End-of-Week Update, 10/25

What we've been up to:
We've been busy this week!  In writing, we've started drafting our fiction stories.  Some of us finished, but we've been busy revising to make our stories better.  Some of us went up in front of the whole class to read our drafts and our classmates suggested ideas to the person who wrote it.  We are so excited to publish!  In reading, we have been finishing chapter 6 in The Sisters Grimm.  So far, almost every chapter has had a cliffhanger!  We have been working on asking questions before, during, and after we read books and chapters.  In social studies, we are studying Washington, D.C., our nation's capital!  So far, we have learned about some of the major monuments, memorials, and museums that are in the city.  We'll learn more and create a 4-door poster next week!  In math this week, we learned how to multiply to find mammoth products in different ways.  We know Windows, standard, and area model.  Also we have had this for homework many times.  We are getting more and more confident each time we practice.  This week, we got a point in EVERY special so we got a bonus point!  We voted for a movie and chose Cars 2.  We talked about the overall message, life lesson, or "theme" in the movie and decided it was "Be yourself" and "Let your friends be themselves - accept them for who they are."  These were important lessons!  We cherished this week!

Happy Friday from Room 20 (and our furry friends...)

What's coming up / Reminders from Mrs. Adams:

• Tuesday is our math test on multiplication.  Keep the questions coming and make use of the at-home review packet emailed out last week!
• We are studying Washington, D.C. in social studies.  If you have any books, maps, brochures, postcards, etc. that you'd like to send in - feel free!  We'd love to see them!
• Thursday is Halloween and also a half-day for students (PDD for teachers).  Please be sure that your child knows how they're going home that day.  We will be celebrating with party-in-a-bag special snacks if you'd like to send one in for your child.  As a reminder, this is a special snack that can include a sweet item, a salty item, a candy item, and a special drink.  In the past, parents have made these as a surprise for their children.  It's a fun, but low key way to celebrate Halloween!

End-of-Week Update, 10/18

Mrs. Adams here!  Sorry for the tardiness of this post - computer glitch!

What we were up to last week:

It was only a four day week, but it felt as long as a century!  Not because it was bad, but because we were so busy!

In math this week, we learned "Windows," which is an easier way to do multiplication.  We did lots of partial products this week.  We are still working on our fact quizzes and many of us are getting personal bests!

In reading this week, we finished Ch. 5 in The Sisters Grimm.  It was really weird because Sheriff Hamstead turned into a pig and his pants got ripped by barbed wire!  Then, pixies guided the girls to some kid sitting on a broken toilet in the woods!  Then pixies told the boy to drown Sabrina and Daphne!  We read 20 minutes each day.  Most of us finished our books and are working on letters to Mrs. Adams.

This week in writing, we made comics to make our fiction stories into seeds.  We're also working on timelines to show how our stories are developing.  We are finding leads from other books and getting ideas for our own stories.  We can't wait to publish!

In music on Thursday, we learned A on our recorders.  We learned how to pick our fingers up on our recorders to make different music notes.  We're also going to prepare for our Northeast test on Tuesday.  On Monday, we're going to play a Jeopardy game to help us prepare for the test!

We can't wait to see what next week will bring!

What's coming up / reminders from Mrs. Adams:

• Our next math test will be coming up a week from Tuesday (10/29).  This will be a multiplication test and will cover long multiplication and multiplication word problems.  An at-home review packet will be emailed out to parents by Wednesday evening.  Just like last math test, this is an optional packet and does not need to be returned to school!  Please make every effort to study / help your child to prepare for this test in some way.  The review packet is a great way to structure this study time at home.
• Next Thursday is Halloween!  We will be celebrating with a special snack ("party-in-a-bag") and by completing some special activities together.  If you misplaced the "party-in-a-bag" letter, please let me know and I can give you the information.  Keep in mind that Halloween is also a half day for students.

End-of-Week Update, 10/11

Congratulations to Maggie for her art show debut on Wednesday!

 This week has been exquisite.  Here’s what we’ve been up to:

·         We finished Chapter 4 in The Sisters Grimm.  Mrs. Grimm and Mr. Canis got trapped by a mammoth giant’s shirt pocket.

·         We mastered our extended multiplication facts. In case you don’t know, extended multiplication facts are when you do a basic fact then add a certain amount of zeros represented in the factors.  Check out this picture of Justin with a multiplication “mat.”  We used ones, tens and hundreds (cubes, French fries, and waffles J) to fill in the area of each multiplication problem.  We pretended they were backyards of Lego toys!

 

Here's Justin using base-10 blocks on a multiplication mat!

 

·         We started to write fiction stories this week!  We have lots of ideas, but some of them were watermelons.  Mrs. Adams showed us seeds!  We enjoyed some seed stories – “Partysaurus Rex,” Knuffle Bunny, “Knick Knack,” “Jack-Jack Attack,” and Zathura!  Pixar short films are seed stories.  Regular Pixar films are watermelons!  We made back-of-the-book blurbs for all of the Pixar films and picture books.

·         We had an awesome time in social studies.  We studied the Narragansett.  We also studied the Northeast’s climate, states / capitals /abbreviations, geography, and economy.  Our quiz study guide will go home next week.  Our teams (or “cars”) have been earning points this week!

·         In Wordly Wise, we’ve learned 90 new words so far!  Isn’t that a mammoth achievement? (Wordly Wise Word!!! J)  After all that, we’re feeling pretty drowsy – just kidding!  Bring on more words!

·         We earned 20 points for our specials and voted to watch a movie together sometime soon!

·         Maggie’s artwork was in the Franklin Art Show at the high school this Wednesday!  She represented JFK with her one-shape abstract painting.

·         In chorus, Mrs. Adams thought we were sounding great!  We are working on posture.

We’ve had such a fun week.  Can’t wait for Tuesday!

 

 

 

What's coming up / Reminders from Mrs. Adams:

• A study guide and study materials will be going home on Tuesday for our Northeast quiz.  Similar to the weather test, please guide your child to utilize the study guide and break up the studying over the week.  Our quiz will be on Tuesday, 10/22.
• We are beginning to explore and learn more about long multiplication algorithms.  Automaticity with our multiplication facts helps tremendously in this process!
• If you haven't yet signed up for a conference in December, please do so at the SignUp Genius link that was emailed out after Open House.  Let me know if you'd like me to resend you the invitation.  Looking forward to meeting!

 

 

End-of-Week Update, 10/4

What we've been up to:

This was a week of achievements! On Monday, we completed the testing of our puff mobiles and chose our puffers.  Then, the big day came!  Thursday, October 3^rd – Team 20 became puff mobile champions!  We had a huge success – our class had the best overall puff mobile!  The winning team was “The Yellow Hornets.”  Great design work and teamwork from Will, Chase, Natalia, Jack, and Justin (who was also the puffer in the winning race!!)  Congratulations to all!  See some pictures from the mammoth race below. 

 

We continued taking timed multiplication fact quizzes and we’re hoping to improve each time we take one.  In math, we also learned about factors and multiples.  Ask us about skip counting for multiples!  J  Dory also recommended some really neat divisibility tricks that help us figure out a number’s factors and if the number is prime or composite.  We’ll be doing more work with that next week. 

 

We had a big weather test on Monday and showed all we knew about weather.  Now we’re starting social studies – the regions of the USA!  We’re going to take a “road trip” in cars with our teams.  They are actually characters from the movie “CARS” (Mater, Doc, Luigi, Fillmore, and Ramone). 

 

This week in writing we finished up our drafts and then we also had a publishing party, which was very fun, and we got to share our writing with the whole class and we had a dance party beforehand too!  Check out these pictures from our writing party below.

 

 

 

 

 

We read a VERY interesting chapter in The Sisters Grimm.  It revealed many secrets that may change the whole story!  The ending was a cliffhanger!  We can’t wait to read Chapter 4 next week.  In science this week, we made terrariums with Miss Farrell’s class.  We are starting to recognize some of the steps of the water cycle right in our terrarium jars!  Thursday night was Open House.  Parents and siblings got to come in and see what we’re writing and what we did for published stories.  Also, they saw our puff mobiles, our terrariums, and all our work around the room.  We have finally earned enough points from our specials to vote on a class prize!  We’ll vote next week.

On Friday, Mrs. Hess came in and announced that Maggie’s artwork had been selected for the art show at the high school.  Only 7 JFK artists were chosen!  We are so proud of Maggie!  Stay tuned for a photo of Maggie with Dory.  In chorus on Thursday, BOTH celebrity singers were from our class!  Congratulations to Andrew and Gretchen!  Some students even were brave enough to sing solos in front of the whole 4^th grade!  Way to go!

 

 

We had a very busy and fun week!  Enjoy the weekend, ladies and gentlemen! 

What's coming up / reminders from Mrs. Adams:

• Many families have already signed up for December conferences using SignUp Genius!  If you have not received the email invitation to sign up, please let me know and I can re-send it to you.  If there are no remaining conference times that work with your family's schedule, let me know and we can work out something that works for all of us!
• Keep up the good work with the multiplication fact practice at home!  Many students are beating their personal bests and improving over time.  Keep it up!

Have a wonderful weekend!