Hello Everyone!
We had a great last few days together for which I'm thankful. We created lots of memories this year and enjoyed sharing them with each other and having some fun. ;) We wrapped up our learning, reflected on our year, shared our memorable moments, worked on our final iPad projects, shared our "Geometry Towns," created a "How to Survive 4th Grade" ABC book, attended the 5th grade moving on ceremony and exhibitions, nominated each other for awards and ended today with our final Learning Celebration...(and, yes, I cried both yesterday and today! I'm going to miss your children!)
We have had a fun-filled year of learning and growing together in our room. Thank you so much (parents/families) for your support this school year. I can't believe how fast the year went by! I hope that your 4th graders (now 5th graders!!!) have all made wonderful, lasting memories and friendships this year. I am so proud of each of them and wish everyone a happy summer!!!
Take Care,
Devon
PS. Don't forget to read this summer! Here is a link to the F.AVE media center page for info on the Summer Reading Lists! :)
Friday, May 30, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
Class Update: Week of May 19
Hello Everyone!
Thanks for all of your support in making our F.AVE Field Day a success!!! We had such a great morning at McKoy Park playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, kickball, dancing and playing. The weather turned out awesome and our class rocked the games with good sportsmanship and positive and encouraging attitudes. We couldn't have asked for a better day!
While we know the end is near, we still have lots of learning going on in room 227. This will be a busy week for us as we enjoy the fun week at Fave (silly hat day, wacky tacky day, etc) but also as we wrap up our Term 6 learning.
In ELA this week we are reviewing making inferences, identifying theme, summarizing, paraphrasing and opinion writing. We will also start our UOI Summative Writing Piece mid-week. For this writing piece your child will choose one person to write a brief biography about. They will discuss his/her life, what his/her believe was, how that person stood up for it and how doing so made a difference. They will connect it to our UOI Central Idea for this term: One person's willingness to stand up for his/her beliefs can make a difference.
In Social Studies we have wrapped up Women's Rights and are moving into the Core Democratic Values (common good, diversity, equality, justice, liberty, life, pursuit of happiness, popular sovereignty, patriotism, rule of law, truth). We will discuss them all and each child will determine the 4-5 they most closely relate to and create an iPad presentation for them.
In Math we are working on our culminating task, "Geometry Town". The students are working in pairs to follow directions to create a town using different examples of lines, shapes, angles and more!
In Science we will work through the Scientific Process to learn how to investigate scientific experiments.
Here's to a busy, fun-filled week! Hope you have a great one!
PS. More field day pictures to come!
Upcoming Dates:
Wednesday, May 21: All library books due
Friday, May 23: Summer Reading Disco Party in the library
Summer Birthday Celebration at Recess (1pm)
Wednesday, May 28: 5th Grade Exhibition (we will rotate through to see some!)
Thursday, May 29: Last Day of School and Last Day of School Celebration (11:30-12:30 in our room)
Thanks for all of your support in making our F.AVE Field Day a success!!! We had such a great morning at McKoy Park playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, kickball, dancing and playing. The weather turned out awesome and our class rocked the games with good sportsmanship and positive and encouraging attitudes. We couldn't have asked for a better day!
While we know the end is near, we still have lots of learning going on in room 227. This will be a busy week for us as we enjoy the fun week at Fave (silly hat day, wacky tacky day, etc) but also as we wrap up our Term 6 learning.
In ELA this week we are reviewing making inferences, identifying theme, summarizing, paraphrasing and opinion writing. We will also start our UOI Summative Writing Piece mid-week. For this writing piece your child will choose one person to write a brief biography about. They will discuss his/her life, what his/her believe was, how that person stood up for it and how doing so made a difference. They will connect it to our UOI Central Idea for this term: One person's willingness to stand up for his/her beliefs can make a difference.
In Social Studies we have wrapped up Women's Rights and are moving into the Core Democratic Values (common good, diversity, equality, justice, liberty, life, pursuit of happiness, popular sovereignty, patriotism, rule of law, truth). We will discuss them all and each child will determine the 4-5 they most closely relate to and create an iPad presentation for them.
In Math we are working on our culminating task, "Geometry Town". The students are working in pairs to follow directions to create a town using different examples of lines, shapes, angles and more!
In Science we will work through the Scientific Process to learn how to investigate scientific experiments.
Here's to a busy, fun-filled week! Hope you have a great one!
PS. More field day pictures to come!
Upcoming Dates:
Wednesday, May 21: All library books due
Friday, May 23: Summer Reading Disco Party in the library
Summer Birthday Celebration at Recess (1pm)
Wednesday, May 28: 5th Grade Exhibition (we will rotate through to see some!)
Thursday, May 29: Last Day of School and Last Day of School Celebration (11:30-12:30 in our room)
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Class Update: Week of May 5
Hello!
Hope you have been enjoying our sunny spring weather and the exciting things happening in our community this time of year! :)
We are still working diligently at school wrapping up, sharing what we've learned and showing what we know. Thanks for your help in supporting and encouraging your student during our CRCT testing days. They seemed confident and calm each morning and were thrilled to have a piece of candy to get them going :)
As I'm typing this today, they are staying focused and showing what they know on their Math MAP test. We had one-on-one conferences this morning to talk about the importance of this test (not to stress them but to give them purpose) and just chat with them about how they are feeling with each subject as well as going over their scores from this year and determining a 'goal' for their end of the year score to show their progress and how much they have learned this year. They all seemed confident and were smiling as we entered so that's a good sign! :)
As for our lessons in class, we are continuing to learn new material everyday and review as well. In Math we are continuing with our geometry unit. We have wrapped up the first half and will take a test tomorrow to assess it. It will cover the vocabulary/skills mentioned in my last post. I'm also including some screenshots of our lesson practice so you can see how we have been solving for finding unknown angles. We have worked with both circular (360 degree) protractors as well as traditional 180-degree protractors to solve. Once we got the hang of protractors (how to line them up, which set of numbers to use, which direction to read, etc) we started solving without them; using what we had learned about benchmark angles (90, 180, 270, 360 degree markings) to help us solve for the unknown(s) in acute, right, obtuse, straight and even reflex angles. They've done great with this!!!
In our ELA/SS lessons we have been working with the Abolitionist and Suffrage Movements. We started the term with the important women (info in previous post) and have since started a class read aloud, "The Hope Chest". This story is set in the time of the suffrage movement (the book opens in 1918) and is told from the perspective of a 10-year old girl from Pennsylvania who is looking for her older sister who has left home to fight for women's rights. We've met many interesting characters along the way as we are reviewing character traits, main idea, summarizing and inferencing using details and examples/support from the text. Each student is keeping a response journal for the book that we are closing with and sharing from. It's been a great read so far (we are currently though Chapter 6)! Here are some snapshots of a few of our note-taking sessions:
In our more direct SS lessons we have been talking about the right to vote; what does it mean, who should it include, should everyone get an opportunity? How would the voting process change/be affected if only certain groups of people got to vote on things that affect everyone? We put this in to practice with our Field Day Team Name/Catch Phrase. The class made a list of 10 catch phrases that affect us all - it would go on all of our shirts, banners, posters, and we would be chanting this phrase on field day defining us as a team.... but only the boys were allowed to vote on it. "WHAT!?!?!" They cried out!!! "Thats's not fair!!!" So we divided up in the room - one side for those who agree with my decision and those who didn't. Interestingly we had a 24 vs 3 debate. 3 boys were in favor for a 'boy vote' only! What a debate we had that day!!! :) Moving forward we will be wrapping up the suffrage movement with a reading of Sojourner Truth's famous speech "Ain't I a Woman" and working through vocabulary, context, text-dependent questions, etc... Next week we will move into Core Democratic Values and the students will be learning what these are and how they affect them personally as a citizen of the United States. They will also be writing an essay on the 4-5 that they feel they most closely relate to/feel most passionate about for themselves. :)
So I've just realized I've typed you a novel here! My apologies! I'll stop here and give you another update for next week's skills/lessons soon. Check out the "Important Dates" tab up top for end-of-the-year dates (some may still be added...) Have a great week and a Happy Mother's Day weekend!!!
PS. Thanks for the field day shirts and fabric paint materials! We will be working on getting those ready in class next week for Field Day next Friday. Also, thanks for the sweet cards and gifts for Teacher Appreciation; I'm so lucky to be surrounded by these sweet children every day :)
Hope you have been enjoying our sunny spring weather and the exciting things happening in our community this time of year! :)
We are still working diligently at school wrapping up, sharing what we've learned and showing what we know. Thanks for your help in supporting and encouraging your student during our CRCT testing days. They seemed confident and calm each morning and were thrilled to have a piece of candy to get them going :)
As I'm typing this today, they are staying focused and showing what they know on their Math MAP test. We had one-on-one conferences this morning to talk about the importance of this test (not to stress them but to give them purpose) and just chat with them about how they are feeling with each subject as well as going over their scores from this year and determining a 'goal' for their end of the year score to show their progress and how much they have learned this year. They all seemed confident and were smiling as we entered so that's a good sign! :)
As for our lessons in class, we are continuing to learn new material everyday and review as well. In Math we are continuing with our geometry unit. We have wrapped up the first half and will take a test tomorrow to assess it. It will cover the vocabulary/skills mentioned in my last post. I'm also including some screenshots of our lesson practice so you can see how we have been solving for finding unknown angles. We have worked with both circular (360 degree) protractors as well as traditional 180-degree protractors to solve. Once we got the hang of protractors (how to line them up, which set of numbers to use, which direction to read, etc) we started solving without them; using what we had learned about benchmark angles (90, 180, 270, 360 degree markings) to help us solve for the unknown(s) in acute, right, obtuse, straight and even reflex angles. They've done great with this!!!
In our ELA/SS lessons we have been working with the Abolitionist and Suffrage Movements. We started the term with the important women (info in previous post) and have since started a class read aloud, "The Hope Chest". This story is set in the time of the suffrage movement (the book opens in 1918) and is told from the perspective of a 10-year old girl from Pennsylvania who is looking for her older sister who has left home to fight for women's rights. We've met many interesting characters along the way as we are reviewing character traits, main idea, summarizing and inferencing using details and examples/support from the text. Each student is keeping a response journal for the book that we are closing with and sharing from. It's been a great read so far (we are currently though Chapter 6)! Here are some snapshots of a few of our note-taking sessions:
In our more direct SS lessons we have been talking about the right to vote; what does it mean, who should it include, should everyone get an opportunity? How would the voting process change/be affected if only certain groups of people got to vote on things that affect everyone? We put this in to practice with our Field Day Team Name/Catch Phrase. The class made a list of 10 catch phrases that affect us all - it would go on all of our shirts, banners, posters, and we would be chanting this phrase on field day defining us as a team.... but only the boys were allowed to vote on it. "WHAT!?!?!" They cried out!!! "Thats's not fair!!!" So we divided up in the room - one side for those who agree with my decision and those who didn't. Interestingly we had a 24 vs 3 debate. 3 boys were in favor for a 'boy vote' only! What a debate we had that day!!! :) Moving forward we will be wrapping up the suffrage movement with a reading of Sojourner Truth's famous speech "Ain't I a Woman" and working through vocabulary, context, text-dependent questions, etc... Next week we will move into Core Democratic Values and the students will be learning what these are and how they affect them personally as a citizen of the United States. They will also be writing an essay on the 4-5 that they feel they most closely relate to/feel most passionate about for themselves. :)
So I've just realized I've typed you a novel here! My apologies! I'll stop here and give you another update for next week's skills/lessons soon. Check out the "Important Dates" tab up top for end-of-the-year dates (some may still be added...) Have a great week and a Happy Mother's Day weekend!!!
PS. Thanks for the field day shirts and fabric paint materials! We will be working on getting those ready in class next week for Field Day next Friday. Also, thanks for the sweet cards and gifts for Teacher Appreciation; I'm so lucky to be surrounded by these sweet children every day :)
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Class Update: April 14-18 (and Term 6 Info)
Hello Everyone!
I realized I have not updated you from last week! My apologies! I hope everyone had a restful Spring Break (from the kids stories it sounded like lots of fun was had!). We jumped right back into learning and in to Term 6 last week (as well as some CRCT prep).
Our Unit of Inquiry for Term 6 is: Who We Are.
Our Central idea for this term is: One person's willingness to stand up for his/her beliefs can make a difference.
Our lines of Inquiry are the following
- Shared beliefs and principles in a society
- Historical figures who's beliefs influenced others
- Responsible ways we can use our beliefs to make a difference.
In Social Studies we will be learning about the abolition and suffrage movements with a focus on historical women such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. We will be integrating ELA with Social Studies as we will be practicing opinion writing pieces as well as continuing to practice inferencing and finding the main idea of a text. In lieu of a reading contract this term, we are participating in a reading challenge. Each student is challenged to read and test on as many books in their reading range as possible. The table with the most books (and passed tests - 80% or above) receives a pizza party lunch in the classroom with Mrs. Porter. :)
In Math, we wil be working on geometry including different types of angles (acute, obtuse, right), and defining rays, lines, line segments, points, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and intersecting lines. We will also work with protractors to measure angles and add/subtract angles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last week in Social Studies we worked on identifying and locating physical and manmade features on a map.
I realized I have not updated you from last week! My apologies! I hope everyone had a restful Spring Break (from the kids stories it sounded like lots of fun was had!). We jumped right back into learning and in to Term 6 last week (as well as some CRCT prep).
Our Unit of Inquiry for Term 6 is: Who We Are.
Our Central idea for this term is: One person's willingness to stand up for his/her beliefs can make a difference.
Our lines of Inquiry are the following
- Shared beliefs and principles in a society
- Historical figures who's beliefs influenced others
- Responsible ways we can use our beliefs to make a difference.
In Social Studies we will be learning about the abolition and suffrage movements with a focus on historical women such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. We will be integrating ELA with Social Studies as we will be practicing opinion writing pieces as well as continuing to practice inferencing and finding the main idea of a text. In lieu of a reading contract this term, we are participating in a reading challenge. Each student is challenged to read and test on as many books in their reading range as possible. The table with the most books (and passed tests - 80% or above) receives a pizza party lunch in the classroom with Mrs. Porter. :)
In Math, we wil be working on geometry including different types of angles (acute, obtuse, right), and defining rays, lines, line segments, points, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and intersecting lines. We will also work with protractors to measure angles and add/subtract angles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last week in Social Studies we worked on identifying and locating physical and manmade features on a map.
In Math we started our Geometry unit. (terms and skills above)
In ELA, we focused on grammar as we worked with Multiple Meaning Words using context clues and dictionary definitions to help us determine the word meaning in text. We also worked with Parts of Speech (the nine below) as well as diagraming sentences to identify the simple subject, simple predicate, compound subject, compound predicate and prepositional phrases.
We had a busy, fun week. Hope your week was wonderful!
Monday, March 31, 2014
Class Update: March 31 - April 4
Hi Everyone,
This week we will be busy wrapping up Term 5. We have been busy these past few weeks investigating simple machines and how they are used in the everyday world, inquiring and studying the Westward Expansion with a close study on the Oregon Trail and the Gold Rush. We also brushed up on prior learning of the Annexation of Texas and the Lewis and Clark adventure right after the Louisiana Purchase. Friday we began completing our study guides for the summative Social Studies and Science tests. Students also tested on Area and Perimeter in Math Friday and we have finished our problem solving using measurement within the metric and customary unit systems.
This week we will be focusing on interpreting, reading and creating information with line plots in math. In social studies we will be learning about manufacturing and transportation, including the invention of the cotton gin, steamboats, steam engine and telegraph. In ELA students will be completing their UOI summative writing task. They will produce an informational text, such as a brochure, letter, newspaper article, that uses their past weeks research from multiple sources on their topic. The topics were chosen based on student interest and includes the driving forces behind their particular topic. For example, the driving forces behind Trees Atlanta or the driving forces behind local/school movements such as Farm 2 School or Walk and Roll to School. Students will also be working hard to finish their reading contracts which they have been given ample time throughout the term to complete.
Here is the testing schedule for this week:
Wednesday, April 2nd- Science Test (SG went home Friday and I'll email you an answer key)
Thursday, April 3rd-Social Studies Test (SG went home Friday and I'll email you an answer key)
Thursday, April 3rd-Social Studies Test (SG went home Friday and I'll email you an answer key)
Reading Contract due
Friday, April 4th- Math test on line plots (NO spelling this week)
Friday, April 4th- Math test on line plots (NO spelling this week)
'Extras' this week:
Tuesday, April 1st - we join visiting Clairmont Elem. 3rd graders for lunch
Friday, April 4th - we will attend a STEM science assembly at 8am.
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Class Update: March 24-28
Hello everyone!
I hope you enjoyed this past weekend! It was beautiful and
showed such signs of warmer spring weather. What happened today!?! Our family enjoyed the outdoors as we
celebrated my son’s 3rd birthday with a road rally and picnic
birthday party at Cabbagetown park.
Can you believe that there are only 2 weeks left until
Spring Break?! WOW… This year has really been in fast forward. Over the next
couple of weeks, we will be wrapping up Term 5.
Here are the topics we will be learning and reviewing:
In math, we have wrapped up our lessons on
standard/customary units of measure. We worked on converting, adding and
subtracting same and mixed units as well as solving word problems to apply
those skills. This week we have
started working with area and perimeter. Students learned the ways to find both
area and perimeter before they discussed formulas for each. The last thing we
will study this term will be line plots.
Here are some screenshots from today's lesson:
In ELA, we are starting to research about a movement. Our
class chose from a large list of movements to research. A few examples are St.
Baldricks, Farm 2 School, Trees Atlanta, Humane Society, Walk and Roll to
School. There are some other movements that students chose for research, so
please ask your student what his/her topic is. All research will be done in
class, but if you have access to books or printed resources please send those
in for use.
We are working with inferencing and nonfiction/informational
texts, and we are integrating reading with social studies and science this
term.
Last week in Social Studies we worked on the Texas
Revolution and Annexation. This
week will cover the Oregon Trail and the Gold Rush. There is a great and insightful
resource that we have explored and will use as a reference for these two
topics. The site is http://www.america101.us/trail/Oregontrail.html.
On the left side of the page, there is a link to the Gold Rush.
In science last week we finished up our lessons about force
and motion and got started with simple machines. We are studying the 6 kinds of
simple machines: pulley, lever, screw, wheel & axle, inclined plane and
wedge. We are identifying them,
defining them, finding them in our environment and discussing how they help
make work easier.
Here are a couple of pictures from one of our 'force' science experiments last week (you may have heard your child mention 'the alka seltzer experiment')
In other news…
We are in need of highlighters, erasers, Kleenex and glue
sticks! If you can send in some or purchase some for the class, we will be most
grateful for the donation.
Headphones/earbuds - Please check with your student to see
if they have a personal pair of earbuds. Several of the students need a new
pair because their pair is broken or just needs replacing.
Explorations are this Friday from 1 - 2:30… We will signup
at school tomorrow (Wednesday)!
I have not set test dates for the math, science, and social
studies tests for next week. It is my hope to not need to test on next Friday,
April 4th. If your student will miss some days next week, please let
me know! Also, we are feverishly trying to prepare study guides for your
student.
Don't forget about practicing on Compass Learning at home:
Login: your child's lunch number
Password: go
*make sure your child chooses an ELA or Math folder with a 12/13 date on it (most recent info from their winter MAP test)
Thanks for reading! I hope you a
wonderful rest of the week!!!
Monday, March 17, 2014
Class Update: March 10-14
Hello everyone!
We had a busy week on the avenue last week! Here is a snippet of our week-
In math we continued our work with the metric system. We were persistent in practicing to show our work multiple ways (tape diagram, mixed unit add/subt, converting before add/subt, using a number line to 'add up' instead of subtracting). We ended the week with multi-step word problems using metric units then took our metric unit assessment. Here are a few pics from our week:
We had a busy week on the avenue last week! Here is a snippet of our week-
In math we continued our work with the metric system. We were persistent in practicing to show our work multiple ways (tape diagram, mixed unit add/subt, converting before add/subt, using a number line to 'add up' instead of subtracting). We ended the week with multi-step word problems using metric units then took our metric unit assessment. Here are a few pics from our week:
In Language Arts we wrapped up our lessons on figurative language through a flip book activity, test, and writing. We worked in partners to write a narrative using at least 3 examples of figurative language. The kids had a blast making up their stories together and sharing them with the class. We loved hearing them and listening out for all the fun figurative language; it really makes a story come alive! Friday, we did an inquiry lesson about biographies. We looked through many different biography texts and jotted down notes of things that we noticed about them that makes them unique. We then came together as a class to make a list of biography features and talked through them, showing examples from the books. Following our lesson we used our library time to check out biographies on our individual reading levels to use for our reading contracts.
In our Social Studies/ELA lessons we got super involved with the story of the Louisiana Purchase and the expedition of Lewis and Clark. We had a great time reading passages, sorting events, discussing the driving forces behind the events, retelling the stories behind the Purchase and the Expedition, mapping out the expedition, taking notes and more! We ended the week discussing Manifest Destiny and doing a photo analysis on the painting and discussing what it was and it's impact on the westward expansion. (We also took a TON of notes!)
In Science we had lots of fun working with force and motion. We visited the science lab for a fun experiment with 'Sheep in a Jeep' as well as looked at Newton's Laws of Motion. Sadly, I don't have any pictures to share from Science!
I hope you all had a great week and weekend! It was fun to see many of you and the Tour DeCatur 5k Saturday! It was such a beautiful day and fun community event. :)
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