A Wonderful Wednesday

We had a wonderful Wednesday at Northpoint!

LA: Busy, busy morning today!  We worked on run-on sentences and how to turn them into compound and complex so they made sense.  We also partner read the story and shared some thoughts on the setting, characters and plots.  We added our Common Core vocabulary into our glossaries and also worked on our court yard writing that was started in class yesterday.

HW: Finish court yard writing  (Students were given 45 minutes to complete it in class) and weekly homework is due on Friday.  The normal Friday assessments have been moved to Monday of next week due to our busy schedule and heavy testing this week.

Math: We reviewed for Friday's Unit 2 test today and also began working on some Common Core Cards.

HW: Study for Unit 2 test, which will be given on Friday.  We have Math Acuity testing tomorrow--bring gum!

Social Studies: Content 2--we reviewed this unit's skills by completing the processing page in our Interactive Student Notebooks.  We also reviewed for Friday's test.

HW: Study for the Chapter 2 test.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I know it's always good in our house when the Irish pull off a win!  :)

L.A.--Today we took our spelling pretest over long o words.    Our Story this week is called The Raft. We will be working on context clues, characters, settings, plot, and run-on sentences in class.

Our story vocabulary words this week are:

• disgusted
•   raft
• scattered
• cluttered
•  downstream
• nozzle 

 Our Common Core Vocabulary includes

• plot-- includes the events in a story
•  context clues-provide help in the text when we don't know what a word means.-
•  purpose-- why we write something
•  audience--who we are writing to
• voice-- making sure that our personality shows through in or writing

We reviewed our vocabulary and comprehension skills. Although time didn't allow for it this morning, we will be working on  fixing run-on sentences by using conjunctions or splitting the sentences in two simpler sentences in grammar this week. We finished the morning by  listening to the story.

 

HW: Weekly homework pack is due on Friday.  Last Friday's assessments went home today--be sure to go over them as a family!

Math: We spent some time collecting data about the sizes of our heads!  :)  We worked in partners to gather our data, and then made a class line plot of the data and found landmarks for a problem that was presented for us.

 

HW: Math box and study link 2.8 are due tomorrow.  Students were given a review sheet of addition problems on Friday to work on in class, this is also due tomorrow if it has not been turned in.  The math test will be given on Friday of this week...this is different than stated in the planners.  Weekly homework is due on Friday as well.

 

Social Studies--Content class 2 finished up chapter 2 by reading the Reading Further section with partners today.  It was a lot  of fun learning about the "Mighty Mississippi!"  We also spent time reviewing for the Chapter 2 test that will be at the end of the week.

 

HW: Study for this week's test.  The study guide and Interactive Student Notebooks are going to be great tools to help you out!

Thursday, September 20

Don't forget...tomorrow is the Fall Carnival!

Language Arts: I had an hour long meeting this morning, so the students had a guest teacher for part of the time.  I am proud to say they got a fantastic report and worked hard.  We reviewed our grammar skill of complex sentences, finished our space writing, went over ways to spell the long /e/ sound, and did some more nonfiction reading and comprehension practice.  It was a full morning!

HW: Weekly homework is due tomorrow!  Space writing is also due if it wasn't finished in class.

Math: We worked on ballpark estimates and addition of large numbers today.  Although the book went over a couple of different ways to do addition, the students are welcome to do it however it makes sense to them!

HW: Math box and study link 2.7 are due tomorrow.  Journal pages 42-43 should have been completed in class.  The unit 2 test will be given on Thursday of next week.

Social Studies: We finished up reading all of the sections of chapter 2.  Our focus was mainly on the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and Midwest Regions.

HW: Study guides were passed out.  The test for Content 2 class will be next Friday.

Language Arts--We had another busy morning today.  We continued on learning about complex sentences, while reviewing subjects, predicates and compound sentences as well.  We also worked on creating character maps--one about ourselves and one about the characters in this week's story.  We had a short discussion on characters and setting and how they help us to understand the plot and the role they play in writing.  We added our new common core vocabulary to our glossarys and finished off the morning with Vocabulary Vine.

HW: Weekly homework is due on Friday.  Nonfiction work is due tomorrow--this is the story about space travel to the moon.

Math: We had a lot of fun finding landmarks with raisins in class today.  We got to estimate how many raisins were in a box before we were able to open and count.  We then enjoyed a snack while we worked on finding the landmarks of the class data.

HW: Math box and study link 2.5 are due tomorrow.

Social Studies: We watched a video to help learn about Constitution day today, as well as went over the answers to the Geography Challenge we did in class.

HW: None

Language Arts:  We had a busy morning!  Today we took our spelling pretest--all students should be bringing home their lists and the pretest. We previewed our vocabulary and comprehension skills today.
  Our story vocabulary this week are:

•  includes
• endless
• realistic
• universe
• astronaut
• sensible
• protested
• paralyzed

We are also learning all of the things that can be learned from a dictionary entry. Our comprehension skill this week is analyzing characters and setting. We will also be making inferences. In grammar we are taking the compound sentences from last week a little further. We are using conjunctions to make complex sentences. Complex sentences have dependent and independent clauses. 
Our common Core words of the week are

• complex sentences-a sentence that includes an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
• characters--the people or animals in the story
• setting--where the story takes place
• analyze--being able to look closely at something and understand all of its parts.
• personal narrative--a story written about yourself.

HW: Weekly homework is due Friday.

Math: We worked on large numbers in math today.  Knowing how to read and write them is necessary.

HW: Math box and study link 2.4 are due tomorrow.  Fishing for Digits is a great game to play to review this skill!

Social Studies: We enjoyed a video about the writing of the Constitution for Constitution Day today.  We also went over the answers to the Geography Challenge that was completed last Thursday in class.

Thursday, September 13

Language Arts: We finished reviewing all of our skills that were introduced this week.  We focused a lot on our grammar skill (again!), as well as spelling patterns that we're seeing in this week's lists.  We spent time with partners reading the story and then as a class sharing the nonfiction article at the end.  We used our white boards to practice the ISTEP+ based questions and discussed some great test taking strategies with that article.  Finally, we finished up the morning with practicing writing to a prompt, while using a rubric. 

HW: Weekly homework is due tomorrow--don't forget the parent signature line.  Oops slips will be given out for this!  Also, if the elk writing wasn't completed in class today, it is due, in color edited form first thing tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow is the last day for Book Orders as well!

Math: We've made our way into Unit 2 and reviewed name collection boxes today.  We really worked on not just putting the simplest answer down and being down.  We went for the challenge.  :)

HW: Math boxes and study link 2.2 are due tomorrow.

Social Studies: Content Group 1 today...We continued on with our study of the regions of the United States of America today and learned about different kinds of maps that geographers use.

HW: None

Tuesday, September 11

What an important day in America!  We took a moment this morning in silence to think of those who were impacted on this day in 2001.  We only spoke briefly about that day in history, so your child may come home talking or asking questions tonight.

Language Arts: We continued on with our grammar skill this week of compound sentences.  We also spent quite a bit of time reviewing compound subjects and predicates from last week.   In addition, we added all of our new Common Core Vocabulary into the glossary section of our language arts binders.  These words will not be tested, however, should be reviewed daily so they can be implemented into our classroom discussions and work.  We continue to work on main ideas and details as well.  Finally, we started Vocabulary Vine this morning.  We will be doing this study of Greek and Latin roots Tuesdays through Fridays for the remainder of the year.  Some of the students will be going to Mrs. Suddarth during this time to receive extra support in our reading program.

HW: Weekly homework is due on Friday.  Book orders are also due on Friday.

Math: We took our Unit 1 test today.

HW: None

Social Studies: We read through sections 2.4-2.6 today and then worked with partners on a geography challenge.  We had fun trying to use lines of longitude and latitude to locate places in the United States of America.

HW: None

Another Week Is Upon Us!

We had a GREAT day today! 99% of us are in the swing of things and we're rolling!  Hooray!

Language Arts: We introduced a new story this morning, "Animals Come Home To Our National Parks."  It is a fantastic non fiction article with lots of information included.  This week in grammar, we're going to be spending quite a bit of time reviewing simple and complete subjects and predicates.  We're also going to be talking about how to use the conjunctions and, but and or  to combine simple sentences into compound sentences.

This week's story vocabulary words are:

• roamed
• completed
• journey
• natural
• wildlife

This week's Common Core Vocabulary words are:

• main idea--the main idea of a paragraph or story
• details--the information that helps and explains the main idea
• clause-a group of words that has a subject and a verb.
• independent clause-a clause that can stand alone as a sentence
• compound sentence-a sentence that has two or more independent clauses
• conjunction--a word that is used to link clauses together in a compound sentence
• semicolon--used to separate two independent clauses
• summary--when someone retells the story in their own words.

HW: Weekly homework is due on Friday.  The Think and Compare questions can be found on page 77 in the green Treasures book.

Math: We spent a lot of the time working together doing review for tomorrow's test. 

HW: Math box 1.9 is due tomorrow.  The test over Unit 1 will be given tomorrow as well.

Social Studies: We jumped into chapter 2 today.  This chapter introduces us to a lot of geography terms and the 5 regions of the United States of America.

HW: None

Another Great Day in 4th Grade

 

We had another busy day in room 25 today!  I think we are finally starting to get our groove and we're in a routine!  Hooray!

 

Language Arts: We continued our study of main ideas and details today by completing a practice sheet together as a group.  We also worked on ways to spell the long /a/ sound and recognizing words that had it in it.  We worked on typing in computer lab as well as finishing up some more wish writing that wasn't completed last week.  To end class together, we played a review game of the Common Core and story vocabulary for the week.

 

HW: Weekly homework is due tomorrow.  Don't forget that parent's signature is required.  Some students may have grabbed book orders--they are due NEXT Friday.

 

Math: We had one more day of compasses today...working on making regular hexagons by copying line segments only using our compasses.  We also had a pop quiz over geometry terms.

 

HW: Math boxes and study link 1.8 are due tomorrow.  Study guides were passed out today for next Tuesday's test.

 

Social Studies: We had our chapter 1 test today.

 

HW: Finish the activity on page 5 if it wasn't completed in class.

 



Welcome to 4th Grade!

 

 

I'm so glad you've made it to the blog!  This is a great tool to stay connected with what's going on at Northpoint, and specifically in our classrooms!

 

 

LA:  We spent the morning reviewing skills that were introduced yesterday with our new story.  We worked on simple subjects and predicates as well as complete subjects and predicates.  We completed a grammar page as well as some white board practice on this skill.  We also worked with partners on fluency practice and finding main ideas and details.  We spent quite a bit of time going over our Common Core vocabulary for the week.

• Main Idea--The main topic being discussed in a paragraph or story
• Details--Ideas that help support the main idea and topic sentence.
• Simile--A comparison of two things using like or as   EX: I was as hungry as a horse.
• Metaphor--A comparison of two things not using like or as  EX: Her hair was a flowing fountain.
• Imagery--When a picture is created in a reader's mind because of the vivid details the author has used in their writing.
• Personification--When a non-human object is given human qualities.  EX: The sun winked at me.

We also worked on Cinquain Poetry--even trying our hand at writing our own.

 

HW: Weekly homework is due on Friday.  Don't forget that this includes writing the spelling words, reviewing vocabulary, reading the story aloud, answering the Think and Compare questions and completing the back comprehension sheet.  Cinquains are also due tomorrow if they were not completed in class.  Spelling test is on Friday.

 

Math: We worked really hard on making circles with compasses today.  Unfortunately there was a lot of frustration--we don't have the best compasses and they move easily!  :(  Although I was encouraging the kids to stay calm, I know some were very frustrated...you may hear about this tonight!  They are welcome to bring one of their own from home, but it is not mandatory!

 

HW: Math box and study link 1.7 are due tomorrow.  The test over Unit 1 will be given next Tuesday.

 

Social Studies: We had the test over chapter 1 today. 

 

HW: Finish the activity from Interactive Student Notebook page 5.  It is due Friday.