Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Real Men Read - Polar Express

TOMORROW, Wednesday, December 1, 2010 parents are invited to join our class for our Polar Express pajama event at 10:00 am. We will be having a guest reader come read The Polar Express for Biltmore's second real men read event.

Students are allowed to wear a two piece (flannel or cotton pant and shirt) pajama set with tennis shoes to school. 

Hope to see you there! 

Lessons Learned Nov 15 - 23

We are back after a nice long Thanksgiving break. We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday!

The last two weeks we have been working on...

Reading:
We finished up our story A Very Important Day and moved into our current theme's genre focus plays. During our center rotations we work with reader's theater short script plays frequently. Also, in our textbook we have been reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. In addition to working with plays, we have also been studying the focus skill compare and contrast.



Writing:
To go along with our study of plays, in writing we have been focussing on adding dialogue into our narrative stories. We have spent a lot of time working with mature vocabulary to replace said, because "said is dead" and is no longer welcome in our writing. We have also spent a lot of time practicing the correct format for writing the dialogue we want to include.

Dialogue Format:

( .) Imperative or declarative sentences:
" Put what the person is saying in the quotation marks - don't forget a capital letter," said word person who said the quote add some detail .
Example:
"Push in your chair when you get up," stated Ms. Cribb with a soft but serious tone.

(?) Interrogative Sentences:
"Put what the person is asking in the quotation marks - don't forget a capital letter?"  said word person who asked the question add some detail.
Example:
"Did you enjoy the field trip to the Cummer Museum?" questioned Jayla as she stepped off the bus.

(!) Exclamatory Sentences:
"Put what the the person is saying in quotation marks - don't forget a capital letter!" said word person who said the quote add some detail .
Example:
"Help!" screamed the little girl as the dog chased her down the street.

During the time we spent working on dialogue Mrs. Bridges also took us to the computer lab and we learned how to make PowerPoint slideshows. We used PowerPoint to create dialogue story slideshows.

Math:
We have been working on equivalent fractions the last two weeks in math.


Science:
We just completed a mini unit working with magnets.

Social Studies:
Recently Ms. Cribb taught a wonderful lesson on the first people of Florida. The lesson followed along with Chapter 2 in our social studies textbook. As a class we created a Florida Flipbook. Working in small groups, each group designed a book page about a particular tribe of Native Americans in Florida.

In social studies we have also started working in Chapter 3 of our textbook, studying European settlers coming to Florida.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Spelling Words Week of Nov 15-19

1. wait
2. until
3. party
4. where
5. ever
6. birthday
7. tomorrow
8. later
9. together
10. whispered
11. asked
12. stated
13. muttered
14. screamed
15. yelled
16. scolded
17. shouted
18. replied
19. questioned
20. every
21. babbled
22. called
23. mumbled
24. added
25. called
26. answered

Friday, November 5, 2010

Story of the Week Nov 8-12

The story of the week this week is A Very Important Day by Maggie Rugg Herold.



Story Summary: November 25th is the day that 219 people will take the oath of allegiance to the United States and become citizens. The focus of this multicultural narrative is the naturalization ceremony, which brings the 12 families introduced in the previous pages together in celebration of this momentous event.

The target skill for the week is categorize and classify. This story introduces many different characters from many different places. If students categorize and classify the many characters and countries named in the story it will help them understand the plot.

The strategy focus of the week is questioning. It is important to ask yourself questions while reading to make sure you understand the full extent of the story.

The focus skill of the week is compare and contrast. It is important that students understand how to relate and differentiate between multiple stories. Author's tend to make connections with other existing stories both intentionally and unintentionally.

First Nine Weeks Awards

Congratulations to the following students for excelling during the first nine weeks of school!

A-B Honor Roll: 
Mya Harris-Lee
Caleb Smith

Perfect Attendance:
Jayla Davis
Stevie Lee
Traci Newton
Caleb Smith

Conduct:
Pricess Benton
Mikaya Collins
Jayla Davis
Nahjibah Finney
Mya Lee-Harris
Tamerick Johnson
Stevie Lee
Ca'Sharah Mills
Charlea Mills
Argentina Newman
Traci Newton
Johntez Sims
Caleb Smith

Most Improved:
Jayla Davis
Pricess Benton
Tamerick Johnson


Also, GREAT JOB to all our previous Students of the Month:

September: Jayla Davis
October: Tamerick Johnson
November: Charlea Mills

Lessons Learned Nov 1-5

Reading:

This week we have been reading the story The Boss of the Plains by Laurie Carlson. This story is about how John Stetson became famous for creating the western hat, the boss of plains; today we know this hat as the cowboy hat. The story describes Stetson's journey through life including his shining moments and challenges faced on his road to becoming a famous hat maker. The target skill of the week was making generalizations. By making generalizations during reading we are analyzing the text which help with connection and comprehension. The strategy focus of the week was summarizing key events. If students can summarize a story in their own words, it shows clear understanding of the story. Finally, the focus skill of the week was cause and effect relationships. We have been working for two weeks on mastering this skill.



Writing:

During writing this week we continued to focus on engaging beginnings and great attention grabbers to pull the reader in. We completed activities both on how to identify the attention grabbers author's use in story beginnings as well as how to write our own. We also focused on editing strategies and what to look for when reviewing a writing piece. On Wednesday students completed an "on demand" writing prompt about a magic carpet ride; on Thursday they went back and self evaluated their writing before it was officially scored.

Mathematics:

In calendar math this week we wrapped up the skills discussed during the month of October. We reviewed the different types of triangles and their characteristics.  We discussed fractions, including how to convert from improper fractions to mixed numbers, as well as concepts of measurement, and how they relate. Students completed multiple fraction worksheets both in class and for homework to help in mastering this skill. Also, we continued to discuss decimals through concepts and characteristics relating to money. The Publix Activity homework assignments students completed helped build on this skill.


In math, we also continued to review our basic facts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Successful mathematicians are quick calculators. 

Monday, November 1, 2010

Homework Week of Nov 1-5

Monday: Complete Publix "Sorting Groceries" activity. Complete "Cause and Effect" FCAT worksheet. Complete math fractions worksheet.

Tuesday: Complete Publix "Grocery Mathematics" activity. Complete the poetry worksheet "Nest Eggs."

Wednesday: Complete Publix "Sorting Groceries" activity (part 2). Writing prompt. Study spelling words.

Reading:
1) determined
2) opportunity
3) frontier
4) wranglers
5) adventurers

Writing:
1) believe
2) favorite
3) teacher
4) principal
5) subject
6) recess
7) cafeteria
8) library
9) office
10) champion

Thursday: Complete Publix "Buying Groceries" activity. Complete Scholastic worksheet "American Indians in the U.S."

Friday: Complete Publix "Making Dinner" activity. Complete FCAT practice packet.