Week of 12/7

Hi Everyone,

     Students will be bringing home progress reports for the second nine weeks on this Tuesday. Please review the grades with your child and discuss with them what areas they think that they need to improve. Goal setting is great way for students to feel involved in the learning process. Please also remind them that my room is open most mornings. They can come in to work on their class projects, complete their i-Ready work, or to get extra help on things that we are working on in class. Please send back the bottom of the progress reports no later than Friday.

     This Friday evening JBE will have our first ever Taste of the World event. Students can participate in activities from around the world and even have a small taste from featured countries. I hope that you can attend this very fun sounding event. Stop by my classroom to make a lantern.

     On Monday and Tuesday students will complete two testing sessions of our Mid-Year Math Scrimmage. The test will cover various topics in 4th grade math. The students will answer questions that cover content that we have learned about and things that we have yet to cover. For the rest of the week we will begin learning about division. In 4th grade students will learn various strategies for solving division problems. However we will not learn the long division algorithm. Students will not be responsible for knowing how to use the algorithm until 6th grade. In fourth grade students need to be able to successfully find whole-number quotients and remainders with up to four-digit dividends and one-digit divisors. 
The strategies that we will use include:
*Multiplying Up or Using Multiplication Facts that we Know

*Array Model

*Area Model

*Partial Quotients

This week our work will focus on Multiplying Up, The Array Model and the Area Model.

     This week in science we will continue our work on energy. This week we will learn about thermal energy. Did you know that all matter has thermal energy? Thermal energy normally thought of as heat is actually a measure of the amount of energy that the particles of matter have. Even objects that we think of as being cold have thermal energy. An iceberg actually has more thermal energy than a pot of boiling water. Students will learn about the three ways that heat is transferred-radiation, convection, and conduction. 

Week of 11/30

Hi Everyone,

     I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got have lots of family time!! 

     I will be out this week. Mrs Pobst will be the sub on Tuesday and Wednesday. Mrs Moorer will sub on Thursday and Friday.

    Our 4th Graders will participate in the first ever 4th Grade Spelling Bee! Join me in wishing good luck to Emily, Naomi, Nora, Phoebe, Rishi, Smiriti, and Spoothi!! They all qualified for the competition. Good Luck guys I'm very proud of you!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

     JBE will host a special Parent Education night designed to give information about how the content that your child is learning this year. An RSVP form was sent home on last Friday.  Students will also have Early Release this Wednesday.

     Students will have a Mid Module test on Wednesday. The test will cover multiples, factors, prime and composite numbers and multiplication. There will also be several review questions that will cover previous material. We completed a study guide last week and students should have brought it home. If your child did not bring it home they probably left it in their binder at school. Remind them to bring it home to help them study. After the test we will begin working on strategies for division.

      This week in science we will learn how the kinetic energy from wind and water is captured to help us complete many tasks in our daily lives. Next week we will learn about thermal energy.

Week of 11/16

Happy Monday Everyone,

     Our wonderful JBE Student Council is sponsoring a food drive for the less fortunate. We will be collecting nonperishable food items all of this week. Students can bring items to the classroom or place them in the collection bins in the foyer by the front office. 
     We will have our Colonial Kids Festival on this Thursday. Students will participate in several activities that kids in colonial times would have also done. A special thank you to Mrs. Brown who has volunteered to be the helper for our class. It would be great if we can get one more volunteer to provide assistance. The Festival will run from about 8:45-11:30.
     Next week is only a two day week. Students will not be receiving a any math or science homework. However, please try to continue your work on i-Ready. Please encourage your child to always try their best when working on the program. Each lesson has a teaching/practice session followed by a quiz. Students receive a score on the quiz. The items that students are receiving practice on now will be the things that will asked on the Winter Diagnostic. In order to move their placement students need to score better on this test than they did on the test in September. 
     The week after Thanksgiving (12/1-12/4) I will be absent from school. Mrs. Pobst and Mrs. Moorer will the subs for the week. If an emergency arises please contact Mrs. Pavlinek. 

     This week in math, we will begin to put together our multiplication strategies with our ability to solve multi-step problems. The standard in fourth grade is for students to be able to solve multi-step problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Right now our problems will cover just addition, subtraction and multiplication. Once we get to division in a couple of weeks we will add that operation to our classwork.

     This week in science, we will continue our study of energy. Our focus for this week will sound energy. Did you know that sound travels in waves? Sound travels through all matter (solids, liquids and gases). Sound travels faster on warmer days than on cooler days, and sound can't be heard in outer space.

     

Week of 11/9

Hi Everyone,

     I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend and did not get too wet from all of the rain.  We had several events this week. We will have our annual Veterans Day Flag Raising Ceremony. Immediately after the ceremony we will have a military person speak to our class about their job. There is no school on Wednesday in honor of Veteran's day. School will resume on Thursday. 

     Please keep sending in the $5 for the Colonial Kids Festival. We have one volunteer to help out during the festival. We are still in need of at least one more helper. If you are available please let me know. 

     In math this week students will continue learning about different strategies for solving multiplication problems (please see last weeks post for examples of each of the strategies that we will be learning about). Last week students learned about the area model and the distributive property. This week we will learn about using partial products and the standard algorithm.  Students will have a quiz on Friday where they will be expected to use all four strategies. Students will be allowed to use their journals to reference each strategy. 

     This week students will also have a timed quizzes for multiplication and division. During the second nine weeks students are going to begin tracking their progress on their timed quizzes. Students have been given a special sheet where they will record the grades that they earn on each quiz. Students will also set goals for maintaining or improving their scores. It is very important that students have mastery of the multiplication and division facts. All of the math that we will do for the rest of the year (multiplication/division, fractions, decimals, more measurement conversions) will require students to use multiplication and division.

     In science this week we will begin our study of energy. To finish our work on matter students will turn in their matter projects this Friday. I have encouraged students to bring home their projects to put the finishing touches on them before Friday. 

Week of November 2

Happy Monday Everyone,

     I hope that everyone enjoyed the 3 day weekend!! I would like to thank everyone that either sent in items or came to help out for last week's Fall Festival. It was a great time with lots of fun activities. A special thank you to Mrs. Brown (Ben), Mrs. Moorer (Summer) and Mrs. Pobst (Ryan) for organizing everything.
     
     Our schedule this week includes voting for Student Council Officers. Good Luck to Cecilia and Summer!! With two great candidates it will be hard to pick just one!! We will also have Early Release on Wednesday.

     Coming up on Thursday, November 19th we will have our first "field trip". For this field trip we will not have to leave the comfort of our school. Students will rotate through each 4th grade classroom to complete an activity that kids in colonial times would have done as part of their daily lives (palm weaving, colonial toys, spinning cotton, jewelry making, corn grinding, and quill and ink writing). To pay for supplies students will need to bring in $5.00. Please send in cash only in an envelope or baggie with your child's name written on the outside of the bag. We will also need at least 2 parents for each class to help facilitate the activities. If you are interested in helping out please let me know. The activities will run from 8:40-11:30.

     Our next unit for math is multiplication and division. Right now students are learning about factors, multiples, prime numbers, and composite numbers. From here we will move into multiplication strategies (see below).

Area Model

Distributive Property

Partial Products

Algorithm

Students will be required to learn and use each of the strategies above. The goal is for students to begin working towards proficiency with the algorithm. They will not be required to show mastery of the algorithm until 5th grade.  In 4th grade students will multiply 2-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers, 2-digit numbers by a 1-digit number, 3-digit by a 1-digit number and 4-digit by 1-digit.

     For this nine weeks timed quizzes will make the following changes. Multiplication quizzes will now be 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Division quizzes will now count for a grade, but students will be get 3 minutes. Please help your child by practicing their facts for a short time everyday.

     In science we will finish up our study of matter. Students will take a quiz on chapter 4 lessons 4 and 5 on this Friday. Next week we will continue our study of physical science by looking at energy.

Have a GREAT week,

Aesha

Week of 10/19

Happy Monday Everyone,

     I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend and was able to enjoy the cooler temperatures. 

     We have a very busy week. We had a great assembly today where we learned some interesting information about sea turtles. Did you know that for every 1,000 sea turtles only 1 survives? Each year we have about 60 sea turtle nests on our beaches here in Jacksonville. Sea turtles return to the same beach where they were born to lay their eggs.
     We will also have Early Release this Wednesday. Students will be dismissed at 1:30.

     This week in math students will complete our introductory unit on measurement. We will take a test on Wednesday. Today students also received a Measurement Conversions Reference Sheet. Students will be allowed to use this reference sheet whenever we have measurement tasks to complete (class work, quizzes, tests, etc). Students should be familiar with the info on sheet but they do not have to memorize the unit conversions. When we take the FSA in the spring students will be given the same sheet to use during testing. Students are bringing home a study guide to complete for tonight's homework. After the test on Wednesday, we will begin working on factors and multiples. This will be the lead in to our unit on multiplication and division. 

     Students will have been working on projects during math rotations. Students were given the choice of three projects (Blog Visits, Blog Topics, or Million Minute Reading Challenge). We have been working on these projects for about three weeks. Their completed projects are due this Friday and will be graded. The students should bring home their project on Tuesday to have a peer conference with someone at home. The students should share their project with someone at home. After sharing their work they should get feedback on the job that they did, whether it is complete, and comments about sentence structure and conventions (grammar, punctuation, capitalization). Please also keep in mind that neatness will factor into the final grade. Based on the feedback that they receive they should complete or edit their work. I sent an email with the project directions and rubrics. If you did not receive the email please let me know. I probably do not have the correct email address for you.

     This week in science we will take a test on chapter 4 lessons 1, 2, and 3. We are taking the test before the end of the chapter so that students will have two test grades in the grade book to help balance their grades. 

Have GREAT week,
Aesha
   

Week of 10/12

Hi Everyone,

     I would like to thank everyone that has signed up for our Remind groups. It will come in handy for quick reminders for field trips, changes in homework assignments, and last minute school announcements. If you are interested in joining the group for your child's class please see the email that was sent last week.
     We will have Donuts with Dads this week. Students with last names A-L are invited to come to the cafeteria on Thursday morning to share a special birthday treat with dad, granddad, uncle, or any other special guy. Students with last names M-Z are invited to come on Friday morning.
     We will also have Book Fair this week in the library. Students will visit the library during their regular library time. Mrs. Pavlinek's class will get to shop on Wednesday morning and Ms. Johnson's homeroom will shop on Thursday morning. Parents are also welcome to come and shop with their child's class.
     In math this week we will continue our study of measurement. We will finish our study of the metric system and begin learning about customary units of measure. For both systems students will learn about units for measuring length, capacity, mass (metric), and weight (customary). Students will discuss the differences between mass and weight. Students will also learn how to convert units. If you have 250 centimeters how many millimeters is that equal to? In fourth grade students will not have convert between systems (250 centimeters is equal to how many inches).

     In science this week we will continue our study of matter. Students will be learning about the Law of Conservation of Mass. This law states that the parts of an object will have the same total mass as the object. We will also learn how to measure matter. We will learn that we use a pan balance to find mass and scale to measure weight. Students will also learn how to measure and calculate the volume of liquids and solids.
     Choice Projects are due this Friday for both math and science. Students have been working on their projects for many weeks in class. If students need to finish them up they are welcomed to bring them home this week or come into the classroom before school to work.

Have a GREAT week.