Lessons & Assignments - Thursday 9/29, Friday 9/30

I will be out of town for the Illinois Reading Council conference Thursday and Friday.  Most work will be done in class.  Here is a summary of what your child will be doing while I'm gone:

Math - Students will continue to practice using area models and expanded form to multiply 2-digit by 2-digit numbers.  Don't worry, we get to "mom and dad" math next week!  They will also be playing some fun multiplication review games in class.

Science - Students will be taking a heredity survey to see what traits they have inherited from their parents.  They will be looking at stuff like detached earlobes, freckles, curly hair, and eye color.  They will work in groups to tally and graph the results.

Language Arts - Students will be reviewing spelling and vocabulary words, writing a persuasive paper, and working on comprehension skills during guided reading.  They will also take their unit test on Friday.

Social Studies - Students will be finishing their daily geography packets, and will be reading lesson 2.  They will also be making a foldable organizer for their social studies journals.

Lessons & Assignments Wednesday, September 28th

Math - 3.2 - We learned to multiply 2-digit by 2-digit numbers using place value and area models today.

Science - None - We continued reading about genes, traits, and heredity.

Language Arts - None - We read our selection story, practiced our spelling words, and continued working on our writing packets.  We also reviewed plural nouns using Kahoot.

Social Studies - None - We completed a review sheet on lesson 1.

Lessons & Assignments Tuesday, September 27th

Math - lesson 3.1 - We started chapter 3 today.  We will be multiplying 2-digit numbers by other 2-digit numbers.  We started by multiplying by tens today.  The students learned several different strategies, and are free to use their favorite one.

Science - None - We started chapter 2 today on life cycles.  Students completed an anticipation guide to preview the chapter, and we started reading about heredity.

Language Arts - None - We reread our selection story, and studied spelling words on Spelling City.  We reviewed words that are spelled with digraphs by having a friendly contest to see who could make the most digraph words.  We finished our Jackie Robinson biography projects, and learned a new "Signpost" today.

Social Studies - None - We didn't have social studies today.

Lessons & Assignments Monday, September 26th

Math - None - We took our chapter 3 pretest today.  We also used our math time to have classmates catch up on a growing pile of corrections.

Science - None - We used our science time to work on corrections today.

Language Arts - None - We listened to and read along with our weekly story today.  We completed a spelling page and grammar page in class.  In small groups today, we reviewed vocabulary words, and read about famous athletes.  Students started a research biography project on Jackie Robinson.

Social Studies - None - We continued our Daily Geography packet, and our listened to our Player of the Week presentation.

Lessons & Assignments Friday, September 23rd

Math - None - We reviewed in class today, and took the chapter 2 test.

Science - None - We used our science time to work on our math tests today.

Language Arts - None - We finished reading Mighty Jackie today, and completed our graphic organizers.  We answered some comprehension questions about the story, then compared and contrasted that to our vocabulary story in writing.  We also worked on our writing packets, focusing on coming up with strong ideas for our writing.

Social Studies - None - We did not have social studies today.

Lessons & Assignments Thursday, September 22nd

Math - None - We practiced solving multi-step problems using equations today.  These problems require a lot of steps, and a lot of endurance to keep working!

Science - None - We took the chapter 1 test today.

Language Arts - None - We completed a grammar and spelling page in class today.  In writing, we continued working on choosing specific ideas.  We also started reading our selection story, Mighty Jackie.  We read the first half of the story, and started a graphic organizer to help us determine the author's purpose.  We also read some student writing examples from science earlier this week, and practiced determining the author's purpose.

Social Studies - None - We started chapter 2 today.  We read about how glaciers shaped the land in Illinois.  We also read about some of the landmarks in our state such as Starved Rock State Park.

Lessons & Assignments Wednesday, September 21st

Math - 2.11 - We continued multiplying with regrouping today, only today we used 3 and 4-digit numbers.

Science - None - We played a review game in class today.  Tomorrow we will take our open book test over chapter 1.

Language Arts - None - We spent some of our LA time today getting to know Google Classroom.  Students added themselves to my class, and practiced a few online assignments.  We will be adding more and more projects to Google Classroom as the year continues, which means we need to learn how to use it and have time to practice.  We also completed a spelling and grammar page in class.  We finished up by starting on a writing packet.

Social Studies - None - We did not have social studies today.

Lessons & Assignments Tuesday, September 20th

Math - 2.10 - We continued learning about multiplication strategies today, and finally learned 2-digit by 1-digit multiplication the "mom and dad" math way.  We call this multiplication with regrouping, and is more than likely the same way you learned as a kid.

Science - None - We read an article in our science books, and practiced close reading strategies and annotation of the article using our iPads.  We were reading about the BioBlitz program.  Learn more here!  BioBlitz is a program that aims to identify as many species as possible in a park in 24 hours.  Speaking of parks...Did you know that your 4th grader can get free admission to National Parks?  We took advantage of this program over the summer before my daughter entered 5th grade.  Click here for more information, and take advantage of it this summer!

Language Arts - None - We extended our science activity today by writing a response to the article.  Since we are studying author's purpose in this unit, students chose from 3 prompts on the board, all with a different purpose.  Later this week, we will practice identifying the purpose of writing by using student work samples.  We completed a spelling word sort page, and a grammar page in class.  We read a vocabulary review story about women's baseball during WWII, and previewed this unit's story, Mighty Jackie.  We watched a video preview about Jackie Mitchell, which you can find here.

Social Studies - None - We did not have social studies today.

Reminder:  SIP early dismissal tomorrow

Lessons & Assignments Monday, September 19th

Math - None - We worked on multi-step multiplication problems today, and focused on drawing diagrams to help visualize the problem.  This was a challenging lesson, so we did the independent practice together.

Science - None - We read about invertebrates today.

Language Arts - Vocabulary Packet - We went over our new spelling lists today, and found the digraph patterns in each word.  We also learned our new vocabulary words, watched the vocabulary slide show, and worked on our vocabulary packets.  We completed our grammar page on identifying singular and plural words in class.

Social Studies - None - We skipped social studies today.  I had quite a few kiddos needing to make corrections on various assignments, so I spent our social studies time working with small groups today.

Player of the Week

Grace is our Player of the Week this week!

Language Arts 9/19-9/30

Reading:  determine author's purpose - We will be doing repeated readings of the story Mighty Jackie by Marissa Moss over the next two weeks.  This is a biography about a young girl Jackie Mitchell that struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.  We will be discussing the author's purpose of this story (persuade, inform, or entertain) and using evidence from the story to support our decisions.  You can practice this at home with any fiction or non-fiction story by trying to figure out why the author wrote the story.

Phonics/spelling :  multi-syllable words with digraphs - all spelling words for this unit are multi-syllable words that contain digraphs (2 letters combining to make 1 sound).  We will work with -ch,   -tch, -sh, -th, -ph, and -wh.  Have your child look for these patterns in each word, and sort the words according to the pattern.

Grammar: singular/plural nouns & commas in a series - for this unit, we will be discussing singular nouns (one - example: child) and plural nouns (more than one - example: children).  We will also be working on using commas in a series.  When three or more items are listed, commas need to separate the items in a list.  Example:  I bought milk, eggs, and cheese at the store.

Vocabulary:  Our vocabulary words for this unit are legendary, muttered, gaped, snickering, insult, and flinched.  Students can review using Spelling City, their vocabulary packets, or the slide show posted on my blog.

Writing:  We will be using writing packets for this unit to help develop ideas in our writing.  

Our assessments over this unit will be on Friday, September 30th.

Vocabulary Slide Show

Click HERE for this week's vocabulary slide show.

Lessons & Assignments Friday, September 16th

Math - None - We completed our lesson on multiplying using partial products today.  This is just an extension of the lessons we have been working on all week.

Science - None - We started reading about the way that animals are classified today (vertebrates/invertebrates).  We watched a podcast of a lab activity, and a Study Jams video on vertebrates.

Language Arts - None - We took our unit assessments today, and had some time to read AR books.

Social Studies - None - We did not have social studies today.

Lessons & Assignments Thursday, September 15th

Math - none - I was at technology training this morning, so I had my sub play math review games with the students.

Science - none - The class read about how plants are classified (vascular/nonvascular), and did a quick lab on how moss absorbs water.

Language Arts - none - We reviewed our spelling words and vocabulary words in class today.  In small groups, we worked on comprehension skills, and students had a chance to visit the library.  Tomorrow we will take our tests over our selection story, skills, spelling, and vocabulary.

Social Studies - chapter 1 review sheet - We worked on the chapter 1 review sheet in class today.  Students that didn't finish need to do it at home tonight.

Lessons & Assignments Wednesday, September 14th

Math - 2.6 - We learned how to multiply using expanded form and distributive property today.  We crated our own practice problems today by rolling dice and using those numbers to make 3-digit numbers.  The students felt much more comfortable than this strategy than the one we used yesterday.

Science - None - We previewed our lesson on vascular and nonvascular plants, and watched a short lab video on changing the colors of carnations.

Language Arts - None - We reread our selection story today, and reviewed subjects and predicates.  We watched a School House Rock video on Mr. Morton, and created silly sentences.  In small groups today, we reviewed our vocabulary words and read a mystery story.

Social Studies - None - We did not have social studies today.

Multiplying Using Distributive Property

Today we learned how to multiply using the Distributive Property.  This is probably a new concept for parents, but not as complicated as it seems.  We will eventually learn to multiply 2-digit numbers the "mom and dad" way, so please be patient!  If you have any questions about this method, or the reasoning behind it, please feel free to stop in.  It might make more sense if I show it to you in person.  :)

Step 1:  We are going to solve 5 x 17

Step 2:  Draw a box on grid paper to show 5 x 17 (5 down, 17 across)

Step 3:  Break apart 17 into smaller numbers that are easier to multiply (I used 10 + 7)

Step 4:  Separate the rectangle to break apart 17 (we now have 10 on one side, and 7 on the other)

Step 5:  (optional) Shade the rectangles

Step 6:  Find the area of each rectangle by multiplying (5x10 yellow and 5x7 orange).  

The answers are called partial products.

Step 7:  Add your partial products (50 + 35)

Step 8:  You are done!  5 x 17 = 85

Lessons & Assignments Tuesday, September 13th

Math - None - We learned about multiplying using the Distributive Property today.  This is not a strategy that I was ever introduced to as a child, but now that I've learned it, it's one of my favorites!  I have a feeling the students might not agree today.  We practiced, practiced, and practiced some more.  The strategy itself wasn't stumping us today, but errors with expanded form and multiplication facts were.  Remember to keep practicing basic multiplication facts at home!

Science - None - We had Ag in the Classroom today.

Language Arts - None - We used some of our LA time to keep working on math today.  We also reviewed subjects and predicates, and reread our vocabulary story for the week.  The students compared and contrasted the main character in our vocabulary story with the main character in our selection story.  They had to write their answers in complete sentences, and will receive a writing grade for today's work.

Social Studies - None - We did not have social studies today.

Ag in the Classroom

Mrs. Clodfelter with the Whiteside County Farm Bureau visited our classroom today to teach the students all about agriculture.  She will be visiting our class once a month to teach lessons and do activities with the kids.  Today we learned all about horses.  We talked about the equestrian events at the Olympics.  Ask your child how the horses got to Brazil, and what the needed to travel!  We also made "horse food" for a snack.

Lessons & Assignments Monday, September 12th

Math - 2.3 - We learned about multiplying by tens, hundreds, and thousands today.  Last year, the students multiplied by tens (4 x 20), and in 4th grade we expand it by using hundreds (4 x 200) and thousands (4 x 2,000).  Most of the students preferred the method we used today when we look for patterns with the basic fact.  In the example 4 x 200, the basic fact would be 4 x 2.  We write down 8, then add the two zeros on the end to get 800.

Science - None - We created animal cell diagrams today for our science journals, using the Quiver app again to make them 3D.

Language Arts - None - We reviewed our spelling words today, and continued learning about subjects and predicates.  The class was having a hard time identifying the simple predicate in a sentence today (the verb), so we reviewed verbs, and made lists of them.  Then we tried again, identifying the simple subject and simple predicate from sentences in this week's story.  We also read an expository story about the origins of The Arabian Nights since that was mentioned in our selection story.  We also listened to a few stories on the Epic app, including Aladin.

Social Studies - None - We worked on our daily geography packet, and started the chapter 1 review sheet.  We will continue working on this in class this week.

Plant Cell Diagrams

Mr. Tenboer introduced me to a new app called Quiver.  It can be used at home for coloring, but also has an educational version.  Today we used it to make our plant cell diagrams 3-dimensional.  Students colored and labeled their diagrams, then scanned them.  The app challenges them to identify parts of the cell with labels and quiz questions.  You can learn more at quivervision.com/

Lessons & Assignments Friday, September 9th

Math - None - We worked on lesson 2.2 today on using models to solve multiplication comparison problems.  All of the kids did a great job with this concept during small groups, but our whole group lesson was a bit of a struggle.  We ended up reviewing the assignment together in class.  One of my small groups today was given an extra challenging question.  I even had a hard time solving it!  I sent home copies with that group so they could challenge their parents!

Science - None - We finished our plant cell diagrams today for our journals.  The students used the Quiver app to make their diagrams 3D.  The app also has review quizzes connected to the diagram.  Be sure to check out our blog for pictures.

Language Arts - None - We completed a spelling and grammar page in class today.  Both of these focused on using proper mechanics and proofreading.  We reread our selection story, and practiced sorting long "a" words that the students gathered earlier in the week.

Social Studies - None - We did not have social studies today.

Reminder:  School pictures are on Monday

Lessons & Assignments Thursday, September 8th

Math - 2.1 - We started chapter 2 today, which is over multiplication.  In this chapter, students will be multiplying 3- and 4-digit numbers by a single whole number (for example 219 x 4).  Lesson 1 focused on multiplication comparisons.  In small groups, we used tokens and dimes to represent multiplication problems, and one group even got to practice writing comparison problems for their group members to solve.

Science - None - We reviewed how organisms are classified today, and talked about plant and animal cells.  We started working on an interactive plant cell diagram that we will put in our science journals.

Language Arts - None - We practiced our spelling words today while using context clues, and also learned about using commas in a list of items in the subject or predicate of a sentence.  We finished reading The Adventures of Ali Baba Bernstein, and completed our story elements graphic organizer.  Students practiced visualizing a scene in a story, and shared their drawings.  We also wrote a response to the story, where students had to state their opinions on whether or not the main character's birthday party was a good idea using details from the text to support their answers.

Social Studies - None - We worked on our daily geography packets, and read about the physical environment of Illinois.  We learned about the temperate climate, landforms, natural hazards, and conservation efforts in our state.

Phonics Review

We reviewed some phonics skills and spelling patterns today in small groups.  We started by having students spell words that I dictated to them, then we discussed the spelling patterns.  They got to spell them today by writing on the table!  I also wrote several words on the table, and we practiced chorally reading them together.  This made spelling fun today!

Lessons & Assignments Wednesday, September 7th

Math - None - We took our chapter 1 test today.

Science - None - We used our science time today to set up and practice the Go Math app on our ipads.

Language Arts - long a words - We reviewed our vocabulary words today by reading a story about some girls that planned a surprise party for their mom.  We learned about complete predicates and simple predicates, and did spelling pattern sorts with our spelling words.  In small groups today, we reviewed long a spelling patterns.  We also read the first half of our selection story, and started a graphic organizer.  Some students need to finish finding long "a" words in The Adventures of Ali Baba Bernstein tonight for homework.  Each student had to find 10 words, and write them on index cards.

Social Studies - None - We worked on our daily geography packets today in class.

Lessons & Assignments Tuesday, September 6th

Math - study/none - We reviewed chapter 1 today in class.  Our chapter 1 test is tomorrow.  If you wish to study at home, the review sheets would be great practice!

Science - None - We read about plant and animal cells today.

Language Arts - None - We discussed the learning goals of our next unit, introduced our new spelling and vocabulary words, and completed our vocabulary packets in class.

Social Studies - None - We did not have social studies today.

Vocabulary Slide Show

Click HERE  for our vocabulary slide show.

Language Arts 9/6-9/16

I'm trying something new this week by posting the skills we will be covering in language arts in the next unit.  Let me know your thoughts, and whether or not this information was helpful!

Reading:  analyze story structure - We will be doing repeated readings of the story The Adventures of Ali Baba Bernstein by Johanna Hurwitz over the next two weeks.  This is a humorous story about a young boy who invites everyone with the same name in the phonebook to his birthday party.  We will be discussing the characters, the setting, and the plot in this story.  Within our discussions about plot, we will talk about what happens at the beginning of the story, the middle, and the end, as well as talking about the conflict (or problem) in the story, and how the main character solves that problem.  These are all elements that can be found in any short story, and can be practiced with any fictional story you might have at home.

Phonics/spelling :  long a words - all spelling words for this unit have a long a sound (where the vowel a is saying it’s name).  There are several spelling patterns that show whether or not the vowel is long or short.  This unit’s words have the following patterns:  cvce (consonant-vowel-consonant-silent e) like in the words pale and face; -ay, -ai, -ea digraphs (2 or more letters that combine to make one sound) like in clay, rail, or break.  Have your child look for these patterns in each word, and sort the words according to the pattern.

Grammar: subject/predicate - for this unit, we will practice identifying the subject and predicate of a sentence.  The subject is the “who or what” the sentence is about, and the predicate is the “action” of the sentence, and can be identified by the verb in most cases.  We will also discuss simple subject and simple predicates.  Check out the example below:

The dog chewed on her bone.  

The subject of this sentence would be the dog and the predicate would be chewed on her bone.  The simple subject is DOG, and the simple predicate is CHEWED.  For more fun, check out this old School House Rock video clip!

Subjects & Predicates

Vocabulary:  Our vocabulary words for this unit are curious, policy, ranged, temporary, several, and frequently.  Students can review using Spelling City, their vocabulary packets, or the slide show posted on my blog.

Our assessments over this unit will be on Friday, September 16th.

Lessons & Assignments Friday, September 2nd

Math - None - We completed lesson 1.8 today on using bar models to add and subtract.  This is one method that can help kids visualize a math problem.  If students were more comfortable just adding or subtracting without the model, that was a-ok on today's assignment!

Science - None - We analyzed the data from our paper towel lab, and decided that Bounty paper towels were the strongest and the most absorbent.  We decided that even though they are more expensive, we would use less of them, making them a better deal.

Language Arts - None - We took our first spelling, vocabulary, and reading tests today.  We did the tests together today so the students would have a clear understanding of what I expect on a test.  These will not go in the grade book, but I will send them home next week.

Social Studies - None - We did not have social studies today.

Reminder:  No school Monday - have a great Labor Day weekend!

Lessons & Assignments Thursday, September 1st*

Math - None - We continued reviewing subtraction today by playing a few review games.  Students had a chance to rotate from place to place using task cards to solve subtraction equations.  They also used their ipads to scan QR codes while they practiced.  We also started the next lesson on using bar models to add and subtract.  We will continue this lesson tomorrow.

Science - None - We continued investigation 2 on our paper towel lab, testing for absorbency today.

Language Arts - study spelling & vocab - We read our weekly story, practiced our vocab and spelling words, and continued working on developing a brochure today.  Tomorrow we will take our first language arts tests of the year.  Since these are our first ones, they will be very guided.  No need to panic!

Social Studies - None - We completed our daily geography today, and started reading lesson 1 in our books.

Reminder:  book orders due tomorrow

*Please note these plans are tentative - I was gone today due to a family emergency.