During the new year I'll more information about our upcoming book report. I just wanted everyone to be aware of it so they can pick a book and start reading now. Your book should be on the Accelerated Reader list, which is located here:
http://www.abington.k12.pa.us/Overlook/AR%20Book%20Guide%20Nov%202012%20for%20website%20pdf.pdf
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Holiday Concert & Party
Our holiday concert is tomorrow @ 9:30. The fourth grade strings will be
performing. Strings members are asked to wear black slacks or skirt, black
shoes, black socks, white shirt or blouse.
If you are planning on attending our holiday party, please make sure to fill out a registration form for yourself.
If you are planning on attending our holiday party, please make sure to fill out a registration form for yourself.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Gold Cards & Eco Columns
Gold Card Night
Gold Card Night is tomorrow. If the students are invited, they should have received a letter from me today. If there are questions or concerns about this, please contact me prior to Gold Card Night.
Because of the many safety initiatives brought on by recent events, all students need to be accompanied by a parent, guardian, or adult chaperone.
Eco Columns Adoption
A letter will be going home tomorrow about adopting our eco columns. You probably saw them during conferences. They are a self contained ecosystem that only needs to be watered every few days. They are built by the students and can lead to many different science discussions and ideas. Please contact me if you would like to have one. It is first come first serve.
We have a weekly test and a spelling test this week.
Gold Card Night is tomorrow. If the students are invited, they should have received a letter from me today. If there are questions or concerns about this, please contact me prior to Gold Card Night.
Because of the many safety initiatives brought on by recent events, all students need to be accompanied by a parent, guardian, or adult chaperone.
Eco Columns Adoption
A letter will be going home tomorrow about adopting our eco columns. You probably saw them during conferences. They are a self contained ecosystem that only needs to be watered every few days. They are built by the students and can lead to many different science discussions and ideas. Please contact me if you would like to have one. It is first come first serve.
We have a weekly test and a spelling test this week.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Unit 4 Math Test
Hello,
We have our Unit 4 Math Test tomorrow. The test is mostly about decimals: adding, subtraction, ordering, comparing, writing and understanding.
There are also questions about measuring in cm and then converting to other metric units.
(Here is a great measuring game: http://www.funbrain.com/measure/)
The test is not very vocabulary heavy, so I have been holding out on sending home math flash cards. Here they are: http://quizlet.com/17604014/everyday-math-unit-4-vocab-flash-cards/
Thanks!
- Mike
We have our Unit 4 Math Test tomorrow. The test is mostly about decimals: adding, subtraction, ordering, comparing, writing and understanding.
There are also questions about measuring in cm and then converting to other metric units.
(Here is a great measuring game: http://www.funbrain.com/measure/)
The test is not very vocabulary heavy, so I have been holding out on sending home math flash cards. Here they are: http://quizlet.com/17604014/everyday-math-unit-4-vocab-flash-cards/
Thanks!
- Mike
Monday, December 10, 2012
A Few Dates
Here are a few upcoming dates:
Gold Card Night - It has been rescheduled for 12/19.
Barnes and Nobles - This will be this Wednesday from 5 - 8. The school gets a percentage of all sales as well as the whole school has a great time seeing everyone.
Holiday Hollow - Our Holiday Hollow will be this Thursday @ 1.
Gold Card Night - It has been rescheduled for 12/19.
Barnes and Nobles - This will be this Wednesday from 5 - 8. The school gets a percentage of all sales as well as the whole school has a great time seeing everyone.
Holiday Hollow - Our Holiday Hollow will be this Thursday @ 1.
Tests & Break
We have two tests this week. Throughout the whole week we will be doing our Unit 2 Assessment for Communication Arts. On Friday we will have our Math Unit 4 Assessment on decimals.
If you are looking for a way to study for Communication Arts, review all of the family letters for Unit 2 with the students at home.
http://www.abington.k12.pa.us/overlook/gradefour.shtml
To be prepared for our math test, you can review the family letter for Unit 4 (same link as above). Here are some math games that target some of our weaker areas.
The students can use some practice in ordering decimals. Here is a great game:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/ks2_activities/maths/decimals.shtml
Top-It is a great game that the students are very familiar with from class. They can play it with using decimals on www.everydaymathonline.com
Winter Break:
I have recently been trying to give the students time in class to finish their homework. The reason is because when I think back at meaningful moments when I was in fourth grade none of them involved homework. I remember inventing games with my friends, building toys, and playing sports. I know everyone's lives are busy, but I think it's important to be "bored."
I heard an interview with the founder of a new website DIY.org. If you start an account, the students then can earn badges for completing different activities. They can be anything from building a flute out of a carrot to making a pumpkin pie, or from building a mini motor to a stop motion animation. Most activities come with a video explanation on how to complete the task. After you have complete a specific number of activities for each topic, you receive a badge for that skill.
If anyone does end up using this, please tell me what you think. Here's an example: How to make a balloon racer: https://diy.org/nednewton/000j2y#30370
Also, found a great website for finding books for the all-starts:
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/4th-grade
If you are looking for a way to study for Communication Arts, review all of the family letters for Unit 2 with the students at home.
http://www.abington.k12.pa.us/overlook/gradefour.shtml
To be prepared for our math test, you can review the family letter for Unit 4 (same link as above). Here are some math games that target some of our weaker areas.
The students can use some practice in ordering decimals. Here is a great game:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/ks2_activities/maths/decimals.shtml
Top-It is a great game that the students are very familiar with from class. They can play it with using decimals on www.everydaymathonline.com
Winter Break:
I have recently been trying to give the students time in class to finish their homework. The reason is because when I think back at meaningful moments when I was in fourth grade none of them involved homework. I remember inventing games with my friends, building toys, and playing sports. I know everyone's lives are busy, but I think it's important to be "bored."
I heard an interview with the founder of a new website DIY.org. If you start an account, the students then can earn badges for completing different activities. They can be anything from building a flute out of a carrot to making a pumpkin pie, or from building a mini motor to a stop motion animation. Most activities come with a video explanation on how to complete the task. After you have complete a specific number of activities for each topic, you receive a badge for that skill.
If anyone does end up using this, please tell me what you think. Here's an example: How to make a balloon racer: https://diy.org/nednewton/000j2y#30370
Also, found a great website for finding books for the all-starts:
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/4th-grade
Thursday, December 6, 2012
After Conferences
It has been great to see everyone over conferences. The students have been working really hard in class, especially of recent, and I hope that shows in their grades and our conference. This is a great group of kids!
If you're looking for ways to help your students improve in certain areas, here are some online resources.
Communication Arts:
Reference the Home-Connection Letters - This is a great way to stay informed about the content for each week. We have our Unit 2 test next week. Please use these to review for the test.
http://www.abington.k12.pa.us/overlook/gradefour.shtml
Finding enjoyable books - This is mostly an issue for the "dudes." This website has a lot of fun books aimed at guys.
http://www.guysread.com/
Math:
My website - On my website I have many math games that align with what we are learning about for each unit. For this unit (Unit 4) I would recommend the ordering decimals game and the counting money one.
http://carroll-everydaymath.wikispaces.com/home
Everyday Math Online - The new online piece has games, references, and extra practice for every math lesson.
www.everydaymathonline.com
Science:
Learning Science - An area where a lot of students that struggled with science was with applying the science ideas we talked about in different scenarios. Learningscience.org is a fantastic website built by a former professor of mine that has many different interactive examples of science ideas.
www.learningscience.org
Ecosystems:http://www.learningscience.org/lifescience.htm
Electrical Circuits (Our upcoming unit): http://www.learningscience.org/psc2ctransferenergy.htm
P.S. - Launchball is a class favorite
Class Party
Tomorrow we are having a class party. The students voted on watching a movie (rated G) and eating some pizza. If anyone would like to send in a few dollars (no more than $5 please) to help spread around the cost of the pizza that would be great.
Holiday Hollow
Here is a great opportunity for the students to purchase different items for family members at school. There will be more information about this in homework folders tomorrow. Our date is 12/13 @ 1.
Barnes & Nobles Night
This upcoming Wednesday is Barnes and Nobles Night. It is always a lot of fun to see everyone at the store and find some great books together. 20% of all sales go to the school.
Also, I'm deactivating the blog email list. It seems that some parents were receiving the emails at midnight, many hours after I would send them. I'm going to keep the blog active, just send the emails from my account.
If you're looking for ways to help your students improve in certain areas, here are some online resources.
Communication Arts:
Reference the Home-Connection Letters - This is a great way to stay informed about the content for each week. We have our Unit 2 test next week. Please use these to review for the test.
http://www.abington.k12.pa.us/overlook/gradefour.shtml
Finding enjoyable books - This is mostly an issue for the "dudes." This website has a lot of fun books aimed at guys.
http://www.guysread.com/
Math:
My website - On my website I have many math games that align with what we are learning about for each unit. For this unit (Unit 4) I would recommend the ordering decimals game and the counting money one.
http://carroll-everydaymath.wikispaces.com/home
Everyday Math Online - The new online piece has games, references, and extra practice for every math lesson.
www.everydaymathonline.com
Science:
Learning Science - An area where a lot of students that struggled with science was with applying the science ideas we talked about in different scenarios. Learningscience.org is a fantastic website built by a former professor of mine that has many different interactive examples of science ideas.
www.learningscience.org
Ecosystems:http://www.learningscience.org/lifescience.htm
Electrical Circuits (Our upcoming unit): http://www.learningscience.org/psc2ctransferenergy.htm
P.S. - Launchball is a class favorite
Class Party
Tomorrow we are having a class party. The students voted on watching a movie (rated G) and eating some pizza. If anyone would like to send in a few dollars (no more than $5 please) to help spread around the cost of the pizza that would be great.
Holiday Hollow
Here is a great opportunity for the students to purchase different items for family members at school. There will be more information about this in homework folders tomorrow. Our date is 12/13 @ 1.
Barnes & Nobles Night
This upcoming Wednesday is Barnes and Nobles Night. It is always a lot of fun to see everyone at the store and find some great books together. 20% of all sales go to the school.
Also, I'm deactivating the blog email list. It seems that some parents were receiving the emails at midnight, many hours after I would send them. I'm going to keep the blog active, just send the emails from my account.
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