April 1 to April 5, 2024

                     

Welcome back after Spring Break!  I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable Spring Break with family and friends! We are looking forward to a month filled with new learning and activities as we move into springtime in our 4th grade classroom.

During April, parent volunteers will be presenting art lessons through the Minnesota Institute of Art, Art Adventures program.  Each week, students will participate in art lessons thanks to the MIA and Rush Creek parent volunteers.

*Reminder: 
- MCA TESTING is scheduled for April, and 4th grade times are listed below:

                    4th grade Reading – April 9-10 12:45-2:45
                    4th grade Math – April 16-17 9:45-11:15

Other activities and learning for the week include the following:

READING:

-  We will review cause and effect and Pourquoi tales from Unit 6 in reading, and our test will be on Tuesday.  

-For Word Work, we'll study the words using the Latin root "ben and bene".  A study guide will come home on Monday, April 1, and we'll have the quiz on these words on Friday, April 5.  

- We continue to read daily for our 40 book challenge.   Students should be at approx.  36  books by the end of April to be in line with the 40 book challenge.  If students are able to read and document 1 book per week, they will be able to reach the 40 book goal.

*Remember to read for 20 to 40 minutes each day at home for daily reading homework. 

WRITING:
This week, students will continue to study and write poetry. Students will read and write haiku, diamonte, free verse, and onomatopoeia poetry.

MATH:

-Students will review the Unit 5 geometry concepts and take the Unit 5 test on Wednesday.   The April number corner activities include features of polygons and metric distance measures.  

*Continue to study multiplication and division facts to develop and maintain fact fluency.  This will be important as we work on computing larger numbers during Unit 6 lessons.

- Students will explore Concept Quest math enrichment problems on Wednesday with Mrs. Wilder

*Math HOMEWORK:
Homework will be assigned on Monday, April 1,  and due on Wednesday, 
April 3.

Homework will be assigned on Wed., April 3,  and due on Thursday, April 5.

Social Studies/Science

Students will continue their study the Midwest Region of the United States.  We will also begin a new science unit titled Vision and Light.

ART:  Students will with Mrs. Prin during Friday´s art lesson to create a color contrast hand design.

March 18 to March 22, 2024

                                         

Welcome to our last week together before Spring Break. Wishing you all a wonderful week of joy, relaxation, and great family memories.  We are looking forward to some extra fun this week during our classroom studies and activities:

- On Tuesday, we'll meet with our first grade buddies to celebrate the Spring Equinox by writing and creating spring acrostic poems.
-Thursday will be our popcorn reward party for the great job 4th graders did in the Readathon.
- Friday is the Rocky's Way all school spring bingo party. We will play bingo as a whole school at 3:00 on Friday, March 22

 

Other activities and learning include the following:

READING:

-We are completing Unit 6  lessons this week as we continue to learn about and read Pourquoi tales. We will have the Unit 6 reading test after spring break.

-For Word Work, we are going to focus on poetry terms and vocabulary as we will begin a writing unit on poetry this week. 
*There will be no word work test on Friday, March 22.  Word work and spelling tests will resume after spring break.

- We continue to read daily for our 40 book challenge.   Students should be at approx.  32  books by the end of March to be in line with the 40 book challenge.  If students are able to read and document 1 book per week, they will be able to reach the 40 book goal.

*Remember to read for 20 to 40 minutes each day at home for daily reading homework. 

WRITING:
Students will write Spring acrostic poems with their first grade buddies. We continue to work on uppercase cursive and writing using  March writing prompts to practice and hone writing skills.  
*We will also begin a poetry unit this week and compose various types of poems.  The final copy will be created using a blank book where students can compile their creations along with illustrations.

MATH:

-We will continue with Unit 5 math as we work on area and perimeter.  The Unit 5 math concepts will be reviewed and tested after break. We'll complete March Number Corner concepts by continuing to work on function tables, fractions, and multi-step story problems.

*Continue to study multiplication and division facts to develop and maintain fact fluency.  This will be important as we work on computing larger numbers during Unit 6 lessons after spring break.

- Students will explore Concept Quest math enrichment problems on Wednesday with Mrs. Wilder

*Math HOMEWORK:
Homework will be assigned on Monday, March 18,  and due on Wednesday, 
March 20.

Homework will be assigned on Wed., March 20,  and due on Friday, March 22.

Social Studies

Students continue to focus on and study the Midwest Region of the United States.  This will include reviewing the states and capitals and the state locations.  We'll also explore the economy, history, and land forms of the Midwest Region.
*The test on the Midwest states, capitals, and state abbreviations will be on Friday, March 22.

ART:
This week, students will work with Mrs. Prin as they create an optical illusion and contrasting color hand design.

March 11 to March 15, 2024

                                         

Time to spring ahead! It's great to look forward to having more daylight in the evenings for fun and outside activities!  

Because 4th graders did such an outstanding job with the Readathon, we will have a pizza reward time this Thursday, March 14.  This will be perfect as we will also be celebrating PI day, 3.14.  On Thursday, March 21, 4th graders will have a popcorn reward party. Both of these celebrations are rewards for the great work in the Readathon.

We're also looking forward to so much learning this week!  Read ahead to find out more:

READING:

- This week we'll  continue to read and work on cause and effect and begin learning about Pourquoi tales.  We continue to analyze and work on identifying different text structures as we read.

- For Word Work this week, students will work on more ambiguous vowels including au, aw, and al words.  A list will come home on Monday, and students will be tested on the first ten words on Friday, March 15.

- We continue to read daily for our 40 book challenge.   Students should be at approx.  32  books by the end of March to be in line with the 40 book challenge.  If students are able to read and document 1 book per week, they will be able to reach the 40 book goal.

*Remember to read for 20 to 40 minutes each day at home for daily reading homework. 

WRITING:

Students will complete their work on their Women in History.  Students will also write in response to March writing prompts and continue to develop their cursive skills by working on uppercase cursive letters.

MATH:

-Our studies this week continue to focus on geometry.  We will work on the features of polygons, area, and perimeter. On Thursday, we will celebrate PI day with lessons on circles including using cookies to determine the diameter and circumference of a circle.

- Students will explore Concept Quest math enrichment problems on Tuesday with Ms. Vogler.  

*Math HOMEWORK:
Homework will be assigned on Monday, March 11,  and due on Wednesday, 
March 13.

Homework will be assigned on Wed., March 13,  and due on Friday, March 15.

*Continue to study multiplication and division facts to develop and maintain fact fluency.

Science/Social Studies/Health:

For Science, Ms. Vogler will continue with her lessons using circuits on Monday, March 11.  Student will participate in Makers´ Space on Tuesday.  For Social Studies, we will start learning about the Midwest by learning the states and capitals of this region.

ART:
Student will learn about Celtic knots and create a drawing and illustration of a Celtic knot during their Friday art lesson.

March 4 to March 7, 2024

                                     

This is the last week of the trimester!  Students have shown growth and achievement in so many areas during the winter grading period, and our classroom continues to be a positive space where students are learning, working, and playing together.  We'll celebrate the end of the trimester with an all class movie reward time on Thursday, March 7.
*Reminder:  No school on Friday, March 8.  

READING:

- This week we'll read and learn about stories and focus on cause and effect during our reading lessons. 

-Students will work on the Latin root "mal/male" for vocabulary and word work development.  A list will be sent home on Monday, March 4. We'll work in class on the list each day, and the quiz is scheduled for Thursday, March 7.

- We continue to read daily for our 40 book challenge.   Students should be at 28 books at this time and 32  books by the end of March to be in line with the 40 book challenge.  If students are able to read and document 1 book per week, they will be able to reach the 40 book goal.

*Remember to read for 20 to 40 minutes each day at home for daily reading homework. 

WRITING:
As March is Women´s History Month, this week students will do research and a mini-report on different women as they work with online research sites. Students continue to work on upper case cursive letters for writing practice along with Typing.com to continue work on keyboard skills.

MATH:

-Our studies this week continue to focus on geometry.  We will be working on parallel and perpendicular lines along with symmetry during this week's lessons.

- Students will explore Concept Quest math enrichment problems on Wednesday with Mrs. Wilder

*Math HOMEWORK:
Homework will be assigned on Monday, March 4 and due on Thursday, March 7.

*Continue to study multiplication and division facts to develop and maintain fact fluency.

Science, Art, Talent Development:

Students will work with Mrs. Vogler during talent development time and work with construction Makey Makey materials to create and code designs using circuits.

The Elm Creek Naturalist will be here to work with the students on Thursday to work with the students. 

ART:

Students will learn about Wassily Kandinsky and abstract art and create an artwork using his technique and style.