October 14 No School
Homework Due by Thursday, October 6th
1. Read for at least 20 minutes every night.
2. Complete at least 30 minutes of math practice.
3. Complete at least 20 minutes of typing practice on Typing.com (remember, you can log in with your FGCS Google account!)
Upcoming Out and Abouts
This Wednesday, the Plovers will participate in a LEGO engineering lab brought to FGCS by an Intel outreach program. We will have a special guest teacher facilitate the activity and talk about supply chain (source, make, deliver, reuse).
Volunteer Opportunities
Breakfast Donations - Fruit needed this Friday.
Mystery Readers - Just one spot still available this month: Tuesday 10/18!
Pumpkin Book Project
In October, Level 2 students will be writing essays about some of their favorite book characters! Each student will select a special book to write about and then they will learn how to develop opinions about these stories during reading and writing workshop. Another fun aspect of this project is that they will be able to represent their beloved character on a pumpkin! We will be designing and decorating the pumpkins in the classroom and in Art. Parents are invited to see our pumpkin display during student-led conferences! After the presentation, pumpkins will be sent home with students.
Pumpkin donations: If you are able to donate a pumpkin (or more than one pumpkin!), please drop it off in the classroom or send it with your student any time next week - October 10-13. We would appreciate small or medium-sized pumpkins or squashes that the students can carry on their own. Because we are turning the pumpkins into a variety of our favorite characters (Frog and Toad or Tacky the Penguin, perhaps!), weird-shaped pumpkins and squashes are welcomed. We also had a lot of success with foam pumpkins from the Dollar Tree and other craft stores last year!
Weekly Review
In third grade math, students have been working with clocks and practicing telling time to the nearest minute. Last week, students chose a project to work on to extend their understanding of time and clocks. In partners or small groups, some students have been taking apart clocks and redesigning them to make them easier for kids to read. Other students are creating telling time games and making timelines for popular stories like The Grouchy Ladybug and How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Some students are still struggling with phrases like "half past" and "quarter to," so try using these words at home when you are looking at the clock with your third grader! This week, we will begin our next unit on multi-digit addition and subtraction.
Current 4th grade math topics from Ginny:
1. Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NBT.A.2
Read and write multi-digit whole numbers using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form. Compare two multi-digit numbers based on meanings of the digits in each place, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.
2. Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NBT.B.4
Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
Last week, we visited Metro Central in NW Portland to learn about what happens to garbage. This is one place that a lot of trash (over 8,000 tons per day!) goes on its way to a landfill or recycling. The video below highlights a lot of the things we were able to see during our visit! We also toured the hazardous waste facility, where they process items that cannot go to the landfill, like batteries, paint, pesticides, cleaners and aerosol cans. As we move forward in our business community project, students will be reminded that the goods produced, bought and consumed in our communities may one day end up at the transfer station. We will also think about how we can all play a role in making our planet more sustainable by taking simple steps at home, work and school to recover resources and dispose of recyclables in the most responsible way.
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 or set up a time to meet with me before/after school.