Good Evening,
Our Earth Keepers field trip was a huge success. Thank you volunteers for attending with us. Students learned so much about how to be kind to our Earth today and preserve it for the future. When we reflected in class, students found it most interesting that we all “eat dirt.” I encourage you to ask your students about the “specks” and how all things in nature are connected. We learned about lifecycles, animal and plant. We also learned about water and how important it is to everything that surrounds us, including our own bodies. Students created a life-size food web and learned how interconnected plants and animals are. Students earned their “K” key while at the Lockhart center. On Wednesday, we completed our “E” key tasks by taking seeds from one area at PCCS and spreading them in the prairie. Please discuss with your student the tasks they completed in order to receive the K and E keys. On Thursday, a parent letter and student instructions, were sent home with your student discussing how they will earn their “Y” key. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions about this. Additionally, it is very important that your student doesn’t lose the instruction packet. Please keep it in a safe place, along with their Student Earth keepers yellow manual.
Academics:
Math:
Students in 4th grade continue to work on Multiplication skills by using several different methods of computation. We continue to discuss fractions, percentages, and decimals. As we continue in this unit, we will build on our skills with single and double digit multiplication, as well as, solve multi-step story problems. Students will investigate the effect of doubling and halving factors in multiplication combinations. The use of coins and units of measurement will also help us practice multiplying with landmark numbers, as well as practice converting from larger to smaller units of metric measure. I encourage you to have your student work on their multiplication skills at home. Students may use flashcards for practice, and may also be assigned specific assignments using IXL certain nights of the week that work on these skills.
Spelling:
Spelling Sorts and words will begin again on Monday. Please encourage your student to review their words each night at home. Additionally, 3rd graders are assigned 10 sentences using 10 of the words from their sort each week. 4th graders are assigned 15 sentences using 15 of the words from their sort each week. Please ask your student to share their sentences with you and ask them to make corrections if the sentences are incomplete or missing punctuation. Sentences should be written in their Spelling notebooks and are checked on Friday’s for completion.
Writing:
Students will begin writing an Informational Essay in the upcoming weeks. We will first continue working on paragraph structure and good writing habits as a class. We also continue to practice our writing skills using guided prompts and free writes.
Reading:
We continue to Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, and work on words, and have teacher time in our Daily 5 time.
We wrapped up our unit on Fairytales with students presenting plays to the class and will begin learning about Greek Myths next week.
Science/SS:
We wrapped up our Prairie, Woodland, and Wetland Units and are now moving onto the History of Illinois. This will entail students researching their personal history and learning about their location relative to planet, continent, country, region, state, county, village, town, by mapping and creating their absolute location. We will identify the seven continents, learn about latitude and longitude, and explore maps and globes.
Future Dates:
Wednesday, October 17th: Early Release Day
On October 31st, in addition to our Halloween party, we will have a grade level cooking experience using the beans from our gardens. Please stay tuned for information on how you can volunteer and/or assist.
With the weather changing to cold, please have your student wear a warm jacket, dress in layers, and bring hats and gloves for our outdoor activities and recess time. Thank you for your continued partnership and support. Please reach out to me with any questions that you may have. Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!