Fourth Grade with Mrs. Connell

The week is officially over already, and it sure flew by!  My family kept busy each and every day with family and friends.  The weather has been beautiful, up until today.  What have you been doing?  For those of you on vacation, have you squeezed in some time to read and practice math facts?  Has anyone been on Grand Prix?  Add your comments with your spring break fun!

Great job to those who challenged me.  I saw Chase, Emily, Jake, Elizabeth, Liam, Keara, Will, and Jennie! Way to practice those facts. I could really stand to practice too because I noticed I’m still 4 seconds behind the highest scorers.  We will take a mad minute tomorrow and I challenge those fast finishers to a round at the center table.  The challenge is to see how many you can complete.

http://www.multiplication.com/flashgames/GrandPrix.htm

Our class had a BLAST playing interactive math fact practice games today.  Let the record show that I logged onto Grand Prix to challenge you all at 5pm, and I didn’t see anyone.  I guess you’re out enjoying the sunshine.  I highly encourage using this game, and let me know when you do.  You never know when ccsebathia may show up and challenge you!

Play math baseball: http://www.prongo.com/math/ 

Sport math word problems, written by kids, and your name gets published if you answer correctly: http://classic.sidwell.edu/academics/lower_school/LS_Math_Adventures/sports.htm 

 Basket Math:  http://www.scienceacademy.com/BI/index.html 

OR CHOOSE AN ACADEMIC GAME FROM http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/allgames.html

Now that the puppet show is over, we are really ‘back to normal’ schedule wise.  We are lucky to have Mrs. M join us for the rest of the year, and it has been a nice week getting to know her.

With all the rain this week, the whole class has had a case of ‘spring fever.’  We spend so much time together indoor in our little classroom that we’re starting to act like family.  Nevertheless, we have lots of new learning underway.

Our new reading books are completely different genres.  Many students opted for the mystery/horror genre with Skeleton Man by Joseph Brushak. Others decided to go with humor/fantasy wish The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary.  We’re working on identifying point of view as well as making connections and using our post-it note strategies.

Writing is transitioning from narrative story writing to non-fiction expository text.  This week we are working on the Chet Dream Big contest prompt, “How would you change the world after college?”  We’ve practiced writing paragraphs and are beginning to understand how to organize our thoughts around a central topic.

Our math has been concentrated around long division and double digit multiplication.  If you haven’t already, GET THOSE FACTS MEMORIZED!

CMT testing is done for most now, so we are returning to our ‘regularly scheduled program’.  It was nice to have a whole morning to learn again!  We are busily preparing our fluency skills to perform for you all next THURSDAY, MARCH 25th at 12:45pm.  I hope to see many of you there!

Our upcoming math unit is going to be working with multiplication and division, so it’s more important than ever to be practicing basic multiplicaton facts (0-12) DAILY until memorized.  We do our ‘mad minutes’ and play games for practice, but nothing works better than repetition, repetition, repetition…etc.  Check the math page above for some online games and resources to mix it up a little. 

After preparing Power Point presentations in the computer lab over the last month or so, we will be presenting our knowledge about explorers this week, (finally!).  For those who would like an electronic copy of their PowerPoint to show parents and friends, please email me and I will attach one for you.  Keep in mind that you will need to have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer in order to view the file. 

There are only a few weeks until April vacation already, and I can hardly believe it!

While our testing continues, we have been spending a lot of our time practicing reading fluently, and now we are in the midst of creating the scenes and characters to perform for live audiences.   Most likely, we would like to invite parents and guests for our final performance around the week of March 22nd, possibly March 28th.  I will keep you posted on the date and time.

During the next few weeks as we exercise our minds intensely during the CMT testing sessions, we have a number of fun upcoming topics to look forward to:

1) New science unit: The Physics of Sound – we will investigate all the properties of sound, what causes sounds to change pitch and volume.  We’ll explore through the use of numerous musical and not-so-musical instruments.  Needless to say, it’s a noisy unit!

2) Genre Study: So Much More than Fiction or Nonfiction- we’ll learn about 21 different types of reading material we can engage in.  Through the use of picture books, plays, websites, and our trade book collection, we will all try to expand our reading repertoires over the next few months.  Last year, the Connell Puppet Theater had its debut performance, and we are hoping to put on a production for eager audiences this year as well.

3) HOMEWORK:  yes, this is exciting.  Why?  Well, over the next two weeks we will have a break in homework so that our minds are properly rested in order to ‘do our best on the test.’

4) Doodle 4 Google:  you may remember this from last year, but we participated in a contest to design a doodle for the Google website.  Any student interested may create a design that fits this year’s theme of “If I could do anything, I would…” We’ll begin working on them in the mornings after the grueling exams as a fun way to wind down, and the final product can be continued on at home, with a due date of March 17th.

5) Really?  Have I not excited you enough?  I’ll keep thinking of some more ways to get you excited about the coming month… which truly is “in like a lion, out like a lamb.”  I will award tickets to anyone who can find out a) what this idiom really means and b) where it came from.

As you all know, March madness is approaching:  the CMTs!  We are more than prepared as our curriculum meets and exceeds all state standards!  Remember that the best thing you can do is exercise your body, get good rest, and eat something, anything from a piece of toast to a pancake extravaganza, to give your body the energy it needs to focus your mind. All tests begin at 9:15am, sharp.  Our class does not have difficulty with tardiness as a whole, but I just extend a friendly reminder to make sure your child does arrive to school promptly.  Those who come in late will need to sit in the office for the duration of the test, and then need to make it up on our scheduled make-up days.  That’s twice as much time spent.  Our schedule is as follows:

This Wed 2/24 – practice test

Next Tuesday 3/2 – Writing Prompt (55 min)

Wednesday 3/3 – Reading I (55 min)

Thursday 3/4 – Math I (70 min)

Friday 3/5 and Monday 3/8 – Make-up sessions

Tuesday 3/9 – Reading II (55 min)

Wednesday 3/10 – Math II (70 min)

Thursday 3/11 – Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) (70 min)

Friday 3/12 – Editing and Revising (70 min)

I hope you are enjoying this very white and blizzardy day.  The girls are outside playing as I type, and the snow seems perfect for making snowballs and snowmen!  Extra bonus of having a day off:  you get one more day to work on your explorer game and reading book.  I hope everyone remembers to bring them in tomorrow so we can play in the afternoon.  It’s looking like we may even have a delay if the weather forecast is correct, which means it will be a short day of playing games!  A nice fun way to end our week before February vacation.  I’m very envious of all of you going to Florida and other southern locations.  In the comments, feel free to post pictures of your winter fun today!