Week of August 28th

Happy Monday Everyone,

     We are starting our 3rd week of school!! We will have Open House on this coming Thursday (8/31) night. This is a parent only event. Open House will run from 6:00-7:30. Mrs. Pavlinek and I hope that you can join us. We will also have a long weekend in honor of Labor Day. No School on Monday 9/4!!!

     This is the last week to purchase JBE class t-shirts. If you would like to have one for field trip and other school activities please send in your form and money no later than Friday. 

     We have a new technology resource. This year we will be utilizing Brain Pop in classroom and at home!! Brain Pop is  a wonderful resource. It presents information to students in the form of short animated movies. Simply follow the directions below. Once students sign up for the class we will then be able to make assignments. 

1. Go to www.Brainpop.com and click on "Enter Code" at the top of the screen.
2. Enter jberocks1
3. Either log in with your personal accounts or create a new user account. 
4. Explore the site
5. Check back for assignments to complete.
6. This week the students have two assignments that need to be completed by this Friday 9/1.

     This week in math we will work on rounding numbers to any place value using various strategies, estimating sums and differences, and fluently adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers using the standard algorithm. Students will have a quiz on Wednesday that will cover place value concepts, comparing numbers, numbers and rounding.

Rounding Strategies

     This is our first week of Math Superstars!! Students will receive the new sheet on Mondays. The completed sheets are due Friday of that week. Parents are encouraged to provide help on difficult problems. The goal is to provide help with out giving the answers. Another important goal of the program is for students to engage in the problem solving process. In order to receive credit for that weeks sheet, I need to see that students at least attempted the problem. My homeroom is still in need of a parent volunteer to check the sheets and come in once a week to go over the most missed problems with the students. If you are interested in volunteering please let me know. 

     In science we will continue to learn how scientists do their work. We will also learn about science tools.  The Brain Pop assignments this week are both science related. One is on science tools and the other takes a closer look at how microscopes work. 

     In social studies this week we will review some basic map skills. Like do you know what the legend, and compass rose are? We will also learn how to use the map scale. 

Have a GREAT Week and Super Weekend,

Aesha

Week of August 21st

Happy Monday Everyone,

     Today was kind of a whirlwind day!! With the eclipse happening. We learned about eclipses in science and we began working on our i-Ready Diagnostic in math. We will get back to a more normal schedule on Tuesday.

     This week in math we will continue to work on our i-Ready Diagnostic. We will go to the computer lab again on Wednesday this week and Monday and Wednesday next week. Students will also have opportunities to work on their diagnostic on when they go the computer lab with Mrs. Anderson on next Thursday (Johnson) and Friday (Pavlinek).

     In our class studies we will continue to work on place value. In fourth grade we will work with numbers up to the millions place. We will use strategies to compare numbers. Students will be asked if numbers are greater than >, less than <, or equal to = another number. Students will complete an activity on Wednesday for a seat work grade. Please look for a homework activity on Tuesday night to review the material that will be on Wednesday's assignment. We will also be using mental math to quickly calculate 1, 10, and 100 thousand more and less that a given number. We will end the week reviewing strategies for rounding larger numbers. On Friday students will take their third and final math diagnostic.

     On Friday students will also take their first timed quiz of the year. Timed quizzes count as classwork grades. The last timed quiz of the nine weeks counts as a quiz grade.Students will take a multiplication quiz and a division quiz.  For the first nine weeks students will get 3 minutes for each quiz. In the second nine weeks students will get 2 minutes and 30 seconds per quiz. In the third and fourth nine weeks students will get 2 minutes for each quiz. In the first nine weeks the division quizzes will not count for a grade. We take timed quizzes every other week. Both will be made up of 50 randomly selected problems. The multiplication quizzes will cover 2's through 9's. The division quizzes will cover 2's through 12's.

     In science we will continue to work learn about science process skills. This week we will learn about how scientist do their work, the kinds of questions that scientist ask and some tools that scientist use. Students will have an a science homework assignment on Wednesday night. Students will be asked to do most of the reading, vocabulary and questions at home. This allows us to focus on hands on activities and discussions in class. 

     In social studies we will begin chapter one. In chapter one we will begin learning about our state. We will review the basics of map skills, Florida's land, and about latitude and longitude. We will work on social studies on Friday each week. Students will be given the reading and homework assignment on Monday each week. The social studies assignment is due on Friday. Students will always have a lesson in the book to read. Our aim for the reading is that students have read the material closely enough to be able to participate in discussions in class. Students need to be acquainted with facts but also have inferred in the text as well. For this week's homework students need to read chapter 1 lesson 1 and complete the 4 vocabulary  words. We discussed today in class how to complete the vocabulary in their journals. For a list of the words please visit www.msjohnsonsclassrocks.blogspot.com. On the home page you will find the newsletter. At the top of the page you will also see links for websites and vocabulary for math, science and social studies. 

Have a Wonderful Week,

Aesha Johnson

Week of August 14th

Hi Everyone,

     We had a SUPER first day of school!! We we to library and had class with Mrs. Strong. We got our supplies put away and began the task of setting up our journals for math, science and social studies. We are hoping to begin a little instruction on tomorrow. 

     The only homework this week is for students to complete their All About Me posters and to return their PTA packet. When students are selected to be student of the week they will present the poster to the class. Their poster will then be on display in the hallway for the week. Students may be as creative as they want. They can use crayons, colored pencils and markers on their posters. They may also include actual photos on the poster. Here are a few examples:

    This week in math, we will begin taking our FSA Practice Test and i-Ready diagnostic. The FSA Practice test will be given in one session as a paper pencil test. The i-Ready Diagnostic will be given over several sessions on the computer. We will also begin working in our first module in math. Module 1 will cover concepts dealing with place value. Our standards for the week are that students will be able to interpret a multiplication equation as a comparison and recognize that in a multi-digit whole number, a digit in one place represents ten times what it represents in the place to its right. For example students work with statements like one hundred is 10 times as much as ________? And, _____ thousand is _____ times as many as _____ hundred. We will also work on writing numbers in different forms i.e. unit form 10 thousands, standard form 10,000 and expanded form 11, 547=10,000+1,000+500+40+7.

     In science this week we will begin learn how scientists do their work. We will learn the difference between everyday questions and scientific questions. Students will also learn to write an acrostic poem to show what they think science is. The following link is to a clip that we will watch in class this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqfQpURDoCo 

      As you may know we will be able to see the solar eclipse on this upcoming Moday 8/21. I have 22 eclipse classes for us to share. I am also asking that students make and bring in a solar eclipse viewer. They are very easy to make. All you need is a cereal box, heavy duty aluminum foil, and a piece of white cardboard. Students may also cover the outside of the box with paper to add decorations, but that is not necessary. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_bf2AlpdQo 
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/EclipseCerealBoxViewer.pdf

     In 4th grade social studies, we have an emphasis on Florida history. We will begin this week learning about our state. I am asking all students to try to find one fact about Florida. This week we will take a look at Florida's State flag, bird, animal etc. Students may use the following links to help them learn more about our state:
http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/kids/
http://www.ducksters.com/geography/state.php?State=Florida
http://floridafacts.facts.co/funfloridafactsabout/floridafacts.php

Have a wonderful week.

Ms. Johnson