Week 16

Dear Parents,


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with families, friends  and food. As we return from the Thanksgiving holiday, our school week will be a simple one.

In math, we will continue our study of division. We will be working on division with a remainder and long division this week. I am planning on teaching long division in class before students encounter it on the computer. We will be doing long division problems on graph paper first in order to help keep place values straight and will eventually transition to doing the problems on ordinary paper. After column multiplication, long division is the most complicated process students learn in grade school math. Please ready to support you students at home as they learn this challenging process.

This week in RM, studnets should not go past the lesson "Division with a Remainder" until Wednesday, and if they finish the lesson "Long Division" by the wekend, they should not go past it. They should go into Wall of Mastery instead.

In geology, we are beginning the long-awaited geology project. It will be a model of the earth's interior as pictured below. Each night, the student's will add a few layers to their model until it is done.


 The front of the project:

The back of the project:

This is the finished project, except for labels. The clay on the project I made is still a little wet, so I haven't been able to put the labels on it. However, students will not be assigned to put labels on the project until the weekend anyway. I will get you a picture of the labels by then.

The front of the project models the layers of the earth as if one could cut the earth in half through the center and see the layers. The back of the project shows the earth's crust (surface) and the tectonic plates that lie just beneath the earth's surface.The blue part with the green splotches is the crust. The blue represents the ocean and the green parts of the land. The land I drew is not intended to be any sort of accurate global map, and the students' land does not need to be either. The purple part represents the earth's tectonic plates. They lie underneath the earth's surface and are not exposed, soa  more accurate model would have the entire back side of the project covered in blue and green crst. However, it is important for students to understand the plates, how they fit close toegtehr like a puzzle but do fit perfectly together. For this reason, I want their models to be only half-covered in crust on the back, leaving the other half with exposed plates.

Please don't let your students complete the project in a single night unless it is completely necessary (i.e., you will be out of town for most of the week). I have posted pictures of the finished project to help students and parents see what the final product should look like. However, they idea is for students to add layers to their project each night based on what they learned in class during the day. That way they are getting a tactile experience of the information, instead of just hearing lectures about something they can't see or feel. Also, we will be discussing relevant details of the project in class each day. I will be sending the students home with information on the steps to be completed each night as the project progresses, and I will also post the steps to my blog.

These are all the notes I have for you this week. As always, please contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns you have.


Sincerely,


Miss Wycklendt

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Parents,

I’m sure you and your families are looking forward to Thanksgiving, and I’m sure your students especially are looking forward to the short week of school. Monday and Tuesday will be ordinary school days, but Wednesday will be a half day with pick-up starting at 12:00 instead of 1:15. Thursday and Friday are off. As usual for half days, there is no lunch time so students do not need to bring lunch on Wednesday unless they are in Athenaeum. No hot lunch will be served.

In math, we will continue studying division and reviewing area and perimeter. We will also continue practicing column multiplication by a two digit number. At least one two-digit column multiplication problem will appear on all math homework assignments through the end of the quarter because it is such an important skill for students to have. I have spent a great deal of time tutoring students on this topic in math lab. It would be extremely helpful if you could also look over the column multiplication problems they complete on homework assignments to further ensure your students’ success on this important topic.

In science I was intending to have students start their at-home geology project this week. However, several parents have mentioned a strong preference to have the project start after Thanksgiving in order to make this holiday week easier. For this reason, I will be postponing the project again. It will start on the Monday after Thanksgiving week.

I have tried to be clear in my communications about the geology project, but I have still received many questions. The geology project will be for students to make a model of Earth’s interior. It will be a cross-section, made to look as if Earth was cut in half through the center and one could see inside. STUDENTS WILL BE COMPLETING THE PROJECT AT HOME. The project will have five steps, so students will complete one step each day that week for homework. During the week of the project each day’s science class will be spent discussing the information students will need to complete the step of the project assigned that night. Students will then go home and complete that step of the project for homework that night. At the end of the week, students will have a complete model of the earth’s interior.

The project will have the weight of a test in the students’ second quarter grades. This should be good for their grades in that they will have complete control over how well they do on the project. Students that follow all the directions and include all the features required will receive full points for the project (unless their work is sloppy or careless).

In case you and you student have not yet obtained the supplies for the geology project here is the list: 1. A can of red play-dough  2. A can of yellow play-dough  3. A can of orange play-dough  4. A can of black or brown play-dough (one or the other; not both) 5. A can of blue play-dough  6. A metal or metal-looking bead at least a ¼ inch in diameter (to be the earth’s iron core)  7. A black Sharpie for writing labels   8. A green Sharpie for drawing land masses

You should be able to pick up the supplies at Walmart easily enough. That’s where I got the supplies for the sample I made. I did have a little trouble finding the black can of play-dough. If you can’t find black or brown, even purple would be fine.

Those are all the notes I have for you this week. As always, please feel free to contact me through your Jupiter Ed account.

Sincerely,

Miss Wycklendt

Week 14 Blog Post

Dear Parents,

This week will be a busy but fun week for our fourth grade class. In music, students are starting more intensive rehearsals for their winter concert during the school day. They will have several rehearsals with the whole grade together. On Tuesday, we have our class field trip to the MIM and some shopping time at our school book fair. On Friday we have our all-school literary and historic figure day.

Please make sure that your students bring their permission slips with money to school tomorrow (Monday) or you can bring the slips and money directly to the front office yourself. Students who do not have their form and money in by the end of the school day tomorrow will NOT BE ALLOWED TO ATTEND THE FIELD TRIP. Forms and money will not be accepted on Tuesday morning. Students not attending will be left to shadow a third grade class for the day, so please, get those forms in! When students hand in their forms, it must be accompanied by the money. Forms without money will not be accepted.

Students are required to come to school in uniform on field trip day. They must arrive at school on time in order to be part of the field trip, and they must be picked up from school after the field trip.

As of this weekend, our 4B class coordinator, Dr. Karen Beckwith, sent an email saying we are in need of two more chaperones for our field trip. For the safety of our students, we do need those chaperones. Please consider signing up to share this fun experience with your child!

Chaperones are asked to be at school by 8:00am so we can meet with them in the MPR around 8:15 and get them familiar with their assigned groups. They will, of course, travel with the students on the bus, accompany a small group on the field trip and later accompany their group to a picnic lunch at a near-by park.

Because lunch will be a picnic lunch at a park, all students should bring a bag lunch on the field trip. We will not be at the cafeteria for hot lunch. Chaperones would need to bring lunches as well.

If you are not able to chaperone, but you would still like to be a part of our trip, you can meet us at the MIM at 9:30am. You would have to pay the ordinary adult admission price to the museum. Your student would still need to be dropped off at school, travel with the class on the bus, and travel back from class on the bus. If you would like to join us, though, we would love to have you.

As you probably read in our school newsletter, Friday is our school’s literary and historic figure day. Students are encouraged, though not required to dress up as a literary figure from one of the classic books in our school curriculum or in our school library. More specific guidelines were sent out through our school newsletter, but if you have any questions about appropriate costumes, please feel free to contact any of the fourth grade teachers. Students not wearing costumes are required to attend in their ordinary uniforms.

Congratulations to all the students who participated in our annual read-a-thon fundraiser! Thank you to all the parents, relatives and friends who supported our fundraiser! The students who completed the read-a-thon have vouchers for money to use at our school book fair. They will find them on their desks Monday morning. Students who did not participate in the fundraiser may still bring money to use at the book fair. If they do bring money, please advise them to be discreet. Teachers will not keep or be responsible for money students bring to school, and because students share lockers, they cannot lock their lockers.

The schedule for the book fair is as follows: On Monday from 1:30 to 1:45, all students will have the opportunity to browse the book fair, but they will not be allowed to purchase anything. On Tuesday from 1:45-2:30, directly after the field trip, students who have vouchers or cash to spend will be allowed to shop at the book fair. On Wednesday from 9:00am to 10:00am, parents will have the opportunity to shop at the book fair. On Thursday, students who were unable to purchase books at the book fair on Tuesday will still have the opportunity to do so during lunch recess or Lyceum.

As busy as the week is, it is also the week in which deficiency notices will be sent out to parents whose students are averaging a C- or lower in any class. While these notices can be disappointing to receive, they are intended to open a conversation about how students can improve. Once the scholar has brought their grade up, the notice has no further relevance to their grade or academic record. Of course, we would all prefer to have students keep their grades up and avoid deficiency notices. To help with this, I will be sending emails tomorrow about assignments students are missing. Students who get them and return them by Wednesday will be more likely to avoid deficiencies. To help motivate students to get their missed assignments in during this busy week, I am offering full credit to students on all missing assignments turned in by Wednesday. (Normally, missing assignments only receive half-credit.)

Regarding math classes:  Students should be starting division in math lab this week. A few students are still working on area and perimeter. In order to have the best quality math labs and math classes possible, it is important for students to be working on the same lesson. That way they have a shared understanding of the material which they can discuss in class, and they are strengthening their understanding of math topics by working on the same topics in lab and class. For these reasons, students who are behind the class in math lessons may be assigned more online homework than students who are on track with their class. They will be held responsible for this homework as part of their grade. It is not really extra homework; it is work they should have already completed.

One final note: I was intending to start the at-home geology project as part of homework this week. However, with all the other things going on this week, I don’t want to put extra pressure on parents and students. We will start the project as part of homework next Monday. In case you have not bought the supplies for the project, they are: 1. A can of red play-dough  2. A can of yellow play-dough  3. A can of orange play-dough  4. A can of black or brown play-dough (one or the other; not both) 5. A can of blue play-dough  6. A metal or metal-looking bead at least a ¼ inch in diameter (to be the earth’s iron core)  7. A black Sharpie for writing labels   8. A green Sharpie for drawing land masses

The project is going to be a model of the inside layers of the earth. Students should keep the supplies at home because the project is homework. I will send detailed instructions home each night next week on the steps students are expected to complete on each night of the project.

These are the many notes I have for you this week. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns, and I will be happy to help you.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Wycklendt

Week 13 : Math and Science Test Study Guides

Dear Parents,

This coming week of school will be a calm one in terms of the schedule; we will be following our normal schedule except for Friday. Veteran’s Day is on Friday, and we do not have school that day.

Tuesday, November 15 will be our fourth grade field trip to the MIM (Musical Instrument Museum).  Last your, our filed trip to the MIM was a great success, and we are excited to be offering this opportunity again. Details about cost and timing, as well as permission slips, will be coming out later this week.

Friday, November 18 will be our annual literary and historic figure day. Students are encouraged to dress up as characters from class stories or form history. No scary or aggressive costumes are permitted, of course. Students are not required to dress up, but if they choose not to, they are required to come in uniform.

As announced last week, we will be having our first math and science tests of the quarter this week. Both tests will be on Thursday in order to have more time for students to study and more time for in-class review. The study guides are below my signature line on this post.

This week I will be sending home records of students’ RM homework completion, including the total number of points they earned for last week’s RM homework. Completing the required 20 minutes is worth two points, completing 10-15 minutes is worth one point, and completing less than ten minutes is worth zero points. Anytime students log into the RM system to work in guided study, they have to complete a warm-up which will take about five minutes. If they log in and work for less than ten minutes, they are not making any progress on the lesson, so I am not giving points for students that are not working for at least ten minutes. Students that work for longer than the required twenty minutes can also earn extra credit points.

This week, students should be in the lesson “Formulas for the Area and Perimeter of Squares and Rectangles” by Monday, and they should not go past “Dividing Round Natural Numbers.”

Next week we will be starting geology, so students should have the supplies for their geology project on hand by then end of this weekend.

These are all the notes I have for you this week. If you have any questions or comments, please send me a message through your Jupiter Ed account.

Sincerely,

Miss Wycklendt

Math Test Study Guide on Factors, Multiples, and Column Multiplication

1.       Students should be familiar to with factors and multiples. Factors are numbers that you multiply together to get a given number. Most number have several pairs of factors. For example, 3 and 4 are factors of 12 because 3 x 4 =12. 2 and 6 are factors of 12 because 2 x 6 = 12. 1 and 12 ae factors of 12 because 1 x 12 = 12. Multiples are numbers your get from multiplying by a given number. For example, 12, 24, 26 and 48 are all multiples of 12 because you can multiply by 12 to get them. Many students skip count to identify multiples.

2.       All numbers have one and themselves as factors. Some numbers only have one and themselves as factors; these are called prime numbers. For example, 11 is a prime number because the only numbers which multiply o make 11 are one and 11. Mathematicians do not consider one and 0 to be prime numbers, and I will not accept them as examples of prime numbers on the test.

3.       Most numbers have more factors than one and themselves; these are called composite numbers. For example, 8 is a composite number because 1 x 8 = 8 but also 2 x 4 = 8.

4.       Students should be able to identify whether a given number is prime or composite and explain how they know this. For example, 10 is composite because 2 x 5 = 10. 3 is prime because only 3 x 1 = 3. Students should also be able to come up with their own examples of prime or composite numbers and be able to prove that those examples are prime or composite in a similar fashion.

5.       Given a number less than 50, students should be able to identify all the factors of the number. I will typically be choosing numbers that are on the multiplication tables to make finding the factors a little easier. However, not all factors of those numbers will be found in multiplication problems that are on the multiplication tables, and students still need to find those factors. Students should be able to recognize that any even number will have 2 and some other number as one of its factor pairs, even if these factors aren’t on the multiplication tables. For example, 2 and 15 are factors of 30, as are 6 and 5, 3 and 10, and 1 and 30.

6.       Given two numbers, students should be able to explain if one number is a factor of the other number or not. For example, is 6 a factor of 26? No, because 6 x 4 = 24 and 6 x 5 = 30. Students could use a number of other reasonable thought processes to explain their answers, including skip counting and adding.

7.       Given a number, students should be able to list multiples of the number or identify a particular multiple of that number. For example, what are the first three multiples of 13? They are 13, 26, and 39. What is the ninth multiple of 3? The ninth multiple of 3 is 27. (Skip counting or multiplying could be used to explain this answer.) Students should be able to identify when a list is being asked for as opposed to a particular multiple. If they five me a list that includes they particular multiple I asked for, I will mark it correct, but if they only give the fifth multiple when I asked for the first five multiples, I will mark them incorrect.

8.       Students should be able to answer questions like the following: 42 is the sixth multiple of what number? It is the sixth multiple of seven because 6 x7 = 42.

9.       Students should be able to accurately perform column multiplication by a one-digit number with regrouping (carrying).

10.   Students should accurately be able to perform column multiplication by a two digit number with regrouping using the traditional method we all learned in grade school. In class, we have broken some two digit column multiplication problems apart into three separate problems in order to help students understand what they are doing when they perform column multiplication. However, this is a tool to help them understand two digit column multiplication. It is NOT a replacement for the traditional process. Students should NOT be breaking problems like 345 x 25 into three problems in order to solve them. I will mark them incorrect. They need to prove they can perform the traditional process. Students who have not completed the RM lesson “Column Multiplication by a Two-Digit Number” will be at a big disadvantage, and they would do well to try to catch up before the test.

11.   I know the above study guide on factors and multiples is long, but most of the students understand them quite well as long as they do not confuse factors and multiples for each other.  The more difficult part for most students will be the two-digit column multiplication.

Science Study Guide on Electricity and Magnetism

1.       Electricity is the motion of electrons hopping form atom to atom. Students should know this definition. Students should also understand that electricity is caused by electrons hopping from atoms in a negative state (atoms with more electrons than protons). The hopping electrons are looking for atoms in a positive state (atoms with more protons than electrons) so they can bond with the protons.

2.       Students should know the definitions of current and voltage. Current is the stream of electrons flowing along a directed path to a destination. (It is a stream like in a river; the electrons are moving in a line instead of bouncing around all over the place. They have a destination they are trying to reach; usually they are trying to get to protons. ) Voltage is how many electrons are moving. A high voltage means more electrons are moving and a low voltage means fewer electrons are moving.

3.       Students should know that a conductor is a material that allows electricity to pass through easily and an insulator is a material that does not allow electricity to pass through easily. They should know basic examples of each. Metal, water, plants, animals and people are all conductors. Stone, wood, rubber and most everyday items are insulators.

4.       Students should know the parts of a simple circuit and be able to draw a diagram of a simple circuit. (The expected diagram is in their notebooks.) A simple circuit must have a power source, a conductor, and an object to power. A switch is optional but not necessary. Students should be use these general terms to explain the parts of circuits instead of giving specific examples such as batteries and wires.

5.       Students should understand how a switch works. A switch connects a circuit. When a switch is open, the circuit is not connected. The electrons are not able to reach the protons they are trying to find, so they don’t move and the electricity does not flow. When the switch is closed, the circuit is connected. The electrons move to find the protons and electricity flows. Basically, a closed switch turns the circuit on and an open switch turns it off.

6.       Students should know the difference between a parallel circuit and a simple circuit. A parallel circuit has one power source, but it has two (or more) objects being powered and two (or more) conductive paths. This language is very deliberate: not two conductors, two conductive paths. A simple circuit has only one path for electrons to move on: around in a circle. A parallel circuit starts with electrons moving from the power source on a single path, but then that path branches off into two possible paths for the electrons to follow. Each path has an object to be powered. After passing through the powered objects, the paths come together and fuse again into one path on which all the electrons travel back to the power source.

7.       Students should be able to draw the diagrams for parallel and simple circuits. They should have those diagrams in their notebooks.

8.       Magnets are caused by a small number of electrons in an atom spinning in the opposite direction as the other electrons in the atom. All electrons orbit the nucleus of the atom. As they orbit, they also spin on their own axes. They generally all spin in the same direction, all clockwise or al counterclockwise. When a few electrons spin in the opposite direction as the other electrons in their atom, they create a magnet.

9.       Magnets are attracted to metal and other magnets.

10.   Magnets have two ends called poles. Every magnet has a north pole and a south pole. Opposite poles attract; same poles repel.

11.   A magnetic field is the space around a magnet in which a magnet can attract or repel other objects without touching them.

12.   Electromagnetism: When an electric current passes through a conductor, it creates a magnetic field. This means that there will be a magnetic field around ANY current of electricity. For an interesting example, you can connect a screwdriver to a battery with wires and the screwdriver will become a magnet.

Week 12

Dear Parents,

I am sorry; I completely forgot to update my blog. I wrote a blog post for you last week, but I forgot to post it until now. Here it is, a little late:

This week will be relatively uneventful at school. In science, we are continuing our study of electricity and magnetism. We are getting to the exciting part where students get bring together these topics in a study of electromagnetism. We will be using experiments, demonstrations and videos to help the students understand this mysterious topic.

In math, we will be learning about two-digit column multiplication, area and perimeter. We did start our study of two-digit column multiplication last week, and we did so by breaking these complicated problems into parts and the putting those parts together in a column. For example, with 245 x 13, we multiplied 245 by 3 first. Then we multiplied it by 10 and added the products of these problems to get the answer to 245 x 13.  I then showed the students how to put all three of these problems together into a traditional two digit column multiplication format, the same format you all learned in school. From now on, this traditional format is the format expected when students see multiplication problems where both factors have two or more digits. Most of the students understand this, but in case your student starts doing the three step process at home, feel free to correct them!

We will be having test in math and science next week. Our science test will be on electricity and magnetism. Our math test will be on factors, multiples, multiplying round numbers, and column multiplication. Study guides and more information will be included on the blog post for this upcoming weekend.

I did send home multiplication logs in an updated format this week. I hope it is now clear how students’ flashcard practice is to be recorded. Additionally, I would like to remind parents that online homework completion is being recorded as part of the students’ grades. It is not optional. Students who don’t do online homework or do very little online homework do receive zeros for missing that work, just like they would for any other assignment. I am creating a log so that parents will be able to have records of the grades assigned for online homework completion. These logs will be sent home in their Friday folders next week. Hopefully, this will ensure better communication about homework completion and what students overall grades are likely to be.

I did mention that we would be doing a geology project when we start our geology unit. That will not be for another two and a half weeks, but in case you would like to start shopping for supplies early, here is the list: 1. A can of red play-dough  2. A can of yellow play-dough  3. A can of orange play-dough  4. A can of black or brown play-dough (one or the other; not both) 5. A can of blue play-dough  6. A metal or metal-looking bead at least a ¼ inch in diameter (to be the earth’s iron core)  7. A black Sharpie for writing labels   8. A green Sharpie for drawing land masses

This week, students should be on the lesson, Formulas for the Areas and Perimeters of Squares and Rectangles in guided study, but they should not go past it. If they are still working on column multiplication or properties of multiplication, they are behind.

These are all the notes I have for you this week. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please get in touch by sending a message through your Jupiter Ed account.

Sincerely,

Miss Wycklendt