LEADERSHIP WEEK begins tomorrow!
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES: All activities are going. Our first field trip of the year will be on Thursday. We will be going to the Chicago Botanic Gardens to take part in a plant anatomy workshop. Please send a sack lunch for this field trip, with disposable items only. No thermos or lunch box. It is $7 per child, cash only. Please put the money in an envelope with your child’s name on it. Please let me now if you would be interested in attending with us. Thank you. ROSH HASHANAH EDP CAMP, OCTOBER 3 We are closed in observance of the Jewish Holiday, Rosh Hashanah. We will be running an EDP camp for those of you who need child care. YOM KIPPUR EDP CAMP, OCTOBER 12. We are closed in observance of the Jewish Holiday, Yom Kippur. We will be running an EDP camp for those of you who need child care. PUMPKIN CARVING NIGHT OCTOBER 21, 5:30-7:00 PUT THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR! LA We are moving into Lesson 3 in the Roots book. The roots this week are deli, meaning "pleasant" and ques, meaning "ask or search". This week the student will be able to double check their work with their books, but not use it during the test. We have learned about the first part of the Completion Team, The Subject, in grammar. The Subject is able to be a concrete or abstract noun and he has the power of number. Check in with your student if you don't know what that means! We continue working on finishing our Google Tours and will have them up this week. Text features continue to be reviewed and practiced. Text structures were introduced this week. We will continue to use this knowledge throughout the year when reading informational text in other subjects. Math We continue to review rounding and basic facts. Continue to play facts games whenever possible. Most mistakes are showing up in basic computation. The students are using their rounding skills to add and subtract. Social Studies The Illinois Studies Weekly featured a story of a young Illini boy down the Illinois River. His tribe is travels through the Northwest Territory, stopping to rest and gather plants and hunt wild turkey. We also discussed Illinois waterways and their importance to the vitality of the state. The student used maps of Illinois to locate some of the rivers.
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Special Announcements CROSS COUNTRY MEET MONDAY SEPTEMBER 19 BUTLER PARK. If your children are coming please email Coach Ben-Sira at [email protected] We need to know how many children are riding the bus. Thank you! HEADMASTER'S SOCIAL WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 5:30-7:30. Meet Clark Dagget, our Interim Headmaster! We hope you all will come. ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES: All activities are going except Language Maker Movement, which has been canceled. If you registered your child in all others, he/she is in the club. ROSH HASHANAH EDP CAMP, OCTOBER 3 We are closed in observance of the Jewish Holiday, Rosh Hashanah. We will be running an EDP camp for those of you who need child care. YOM KIPPUR EDP CAMP, OCTOBER 12. We are closed in observance of the Jewish Holiday, Yom Kippur. We will be running an EDP camp for those of you who need child care. LA Students are reading about a region of Illinois and preparing their entry in a group Google Tour. They are plugging away and learning to read nonfiction, use the text features to prepare them for comprehension and summarize what they have read. We will be sharing the Google Tours next week! The first Roots test has been taken. We took the test altogether this week. Next week, I will let them use their books to take the test. Multiple choice test taking skills are taught along with the language skills. Math Both groups reviewed placed value, comparing numbers and rounding last week. They will be working on adding and subtraction and estimation in word problems this week. Knowing multiplication facts becomes increasingly important at this level of math. 4th grade begins with addition number sense and strategies and will end with division. However, it is the multiplication that really needs to be mastered. I encourage you to engage your student in fun ways to practice the facts. This should not be a nightly fight, but a fun way to spend time together. Here are some fun ways to practice together: 1. Play with dice. Really. Toss the dice and practice adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing using the numbers you roll on dice. 2. Flashlight Math. Use the flashcards and flip two cards at a time. Kids shine a flashlight on the one they know and answer that one. Simple. Don’t have a flashlight? Make a math wand. Use a stick or a light saber. Anything that works for your kid. 3. Use electronics. My Math Flash Cards App on the iPad and Math Practice Flashcards on my android phone. There are a gazillion flash card apps out there. I’m sure any would do the trick, and if you have five minutes and your kid says, ‘Can I play a game on your phoooooone?’ Say ‘Why yes you may! I’m so very glad you asked. . . ‘ 4. Write the answer. Or paint the answer. Water on cement or chalk on sidewalk or window crayon on window. One person flashes the cards and the other guy writes. 5. Math War. Played like the traditional, except whoever says the fact first wins and keeps the cards. Social Studies The Studies Weekly newspaper is an interesting addition to the social studies curriculum this year. We are practicing reading nonfiction and learning some super facts about Illinois. Ask them about the Piasa bird! The students have created accounts and work on puzzles and quizzes after reading the paper. Dates you need to know: Picture Day is Tuesday, September 13. No school on Monday, October 3, for Rosh Hashana. No school on Wednesday, October 12, for Yom Kippur. This week was great week! Keira and Harry led their first Monday Morning Meeting for the entire lower school. Ani, Jack and Esteve performed a short skit showing how to be respectful toward friends. LA/Social Studies The students learned how to identify and use text features for preparing them to read a nonfiction selection. They used Illinois: Regions and Resources to help me build a Google Tour to introduce Illinois as a unit of study. They also used the strategy of text mapping to identify and summarize their own region of Illinois. This week they will create their own Google Tour to present their assigned region to the rest of the class. Math Fact fluency and number sense is essential to understanding so many mathematical concepts. That has been the focus the last two weeks. This week will be starting the addition and subtraction units for both math groups. Welcome back! Whew. We had a very busy and productive first week. It was so busy, I totally forgot to take pictures most of the week. There a few below of the students getting acquainted with code.org during Computer Science class. More to come next week. I promise! We had a wonderful first week of school in 4th Grade! Students were introduced to the routines and schedule. Snack: Please help your child remember to bring in a snack each day. We eat snack around 10:00 am. If your child's snack requires a spoon or fork, please send that with them as well. Thank you! Dates you need to know: Miniature School Night: I am looking forward to seeing many of you for Miniature School Night on Thursday, September 8th. It is a great way to learn more about the 4th grade curriculum and how our classroom community works. You are also introduced to teachers from the Art, Music, Spanish, and Physical Education programs. The presentation begins at 5:45pm in the Multi-Purpose Room. Picture Day is Tuesday, September 13. No school on Monday, October 3, for Rosh Hashana. No school on Wednesday, October 12, for Yom Kippur. |