Weekly Newsletter, March 4 to March 8

Upcoming MSA Testing Dates:
March 4: MSA Reading
March 5: MSA Reading
March 8: MSA Math
March 11: MSA Math

*Please ensure your child arrives to school on time (9:15) so that s/he is ready to begin our assessments promptly at 9:30.
*Eating a healthy breakfast promotes energy needed to sustain focus on the MSA.
**If there is no school on Wednesday due to snow, the MSA Math will begin on Monday, March 11 for fourth graders.

Writing:

Our focus for Quarter 3 will be writing a persuasive essay. By the end of the unit, writers should be able to provide support for a claim in ways that chunk the supportive evidence into logically grouped categories. Writers will use transitional words, use phrases that convey the relationship between the chunks of text and the main claim, and draw on detailed specifics to support their claims.

Students will explore issues in the community in which we live. This "If I Were Mayor" essay will allow students to share an improvement to the community with Mayor Prats. (see Social Studies section below).

A link to a website for information on the 6 Traits of writing is below:
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: Working to Create Change in Our Communities:

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.
First Place: Fadilah
Second Place: Erin
Third Place: Lauren

Their essays were about building more parks/recreation, protecting the environment, and ending discrimination.
To learn more about the statewide contest, please visit the Mayor's Municipal Association website at:  http://www.mdmunicipal.org/index.aspx?nid=168

Some helpful websites we will use in class are:

www.laytonsville.md.us/

www.gaithersburgmd.gov

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/index.aspx

http://www.dosomething.org/

http://www.toms.com/our-movement/

http://www.kidsforsavingearth.org/

Science: Chemistry

In this chemistry unit, students will participate in a variety of hands-on investigations with matter. They will observe liquids, solids, and gases and experiment with the effects of temperature on the states of matter. These investigations will lead students to an understanding of how matter changes states.

Enduring Understandings:

• Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space
• Matter can change state without losing any mass
• Each season has different weather conditions
• The Sun causes water to change forms on Earth, but does not change the amount of water on Earth
• The states of matter are solid, liquid, and gas

This week: Students will watch a video segment on matter and revisit their definition of matter.  They will then observe a "mystery substance" to determine characteristics of the substance and its properties.  This will help us explore how matter changes state (liquid/solid/gas).

Math 5: Unit 4: Data & Statistics
This week we will look at the following graphs and talk about them more in detail:
*Pictograph: uses symbols and a key to display countable data

*Bar Graph: displays countable data with vertical or horizontal bars; compares factors about groups of data

*Line Graph: shows how data change over time
*Circle Graph: shows how parts of the data are related to the whole and to each other

 We will problem solve by making graphs, analyze graphs, make a line graph and choose appropriate graphs for various data sets.

Math 4:  

Fourth grade math will shift focus from how fractions and decimals are related to how perimeter and area are related. We will recognize perimeter as an attribute of plane figures and distinguish between linear and area measures. We will solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeter and area.

Our instructional focus for the remainder of quarter three will focus on perimeter, area, elapsed time, multiplication and division.

*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 test preparation. A major aim of this unit is to support students in using strategies for each genre that have been taught throughout the year. This unit is about supporting students in thinking logically and flexibly to transfer all they know to their test-taking.

Our reading workshop will teach students how to read, talk about and answer questions about short, test-like texts as well as strategies for answering selected-response questions. Students will also use chapter books to deepen their discussions and practice of reading strategies.

Our focus this week will continue to be to analyze a poet's message. If a text is a poem, readers should expect to pay attention to what the big meaning of the poem could be, what the poem is mostly about, or what it demonstrates or teaches. This may be done through imagery, the meaning of a part or line, figurative language (personification, simile, metaphor), or through author's purpose.

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. Students work in spelling groups to analyze the pattern and look for clues as to how to generalize the correct spelling of words within that pattern/sound. 
Due to MSA testing, we will resume Spelling March 12.

Weekly Newsletter, February 19 to 22

Snack Policy:

We wanted to take the time to clarify our snack policy. We invite students to bring a snack to school as we do have a later lunch this year. We prefer that the snacks be healthy, easy to eat, and require little to no clean-up such as fruit, pretzels, yogurt, etc. Please remember the school-wide policy that all classrooms are nut-free.

 

Writing:

Our focus for Quarter 3 will be writing a persuasive essay. By the end of the unit, writers should be able to provide support for a claim in ways that chunk the supportive evidence into logically grouped categories. Writers will use transitional words, use phrases that convey the relationship between the chunks of text and the main claim, and draw on detailed specifics to support their claims.

Students will explore issues in the community in which we live. This "If I Were Mayor" essay will allow students to share an improvement to the community with Mayor Prats. (see Social Studies section below).

A link to a website for information on the 6 Traits of writing is below:
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: Working to Create Change in Our Communities:

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.
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.

Some helpful websites we will use in class are:

www.laytonsville.md.us/

www.gaithersburgmd.gov

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/index.aspx

http://www.dosomething.org/

http://www.toms.com/our-movement/

http://www.kidsforsavingearth.org/

Science: Reef Balls

During quarter 3 students will engage in a hands-on environmental project that will promote habitat restoration in the Chesapeake Bay. This project is an extension of our first quarter science unit on Ecosystems.

Together with WSSC, students in each class will make reef balls out of cement. These reef balls will be deposited at the Memorial Stadium Reef where oysters will attach to them to increase their habitat and population. Click on the video below to see how we will be doing this in class. We are in need of parent volunteers on Thursday mornings for this project. Please contact your child's teacher if you are able to join us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2mUnvk79Mw

 

Science: Chemistry

In this chemistry unit, students will participate in a variety of hands-on investigations with matter.  THey will observe liquids, solids, and gases and experiment with the effects of temperature on the states of matter.  These investigations will lead students to an understanding of how matter changes states.

 

Enduring Understandings:

• Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space
• Matter can change state without losing any mass
• Each season has different weather conditions
• The Sun causes water to change forms on Earth, but does not change the amount of water on Earth
• The states of matter are solid, liquid, and gas

This week: Students will complete a pre-assessment to answer questions about matter, its properties, adn the various states in which matter can exist.  They will reflect to identify examples of matter in their own lives and discuss what constitutes matter.

Math 5: Unit 4: Data & Statistics
This week our focus will be to compute the mean, median, mode and range of sets of data.  

Helpful Vocabulary:

• Median: the midpoint of a set of data.  If all the pieces of data are lined up in order, the median is the value divides the data in half
• Mode: the value in a data set that occurs most often
• Mean:  sum of the data values divided by the number of data items

Indicators for Unit 4:

• collect and organize data
• select and defend the particular graphic displays
• analyze and interpret stem and leaf plots
• explain how mean, median, and mode are different
• use measures of central tendency to describe a set of data
• compute and compare simple examples of range, median, and mode of simple data sets.

Math 4:  

Fourth grade math will shift focus from how fractions and decimals are related to how perimeter and area are related.  We will recognize perimeter as an attribute of plane figures and distinguish between linear and area measures.  We will solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters and areas of polygons.

Our instructional focus for the remainder of quarter three will focus on perimeter, area, elapsed time, multiplication and division.

*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 test preparation. A major aim of this unit is to support students in using strategies for each genre that have been taught throughout the year. This unit is about supporting students in thinking logically and flexibly to transfer all they know to their test-taking. 
 

Our reading workshop will teach students how to read, talk about and answer questions about short, test-like texts as well as strategies for answering selected-response questions. Students will also use chapter books to deepen their discussions and practice of reading strategies.

Our focus will shift to poetry.  If a text is a poem, readers should expect to pay attention to what the big meaning of the poem could be, what the poem is mostly about, or what it demonstrates or teaches.  This may be done through imagery, the meaning of a part or line, figurative language (personification, similie, metaphor), or through author's purpose.

 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. Students work in spelling groups to analyze the pattern and look for clues as to how to generalize the correct spelling of words within that pattern/sound. Our next spelling assessment will be February 22.

Weekly Newsletter, February 11 to 15

Snack Policy:

We wanted to take the time to clarify our snack policy.  We invite students to bring a snack to school as we do have a later lunch this year.  We prefer that the snacks be healthy, easy to eat, and require little to no clean-up such as fruit, pretzels, yogurt, etc.  Please remember the school-wide policy that all classrooms are nut-free.

Writing:

Our focus for Quarter 3 will be writing a persuasive essay. By the end of the unit, writers should be able to provide support for a claim in ways that chunk the supportive evidence into logically grouped categories. Writers will use transitional words, use phrases that convey the relationship between the chunks of text and the main claim, and draw on detailed specifics to support their claims.

We have now finished our 3 revisions of a personal topic.  Students will move on to explore issues in the community in which we live.  This "If I Were Mayor" essay will allow students to share an improvement to the community with Mayor Prats.  (see Social Studies section below).

A link to a website for information on the 6 Traits of writing is below:
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: Working to Create Change in Our Communities:

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.
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.

Science:
During quarter 3 students will engage in a hands-on environmental project that will promote habitat restoration in the Chesapeake Bay. This project is an extension of our first quarter science unit on Ecosystems.
Together with WSSC, students in each class will make reef balls out of cement. These reef balls will be deposited at the Memorial Stadium Reef where oysters will attach to them to increase their habitat and population. Click on the video below to see how we will be doing this in class. We are in need of parent volunteers on Thursday mornings for this project. Please contact your child's teacher if you are able to join us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2mUnvk79Mw

Math 5: Unit 3
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.

Unit Assessment will be February 11 & 12. Mrs. Dynda's math class has a review packet they should be working on at home.

Mrs. Johnson's class has been given a review packet to work on as well. The test in Mrs. Johnson's class will begin on February 13.

Math 4: Unit 3: Probability, Fractions and Decimals.
Our focus will shift to probability for the week. Students will need to be able to list all possible outcomes for a simple probability situation and express the probability of an event with equally likely outcomes as a fraction.
We will use spinners and number cubes to assist us in our probability exploration.

Unit Assessment on February 12 & 13

We will shift our focus to understanding concepts of perimeter and area next.

*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:

We will have a "mock MSA (Maryland State Assessment) Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, 2/12 for reading. All testing will be in the morning. The actual testing time, start to finish should be 30-45 minutes. This is to help students acclimate to testing procedures and question format. MSA testing doesn't take place until March. Please advise your child that this is just a practice and not an actual test.

Our focus in reading will shift to test preparation. A major aim of this unit is to support students in using strategies for each genre that have been taught throughout the year. This unit is about supporting students in thinking logically and flexibly to transfer all they know to their test-taking.
Our reading workshop will teach students how to read, talk about and answer questions about short, test-like texts as well as strategies for answering selected-response questions. We will continue to focus on non-narrative reading, both non-fiction and biography readings. Students will also use chapter books to deepen their discussions and practice of reading strategies.

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. Students work in spelling groups to analyze the pattern and look for clues as to how to generalize the correct spelling of words within that pattern/sound. Our next spelling assessment will be February 22.

Weekly Newsletter, February 4 to 8

Writing:We will begin Quarter 3 with a focus on persuasive essay writing. By the end of the unit, writers should be able to provide support for a claim in ways that chunk the supportive evidence into logically grouped categories. Writers will use transitional words, use phrases that convey the relationship between the chunks of text and the main claim, and draw on detailed specifics to support their claims.

We will begin by thinking about a topic that the students have strong feelings about. They will write their opinion and give reasons that tell why they feel this way. This pre-assessment will allow them to use everything they know about essay writing, letter writing, speeches, and reviews which will help teachers plan for future mini-lessons.  Once the students complete the pre-assessment, they will revise and edit two times after mini-lessons on the form of persuasive writing.

We will write four persuasive essays before focusing on our social studies topic: "If I Were Mayor" (see Social Studies section below).

A link to a website for information on the 6 Traits of writing is below:
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: Working to Create Change in Our Communities:

This month students will examine the lives of different people in history and today who are creating change in the community. Our first example was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders. We examined several video clips from the 1950's and 60's to discuss how to bring about social change.

Our next study will be various musicians who have worked to create change. Some include John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Garth Brooks, and U2. We will study how the impact of their music has inspired many changes around the world.

We will also discuss how kids can have a positive impact on their community and make a difference in the world. We will discuss Blake Mycoskie (founder of TOMS shoe company), dosomething.org, and Tristin & Tyler, two elementary students who host their own web video series to promote eco-activism. This will lead the students to think about change in our community of Laytonsville/Gaithersburg in order to complete an essay about being Mayor of our community.

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.

Science:
During quarter 3 students will engage in a hands-on environmental project that will promote habitat restoration in the Chesapeake Bay. This project is an extension of our first quarter science unit on Ecosystems.
Together with WSSC, students in each class will make reef balls out of cement. These reef balls will be deposited at the Memorial Stadium Reef where oysters will attach to them to increase their habitat and population. Click on the video below to see how we will be doing this in class. We are in need of parent volunteers on Thursday mornings for this project. Please contact your child's teacher if you are able to join us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2mUnvk79Mw


Math 5: Unit 3
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.

Looking Ahead: Unit Assessment will be February 11 & 12. Mrs. Dynda's math class has a review packet they should be working on at home.

Math 4: Unit 3: Probability, Fractions and Decimals.
Our focus will shift to probability for the week.  Students will need to be able to list all possible outcomes for a simple probability situation and express the probability of an event with equally likely outcomes as a fraction.
We will use spinners and number cubes to assist us in our probability exploration.

Looking Ahead: Unit Assessment on February 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 in reading will shift to test preparation. A major aim of this unit is to support students in using strategies for each genre that have been taught throughout the year. This unit is about supporting students in thinking logically and flexibly to transfer all they know to their test-taking.
Our reading workshop will teach students how to read, talk about and answer questions about short, test-like texts as well as strategies for answering selected-response questions. We will continue to focus on non-narrative reading, both non-fiction and biography readings. Students will also use chapter books to deepen their discussions and practice of reading strategies.

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. Students work in spelling groups to analyze the pattern and look for clues as to how to generalize the correct spelling of words within that pattern/sound. Our next spelling assessment will be February 8.