March+5,+2012

March 5, 2012

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Grade 4 Newsletter ~

This will be a busy week, but the students are //well prepared// to complete assessments and move forward with their Unit of Inquiry: How the World Works.

MATH: We are very excited to be ready to take our Book 1 completion test! Although we are still practicing certain skills (large digit multiplication and division) and reviewing vocabulary such as the geometry unit, we will be ready to take the assessment on Thursday. I've told the students they can take as long as they need (with in reason, of course) so I have planned three class periods on Thursday. They usually take about an hour to complete the four page unit test, but this will be a six page comprehensive assessment of what they've learned so far this year. It will be important to have a good book to read to stay quiet while others are finishing.

LANGUAGE ARTS: I've begun reading aloud "Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne. We picked this book because of our unit on How the World Works. It is a difficult book, but I have adjusted this for students by giving a synopsis of what is happening in each chapter. Students are creating their own short version of this story with pictures and certain words in a "mini-book" to keep to help them remember what happens. When the book is completed, I want to show the students the original classic movie made from this book.

We have an eruption of writing that is exploding onto the staircase bulletin board showing what we have learned about volcanoes. You can observe it developing this week if you stop in to see the board "grow." This is the first time I will require students to "type" their 2nd draft and final essay. I'm very proud of their organized papers through using a brainstorming list, web (mind map) and outline before writing their first draft. Sentence structure has truly developed while practicing all our writing, and we just had a sentence structure "quiz" using simple, complex, and compound sentences.

There have been many "mini" spelling groups and spelling practicing where students need it the most. These results are located in their year long folders for you to see at any point in time. You are welcome to come in and ask what your child has been working on.

UNIT OF INQUIRY: 1) Pangaea, 2) plate tectonics and Ring of Fire and parts of the Earth, 3) earthquakes, 4) volcanoes (finishing this week), and next week is the Summative Assessment: How the Earth is Changing.

Last Friday (March 2nd), students left me their science notebooks with their first draft written (along with their brainstorm list, web and outline). Monday and Tuesday, students will be typing up their 2nd draft, I will edit them again and then by Wednesday, they will be completing their research essay on their particular volcano in typed form. These essays will include an introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs and a summary paragraph. By Friday, they will begin organizing their Summative Assessment for this Unit of Inquiry #4. The final essay of this unit will be about how the Earth changes and why. The three body paragraphs will require the students to bring together everything they've learned in this unit regarding all four parts listed above to explore the idea 1) what structures make up the Earth, 2) how and why it has changed in the past, and 3) what proof do we have to know it is still changing (from recent changes).

I hope you will enjoy seeing the class's great work. I'm so impressed with everyone's enthusiasm and how much fun they've had with this unit. Enjoy the week, and thank you for your continued support, Ms. Nancy Marcet