History & Geography

What a great first week back!  It is so great to be back in the classroom and see all these familiar smiling faces!  It is going to be a great year!  The first day we did some back to school activities and reviewed rules and procedures

Our weekly objectives in Geography were to:

-Find distance on a map using a scale.

– Use a legend to find places on a map.

– Determine direction on a map using a compass rose.

– Recognize that lines of latitude, or parallels, run horizontally on a globe from east to west without ever meeting.

-Recognize That lines of longitude, or Meridian, running vertically on a club meeting at the north and south poles.

 

Dear 3/4 Families, The 3/4 teachers are planning a field trip to Mount St. Helens on Tuesday, October 2. This will be an all day field trip and will require at least six chaperones/drivers. Please mark your calendars and consider joining us for this awesome adventure!  This field trip aligns nicely with our Social Studies unit on World Mountains and our Rocks unit in Science. More detailed information will be coming shortly. In the meantime, please find the chaperone sign up sheet outside the 3/4 classroom.  

 

Mathematics w/Laura

Welcome to Fourth Grade Math!

A few pieces of information about our class:  we will be working VERY hard this year, learning mathematics and having a good time, too!  Most work will be completed in class.  However, each Friday, a short homework packet will be sent home, due the next Friday. There will be math games, activities and projects … where appropriate!  Also, math puzzles will always be available … for extra credit!  Those are optional (but oh so fun ….)  Often:  (Math) Bingo on Fridays!

This week in Fourth Grade Math:

Working With Whole Numbers to 100,000

  •       Standard form, expanded form and word form
  •       Patterns and rules
  •       Place value
  •       Comparing numbers (using > and < symbols, and ordering numbers)

There will be an assessment on Friday, September 14th.

Remember:  MATH …. It’s everywhere!

La lectura

A group acting out a cause/effect from their story.

This week we started the new school year with our Riesgos y Consecuencias unit.  (Risks and Consequences)

Our weekly objectives were to:

  • listen to a story read aloud and discuss the elements of the story to show comprehension.
  • read a story: La señora Frisby y el cuervo
  • identify cause and effect in the story to help with comprehension
  • work with words spelled with /c/ and /s/

Students will receive a new reader next week.  They should plan to read in Spanish for 20 minutes each night.  They may practice in their reader but can also choose to read other things in Spanish.

Being good listeners to their classmates!

 

Specialists:

Music

I’m excited to be back for a second year teaching music at SWS!
September will be an engaging month full of hands-on rhythm learning and skill development. We will review concepts and skills covered last year, and build on them with activities involving the theoretical knowledge of beat counts, notation, and time signatures brought to life with group instrument playing, rhythmic spoken word, singing, and movement.

Character Education

It was great to be back with this class! We had fun discussing with we did this summer, and then we read the poem “Manners, for a child of 1918” by Elizabeth Bishop. Manners and kindness are our themes this month and we’ll do a few activities to practice what it means to have good manners (using people’s names, having a firm hand shake, using eye contact, and of course the basics like “please” and “thank you”).
Our quote is: No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. – Aesop
We also read the book The Golden Rule, and then got started on the novel we will read which is Wonder by R.J. Palacio. This is one of my favorite books and is a great book to launch discussions about acceptance and tolerance, anti-bullying, courage, friendship, and more.

Art

It was great seeing everyone back at school this week in Art! It’s fun to see how much everyone has grown over the summer! This week in Art the students made small self portraits, focusing on basic shapes in a face, and using mirrors to observe their own features such as eye shapes. These fun drawings are on the bulletin board at school.
For the rest of September, the students will focus on making line drawings of their backpacks, and we’ll also work on a fall landscape.
If you would like to help out in your child’s art class, there is a SIGN UP SHEET on the bulletin board to the left of the office. Thank you so much!