Fourth Grade 2014-2015

Fourth Grade 2014-2015

Thursday, March 21, 2013

March 21, 2013



The students did a wonderful job performing Mr. Bell's Magnificent Ringing Machine, both on Monday for the school and on Tuesday for their families! Many teachers and Mr. Bennett told me how much they enjoyed it.

Students are finishing up their literature circle books. I was pleased with how many students told me they finished their book early because they couldn't put it down! We'll be making posters to try to convince other people to read the books next week, and then we'll be doing guided reading in April with books that share a theme of justice. In writing, students are working on four paragraph essays about why they like Chicago. I'm emphasizing with them the importance of indenting new paragraphs and organizing the essays well using clear topic sentences.

In science, we're learning about heat, sound, and light. This will be a unit we'll continue after break. So far, we've made "ice insulators" to keep an ice cube from melting, sound sandwiches, and investigated tuning forks. Today, we'll talk about instruments and how they are built to produce different pitches. Students will need to build their own instruments to share with the class next Wednesday. These can be as realistic or as simple as the students wish. The requirements are that they are able to explain how it produces sound, and show and explain how it makes a high and low pitch.

I hope everyone is ready to enjoy a relaxing and holy Easter break! Over break, I expect the students to continue reading, and they will have some boxes on their reading log to fill out. Their social studies state projects will also be due the week we come back, so they should be working on those.


Wednesday, March 6, 2013

March 6, 2013



The students did a fantastic job on their circuit rooms in science! I really enjoyed watching them solve problems and apply their knowledge of circuits. You can see pictures of them above.

I'm also enjoying listening to them practice for our musical! They're doing a great job with the songs and lines, and even helped me to think of motions for many of the songs. As a reminder, we will be performing on Tuesday, March 19, and students should be continuing to practice their songs and lines. Tickets are on sale now at the office.

We are continuing to take the TerraNova tests through Tuesday of next week (March 12). Thank you for your help in making sure that your child gets enough sleep, eats a good breakfast, and brings a healthy snack to school.

In reading right now, students are participating in literature circles. They each are reading a book of their choice (either My Life as a Book, Secrets of Cicada Summer, Who Stole the Wizard of Oz?, or Pleasing the Ghost), and are meeting to share their thoughts on their books, just like in a book club! In writing, we're working on adjectives, and students will have a test on this next week on Friday, March 15.