Week of 11/3/2014 - 11/7/2014

What a busy and exciting week we had this week!  We had two special presentations in our classroom.  On Wednesday we had a presenter from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation teach us about the method Frank Lloyd Wright used to build called Froebel Blocks.  Then on Thursday we had a presenter from the Illinois Agriculture Foundation teach us about Agriculture in Illinois.  Plus today we got to go to Brooks to see Into the Woods (It was fabulous!).  The 5th graders might have been away at Camp Edwards but we certainly had a lot of fun on our quiet hallway while they were gone (Mrs. Roskos was with them on Thursday and Friday)!

This week we have started a school wide program.  We have shared with the students our learning targets for each day.  We will be putting up learning targets (goals that we want to accomplish that lesson) up on our board every morning so our students will know what our specific goals are for the day.  If you are looking to have a conversation at dinner about school, you can ask the students what their learning targets were for the day!  

Please remember that there is No School this Monday, November 10 for Veteran's Day.  We will see everyone Tuesday!  Permission slips for our Concordia Field Trip are due next week so please turn them in if you haven't already!

Have a wonderful week-end,
Meagan and Leslie

Reading:  We worked on a non-fiction text about Beagles this week with our focus being "finding the main idea and supporting it with detail."  We then used this information to write a summary.  The kids struggled through identifying a "big idea" of the text and stating it as a sentence.  Many simply identified the topic of the text.  For example, they wrote "the main idea is beagles and how they act."  We practiced turning this into a statement like "Beagles are strong hunting dogs."   Ask your kids about what we highlighted to help us identify the main ideas (hint:  it was the first sentence of each paragraph!

Writing:  From last week, still applies!:  We are in the home stretch of their published pieces!  I'm starting to meet with kids for editing, and we'll print and publish as we go!  Most should be done by next week, with a few trickling into the following week.  As kids finish typing and peer revising, they have the opportunity to draft new ideas in their notebooks.  Ask your kids about the plot of the story they are about to publish.  Who are the characters?  What is the problem or action?  How does it get resolved?

4th Grade Math:   This week we reviewed Area and Perimeter as some of the students needed a little extra help with the concept.  We then moved on and learned two different multiplication methods to multiply double digits.  The students learned a new method called Partial Products (breaking the number apart slowly) and then we learned the Traditional Algorithm (the number on top, regrouping, that we are all familiar with).  We will continue practicing the Traditional Algorithm next week.  Ask your student if they can show you both methods!

Standard: 4.NBT.5 - Multiply a whole number of up to four digits by a one-digit whole number, and multiply two two-digit numbers, using strategies based on place value and the properties of operations. Illustrate and explain the calculation by using equations, rectangular arrays, and/or area models

Science:  We continued our Land & Water research projects. The kids have chosen a land or water form in the US from a list provided by us.  Using a graphic organizer and web and book sources, they researched their land and water form.  Then they will create and give a presentation to our class, explaining their research.  We're excited to see their work!  This project will be completed mostly in class over the next 5 weeks.  There is a link at the top of our blog to our project sources.  Feel free to "stop by" and take a look.  Ask your kids how much research they completed this week!

Social Studies: This week we continued to read Chapter 1 of our book and learn about basic geography information in the United States.  Our lesson this week focused on Land and Water which was an excellent tie in to our Science Unit.  The students were so excited to hear about Land and Water in Social Studies.  Next week we will finish our reading of Chapter 1 and will have a test on Friday.  We will prepare for it on Tuesday.  Ask your students if they remember what a water basin is? 

Today we had an interesting Current Events lesson from our 6 current events students. Ask your students if they learned anything new today.


Miscellaneous:

• Please send in field trip permission slips for Concordia!
• Please join us at the Whittier Family Math Game Night on November 20th from 5:30-7pm.  A sandwich dinner will be provided from 5:30-6.  At 6pm, families will move to the 2nd floor gym and explore a variety of hands on stations.  RSVP online at http://tinyurl.com/wh2014math
• There is an Early Childhood through Middle School Parent Night being offered on November 13th from 6:30-8.  
  WHAT: Common Behavior Strategies for home, school, and community
  WHEN: Thursday November 13th @ Whittier 6:30-8pm 
  MORE INFO: The night will start with a presentation by Michele Capio, District 97's Behavior Interventionist, discussing essential behavior management followed by break out sessions into age groups with District 97 social workers.