Weekend News 11-30-18

Hello Fourth Grade Families,
Next week we will be swimming on Tuesday (December 4) from 2:10-3:10 pm. If you are available to help in the locker rooms during this time, please send me an email. Thank you!

We have gone through massive amounts of paper towels this school year. I'm sure having 3 sections of (messy) science class in our room are contributing to the use. If you have an extra roll that you are willing and able to send to school with your student, it would be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks to all who have sent in items for Kids Food Basket. If you haven't yet, please do so by next Wednesday. The Wealthy Staff is eagerly looking forward to making our own contribution next week when we will volunteer at KFB.

• A through C- Quart size plastic Ziploc bags
• D through H – Fruit Strip
• K through M – Pudding Cup
• P through S- Pretzel or Cheese-It bag (1.5oz or smaller)
• T through W- .28 oz meat stick

The fourth graders are looking forward to the annual Flea Market. It will be December 12th at 12:30. Please join us to shop and support our hard-working students!

We will have our class holiday party on December 13th from 12:20-1:20. All are welcome to join the fun, thanks to all who are volunteering!
The annual Wealthy Holiday Concert will follow the party at 2 pm. Please join us for this fun afternoon!

This week in fourth grade:

• We learned about the layers of the Grand Canyon and created our own models. We included layers of earth with gravel and modeling clay. We made sediment with soil and sand. We created fossils to hide in our models.
• We began our final research project with a self-selected nonfiction topic. Ask your child which topic they picked. We will use all of the skills we've learned about researching a topic and apply them to this project.
• We began to learn about factors. Expect your fourth grader to come home with a homework page each night. 

Ways to practice division before our test!

Our Chapter 4 test on Division is coming up soon! It is very important that you are checking homework each night with your fourth grader. If your child is struggling or just needs more practice, please check out some of these links. 

Visit the Quotient Cafe for some fun practice!
https://www.nctm.org/Classroom-Resources/Illuminations/Interactives/The-Quotient-Cafe/

Tutorials for each lesson in Chapter 4
https://mr-saunders.com/math-4/

Math on the Spot videos for each lesson in Chapter 4
https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/math/gomath2015/na/grk-6/mots_videos_9780544400023_/index.html

Utilize the study guide that comes home with your student today. Go through each lesson, practice the different strategies. Complete a problem or two from each lesson that your student was unable to complete in class.

Estimate with Multiples: Estimate 68÷6 (lesson 4.1) 10x6=60 11x6=66 68 is closest to 66, so 11 would be the closest estimate	Draw a quick picture to show your work: (lesson 4.2)	Basic Fact Mental Math: (lesson 4.4) 120÷4 12÷4= 3, so 120÷4= 30 1,200÷4 120÷4=30, so 1,200÷4= 300
Model with Base Ten Blocks (lesson 4.6) 1.   Model the dividend with base ten blocks 2.   Split into equal groups according to the divisor 3.   The quotient will be the amount of blocks in each group 4.   The remainder will be whatever doesn’t fit into an equal group	Divide with Repeated Subtraction: (lesson 4.7) 72÷6 72 - 6 66 -6 60 -6 54 (continue to subtract until you get to zero, count how many times you subtracted 6 for the quotient)	Partial Quotient (lesson 4.8) 125÷5 5)125 -50 75 -50 25 -25 0 10+10+5= 25 So, 125÷5= 25

Weekend News 11-15-18

Hello Fourth Grade Families,
A day early this week! I will be submitting the Scholastic Book Order tomorrow. If you'd like to place an online order our class code is HB4N7. 

Next week we will only have school on Monday and Tuesday. Students have the rest of the week off for the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you and your family enjoy the extra time together!

We will have our class holiday party on December 13th from 12:20-1:20. We will save some time after the party to clean up and allow you to find a good seat in Pioneer Auditorium for the Holiday Concert at 2 pm. 

Kids' Food Basket update:

   

Our Student Leadership Team has organized a school-wide service learning project. Together as a school, we are creating Supper Sacks for Kids' Food Basket. These packs are passed out to area schools to ensure that every child goes home to a nutritious dinner. In addition to the Supper Sack we will assemble, a fresh fruit, vegetable and protein source are included in each bag. We are asking each child to donate one of the following items:  individual fruit cups/strips, or pouches, pudding cup, pretzel or cheese-it bag, meat sticks, or plastic bags. There will be a designated spot in our classroom to collect these items, so feel free to send them in anytime.

Our last collection day will be Wednesday,December 5. Thank you for your support!

If your last name begins with…

• A through C- Quart size plastic Ziploc bags
• D through H – Fruit Strip
• K through M – Pudding Cup
• P through S- Pretzel or Cheese-It bag (1.5oz or smaller)
• T through W- .28 oz meat stick

This week in fourth grade:

• We are close to finishing our division unit. We will take the test on Tuesday. Look for a study guide to come home tomorrow.
• We did a fun science lab where we tested the reaction different rocks have to acids. We are learning about chemical weathering and erosion.
• We presented our research on natural disasters to the class.

Have a fantastic weekend!

SG

Weekend News 11-9-18

Hello Fourth Grade Families,
Today we celebrated Veterans Day with a whole school assembly. Our Student Leadership reps and Choir members did a fantastic job representing our class, and Wealthy Elementary.

On Wednesday 11/14 the Wreaths will arrive! If you'd like to help with sorting, please meet in Pioneer from 11:45-1:00. If you'd like to help with pick up, please meet at 2:30. Sign up or just show up! 

Division help links:
Homework tutorials
Interactive Student Edition (Chapter 4, select our lesson)
4th Grade Math ebook

This week in fourth grade:

• We voted on Election Day for the Movie Night selection.
• We learned strategies for division. Please check in with your student on homework. This is a challenging topic and is not coming easily for everyone. A few moments per evening could make a huge difference in your child's confidence!
• We continued to research and gather information on natural disasters with our research teams. We will present our findings to the class next week.
• We did a cool inquiry lesson on erosion in science.

Earth Science! A message from Cereal City Science

Dear Parents,
Your child is beginning the Fourth Grade Earth Science unit developed by the Battle Creek Area Mathematics and Science Center. This unit was designed to promote science and engineering literacy and integrate reading and writing skills into high-interest science content. During the next twelve weeks, your child will be actively involved with the Processes that Shape Earth unit. This unit is geared for fourth graders and focuses on the following big ideas:

1. Obtain information through research, models, and investigations to discover how local, regional, and global patterns of rock formations reveal changes over time due to earth forces.
2. Generate and evaluate a plan to reduce the impact of natural hazards.
3. Research topographical maps to analyze how plate tectonics and large-scale interactions are evident, based on their geographical location. 
4. Investigate how living things affect the physical characteristics of their regions. 
5. Use research to understand how water, ice, wind, living organisms, and gravity break rocks, soil, and sediments into smaller particles and then more them around. 
6. Determine how the use of fossil fuels affects the shape of the land and the environment. 

In this unit the activities are geared to build on students' inherent knowledge and provide experience in which they can use and apply their knowledge in a wider range of tasks. Students will be given the opportunity to examine, measure, reflect upon, describe, and discuss how geological events change the land.

Suggestions for activities to do at home with your student:

• start a rock or fossil collection
• keep a record of earthquakes around the world on a map
• visit the library to check out books about weathering and erosion, volcanoes, glaciers, landslides, earthquakes, fossils, natural resources, and fossil fuels.
• visit a museum with a dinosaur/fossil exhibit https://www.grpm.org/dinos/

Weekend News 11-2-18

Happy Weekend!

What a week! A huge thank you goes to all who helped plan, organize, volunteer, and provide supplies for our Halloween party! It was a fun and relaxing afternoon. Our kids are lucky that so many of you were able to join us. I have uploaded pictures of the party and parade to the Wealthy 4th Grade Facebook Page.

Upcoming Events:
Nov 9- Veteran's Day assembly
Nov 21 through 23- No School, Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec 4- Swimming @ 2:10 pm

This week in fourth grade:

• We completed our Life Science unit! We will begin Earth Science next week!
• We split into research teams to collect information about natural disasters. Ask your student to tell you which topic they're researching and about their role in the group.
• We learned to match our note taking style to the specific structure of our text.
• In math we are learning all about division. The strategies we've learned so far are to use counters/draw a picture, use a multiplication/division chart, or use multiples. This is a change from the multiplication practice we've worked on the past month. Make sure to keep up with the homework each night!

Have a fantastic weekend!

SG