Third / Fourth Grade Week 35

by Sarah Segall | May 30, 2017 | In The Loop

Language Arts

This week the class had a very fun time with our spelling.  Yes, it was really fun!  They have been working on their dictionary skills by quickly looking up their weekly spelling words.  The fastest students received tickets for their efforts.  They were very motivated and their dictionary skills really improved!

Students also used their weekly spelling words to write white-board sentences.  They have really been focusing on their grammar concepts and this method allows them to peer-edit each other’s sentences.  They only received tickets for perfect sentences.  They are getting much better at spotting/preventing errors!

We also worked on our persuasive writing to meet these state standards:

• W.4.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• W.4.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 4.
• W.4.6 With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.

Ciencias

This week in science, we dedicated our time to work on our Science Biographies. Maestra Paola had a chance to sit down and conference with most students, provide feedback, edit pieces and work on final details. Students had a chance to work on their slides, posters and practice their presentations. Everybody did a fantastic job coming prepared to class, staying on track with our schedule and using their class time productively. All students seem to be ready for our presentations next week (Thursday 8th and Friday 9th).

Mathematics

Finding the perimeter of composite figures!

Finding the area of composite figures!

This week finished our chapter on Area and Perimeter. We worked with composite figures and using formulas for area and perimeter. Our objectives were:

• find the perimeter and area of a composite figure
• solve word problems involving estimating area of figures
• solve word problems involving area and perimeter of composite figures

We will have our Area and Perimeter test on Tuesday June 6th. Remind your kiddo that they can practice for the test on Khan!

History & Geography

Who knew debates could be so much fun?!

We broke up into groups and debated the way conservatives, moderates, and radicals did in the First Continental Congress!

Great job supporting your argument with events and facts!

This week continued learning about the American Revolution. With our extra Wednesday time we were able to finish quite a bit this week! We learned about the Boston Tea Party, the First Continental Congress, and the Second Continental Congress. Our objectives were:

• describe the colonists’ reactions to the Intolerable Acts
• identify the First Continental Congress and explain why it met
• understand the outcome of the First Continental Congress
• understand the events that occurred at Lexington and Concord
• identify Paul Revere and explain his role in the events
• define the term Minutemen and explain who they were
• understand the main events of the Second Continental Congress
• understand the course and outcome of the Battle of Bunker Hill
• understand the main arguments and effects of Common Sense
• understand and summarize the Declaration of Independence

We also began watching the musical !776 in class. This musical is the story is based on the events surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It dramatizes the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document.

Art

In early May the students finished their Mother’s Day art projects, and I know you’re enjoying these wonderful Folk Art Flowers. The students worked very hard on this multi-step, mixed media project: painting the wood panel, making their own painted papers to use for the vase and flower circles, cutting out flower shapes, decorating popsicle sticks with markers for the “table,” and adding hole-punch dots. Thank you to Ms. Marci for providing the wood panels from one of her artist friends!

The students also worked on a tissue paper still life this month. They cut out symmetrical bottle and vase shapes from colored tissue paper, and used these positive shapes, along with the negative shapes (shapes that were left around the bottle or vase) to create an interesting design. The students also used overlapping to create new colors from the transparent tissue paper. We enjoyed looking at all the different compositions and colors that evolved.

We also worked on a weaving project this month using a paper cup as the loom. These “Fuzzy Cups” were challenging but fun! The students created two or three different cup weavings using both thin and thick yarns, and they came up with a variety of patterns and designs for these pencil holders. Once they learned the technique, this weaving activity became a very relaxing activity to do before their end-of-year testing!

Tesselations: The students learned that a tessellation is a pattern of repeated shapes that fit together without any gaps or overlapping (such as tile floors, brick walls, certain quilt patterns, etc.) We looked at Regular Tessellation’s (squares, equilateral triangles, and hexagons) and also the amazing artistic tessellation’s of the artist M.C. Escher. Then the students created their own tessellation pattern using a 3×3 index card: they cut out shapes and taped them back on the opposite side to create a fish shape. The students traced the pattern repeatedly to fill their paper. Then they added fun features and colors to their fish. Designing different tesselations would be a fun, economical, and creative summer activity for these students!

Third / Fourth News Week 34

by Sarah Segall | May 28, 2017 | In The Loop

Language Arts

We read a fantastic non-fiction piece about the infrasonic sounds made by whales and how it was discovered that elephants also make these sounds to communicate. Our learning objectives this week were to:

Ciencias

This week students applied their knowledge of circuity and electromagnetism to build a telegraph. We talked about the about the historical background of the telegraph and students had fun sending messages in Morse code. In meeting the challenge, students had to work collaborative to have the circuit design and long distance procedural signals.

History & Geography

History Reade’s Theatre about Benjamin Franklin’s testimony

This week we studied The Stamp Act Crisis, Parliment’s Mistakes, and A Change in Colonist Thinking. Our objectives were:

• understand the Stamp Act
• explain how the colonists organized themselves to protest the Stamp Act
• understand the further actions of Parliament and the colonial responses to these actions
• explain what happened at the Boston Massacre by creating giant Newspapers
• Identify Sam Adams and explain his role in forming the Committees of Correspondence
• describe the colonists’ attitude toward Britain after the Boston Massacre
• explain how the Committees of Correspondence formed and what their purpose was

Mathematics

This week we continued our studies of rectangles and squares. Our objectives were:

• find the area of a rectangle by counting grid squares
• estimate the area of a figure by counting grid squares
• find the area of a rectangle using a formula
• solve problems involving the area and perimeter of squares and rectangles

Character Education

Thank you so much for supporting our Buy a Goat Bake Sale! We were able to raise $409!!! Next week in Character Ed the kids will vote on what other animals to buy through Heifer International.  The 3/4 kids did a fantastic job and I am so proud of them.

First Second News Week 34

by Sarah Segall | May 28, 2017 | In The Loop

Spanish Language Arts

Looking for sequencing words in this week’s story!

Great job working together!

Looks like we found lots of sequencing words!

This week we read Huellas de monstruos. Our objectives were:

• develop an understanding of spelling patterns for words with consonant blends
• learn that analogies show relationships between pairs of words
• continue working on writing descriptive paragraphs
• understand effective use of adverbs by making adverb rainbows
• use the comprehension strategies making connections and summarizing during our 1st read
• apply the comprehension skill of sequence during our second read

Although we did take our lesson test this week we did not take our spelling test. We will take our spelling test Tuesday, May 30th.

Next Spelling test on  Tuesday June 6th:

1. palabras (words)
2. descubrió (discovered)
3. probablemente (probably)
4. bloque (block)
5. glorioso (glorious)
6. grosor (thickness)
7. gris (gray)
8. flota (fleet)
9. flaco (thin)
10. fraterno (fraternal)

English Social Studies and Science

Social studies with Ms. Marci
This week we began our new unit on Frontier Explorers.  This week we read about the life of Daniel Boone and how he was a trailblazer and Explorer of the land west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Our objectives were to
•  locate the Appalachian Mountains on a map
•  recall basic facts about Daniel Boone
•  understand that Daniel Boone was a trailblazer
•  understand what the phrase Wilderness Road refers to
•  add key events in  Daniel Boone’s life to our Birth of a Nation timeline

Ms. Laura’s H&G group:

We continued our study of immigration and citizenship by learning about Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  We learned about what life was really like for many immigrants who came to America.  We wrote letter to friends and family in our ‘homelands’ describing our journey to and our life in America.  PROJECT ALERT:  The students will gather information about an immigrant.  This might be a family member, a friend or someone famous.  The students have suggested questions to answer.  They are encourage to be creative, to learn some things and to have fun!  At least one page (handwritten or typed) will be turned in and an oral report (of no more than five minutes) will be presented on Thursday, June 1^st.  Students may dress up, may bring ‘stuff’ that is relevant and are invited to bring some food to share.  We have talked about this project in class and they know what they need to do!  Thanks for your help!

Science

This week we continued our science domain on Simple Machines.  We learned more about levers and wheels, axels, and gears. We watch too short films about wheel and axles and had fun doing some experiments with levers and gears.

Our objectives this week were to:

•  identify that a wheel and axle is a simple machine that help the supply more force or lift a heavy load with less effort
•  record what happens when a wheel and axle is used to move an object
•  understand that a gear is a wheel with ridges or teeth that connects and turns another gear
•  identify the direction that gears turn

Spelling:

Spelling:
We took our spelling test on Friday.  Our activity this week was student’s choice. These were due on Friday.
For handwriting we practiced the letter z and we reviewed all lower case letters

Idiom for the week: “The she has cold feet”

Thank you to everyone who were able to attend our first SWS Pride Night. The turnout was terrific and the students felt very proud to share all their hard work from this year. Hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. See you on Tuesday!

Math

Starting our new chapter with playing with shapes!

This week we began and finished working with Lines and Surfaces we also began working with Shapes and Patterns. Our objectives were:

We found some flat and curved surfaces!

• recognize, identify, and describe parts of lines and curves
• draw parts of lines and curves
• identify, classify, and count flat and curved surfaces
• identify solids that can stack, slide, and/or roll

Students felt so confident about our Lines and Surfaces chapter that they asked to take the test early and all did a fantastic job!

This week in the orange group, with Maestra Sarah, we flew through out adding to 1,000’s unit.  Our objectives were to:

• add 3- and 4-digit numbers without regrouping
• add with regrouping in the one’s place
• add with regrouping in the ten’s place
• add with regrouping in the one’s and ten’s place
• CHALLENGE: find the missing addend!  This was great as it highlighted the process of always staring with the one’s place.
• begin our subtraction unit with regrouping all the way through the thousand’s!  (They demonstrated mastery of this during our prior knowledge check!!!)

This group received a few pages to practice over the long weekend.  Please have them return this on Tuesday.

Character Education

Thank you so much for supporting our Buy a Goat Bake Sale! We were able to raise $409!!! Next week in Character Ed the kids will vote on what other animals to buy through Heifer International.

Kindergarten Week 34

by Sarah Segall | May 27, 2017 | In The Loop

Spanish Literacy

One of our favorite literacy routines: Pasa el libro!! Ask your child to tell you all about it!

As we start wrapping up our unit En equipo, we realized that we have been applying all of these concepts and will continue to, throughout the end of the school year, and beyond. We have discovered what a great equipo/comunidad SWS is! Our collaborative culminating activity for this unit is a play and a lap book.  This week we continued with our literacy routines (phonemic awareness, Spanish language conventions, letter recognition and print awareness, etc…) Our story of the week was La gallinita roja. The comprehension strategies and skills we focused on were predicting, making connections and sequencing. We discussed the literary elements of the story and learned the play format. We practiced performing in front of the class. We will continue to work on this project next week. On Friday, students took their scrips home to practice over the weekend. All students were assigned a role in the play that will be presented next Friday in front of an audience. Please make sure your child brings the scrip back to school next week so we can polish all the details! Also, stay tuned to know more about simple costumes students can wear the day of the play!

Pride Night fun!

Spanish Math

This week in math, we spent time going back and reviewing concepts seen during the year.  We are making sure all the content is covered and that here are no gaps left. I am very happy to inform you all that our Kindergartners have a very solid understanding of math concepts and in some areas, they exceed grade level expectations! I am so proud of them!

The focus in math this week was on number facts and addition stories. Students are getting very fluent with their addition facts to ten. Some of the objectives included:

• Show understanding of the concept of addition (joining two sets)
• Understand symbols +, =, and the word equation
• Use symbols and numerals to write number sentences
• Represent addition stories with addition sentences(equations)
• Practice vertical addition
• Work towards reaching fluency with addition number facts

English Social Studies

This week we continued our unit on Kings and Queens.  We read the song “Sing a Song of Sixpence”, and also read  two versions of Cinderella. We had a royal time on Friday with our King and Queen for a Day activities. The students worked on making a new class book which included all of their Royal decrees.
Our objectives were to:
•  understand that Kings usually possess gold and other Treasures
•  describe the behaviors that reinforce that kings and queens are royal
•  recite “Sing a Song of Sixpence”
•  describe the characters, settings, and plots in the stories
•  discuss the lesson in Cinderella that goodness prevails and is rewarded

Our new sorts this week were the “ig”, “ip”, and “ill” word famillies.  On Monday the class took an assessment on word family recognition  everyone did very well . Our poem for the week was sing a song of sixpence, and we were introduced to two songs about the Earth.

English Science

This  week we continued our  science domain on Taking Care of the Earth.   we read the book recycle by Gail Gibbons and we discussed pollution.
Our objectives were to:
•  recognize different pieces of garbage as either recyclable, reusable, compostable , or throw away
•  understand that land, air, and water all suffer from different types of pollution, and all types of pollution are caused by human activities
•  understand people are careful and creative they can help reduce pollution

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend  our first SWS Pride Night . The turnout was terrific and I know the students were very proud to show all of their hard work  from this year . I hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. We will see you on Tuesday !

Character Education

Thank you so much for supporting our Buy a Goat Bake Sale! We were able to raise $409!!! Next week in Character Ed the kids will vote on what other animals to buy through Heifer International.  The 3/4 kids did a fantastic job and I am so proud of them.

First Second News Week 33

by Sarah Segall | May 21, 2017 | In The Loop

English Social Studies and Science

Social studies with Ms. Marci

This week we finished our unit on the Birth of Our Nation.  On Tuesday we watched a fictional film about Benjamin Franklin and compared it to the facts that we know about him. We also read about signs and symbols that represent the United States of America. We went for a walk around the school looking for signs and symbols. On Thursday before the field trip we took the unit assessment.
Our objectives were to:
•  identify the U.S. flag, Liberty Bell, and the bald eagle
•  indicate where you might find some of these symbols
•  explain the significance of the flag, the Liberty Bell, and the bald eagle as the U.S.

symbols
•  review images, timelines, and key information that we have learned throughout this unit

Ms. Laura’s H&G group:

We began our first class of the week with Kate sharing a family document:  a diary written by a relative who was a Union soldier.  This was amazing!  We started our next unit on Immigration and Citizenship and talked about reasons people immigrated to the United States in the 1800’s and 1900’s.  We drew posters ‘advertising’ the great aspects of life in America.  During this unit, students will be asked to research a family relative who immigrated to the United States. We are starting our list of questions.  On Thursday, May 18^th, we had our field trip to the Vancouver Train Depot and the Clark County Historical Museum.  We had lunch at Esther Short Park and enjoyed the sunshine and each other!

Thank you to everyone who was able to be a driver for our field trips.  The class had a great time and we were so happy the sun was able to join us too!  Fort Vancouver was a great wrap up to our Birth of a Nation unit and intro to our Westward Expansion unit in Social Studies and the trip to the Clark County historical museum and train station went well with the Civil War and Railroad units in Mrs. Laura’s class.

         Indian Trading Store

Science

This week we continued our science domain on Simple Machines.  We learned more about levers and began reading about wheels, axles, and gears. We also were fascinated to watch the butterflies emerge from their chrysalis.

                                Fur trade

      Exploring levers

Our objectives this week were to:
•  develop an understanding of how simple machines make work easier and how they are applied and combined in familiar tools and machines
•  label the parts of a lever
•  explain how a the weight are abd force arm of a lever can effect the work to be done.
•  develop an understanding of disease associated with energy, movement, and change
•  identify that a wheel and axle is a simple machine that help the supply more force or lift a heavy load with less effort
•  record what happens when a wheel and axle is used to move an object
•  understand that a gear is a wheel with ridges or teeth that connects and turns another gear

Spelling:

We took our spelling test on Friday.  Our activity this week was to write our words three times in in header groupings. These were due on Friday.
For handwriting we practiced the letter x and y.
Idiom for the week: “The cat’s got her tongue”

Math

Our objectives were:

This week in the orange group, with Maestra Sarah, we continued our place value unit.  Our objects were to:

• use base-ten blocks to compare numbers
• compare numbers using the terms greater than (mayor que) and less than (menor que)
• compare numbers using symbols > and <.
• order three-digit numbers.
• identify the greatest number an the least number.
• identify number patterns.

Kindergarten Week 33

by Sarah Segall | May 20, 2017 | In The Loop

Spanish Literacy and Math

This week had so many opportunities to experience what “en equipo” looks and feels like! We had another wonderful field trip and, at the end of the week, we had our kindergarten group picture. We have also selected our favorite songs to sing at the end of the year performance. We cannot wait to see our strong community in action next week.  Our baked goods sale will rise money to make a difference in this world!

We had limited classroom time, however, we managed to get our literacy and math routines done:

• Phoneme replacement
• Segmentation: identifying and counting phonemes
• Print and book awarenes
• Rhyming words
• Pronouns Yo – Tu – Nosotros
• Apply writing conventions when writing their personal narratives.
• Demonstrate “good readers” practices
• Non-fiction text focus: comparing and contrasting ( Hola, oruguita)

• Review numbers facts: combining sets, counting on (Money).

• Classifying and sorting: classifying and sorting by two attributes (color, size, shape, pattern, special feature)

• Review Patterns unit

It was so great to see the butterflies emerge! Gracias Miss Marci!

Students took home a new reader this week, La niña y el Ñu. I could not be more proud of their reading progress! Please have them read their book to you with fluency and expression.

English Social Studies

This week we continued our unit on Kings and Queens.  We finished our lesson on the story ‘King Midas and the Golden Touch’ and read the rhyme “Old King Cole”.

    The ‘Golden Touch’

Our objectives were to:
•  understand that Kings usually possess gold and other treasures
•  discuss the difference between valuing relationships with people and valuing wealth
•  describe the behaviors that reinforce that kings and queens are royal
•  recite “Old King Cole”

Our new sorts this week were the “ug” “un” and “up” family words.
For handwriting we worked on the letters T,t and U,u.  In our journals we wrote about a wish for the planet Earth. Our poem for the week was “Old King Cole”.

Thank you to everyone who was able to be a driver for our field trip.  The class had a great time and we were so happy the sun was able to join us too!  Fort Vancouver was a great wrap up to our tradespeople unit in Social Studies.

Indian Trading Store

English Science

Science
This  week we continued our  science domain on Taking Care of the Earth.   We read about composting and did some composting of our leftover daily snacks. We also read the poem ‘Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out’ by Shel Silverstein.
Our objectives were to:
•  understand that composting is a type of recycling in which discarded food scraps decay in an outdoor pile or bin and eventually become garden soil
•  sequence what happens to a piece of discarded food from table to compost pile to garden
•  identify foods that can be composted
•  understand that humans generate large amounts of garbage, which must be disposed of
•  identify garbage as being a problem and the various means of garbage disposal in terms of a solution

A visit from the 1/2 class Butterflies

Third Fourth Grade Week 33

by Sarah Segall | May 20, 2017 | In The Loop

Language Arts

This week we read a great story in our new Communication unit.  The students had a great time using their spelling words in a quick, white-board sentence activity.  They were able to do peer editing and improve on they own sentences.

We worked on a special project for Pride Night in which the students reviewed the following concepts:

• acrostics, listing character traits
• scenery description using the five senses
• chronological time line of story events
• conflict / problem identification
• investigation of the author using technology
• Venn diagram to compare and contrast their story with their own life
• symbolism
• theme
• quotes
• critique of their story.

Science

Last week students worked on building series and parallel circuits. We concluded the week with these big ideas: A circuit with only one pathway for current flow is a series circuit. The components in a series circuit also “share” the electric energy. A parallel circuit, on the other hand, splits into two or more pathways before coming back together at the battery. The components in a parallel circuit each have a direct pathway to the energy source.

This week we moved into Investigation 4, Electromagnetism. Students discovered that, when the current flows through an insulated wire wound around a steel core, the steel core becomes a magnet. They found out where they needed to wind the wire on the core to produce the strongest magnet. We had a fun little contest: Which group could pick up the most amount of washers using the electromagnets they built!

Dear parents, last week I sent home a rubric that explains the requirements for the science end of the year biography project. Together we created a calendar that will allow students significant time to get their project done both, at home and at school. The biography project runs along the same lines as the biography project done in literacy with maestra Sarah (with just a few minor adjustments). We set the dates June 8th and 9th to turn in their written biography and do presentations. Do not hesitate to contact me, should you have any questions.

Math

This week we tested out of Chapter 11: Square and Rectangles. Students showed understanding and mastery of the chapter so we will not spend class time on it. The workbook pages were sent home as reinforcement of this chapter but do not need to be turned in (they will still count for extra tickets if finished!). So instead moved on to Chapter 12: Area and Perimeter. Our objectives were:

• show mastery of identifying square and rectangles based on their properties and find unknown angle measures and side lengths of figures to test out of Ch.11
• find the area of a rectangle by counting grid squares
• estimate the area of rectangles using a formula

History & Geography

This week continued with our study of the American Revolution. Our objectives were:

• understand the implications of the war’s outcome for Britain and the American colonies
• understand the colonial policies Britain made as a result of the French and Indian War, including the Proclamation of 1763
• understand the effects of these policies on the American colonies
• understand the Stamp Act
• explain how the colonists organized themselves to protest the Stamp Act

Third Fourth Grade Week 32

by Sarah Segall | May 13, 2017 | In The Loop

Language Arts

This week we completed our Mother’s Day book project and then helped celebrate our wonderful mothers with yoga.

Besides celebrating our mothers we also worked on identifying the mood or tone of stories. The students had fun with this as they identified the mood from some of their journal entries. We also continued working with homophones and personification.

The 3rd/4th graders did a fantastic job reading to and listening to the kindergarteners on Friday. They also helped the kindergarteners with a writing project.  This was a great way for them to think about their handwriting skills, spelling, and grammar (as they were mentoring the kinders). They were quite impressed with the handwriting skills of the kinders!

The students did not receive their new spelling list on Friday.  They will receive it on Monday.

English Language Arts

Students turned in Book Buffet Book Reports this Friday. On Monday May 15th we will be having our Book Buffet from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Please stop by the Art Room to enjoy some delicious books!

Math

Playing our favorite math review game: Trashketball!

Getting ready for the lightening round!

Enjoying the weather and learning about horizontal and vertical lines!

How many horizontal lines are on the playground?

This week we finished our unit on Parallel and Perpendicular line segments. Our objectives were:

• draw parallel line segments
• identify horizontal and vertical lines
• review entire chapter by playing Trasketball
• demonstrate knowledge and ability to draw parallel and perpendicular line segments on the chapter test

Students did a great job with their test on Friday! We went over the test and some students brought home test corrections that they did not finish in class, they are due on Monday May 15 and then we will begin our next chapter Squares and Rectangles!

History and Geography

Amazing morning work art!

Lily joined us or some history on the French and Indian War!

This week we continued learning about the American Revolution. Our objectives were:

• compare and contrast the life of a child of a slave with a child of a free person
• identify Parliament and explain its powers
• list and describe the most important rights of British citizens
• explain the reasons for the conflict between the French and the British
• identify George Washington and describe his role in the conflict
• describe the course of the conflict in the Ohio River valley
• understand the events of the French and Indian War

We have continued to add activities to our bulletin board and it is filling up fast! Take a look at all the awesome work your kiddos have done so far!