What We've Been Up To!

Here is a quick by-subject update to what we have been doing in class. I am sure we will discuss some of this a bit at conferences but wanted to keep you all up to date!

Math- Everyday we work on Math in Minutes... It's each students' warm up... It covers a variety of areas in math, from reading graphs to fractions. We correct it together and students SHOULD BE =) taking home their corrected versions. It continues to get more difficult and we are just about to switch to the next highest level. Way to go class! In Math Trailblazers we are currently working on order of operations... (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction or how I recall from school "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally" (to remember the order :)) We are zooming along!

Reading Group- My reading group and I are continuing to read Charlie and the Chocolate factory. We are really focusing on the vocabulary (its pretty difficult) and understanding the text (comprehension). Each week students get spelling words to take home and study as well as a class packet to work on that is due each Friday. Each reading group does something differently at MES. Be sure to ask your 4th grader what they are currently reading/working on in their groups!

Writing- We just survived the State writing test. Boy, our class sure worked hard! Students have been excited to take edited pieces of writing and are in the timely process of word processing their works. We luckily have an additional classroom computer so two students can type at once! How exciting!

Science- In Science,we just finished up our unit on Life Science. Students did a fantastic job and learned a lot. We completed a KWL chart (we talked about what we know, want to know and then finally learned about Life Science). Our chart ended up to be completely full with great things students learned. Once we return from break students will rotate to other 4th grade classrooms to learn about Earth Science (with Mr. Bledsoe) and then Electricity and Magnets (with Ms. A). Here is a picture of a bulletin board we made for science....


Social Studies- In Social Studies we are starting a unit on The Northeast. We previewed the unit finding interesting facts. Did you know that in Hershey, Pennsylvania that all the street lamps are shaped like Hershey kisses???? =) We will continue working and learning about the Northeast. We finished up a unit a month or so ago and we talked about all the cultures that have made contributions to America... Students worked very hard on their contribution posters! See below...


Lion's Quest/Health- We have been discussing positive choices... As students grow older they are having to make more and more difficult decisions. We have just started our unit and will have some tools to help us problem solve various situations.

We have been busy to say the least! I continue to enjoy spending time with your children. The year is just flying by! Anyway, I look forward to seeing you all at conferences. Have a great week!