the fundraising permission slip or not.Students are welcome to wear PJs or comfortable clothes and to bring in a blanket, sleeping bag or stuffed animals.

Learning to use a Thesaurus

Last week students learned to use a Thesaurus as a tool to edit their writing for making  good word choices.  First, students were given a word and they had to find synonyms for that word. They recorded their answers on paint strips and then shared them with the class. You can ask your child what word they had and what synonyms they found.

Next, students looked at their realistic fiction narrative and used the Thesaurus to change some of the words.

Gobstopper Experiments

To learn more about the scientific method, first students investigated how long it took Gobstopper candy to melt in water and what colors they became.  Then students chose something they wanted to investigate.They had to keep the controls (size of container, shape of container, color of Gobstoppers....) the same so they were only testing one variable.  The students then recorded their results on a poster and they posters are displayed in the hallway.  The students wrote the text for this post.

What will the difference be between club soda vs Sprite?

 The conclusion is club soda is the winner because
it melted faster than Sprite!

What happens when you put  Gobstoppers in Mt Dew v.s oil ?

  The conclusion is Mt. Dew melted faster. The Gobstoppers in the oil didn't change.

                                       What happens when you put  Gobstoppers in oil vs water?

                          Conclusion- The Gobstoppers in the water melted faster than the ones in the oil?  So, the water won!

                                             What happens when you do Mt.Dew vs Sprite?

  The conclusion is the Gobstoppers in the Sprite melted faster than the Mt. Dew.

 

What happens when you put Gobstoppers in Sprite v.s Water?                          

The Sprite bubbled and the Gobstoppers melted in the middle faster then the water did.

 

What liquid would Gobstoppers melt faster in Sprite vs. Water?

Water made the Gobstoppers melt faster than Sprite so water won!