Families, I need your help locating some library books that the Plovers have checked out on my card. These books were meant to stay in the classroom, but we are unable to find them and I will have to pay for them if they are not turned in by the end of the year. Please take a look around your house in case any of these books accidentally found their way home with your student:
Amulet Book 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse
Knights & Castles: 50 hands-on activities to experience the Middle Ages
Big Nate Flips Out (Book #5)
Upcoming Events
May 22 Make Up PE @ 1:20 (no PE on Friday, May 24)
May 24 All School Meeting and Spirit Day (Beach Wear)
May 24 June Lunch Orders Due
May 27 No School
May 31 Garden Work Party
June 4 Zoo Trip - Chaperones Needed
June 5 Celebrations of Learning
June 7 All School Talent Show
Homework - More details posted on the Homework Page
1. Read for at least 20 minutes per day and fill out your reading log each night. Your parents must sign your reading log.
2. Complete your math homework.
3. Make observations and collect data about the bird and outdoor cat population in your neighborhood.
Upcoming Out and Abouts
We will have extended project times ("In and Abouts) for the next 2 weeks to work on our migration projects and presentations. Students will work on publishing a book about their animal, creating a poster for Celebrations of Learning and practicing their speeches.
Math Notes
This week in Third Grade math, students will share the posters they created last week to explain their solution to a multi-step story problem. These problems and presentations will help students review and reflect on the various strategies they have learned this year and provide opportunities for them to apply their strategies in new ways. We will also return to our study of multiplication so that students can gain fluency with their facts to 12. Additionally, we will begin some work with graphs in connection to the Level 2 focus on migration.
For homework this week, students will review basic multiplication and division fact families.
This week in Fourth Grade math, we will focus on solidifying our geometry skills by practicing our perimeter and area skills and apply our understanding by working independently on designing the floor plan for a dream house. Students will also have time to revisit their math goals this week. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Becky at [email protected].
Homework this week will support this skill development and include a review of area and perimeter.
Weekly Review
During our Out and About last week, we collected data about the bird and outdoor cat population in the neighborhood around our school. Students will continue collecting data at home this week. This is part of an investigation about the impact cats (pets and feral) can have on the local ecosystem. Our investigation began with a news clip about "Killer Cats," and the students were surprised to learn that cats are responsible for killing billions of birds and other small animals every year! You can watch the ABC News report here: http://youtu.be/XiM7M6Nm7Vs
Students had very complicated feelings about the news report and they had multiple discussions about their feelings towards cats and the responsibilities of pet owners. They were respectful about sharing their perspectives and asked clarifying questions when other students had different opinions. We made pictographs of the facts reported in the news clip and created math problems to figure out how many animals an average outdoor cat would kill in its life time. Some students extended their work with math to figure out how many animals were killed by birds across the United States! We will wrap up this investigation by making bar graphs of the data collected this week and working in small groups to design creations to keep cats away from wildlife.
The Plovers are using the majority of our project and writing time to become experts on the animals they chose to research for the migration project. Many students have already completed the first 3 sections of their rough drafts - appearance, habitat and diet - and have started creating the final copy of their All About Book that will be displayed at Celebrations of Learning on June 5th! They are working on animal masks with Teresa in Art and they will each begin making an information poster during our "In and About" time this week. We will devote a lot of class time to research projects in the coming weeks, but students may need to work on their reports at home as well, especially if they are absent. Thank you in advance for your support!
Communication
Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Parents and students can e-mail me at [email protected]. You can also leave a voice message on the class phone, come into the classroom before or after school, or call me before 8PM at home.