This year is going alarmingly fast!
Upcoming dates to remember:
December 11-15: Spirit Week--your fourth grader will bring home a flyer with each day's theme.
Also, book fair!
December 18-January 2: No school!
January 3: School resumes.
Reading:
We have started unit 3, which is all about geography and interesting places around the world.
Math:
We finished our second chapter on multiplication, and the class, overall, did very well! IT IS IMPERATIVE YOUR CHILD KNOWS THE TIMES TABLES. They were taught and practiced in third grade, and we are doing math that is assuming they know their times tables. Please click on the "Online Learning Tools" tab for some links to a few resources you might consider. Flash cards, games on a tablet, etc. are also ways for students to improve their speed and accuracy with times tables.
We will be starting our first division chapter now, which, incidentally, requires speed and accuracy with times tables :)
Writing:
We had an author visit our school a few weeks ago, who told us a simple formula for writing a great story: 1. Hero, 2. Goal, 3. Obstacles, 4. Resolution. Inspired by this, students wrote some wild narratives.
Over the next two weeks before break, students will be researching a country, synthesizing their information from several sources, and writing an informative report that uses transitional words/phrases, has an introduction and conclusion, and cites their sources.
Science:
We are wrapping up our science of energy unit. As you can see in the pictures below, students tested items to see if they were conductors or insulators. We also spent a day with magnets to review how magnets work, why items are magnetic (or not). We will be combining electricity and magnetism to make electromagnets next week, and then we will explore sources of renewable energy.
Please click here for pictures of Oregon Native American dioramas (they were great!).
