Weekly Newsletter, May 28-June 1

Calendar Highlights:May 28: Memorial Day (Thanks to all for your service to our country!)
May 31: Instrumental Music/Choral Concert
May 31: Volunteer Luncheon, 11:30-1:30 (all parents are invited to attend as we say thank you to you for all of your support and service to our school this year!)
June 1: all classes math assessment (tentative)
June 1: ALL Field Trip Permission slips & payment is due (Please contact your child's teacher or Mrs. Ward if financial assistance is needed)
June 4: Field Day (we love volunteers!)
June 5: Additional Recess/Popsicle reward for meeting 1,000,000 minute reading goal
June 6: Annapolis Field Trip (we love volunteers!**)
June 11: 9:30, fifth grade promotion (all fourth graders will be with Ms. Hudson & Mrs. Dynda)
June 12: Yearbook signing; Early Release Day; Last Day of School

**Thank you to all who have volunteered to come to Annapolis with us.  At this time we have all the volunteers we can fit onto our buses. Everyone who has already sent in their money & volunteer form are attending! If you are still interested in volunteeering, you would have to meet us in Annapolis.  Please contact Ms. Hudson if you are still interested

Math 5:
This is a short unit. In Unit 6 we will cover probability; chance events and probability expressed as a fraction. We will also focus on Mathematical properties; properties of operation, evalutating expressions and negative integers.

"Students will write and evaluate expressions in one variable using substitution and knowledge of number properties. Students work with problems that provide them with opportunities to understand the need for unique answer and the need for rules that are required to achieve a unique answer. Students will use symbols to represent a situation, recognize equivalence and use inverses to solve equations. Students will make predictions based on the results of experiments and express probability of an event as a fraction or a ratio."

Important Vocabulary: additive inverse, evaluate, ratio, identity property, integers, zero property
Unit 6 assessment will be given: May 29 - 31st

Math 4: Students are working on a "Measuring Penny" project to help review attributes such as length, width, height, volume, time, and temperature.  After reading a book, we each chose an object to use to describe these attributes.  We had to use standard and nonstandard units when taking measurements.  We also will compare our objects to each other's objects to determine weight or capacity.
Our last unit assessment will be given on Thursday & Friday.  A review packet was sent home and students are spending time in class reviewing concepts of area, perimeter, and measurement this week.  This assessment is part of the student's academic profile but is not part of our Quarter 4 grade.

http://www.multiplication.com/

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 login 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/

Earth Science:
Students will work in teams to design a science exhibit this week.  They will use their knowledge of rocks, minerals, crystals, fossils, soil, and sand to design a hands on exhibit as the curator of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.  Each team will visit the Smithsonian on a virtual field trip and design an exhibit for a new Earth Science wing of the museum.
Students will be able to use a high-tech or a low-tech approach to this project.  We hope to be able to post their projects once completed!

Reading:
We continue the study of autobiographies and biographies/memoirs. Students have selected various autobiographies to read as well as the works of these authors. We will use the William & Mary strategies to analyze the works of these authors to make connections/draw conclusions to their lives.
All projects are due June 1 in Ms. Cooper's class and June 8 in Ms. Hudson & Dynda's classes.  Students will share their projects with each other over the following class periods.


READING HOMEWORK: Students are asked to read 20 minutes each night at home and record on their reading log. This is an independent book of their choosing. Students have additional reading assignments as determined by their reading group meetings with their teacher. Look for these assignments to be written in agenda books each night.

Writing:This week will continue to publish our quarter 4 writing projects/autobiographies.
All students in Ms. Cooper & Mrs. Dynda's classes are required to create an autobiography. Students in Ms. Hudson's class will continue writing their own projects. Students in the OSS reading group will be required to complete an autobiography.

Final copies of the projects are due to ALL teachers on June 1.

A link to a website for additional information on the 6 Traits is below:
http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/concord/teacherlinks/sixtraits/sixtraits.htm