Welcome to our class website for the 2008-2009 school year! Thank you for visiting. Please check our page frequently for the latest updates, information, and photos of what's going on in our classroom!
It’s all about JUSTICE! This month’s universal attribute in our character education program…
"Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it."
~ William Penn
Important Dates:
1/6 Justice Day
Wear Yellow
1/19 Teacher Clerical Day
No School for Students
1/20 Teacher In Service Day
No School for Students
This Week's Spelling and Vocabulary Words:
Grade 4, Theme 3, The Cricket in Times Square
Spelling Words
Possessive Nouns
1. team’s 8. girls’ 15. aunts’
2. players’ 9. students’ 16. friend’s
3. bird’s 10. trees’ 17. children’s
4. wolf’s 11. parents’ 18. city’s
5. horse’s 12. owners’ 19. classes’
6. class’s 13. cousins’ 20. country’s
7. group’s 14. teachers’
Challenge Words
21. melodious
22. chirping
23. violinist
24. orchestra
25. musician
Vocabulary:
wistfully
scrounging
acquaintance
excitable
eavesdropping
sympathetically
logical
Reading, Writing, and Language Arts
We are into our third theme for Language Arts titled, “Make Yourself at Home.” This theme, students read about characters that grow and change along with their environment. In recognizing that change is part of nature, students will come to appreciate their own tremendous potential for inner growth. We continue to test spelling and vocabulary words each week; new words are introduced that coincide with our reading selection each week.
Grammar practice occurs each day in 4th grade! We are currently working on one grammar rule each week and continue to build our grammar skills. This theme we focus on common and proper nouns, singular and plural nouns, possessive nouns, abbreviations, and pronouns and antecedents.
Now that that holiday is over, we begin our Informational writing piece. This type of writing is commonly found on the PSSA testing which occurs this year at the end of March and beginning week of April. Informational essays require students to respond to a given prompt. Before writing their own piece, students will review and score many example informational essays, comparing the quality of response from a level 4 response to the level 1 responses. Much time is spent modeling and discussing example essays before taking on the task of responding to their own Informational prompt.
Math
Moving forward in math, our next Investigations is called "Fraction Cards and Decimal Squares," focusing on fractions and decimals. In this unit students look at rational numbers, understanding the meaning of fractions and decimal fractions, comparing the values of fractions and decimal fractions, and using representations to add rational fractions.
The best way to help your child at home is to practice math facts. This marking period we begin timed tests for multiplication and division math facts. Your child can make flash cards to practice, or play any of the following games on the attached sheet. Please use these suggestions to help your child study his/her facts!
Forgot your homework, need some review, or some practice worksheets? Log on with your child to Pearson Success Net to find what you're looking for! http://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com
Here we are using Pearson SuccessNet in the classroom!
Social Studies and Science
Science and Social Studies are always hands on lessons and students complete all of their work in an interactive science or social studies notebook. Students enjoy taking ownership of their notebooks which hold their notes, hypotheses, cut and pasted work, and line of learning.
We have completed chapter 5, studying the population density of the United States. Students compared small town life to life in a megalopolis, discussing differences in employment, transportation, housing, recreation, environment, and more! Students discovered the pros and cons of the different lifestyles.
Next, we begin to explore the Southeast region by taking a boat and bus tour through the 12 states. The tour stops at Everglades National Park, The John F. Kennedy Space Center, Jamestown, Virginia, A Coal Mine in Appalachia, Memphis, The French Quarter, An Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico, A Cotton Plantation, and finally Montgomery, Alabama: Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.
In Science, the students are psyched to begin our unit on Electric Circuits! Students have already completed lesson 1, and are eager to discover how much they really do/do not know about this unit!
Thank you for all of your help and support at home and in the classroom!
Ms. Kelly Kovacs
kkovacs@mtlsd.net
Lincoln Elementary
4th Grade
|
