This week the students have been busy, busy, busy working on their opinion/persuasive essays. They were turned in this morning and I am looking forward to reading them all! They’ve done such a great job researching and putting their ideas onto paper. In Social Studies, we have been learning about how Illinois became a state and the long journey that went with it. We’ve discussed settlers and Native Americans and the roles they played in the history. In reading we have continued our pioneer book discussions. Both groups have done a great job relating events from the book to events on the Hacker Trail simulation. 4th graders took a fractions test this week. They did an amazing job! They’ve proved that they understood how to show fractions visually in bar models and number lines and could multiply whole numbers and fractions together. This week was our last week for PARCC testing! The students finished strong with their last three tests. Any make-up testing will take place during the last week of April.
Next week should be a lot of fun – it’s Earth Week! Please make sure your child dresses accordingly, we will be outside every day if weather permits. Please see a tentative daily schedule below for specific activities! We’re giving an extension to all students on the “S” key packet. Rather than have the students turn them in on Wednesday, we are giving them an extra week. The “S” key packet will now be due on Wednesday the 26th. We will be continuing our pioneer book discussions – the students are excited to see what happens next in their different stories. In math, 4th graders will be starting a new unit on decimals. They will begin to make connections between fractions and decimals as the unit progresses.
Last and final plea! We are in desperate need of recyclables (not glass) for Monday! If you could collect any recyclables and send them in with your student on Monday, that would be much appreciated. Any papers or plastics (rinsed), but no glass please! Thank you!
Dates to remember:
EARTH WEEK : Monday-Friday April 17th-21st (please see below for a tentative daily schedule!)
- Monday, April 17th – Cascaron Egg Celebration in Spanish
- Monday, April 17th – Waukegan book buddies visit
- Wednesday, April 19th – Nature Story Walk
- Friday, April 21st – Field trip to Morraine Hills
Later Dates:
- Wednesday, April 26th – “S” key packets are due!
- Friday, May 12th – Green Team family campfire: the Green Team will be hosting a family campfire at PCCS! This will be a fun event for families to enjoy each other’s company, stories, campfire songs, and, of course, s’mores. Check out the flyer for more information, including cost and how to sign up (required).
- write a letter to your future self (4th graders have their letters from last year)
- Jeopardy Earth Facts game
- Waukegan buddies visit
- building a bridge with recycled items (how much weight can your bridge hold?)
- Predator Prey OR Spider Senses game
- ELL/multicultural activity with Spanish teacher
- clean-up area outside (count how many items were recyclable and total amount of items picked up) – what fraction of the items can we recycle?
- digging in soil and collecting data/measuring from a variety of areas around PCCS
- Woodland Chase
- Phenology
- Solo Spots
- movement activity with P.E. teachers
- pollution pathways discussion with visual on overhead (how do the Great Lakes get polluted? What can we do to prevent this?)
- making a nature self-portrait
- writing poetry inspired by the nature around us (travel to different spots outside and write a new poem)
- Think! Write! Draw! activities
- How do Plants Breathe? (experiment)
- activity with Ms. Naomi
- lunch outside?
- Solo Spots
- Phenology
- read “Spring Defeats Winter” and have story discussion (outside?)
- read “Your Recycled House” and design your own recycled house
- explore outdoors with small groups/write a short song or “rap” about the outside
- D.E.A.R outdoors
- Moraine Hills field trip – we will be gone ALL day (8:30 to 3:00 pm)