~ December News ~

Upcoming Dates:
• 12/10: Report Cards sent home
• 12/11: Books, Board games and Winter Bazaar; 10:00am – 2:00pm; Mini-Gym
• 12/13: Family Math Night, 6:30pm – 7:30pm, in the Gym and Mini-Gym
• 12/14: Field trip to the Chicago History Museum
• 12/17: Winter Break Class Party, 1:45pm
• 12/20 – 12/31: NO School – Winter Break; School resumes Monday, 1/3/2011

Reminders/Notes:
• Books, Board games and Winter Bazaar: This Saturday the 4th grade families are hosting a Books, Board games and Winter Bazaar to raise money for next fall's outdoor ed trip. We have lots of great books for kids and adults alike and many great games. This is a perfect opportunity to pick up 'new to you' books and games for winter break and the cold months ahead. There will also be tempting treats and treasures to find at the Bazaar. Hope to see you there. Saturday the 11th. 10am - 2pm in Longfellow's mini-gym.
• Family Math Night: Longfellow's annual family math night is scheduled for next Monday, December 13th, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM in the gym and mini gym. It is open to all students in grades PKP - 5, and their families. All students who attend will be entered into a special raffle, will get to be active in the gym while practicing math skills, can create geometric artwork, participate in the estimation challenge with the chance to take home the contents of the estimation jars, and much more. The homeroom with the highest attendance percentage will win a fun prize! Come on out on Monday night for an evening of fun math activities!
• Custom Typing: We have begun our formal keyboarding lessons and students will routinely go to the computer lab for Custom Typing. This offers the opportunity for your child to become familiar with “home row” and allows for an increase in words per minute. This program can also be accessed at home through our school’s homepage. In order to access a child’s particular screen, that can be accomplished by typing “d97username” (i.e. = d97melsmith). The password is your child’s student ID #. Students should be familiar with this process and can access the program at home for more practice.
• Take Home Folder/Assignment Books: Your child should be bringing home their assignment book and a take home (homework) folder everyday. Please check both for assignments, notes, and other information.
• Digital Backpack: Access the school’s digital backpack, to get papers from the school and district. If you need paper copies, please let us know. You can simply go to the district’s website and access it that way.
• PBIS: PBIS program is accepting donations from families and community partners. You can visit the PBIS blog at http://longfellowpbis.blogspot.com/ for a wish list on the right side menu; it is titled “Bears’s Den Wish List.”


Curriculum Notes:

Reading: This week we are reading our fourth story, “Food from the Hood: A Garden of Hope” in our unit: Dollars and Sense. This story tells how students worked together to rebuild the neighborhood around their school after riots destroyed the area. Their plans for a garden soon turned into a “growing” business, and they turned a small garden into the nation’s first student-run natural food company.

We will focus on the comprehension skills of identifying the Main Idea and Details as well as the author’s use of Sequence. Authors use Main Idea and Details to let the reader know what the selection is about. Students will identify the Main Idea and Details within paragraphs throughout the story. Student will also scan the passage to find the author’s use of Time and Order words to understand in which order the events took place.

Writing: In writer’s workshop our authors have been revising and editing their mysteries. We spent many lessons working on the trait of sentence fluency. Students have learned how to vary their sentence structure by using phrases and creating rhythm. We spent a portion of our lessons specifically studying prepositions in order to create phrases. Students have also studied the various types of sentences, as well as the appropriate punctuation for each.

Next week we will be hosting a brief study of poetry. Using our knowledge of prepositions, authors will write prepositional poems, as well as cinquains. We look forward to using our custom typing skills to publish a piece on the computer.

Please be on the lookout for a flyer coming home next week regarding an upcoming writing contest. Each 4th grader is required to submit a piece for the contest. It will not be due until at least one week after winter break. If students would like to get a head start on this project over the break, details will be following soon.

Math: Students started working on Unit 5 (Big Numbers, Estimation, and Computation) this week. The unit begins with two lessons that focus on extending multiplication skills, in preparation for the introduction of the partial-products algorithm for multiplication. The lattice algorithm is also introduced as an alternative to the parital-products algorithm. Unit 5 also emphasizes reading, writing, and using large numbers, including the use of powers of 10 to represent large numbers. Estimation is highlighted, both as an important step in adding and multiplying numbers and as a tool to facilitate the communication of large numbers.

Science: In Science the students have begun working on the Land and Water Unit. In this unit, students investigate the interactions between land and water. Using a stream table as a model, they create hills, build dams, and grow vegetation. Miniature valleys, waterfalls, and canyons form in the stream table as water flows over and through the soil. From these firsthand observations, students discover how water changes the shape of land and how features in the land, in turn, affect the flow of water.

Contact Info: As communication is very important, please contact me with a note or an email if you have any questions, concerns, or information to share.