Announcements:
The geography bee was a great success, the class had a lot of fun! Reading: We have moved on to one of the toughest reading ideas for a fourth grader to wrap their head around: theme! What is a book about? What is the difference between theme and plot? We'll be investigating for the next couple of weeks. Writing: The kids have finished researching and are just about ready to start writing their big five paragraph opinion essay. Be warned: when my daughter learned to write these she used them all the time to try and convince me of things, and now we have a trampoline. Math: Fractions are over for good now, and the class blew the test out of the water, wow! That test should be in the Friday Folder. We are doing a quick detour into decimals and then it's on to measurement next week. Social Studies: We did the geography bee this week! Science: We had just a little bit of time to come up with inventions that can save energy, but for the most part the half days meant no science. Announcements:
We finally had a full week, and it was great! Thanks to everyone who is participating in March is Reading Month, if you need a new copy of the activities, please let me know. Reading: We spent another week on reading and picking apart people's opinions to find their reasons and evidence. They have become pretty good at it! Writing: A new big project is upon us! We are writing our own opinion pieces by looking up evidence and putting it into a five paragraph essay. Math: Fractions are over! We started reviewing this week, and there will be a test on Tuesday. Social Studies: The history of Michigan starts with the early American Indians who were here before the first European explorers, and continues to this day! We took a look at the different groups who have lived here and what life was like for them. Science: Travel creates a lot of pollution, so the class spent this week coming up with new and fun ways to move around. From flying cars to floating bubbles and underground tubes, the kids had all sorts of neat ideas. We're getting closer and closer to the final Little Inventors invention! Just a short little newsletter today because of our short little week!
The spelling words in the spelling tab will be for next Friday, March 3rd. We will not be doing a social studies quiz/kahoot next week to give us time to get back on track after this couple of odd weeks. Announcements:
Our Valentine's party was a ton of fun! The kids made some great boxes, and we all had a blast playing card and board games together. March is reading month, as always, and we will have an awesome calendar of activities to do all month long! It will be coming home next Friday, so be on the lookout for that. Our quiz on adding and subtracting mixed numbers was awesome! I keep telling the class how impressed I am with them, and you should know too. They're legitimately the best class I have ever had in terms of understanding fractions and how to add them. You will see the quiz in the Friday Folder. Reading: A key reading skill, especially today, is being able to read someone's opinion and determine what their reasons are, and what evidence they have. We spent this week reading kids' opinions on various questions and looking for their reasons and evidence. We will continue next week as well. Writing: We are still working on using vivid, interesting adjectives and adverbs this week. The kids wrote an advertisement for an animal shelter using some cool describing words today, be on the lookout for those! Math: Most of this week was working on adding and subtracting fractions, but we are now on to multiplying them! It's a big step, but we can do it! Social Studies: People are always moving, and for many different reasons. This week we took a close look at how and why people move around our country, and how we keep track of them! Science: A lot of pollution is made in the process of making food, but it's not like we can stop feeding ourselves! We are learning about the process of growing, transporting, and packaging food in order to try and think of inventions that might make the process easier, cleaner, or faster. Announcements:
As part of our Valentine's Day party, the kids can bring in games to play together. No electronics, and nothing with too many little pieces. You'd be surprised how easily those things can get lost! Reading: Books are more than just text, they are full of charts, graphs, pictures, and diagrams. We worked on deciphering those this week. Writing: Kids tend to get stuck in the habit of using boring old words that make writing seem bland, so this week we focused on using vivid, interesting words to make things more fun. Math: Adding and subtracting mixed numbers? No problem for this class! Whether they're using number lines, fraction bars, or just plain numbers, the whole class can do it! We'll be having a short quiz on that specific skill next week, look out for a study guide early next week. Social Studies: Michigan is a beautiful place, but there are problems we need to address to keep it that way. This week we looked at threats to our natural resources and what we can do to protect them. Science: The kids started inventing this week, ask your student what he or she invented! I have decided that our social studies class is too online, and makes it hard for parents to be involved. I'm changing it to be a little more paper and pencil so that the kids can get help practicing at home. Here's how the class will run:
Monday: The kids will get a study guide for a short quiz on this week's question. They will work on filling it out during the week. You will be able to find the study guide in the new Social Studies tab above. Thursday: I will send a Kahoot home that the kids can take to prepare for the quiz. Friday: We'll take the quiz, which comes entirely from the study guide and Kahoot. Tests will be on paper from now on so that you can see how they're doing. Hopefully this will let you be more involved with social studies and the kids will do even better than they have been. Announcements:
NWEA is finally over! It took so long because I don't like to do more than about 45 minutes per day, it's just too much otherwise. The good news is that the class has been really working hard, and they got to see that reflected in their scores. Even though all the nonsense that's been going on, they've kept their good attitudes and hard working spirits and they've kept on trucking. I'm proud of all of them! We will be having a Valentine's Day party on the 14th, there is more information in the Friday Folder. Reading: We're still working on finding and deciphering vocabulary words in science and social studies books, and they're getting pretty good at it! Writing: We've been working on organizing writing for a little while, and this week we put them all together and do sort of a review. We're getting ready to start another big writing project soon, so be on the lookout for that. Math: One of the big three pillars of fourth grade math is adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers, and we're off to a fantastic start. We're going slow and steady so that we can master the skills we need, and I'm really happy with how everyone is doing. Social Studies: We live in a big world, and we have to be able to change it so that we can live in it! Sometimes though, we are the ones who have to change. Interaction with the environment was our focus this week. Science: We are just about ready to start a really cool science unit with the MISD called Little Inventors, where the kids will get to learn how to be inventors. It's going to be great! Announcements:
Our spelling test for this week will be Monday because of the time switch. We'll also have another one on Friday so we get all caught up. Both sets of words are in the spelling tab above. We're still doing NWEA, and the kids are showing how hard they're working. We are already seeing some fantastic growth, reflecting all the hard work they've been doing in class. I'm so proud of all of them! Reading: Reading about science and social studies always means coming across words that are specific to those subjects, and it's very important to be able to figure out what they mean. We've been working on this all week long and will continue next week as well. Writing: One of the most overlooked facets of writing is organization. How can we put the information we are writing about in an order that makes the most sense? This week we worked on the compare and contrast structure, and will be writing a paragraph comparing and contrasting two classmates on Monday. Math: Wow, these kids know their fractions! We had a little quiz to check in on how they're doing with comparing and equivalent fractions, and they rocked it! We're moving on to adding and subtracting fractions now. Social Studies: What sorts of things can you find on maps? We learned about physical, human, political, and climate characteristics. We'll be having a quiz on Monday, so be on the lookout fort the newspaper/study guide. Science: Science had to be forgone so that we could do NWEA. It still breaks my heart! Announcements:
This update is for the last two weeks - the schedule has been all over the place, so we've been working on all the same things both weeks. We have been working on NWEA, and we will continue next week. I like to take it nice and slow, about an hour each day. That way the kids are not overwhelmed. They're all doing their best and showing some great improvement. Reading: One of the key skills of 4th grade is being able to read something and then explain it. We've been reading books about science at each student's level and learning how to take out all of the important information and retell it in our own words. Writing: A good writer uses language to describe a setting. This week we practiced visualizing backwards, starting with a picture and learning how to accurately turn that into a paragraph. We ended the week by using those skills to describe a familiar place. Math: Fractions are here! We've been going through the three main way's we'll use fractions this year: regular number fractions, picture models, and number lines. On the way we learned to compare them and find equivalent fractions. Social Studies: Maps are everywhere, and there are so many different kinds! This week we focused on how maps of the whole earth work and how we can interact with them. Science: Science had to be forgone so that we could do NWEA. It breaks my heart! Announcements:
This week has been one of the strangest of my career, but the best and brightest part of every day has been your students and their hard working, positive attitudes. Thank you for supporting them and thank you for trusting me with them. Our spelling test will be on Tuesday, using the list that is still on top of the spelling page, at the tab above. |
Old Newsletters
June 2023
Non-Discrimination Statement
In compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education amendments of 1972, Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Title II of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990, and Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1977, it is the policy of the Richmond Community School District that no person shall, on the basis of race, color, religion, military status, national origin or ancestry, sex (including sexual orientation), disability, age (except as authorized by law), height, weight, or marital status be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to, discrimination during any program, activity, service or employment. Inquiries related to any nondiscrimination policies should be directed to the Superintendent, 35276 Division Road, Richmond, MI 48062, (586) 727-3565. |