Third/Fourth Grade VR HC

The PTA is holding a carnival on June 3.  Our class is sponsoring and running the HOT DOG STAND.  Volunteers are needed to work the shifts.  Please contact Mrs. Doran if you can volunteer or return the volunteer form that came home earlier in the week. 

In addition, our class basket this year is Art Creations.  Donations of art supplies or cash to purchase art supplies would be tremendously appreciated.  Please send in your donations to the classroom soon.   Mrs. Doran is also organizing this basket.  Please help her out.  Many thanks.

Everyone is glad that the last two weeks are behind us.  The MSP is over.  For the third graders it was not so bad.  It was brutal for the fourth graders as they had two essays to write last week.  I am proud of both grade levels for their ability to take the MSP seriously and responsibly.  The MSP is a rite of passage for all students in Washington State and we  had students who were nervous, but confident.  Above all we had students who took their time and put forth a tremendous amount of effort. 

On Friday, we celebrated with a whole day of fun activities starting with Capture the Flag and ending with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  All students deserved to have a day to just enjoy.  Thank you third and fourth graders for a job well done!

This week we will begin our last reading unit for the school year, mystery books.  There will be a selection of five books  from which students may select a mystery of choice.  They will have the remainder of May to complete their novel.  There will not be a defined reading schedule, however, the book must be completed by June 1.

In math the third graders are finishing a math unit on graphing data where they define a function using algebraic notation.  The fourth graders are collecting, organizing and sharing data using graphs and line plots.

Permission slips have been sent out for three field trips, the play Jackie and Me, the Snohomish County Arts Council, and for the Ballard Locks.  One more permission slip will be coming home this week for the Mukilteo picnic.  The date of this field trip had to be changed due to the Highly Capable Open House on June 15.  Keep posted for the new date.

May is just around the corner.  The MSP is looming and hopefully some much needed sunny spring weather will come our way!  Next week begins the state assessment, the MSP.  On Tuesday, the students will take the reading portion and on Thursday the math segment of the assessment.  That will end the testing for the third graders.  During the second week of the MSP, the fourth graders will take two writing assessments, narrative and expository.  The third graders will be taking the MSP with Mrs. Davis and the fourth graders will remain with me.  Chewing gum is allowed during the MSP and, in fact, there is research to support that chewing gum increases test scores.  Each night prior to a testing day, the students will not have homework.

During these past two weeks in science, the students have been working on changes of state.  They have been examining how liquids, gases, and solids relate to one-another.  In one experiment we chose classroom locations to observe ice cubes melting.  We took location temperatures and timed how long it took for an ice cube to melt in that location.  The experimenting process showed us that it is important to keep experimentation variable constant and of course that heat affects the melting process.

In the next experiment we decided to speed up the melting process.  After brainstorming many ways to accomplish this, the students designed their own experiments.  The groups and found that they had to be very careful with the procedures that they followed.  For instance, one group decided that they would melt their ice cube in a hand.  They forgot to account for a variable in addition to heat, that being pressure.  Each group has had to think about their variable consistency.  As we learn the scientific method, students are becoming aware of how important it is to keep variables and procedures constant.

Fourth graders have completed their math unit on decimals.  We have begun a graphing unit analyzing data.  In this unit the students will describe and create rules for numerical and geometric patterns.  They will use algebraic expressions and graph ordered pairs.  The third graders finished their area and perimeter unit.  They are now working on a graphing unit, too.

We began a health unit last week looking at body systems and how eating healthy food helps our bodies perform well.  We joined the Magic School Bus series to check out the digestive system.  We examined the food pyramid and designed three healthy meals making sure that we had all the basic daily requirements.  Hopefully your child shared their menus with you.

In social studies we are examining map skills using our atlases to explore Central America.  In addition, we are working on our research skills.  The students chose an artist to learn more about.  They are writing an essay on their artist.  They also will be designing a stamp to represent their artist in art on Friday.

The permission slip for our May 24th field trip was sent home Wednesday.  The cost for this trip to the Snohomish Country Arts Council exhibit is $2.00.  Please only send cash for this field trip.

An additional field trip is being worked on.  It most likely will be on June 15.  We will have our annual class picnic at the Mukilteo Beach.

Our blog has something new, STORY CORNER.  To access Story Corner click on the banner at the top of the blog or on the sidebar.  Story Corner is our second community service project voted on by the class this year.  The students recorded favorite picture books on Audacity.  Volunteers from our class will visit the primary classrooms at View Ridge to promote Story Corner.  Students in those classes will be able to listen to any of the stories from any computer at their leisure.  The primary students can check out the book from the library and follow along with what our students have recorded.  More stories will be included later in the school year.

If you have not gotten a chance to listen to our Pacific NW Coast Native American research you can find it on this blog’s previous entry. The students did a fine job of highlighting cultural information of our First Nation peoples.

The third graders last week spent their math time examining area and perimeter for polygons.  The fourth graders have been working on a decimal unit.  We have also been reviewing for the MSP.

Speaking of the MSP, the schedule for testing is out.  Third and Fourth graders will be taking the MSP on May 3 (Reading), and 5 (Math).  The fourth graders will continue testing on May 10th and 12th (Writing).  Although there will be make-up days for missed tests, please try and avoid doctor’s appointments on testing days.

In writing, we have been reviewing our expository and narrative skills.  Using the Four Square format will assist the students with a structure to produce quality essays.  Both of these types of writing will be assessed on the MSP.

We have begun a new science unit, Changes of State.  The students are examing solids, liquids, and gases.  You may have heard of Oobleck, a mixture of cornstarch, water and food coloring.  Our scientists examined the Oobleck properties which can be both a solid or a liquid depending on conditions.  We are learning there are three states of matter and that matter is made up of molecules.  We have also discussed how heat changes the state of matter.

This month is free reading month.  In class, we are using our Junior Great Books series extensively.  We are also using informational books as our in class genre.  There is no reading project this month.

Upcoming field trips include:

May 24 – Snohomish County Arts Council glass art exhibit at the Monte Cristo Hotel

May 26 – Jackie and Me – Seattle Children’s Theatre

June 23 – Ballard Locks

June ?  (TBA) – Year end picnic -  Mukilteo Beach

 

The students have researched a variety of topics in their studies of the Pacific Northwest Coast Native Americans.  Their podcasts are accessed by clicking on the arrow next to each student’s name.  You may have to adjust volume for some of the podcasts.  Enjoy!

Abbie – Abbie Bella Coola

Eyler – Eyler Spirit Quest

Jamie – jamie wool dogs

Kody – kody legends

Philip – Philip totem poles

Richard – Richard N.W coast native american wealth

Timothy – TimothyHunt

Annika – Annika food2

Bayly – Bayly fish

Henry – henry canoes

Kara – Kara smallpox

Laili – Laili customs

Remy – Remy Native American slavery

Sonja – sonja button blankets

Tyler – tyler longhouses

Audrey – Audrey clothing

Ethan – ethan PNW Native American customs

Jadyn – Jadyn Tlingit (audio difficulties at the beginning of this podcast)

Kayla – kayla wool dog 2

Maggie – Maggie shamans

Rhys – rhys education of PNW Native American boys and girls

Stephanie – Stephanie Legends

Morgan – morgan diseases

Last week was a mix of short student  and long teacher days.  Report cards have passed and conferences are over.  Even with a shorter student day we seemed to have packed in the hours to our best.  The Wind in the Willows has been read and the reading project begun.  We continue to work on decimals with the fourth graders and measurement with the third graders.  We wrote original legends and we learned more of the adventures in A Dog’s Life, our read aloud.  This coming week we will complete the reading project and we will examine Native American artifacts from a the Seattle Art Museum. 

Spring break is a week away.  Hopefully we will have some warm spring weather.  This blog will resume after the vacation.

Now that report cards are completed and dispursed this blog can resume.  Conference week is upon us and conference notices went home over a week ago.  Not all students are requiring a conference at this time.  If a conference has been requested and you  did not get a confirmation notice, please call the school or me to verify the conference time.  During conference week the school is holding a book fair.  This time the book fair will be in the pool room near the office.

We are well into the reading of our lastest classic novel, The Wind in the Willows.  As mentioned previously in this blog, the vocabulary for this novel can be challenging.  I am very proud of how the students are handling the reading of this novel.  As with Peter Pan,  our classic novels have proven to raise our reading bar.  Our classroom discussions continue to amaze me and even though we are challenged, the students are rising to meet expectations.  We will begin our reading project for this novel at the end of this coming week.

The fourth graders completed a geometry unit in math on Friday.  Our focus last week was on finding the area and perimeter of triangles and quadrilaterals.  The third graders are working on finding area and perimeter and are working with quadrilaterals as well.

Last week’s narrative writing homework was great practice for the students.  For the fourth graders this practice is necessary for the state MSP coming up in May. For third graders it gives them an idea of what to expect next year.  If the students use a prewrite to organize their writing in a logical fashion and follow all of are other learned writing procedures, they will meet or exceed standards on the assessment. 

In art we have continued learning drawing skills.  Noticing negative space to help with drawing has been very helpful.  Recognizing that there are four basic shapes in nature (cone, sphere, cube, and cylinder) has opened up our drawing eyes.

In our continued studies of Pacific NW Coastal Native Americans we have begun to write original legends.  The students read a variety of legends in class.  They generated a list of legend characteristics and now they are in the process of writing their own.

Happy Spring!

What a novel idea, a five day school week!  It doesn’t seem like that happens all that frequently.  Last week was a very busy week, too.   Students completed the reading project on Homer Price, worked on math units and learned drawing techniques. 

In math, the third graders are in the midst of a measurement unit.  We are working with standard and metric measurement.  They are getting adept at converting inches into feet.  Having actual measurement activities is helping them to master the skills.  The fourth graders are finishing up the geometry unit.  After some vocabulary review and practice with a protractor, they will be ready for the unit assessment.

Over the past four weeks I have been taking a drawing class at the University of Washington.  It has been a blast!  Each week I have been bringing back skills learned and the students are enjoying learning to draw 3-D.  One technique that we learned is to draw the negative space.  We frequently turn what we are drawing upside down and use the right side of our brains to create.  It works!

Everyone enjoyed finishing Homer Price.  We worked on our reading project all week and twenty-three projects were turned in by Friday.  About half the class had trouble meeting the Thursday deadline this time.  So we will go back to more structure with the next reading project.  I am very proud of the twelve who met the deadline.  I know it  is hard for them to juggle time restraints when so much is going on outside of school.  Our next book, The Wind in the Willows, begins on Monday.  A reading schedule will be included on the weekly homework sheet.  This novel is our next classic and will challenge some, but I know the students will rise to the occasion as they did for Peter Pan.

Conference notifications went home Friday.  As soon as I get all responses back I will schedule the spring conferences.  Report cards go home on March 18.

Hopefully what we do in class comes home and is expressed enthusiastically by your child.  As in life some activities are more exciting than others.  This week we had a pretty exciting time with the new hardware and software that we are piloting.   MOBI has arrived.  MOBI is an interactive device which is used remotely throughout the classroom.  We are trying four MOBI pads for sixty days.  The students use  a MOBI pad and stylus to interact in a multitude of ways.  Their work is projected on a screen for the others to observe.

Students worked in groups and in pairs to complete activities each day.  Those students who did not have a pad used pencil and paper to complete the activities and waited their turn.  Using the pads and stylus needs practice.  Hand/eye coordination comes into play and just getting use to the procedures takes some effort.  Beginning tomorrow we will be MOBI-ing for our fourth day.  We will share the devices with one other classroom during the trial period.  It is exciting technology and if all goes well we will be able to continue using MOBI after the sixty day trial.  We are working on a grant at View Ridge to try and make this happen.

 An example of how we used the MOBI this week was to place a set of fractions on a number line.  Immediately we could see whether or not the students were order accurate and whether or not the fractions were placed in the approximate correct location (1/4 was actually in the correct position between 0 and 1).  Each day we tried different skills. 

In math the fourth graders are well into their geometry unit.  We are identifying right, acute, and obtuse angles.  We learned how to use a protractor to measure angles.  We learned that all angles in a triangle add to 180 degrees and all angles in a quadrilateral add to 360 degrees.  The third graders practiced two-digit by two-digit multiplication and continued with their fraction unit.  They have been working with mixed numbers and improper fractions.

Our new novel is Homer Price.  It is only six chapters long, but a true joy to read.  We are analyzing characters, defining plot and setting, and soon we will discuss author’s purpose.  The students have paired up to create posters explaining the story elements.

We completed the DRA2 testing this week.  Results are terrific!  I found amazing growth in most students.  The results will be sent home soon.

Our Native American freize is taking a 3-D shape.  We are adding the Pacific NW coastal village and will soon have contact with the white man.  A ship will be sailing into the bay in a matter of days bringing on a whole new experience for the indigenous people.

This blog will be on hiatus until after the Mid-Winter Break.  Enjoy the upcoming days off!

On Thursday we were honored with a visit from Kara’s aunt, Lora Pennington who is a member of the Upper Skagit tribe.  Ms. Pennington shared artifacts from her culture, as well as, a legend.  Before we knew it two hours had passed.  No one would have thought that when coming to school that day we would hold a pounding tool that was over 5,000 years old.  This tool was found along the Stillaguamish River and remained on someone’s mantel for over thirty years before being returned to a local reservation.  It certainly was a rich experience for us all.

Also in social studies we worked with physical and political maps.  We are using these maps to refine our acquired skills from previous lessons.  We used longitude and latitude to locate specific cities and located states based on physical map features.

Our Peter Pan reading projects have been finished.  Everyone has turned in their project with the exception of students who received extra time due to absences.  Our next classic novel is Homer Price which we will begin on Wednesday.  This novel is a fun read and will give us a bit of a breather after the intensity of Peter Pan.  We can relax a little and not worry as much about vocabulary development but focus on the humor of the story.

We combined our practice of Zentangles with the creation of original art puzzles on Friday.  Although you won’t get to experience the puzzle portion of this activity, you will see exciting works of art.

Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching.  We will celebrate in class on the 14th.  A class list will be sent home this week for students wishing to pass out valentines.  Although this is not a requirement, students should remember that valentines should be given to all students in the class.  Valentine holders will be made at home and brought to school when completed.

The results are almost in on our pay-it-forward activity.   So far we have profitted $211.00.  We are slowly selling the final three boxes of ice cream sandwiches and when we are done, we should profit $283.00.  Combining the Children’s Museum donation and a few other donations we will have about $300.00 to give to our three selected charities.  Way to go third and fourth graders!