Third/Fourth Grade VR HC

Mid-February is almost here and hopefully the weather has settled down so that we do not miss further school days due to snow.  Spring must be close as the birds are starting to return enmass filling the air with noticeable sound.

Science has been more than exciting this month.  We began a unit called Floating and Sinking.  The students have generated an extensive list of why things float or sink.  You might think this concept quite elementary.  However, I have been amazed and surprised how much we do not know about these concepts.  This excellent unit provides the students with a wealth of activities in which they can explore, predict, and conclude.  At present we are making clay and aluminum boats.  The boats designs are tweaked to see which boat can hold the most cargo.  We weighed our clay so that we could keep the amount of clay constant and we measure to meet specific demands for the aluminum boats.  It is a good lesson in making sure our variables are the same so that we truly can make comparisons in our outcomes.  Our cargo for the clay boats is marbles and for the aluminum boats is jumbo paperclips.

The fourth graders completed a fraction unit and a decimal unit in the last month and a half.  We are now working on the Growth Pattern unit.  In this unit, the students look at basic algebraic relations in order to graph data.  Reasoning, problem solving, and communication are important facets of our studies.  The third graders completed a unit on adding and subtracting large numbers with regrouping and we began a fractions unit this week.

During January in reading we chose mysteries as our genre emphasis.  We had four different novels going and the students met daily in literature circles to study their specific novel.  We completed a reading project as our culminating activity.  This month, February, we are reading a fantasy, Indian in the Cupboard.  What a favorite this has become!  Many students can’t slow down and only read to our schedule.  They are off and running to the sequels of this novel already.  How motivating!

We are also using the Junior Great Books series to hone our reading discussion and critical thinking skills.  Stories that we have read are the Ugly Duckling and The Emperor’s New Clothes.  Quality literature discussions also help with writing improvement.  I am seeing the students narrative writings improve.  We are completing the second major reading assessment for this school year.  The DRA test not only checks for comprehension, but it also encourages the students to set reading goals.

Our read aloud since winter break has been Lily’s Crossing in preparation for the play that we will see Monday. Please remember that tomorrow, Monday, February 13 is our field trip to see Lily’s Crossing.  Students will need a sack lunch for our outing.

Mrs. Northrup is planning our Valentine party for this coming Tuesday.  There were several items that she still needs for the party.   Please review her letter that was sent home if you would like to help out.  You can also call her at 425-356-2531 to verify items still needed.  The students are making their own Valentine holders and bringing them to school.  If your child is handing out Valentines I request that they give to all students in the classroom.

Happy New Year!  We are back in the swing of things.  I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday season.  December certainly flew by as I find our last blog update was just before Thanksgiving.

Throughout the fall each of our novel discussions has been in preparation for the students to begin holding their own novel discussions in literature circles.  This month we began reading mysteries with each student participating in one of four literature circle discussion groups.  Each day the students review the previous day’s reading and they also may answer specific questions or concepts relating to characterization, setting, or plot.  Each circle is taking their responsibility seriously as the student lead discussions are pretty amazing.  It is wonderful to see who is stepping up to take on leadership roles in their groups to see that everyone participates.   Nice job students!

Third graders have completed a data unit in math.  In this unit they analyzed data for mean, medium, mode, range, and outliers.  We also learned how to use the standard algorithm for two-digit by two-digit multiplication.  Since returning from winter break, we have been working on an introduction to long division.  The fourth graders’ focus has been fractions including improper fractions and mixed numbers over the past month.  We begin a new unit on decimals this week.

In social studies, we completed the Washington Adventures unit on Pacific Northwest Coast Native Americans.  We are in the process of finishing up an independent culminating research activity for this unit.  The students are creating Animoto films on a Native American topic of their choice.  We have also begun the next chapter on Explorers to the PNW.

Our science units have been pretty exciting this fall.  We completed the Human Body kit early in December and we have begun a unit on Floating and Sinking.  In this unit we have completed our first experiment comparing how things float in fresh water versus salt water.

Two types of writing will be our major focus for the remainder of this school year, narrative and expository.  This past week we wrote narratives of choice.  Discovering that we write better from experience explaining anecdotes from our lives has helped many students create some wonderful pieces of writing.  Later this year the fourth graders will have two writing prompts on the MSP to complete using their narrative and expository skills.

In art, we are working on self-portraits using photos of ourselves.  The portraits are being completed through a mixed-media process.

We are in the process of deciding how to spend our $10.00 seed money provided by the Children’s Museum.  Watch for the first decision to come to fruition.  We decided to participate in a postcard anti-bullying compaign.  Further discussion will decide how we are going to earn more money for donations to yet to be finalized organizations.  Some of the possibilities are the Heifer Foundation, the American Red Cross, School Bell, a homeless shelter in Lynnwood, and N.O.A.H.

In preparation for our upcoming field trip on February 13 we are reading the novel Lily’s Crossing.  This story which takes place on the east coast shares the experiences of a girl with an active imagination during WWII.  If you have not seen the permission slip please let me know and I will provide another one.

Click on the link to view your child’s VoiceThread recording on concepts from our Washington Adventures book.

http://voicethread.com/share/2224986/

November always seems to fly past in a quick succession of special events, holidays, early dismissals, workshops, and just plain every day life.  This year was no exception.  Here we are preparing for Thanksgiving and it is time for an update on what we have been up to over the last few weeks.

In science, we continue with the human body unit.  The students have constructed working replicas of the leg and thumb.  They attached rubber tubing, paperclips and rubber bands to dowling and popsicle sticks to see the workings of the muscles and tendons in these body parts.  Next we will be examining coordination through a series of timed experiments.

In early November we completed the novel Where the Red Fern Grows.  Hands down this was a true winner!  The students found the book captivating and of course sad.  We completed an extensive reading project examining theme, characterization, and  setting.  Now we are in the midst of another fantastic novel, Island of the Blue Dolphins.  If you have not had a chance to read this Newbery Award winning survival book, I am sure your child will gladly recommend it.  We will complete this novel and reading project before our December holiday.

Stone soup is an annual event in our classroom.  On November 16th four parents helped the students chop and slice vegetable for our soup feast.  Students who might turn up their noses at vegetables seemed to want to try their own homemade delight.  Who could pass on the amazing aroma permeating the school.  It was delicious.  In addition to the soup, we had cornbread and apple juice.  The cornbread was pretty amazing especially since we smeared on our own homemade butter.

The fourth graders completed the Prime Time math unit.  In this unit they learned about factors, multiples, and prime factorization.  The exciting part of this unit was being able to use and understand exponents.  We have also been working with mean, median, mode, and range in our data analysis.

In math, the third graders worked on a measurement unit.  They have been using both metric and the US Customery form.  We have worked with area and perimeter as a review and we have just begun a data analysis unit.  We will be working with line plot, bar graphs, mean, median, mode, outliers, and range.  We have also worked with graphing ordered number pairs.

In social studies, we continue our exploration of the Pacific Northwest Coast Native Americans.  The students are in the process of choosing a research topic for this unit.  We have been working on map skills and we continue with current events in our Time For Kids magazine.

Our writing emphasis this month was in the content areas.  We have written to express what we are doing in science and social studies especially.

Two upcoming events are Holiday store and our trip to see the Nutcracker.  They both are  on December 8.

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you.

Here we are at the end of October!  We are concluding our eighth week of school and we are plunging into all curricular areas full speed ahead.  Last week was very busy.  We had conferences, Dad and Doughnuts, a spaghetti dinner, and an autumn party.  My head is still spinning!  It was great to spend time conferencing about your child’s progress.  Although it is exhausting holding twenty-three conferences, I always learn so much our chats.  Thanks for coming in.

Over the past few weeks we have completed one reading project and begun our next novel, Where the Red Fern Grows.  If you have never read this novel it is a must for your book list.  We learned that Wilson Rawls, the author, wrote this book but decided that he no longer wanted to be a writer.  He burned his novel.  After his marriage, his wife encouraged him to rewrite Where the Red Fern Grows and he did so in just three weeks.  Thank goodness for this support!  We will begin our reading project on Wednesday.

The fourth graders have been working on finding factors and multiples in math.  They are working in a supplementary math edition called Prime Time.  We have also been practicing long division using the Big 7 method and we have been multiplying two-digit by two-digit numbers.  We are getting pretty proficient with these skills.  Our methods for solving these two math concepts are leading us to using the American algorithmic forms.  Hang in there if our other methods have been challenging, we are heading to a more familar form of solving these types of problems.

The third graders are working on reviewing area and perimeter.  They also have been working on factors and multiples.  We will be working on graphing ordered number pairs this coming week.

In social studies we continue to study current events in our Time For Kids magazine.  In our Washington Adventures we have almost completed our Voice Thread activity for chapter one.  We begin a unit on the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest in chapter two this week.  Watch for our mini-video productions to appear on this blog in the coming month.

As you saw during the conferences we are putting forth tremendous energies in our creative writing.  Writing is a process and the students are gaining strong skills in our writing practice.

I hope you had a chance to take a tour of our classroom to check out the many art projects that we have completed this year.  If not, as we complete other works you will see projects coming home as our gallery walls are full and need to have some of the art rotated to your home gallery.

In science we continue with our human body unit.  This coming week we move from bones and joints to muscles.

All of a sudden the weather has changed, the much needed rain is finally here, and brilliant color is appearing in the trees.  Change is occurring daily around View Ridge, too.  Vertical structure can be seen in the new school construction zone and the foundation work appears to be done.  The size of our playground increased just a little and our classroom has settled into a humming routine.  The first of four unpaid teacher days is upon us (Washington Legislature budget cuts).  October 11 is an early dismissal day.  The year progresses rapidly.

Over the past two weeks our class has completed two art activities.  Our Picasso studies was enriched by a project called Picasso Dogs.  This activity incorporated a geometry concept with the abstractness of Picasso’s works.  In the second project we created one-eyed monsters using a medium of choice.  We have been working with colored markers, colored pencils and watercolors.  Students chose a medium or mixed mediums to complete their monster.

In science we continue our human body studies looking at joints of the body.  We completed eight activities with the index finger and thumb of our dominant hand disabled.  We discovered how difficult  it is to complete simple tasks with thumb immobilization.  Having an opposable thumb makes life’s tasks so much easier.  Try screwing a cap on a bottle without the benefit of your dominant hand’s thumb!

The third graders have been working with symmetry and area.  They have found area of polygons including quadrilaterals.  The fourth graders have been working on two-digit multiplication and long division.  We are using the Big 7 method for long division and a variety of methods for solving multiplication problems.  We are working toward the algorithm methods for solving these types of problems.

In our study of Washington state, we have discovered that Washington has five major regions.  These include: the coast, western lowlands, Cascade Mountains, the Okanogan Highlands, and the Columbia Plateau.  We have also found that Washington has several habitats including coastline, temperate rain forest, alpine meadow and sage steppe.  The class is working on a culminating activity for our first chapter in the Washington Adventure book.  We will  be recording our studies to present to you what we are learning using online software called VoiceThread.  We will link you up to hear what we are learning very soon.

We completed our first novel, Caddie Woodlawn, and have begun the reading project for the this month.  The reading project may be found on our classroom webpage.  It is due on Friday, October 14.  Monitoring work completion will occur throughout the week.  Some students may need to complete portions of the project at home to meet the deadline.  Plenty of time will be provided in class, however.

During creative writing time we have been working on creating action heroes.  The students will be writing an adventure that their hero has.  Each student has presented their ideas to their creative writing group in our Writers’ Workshop.  There are many exciting powers developing!  There were groans when one of the prerequisites was stated, no blood and gore!

This coming Friday is the PTA sponsored Walk-a-thon.  We will be walking the course during the afternoon.

There seems to have been a technological glitch and the Week in Review written the first week of school was not published.  Sorry about that.  So the date on the post that went out this morning should have been September 11.

We have been very busy over the last two weeks.  Establishing routine and expectations always take longer than expected.  We are coming together as a class.  Remembering our school STAR rules is coming along nicely.

Academically we are pushing forward in all subject areas.  In math, the third graders have worked on a measurement and a geometry unit.  We have studied polygons determining characteristics and names and we have created regular and irregular polygons.   In addition, we have studied the attributes of quadrilaterals. Next we will work with measuring angles.

The fourth graders have also worked on a geometry unit emphasizing how to enlarge a polygon x 2 through x 5.  Using this knowledge we have looked into patterns to make accurate predicitions for larger dimensions such as x 10.  We have spent a great deal of time on area and perimeter.  Next we will practice long division skills using the Big 7 method.  Watch for an explanation on this method to come home Monday with the students’ homework.  The Big 7 method is taught prior to using the standard algorithm method.

Our novel Caddie Woodlawn is unfolding quickly.  Skills that we have examined are setting, character analysis,  plot outline using a timeline of events and summarization.

Our first major writing experience has been about a person in our lives who has been meaningful.  We are beginning to write multi-paragraphs using the Big 4 method.  This writing is our baseline writing for this year.  Students decide on a writing goal for each month to improve their writing skills.  Many of you may have seen the first writing as most students who have flash drives have shared their writing with you.  Basic paragraph writing skills have been reviewed this month.  During our writers’ workshop many students agreed to share their writing with the class to receive a constructive criticism, a non-threatening critique.  Everyone is learning from this experience as it hones the writers and the readers proofreading skills.

Our science unit, The Human Body, has been very exciting.  We discovered that there are 206 bones in the human body through a series of activities.  We dissected owl pellets and are in the process of reconstructing the skeletal system of the rodents remains.  Next we move on to joints.

Latitude and Longitude have been our social studies focus.  We have begun looking at  current events using our Time For Kids publication and we have begun studying Washington history in our Washington Adventures book.  Watch for our first research project to be published on this website in the next few weeks.

In art, we have created imginary animals through a multi-step approach.  First we painted abstract lines using primary colors.  Next we searched our abstractions for an imaginary creature.  Once the creature was defined, we have layered watercolors and we have added texture.  The students have also been introduced to gesso in this project.  I will upload some examples of this project in the near future so that you can see some creations.

It has been my plan to continue uploading homework to our classroom webpage each week.  However, the system has a glitch and I am still unable to do that.  Hopefully we can work through this problem.

Happy Fall!

Welcome back to the new school year.  With only three days under our belt we are off and running.  There are twenty-three students in our class.  Amazingly we are pretty well balanced with third and fourth graders and male and female students. 

This year our class started eating lunch considerably later than in previous years.  Beginning on Monday we will move lunch up twenty minutes to 12:35.  The students are getting hungry with our long morning so an appropriate snack may be sent to be eaten during our new a.m. recess which begins at 10:35. 

Soon we will begin a long term art activity that requires junk mail.  I am sure everyone gets plenty of that!Each student should bring in about twelve pieces.  A variety of types is preferable including mail with glassine windows and heavier stock.   We will be adding gesso to each piece which will cover any addresses if you are concerned. 

There are six students who have not returned an email address.  Please send those addresses soon.  If you received this blog email notice then you are covered unless I had trouble reading an email address.  Darn those hyphens versus underscores!

In math this week both third and fourth graders reviewed the five step process for solving word problems.  A copy of the process was sent home in the student binder and may be found on our classroom website.  This process will be used throughout the school year to help the students work through story problems and this process will be helpful when it comes time for the Math MSP.  The students who previously were in my classroom may start at step 3.  After the students become proficient with the process all students will be able use the last three steps.  In past years it has been my experience that word problem solving  using the five step process has created some anxiety.  Remind your child that most everyone is comfortable with the process by December. 

In class we critique student work in a non-threatening atmosphere.  Within a month all students will be able to present their math solutions and receive constructive criticism from their peers.  Learning that there is more than one way to solve a problem is important.  The different types of problem solving techniques may also be found on our classroom website.  Please remember when helping your child with word problems that we do not solve them algebraically yet.

In our writers’ workshop we discussed what we should include in a proper paragraph.  I was pleased with the students’ first writings for the year.  Each student has set a writing goal for September.  Monthly goals will continue to be set.  I also conferenced with most students on Thursday looking over their first writings.  I will explain more writing critiquing over the next few weeks. 

Our social studies emphasis this year will be Washington state history and geography.  We learned about the state symbols this week.  Did you know we have a state insect?

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  I trust that everyone is keeping cool in our heat wave. 

During May and June the students created a culminating project to our classic novel units.  Their task was to work in groups to create a two to five minute puppet play using favorite characters from the classic novels read in class this year. Each group wrote their own scripts, designed and created their scenery and puppets, and filmed their plays.   All groups completed their projects.  Two groups either stayed after school or came early the last two days of school to complete their project .  Unfortunately these projects have been lost due  technical problems at the last minute on the last day of school.  They simply ran out of time and could not recreate their projects with the time constraints. (I am sure there is a lesson there somewhere.)   Please enjoy the six projects below by clicking on the underlined titles.  Happy summer!

Group 1 – Laili, Kara, and Jamie - A Classic Comedy

Group 2 -Rhys, Kody, and Ethan - abstract adventure 2

Group 3 - Bayly, Morgan, and Austin -  hook’s comeback bayly morgan austin

Group 4 - Remy, Timothy, and Eyler –  house of breakfast

Group 5 -Kayla, Jamie, Philip and Audrey -  Toad’s Escape Kayla, Jamie, Philip, Audrey

Group 6 – Jadyn, Abbie, and Maggie – Part I – Toad’s Crime part I;  Part II – Toad’s Crime part II

It has been a few weeks since our last classroom update.  Time is passing all too quickly and the end of the school year is rapidly approaching.  This blogger has felt as if he has had two jobs, taking care of family issues and teaching each day.  Balancing the two has been a challenge.  Last night I took a break from the day-to-day activities to attend a performance of Hello Dolly.  If you get a chance to see this performance it is well worth your efforts.  Our own Audrey is part of the ensemble and what an amazing job she does.  She is joined by her sister, Ava, and her father, Mike in the performance.  The show runs for one more weekend.  Break-a-leg Audrey!

Over the last few weeks we have engaged in a long term art project.  The students are ending their Pacific NW Native American studies by making a quilt.  The students were given 36 mystery squares of typical First Nation animals.  They copied their square onto muslin.  Over the drawn lines they beaded blue Elmer’s Glue.  Once the glued dried they then dyed each section of the square with fiber dye.  Each square has to be washed four times to remove extra dye and the glue.  This process is similar to batiking.  The squares will be assembled and quilted by Mrs. Millar.  We can’t wait to see the outcome!

In science we completed our Changes of State unit.  The students have a good grasp of liquids, solids and gases.  

The third graders have been practicing division and multiplication skills.  They also finished a unit on cubic measurement.  The fourth graders have just completed a unit, How Many People?  How Many Teams?.   This unit provides division and multiplication practical applications.

Over the last two weeks the students have been using their problem solving skills, working in groups, to create solutions to a variety of problems.  The students are given a problem and they have 35 minutes to plan and execute a solution.  They then present their solutions to their classmembers.  It is amazing how fast the time flies and what wonderful creative solutions come from the teamwork.

Our last reading unit was completed on Thursday.  The students read a mystery of choice.  For the remainder of the year I encourage the reading of nonfiction books.  Each student has set summer reading goals which I have included on their report cards.  We are also finishing up our original 2 to 5 minute plays using favorite characters from the classic novels we read this year.  The plays are being filmed and will appear on our classroom blog soon.

We have a very busy schedule over the next two weeks.  Here is a list of upcoming events:

June 13 – PTA Car Wash 2:40 – make-up day for fundraiser celebration

June 14 – All school photo; Everett Library summer reading program presentation

June 15 – Pioneer Fair; HC open house for new students and parents

June 16 – Field trip to Mukilteo Beach (lunch served); assembly

June 17 – Field day (PM)

June 21 – Viking Party

June 23 – Field trip to the Locks

June 24 – Early dismissal – last day of school