Friday, November 7th

Reading- This week we finished our nonfiction unit. Students will be bringing their Nonfiction Assessment home in their Friday folders. Everyone's hero poster looks great! Just a reminder, students will need to bring their costumes to school for the Hero Wax Museum on Monday, December 8th the third grade classes will be previewing our hero exhibits during the school day.
**Save the date you're invited for our evening exhibit, with the musical performance to follow, starting at 6:30pm on 12/8.

Writing- Students are drafting their nonfiction books about the life of their pollinator. Next week, we will move further along in the writing process and start editing and revising our books. Ask your child what text structure they are writing their nonfiction book in.

Math- Students finished Unit 6 this week. We will begin Unit 7 next week. In unit 7, students will learn how to add, subtract, and multiply fractions and mixed numbers, write equivalent fractions, and understand chance and probability. Ask your child how they felt about the math test. What are they proud of/what was challenging?

Social studies- Next week, students will begin learning about the Southeast region! At the end of the Southeast region unit, we will have a states and capitals test on this region. If your child would like to begin preparing for this quiz, they can visit our fourth grade website (under grade level resources) and study the Southeast Quizlet!

Science- Students reviewed for and took their Life Cycles unit test this week which has been sent home in the Friday Folder.  Next week we will begin our Rocks and Minerals unit.  Students will be learning the different types of rocks through observation of their properties.  We will also take a look at the composition of the Earth, volcano types, and the effects of erosion and glaciers.  Finally they will have an understanding of the rock cycle and how rock can be broken down to form new ones. 


Genius Hour Update: Genius Hour is an opportunity for students to research something they are passionate about! Students created a proposal with a driving question to guide their research. Our next step is for students to create an action plan for researching and developing their final product. Ask your child what their Genius Hour topic is.

Students created inferences on President Obama's speech about the importance of education.

*Reminder: If you haven't done so already, please sign up for your parent-teacher conference via Sign Up Genius! If you are unable to attend, please e-mail your child's homeroom teacher to set up another time to discuss your child's great progress!

Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 10th- Lunch In
Thursday, November 13th- Picture Retake Day

Coming home in your child's Friday folder,
-Nonfiction assessment
-Science assesment
-Hero poster rubric
-new reading log

Friday, October 31st

Happy Halloween!

Reading- Next week, we are wrapping up our nonfiction unit. We are very excited to see the Hero Posters on Wednesday. Please see the website for more details.

Writing- Students have been introduced to several mentor nonfiction texts to show them good examples of nonfiction writing. Next week, we will be drafting and revising our pollinator nonfiction texts.

Word Study - Due to the short week and the two other assessments in science and math, we will not be sending home a new word sort this week.

Math- Next week, we will be finishing Unit 6. Look for a study guide to come home sometime next week. Our Unit 6 Assessment will be on Friday, November 7th.

Social Studies- Students finished the Southwest region this week! Next week, we will be creating a website to summarize all that we have learned about the Southwest region. Stay tuned for more details!

Science- Students harvested their seed pods this week and saw the results of pollination.  Students were given a study guide to complete as well as a review packet to use when studying.  Also check out the resources on our 4th grade website to help your child review for the test.  The test for both classes will be on Thursday, November 6th.

Thanks room parents for the great Halloween parties!

*Reminder: There is no school Tuesday, November 4th

Coming home in your child's Friday Folder...
-Science Life Cycles booklet (your child can use this to study for science test)
-New reading log
-Southwest states & capitals test

Hero Project Handouts and Rubrics

Parents and Fourth Graders -
As you begin working on your hero trifold for the wax museum, here are some helpful tips:

- Trifold posters can be purchased at Staples, Office Max, Target, and Michaels

 - We've added links to the handouts from our website.  Simply go under "Handouts" and Open the "Hero Project" folder.  We've included the directions, rubrics, and timeline layout page

- Due date for trifold poster: November 5th - NEXT WEDNESDAY!

- Use the Lib Guide link under "Go Alexandria" for 4th Grade Hero Research Project to help you with your research: http://libguides.d181.org/heroes

Good Luck!

Friday, October 24th

Math- This week in math we learned various strategies for long division and how to interpret the remainder. Next week, we will be continuing to practice long division while learning how to measure angles using a protractor.

Language Arts -
Students finished up their narratives this week!   It is quite an accomplishment as they journeyed through the entire writing process.  It was a pleasure to get to conference with students about their writing and see what great writers they are.   We will now take our research we did in science and use it to jump start us into our nonfiction writing piece.

In reading students began researching their hero candidates by using our essential questions to guide them.  We will continue to work on this research in reading this week as well as synthesize our ideas to draw conclusions about our heroes.  We continue to focus on nonfiction reading skills in our mini-lessons and strategy groups.  

Look for a new word study list to come home on Monday.  Test is on Friday.

Social Studies- Ms. Ingstrup's class took the Southwest region quiz this week. Ms. Hathaway's class will be taking this quiz on Monday. Next week, both classes will be discussing the causes and effects of the Native American land removal.

Science - In science, students made their final Wisconsin Fast Plant measurements, and then removed their plants from the water tanks as they have reached the end of their growing cycle.  This week we will be removing the seed pods and opening them to observe the seeds inside. We will then discuss the research data that we've collected, compare our results with our hypotheses, and draw conclusions regarding our control plants verses our experimental plants.  We also finished researching a pollinator and began planning our nonfiction book layout.  Students will continue to work on this in writing class in the following weeks.

Coming home in your child's Friday folder...
-School pictures
-Directions for parent-teacher conference sign up via "Sign Up Genius"
-"Book Talk" questions to help monitor your child's reading comprehension
-New reading log

Friday, October 17th

This week certainly flew by!

Reading- This week we set reading goals and selected our hero nonfiction texts. Please look in the Friday folder for the handout describing the hero project and activities. Ask your child what hero candidate they are reading about.

Writing- Next week, we are starting our nonfiction writing unit. We'll be sharing a variety of immersion texts as examples of good writing!

Math- Look for the Unit 5 Test coming home in your child's Friday folder. Next week, we will begin unit 6 on long division strategies and angle measurement. Ask your child about the four properties of multiplication they learned about.

Science- Students began researching a pollinator and began their layout for a nonfiction book describing the life cycle of a plant and their pollinator.  Next week we will be seeing the next phase of the cycle as we harvest the seeds from the pods. Ask your child what pollinator they're learning about.

Social studies- This week, we discussed the climate and natural resources of the southwest region. We watched a video explaining how life was like living in the Dust Bowl. Next week, we will be discussing how natural resources can help a region's economy. Ask your child what is a natural resource of the Southwest.


A special thanks to those of you who came out to support the FunRun on Thursday!  Thanks for all the pledges and support!

In the Friday Folder this week...

- Unit 5 math assessment
- Nonfiction Hero handout
- Booster-a-Thon Pledge amounts (These are due next Thursday!)
-New reading log

Ms. Hathaway's class on Crazy Hair Day!

Wisconsin Fast Plant seed pod

Friday, October 10th

Reading- Students have familiarized themselves with the five nonfiction text structures: compare & contrast, cause & effect, sequencing, problem solution, and description. Students used fix-up strategies to decode words using word parts. Next week, we are launching our nonfiction hero unit- stay tuned for more details!

Writing- We are continuing to conference with students to revise and edit their narratives.

Math- We are wrapping up unit 5. Look for a study guide to come home on Tuesday. Our Unit 5 Assessment will be on Thursday.

Word Study- Due to the shortened week, there will be no new sort next week.

Social Studies- This week students used their iPads to note-take about the Southwest region. We learned about the southwest's climate and natural resources. Next week, we will discuss longitude and latitude mapping skills.

Science- Students continued to pollinate their Wisconsin Fast Plant flowers this week with our bees.  We are anxiously awaiting the development of the seed pods.  As the seed pods grow, students will be putting together a digital book using their experiences in class, research, and pictures from the Botanical gardens. 

Have a great long Columbus Day weekend!
The Fourth Grade Day

Coming home in your child's Friday folder...
-Fall 2014 MAP test scores
-new reading log
-Boosterthon weekend challenge- Fourth grade is in 2nd place! Keep the pledges coming :)

Friday, October 3rd

Happy Friday!

Reading- We began our nonfiction unit this week and discussed the various text features that can be found in nonfiction texts and how they can help us as readers to "tune in" to what's important in the text.  Students also learned about the differences between literary nonfiction, biographies, and reference books.

Writing - Students are continuing to edit an revise their writing this week about a time they will never forget.  Students were asked to include dialogue in their writing and be sure to have a strong beginning, middle, and end.  We can't wait to share these with you soon.

Math- This week we learned different methods to solve multiplication problems.  We will be moving on to writing and reading really big numbers and representing these big numbers using powers of 10 and scientific notation.

Social studies- We learned about the Southwest landforms. Students learned new vocabulary describing each landform. Next week, we will be learning about the climate of the Southwest and introduce mapping skills.

Science - In science we learned all about the reproductive parts of a plant and why pollination is an important part of their life cycle.  Students were able to dissect a plant on our field trip to the Botanic Gardens on observe them closely using special hand lenses and microscopes.  Then the students  explored the various gardens to see bees in action and various types of plants in different stages of their life cycles.  Students used their iPads to capture pictures and videos as they explored.  We will be using these photos, along with additional research to create interactive ibooks as a culminating activity to our unit.  It was a great field trip!  Special thanks to the parent chaperones for making it an extra fun day.

Coming home in your child's Friday folder...
-New reading log


Have a great weekend!
The Fourth Grade Teachers

Ms. Hathaway's Class at the Chicago Botanic Garden!

Mrs. Ingstrup's Class at the Chicago Botanic Gardens

Students learning about the life cycle of a plant.

Students using their iPads to capture their experience!