Approaching Deadlines

Students' Young Authors' stories and the recitation of the January poem are due January 31st.
All students should have the poem in their OWLS folder and a note about the story writing project was sent home on 1-18.


If your child does not have set of headphones at school, try to have them this week.  So many things we do on the iPads requires this feature.  Ms. Funk, our technology coordinator, has some for $10.00, or you may purchase elsewhere.  If buying at school, send cash or make the check to "Burris".

This Week's Topics 1-30-12

Reading/Grammar/Spelling

• characteristics of plays  (We'll be reading "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing")
• using graphic organizers
• suffixes er, or, ist
• homophones
• details about nouns
• spelling words with vcccv patterns

Math

• continuing with large numbers
• comparing population numbers
• estimates and polygons
• continue with fact practice, concentrating on x4 this week

*All students are expected to practice multiplication facts on their own time as well as at school.

I will be quizzing the class with flash cards and they must pass each level to move on.  Most are working on memorizing 3s and 4s right now.

Science

• We are still having difficulties with the technology in science, but are moving on with natural resources and the college teachers will be introducing simple machines this week.

Social Studies

• continuing with the topic "Early America"

Cursive

• upper case X,Y,Z

This Week's Topics 1-23-12

Reading/Grammar/Spelling

• test Monday on skills from"A Very Important Day"
• theme wrap-up
• graphic organizers
• sequence of events
• review generalizations and possessives
• test taking skills

Math

• chapter 4 test on Tuesday the 24th, review sheet sent home Monday the 23rd
• place value through ten-thousnads and to one million
• reading, writing, and ordering numbers
• continue with multiplication facts

Science

• continue with natural resources

Social Studies

• early America, preparing for presidents' projects in February

Cursive

• upper case U and X

*Story Writing Project*

All students are working on a story which is due January 31st.  On Feb. 1st, college students from BSU

journalism will share a digital book they have made for us and will then coach the class through creating their own digital book with the story they have written.

This Week's Topics 1-17-12

Reading/Grammar/Spelling

• Wrapping up "A Very Important Day"
• classifying and categorizing
• The 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why)
• multiple meaning words
• plural and singular possessives
• spelling words with VCV patterns

Math

• continuing with multiplication, focus on x3 and x4
• review x 0,1,2,5,10
• multiplication arrays
• review of area and measuring line segments

My math class students need to practice basic math facts on their own time whenever possible.

We continually review addition and subtraction facts and will now be focusing on multiplication, even as we move through the other chapters and cover other new content.

Science

• New unit on natural resources

Social Studies

• introducing new "take to your seat" geography centers
• wrap up on history of MLK Day

*We also enjoy a variety of science and social studies topics during the week with our subscription to Scholastic Newspaper and our iPad app "Brain Pop".

Cursive

• upper case T and U

*Notes of Interest

We are enjoying our pen pal writing with a fourth grade class in Jupiter, Florida.  We are hoping to be able to do "face time" with our pals on the iPads in the future.

The class is now able to access more educational items via iPads on our science website from Discovery Education with some recent tech updates.

I still have not been given a date for sending home report cards, but it should be soon!

New college teachers will be starting this week.

Stay warm!

This Week's Topics 1-4-12 (short week)

Reading/Spelling/Grammar
Reading for these 3 days will be in the Junior Great Books Series, "Ooka and the Honest Thief", a Japanese folk tale. We will do discussion of the story concentrating on vocabulary, issues of justice and fairness, and having a conscience.  Spelling words will concentrate on suffixes "full, ness, less, and ment". For grammar we will review plural nouns.

Math
We are starting a new unit on multiplication and division.  Family letter for unit 4 was sent home on 1-1-12.

• equal groupings
• multiplication diagrams
• number stories
• arrays
• reviewing perimeter

Science and Social Studies

• no new topics for this short week

Cursive

• review of previous upper case letters, introduce Q and R