Here's a link from the mcps website that my help guide converstaions given this week's recent tragedy.
http://www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/talkingviolence.pdf
Please know how grateful we are for you and your children!
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Sharing Our Map Projects
In social studies we have been learning about the Elements of a Map. Here is Ms. Hudson's class sharing the projects we created to demonstrate our knowledge.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Weekly Newsletter, December 10 to 21
Writing:
During Quarter 2, we will focus on writing realistic fiction. We will begin by applying pre-writing strategies to write story blurbs to generate ideas for fiction writing.
For the next two weeks, we will continue to draft our realistic fiction stories. We will use our character attributes web and our story mountains to write our rough drafts. Our focus has been adding dialogue to our work in an effective way. We will focus on the importance of the conversation to the overall piece of writing as well as the grammatical structure for including dialogue in our work. Students will continue to develop their ideas for their stories. Our focus before Winter Break will be to close our writing with a conclusion that resolves our problem in the story. We will focus on how our conclusion matches our introduction.
Students will begin to revise their work as well. It is important to hear how your writing sounds, so we will use Natural Reader and Buddy Conferences. By using Natural Reader, the computer will read the students work to him or her. This will allow your child to listen to hear if the story "sounds right." A partner will then be able to ask questions to clarify understanding. All students should be ready to revise their realistic fiction stories by December 20.
Natural Reader:
This tool can be downloaded on your home computers to assist students with reading text that may be challenging. We use this in class for webpage research and for revising our writing. Students can listen to what they have typed and determine if it sounds right to revise. In addition, when gathering research, this tool allows them to read difficult text. We have this program at school, but it is a great tool for home use as well:
www.naturalreader.com
Math 5: Unit 3
Spelling:
*Our spelling program involves the use of developmental word study rather than traditional spelling books. This“Words Their Way” approach allows students to practice target spelling patterns that best address their individual needs as a speller. Our next spelling assessment will be on Friday, December 14. We will then resume spelling after Winter Break.
During Quarter 2, we will focus on writing realistic fiction. We will begin by applying pre-writing strategies to write story blurbs to generate ideas for fiction writing.
For the next two weeks, we will continue to draft our realistic fiction stories. We will use our character attributes web and our story mountains to write our rough drafts. Our focus has been adding dialogue to our work in an effective way. We will focus on the importance of the conversation to the overall piece of writing as well as the grammatical structure for including dialogue in our work. Students will continue to develop their ideas for their stories. Our focus before Winter Break will be to close our writing with a conclusion that resolves our problem in the story. We will focus on how our conclusion matches our introduction.
Students will begin to revise their work as well. It is important to hear how your writing sounds, so we will use Natural Reader and Buddy Conferences. By using Natural Reader, the computer will read the students work to him or her. This will allow your child to listen to hear if the story "sounds right." A partner will then be able to ask questions to clarify understanding. All students should be ready to revise their realistic fiction stories by December 20.
A link to a website for information on the 6 Traits of writing is below:
http://writingfix.com/classroom_tools/post_its.htm
http://writingfix.com/classroom_tools/post_its.htm
Natural Reader:
This tool can be downloaded on your home computers to assist students with reading text that may be challenging. We use this in class for webpage research and for revising our writing. Students can listen to what they have typed and determine if it sounds right to revise. In addition, when gathering research, this tool allows them to read difficult text. We have this program at school, but it is a great tool for home use as well:
www.naturalreader.com
Social Studies: Impact of Geography
In this unit, students will demonstrate their understanding of using maps and how humans adapt to their environment. We will determine where the major population centers are in Maryland today and predict why people live in certain areas. We will review the three different kinds of maps:
physical: show land elevations, sea levels, mountains and other physical features
thematic: use to show one topic (crops, pollution, population, etc.)
political: show boundaries between states/countries
We continue to review geography vocabulary and will have two quizzes this month. The first quiz will assess student's knowledge of the elements of a map on December 7. The second quiz will take place on December 20. It will be on the vocabulary sheet given out this week.
Students should continue to work on their Map Projects at home. A description of the project as well as a rubric should have come home with your child last week. This map is to be made at home and is due on December 13. We will present them in class the remainder of the week.
Last Friday, Mayor Prats visited the fourth graders to discuss the importance of civic duty and making change in our communities. He used different maps so that students could get a sense of the size and scope of Laytonsville in relation to Maryland and the United States. This will lead us to the exploration of the role of government and the role of citizens in helping to create change. Students will then write an essay about important issues in our community and how they would run the town of Laytonsville.
The "If I Were Mayor" essay contest is a state-wide contest open to all fourth graders in Maryland. Students will write an essay as part of their social studies grade and will have the option of entering the statewide competition. Last year was the first year that LES participated. Although no student from our school went on to win the state-wide contest, Mayor Prats chose 3 winners from our school contest. On Friday he presented them with certificates.
First Place: Fadilah Farrin
Second Place: Erin McClure
Third Place: Lauren Smith
Their essays were about building more parks/recreation, protecting the environment, and ending discrimination. Below are a few photos from the event.
In this unit, students will demonstrate their understanding of using maps and how humans adapt to their environment. We will determine where the major population centers are in Maryland today and predict why people live in certain areas. We will review the three different kinds of maps:
physical: show land elevations, sea levels, mountains and other physical features
thematic: use to show one topic (crops, pollution, population, etc.)
political: show boundaries between states/countries
We continue to review geography vocabulary and will have two quizzes this month. The first quiz will assess student's knowledge of the elements of a map on December 7. The second quiz will take place on December 20. It will be on the vocabulary sheet given out this week.
Students should continue to work on their Map Projects at home. A description of the project as well as a rubric should have come home with your child last week. This map is to be made at home and is due on December 13. We will present them in class the remainder of the week.
Last Friday, Mayor Prats visited the fourth graders to discuss the importance of civic duty and making change in our communities. He used different maps so that students could get a sense of the size and scope of Laytonsville in relation to Maryland and the United States. This will lead us to the exploration of the role of government and the role of citizens in helping to create change. Students will then write an essay about important issues in our community and how they would run the town of Laytonsville.
The "If I Were Mayor" essay contest is a state-wide contest open to all fourth graders in Maryland. Students will write an essay as part of their social studies grade and will have the option of entering the statewide competition. Last year was the first year that LES participated. Although no student from our school went on to win the state-wide contest, Mayor Prats chose 3 winners from our school contest. On Friday he presented them with certificates.
First Place: Fadilah Farrin
Second Place: Erin McClure
Third Place: Lauren Smith
Their essays were about building more parks/recreation, protecting the environment, and ending discrimination. Below are a few photos from the event.
NUMBER RELATIONSHIPS AND COMPUTATION
Students need to:
Compute with whole numbers.
Translate among fractions, decimals, and percents.
Compare and order decimals to the thousandths place.
Solve problems with fractions, decimals, and percents using a variety of strategies.
Math 4:
Students will take our Unit 2 Assessment December 12 and 13.
We will then move on to Unit 3: Probability, Fractions and Decimals.
Before Winter Break we will compare and order fractions and mixed numbers.
Students will take our Unit 2 Assessment December 12 and 13.
We will then move on to Unit 3: Probability, Fractions and Decimals.
Before Winter Break we will compare and order fractions and mixed numbers.
*A great website that allows students to work at their own pace on word problems/real world application of multiplication & division:
http://www.thinkingblocks.com/
We continue to use the Khan academy website to help practice our math at home. This is a great site where students (if a log in is created) can track their progress and have example problems to work on. It has been featured in CNN as an up and coming way for teachers to assess individual students learning.
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Reading:
Our focus in reading will shift to the genre of historical fiction. Historical fiction novels are novels that happened at a time or place that students have never inhabited, the characters are entangled in historical and social issues of grand significance, and the events of the story are intimately related to real historical events. This makes it a great unit to integrate a lot of our social studies content into reading. To that end, we will read nonfiction books, articles, and Internet research to support our understanding of the historical events included in our novels. The novels chosen all focus around a central theme "adversity causes change." The first part of our unit will focus on deep comprehension and synthesis of complex story elements. We will also launch Literature Circles again to increase student engagement with the stories they are reading. http://www.thinkingblocks.com/
We continue to use the Khan academy website to help practice our math at home. This is a great site where students (if a log in is created) can track their progress and have example problems to work on. It has been featured in CNN as an up and coming way for teachers to assess individual students learning.
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Reading:
Spelling:
*Our spelling program involves the use of developmental word study rather than traditional spelling books. This“Words Their Way” approach allows students to practice target spelling patterns that best address their individual needs as a speller. Our next spelling assessment will be on Friday, December 14. We will then resume spelling after Winter Break.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Weekly Newsletter, December 3 to 7
Writing:
During Quarter 2, we will focus on writing realistic fiction. We will begin by applying pre-writing strategies to write story blurbs to generate ideas for fiction writing.
This week we will continue to draft our realistic fiction stories. We will use our character attributes web and our story mountains to write our rough drafts. Our focus this week will be on adding dialogue to our work in an effective way. We will focus on the importance of the conversation to the overall piece of writing as well as the grammatical structure for including dialogue in our work.
Natural Reader:
This tool can be downloaded on your home computers to assist students with reading text that may be challenging. We use this in class for webpage research and for revising our writing. Students can listen to what they have typed and determine if it sounds right to revise. In addition, when gathering research, this tool allows them to read difficult text. We have this program at school, but it is a great tool for home use as well:
www.naturalreader.com
Math 5: Unit 2 Geometry
This week we will classifying shapes based on angles and length of sides. We will determine if the shapes are right, acute, obtuse, scalene, isosceles, and equalateral. We will classify different quadrilaterals based on their sides.
Spelling:
*Our spelling program involves the use of developmental word study rather than traditional spelling books. This“Words Their Way” approach allows students to practice target spelling patterns that best address their individual needs as a speller. Our next spelling assessment will be on Friday, December 14. We will then resume spelling after Winter Break.
During Quarter 2, we will focus on writing realistic fiction. We will begin by applying pre-writing strategies to write story blurbs to generate ideas for fiction writing.
This week we will continue to draft our realistic fiction stories. We will use our character attributes web and our story mountains to write our rough drafts. Our focus this week will be on adding dialogue to our work in an effective way. We will focus on the importance of the conversation to the overall piece of writing as well as the grammatical structure for including dialogue in our work.
A link to a website for information on the 6 Traits of writing is below:
http://writingfix.com/classroom_tools/post_its.htm
http://writingfix.com/classroom_tools/post_its.htm
Natural Reader:
This tool can be downloaded on your home computers to assist students with reading text that may be challenging. We use this in class for webpage research and for revising our writing. Students can listen to what they have typed and determine if it sounds right to revise. In addition, when gathering research, this tool allows them to read difficult text. We have this program at school, but it is a great tool for home use as well:
www.naturalreader.com
Social Studies: Impact of Geography
In this unit, students will demonstrate their understanding of using maps and how humans adapt to their environment. We will determine where the major population centers are in Maryland today and predict why people live in certain areas. We will review the three different kinds of maps:
physical: show land elevations, sea levels, mountains and other physical features
thematic: use to show one topic (crops, pollution, population, etc.)
political: show boundaries between states/countries
We continue to review geography vocabulary and will have two quizzes this month. The first quiz will assess student's knowledge of the elements of a map on December 7. The second quiz will take place on December 20. It will be on the vocabulary sheet given out this week.
Students should continue to work on their Map Projects at home. A description of the project as well as a rubric should have come home with your child last week. This map is to be made at home and is due on December 13. We will present them in class.
In this unit, students will demonstrate their understanding of using maps and how humans adapt to their environment. We will determine where the major population centers are in Maryland today and predict why people live in certain areas. We will review the three different kinds of maps:
physical: show land elevations, sea levels, mountains and other physical features
thematic: use to show one topic (crops, pollution, population, etc.)
political: show boundaries between states/countries
We continue to review geography vocabulary and will have two quizzes this month. The first quiz will assess student's knowledge of the elements of a map on December 7. The second quiz will take place on December 20. It will be on the vocabulary sheet given out this week.
Students should continue to work on their Map Projects at home. A description of the project as well as a rubric should have come home with your child last week. This map is to be made at home and is due on December 13. We will present them in class.
This week we will classifying shapes based on angles and length of sides. We will determine if the shapes are right, acute, obtuse, scalene, isosceles, and equalateral. We will classify different quadrilaterals based on their sides.
Unit 2 Assessment December 5 (both Mrs. Johnson & Mrs. Dynda's Classes)
Math 4:
Unit 2 Topics Include:
Demonstrate mastery of basic multiplication and division fact families
Identify and apply multiples and factors of numbers.
Solve for the unknown or variable in an equation.
Generalize a pattern by stating a rule.
Write and simplify numeric expressions using number properties.
Complete a function table using a given rule.
Our focus will shift to using our knowledge of multiplication and division by solving for the unknown. We will use everyday situations to analyze the questions:
*What is the known in the problem?
*What is the unknown?
*How can I write an equation to show the relationship between the known and unknown quantities?
*How can I solve the equation?
*What does my solution tell me about the unknown?
Students were given a review packet that is due to class on December 11.
Our unit 2 Assessment will take place on December 12 & 13.
*What is the known in the problem?
*What is the unknown?
*How can I write an equation to show the relationship between the known and unknown quantities?
*How can I solve the equation?
*What does my solution tell me about the unknown?
Students were given a review packet that is due to class on December 11.
Our unit 2 Assessment will take place on December 12 & 13.
*A great website that allows students to work at their own pace on word problems/real world application of multiplication & division:
http://www.thinkingblocks.com/
We continue to use the Khan academy website to help practice our math at home. This is a great site where students (if a log in is created) can track their progress and have example problems to work on. It has been featured in CNN as an up and coming way for teachers to assess individual students learning.
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Reading:
Our focus this week will continue to be analyzing a characters thoughts and actions to focus on the motivation of the character and make predictions about actions in the future. We will use stories from our Junior Great Books curriculum to support learning to that end.
Shared Inquiry reading, discussion, and writing activities may be used with a wide range of literature to encourage students to use high level thinking processes as they explore curricular themes.
http://www.thinkingblocks.com/
We continue to use the Khan academy website to help practice our math at home. This is a great site where students (if a log in is created) can track their progress and have example problems to work on. It has been featured in CNN as an up and coming way for teachers to assess individual students learning.
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Reading:
Our focus this week will continue to be analyzing a characters thoughts and actions to focus on the motivation of the character and make predictions about actions in the future. We will use stories from our Junior Great Books curriculum to support learning to that end.
What is Junior Great Books?
Junior Great BooksHow Does it Support the Curriculum?
The Junior Great Books inquiry model of questioning, discussion, and writing supports the Maryland essential learnings for reading and writing. Shared Inquiry training combined with Junior Great Books literature and interpretive activities support teachers in the implementation of the MCPS English/Language Arts Curriculum, K-8.Shared Inquiry reading, discussion, and writing activities may be used with a wide range of literature to encourage students to use high level thinking processes as they explore curricular themes.
Spelling:
*Our spelling program involves the use of developmental word study rather than traditional spelling books. This“Words Their Way” approach allows students to practice target spelling patterns that best address their individual needs as a speller. Our next spelling assessment will be on Friday, December 14. We will then resume spelling after Winter Break.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
LES on MCPS TV
Superintendent Starr held his first of six Community Days on Thursday, November 29th. The all-day event which included meet and greets with staff, classroom tours and an evening town hall with parents and community members, gave Dr. Starr an opportunity to hear first-hand from MCPS staff and stakeholders. The next Community Day is scheduled for December 13th.
Take a look at the link below to see the event and our school shine!
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/mainstory/story.aspx?id=276486
Take a look at the link below to see the event and our school shine!
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/mainstory/story.aspx?id=276486
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