Ms. Feller's Fabulous Fourth Grade

     The first quarter has flown by and we are well into the routine of fourth grade.  I am looking forward to seeing parents at our conferences at the end of the month.  The times were sent home and the sooner I get them back, the sooner I can confirm the schedule.

     We have just started a reading and social studies unit with a great book, A Horse’s Tale.  We’ll be learning a lot about Washington’s first 100 years and practicing our reading strategies and comprehension skills.  

     We’re continuing to learn different ways to improve our writing, including leads and endings.  We’re learning to use good word choice through precise nouns and verbs.  We’ve learned about complex and compound sentences, and are trying to use a variety of sentence kinds and types in our writing.

     We finished our unit on electricity in science and now we’re focusing on observation skills, classifying, and the use of charts and graphs to display data. 

     In math, we are working on quadrilaterals.  We’ve learned about lines, line segments, and rays as well as what  parallel and perpendicular means.  Students are learning to classify quadrilaterals based on those characteristics, and we are finding the area and perimeter of rectangles and parallelograms.

     In the area of classroom community and behavior, we had our first marble party and are on our way to earning another. 

     We’ll talk specifics at our conference, but as always, call if you have questions.

Happy summer to you all!  I was sorry to miss the last day of school, but I am doing much better and getting back to normal.  Ms. Morrison brought me your end of year gifts and cards.  A couple of things got mixed up so I’m not sure who to thank for the lavendar candle, or the kitty socks and dish garden.  We all did a great job this year being in the portable and dealing with all the construction.  Just think, you’re fifth graders now!  I’ll look for you in the halls next year.  Have a great summer!

Portable 5 is diving into poetry this month.  We’re reading lots of different types of poetry and writing our own.  We’re making a slight change in the May assignment.  Instead of memorizing a poem, we’re going to share at least 2 poems from our book by reading them aloud.  A real poetry reading!  Later, we’ll do the same with our own poetry by creating a poetry story that we’ll burn to a CD as a keepsake.  So, moms and dads, we’re still making that poster, but we’ll be reading rather than memorizing the poems this month.  Sometimes, we just have to make changes based on our needs.

You may also have noticed that I’ve been able to get out those weekly reports again.  With Mrs. Barbour being here everyday for an hour, I’ve been able to get more done during the day so I can work on those after school, so look for them for at least the next 3 weeks.

Finally, you’ll notice that homework has changed.  The standing assignment is to finish any incomplete work for the day as well as practice math facts.  We’re trying to learn to be responsible about planning and pacing ourselves and this is a great way as the year winds down, and sports start up to do that.  There is an occasional specific assignment, but generally, it’s work that needs to be finished.  I’ll be starting a super reward for those who do it, so encourage your child to get it done!

It’s already that time of year, that time when we do the state assessment in fourth grade.  Next week, as well as the following Tuesday, is the time for us to take the MSP, or Measurement of Student Progress given to all fourth grade students in the state.  It is very important that students arrive on time, ready to work.  Healthful breakfast, good night’s sleep, and readiness to work are the key ingredients for success.  Students have been working hard and learning since Kindergarten, and this test will reflect that learning.  Please don’t plan any family vacations, or doctor’s appointments during this time if at all possible.  Make-ups will be difficult, and it’s important that everyone take the test and do their best.  Here’s our schedule:  1) Tuesday, May 3    Reading  2)  Wednesday,  May 4     Writing  I    3) Thursday,  May 5    Math   4)  Tuesday,  May 10 Writing II

The test is not timed, so it’s hard to predict when individual students will finish each day.   We will have stretching breaks, and in the case of longer writing tests, bathroom breaks, but students cannot enter the room once the test has begun, so it is very important that they be here on time each day. 

We will chew gum during the test to help relieve stress, but please emphasize with your child that all you want is for him/her to do their best, and that they have worked hard all year so you know they will do a good job.  After the first day, they usually come home feeling better, and since they took the third grade MSP last year, things should go fairly smoothly. 

Please let me know if you have any questions about the test.  Results usually come to us in the fall, and you will recieve a print-out of the results sometime after school starts.

We are a lean, not too mean, learning machine in Portable 5.    We are conquering 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication, creating power point presentations that show the scientific method, doing beautiful art projects, and improving our writing daily.  (Just to name a few of the things we’ve been doing.) 

As we finish multiplication, we are heading into division.  We will continue to work on problem solving and making math connections to real life.  Kids are getting great at restating the learning targets, and evaluating themselves so they know if they hit the target or not. 

In reading, we have added more strategies to our non-fiction comprehension bag of tricks, and are discovering that most strategies can be used for any reading we do- directions, math, reading for fun, etc.

We’ve finished our “Land and Water” unit in science, but are having a great time coming up with testable questions and creating investigations to test them.  We grew some interesting looking material after swabbing the office counter and you can view a power point right here by clicking on the title of the presentation.  Addison What’s Growing Keep watching and we’ll put more up for you to see. 

As we move into spring, there are a few “needs” that we have.  We’re just about out of hand sanitizer.  We need disinfectant wipes right away, and in a few weeks, we’ll need kleenex.  If you can send any of these in, we’d appreciate it.

Thank you for your continued support of your child and me.  As always, if you have questions, e-mail or call.

Happy New Year!  We are back and ready to go.  One snow day in the middle of the week didn’t stop us.  We had a great time with the Pacific Science Center Science Van on Friday the 14th.  We learned about engineering and built a bridge.  Our own science unt ths month is Land and Water.  We’ll be using the scientific method to come up with testable questions and then do investigations to see if our predictions are correct.  We’ll learn to measure and collect data and then present it in graph or table form.  We’ll learn to write summaries and conclusions.  It will be great fun and we’ll learn a lot that will help us to do well on the science test in fifth grade.

In writing, we’re working on a fiction unit right now.  We’ll learn about writing in the first, second, and third person, as well as using good leads and endings.  We’ll focus on some aspects of conventions as well as continue working on spelling using Month by Month Phonics.

In reading we will be doing a unit usint the book Chasing Vermeer.  It’s a great chapter book that will allow us to use all of our comprehension strategies and make connections to self, the world, and other text.  We’ll also continue working with the Comprehsion Tool Kit for non-fiction.

We’re finishing up “Washington Becomes a State”, and just about ready to begin chapter six in Washington Adventure.  Since we’ll be spending more time on science in class over the next few weeks, the contract items will be primarily an at home project due at the end of February.

We have some great activites planned in art this month as well, beginning with a water color lesson presented by Ms. Morrison.  This is going to be a busy month!

Wow!  It’s already December and we’ve missed our first snow days.  Dispite the disruptions, Portable 5 is working hard and doing well.  I’ll be contacting parents this week to make up our missed conferences, and hope to have them finished by December 10.

We have alot to accomplish over the next two weeks.  In math we have begun unit 3:  Place Value and Multiple-Digit Addition and Subtraction.  We are defining and learning about change, combination, and comparison problems.  In fourth grade, we’ll learn place value to the millions place.  We are also learning to use the 5-Box approach to problem solving where we identify and restate the question, what we know, and then explain how we solved the problem.  These are tricky at first, but very helpful in the long run for solving story problems. 

In reading, we are integrating with social studies and reading a wonderful book, A Horse’s Tale. It tells about the first 100 years of Washington State history from the perspective of a wooden horse.  We have activites that we do with each chapter and you can find them on this site as well as in students’ content area folders.  The contract items for chapter 4 of WA Adventure is due before we leave for break, but by now, students should have 5 completed.  We have worked on them in class and they have been homework most nights.

As always, we do lots of writing integrated with other subjects.  We also do mini lessons from Ralph Fletcher, and students are doing well with those. 

Everyone keep warm, and as always, contact me with questions. 

You should be getting a scheduling form for conferences on Thursday, October 28.  I added a line at the bottom for anyone who may be able to come in during the two weeks before the scheduled conference times.  Please just check that space if your fourth grader is your only child, or you don’t care about scheduling with another student here at Cherry Valley and can come in some day during those two weeks.  I’d like to spread out the conferences a little so we can use our time to the best advantage.  Just send the form back as soon as you can and I’ll let you know the schedule as soon as I can.  Thank you in advance.

This week we will be working on our final project for our unit on Electrical Circuits.  Each of our six groups will be “wiring” a house.  So, we need some small boxes that we can turn into rooms for our houses.  Shoe boxes would work,  and anything with the deminsions of 12  to  15 inches would be just about  perfect.  But send in what you can and we’ll see if we can  make them work.  Thank you in advance.

I hear via the grapevine that there have been questions about homework and how to do some of the math problems.  First of all, please feel free to right a note on the homework and I’ll try to answer it for you that way.  I know that isn’t as satisfying as being able to ask right at the moment, but it should help.  A second solution is to post it as a problem for our class meeting next week.  The students themselves will come up with a solution to the problem and we’ll share that with you.  We’ll include a discussion as to why it’s a problem in the first place, and probably decide that we need to listen better in class, ask me for more practice, bring home our math notebooks so parents can see what the lesson was about, and other ideas that will put the responsibiltiy on the learner rather than on you parents. 

We don’t have a textbook for math; it’s a workbook, and it does not leave the classroom.  I’ve been having students keep the  graded papers for two weeks and then use them to evaluate where they are and list strengths and areas to improve.  But what I’ll do is start sending those pages home as we finish them so you can see what we did in class that day and perhaps give you a better idea for what the homework is about. 

On another note, I used part of my time on Friday to subscribe you all to this blog.  You should get an e-mail to let you know when there is a new post.  I will be putting a monthly newsletter here, so it will help you keep up with what we’re doing.

We had a great time with the Cheetah Walk and the class earned a pizza party.  We discovered what can happen when we all work together.  Since we just earned our first marble party, we are quite pleased with ourselves.

I in turn, am very pleased with the growth and improvement I’m seeing in study habits and citizenship, as well as the academic progress.  I really like my class this year and feel like we’re off to a great start!  As always, please let me know if you have any questions.