02.04.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:39 pm by javagirl
Mrs. Donaldson’s class has found a long division video on United Streaming that has been helpful! Some students may want to watch it at home again. They can choose which segments to watch, but I’d recommend lessons 4, 5, 6, and 7 in particular. We skipped the part with money as I didn’t want to confuse them. Have them log onto United Streaming with the class password. Search for “Math Mastery Division” and you’ll find a 30 minute video (divided into 9 segments). Keep plugging away at those 3 digit by 2 digit division problems.
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01.27.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:21 am by javagirl
I heard about a math practice site that’s great for 4th graders. It has work on multiplication, division, and averages. Check it out! (You may have to create an account later but you can try some now.)
http://www.ixl.com/math/grade/fourth/
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01.14.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:09 pm by javagirl
Olive Chapel Elementary teaches D’Nealian cursive handwriting in third grade, which is just one form of modern cursive. If your child is still struggling with cursive, please google “D’Nealian” or “Modern Cursive” printable handwriting sheets to practice with. Teacher stores also sell these type of products. We request cursive on certain assignments in 4th and 5th grade but it is taught at 3rd grade. Mrs. Donaldson and Ms. Bell do not require a particular font of cursive as long as it’s neat and legable as we understand some students learned other forms of cursive at a different school. This month we are seeing quite a big gap in the Word Study and Vocabulary contracts when cursive is required.
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/weblinks/handwriting.htm
http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/denelian-1/make-d.htm
http://www.dnealian.com/lessons.html
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01.13.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:18 am by javagirl
It is that time of year again in 4th grade… LONG DIVISION! These next few weeks typically provide random burst of tears or joy (teachers, kids and PARENTS!). Here’s a few helpful sites, mostly based on the traditional method of long division. You are also welcome to explore Unit 7 in the textbook as it covers numerous other alternative methods. Our objective is that they can divide and show us how they got the answer, not that they must use a particular method. We will go up to three digit by two digit division (larger numbers with calculators). THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Great teaching lesson for long division steps.
Great practice game for getting the steps right in long division. It won’t let you type the wrong answer! (Snork!)
Another explanation site.
More division practice games.
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01.08.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:53 pm by javagirl
Here’s an overview of where we are at and where we are headed academically the next few weeks as we start quarter 3.
Reading: finishing up a unit on folktales and legends (different types of fiction) and heading into a unit on novels strong character (students all need to get a chapter book with a single lead character to be approved next week) with emphasis on character motives, plot, theme, point of view, and conflict
Math: finishing up a review of standard and metric measurement and heading into 5 weeks of LONG DIVISION!! Please continue to review multiplication skills at home as it is a key piece of division. See our school website or blog for links to online multiplication helpers.
Social Studies: We are learning about the government and citizenship of North Carolina. Students all receivedunit 5 vocabulary flash cards to use at home. The review sheet and all the greenwork is due 1/25 or 1/26 for both classes. Test will be the first week of February.
Science: It’s a shocking unit on magnetism and electricity! We are looking at parts of a light bulb right now. (Don’t believe the rumor you heard about students being told to rub their feet on the carpet daily to shock their unsuspecting family member!)
Writing:We are working on some imaginative narratives (magic sled story, etc.) with focus on organization and elaborative details. We will continue to emphasize improvements in neatness and handwriting on all classroom and homework this quarter.
Word Study and Vocabulary: we are again alternating weeks of this. We have several weeks of homophones for word study and the vocabulary words will highlight prefixes for a few weeks (re, mis, ex, pre, con, com)
Other:
Dress in layers as the temperature seems to fluctuate quite a bit in our classrooms and outside.
We prefer that classroom snacks avoid peanut products due to an allergy but cannot restrict this.
Remember to sign the reading logs and agendas each night.
The second payment for the spring field trip will be due later this month. Watch for a note home soon.
Specials schedule will be posted on the class blog soon. Remember that tennis shoes are required on PE days. Students who do not wear tennis shoes will receive a think sheet.
No school on Jan. 18th.
Please update your classroom teacher of any changes in emergency contact info (emails, phone numbers, etc.)
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11.20.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:28 pm by javagirl
Wednesday, Nov. 25th is our last day of quarter 2! We are ALL looking forward to the long break! Report cards go home on Wed. afternoon. If your child is absent, their report card may be picked up from the front office during the first week of December or when we track back in on January 4th. Enjoy the family time!
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10.30.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:36 pm by javagirl
Reading: We are finishing our diary books and projects. We have been working on vocabulary, “I wonder” research projects, character analysis, summaries, and more during this unit. After the diary unit, we will dig into nonfiction books and work on summaries, comprehension, vocabulary, and more.
Writing: We are finishing up our “I wonder” research projects with a partner. We will be reviewing the steps of a research project and how to write a good paragraph/paper. Topic sentences and detail sentences still need work for most students. During the week of Nov. 2nd we will be doing our 5 day writing sample where the students will have 5 days to take themselves through the writing process on a given prompt. It will be content specific (related to social studies, science, or math that we have been studying this year) so they will all have base knowledge of the subject and know where to get more info to add to their papers.
Math: We FINALLY finished up Unit 3! We are briefly touching on Unit 4 with some supplemental materials on geometry, shape transformation (rotations/transformations/reflections), and area/perimeter reviews. After about a week of that, we head into MULTIPLICATION!! Both our classes seem to have lost their quickness when it comes to the multiplication facts! Continue to review those skills at home so that speed and accuracy are equal. Passing is 97-100 facts in 5 minutes. Math Magician (most can find this on the OCE site) is a great practice tool.
Science: Food Chemistry might be changing the way your children eat! Some are excited and some are grossed out by the experiments. We look forward to having a guest speaker next week! We continue to look for depth and details to the notes and answers in the science journals. The notebooks are due the day of the test. The tests will be on Nov. 10 for Donaldson’s class and Nov. 13 for Bell’s class.
Social Studies: Unit 3 is done! Congrats to several students who missed NONE on the vocabulary section of the test!! There were several perfect test scores as well. Every test contains opportunities for level 4 work through the essay questions. A star on the front of the test shows that one or more answers were considered at a level 4. We head into Unit 4 this week and looking at the people and culture of North Carolina. Review sheets and vocabulary flash cards will be coming home. All greenwork and unit 4 review sheets will be due Monday, Nov. 16th. Unit 4 test for Bell’s class will be Nov. 17th. Donaldson’s class test will be Nov. 18. At home museum projects are due Nov. 12 and the museum display day for parents is 2:00pm on Nov. 19. Projects may be brought to school on Nov. 9,10, and 12. Other than illness on Nov. 12, late projects will result in a lower grade and loss of Fun Friday reward since students have over 4 weeks to complete the projects.
Other:
Interim reports come home on Friday, Oct. 30 for anyone making lower than a 3 in any subject. They need to signed and returned.
No school on Nov. 11th.
Book Fair is Nov. 9-13.
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10.26.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:34 am by javagirl
Looks like we continue to have sick kids in 4th grade this week! Rather than gather worksheets, etc. and have you stop by to get their work, we have composed a list of online games and activities to support the classroom objectives we are covering. We have not played many of these games so you may need to weed out any that are too difficult for your child. For social studies – read and begin doing greenwork in Unit 4. We will cover the intro and lesson 1 this week. For science – we will catch you up when you return.
Math- Area and perimeter (calculate the area and/or perimeter of rectangles, can skip triangle, circles, etc. for area)
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/perimeter_and_area/index.html
http://www.mathplayground.com/area_perimeter.html
Math- Translation/Rotation/Reflection of shapes
http://www.mathplayground.com/patternblocks.html
http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/transformation-games.html
http://www.mathsonline.co.uk/nonmembers/gamesroom/transform/transform.html
Reading- Main Idea/Details/Summaries
http://www.gamequarium.com/readquarium/skillsi-p.html
http://www.readingquest.org/pdf/sumitup_dir.pdf
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/minilessons/wr/0,28171,1577469,00.html
Writing- topic and conclusion sentences
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/fwalters/para.html
As always, there’s plenty of things to be found in internet4classrooms under 4th grade. Just have your child select a topic that we have been working on recently.
Language Arts: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_4th_lang_new.htm
Math: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_4th_math_new.htm
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10.08.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:40 pm by javagirl
Today the students recieved a project sheet explaining the at home social studies project and deadlines. We spent 30 minutes going over the sheet and details.
Idea sheet is due Friday, 10-16-09 (signed by parents and with a sketch attached)
Project is due Thurs, Nov. 12 (can be turned in Mon./Tues/or Thurs. that week only).
Parents (or other special guests) are invited to walk through our “Musuem” on Thurs. , Nov. 19 at 2:00-2:30pm.
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10.01.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:34 pm by javagirl
New for quarter 2 in Social Studies from Mrs. Donaldson
In Social Studies, we cover two units per quarter. This quarter we are covering units 3 and 4. Rather than assign the “greenwork” (green boxes with questions that go along with the reading) every few nights, I have decided to look it over on the day before the unit test. I talked with each group of students about how to pace themselves to get this done. I often suggest that they use their nightly reading time once or twice a week to reread the social studies lessons we have done in class and to complete the greenwork. They can write a note in their agendas on a weekly basis to complete the “greenwork”. They are welcome to work ahead in any of the units.
I have already given out the vocabulary flash cards and the unit review sheet for Unit 3. Have you seen it yet?!?!
Bell’s class review sheet and greenwork for Unit 3 is due on Oct. 20th. The test will be Oct. 21st.
Donaldson’s class review sheet and greenwork for Unit 3 is due on Oct. 22nd. The test will be on Oct. 23rd.
There will be an “at home” social studies project this quarter. The sheets will go out in the next week or two with all the details. Students will have 3 or 4 weeks to complete it so don’t worry about it just yet!!
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