Welcome to a Magical Year!

Events for Week of November 9 - 13, 2009

Monday	Math Unit 3 Test Academic Pursuit Try-Outs (all 4th graders will try-out)
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday	Southeast States and Capitals Test
Friday	Religion Chapter 5 Test

  Math:   We will begin Unit 4 on Tuesday this week.  Unit 4 focuses on decimals.  We will:

Know

      -           base-ten place-value system to decimals

      -           basic concepts, notation, and applications for decimals

      -           relationships among metric units of length

Understand

-           decimal place value

-           comparing and ordering decimals

-           decimals in money

-           decimal addition and subtraction

DO

-           read and write decimals through the thousandths

-           find multiples of numbers less than 10

-           find factors of numbers

-           convert “easy” fractions to decimals

-           estimate sums and differences of decimals

-           measure to the nearest centimeter

Students will be completing two projects during this unit.  The projects will be completed during school.  Students will choose which project to complete, such as a poster, children's book, song, or topic web.

 Spelling:  This week the students will create a "Homophone Book" using their spelling words.  The books are due on Friday.

On Mondays, students take a Spelling pre-test.  Words that the student misspells are added to their Weekly Spelling list.  Students then chose "Challenge" words so they have a total of 20 words each week.  Weekly Spelling assignments are given to the students on Monday.  The students should complete each assignment in their Spelling notebook.  The notebook will be collected on Friday morning.  Students are expected to review and practice their spelling words each day at home.  The students will give each other their Spelling tests on Friday.  If a student loses or forgets, challenge words and weekly assignment sheets are attached below as a link.

Reading: We will be reading an excerpt from "The Cricket in Times Square."    Our focus will be on visualizing while we read.  Visualizing means to form a picture in your mind.

Book Reports - Each student must complete a book report each month.   This grade is included in the Reading Grade.   Each month the students will read a book from a different genre and complete a project.   The project will usually be completed during school time, however, there may be times when the students need to bring supplies from home.

Students are expected to read chapter books at their reading level. Therefore, all book report books must be approved by the teacher before the students begin reading.   Students must also have their books at school on the day that we will complete the project.  

For the month of November, students will be choosing a fantasy book.   The reading must be finished by Wednesday, November 25, 2009.

Writer's Workshop: We will begin our study of nouns.  Ask you child to list as many nouns as he/she can think of.

Social Studies: Our Southeast states and capitals test is this week.  Be sure to practice at home.  During class we have been reading about the people of the Southeast.  We learned that Sequoyah invented the Cherokee alphabet.  We will be reading about the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement.

Religion: Chapter 5 focuses on Jesus as a role model for us.   The chapter also deals with two great mysteries of our faith, the Incarnation of Jesus and the Paschal mystery. We learn that Jesus is truly human and divine.  Divine means "of God."  Jesus Christ is both a human being and God. The word incarnation means to become flesh.  The term Paschal mystery refers to Jesus' passing over from death to new life. Through Jesus' death, Resurrection, and Ascension we are freed from sin and given new life.