November 21-25

Weekly Highlights:

November 20: Green Team Grounds Clean Up 11:00-1:00
November 23: Spelling Test
November 24: Happy Thanksgiving
November 24 & 25: School Closed, Thanskgiving Break


Math 4:
Students will continue focus on identifying factors and multiples this week. We will use Hands On Equations to write and solve equations with the variables x and y.

A number may be made by multiplying two or more other numbers together. The numbers that are multiplied together are called factors of the final number. All numbers have a factor of one since one multiplied by any number equals that number. All numbers can be divided by themselves to produce the number one. Therefore, we normally ignore one and the number itself as useful factors.


A multiple in math is any number that is a product of the number. The multiples in math are found by taking the products of any counting number and that number. For example 2,4,6,8 are all multiples of 2.

We are using the Kahn Academy website to take individualized tutorials to practice our multiplication facts. For more information, visit
http://www.khanacademy.org/ and search for basic multiplication.

http://www.multiplication.com/




Social Studies:
We will continue to study political, physical, and thematic maps this week. We will also study the grid of a map (latitude and longitude). We will have a graded quiz on continents and oceans on Monday, November 21.


Political Maps-include boundaries for countries, states, roads, highways, capitals, cities
Physical Maps-include land elevations, lakes, rivers, etc.
Thematic Maps-include information based on one theme (farming, population, land use, etc.)

Our study of maps will lead us into studying regions of the United States and how those regions impacted Native American Settlements. Students will then begin to research the Native Americans living in each region. Once research is compiled, students will create a PowerPoint presentation to display what they have learned to the class.




Reading:
In reading groups, we will begin to study the reading strategy making predictions. We will focus on making predictions before and during text for three weeks. When making predictions, students will focus on clues in the text or text features to help them predict what will happen in a text. We will read both fiction and nonfiction to predict outcomes.

The prediction cycle:

1. Make a prediction
2. Gather evidence to support prediction
3. Confirm or change that prediction.

Writing:
This week students will continue to revise and edit their writing pieces from quarter one. Several students have made graphs on Excel and are writing research papers about the topics. Other students are writing creative stories. Others are writing poetry collections. We can't wait to share these with you!


Once students have published their first writing projects of the year, they will move on to their second project. Here is a sample of what is happening in class:
Anjali and Ethan are creating journals.
Kaley, Melanie, Ryan, and Zaria are writing stories.
Brian is surveying the class about our favorite candies.
Christine is reporting on hamsters and dogs.






Spelling:
We have begun to study suffixes for Sort 5. Our spelling test will be WEDNESDAY November 23, 2011 due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. Be sure to see Ms. Hudson to take your test early if you will be absent that day.


The suffixes for the next two weeks are:
-y
-ly
-ily



Students will notice that adding a y to the base word creates and adjective wheras adding -ly and -ily creates an adverb.