Friday, January 21, 2011

~~ January News ~~

Upcoming Dates:
•1/24: NO School – Teacher Institute Day
•1/31 - 2/4: Conference Week
•1/31 – 2/4: PTO Book Fair
•2/3 – 2/4: Half Days – Dismissal from school is at 11:00 a.m.
•2/4: Froebel Block workshop in class
•2/11: Field Trip - Ice Skating
•2/21: NO School – Presidents’ Day

Reminders/Notes:
Frank Lloyd Wright/Froebel Blocks: Frank Lloyd Wright grew up playing with a set of blocks that helped to inspire him to go into architecture. These same blocks, named after the gentleman who created them, will be coming into all fourth grade classrooms the first Friday in February. Students will have the opportunity to create a number of different structures with these blocks throughout the one hour time period.
Custom Typing: We are continuing 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.
• District Referendum Information: Referendum information can be found at: http://www.op97.org/referendum/index.html
• District Food Service Survey: District 97 has created an online survey parents/guardians and students can use to provide feedback about our food service program. The survey features questions about a variety of topics, including the quality of the menu and overall satisfaction with the program. Links to the survey can be accessed off of our webpage at http://www.op97.org/longfellow/index.html Print versions of both surveys are also available. The deadline for completing the survey is January 26, 2011. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about our food service program, and for your continued support of District 97.
• 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: Next week we will be focusing on modeling and practicing Literary Responses. In class we will read a short story, and then use a graphic organizer to help build each response. This additional practice will help students include details that support their answer.
Next we will be starting Unit 3: “From Mystery to Medicine.” In this unit, your child will read and discuss a variety of selections that present many concepts about medicine. This will include modern medicine, as well as folk medicine. The first story, titled “Medicine: Past and Present,” is an expository text piece that focuses on how medical practices and technology have greatly advanced over the years.

Writing: In writer’s workshop our authors will be starting a new genre in writing –biographies. For the upcoming Black History month students will be choosing one individual (past or present) that they would like to research in depth. Students will be assessed in the following traits: conventions, sentence fluency, and word choice. Students will be learning how to read information and take notes. Using a strategy called RTW (Read, Think, Write) students will learn to put printed information in their own words using abbreviations. Students will then compile all of their information to create a four paragraph essay. We ask that students choose an individual that has made strong contributions to our society. Please discuss some possibilities with your child over the weekend. Feel free to start gathering resources together for research. Students will be doing the actual research at school, but if you would like to visit the library and start gather resources to support this, please have your child bring them in next Tuesday.

Math: Students have started working in Unit 6 (Division; Map Reference Frames; Measures of Angles), which focuses on understanding the division operation, developing a method for dividing whole numbers, and solving division number stories. Students will learn a division method “Partial-Quotients Algorithm” to build up partial quotients until the exact quotient and remainder are determined. We will then practice a “Traditional” method for long division. There is also focus on numbers in map coordinate systems, and informal work with rotations and angles.

Science: In Science the students are finishing 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.

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