Buster the Bulldog!

Starting this week at school, we have a new friend who has joined us, Buster the Bulldog. Buster appears at lunch everyday for each grade level, and then is given to the class who demonstrated the Bulldog Way during lunch. Today, we earned Buster! He will stay in our room until tomorrow. He will be returned at lunch, and then we have the chance to will again :) I hope we can have him in our room everyday! 

Here are a few pictures of us with our new pal!

Last Week of October!

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. I can't believe that we are approaching our last week of October together! Here is a look into our week. Make sure you take some time to check the blog and your email throughout the week for updates!

A Peek at the Week

Math: We will be switching units in math this week. On Monday and Tuesday we will be taking our Unit 3 test and finishing up some assessment pieces. On Wednesday and Thursday we will jump into Unit 4. Wednesday, we will specifically be looking into extending our place value into the decimals. If you need a quick overview of place value and decimals, I have included a picture in the “terrific tidbits” section of tonight’s blog post. On Thursday we will continue to explore decimals as we work with decimals and fractions. I am so excited to dive into this unit of math! There are some great hands on activities that we will be able to do! On Friday, we will be playing some fun and seasonal multiplication and division games to keep us working on our facts.

Science: This week we are starting investigation 3: Take Me to Your Liter! Through our experiments and hands on activities, we will be exploring what a liter is as well as what a milliliter is. If you are willing to donate items for this science unit, we would really appreciate it! I sent home a flier about it on Friday, but you can also read about it in one of our most recent blog posts. We will also be taking the North Dakota Science Assessment this week on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Reading: There will be a few things going on this week in reading. We will continue to work on our summarizing skills. To do this, each student will be digging into a book about a state of their choice. They will have time throughout the week to work on summarizing the most important information, and they will share their information with the class next week. In our small groups we are going to be working on tall tales and myths. Through these, we will also talk about figurative language, especially hyperboles. J

Writing: This week we will continue to work on our personal narratives as well as building the paragraph.

Word Study: In Word Study this week, we will be focusing on long and short e sounds in accented syllables. Our class did great with the long and short a words last week, so I am excited to see how this week goes!

Terrific Tidbits

Math

~keep working on Xtramath and Everyday Math online. These sites can provide a lot of practice! https://xtramath.org/   http://emccss.everydaymathonline.com/g_login.html

~Decimal Place-Value Review 

Reading

~ Spellingcity is still important! Make sure you are still practicing your words! https://www.spellingcity.com/MrsBecklund/

Need to Knows

~We have LIBRARY on Friday, the 31st. Don’t forget your books!

~I will be gone on Friday, the 31^st at a training for the district.

~ The Chip Shoppe Fundraiser products will be available for pick up on Wednesday, October 29^th. Products can be picked up in the gym starting at 2:30 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. ALL ITEMS have to be picked up on October 29^th. Thanks for Supporting our school!

~ Halloween is on Friday, but we are not allowed to wear costumes to school. If your student wears their costume to school, they will have to change.

I hope you all have a fabulous week! If you have any questions, make sure you email me at lnelsen@west-fargo.k12.nd.us

~Mrs. Becklund J

FOSS Science Investigation

Dear parents and students,

In the upcoming week we will be entering our next FOSS science kit investigation. Throughout this investigation, we will be working with defining metric units and learning about and measuring capacity. The main purpose of this investigation can be summed up in four points:

•        Students will discover the need for a standard unit of measuring volume and capacity.
•      Students will be able to identify the standard units for measuring volume and capacity in the metric system: liter and milliliter.
•       Students will use metric tools to measure volumes of liquids and capacities of containers.
•       Students will use scientific thinking processes to conduct investigations and build explanations: observing, communicating, comparing, and organizing.

One great aspect of this science unit is the amount of hands on practice that is included. This is where we need your help. Since we are dealing with finding capacity and volume for multiple objects we are asking if you would be willing to help us collect a variety of containers for students to practice measuring capacity.

Some examples of these containers might be:

·         Juice Bottles

·         Ketchup Bottles

·         Syrup Bottles

·         Salad Dressing Bottles

·         Jam/Jelly Jars

·         Peanut Butter Jars

·         Yogurt and Margarine Containers

·         12 oz. Soda Cans

·         2 Liter Bottles

·         Etc.

If you would like to help, please send these materials with your student by next Tuesday, October 28, 2014. We appreciate your willingness to help us out in our science investigations!

Thank you in advance,

Leah Becklund, Eddy Delzer, & Lori Steinbrink (4^th grade teachers at Independence Elementary)

Keyboarding and Choosemyplate

Hey students and parents,

This year in 4th grade, we will be using the computers quite a bit, especially in a few months! To help aid in this, it might be helpful to have some keyboarding practice. I have listed a few websites that can help in practicing keyboarding. If we can practice and become better typers now, later on we can spend more time getting through the activities without having to focus on figuring out what keys to press :) Have fun with this!

P.S. These are all free activities

• http://www.typingweb.com/tutor/games/
• This site has a ton of fun games! I have found myself spending a lot of time practicing because the games are so much fun. 
• http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games.html
• I love this site for the instruction! The British accent and talking sheep make it fun too!
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr
• http://www.keybr.com/
• This site is quick, easy, and basic to use. It also keeps track of the keys you are struggling with, which can be helpful!
• This one is AWESOME, especially if you have an aspiring chef in the household! 
• http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/games/typingchef.php
• This link has 3 separate typing games. My personal favorite out of the 3? KeyMan (a spin off of Pac Man)
• http://www.typingmaster.com/games/typing-games.asp

I had a few students ask to share this website. This website was designed by the United States Department of Agriculture, and is an awesome site that teachers about nutrition. There are some really fun games to play!

• http://www.choosemyplate.gov/kids/

We are great in week 8!

Hello 4^th graders and family members! I hope you all had a fabulous break. I know that I sure enjoyed the long weekend. My husband, Scott, and I decided to travel all the way Hayward, Wisconsin (a 5.5/6 long trip) for some time at the family cabin. It was nice to build some campfires, do some hiking, and spend time in the fabulous Wisconsin fall forests. As much fun as I had, I really did miss being at school, and made sure to fit in quite a bit of school work. I am so excited for this next week, finally a full 5 days, and for the fun that it will bring. I apologize for not posting last week and for not sending home a newsletter. Since it was a short week, and a crazy busy one, I decided to wait until this week to send anything. Below you’ll find out usual positing. If you end up having any questions at all, please feel free to email me at lnelsen@west-fargo.k12.nd.us . Thanks again for reading, and make sure to check in on the blog/your email throughout the week.

Peak at the Week

Math: This week in math, we will be finishing Unit 3. On Monday we will focus on determining if number sentences are true or false. For example, 75>100   (75 is more than 100). Well, I know that 100 is actually larger than 75, so this number sentence is false. Tuesday we will shift gears and work on using parentheses in math.  This is very important in correctly writing and solving math problems. Here is an example: 15 – 7 X 2 = 16   I know that the first step was 15-7=8  and that the second step was 8 x 2 = 16. Knowing this, I would place my parentheses around the 15 and the 7 so my equation would look like this: (15-7)X2=16. On Wednesday we will work on open sentences. When you see this, it may look a little like early algebra. When we are solving open sentences, we are looking for the unknown. An example of this would be: 12 + x = 55. To find the unknown I am going to take 55 – 12 to find an answer of 43. I am excited to work on this! On Thursday and Friday we will be reviewing and practicing for our Unit 3 math test, which will take place next Monday, October 27^th.

Social Studies: This week we will be working through the Midwest States. Throughout the week we will be completing a Nonfiction Matrix based on the Midwest States. On Friday we will be taking our Midwest States quiz. This week the quiz will include the state name, abbreviation, and capital. Since we are focusing on the Midwest, the quiz will also have the Great Lakes. As a big heads up, the following week we will take a quiz on all 50 states. Make sure you are practicing your state names and capitals!

Writing: This week we will continue to work on our personal narratives. For our mini-lessons we will be focusing on building the paragraph. We want to work on creating strong paragraphs in our writing, so this week we will focus on finding weak paragraphs, determining why they are week, and then fixing them so they are stronger.

Reading: This week we will continue to work on the summarizing strategy. On Friday we will be taking another STAR quiz. I love being able to use these to check in and see where our strengths are as well as our weaknesses so I can continue to work on shaping my lessons to hit our needs. There will also be a spelling test on Friday, so make sure you study your words during the week. 

Word Study: This week in Word Study we will be focusing on long and short a pattern words. I have really enjoyed seeing how  Word Study has improved our word usage in writing and speaking.

Terrific Tidbits

·         Math

o   During conferences, I heard from a few parents that there was a link they really liked that I had shared earlier this year. This is really helpful information for a parent who wants to help their kiddo on studylinks in the Everyday Math curriculum.  Here it is again: http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/4th-grade/em-at-home/unit_3/

o   www.xtramath.com is a great place to practice facts!

·         Social Studies

o   Our favorite song J https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E2CNZIlVIg

o   This is a great game to practice the state names with. http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/unitedstates.html

o   This game is great to practice the name of the capitals: http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-geography-venture-capital/

·         Spelling

o   http://www.spellingcity.com/MrsBecklund/

Need to Knows 

• When you came to conferences you may have noticed the wall near my desk. I want our classroom to feel like home away from home, so your student can bring in a photo of themselves or their family to place on our wall. I really think this will enhance the community that we have already began creating in our classroom
• Homework Room will continue this week from 7:30-8:00 a.m. every day of the week. This time is great if you need to read a few more minutes, or if you want some extra time to finish up your homework. There is a certified teacher there every morning to answer your questions!
• This week we will start a new way of tracking reading. On Monday, I will be sending home a reading log. Each time you read 20 minutes, you will check off the box and include a parent signature. It is SO important to be reading every single night. I will be collecting these every other week. If we want to see improvements in fluency, comprehension, and reading levels, this is one of the biggest things we can do!

Enjoy your week, and I will keep you posted on any changes!

~ Mrs. B J

Happy October!

Good evening! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. I know that I was busy enjoying the wonderful, but pretty chilly, fall days. This is going to be a different week in 4^th grade since we do not have school on Wednesday, October 8^th. Here is a look at what we will be doing this week:

Peek at the Week

Math: On Monday, we will do one more day of learning and using different multiplication strategies. On Tuesday, we will start working on Unit 3, which deals with exploring multiplication even further.

Social Studies: This week we will be working on the Western States. We have had such a blast learning about the United States, and I can’t wait to see how these new states go. While studying the states this week, we are going to also be learning more about the practice of summarizing to relay information.

Language Arts/Grammar: This week we will continue to work on the summarizing strategy. Word study will be entering the next unit. I have been very impressed with how Word Study has increased our vocabulary and our writing skills. It is fun to see!

Writing: We will continue to work on personal narratives. With this, we will also spend part of our writing time working on using and adding vigorous verbs into our writing.

Need to Knows

·         There is NO SCHOOL this Wednesday, October 8^th. Enjoy your day!

·         Homework Room will continue to take place this week from 7:30-8:00 am

·         Now that the weather is starting to become a bit chilly, make sure you are sending your student to school with jackets/coats/hats/gloves/etc. I just want to make sure everyone is staying nice and warm while they are out in the mornings and at recess.

I hope you all have a great week. I will be posting some helpful sites on the blog tomorrow hopefully. Remember to check the blog throughout the week and email me if you have any questions.

-Mrs. B J