Colour Day - Friday!

They announced this morning that Friday will be colour's day. No, 4A, I did not spell "colour" wrong. This is how we spell it in Canada! :)

Students may wear their Honduras shirts for 5 Lps.

Show your Honduran pride and support the team for the big game on Saturday!

Gadgets Added!

In an attempt to make our blog more exciting and interactive for parents and students, we have added a few gadgets to the right side of our blog!

If you look there, you will see a recent poll, links to many math websites, a quote of the day, a countdown to Halloween and an analog clock!

Please check the blog daily for updates, changes, and new things added to the blog!

Reminder: Time Test & Math Practice

This Thursday we will still be having our regular time test. Last week many students did MUCH better because they practiced all week. Please keep up this practice and don't wait until Wednesday night to do it! This week will be 3s and 4s.

There are the websites I posted last week including games and a site where parents can print off practice time tests for the students. The practice time tests on this site are 60 questions, so students should try to complete it in 2 minutes.

Start Studying!

Also, students are struggling slightly with the new concept of time. Please use to websites below for extra help:

Telling Time:
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/BangOnTime/clockwordres.html

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/StopTheClock/sthec4.html

http://www.primarygames.com/time/start.htm#

http://www.mathsyear2000.org/magnet/minus3/trains/index.html

http://www.time-for-time.com/game3.htm

http://www.fi.edu/time/Journey/JustInTime/telltime4.htm

http://www.bornthinker.com/ctemplate.php?body=smiley_clock&t=e

Elapsed Time:
http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/math/elapsed_time/quiz829.html

http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/math/time_word_problem/quiz704.html

Week of October 5-9

Math:
We are starting a new unit this week: TIME!
Today we introduced the concept of time - reading both analog and digital clocks. I was slightly surprised by how much difficulty students seemed to have with this. There are always at least 2 different ways to read a clock. For example: if the clock reads 4:15, this can be read as "four-fifteen" or as "15 minutes after 4" or "quarter after 4". This is something you can practice at home! Ask your child/tell your parent what time you are sitting down to dinner. Then think of an alternate way to say it.
Remember:

• 15 minutes is referred to as "quarter after"
• 30 minutes is referred to as "half past"
• 45 minutes is referred to as "quarter to"
• numbers on the first half of the clock are "after" (28 minutes after 4)
• number on the second half of the clock are "to" (10 minutes to 5)

Wednesday and Thursday we'll be discussing Elapsed Time. This tends to be a difficult concept as well. For example: "Ms. Willett goes to school at 7:15am. She leaves school at 3:00pm. How long is Ms. Willett at school for each day?"
Please go through examples like these at home as well. This will help students greatly if they are getting extra support at home. A great activity is a game called "Are We There Yet": give them two times of a potential car trip and have them tell you how long it takes. Even practice driving from your home to school. What time did you leave? What time did you arrive? How many minutes does it take you to get to school? How many minutes to your Aunt's house? The grocery store? The mall?

Science:
In Science we will continue with the water unit. We will be covering our last "formal" lesson: Usable Water, then will be doing fun activities about water pollution and conservation (which will also be on the test). Thursday we will be reviewing ALL of the Water Unit and then Friday students will be tested on all of the lessons thus far: The Amazing Molecule, Water Cycle, Water Clings, Mixing With Water, Usable Water, and Water Pollution/Conservation.

Literacy:

Book Report:

Children should be reading a new book for the next book report. It will be due Oct. 29th. Read, read, read at home every day!

Read Aloud:

We will read a nonfiction text: “Teammates”, by Peter Golenbock. We will focus on multiple problems and solutions, and cause and effect.
We will also read "Weslandia", by Paul Fleischman, to focus on Analyzing Character and Setting and Identifying the Main Idea and Supporting Details.
Read Aloud for fun! “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing”, by Judy Blume.

Shared Reading:

We will be reading a poem, Oath to Friendship, anonymous, China, 1st century B.C., to focus on the characteristics of poetry and elements of exaggeration in poetry.
We will also read an excerpt from Weslandia, we will focus on Character Analysis and Context Clues.

Interactive Writing:
Teammates:
We will make a flow a chart to write what caused each one of the story’s character to act the way they did, and then follow each cause to its final effect.
Synonyms and antonyms: We will be discussing the meaning of the following words: extraordinary, launched, opponents, prejudice, segregation, teammate, apathetic, hostility, taunts, and audible, and coming up with synonyms and antonyms for all of them.
Weslandia:
Web chart for a character analysis.
Main idea and supporting detail chart.

Independent Writing:
Teammates: Student will use the cause and effect flow chart to write an opinion paragraph telling which of the three character’s actions and behavior they think was the most significant.
Weslandia: Students will write an opinion paragraph telling what they liked and disliked about Walter’s civilization, and why?


Students will also participate in Guided Reading groups and Centers.

Book Report Announcement!

Our book report is due Monday, Oct. 5th. If you haven't finished your book, don't forget to read over the weekend!

Attention Please: New Behavior Rewards !!!

Individual: Students who don't flip their cards during the day will receive an orange stamp on their assignment book. The purpose of this is to notify parents of their chld's good behavior at school. Please praise them or reward them at home for this accomplishment. This will be done on a daily basis.

Class reward: If 6 or less people flip their cards in one day, the class will earn 5 free minutes to play board games on Friday. They can earn a total of 25 minutes a week.

We will continue to send positive notes home on Fridays for those students who do not flip their card the entire week. Awards will be given when a student has earned 4 positive notes.

Science Experiment for Homework - Oct. 1

Yesterday in Science we went to the lab and did an experiment with water and an egg to see if it would float or sink.

Today we applied that experiment to a lesson called "Sink or Float" that discussed density of objects and why things float. It also talked about regular molecules versus water molecules and what happens when water freezes. Please complete this small experiment at home tonight:

1. Fill a plastic cup or waterbotttle (preferably see-through) half full with water.
2. Mark a line on the side of the cup to show where the top of the water is
3. Place the cup in the freezer until the water is frozen.
4. Where is the top of the frozen water now? Below the original line? Above the original line? The same as the original line?