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.