This Blog is no longer active

We are no longer using the blogs. All parents should log into SOIN. Information was sent home with report cards. If you have misplaced your information, or need help please contact the EKA office.

Tests

Students have been working on history vocabulary. The sheet with all the vocabulary went home on Tuesday; the students will be tested next Wednesday, November 3 over the vocabulary.

Tuesday, November 2 Wordly Wise Test #6

SPELLING TEST NEXT TUESDAY

Fourth grade completed a unit on Tall Tales in Language Arts. Next week the students will be creating tall tales of their own. Thus far the favorites are John Henry and Paul Bunyan; Pecos Bill and Thundering Sue not so much.

In history we are working on our regions of Texas and the salt relief maps turned out beautiful! I am not sending them home just yet because we are going to label cities and landmarks with flagged toothpicks.

In math the students are picking up quickly on the long division cycle: Divide, multiply, subtract, drop! D*M*S*D Keep working on those multiplication/division flash cards!

I know you all curious to know what we're learning in Judaics. I am sending the books home with them today, so you can see what we've been working on. PLEASE MAKE SURE THE BOOKS MAKE IT BACK TO SCHOOL BY MONDAY!! So far, we've been working primarily in the text books. We spent a lot of time last week learning some of the skills we'll be needing to learn Torah, including how to use the commentary and the word lists. We also started to do some translation with class discussion. We haven't used our workbooks that much yet. I hope to send the books home every two weeks, so you can see our progress and hopefully, you'll be able to see more and more of the work we're doing. As always please let me know if there are any questions.

I tend to not give homework in Judaics, as we do a lot of partner work and class discussion. However, if students aren't using class time wisely, they may need to finish their work at home or during recess. I will also assign reading practice and review for homework.

Fourth grade started the week with a mess! Each student followed a recipe 4 times to make four lumps of colored dough and through the week we will be creating Texas salt dough relief maps. The room was a bomb of flour, salt and water afterwards, but it was fun!

Tomorrow is WW#5 Test. I will then hand out the next week's spelling list. We are continuing writing using outlines. We have been going through a variety of expository prompts. This last week I gave the students a choice of what they would like to write about and Tamar Cohen gave a great suggestion of writing an expository paper on Laura Ingalls Wilder since I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie books. It was a fantastic idea and they wrote an expository 5 paragraph biography! Great work!

In science we are moving forward onto animal adaptions.

In math we are moving into long division so be practicing those multiplication/division facts!

Notes from the Music Room

Fourth and Fifth Grades will be performing "On the Mayflower," a humorous song, on the Thanksgiving Program. Auditions for the speaking parts will be next Thursday, October 21. Each student was given a copy of the song. I would like everyone to audition (try). You may want to help them with their British accents. :)

Notes from the Music Room

During October and November we will be preparing for our annual Thanksgiving Program.
Save the date: November 23, 2010 @2:00

Oct 11-15

Today the fourth grade built models of cells. Animal and plant cells have common parts: nucleus, cell membrane, mitochondria, vacuole. Therefore, all students built the same model however some "cells" became plant cells by adding a cell wall and chloroplast, while other students built red blood cells. The models were all made with edible materials so they fed their own cells at the end of the lab.

**SCIENCE TEST THURSDAY OVER CHAPTER 1; STUDY INFO IN STUDENT NOTES**



In history we discussed the funding from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and expedition of Christopher Columbus, and his voyage with crew on the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. The class learned of the "mistake" of running into what was later named San Salvador and Columbus had found a passage west to India. The Taino were full of gold which pleased Columbus and he took many treasures back to Europe and made several more trips back to San Salvador. Unfortunately, the Taino were exposed to many new diseases which caused quite a plight on their people; Columbus' journey opened up a race for European monarchies to send out explorers and find new lands to conqure and claim for European countries and search for gold.

At the end of the lesson students were given a pop quiz and if they took notes during the lesson, they were allowed to use their notes for the quiz.



**PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SPELLING TEST IS ON THURSDAY** Normally throughout the year Wordly Wise and Spelling tests will rotate on Tuesdays, but due to the holidays they have been falling on Wednesdays and this week on Thursday. But we are back on track after this week. In fact, tomorrow (Tuesday) I am going to present Wordly Wise #5 to the students, and then they will have the WW#5 test next Tuesday. They will then receive the next spelling list which will be tested the following Tuesday.



In writing we are continuing to work on 5 paragraph expository papers. We are also studying parts of speech and I have the students editing 6th grade level paragraphs in Daily Oral Language. They are doing very well and I love giving them the challenges! Students should be reading every evening for at least 15 minutes. I will be requiring students to write and present book reports every quarter. If you are at a loss for what to read may I suggest that the classics are always a great read and challenges their minds. There is a website that is a personal favorite of mine that has a full selection of classic books for all ages to read online. The site is: www.classicreader.com



In math we are continuing to work this week on large place values and aligning numbers in the correct place value for adding and subtracting.



**Please also note that Invention Convention proposals are due Friday**

Pluralistic Judaics Update

Friday, October 8, 2010
Pluralistic Judaics Update

Now that the holidays are over, we are finally settling into our main curriculum for the year. Your child received new text books and workbooks this week. I'm sending them home so you can see some of what we'll be learning this year. I've also asked the students to give you a tour of the books. As they are completely in Hebrew we spent a couple of days exploring the books and learning how to use them. Please make sure the books come back with your child by MONDAY, if they are not already.

As soon as I finish going through our holiday books, I will send them home so you can see the work we did for Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.

Shabbat Shalom!

Today for followup for reading the biography of Helen Keller, students watched The Miracle Worker. Fabulous movie! Students were able to visually observe how Annie Sullivan loved Helen and guided her through her life and dedicated herself to Helen. She stayed with Helen throughour her life up until she finally went completely blind herself and had to relinquish her aide to Helen, however Annie stayed with Helen until she (Annie) passed away. Such dedication!

Next week we will begin our unit on inventions and discoveries. Please note that next Friday, October 15 the invention convention one page typed proposal is due. NEXT THURSDAY WILL BE THE SCIENCE TEST OVER CHAPTER ONE**Students have all the materials to study in their notes and we have gone over what needs to be studied.

We played a game solidifying place value skills. We will test soon over this concept. Date TBA

Today the students were given next week's spelling test as a barometer for how they need to study for next week's test. If they spelled only 4 or less incorrect they are to also study for the challenge list and will be expected to take that portion along with the original list. Lists are coming home today and the test will be next Wednesday.

Tomorrow 4th grade has Wordly Wise #4 test.

In math we are going to be reinforcing place value skills. This year students will learn into the trillions place and need to be solid in their place value of whole numbers before moving into decimals which will be taught beginning the last week of October. We are also moving into long division with singe and double digits.

In science we have been going over expectations for the Invention Convention project. Students will be able to take home the packet by the end of today for guidelines for the project. We have completed Chapter 1 in the science book. The class has been exploring living things and the parts of a cell. On Monday, students used microscopes and viewed various objects under the scope. We will used the microscope more next week. Students have been guided through the notetaking process and will use their notes to study for the Chapter 1 Science test. Date to be announced.

Please be checking agendas each night and signing the agenda.

Technology Class with Mrs. Markson

4th graders recieved their school email today. They can access it at: gaggle.net . We talked about good passwords and appropriate emails. Gaggle.net is a student email account theat filters photos as well as text and blocks most inappropriate emails and sends them to me. It often blocks appropritae emails (errs on the side of caution). If this happens students may call me at home (I'll give them my home phone number next week) or email me. I check my email frequently for blocked emails and unblock emails that should not be blocked.

Please ask your child to show you their gaggle email. Students may use their email at home as well as in school.

Fourth Grade Art

Fourth grade created mobiles inspired by the 20th century American artist Alexander Calder. Now we are building a class circus in the style of this talented icon. Please send a shoebox if you have available. Thank you!

Fourth grade continues to expand on their writing using the SMILE writing program. The class has been expository writing from prompts given to them. They have also been journal writing and doing very challenging edits on their DOL paragraphs. In addition to the writing, I will be in a SMILE writing workshop on Monday therefore the fourth grade will have a substitute for general studies.

Next week there will be a Wordly Wise test over Lesson #4 on WEDNESDAY. Due to a short week I am working the Wordly Wise with the students in class so that by Sunday they can begin studying the lesson.

The class did a fantastic job on their multiplication test, and is moving on to multiplying 3 numbers or more to double digits. Please remember to study multiplication/division facts every evening.

Next week I will be handing out writing/project guidelines for the invention convention students will be completing.

I am looking forward to meeting with you next Wednesday evening. Have a restful weekend! MB

Mrs. Markson's Technology Class

4th graders took a pre-test for keyboarding. Most discovered they could type ok if they could see the keys. Most were not able to type if the letters on the keys were covered. We also talked about homerow. Next week we'll begin working on homerow. In the future, 4th graders will have keyboarding homework to reinforce what we did in school. The homework will be on their flash drives, so they need to bring them to class every Monday.

There will be a math test next Wednesday over double digit by double digit multiplication. Students have picked up quickly on the concept but the delay comes in readily knowing their math facts. Please be working at least 15 minutes per night on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. The students will begin to take math drill tests that will be graded, so please be working on these facts.

Next Tuesday is Wordly Wise Test #3 and then they will receive a spelling list for the following week.

Email is my best contact, so if you have anything you need to ask about please contact my work email.

Fourth Grade Art

Fourth grade is busy creating collages for the fundraiser art project. We are having a great time!

Technology

Last week we created pdf  files (portable document file) of a cover that was created in Publisher and saved them to flash drives. This week we made sure we could open the files and students took their flash drives home to show their project to a parent. (the file opens with the free program adobe reader) A parent needs to sign in the agenda book on 9/20 to acknowledge seeing the file.

We talked about what makes a good pw (not easily guessed, having numbers and letters). We also signed into Kerpoof.com and reset passwords for those who had forgotten their pw. Kerpoof is accessible from home or school.

Oddly a book on my shelf in the classroom sparked the interest of several students. The book is named Mary, Bloody Mary about Queen Mary, sister of Queen Elizabeth. Ironically over the weekend I came across a book about the war of wits between Queen Mary and her half-sister, Princess Elizabeth. We discussed the history of King Henry and his quest for a son. We then chatted about the lengthy reign of Queen Elizabeth and how she affected upon the country and history. The kids also did not understand why it was such a big deal that not only that she reigned for so long (44 yrs) but lived a long life (almost 70 yrs). We spoke about life expectancy in those days and how blessed the kids are nowadays to have such good sanitation and be able to eat healthy and get shots to keep them well. It was a truly enlightening conversation!

In math the students are mastering mulitplying double digit numbers by double digits. Wednesday we will begin triple numbers by double and I foresee a test by next Wednesday over the concept. I will keep you updated.

In science we continue to classify types of living organisms. We are currently growing fungi in the classroom in secret dark spaces...eeeewwww and have discussed vascular vs nonvascular plants and seeds vs spores. The students will learn about animal life cycles and the key vocabulary will be: trait, heredity, gene, life cycle, direct development and metamorphosis.

In reading we will be reading the trade book Helen Keller. We are going to study the extraordinary life of Helen Keller and we will watch The Miracle Worker. We have also been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's On the Banks of Plum Creek. This is all tied into our unit on biographies.

BIG oooops on my part. Last week when I gave the Wordly Wise test I did not give the WW spelling portion therefore tomorrow I will give Lesson #2 spelling portion. I also have mentioned that WW will be rotated with a formal spelling list however per my lesson plans I had scheduled this to be the week of WW#3 and next Tuesday to be the WW#3 test and then will begin the rotation with formal spelling. So please be aware that you will see WW this week, test next Tuesday and then a list will go home for spelling next week.

In history we continue to outline the first Chapter over ancient North American civilizations. At the end of this week the class will begin to make salt dough to make individual Texan salt dough relief maps which we will work on next week.

Please make sure to be checking your child's binder. Since there are no longer Friday take-home folders and all work is filed away please be checking for graded work in the binder along with updates in their agendas.

Pluralistic Judaics Update

Shana Tova!!

I am excited to announce that I am finally up and running with the blog. I apologize for not being in touch sooner. Fourth grade started this year reviewing what they know about Rosh HaShana, focusing on the symbols, foods, and objects that we use during the holiday. We also learned the 7 Steps of Complete Tshuvah according to the Rambam. As you many of you know we are working with the Tal Am Curriculum. At Meet the Teachers Night, I said that I would not be sending the books home. However, I would like you to see how your child is progressing. After the holidays, I will start to send the books home at regular intervals. I ask for your cooperation in making sure your child is using their time to work in class effectively, as well as to make sure the books MAKE IT BACK TO SCHOOL!

I look forward to reaching out to more of you individually, just as soon as the craziness of the new school year and all the holidays dies down a bit. As always, I encourage you to contact me at millerr@eka-sa.org with any questions or concerns.

I wish you and your families a happy, sweet, and healthy New Year, as well as a year of successful learning together for all of us!

Fourth Grade Art

Our class enjoyed hearing the fun children's book, The Dot. Using the story as inspiration, students had the chance to paint their own versions of dots on large paper with watercolors.

Tuesday

Shortest school week this year! Today was our "Monday" and tomorrow is our "Friday!"

Today students worked on their "Who" expository paper. Webbing their information and will put it into sentence form tomorrow. Next week we will be expanding on the information and will create their first paper.

In science they learned about Alexander Flemming's discovery of penicillan. The lab today consisted of beginning to grow our own mold and making hypotheses on the best places in the room to grow mold (eeeewwwww!!). We will be using petri dishes soon to swab and observe bacteria in the school.

In math we worked on number patterns with large numbers.

***Wordly Wise #2 TEST TOMORROW***

Due to the students having binders they will not have Friday take home folders, however I am sending home the binder so you can see their work from the week. Please check over their binders and agenda to wrap up the week.

Notes from the Music Room

Following our vocal and rhythm warm-up, we read about the history of the recorder. Recorders were originally folk instruments in the 12th century. During the 16th century, Bach and Handel composed music for the recorder. Today more than 3.5 million recorders are manufactured each year for use in classrooms. We are focusing on playing the notes B, A, and G with a quality tone.

Since the class has been taken through a full Wordly Wise lesson and test they will now be assigned Wordly Wise #2. Normally I will assign it on Tuesday and have sections A-E due on Thursday, however this week I am assigning it today (Wednesday) and it will be due Friday. They will work at home on Lesson #2 and sections A-E are due Friday and the students will be tested next Wednesday over the vocabulary. Tuesdays normally would be the tests, however since Monday is Labor Day I pushed it to Wednesday. If you would like your child to also spell the words please be practicing, however it is not a requirement for the students to spell the words.

The writing focus has been expository. This week we took word bites, which are quick words that define a topic. For instance: Summer could be the topic; the word bites could be: pool, hot, friends, icecream, sun, drought...
From there we will expand on these word bites and create our first expository writing.

From the reading book they have been reading expository text about weather. This past week we read about volcanos, tornados and earthquakes.

In math we have been working on multiplying double digits by double digits. We will continue to practice this into next week. Please remember to practice math multiplication and division facts through 12s.

We have continued to study the ancient peoples of Texas and their ways of survival.

In science students have been experimenting with vascular and non vascular plants. They are studying fungi and bacteria and next week we will be completing a lab using yeast.

August 27, 2010

The class has been wonderful! They are diligent workers and are a joy to be around each day. Several times I have heard the remark from the kids that their brains are working hard, especially in math and writing...so there are good things going on! They are working with long multiplication and next week we will begin multidigits multiplied by multidigits.
In writing we are working on expository writing and will begin our writing cycle next Monday. This past week the students took first of year pre-writing assessments in both expository and narrative writing which I will file. It is a good place for me to identify where each student is starting from in their writing and where improvement is needed.
Today the 4th grade also took a practice Wordly Wise test. As mentioned on back to school night, I have been walking them through the first WW lesson since it is new to them in fourth grade. They have taken an ungraded Wordly Wise Lesson 1 test so they can view what the tests will look like in the future.
Have a wonderful and restful weekend. The kids have now had their first full week of school and have been hard back at work and need to rest those minds for another full week! Shabbat Shalom

Notes from the Music Room

Welcome to a new year. Prepare your ears!! Recorders!!
Fourth grade will expand their music reading skills by playing the soprano recorder. We will develop those skills using "Recorder Karate" which lets a child self pace for those who can advance more quickly. Children earn "karate belts" as they learn new notes and rhythms which become progressively more challenging. They should always bring their recorders and their recorder folder to music. If you have not purchased a recorder, they are available at most music stores such as Sam Ash and High School Music. The folder (brads and pockets) will contain their music.
The students will have "homework" or practice most weeks which will be written in their agenda books. This week they should be experimenting with their recorder head joint by making "bird calls.".....not written in their agenda books to spare your ears :).
I am looking forward to a great year in music with your children. Patty Riggle Bonner-music

Fourth Grade!

Fourth grade is feeling the challenge of stepping up to 4th grade. We have started note taking in basic outline bullet-point form. The information we have been outlining is from their Texas history book. The subject-matter was the beginning of the settlement of the Americas and the movement of nomads down after crossing over Beringia.

In math we are reviewing addition and subtraction. The students are adding multidigit numbers with 3 or more multidigits numbers; subtraction is involving multi-borrowing problems. We have been pretending to be bankers for Bill Gates and his BIG bank account has withdrawals and deposits:-). I am proud of the students for knowing their math facts; it is extremely helpful to have such knowledge quickly accessible, especially as we progress through the year advancing through higher math concepts.

Language Arts will have Wordly Wise this year. If you are not familiar with Wordly Wise it is a vocabulary program. I have been walking the fourth graders through the assignments for the first lesson so they will understand what to do on future lessons. They will not be tested over the first lesson. Please know that when the students have a Wordly Wise lesson they will only be tested over the vocabulary on a multiple choice test; they will not be tested over the spelling of the words, however students who would like an extra challenge may take a spelling test over the words. Please let me know if you would like this expectation of your child and I will plan accordingly. Wordly Wise will rotate each week with spelling lessons over the following week. Students will have it written in their agendas and I will have it on the blog.

I can see we are off to a great start this year. Please do not hesitate through the year to email me with questions or concerns as they arise. Email is my best communication. I check it periodically through out my school day and a few times over the weekend I remote in to school email.

Melinda Black

Fourth Grade Art

Fourth graders are exploring the rich diversity of pattern by drawing Pattern Pictures of palm trees or people. We reviewed how artists such as Jacob Lawrence and David Hockney repeat shapes and lines to create rhythm and movement in their art. The students' mixed media drawings combine black markers and colored pencil to emphasize the patterns and rhythm in their artworks.

First Days

Welcome to fourth grade. This year is going to be packed with learning and exploring new and wonderful ideas. General Studies will not have assigned homework this week but will start having homework beginning next Monday. The class is off to a wonderful beginning and I am excited to be able to teach your child. I am looking forward to meeting you next Tuesday evening and getting you acquainted with fourth grade. -Melinda Black