updated January 13, 2020

Special Person’s Day – Planning Required

This week OLG families receive invitations to send to their special people, confirming their invitation to coffee, treats and mass at school, Thursday 1/30. Notice how I worded that? Most of you are veterans at this, so you know the need to call or email your special people now to see if they can join us, and send the invitation as verification. Students will bring their special person to school at 8:30. We’ll have light food, fellowship and mass. We often have guests in need of students; so if the special people in your life can’t make January 30, please let me know. We’ll pair your child up with an adult who needs a host.

Special Person’s Day is part of a week full of celebration. I have a fun project to complete with your children that requires glass jars with their lids. Please save, clean and send in used sauce or pickle jars. I need 29 by 1/27! Jars should be at least one quart with a wide mouth. Larger is fine. Thank you!

Reading, Writing, Social Studies, Science:

This moment in our year brings a wonderful convergence of skill and content. From the start of our year, our reading focus has been strategies for reading and understanding informational text. We’ve read books about Northwest Tribes and books about the Corps of Discovery. Students reviewed active reading strategies and learned to identify main idea and supporting details. They also learned a strategy called “Chunking”. This involves reading a text (often above grade level) and asking, “What is this trying to tell me?” This is a useful strategy as students encounter text not geared toward their specific reading level. We will practice these comprehension strategies in Science as we read about brine shrimp and the ecosystem of Mono Lake. Later we’ll use them as we study the Westward Movement, our next topic in social studies.

In writing fourth graders are starting to write informational articles of our own. This week students will identify their expert topics – activities they do a lot, places, people or animals they know about or things they do well. Next week we will brainstorm what we know and use a graphic organizer to structure our ideas. Later we will do brief research online, write a rough draft essay in class and then spend several weeks revising and editing. By now it’s clear, fourth graders use their reading and writing skills across all subjects, especially Social Studies and Science.

Math:

Fourth graders have very different comfort levels with dividing larger numbers. We will continue to reteach and practice as we move forward with real world problems. My experience helps me anticipate some parent stress over next week’s homework. To respond, I offer parent support (answers) via email and on the OLG 4^th grade classroom page.

WA State Map Project 2020

Math Packet, Christmas Break

Updated Service Trip Groups 2019-2020 Updated Service Trip Groups 2019-2020

Spelling Lists, full year

Dates to Remember

Monday, 1/20: MLK Day, No School

Thursday, 1/23: 4^th attends daily mass, all blues

Friday 1/24: WA State Family Map Project due, Half Day

1/26 – 1/31: Catholic Schools Week

Sunday, 1/26: Open House

Thursday, 1/30: Special Person’s Day

Wednesday, 2/12: students welcome to bring in Valentines and treats for an extended snack, if you bring for one, bring for all, no party

Half Day, Winter Conferences

Thursday, 2/13: Winter Conferences

Friday, 2/14: No School, Winter Break

Monday, 2/17: No School, President’s Day

Homework

Monday: Read for 20 minutes

Spelling worksheet – Do one side, read the flip side.

Writing (and Social Studies) assignment

Tuesday: Read for 20 minutes

Read spelling sheet out loud. Practice fluency.

Reading assignment

Math assignment

Wednesday: Read for 20 minutes

Read spelling sheet out loud.

Try to sound like a news reporter on TV.

Math assignment

Social Studies, time to work on family map

Thursday: Read for 20 minutes

Be ready to read spelling sheet out loud

Have spelling worksheet from Monday, ready to turn in on Friday

Study for spelling test and weekly quiz

Helpful Websites

Science

https://www.fossweb.com

User Name: OLG4Science

Password: OLG4Science

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPZI2M1fDi8

Producers, Consumers, Decomposers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV2-2Ym3IIc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wvzoIL4S7w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHNh5gYH780

Cursive Writing Resources

http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/cursive/animation/lowercase.htm

To see the animation, move your mouse over a letter. Lowercase

http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/cursive/animation/uppercase.htm

To see the animation, move your mouse over a letter. Uppercase

http://www.donnayoung.org/penmanship/cursive-animations.htm

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for cursive letter animation video clips for each letter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PBUYzWXEIQ

Continuous video clip, capital letters first, then lower case… not exactly how OLG teaches them, but clear and concise.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cursiva-lite/id976052613?mt=8

One of several free apps… Try them and share your experience with the rest of us.

Punctuation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4BbyBUSmA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWSfn9oPnJg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTChUiV9rCg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKGV8IvE7j0

clips to help learn punctuating dialogue

Social Studies

Video clips about timelines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFu-zMjGJJA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccwFRZFsDbk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc64qurhFng

Video clip explaining the challenge of showing the world on a flat map

Youtube clip guides you to create a map of Washington State. We call the “Puget Sound Lowlands” the “Western Lowlands”. Otherwise, this is perfect for helping us learn our state’s geography.

Video clip showing timeline and explaining BC/AD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFu-zMjGJJA

Typing Website

http://www.typing.com

Spelling Website

Check out this website for online spelling practice…. Enter our list each week! http://www.spellingcity.com/

Math

Chapter 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyWYQYqBbMg

Bar model example, division

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyvgHvDXStQ&list=PLCrYL64JQwDyAtX_ukOBiLJgEf8ri-u2T&index=1

Bar model example, multiplication

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyyw1gnGAhE&list=PLCrYL64JQwDyAtX_ukOBiLJgEf8ri-u2T&index=7

Bar model example, multiplication, before and after model

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUetnxoI2pE

Division, Math in Focus method

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asX8f0UFmgA

Division, Concrete to Pictorial, Math in Focus method

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skill_builders/division_math_fourth_4th_grade.htm

Links to websites for division lessons and practice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qhw6Tv8780

Reminder, multiplying multiples of 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QZnVBlMhNs

Double digit X double digit multiplication using an area model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xmsEtyOB10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVUfkN3TImI

Double digit X double digit multiplication showing partial products.

(No time is spent on this in Math In Focus, lesson 3.2, but I think it’s a good bridge between area model and the standard method that is taught next.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3YsWbOeA8

Double digit X double digit multiplication, standard method

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXdzUlf5fEk

Multiplication using an Area Model

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_xZfYtk0do

Multiplication using a Place Value Chart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzupp6Q3epA

Multiplication breaking apart larger factor into place value parts and adding partial products

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhLAe-_D1_o

Multiplication using place value method showing partial products

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QZnVBlMhNs

Multiplication, double digit X double digit, using an Area Model