This Week in Class

Coming Up!
   Topic 3 Math Test - Thursday, October 18
   Report Card Day      Thursday October 18

We're making our salt maps of Florida on Thursday as well. Looking for 2 volunteers to come in and help that afternoon.
We are working on the maps 12-1 pm. Please send an email if you would like to come in.

More story surgery as we continue to learn how to add details and elaboration to our expository essays. It's very dramatic, hopefully memorable, and lots of fun!

 

Busy Fun!!

Here's a peek at the 321 Summarizing strategy that some of the students mention in today's "Thursday Letter".   It is a great way to reflect on what has just been read in one of the content areas. 

3- Identify 3 important ________________ you learned in the lesson.

2- List 2 __________________from the lesson.

1- State  1 ______________________ from the lesson.

As you can see, the social studies lesson above was about immigration in Florida. The 321 strategy helped the students to sort out the important information.  They will be better able to recall the information and build on it with the next lesson. We will be using the strategy often in our notebooks for the content areas of science and social studies as well as applying in our reading of any non-fiction material.

Coming Up:

Geometry Project due on Monday - October 15

Salt Maps of Florida in class next Friday!  Thank you to the Scott's and Bowden's for sending in salt dough!

 

More Science Help from Mrs.D

Students this is another great resource to help you with Science Fair ideas and ways to make your board. Enjoy! Click below to go to this amazing resource.

Science Fair

IPad Lesson to Share with You!

Check out the follow up lesson to Jitter Juice we made using the I-Pads using the app Edu Creations. I hope you enjoy it.Click here to view my lesson

We will be using this app during our Daily 5 Reading to practice the Reading Comprehension Target skills!

  

Science Fair Website for Reference

Please Visit the Site Below For Ideas and Videos!

http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/videos/index.php

Please HELP us make salt dough!

Hi Parents,
Could you please help me? I would like to make salt dough to use during daily 5 for Spelling and then use it again an activity for Social Studies. I would need about 2 cups of dough for each child. If you could make just a few batches that would help me out. So you're not alone I will be joining in on the fun at home. I'm attaching a video so you can see how to make it. Thank you for supporting my CRAZY ideas. I'll give 10 points extra credit in math for measuring if the students help out. I will need the dough on October 9th. Thanks!


http://www.bluesofamedia.com/2011/06/how-to-making-salt-dough

Science Fair and Story Surgery Highlights

      Friday Mrs. Donovan began teaching the steps of the Scientific Method to prepare students for the upcoming Science Fair. The information below might give students some ideas of projects that might interest them. The projects aren't mandatory in 4th grade. However, I highly encourage all of my students to do one for extra credit. They don't have to be entered into the Science Fair to be judged, that decision can be made by the students. To prepare students to do a project Mrs. Donovan will do a class project in class and display our data on a full size board. There is a link on the school site to the  Science Fair packet with all of the information to explain each step in the process with deadlines to help the student stay on track and avoid the last minute rush!

Also a great site for ideas is:
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/

From our lesson today in class:
The Happy Scientist (Science Fair Info.)

 

 

The life size essay!

Another buzz around the room this week is the notorious "Story Surgery".  We had fun learning how to elaborate and create deeper meaning and greater interest within the expository essay. A friend supplied the medical accessories and a fun activity emerged to drive home the learning.