Friday, November 22, 2013

Holiday Joy and Supplies!

Happy (early) Thanksgiving! 

While you are traveling (or just lounging around the house J) this break please have your kiddo study for their Social Studies test that will be on the Tuesday we get back. They brought home the study guide today. I have emailed it to you as well for those study guides that have “wondered off.” The more they know this material, the better they will do! This test will end our unit on Colonization and guide us to our unit on the Revolution in the coming weeks.
                                                                             

In science, we are continuing our study of soil when we return. One of the experiments we will do involves a need for knee-high nylon hose. We will use this item in our exploration of soils capacity to retain water. In order to do this experiment I will need 16 pairs of knee-high nylon hose. I would like to do this experiment on Thursday. If you happen upon some inexpensive nylon hose in the next week or so, please contribute to our exploration. 

When we return, math will have us begin our studies of combinations. This is a fun concept and can easily be applied to everyday life. How many different combinations of Thanksgiving food can you create on your plate?

Thank you for all of your support. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!

Mrs. Milot

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Wax Museum

Can anyone say "Awesome"? We want to congratulate all of our stars. The amount of work that was put into this project sure paid off, as they were fantastic presenters. Students and visitors were excited to meet historical figures such as Abe Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, as well as, movie stars and athletes. They did a wonderful job and we are so proud! Way to go!


Field Trip- Friday December 6th

Our trip to the Dallas Children's Theater is quickly approaching. We will be leaving the school at approximately 8:30. Please know that we have no control over the buses and flexibility is always a must for us. The show begins at 10:00 and lasts 90 minutes. We will be back in time for lunch.
As previously stated, parents that paid for this trip last year ARE INVITED to join us, as planned. We apologize for limitations on additional parents joining and thank you for understanding this unusual circumstance. Parents attending may follow the bus or meet us there.
**Please know that we will have another "official 4th Grade" field trip in May and all parents are welcome!

The following are students who  previously paid ( in 3rd grade) FOR A PARENT to attend
(from Milot and Christian)
Lexi Joseph
Harmony Armstrong
Triniti McBride
Grace Christner
Josh Watson
Emily Williams
Maddie Hatch
Jose  Molina
Travis Goodnight
Cooper Limes
Talissa Smalley
Savannah Taylor
Kayleigh Contreras
Brandan Nurse
Joseph Turcios


Thank you for your support!

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Long Division!!!

We are fully into our unit on long division. We are learning a couple of methods, but our main focus is on the big seven method. Here is a link that will walk you through the big seven method:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7xSGYBpaUw

Below is the image that we use to describe big seven including a way to check your answer.

 

Big seven keeps place value in division and allows kiddos to solve division problems when they don't have a great grasp of multiplication facts. This makes long division seem easier for the kiddos!

Below are a couple of more methods that we could use to solve long division problems.

 

You are all familiar with the standard method, but it can really make division difficult because of the removal of place value. Expanded division is more similar to standard, but it is looking at the dividend in chunks and tries to keep place value in division.

As you know, I do not have one way that I require kiddos to solve problems. I want them to do the method that works the best FOR THEM. So far, big seven is the preferred method in class. Have your kiddo show you what method they like the best!

Please let me know if you have any questions about this. I am more than willing to help in any way that I can! Thank you for your support!!!

Mrs. Milot




Friday, November 8, 2013

Biography Project- Wax Museum- Homework

We are so excited for our Wax Museum! We will be presenting on Friday, November 15th from 8:00am-9:30am. The living museum participants will be presenting simultaneously and continuously. We will position everyone around the room and in the hall with a sticker on his/her hand. The sticker represents the "on/off" button. Anyone at anytime may walk up to a character and "push his/her button" to hear a short speech spoken is first person (Hello, my name is....).
The speech needs to be about 1-2 minutes in length and contain accurate details of significant accomplishments made.
All resources and materials are coming home today with your child.

Below are the tasks to complete before next Friday:

- Use materials provided to create a short speech.
-Practice the speech many times to (hopefully) memorize it for Friday.
-Create a costume and/or props to accompany your presentation on Friday.
*Please note that costumes need not be extravagant or expensive. Use things from around the house, neighbors, friends, thrift store, etc.

*Students will have a few minutes to change into any costumes before we begin and then may return to regular clothes before PACK.

Please join us and see our masterpieces!



Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Book Fair is Coming! Wahoo!

Our annual book fair will begin next week. A paper highlighting most of the selections will be sent home today to preview. Students will be visiting the book fair during their PACK time Library rotation next week.
Christian- Tuesday  10am- 10:55
Milot- Thursday  10am- 10:55

Students are able to bring money on those days and parents are welcome to join!
The store will also be open right after school.
*A teacher wish list will also be on display at the fair.

Biography Assignment

We are so excited about the Wax Museum where we will dress as our character and present our information in first person (speaking as if we are the character). Time will continue to be given in class to research and prepare but you will also want to go through a few test runs at home, beginning next week. More details will follow.
**Please mark your calendars for Friday, November 15th. We will present the Wax Museum in the morning from 8:00am- 9:30am. We hope you can make it for the tour!

Spelling this Week

Unit 31 is hard this week. We will be working on it multiple times. In place of a typical test, I will have students complete assignments using the words in context. Spelling books will be used for reference when completing the assignments.
The pattern this week has been the /sh/ and /zh/ sound spelled :
sh as in shelter
tion as in election
cian as in magician
sion as in division
tient as in patient

Other examples include: invitation, shadow, publish, confusion, imitation, abolish, multiplication


Field Trip- Friday, December 6th

Last year, the Third Grade was to visit the Dallas Children's Museum to see a performance. Payment was made yet unforeseen circumstances did not allow them to make it to the show. A credit was given and we are using that credit on Friday, December 6th to see Stuart Little.
New students have paid since they were not here last year. The museum was also kind enough to honor last year's price, as it had a $3 increase.
***Parents that paid to attend last year will still be able to join us. Unfortunately, we can not add additional parents as seating is limited. Homeroom teachers will have lists of parents that are included to go, please check with them if in doubt. Thank you!
We will be back in time for lunch so you may send a packed lunch or have your child buy a lunch on that day.







Monday, November 4, 2013

This week in 4th Grade...

Tuesday 11/5 - Math Test
Wednesday 11/6 - Social Studies Test
Thursday 11/7 - ELAR Test and UIL Practice

Word Problem Strategies

We are working on different strategies to use when working on word problems. One of the strategies that we are using deals with problem solving maps. The kiddos have to think about what the problem is asking and determine which "map" would work best for the question.

Our problem solving maps are:
Some and Some More (SSM) dealing with addition
Some Went Away/Bigger Smaller Difference (SWA) dealing with subtraction
Equal Groups Put Together (EGPT) dealing with multiplication
Equal Groups Take Apart (EQTA) dealing with division

Here is a visual of the maps that we use:

They are to determine the map to use, draw a box and label it, then fill in the blue spaces with the information given in the problem. They will then calculate the problem to determine the red box or missing information.

Another strategy we use is the CUBES strategy. We use this strategy to help us pull out important information in a word problem. Here is the CUBES strategy: 

Be on the lookout for your kiddo using both of these strategies to work through word problems!