Projects In Our Classroom
Math: We will finish up work this week on fractions concentrating on reducing to simplest terms. Congratulations to Katelyn Emma, and Brendon who successfully solved this week's Problem of the Week. The Problem of the Week (POW) is designed for those students looking for an extra challenge in Math to test their skills. All POWs are grade level and will require some effort. Parents are encouraged to help, but the work turned in must be the student's. All correct weekly winners will receive an extra credit "A" and a special treat. Next week's POW is titled "Water Park Adventure".
Spelling: Spelling tests are ALWAYS FRIDAY. Your child is welcome (and encouraged) to bring home their spelling list each week to study. You may also check out our Spelling page to print the weekly list at your convenience. ALSO, WE BEGAN WEEKLY PRETEST POP QUIZZES. ANY STUDENT RECEIVING 100% ON THIS IS NOT REQUIRED TO TEST EACH FRIDAY. ADDITIONALLY, ANY STUDENT RECEIVING A WEEKLY "A" ON EACH WEEKLY TEST FOR 9 WEEKS OF THE QUARTER RECEIVES A FREE PIZZA LUNCH.
Science: We have been studying the relationship of the Earth, Sun, and Moon. We have discussed their relative positions in the Solar System as well as how seasons happen, including rotation, revolution, axis, and orbit.
Social Studies: We have tested on our unit on Michigan Government at the local, county, and state level. The children have learned about voting, taxes, elections, candidates, gov't. services, as well as Representive Gov't, the State Constitution, and the 3 branches of government. Our studies will continue as we now elevate our efforts to take a look at the U.S. Constitution and how the Federal Gov't meshes with our own lives.
Penmanship: ALL WORK IS TO BE DONE IN CURSIVE. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Language Arts:
We utilize the Open Court Reading Series. This is quite different from what we have used in the past and I found it benefited many of our students of every level. Each story lesson takes a week to complete and combines, Spelling, Vocabulary, Comprehension skills in a manner that effectively teaches each of the Language Arts concepts. As such, journaling plays a very big part during our school year. Each child will be responsible each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to complete journal pages from their readings honing their skills in Prereading, Skimming, Scanning, Characterization, Setting, Plot, Inference, Conflict, and Resolution. They will also identify and define new words learned in each selection and later will identify metaphors and similes. This may seem like an awful lot, but believe me this is a fine series that produces excellent results. We begin our next Unit titled "Survival". Our next selection is titled "The Big Wave".
This is probably the most comprehensive program in all of 4th grade. We utilize the Open Court Series of Language Arts. All of our Spelling, Grammar, Reading, and Comprehension work is based on this series. We work hard with reading comprehension skills, phonics work, decoding, vocabulary, and writing projects within this series about 2 1/2 hours each day. This includes a variety of Workshop Projects that change weekly according to skills development and need.
I ALSO UTILIZE SUSTAINED SILENT READING (SSR) AND JOURNALING 3 TIMES WEEKLY. THE CHILDREN READ ANYTHING THEY WISH AS LONG AS IT IS NON-FICTION FOR 15 MINUTES. THEY THEN JOURNAL AS MUCH AS THEY CAN REMEMBER. STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THIS TO BE VERY EFFECTIVE.
Six Trait Writing: This is a wonderful series that we have used for several years now. We teach each trait (Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions) as a separate unit concentrating of one trait at a time over 3-4 weeks. Each unit finishes with a fun project that the the children always love! Writing Sample scores from our school have increased each year for the past 4 years.
Accelerated Reader is a mandatory program our class takes part in each year. I will continue to challenge each child's reading level throughout the year in order to improve their skills. Remember, outside reading is mandatory in our class. 20% of each child's reading grade depends solely on the Accelerated Reader Program. Ask your child to show you their assigned book some evening. The current selection for each child depends on their current level at this point. Depending on the results of each child's test scores after completion, I will assign them the next appropriate reading selection to strengthen their skills. You can now download or view the entire Accelerated Reader Catalog when you are helping your child pick out a suitable grade level book! Click on our Main Page and select from the menu.
Accelerated Reader Competition has begun.
The yearly work and total points will result in some very "sweet" prizes next May.
I place a lot of weight on the learning of reading. My classes have ALWAYS scored in the top 22% of Accelerated Readers in our building. FOR THE 2ND YEAR IN A ROW WE ARE THE DEFENDING CHERRY STREET ACCELERATED READER CHAMPS!