Sunday, November 24, 2019

Manning's Message



Wish List
We need wipes (Clorox type), hand sanitizer and tissues.
Any donations are greatly appreciated!


Subject Update
Language Arts
Students are finishing up their opinion pieces and will working on writing a strong conclusion this week.  I’m looking forward to reading their completed pieces.  We will continue our study of opinion writing after vacation. 

Students continue to practice reading and note taking while reading fiction and non-fiction texts.  They continue to practice using strategies to help them understand text and determine important information.  Most are able to use these strategies in a small group and are striving to use them independently.

Learning to Type
All students have been set up with an account on typing.com.  They have a user name and a password.  They should begin practicing typing at home each night. We will also be practicing at school during Daily 5 and the students will begin typing and composing  their writing on the iPad in the near future.   If your student does not have access to a keyboard at home, please let me know.  It is important that the students learn to type fluently this year as it will help them in their future education and as mentioned during curriculum night, they will be taking the MCAS on the iPad this year.

Mathematics
We have completed Chapter 3 and the students have corrected their errors and reflected on their mistakes. Although we have completed Chapter 3, we will continue to work on multi-digit multiplication and division as we move onto the next chapter.  Students will begin working on Chapter 6, Fractions and Mixed Numbers.  In this chapter, the students will learn to add and subtract unlike fractions with and without renaming.  Students will learn to convert mixed numbers to improper fractions and improper to mixed. They will also learn how to find fractions of a set, and will apply this knowledge to multiply a fraction by a whole number and to solve real-world problems. When solving real-world problems, bar models will be used to illustrate adding and subtracting fractions, so the students can visualize the problems to help solve them.
It is important that students practice their multiplication and division facts daily.  Knowing these facts will be crucial to their success in future concepts.  For practice, they can use links from the blog to various game sites, flash cards, XtraMath and Freckle which will be introduced next week. 

Social Studies
Students have been taking East map, states and capitals tests over the past two weeks.  In order to receive a “meeting expectations” grade of 3 on the report card, they must know the location of the state on a map and the capital for each state in the region. The students have had 3 opportunities to take this test over the past weeks.  Many students will be taking a retake map, states and capitals test on Tuesday 11/26.  Students who have already achieved the requirement, will have the opportunity to earn a score of 4 by also learning the major cities, state nicknames, and location of the capitals.  It is important your student study for these quizzes for about 10 minutes each night.  I have sent home study guides and flash cards that they can cut up and use as a study game.  Students are also learning how the culture of the eastern region is affected by its land, climate and resources.  Students are working with partners to present their knowledge in a Keynote.

Science
The past weeks students have continued to learn about weathering, erosion and deposition.  We took a walk around the school grounds to see if we could observe signs of weather, erosion and deposition. Students took pictures with their partners and identified many instances of weathering and erosion.  When we returned to the class, the student chose on picture to make a Claim, Evidence and Reasoning book using the app Book Creator.  These short books are currently being uploaded to their Google Drive folders.  Ask your student to log into the Drive account to view their work.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Manning's Message

Parent Conferences 
I look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s progress in fourth grade.  I will be sending home a preconference form on Tuesday. I would appreciate it if you would take a few moments to answer the questions to help me in preparing for our conference.
If you have yet not signed-up for parent conferences on November 12, please go to this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0444a8ab2ea75-parent5

Wish List
We are in need of wipes. (Clorox type) 
 Any donations are greatly appreciated!


Subject Update
Language Arts
We are working on opinion writing, and the students read a debate piece entitled “Should Everyone Get a Prize” and will work in small groups to discuss their opinions and decide which reasons would make for a strong argument.  They will plan and begin writing this piece depending on their point of view this week. I am looking forward to a lively debate once they have finished writing!

During the past weeks, students have been continuing to practice underlining, highlighting and note-taking skills while reading both fiction and non-fiction materials. These strategies help the students as we continue to practice answering multiple-choice and text-based questions.   We are following the “Problem Solving Steps” of Understand, Represent, Answer and Look Back to help us in answering questions.

Mathematics
We are continuing in Chapter Three, Whole Number Multiplication and Division. Students have learned how to complete 1-digit by 4-digit and 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication algorithms, and have learned a number of strategies to solve these problems.  Students have used the traditional algorithm, partial products and area models to solve these multiplication problems.  We are currently practicing dividing a 4-digit number by a 1-digit number.  Most students are using the traditional algorithm to solve these problems.  The have learned a mnemonic device
Does Mom Serve BrownRice, OR Divide, Multiply,Subtract, Bring down, Repeat.  We are also working on multi-step problem solving involving multiplication and division. We are coming to the end of this chapter and will be reviewing and testing at the end of the week.  Although we are completing this chapter we will continue to work on multiplication and division as we move into the next chapters. It will be important for students to continue to practice their multiplication and division facts as this is the foundation for the upcoming skills.

Social Studies
Students will be learning about various types of regions. The features regions share, how boundaries and borders can define regions, how a place can be a part of more than one type of region, and how people can use regions to make decisions or solve problems. They will also be learning to distinguish between weather and climate, identify factors that affect climate, and identify how climate regions and weather extremes impact economic activity and how people in a region live.  We will also be applying the knowledge about regions to the Eastern Region of our country.  Students will be learning to identify the states in the eastern region and came home today with some maps and flash cards to help them learn the map of the east. We will have a map quiz on Friday.  

Science
During the past two weeks, the students observed 2 different types of erosion (wind and water)  and came to a decision about which type of erosion caused the most damage (or greatest change) based on our observations and measurements.  This was the Wind Castle and Drip Castle experiment that we posted on Seesaw.   Students also made stream tables and observed the erosion and deposition of a landform. These pictures were also posted on Seesaw.   We will continue to explore and discuss how our investigations relate to our environment. The students have learned a song/rhyme to help them remember weathering, erosion, and deposition.  “Weathering breaks it, erosion takes it, deposition drops it. “