First Week of School Fall 2017

Our blog will be up and running in September!  We are looking forward to this school year!

Mrs. Cox & Mrs. Townsend

May 1

Dear Parents,

This week all students will take the end of year i-Ready diagnostic math and reading tests. The reading test will be on Monday. The math tests will be administered Wednesday and Thursday.  The purpose of the test is to determine math and reading academic growth from beginning of the year to end of the year. The math test will cover all math domains tested on the beginning of year test and mid-year test (Measurement and Data, Algebra and Algebraic Thinking, Numbers and Operations, Geometry).  Please help your child by encouraging him/her to do their best, focus during the test, get a good night’s rest, and eat a healthy breakfast.

Thank You!

Resources this week:
Cox:
Monday: art
Thursday: music
Kluge:
Monday: art
Thursday: pe
Friday: music

Our end of year IMAX field trip will be on Friday! Remember, lunches were included in the price so no lunch is needed.

April 17

Our MATH FSA assessments will take place this Wednesday and Thursday! We are looking forward to watching all of our students show what they know! The tests are computer based and will be 80 minutes each day.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Tuesday: art
Friday: music
Kluge:
Tuesday: art
Friday: pe

The IMAX field trip forms are due Thursday, April 27.

There will be no school Friday, April 28.

April 3

It's so hard to believe it is April already! We are so proud of our students and their hard work and determination as they completed the FSA reading assessment. Thank you parents for your continued support as they take their math FSA on April 18th and 19th. Test scores will not be available until late May.




Wednesday, April 5 is early release. It is the only early release in April.
No school on Friday, April 14 and Friday, April 28.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Tuesday: PE
Wednesday: art
Thursday: art and media... Please return all library books!
Kluge:
Monday: music
Wednesday: art and media... Please return all library books!
Thursday: art

ELA:  We finished Peter Pan last week! We compared the novel to the 1953 movie version and we were shocked at the many differences. We discussed similarities and differences during the movie. We also completed our Freaky Frog Trading Cards which were a result of researching two resources about one type of frog.

Our new unit will focus on the importance of clean freshwater around the world. Our central text will be One Well: The Story of Water on Earth written by Rochelle Strauss.

In unit one of our final module, we will continue to build geography and map-reading skills by studying where water is found on earth. We will write informational paragraphs to explain this. We will also examine the water cycle and watersheds and will compare how different texts present similar information about these two topics. This will be excellent preparation for fourth grade writing. 

This week, we will discover how all water on earth is connected and has been here since the beginning of time. The text will provide some surprising facts about water on earth as well. 

Some important new vocabulary will be found in the following sentence:

"All water on Earth is connected, so there is just one source of water -- one global well -- from which we all draw our water."

These words would be great to discuss at home this week!

In writing, we will start to learn about two types of writing prompts which will be a big part of fourth grade. The type of prompt determines how a writer organizes his/her piece.

Opinion prompt: "After reading the text, would you support having uniforms in school or not having uniforms in school? Give information from the text to support your opinion."

Informative prompt: "The text discusses the practice of recycling. Write an informative piece explaining how recycling is a positive thing for a community. Use evidence from the text to support your answer."

Our first assessment will be an on-demand paragraph answering the question, Where is Water on Earth? Students will explain using specific facts, definitions and details from the texts they have read in their informative paragraphs. They will use a familiar graphic organizer we have used all year.

TOPIC:

DETAIL:

     EXPLAIN:

DETAIL:

     EXPLAIN:

CONCLUSION:

Math: This week in math the students will continue to compare and classify polygons, quadrilaterals, and draw polygons with specified attributes to solve problems.  They will decompose quadrilaterals to understand perimeter as the boundary of a shape.  The students will explore perimeter as an attribute of plane figures and solve problems.  They will measure side lengths in whole number units to determine the perimeter of polygons. The students will determine the perimeter of regular polygons and rectangles when whole number measurements are missing.

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Example problem for missing measurement in perimeter problem:

Homework:                                                                     

Module 7 Lesson 6

Module 7 Lesson 10

Module 7  Lesson 12

Module 7 Lesson 13

Things to practice and review at home:

Practice identifying number patterns using multiplication, addition or subtraction strategies.

Continue to review  multiplication and division facts 2 to 10  

Practice solving two step word problems involving all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

Practice identifying equivalent fractions using number lines and/or fraction strip models.  

Science: We will continue describing structures in plants and their roles in food production, support, water and nutrient transport, and reproduction.  The students will learn how plants respond to heat, light and gravity.   

March 13

Friday, March 17 is a teacher planning day. Students will not have school. The following week of March 20 - March 24 is Spring Break.

School will resume on Monday, March 27. Our reading FSA test will take place on Tuesday, March 28 and 29. Students brought home an important letter from Mrs. Wright, our principal about FSA policies. It was on ivory copy paper. Please review it. 

A practice reading packet with FSA style passages and questions will be sent home this week. It is optional, but would be a great review and practice even if only part of it is completed.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Monday - art
Wednesday - music
Kluge:
Monday - art
Wednesday - pe
Thursday - music

Don't forget the spring book fair is next week. We will let you know as soon as possible when we will go as a class. The schedule has not been created yet.

March 6, 2017

Class picture day is Friday, March 10th! 
An envelope came home last week for those who would like to prepay for a class picture OR who would like an individual picture taken.

Wednesday, March 7 is Early Release.


Friday, March 17 is a teacher planning day. There will be no school that day or the following week of March 20 - 24 which is Spring Break.

Our Reading FSA will be Tuesday, March 28 and Wednesday, March 29. Students need to be at school on time so they can take the test will the class. More information will be coming home soon. We are currently reviewing the five types of reading FSA questions and taking a practice FSA provided by the Florida Department of Education.

Resources this week:

Cox: 

Tuesday: music

Wednesday: pe

Friday: pe

Kluge:

Monday: Jump Rope for Heart

Tuesday: pe

Thursday: music

Our spring book fair is the week of March 13-16th.

ELA: This week, we will compare and contrast two excerpts of our novel, Peter Pan with readers theater. Both the excerpt and the readers theater will tell the same part of Peter Pan. Students will learn how drama is organized and how to read this unique genre. They will discover how readers theater tells a story purely through dialogue. This is a great way to work on our fluency, too! 

We will also be reading two texts on the same topic and comparing the themes, plots, characters, and settings. 

On Wednesday, everyone took a spring reading Lexile levelset. I am so proud of the growth every single student has made since our first levelset in August. Students took it very seriously and we celebrated as we filled in our progress graphs. 

MATH:

The students will compare fractions with the same numerator using fraction strips, number lines, and symbols ( >, <, =).  They will continue developing an understanding that the numerator in a fraction does not necessarily determine the size of the fraction.  The students will explore methods for partitioning wholes into fractional units using number lines as a measurement tool. 

We will begin to discuss how data is collected, categorized and analyzed.  The students will   show data in tape diagrams where units are equal groups with a value greater than 1.  They will explore picture and bar graphs as vertical representations of tape diagrams and apply skip-counting and multiplication strategies to analyze data.

Homework:                                                                     

Module 5 28 & 29

Module 5 Lesson 30

Module 5 Review End of Module Study Guide (End of Module 5 Assessment Friday)

Module 6 Lesson 1 & 2

Things to practice and review at home:

Help your child develop an understanding of fractions as numbers by providing opportunities to discuss parts of whole at home.

Practice identifying number patterns using multiplication, addition or subtraction strategies.

Continue to review  multiplication and division facts 2 to 10  

Practice solving two step word problems involving all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

Please review our “Duval Math Parent Tips newsletter sent home at the beginning of each module for strategies and examples to help with solving homework problems.  

SCIENCE: This week in Science the students will begin to identify and describe the parts of plants and their roles.  They will learn how plant structures affect food production, support, water and nutrient transport and reproduction.  

February 13

Last week we sent home a list of names for our Valentine exchange on Tuesday. Students are welcome to bring a decorated box or bag for collecting their treats!

Next Monday, February 20 is President's Day. There will be no school.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Tuesday: art
Thursday: music
Kluge:
Tuesday: art
Thursday: pe
Friday: music

ELA: We will continue to read Peter Pan. We will look at the characters of Peter, Wendy, Tink, and the Lost Boys. We will think about their important actions and how they contribute to the story. Students will meet in discussion groups to debate about which character's actions affected the events in the story the most. They will need to defend their opinions with reasons. 

Our story vocabulary this week: 
shrill   excitedly   urge   sternly   pride   thundered   dazed   madly

We have also been learning about the three branches of our national government which incorporates reading and social studies. We will closely read an Achieve article (paper based) on this topic this week. 

Every day in our reading block, we work on individualized center activities based on standards on which each student needs extra work. We also continue to work on Achieve lessons at school. Thank you for support online reading work at home too!

MATH: This week in math the students will compare unit fractions with different sized models representing the whole.  They will specify the corresponding whole when presented with one equal part.  The students will begin to identify a shaded fractional part in different ways depending on the designation of the whole and place unit fractions on a number line with endpoints 0 and 1.  The students will begin to recognize and show that equivalent fractions refer to the same point on the number line.

Example of identifying a fractional part in different ways:

Examples of unit fractions on a number line:

Homework:                                                                     

Module 5 Lesson 12

Module 5 Lesson 13

Module 5 Lesson 15

Module 5 Lesson 16

Things to practice and review at home:

Help your child partition things at home into equal parts and comparing fractional parts of a whole.

Practice identifying number patterns using multiplication, addition or subtraction strategies.

Continue to review  multiplication and division facts 2 to 10  (We will be testing our facts weekly.)

Practice solving two step word word problems involving all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

Continue to practice rounding 

SCIENCE: The students will continue using their facts and information collected on their specific star to complete their star posters.