Week of 11.4.19

Highlights for the Week of 11/4/2019
in Mrs. Bell's Classroom

Spelling -  Unit 9 - Prefixes pre-, re- and mis-
Words on this week's list will include the prefixes pre-, re- and mis-. We will study the definitions of these prefixes and how they change the meaning of the root word that they are attached to. Synonyms are also a topic for the week. The final TEST is scheduled for Friday, 11/8.

Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"

Students will finish their close read of the story, Happy Birthday Dr. King.  Look for a comprehension/vocabulary quiz to be scheduled the week of 11/11. 
At the end of the week, we will spend time looking at the text structure of cause and effect. Text structured as cause and effect explains the reasons why something happened or the effects of something. An effect is what happens. To determine the effect, students should ask “What happened?”. A cause is why something happens. To determine the cause, students should ask “Why did it happen?”   Ask your child how we used the picture book on the left to discuss this type of text structure.  Once we have reviewed this concept students will revisit the story of Happy Birthday Dr. King to discover how cause and effect is used throughout the text.

Below are some photos of students working in small groups to close read Happy Birthday Dr. King...along with the words to our "Close Reading Cheer"!

"I am a lean, mean close reading machine!"

"TDQ..I'll show you!"

"TQA...I'm not afraid!"

"The text is my TREASURE!"

"The evidence is my GOLD!"

"We're ready to DIG, DIG, DIG, DIG, DIG!"

English - Capitalization & Punctuation
Quotations and titles are the last two topics in this chapter. We will spend extra time on quotations as this topic is challenging. I anticipate that the TEST on this chapter will be the week of 11/11.

Social Studies - The Southeast - Lesson 1 / "Coastal Plains to the Mountains"
The Southeast Map QUIZ is scheduled for Wednesday, 11/6. We will also continue our study of the geography of the region.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) 
There will not be a formal Second Step lesson this week. Instead, we will spend our morning meetings doing team-building activities such as "Share Chair", "Going on a Field Trip" and "Four Corners". Be sure to ask your child about these activities.

Mrs. Bell's Math Class - Unit 2 - Adding & Subtracting Fractions

A CHECKPOINT is scheduled for Tuesday, 11/5. Students should review their spiral notes and homework sheets to prepare for the checkpoint. 

Our focus this week continues to be problem-solving with fractions. The Unit 2 TEST is tentatively scheduled for Monday, 11/11.

FYI...

11/1- No School 
11/4 - No School - Teachers' Institute

Mrs. Karen Bell

Week of 10.28.19

Highlights for the Week of 10/28/19
in Mrs. Bell's Class

Spelling -  NONE
Due to the shortened week and the holiday, there will be NO spelling lesson this week.

Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"

Next week's task in reading will be to close read the fiction piece titled, Happy Birthday Dr. King. Students will work in small groups to answer text-dependent questions and to use context clues to find meanings of unknown words. They will also be creating a digital notebook of vocabulary words for the story. 

English - Capitalization & Punctuation
The use of quotation marks will be the focus of English this week. This lesson is challenging, so we will spend several sessions on this topic.

Social Studies - The Southeast
We will complete our study of the Narragansett People with a small project titled "The Narragansett Village", which will be due on 11/5. Students will draw and label a model of what a Narragansett village of the past would look like based upon what we have studied about their culture. Look for the project description sheet to come home on Monday. 

Our study of the Southeast begins with students creating a map of the region. A QUIZ on the map will be scheduled for the week of 11/4.

Science - Energy Conversions
Writing an argument about the blackout is the topic of the week. Students will be introduced to the terms "evidence" and "claims" as they apply to science. We will write our first argument on Wednesday. Below are photos of students investigating how to build a simple system. They used solar panels, wires, LED lights, buzzers, and motorized fans to build their system. They discovered that there are many forms of energy that include electrical, light, sound, motion and thermal energy.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) - Understanding Different Perspectives

Understanding that people can have different perspectives about other people, places, and situations is the topic for our morning meeting this week. Perspective-taking is a central component of empathy. My goal is for students to be able to identify differing perspectives in given scenarios and to generate prosocial responses in which different perspectives could cause a conflict.

Mrs. Bell's Math Class- Unit 2 - Adding & Subtracting Fractions
A Fraction addition and subtraction CHECKPOINT is scheduled for Monday, 10/28. Students should review their notes and workbook pages to prepare for the quiz.

We will also learn about unit rates and how fractions are ratios. Students spent a lot of time during this past week learning about multiplying whole numbers by fractions and then applying that skill to a problem-solving scenario. Below are pictures of partners working together to create a poster of a trail that had a number of stops located at fractional segments. Be sure to ask your child about the "River Trail" activity!

During the month of October, we have been studying equivalencies of money, fractions, and decimals in Number Corners. To "mix things up" a bit, we will sometimes sing the numbers on the calendar to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas. We have some very talented musicians/mathematicians in our class! I'm hoping that the following video of us singing will work properly, but if it doesn't I have also posted it to Google Classroom. Enjoy...

FYI...
10/29 - 10/30 - Parent/Teacher Conferences

11/1 - No School 

11/4 - No School - Teachers' Institute

The Halloween celebration will be on Thursday, 10/31. Students will change into their costumes at 12:50, and the parties will begin at 1:00. The traditional PV parade will begin at 1:55. Students must be able to put on their Halloween costume in 5-10 minutes by themselves. Fourth grade will have designated classrooms for girls to change in and for boys. They will NOT be allowed to change in the bathroom. No props that resemble a weapon should be brought to school. THANK YOU to all the parents who are helping to make this a special afternoon for our classroom!

Mrs. Karen Bell

Week of 10.21.19

Highlights for the Week of 10/21/2019
in Mrs. Bell's Classroom

Spelling -  Unit 8 - Grade Appropriate & Domain-Specific Vocabulary
This week's spelling/vocabulary list will include a variety of words that are appropriate for 4th-grade students. Instead of studying a spelling rule, we will focus on the definition of these words and how they might be used in reading and writing. Part of this week's lesson will also highlight how to use reference materials such as a dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, and encyclopedia. The final TEST is scheduled for Friday, 10/25.

Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"

Next week's task in reading will be to close read the fiction piece titled, Happy Birthday Dr. King. Students will work in small groups to answer text-dependent questions and to use context clues to find meanings of unknown words. They will also be creating a digital notebook of vocabulary words for the story.

English - Capitalization & Punctuation
Commas in a series and other uses for commas are our topics next week.

Social Studies -  The Northeast / The Narragansett
We will complete our study of the NE region with a look at the Native Americans of the area, the Narragansetts. Our focus will be on the culture and traditions of the group and how they have changed over time.

Mapmaker, mapmaker make me a map! Students have begun working on creating a map of the United States, which is a project that will last the entire year. Here are some photos of our mapmakers hard at work...

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
Understanding complex feelings will be our topic for the week of 10/21. The lessons will focus on how it is possible to have more than one feeling at the same time and how being able to understand that others might have complex feelings is an important part of empathy. The objectives for the week will be for students to be able to identify multiple feelings in a given scenario and to give possible reasons for multiple feelings.

Mrs. Bell's Math Class - Unit 2 - Adding & Subtracting Fractions

Problem-solving with fractions will be our focus for the rest of this week. Students will continue to work with partners to create a poster of a hiking trail that is divided into sections based on fractions that they are given. They will then use their poster to problem solve. 

On Wednesday, I will introduce the final strategy for adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators...the "Double Number Line". We will also look at the concept of the "better buy". Look for the next fraction CHECKPOINT to be scheduled for the week of 10/28.

Student-led learning is alive and well in our math class.  Below is a photo of Mia leading the homework discussion...

FYI...

Homeroom parents...don't forget to sign up for a conference on 10/29 or 10/30. Please click on the following link for the schedule...https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4aa4af22a5f85-october44

Happy Friday!

Mrs. Karen Bell

Week of 10.14.19

Highlights for the Week of 10/14/2019
in Mrs. Bell's Classroom

Spelling -  Unit 7 - "Suffixes "-ness", "-less",  and "-en"
This week's spelling/vocabulary list will include words with the suffixes -ness, -less, and-en.  We will study the definitions of these suffixes and how to determine the meaning of unknown words by breaking the words into base words and suffixes and by using context clues. The final TEST is scheduled for Friday, 10/18.

Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"
Students will continue to build background knowledge about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by reading short biographical texts in small groups and responding to text-dependent questions.

English - Capitalization & Punctuation
This chapter in English focuses on the correct use of capitalization and punctuation. The first few lessons review sentence structure, the capitalization of names, people, places and pets, and abbreviations. 

Social Studies  - The Northeast 
The final draft of the Northeast Trip descriptive paragraph is due on Wednesday, 10/16. Students should submit their projects through Google Classroom by 8:00 a.m. that day. 

We will complete our study of the NE region with a look at the Native Americans of the area, the Narragansetts. Our focus will be on the culture and traditions of the group and how they have changed over time. We will also spend some time creating the Northeast portion of a United States Map. This is a year-long activity that is completed region by region. It is a favorite activity of mine...I hope the children enjoy it as much as I do!

Science - Energy Conversions
Students will finish the simulation to create energy systems and learn to define an electrical device. Below are some photos of students working together on the simulation last week.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
There will not be a formal Second Step lesson this week. Instead, we will spend our morning meetings doing team-building activities such as "Share Chair", "Going on a Field Trip" and "Heads or Tails". Be sure to ask your child about these activities. On Friday, the entire fourth grade will play a game of SEL Bingo. The game will review the topics that have been taught since the beginning of the year which include empathy, listening with attention, being assertive, and respecting similarities and differences. 

During the week of 10/7, we worked on respecting similarities and differences. Below are some photos of students in small groups sharing their feelings about specific scenarios that were given to them. I enjoyed listening to their thoughtful conversations.

Mrs. Bell's Math Class - Unit 2 - Adding & Subtracting Fractions

Using clocks as a reference for finding common denominators will be our focus this week. Then, students will look at how to decide which model (money or clocks) works best for different denominators. Students will complete a graded WORK SAMPLE (similar to a Checkpoint) in class on Thursday, 10/17. 

FYI...

10/14 - Columbus Day - No school

10/24 - Picture retakes (NEW DATE)

Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for October 29 & 30. Look for an email from me next week to sign up for your conference.

The pizza party that we won from the Magazine Drive was a blast! Thank you to the PTO for recognizing our class as having the highest percentage participation at PV!

Enjoy the Holiday Weekend!

Mrs. Karen Bell