Miss Shifflette's News and Notes Jan 26, 2012
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- Category: Fourth
- Published on Sunday, 29 January 2012 17:06
- Written by Kelly Shifflette
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4th Grade News and Notes
Kelly Shifflette
January 27, 2012
Hello Parents,
It seems that winter is finally settling in. It is important for the students to be prepared when we go the woods on Fridays. In order to be able to go they need to have boots, snow pants, a hat, and mittens. Please help your child remember to bring these items to school.
W.O.W
Triskaidekaphobia- Fear of the number 13. We used this word a lot in the week of Jan 9-13 since there was a Friday the 13th.
Responsibility- Last week was a short week so we focused on a word we all know well and talked about the different responsibilities we have in the classroom.
Prosody-System and patterns of rhythms in language. Tone and stress while reading. This week we have been noticing prosody in our reading as opposed to reading in monotone. This is helping strengthen our reading fluency.
Writing
The writing unit we are working on is Procedure Writing. This week I finished modeling how to write a procedure piece about how to make the worlds best peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The students have been working on a practice procedure during this time. They will finish their practice procedure with guidance and then start one of their own. This will become part of their portfolio.
Math
We are half way through our math unit called, “Size, Shape, and Symmetry”. It is a geometry unit in which we have been investigating characteristics of quadrilaterals and other polygons. This week we looked at right angles as a reference to identify the size of other angles. Some vocabulary we will be using is “obtuse” and “acute”. Over the next 2 weeks we will be finding area of polygons and looking at symmetry.
Health
During our study of the immune system we have defined communicable and non-communicable diseases and discovered which diseases belong in which category. We discussed that life choices, environment, and heredity cause non-communicable diseases; and, viruses, bacteria, and protozoa cause communicable diseases. This week we read an in depth article on how to keep germs from spreading, and the students made a pamphlet to demonstrate their learning about these important topics. Our next topic of study after we finish with germs will be AIDS/HIV. The students will learn what type of disease this is and watch a film about Ryan White who got the virus as child. Please let me know if you have any questions about our health curriculum.
Science-Social Studies
This week we wrapped up our unit on Force and Motion with completing a practice NECAP science experiment called “Sled Pull”. This was a simulation using pennies and weights in which the children saw how changing the variable of weight in the sled affected the amount of force needed to move the sled. In the spring the students will be taking the science NECAP’s so this was good practice.
Next week we will be starting a fun Social Studies unit on the Abenaki Native Americans. Some of the big ideas we will cover in this unit are:
- How humans interact with and influence their environment
- How historical events impact and change cultures
- Development of native and non-native culture over time
- How VT landscape affected native and non-native cultures
- Abenaki life in the past and today
Other News
Our class is getting together with Ms. Johnson’s 1st grade for reading buddies. Each student will be paired with a younger friend and will read with them for 30 minutes a week. Unfortunately the only time we could fit into both our schedules is during math BEEP. I am working with Diane to figure out how we can make it work for those students who attend BEEP.
Thanks!
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Kelly Shifflette
874-4505