Welcome back!

We had a busy and exciting week in fourth grade as we celebrated Valentine's Day and held a Read-In the days leading up to vacation.  Hopefully everyone enjoyed the vacation week!

Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day by exchanging Valentine's and participating in the Newspaper Dance!  Everyone started out with a full sheet of newspaper to dance on.  We had a blast showing off all of our moves.  Then, the music stopped and everyone had to fold their newspaper in half.  Things got tricky as we continued to fold our newspaper into smaller and smaller sections!  Check out some pictures below:

Read-In

To kick off vacation and to reinforce our love of reading in fourth grade, we held a Read-In on Friday.  Students had 20 minutes to build blanket forts with their classmates and then spent over an hour reading in them.  It was wonderful to see the teamwork and creativity that went into building the forts and the excitement for reading afterwards!  Below are some pictures of our readers:

Homework 

Below are the links for the homework for this week.  Your child can also access the links on Google Classroom by signing in.

Math Menu Homework for End of February-March

Week-long Paragraph Homework- Favorite Food

Math Workshop

Before vacation we finished our Geometry Unit in math.  The kids took the assessment before we left for vacation.  Please be on the lookout for your child's assessment coming home this week.  As usual, please sign the last page of the rubric and send back with your child.  If you would like some review sheets for your child, there is a box for you to check off.  

We will be starting our Fraction unit this week.  We will be doing a lot of hands on activities to get us started.  Fractions are a very important skill for fourth graders to have an understanding of.  Connecting fractions to your child's every day life helps to build this understanding.  We will be discussing in class places where we use fractions.  Ask your child where they might use fractions in everyday life, and feel free to share your own experiences as well.

Just a friendly reminder that we have a 1/2 day of school on Wednesday.  Dismissal will be at 11:40.

Have a great week!

Jen and Jaime

This Week in Fourth Grade

February 11, 2018

Things continue to roll in fourth grade!  Please don't forget that Wednesday is Valentine's Day.  The list of names was shared earlier this month here on the blog and a paper version was made available to everyone.  Please let us know if you have any questions.


We have been trying to hold students accountable for completing their homework on time.  Each Monday it is your child's responsibility to glue in a homework slip and take the pages that they need for homework that week.  It is also your child's responsibility to have a teacher check their homework planner on Monday.  Many children are not taking that responsibility on themselves and in turn many children are not turning in homework on the day that it is due.  We will continue to work on this at school, but would also appreciate any help and/or reminders you can give your child at home.

If your child is absent (especially on a Monday), it is his/her responsibility to remember to ask/get the homework slip and homework for the week.

The great thing about the way that we have our homework set up is that very rarely is a paper due the very next day.  This allows the students a chance to plan out when he/she would like to complete the work.  The paragraph writing is set up specifically so that it will not overwhelm the students.

Thank you in advance for helping your child plan out his/her homework for the week on Monday when it comes home.

The Margin Project

This week in reader's workshop we have really focused on building our love of reading and our stamina.  One way to do this was by introducing the Margin Project.  A number of books in our classroom were marked with a special sticker indicating that students were allowed to highlight and write the thoughts they had in the margins of the book.  This book, along with its comments could then be read by other students, beginning a small discussion within the margins of the book as others added to the comments.  These particular books flew off the shelves this week as everyone clamored to read them!  I will continue to add more books to this basket over the next several weeks.  Below are pictures of students participating in the Margin Project.

Book Orders

Book orders are due on Wednesday of this week.  Our class code is H3M9C.  A lot of students have started falling in love with series that may not be offered in this month's catalog.  The good news is that you can also search for other titles that may be in other order forms that aren't sent home.  If there is a particular book you are looking for, let me know!  The scholastic book order is the only way I am able to order new books for our classroom, so the more orders that come in, the more books we are able to put into the hands of students here in the classroom!

Math Workshop
We will be finishing up our Geometry unit this week.  Last week we spent a lot of time finding smaller angles within larger angles.  We were able to make connections to what we learned back in September when we were using a tape diagram and thinking about parts and wholes.  The kids will be taking the assessment later this week.

Have a great week!

Jen and Jaime

This Week in Fourth Grade...

Hopefully everyone had a great weekend! I can’t believe it is already February. Time really is flying by.

We wanted to let you know that Mrs. Olson, our wonderful paraprofessional, will be out for the next few weeks. Based on the reaction of the kids, we know she will truly be missed during this time, but we will have a substitute taking her place while she is out.

Paragraph Writing Homework

Just a reminder that we have been assigning a new paragraph writing assignment. All of the students had a chance to practice this in school the week prior to us assigning this as homework. We assigned this last week and will be assigning it again this week and for the near future.

Just so that parents are aware, students will have a part of the writing process to complete each night (they may do more than one part in a night) along with a final copy that needs to be turned in on Friday. We have posted a link of Google Classroom for students to type their final copy. If the internet is not available students can write their final draft on lined paper.

Along with the paragraph packet, students will receive a note that tells what they have shown that they are capable of in class on a variety of assignments. Most students also have a goal that they will need to focus on while completing their homework.

On Monday, any student that did not edit their final copy based on their goal and/or edit their work for what they have shown they are capable of will need to fix this for homework on Monday and return to school (or submit with changes) for Tuesday. This will be in addition to what they need to complete for this week’s paragraphing homework.

Our purpose for this is to hold the students accountable for their learning. If they have shown that they are capable of a skill we are expecting that they will show this in all of their written work. Also, when we set goals, we are looking for the students to focus on and work to achieve those goals to help improve their writing.

Math Workshop

We spent a lot of time looking at angles last week. We have learned that circles measure 360 degrees. The kids practiced measuring angles within a circle. They had to use what they know about the measurement of an entire circle to find the measurements of another angle.

We will be getting some more practice with thinking about degrees early this week. The kid will get to use what they have learned with Mr. Quinn in gym to practice 180’s and 360’s.

Valentine’s Day

On Wednesday, February 14th the kids will have a chance to exchange Valentine cards. I am attaching the link for the names of the kids in our class. We will be sending home a paper copy of the list with the students on Monday.

Valentine's Day List

Have a great week!

Jen and Jaime

Valentine's Day List

Here is the Valentine's Day list for our class.  I will be sending home a paper copy on Monday.

Valentine's Day List