March ’12 Topics-of-Study...

Language Arts: Figurative Language, Essay Writing, Making Predictions, Following Multiple-Step Instructions

• Figurative Language (notes), Fling the Teacher, Paint by Idioms, Batter Up, Idioms and Similes
• Step Up to Writing (notes), How to Write a Five Paragraph Essay
• Guess What Comes Next, Making Predictions

Mathematics: Order of Operations (PEMDAS), Coordinate Graphing, Number Lines + Review of Degrees/Turns

• What is PEMDAS? (video), Operation Order, Order of Operations, Royal Rescue
• Coordinate Graphing, What’s the Point?, Locate the Aliens, Billy Bug #2
• Line Jumper, The Decimal Detectives, Find Grampy
• Degrees and Turns Slideshow (notes), Angles (degrees), Banana Hunt, Degrees to Turns Converter

Social Studies: Chapter Three — Exploration and Early Settlements

• Extra Credit Mission Project: My Mission, The California Missions, California Missions Foundation
• Explorers/Newcomers, Settlements/Missions (vocabulary practice
• Chapter Three Guideline Notes

Science: Chapter Six — Electricity

• Chapter Six Resources
• The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits, Conductors and Insulators, Series and Parallel Circuits, Building Circuits, Heat (movie), Light (movie), Electricity and Magnetism

California Fourth Grade Writing Test...

In the state of California, writing tests are administered to all fourth and seventh grade students. Our school’s test will take place on Tuesday, March 6th.  There are four strands from which our single writing prompt may be chosen: narrative (fictional story), response to literature, summary, and information report. These are based on Grade Four Writing Applications (see page 32) and are chosen each year by the State of California. Regardless of the prompt, students will need to pay attention to the following items: grammar, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization. You can see the full scoring rubric here.

If the prompt given is a narrative, scorers are looking for a beginning, middle, and end to the story as well as many details used to describe the experience. Students are encouraged to begin brainstorming details by thinking of their five senses (smelling, seeing, hearing, tasting, and feeling). A sample narrative prompt: “Imagine that you are asked to keep an elephant for a week. Write a story about your unusual experiences with your elephant (2002).”

If the prompt is a response to literature, students will be scored based on how well they show their understanding of the story and their use of examples from the story to prove this understanding. Students may go back to the story at any point in order to clarify, find examples, etc. They are encouraged to take notes to the side of the story in order to briefly summarize each paragraph or section as well as identify key phrases. A sample response to literature prompt: “In the story, two good friends are annoyed with each other’s bad habit. What would be a good title for this story, and why? Use examples from the story to support your answer (2008).”

If a summary prompt is presented, students’ writing will be assessed for how well they state the main ideas of the article, identify the most important details that support the main ideas, and the use of a student’s own words in writing the summary. This refers to paraphrasing, a positive quality. Summaries are typically 1/3 the original size of the text. Summary prompt: “Write a summary of the article.”

Information reports are usually not a part of this standardized test, as they would require a great deal of time to construct. Also, in order to be fair and consistent, the content used to create each report must be extensive and uniform for all students across the state.

Order of Operations...

During math, we’ve begun an introduction to Order of Operations (PEMDAS). Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally! PEMDAS = Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction = the order in which to complete a math problem. If after reviewing your child’s work, you see that he/she is having difficulty in this area, please use the video, What is PEMDAS?, as another form of introduction! The games Operation Order and Order of Operations can also help. Step one, parentheses, was already mastered in Trimester One. The trick now is remembering to always multiply and divide before adding and subtracting!

Chapter Six: Lesson One: Static Electricity...

We’re finishing our study of life science, and moving on to physical science. For a great animated summary of our newest topic, view the video below!

In Order to Divide Like a King or Queen...

Sing along with a very catchy song explaining the concept of division as well as long division steps! It is sung to a Stray Cats tune and you can find the lyrics here.

January ’12: Topics-of-Study...

Language Arts: Synonyms/Antonyms, Main Ideas, Commas/Quotation Marks/Apostrophes, Compare/Contrast + Review of Prefixes/Root Words/Suffixes and Step Up to Writing Paragraphs

• Synonyms and Antonyms (movie), Synonyms, Squanky the Tooth Taker: Quiet Quest for Opposites, Squanky the Tooth Taker: Tooth Tally, Same Difference
• Main Idea (movie), Main Ideas, Summarize As You Read, Reading Nonfiction (movie)
• Power Proofreading, Comma Confusion
• Compare/Contrast Guide (notes), Compare/Contrast Essay Helper
• Wordworks, Root Words, Short Circuit, Prefixes Say Plenty, Spelling with Suffixes, Fish Tanks, Rooting Out Words (review practice)
• Step Up to Writing, Step Up to Writing #2 (notes + examples)

Mathematics: Double-Digit Multiplication, Long Division, Fractions/Decimals, Prime Numbers, Line Types, Radius & Diameter, Area & Perimeter

• Two-Digit Multiplication (notes), Two Digit by One Digit Multiplication Steps, Two Digit by Two Digit Multiplication Steps (review practice)
• Long Division Lesson (sample problems), Snork’s Long Division (review practice), Math Baseball, Sum Sense (division fact games) [Divide (Dad), Multiply (Mom), Subtract (Sister), Bring Down (Brother), Remainder (Rover)]
• Study Jams! (video), Basic Parts of a Whole (movie), What’s a Fraction?, Death to Decimals, Comparing Fractions and Decimals, Fresh Baked Fractions, The Decifractator, Saloon Snap, Tony Fraction’s Pizza Shop (challenging fractions)
• Prime Numbers (notes), Prime Numbers, Prime Factorization (notes), Prime Factorization (notes/review practice)
• Lines (review practice), Matho (review of all geometry terms), Area and Perimeter, Everyday Area, Find the Area, Measuring the Area and Perimeter (review practice), Shape Surveyor, Area: Fitting In (games)
• Trimester Two Math Helper (front), Trimester Two Math Helper (back)

Social Studies: Chapters Two & Three – California’s Native Americans & Exploration and Early Settlements

• Chapter Two Study Guideline Notes (also found in the front of your notebook)
• First Californians/North Coast Region, S. Coast/Cent. Valley/Desert Tribes (vocabulary practice)
• Chapter Three Study Guideline Notes
• Explorers/Newcomers, Settlements/Missions (vocabulary practice)

Science: Chapters One & Six – Living Things Need Energy & Electricity

• Chapter One Resources (vocabulary practice, videos, etc.)
• Dirt Made My Lunch, Producers, Consumers, Decomposers (songs from class)
• Parts of a Plant, Photosynthesis, Plant Life Cycle, Food Chain (videos)
• Illuminating Photosynthesis, Root Factory, Life Cycle of Plants, Food Chains and Food Webs, Food Chains Science Desk, Fun With Food Webs, Eat or Be Eaten, Diversity of Life on Earth (review practice)
• Chapter Six Resources (vocabulary practice, videos, etc.)
• The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits, Conductors and Insulators, Series and Parallel Circuits, Building Circuits, Heat (movie), Light (movie), Electricity and Magnetism

Holiday Multiplication Practice...

Gooey gum drop buttons! Each time you get a multiplication fact correct, another piece of the holiday scene is revealed! When you complete the level, you get to build your own holiday picture! Now that we know our multiplication facts, this is easy as pie. Be sure to always click on 0-9!

Happy Holidays Multiplication Practice

One Week Left: Trimester One Testing ’11!...

Trimester One Testing (the results of which you find on the back of our report cards) will take place between November 7th and 10th. PLEASE look over the following essential standards and review each with your child! If you have any questions about the content of the test, send a note!

English/Language Arts – First Trimester

• I can show that I understand words that have several meanings. [Ex: trunk -- 1) an elephant's long nose, 2) the large stem of a tree, 3) the back area of a car used for storage]
• I can tell the difference between cause and effect, and fact and opinion. [Ex: Cause -- The action that happens first in chronological order which creates a reaction; Effect -- The action that happens as the result of a cause; Fact -- Something that can be proved; Opinion -- Personal thoughts and feelings]
• I can find information in my texts using its index, table of contents, glossary, maps and charts, etc. [Ex: The student understands the parts of a textbook and knows which to use in order to find the proper information. Some parts of other books include the preface, dedication/acknowledgments, and appendix.]
• I can speak and write in simple and compound sentences. [Ex: See here for the difference between simple, compound, and complex sentences. The most important piece is the students' understanding of how to use correct conjunctions in order to combine pieces of a sentence.]
• I can speak and write using all kinds of verbs, adverbs, prepositions, and the correct connecting words in my sentences. [See Grammar Gorillas for a practice of all necessary parts of speech.]
• I can capitalize names of magazines, newspapers, works of art and music, organizations, and the first word inside a quotation. [Ex: Little House on the Prairie, San Francisco Chronicle, "I'm a Little Teapot"]

Mathematics – First Trimester

• I can read and write numbers from 1 to 999,999,999. [Ex: three million, four hundred two thousand, fifty-one and thirty-three hundredths = 3,402,051.33]
• I can order and compare whole numbers and decimals. [Ex: 39.1; 82; 0.145 ordered from least to greatest is 0.145; 39.1; 82. Line your numbers up vertically by decimals, then begin with the numbers on the left. This is similar to finding words in a dictionary.]
• I can round numbers through the millions to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, or hundred thousand. [Ex: In order to round, identify the place you are rounding to (underline it). Draw an arrow to the right and determine whether the arrowed number is four or less, or five or greater. If it is four or less, your underlined number stays the same. If it is five or greater, your underlined number will increase by one. All numbers to the left of the underline stay the same while all numbers to the right of the underline turn into zeros. 4,516,098 rounded to the nearest ten thousand would be 4,520,000; 32.978 rounded to the nearest tenth would be 33.]
• I can make a reasonable estimate and then add or subtract whole numbers and decimals. [Ex: Estimating is rounding before adding or subtracting. If the place to be rounded is not specified, you must round to the "greatest place of the smallest number". For example, 412 + 32 would require you to round to the tens place, since 32 is the smaller number and the tens place is the greatest place in that number. 412 + 32 would turn into 410 + 30, which equals 440.]
• I can show when and how to add and subtract numbers with many digits. [Ex: 45,610 + 1,984 = 47,594. 56,009 - 3,899 = 52,110. Be sure your child knows how to borrow in subtraction as well as when to add versus subtract when reading a word problem.]
• I can show that equals added to equals are equal. [Ex: If 9 + 3 + 5 = f + 5, then f = 12.]
• I can show that equals multiplied by equals are equal. [Ex: If 4 x h x 2 = 2 x 12, then h = 3. If 6s=30, then s=5.]

Autumn Multiplication Practice...

Alright guys, at this point, we should have our 0-7 facts 100% mastered! Now comes the fun part — look at how easy your multiplication games will be! We’ve  briefly discussed the x9 hand trick, x10 and x11 are a breeze, … this means the only new fact to memorize is 8×8=64! Try your hand at some of the new fall games from Multiplication.com for review: Harvest Hootenanny and Pumpkin Patch!

Regrouping (Borrowing) in Subtraction...

Quite a few students appear to need a refresher course in regrouping during subtraction. I found the following video to be helpful.