Class Update: Week of May 27 (The Last Week!)

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! :)

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)

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 :)

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.

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!

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)

                              Reading Contract due 
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!

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 3^rd 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 4^th. 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:

https://www.thelearningodyssey.com

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!!!

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:

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.  :)

Class Update: March 3-7

Hello everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed the Winter break and the nicer weather we have had recently.  Many of the kids shared their vacation adventures and it sure sounded like good times and good memories were made. :)

Back on the Avenue we've been busy catching up and wrapping up Term 4.  Lots of study guides, practice, research and review has gone into the days since we have returned.  This was followed by end of term assessments that we have officially completed.  Thank you for your diligence in helping your fourth grader study and prep with all of the 'choppy' days in and out of school due to the weather.

We are now beginning Term 5, Where We Are in Place and Time.  This term will go through April 4.  We have a lot of ground to cover and will make the most out of those extra 30 minutes added to our school day!  Please see the curriculum tab for our new Unit of Inquiry information.  You can find math resources for Term 5 there as well. (these were both sent home in the red communication folder today)

This week in Math we have started working with our new unit: Measurement.  Our skill focus this week will be identifying, converting, adding and subtracting using meters, centimeters, kilometers, grams, kilograms, liters and milliliters.  We will be using number bonds, tape diagrams and number lines to help us with our practice this week.  Here are some screenshots of some of our work today:

In ELA this week we are working with Figurative Language found in poetry and prose.  We are locating, recognizing and creating examples of alliteration, personification, similes, metaphors, hyperboles and onomatopoeia.  Later in the week we will introduce biographies and look at a checklist and reflect on our Term 3 Informational Writing piece as we will be working with informational writing again this term.  The students also received their Term 5 reading contracts.  They will be reading 2 fiction, 1 non-fiction and 1 biography or autobiography this term  Due April 3.

In Social Studies this term we will be integrating SS and ELA.  We will open our new unit "Westward Expansion" by discussing the driving force behind decision-making.  We will look at some 'local' scenarios to help us get started and then follow up with the driving forces behind historical events related to Westward Expansion.  We will spend 2 days on a close read on Territorial Expansion to determine the driving forces behind territorial expansion in the U.S. between 1801 and 1861.  Through our reading we will be using evidence from the text to determine the main idea, key details as well as summarize our new understanding of these historical events.  Up next will be the adventures of Lewis and Clark and the Louisiana Purchase. 

In Science this week we will start our new unit, Simple Machines.  We will begin by inquiring into the forces that cause movement.  We will do an opening activity investigating these forces as well as some fun (and messy!) hands on explorations to deepen our understanding about how force changes the speed or direction of a variety of objects.  They will love our new unit!

Wishing you a happy week!

Class Update: Feb 3-10

We have been busy trying to catch up from the last round of weather and wrap up Term 4.  Here's what we have been up to:

In ELA, we have been working on our fictional narratives (myths).  We are remembering to organize our writing with paragraphs and also use dialogue (I wish I had taken a picture of our anchor chart for dialogue!).  Many students have completed them and we have started sharing them.  Fun!  Students were asked to take their ELA notebooks home yesterday to work on their final copy if they weren't done yet. :)  In other ELA news, we have been working on Drama, Poetry and Prose.  We have looked at examples of each and discussed what their characteristics are that make them unique.  We talked about the vocabulary for each and took some notes on the elements.  We also enjoyed a performance from one of our Reader's Theater groups of their drama (Pandora and Prometheus).  They did a great job!

Vocabulary included: characters, setting, plot, point-of-view, mood, theme

Vocabulary included: Cast of Characters, setting, description, dialogue, stage directions, theme

Vocabulary included: verse, rhyme, meter, theme

In Math, we have been working hard with fractions and decimals (standards NF. 5, 6, 7).  We have practiced representing models as a fraction and decimal, showing decimals in expanded form, adding fractions with denominators of 10 and 100, and ordering decimals on a number line.  Please see the Homework tab for quick codes for Learn Zillion videos if you want/need to see examples. 

In Social Studies, we have gone through the debates discussed at the Constitutional Convention as well as started lessons on the Bill of Rights. 

In Science, we have worked through investigations about the states of matter, how water changes states, how clouds are formed and the water cycle.  Students have also worked on iMovies or Explain Everything presentations on the water cycle.

Well, I think that wraps it up for our update!  Wait- I forgot to mention we enjoyed a Cultural Arts Performance (storytelling!) last Monday morning and Explorations last Friday!  We are looking forward to Valentine's Day this Friday (I will email you a list of students - cards optional). 

As more winter weather approaches Atlanta this week, stay safe and warm!!!

Class Update: Week of Jan. 27

In ELA, we are wrapping up mythology through Reader's Theater activities, read alouds, and keynote presentations on the myths we studied.  Students are making fun presentations of each of the myths complete with the allusion, meaning, image and summary of each myth.  We are working on our fictional writing and moving on to creating believable characters for their stories this week.  We will be focusing on internal and external characteristics/features of their characters.

In Science, we are working with the states of matter and will be exploring how water changes from a solid to a liquid to a gas.  Following these lessons we will proceed into the water cycle, precipitation, condensation and evaporation.

In Social Studies, we have wrapped up the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation (see our graphic organizer below) and are now investigating the debates within the Constitutional Convention with emphasis on James Madison and Benjamin Franklin.

In Math, we are wrapping up standard NF.4 (Multiplying Fractions by Whole Numbers).  We have used strategies such as visual representations, area models, number lines and repeated addition.  A graded math quiz came home in the red folder today.  Please review the notes with your child as we will take our final test on this standard Wednesday (we will review tomorrow).  Below are examples of the strategies:

*NOTE: All answers must be converted from improper fractions to whole or mixed fractions in their simplest form.  Some of my screen shot got cut off in some of these examples...

I think that's all for now... :)  I hope everyone has a great week!!!