Today was Mad About Math! What a great day of events! Thank you to Mrs. Barlow for organizing such a great event! The students and parent volunteers revolved through a series of math centers. The kids had a great time and were able to work together to practice some very important math skills! Happy Halloween!

SOUND UNIT

Today we started our Sound Unit. This is a short unit that will last approximately one week. Then we will transition into our Light Unit. Today we started with a great lab called The Screaming Balloon. We were able to see how friction works with sound waves to create high and low pitch sounds.

SKITTLES

We are in need of Skittles. If you are willing to donate any please send them in.

Bottles and Food Coloring

Parents,
Please dig into your recycling bins. We need SIX clear glass bottles. If they have a “label” on them it is ok. I will take them home and wash them off. They can be smaller to larger. I need a variety of sizes. I also need food coloring. We also need some small bolts and large balloons (only 7). If you are willing to send any of these in that would be great for Science this week.

Wildself & Topic Sentences

Be sure to check out the 4th grade bulletin board. You’ll see some of our great Wildself creatures and topic sentences!

CAPS/Social Studies Test & Quiz

For our Explorers and Informational Writing units we made our “Explorers Thinking Caps”. These caps are covered with character traits that describe each of our explorers. These character traits will be used with our writing piece. There will be an explorer’s quiz on Thursday that will cover all of our explorers as well as map skills. Monday will be the UNIT TEST. Study guides will go home on Wednesday.

Report Cards

REPORT CARDS went home today. Please send the signed envelope back tomorrow.

Dear 4th grade parents,
I can't believe how fast October is flying by. 4th grade Mad About Math will be here on Monday, October 31st from 12 - 2pm. We will be doing a math scavenger hunt where the children will solve math problems to lead them to different parts of the school. As they solve clues they will receive prizes and candy. The scavenger hunt will finish up with a snack of juice and cookies. As always, we will need parent donations sent in by Friday, October 29th. Here is what we need according to homeroom class.If your child is in Ms. Bilyeau's home room: Please send in either bags of individually wrapped fun sized candy or prizes (spider rings, rubber bracelets, Halloween erasers or pencils, bouncy balls, eraser tops etc.)If your child is in Mr. Burns' homeroom:If your last name begins with A-J, please send in a package of Halloween Cookies - Halloween Bakery Cookies, Halloween Oreos, Halloween Chips A Hoy etc. (If you are a Costco member, you can find them there.)If you last name begins with K-Z, please send in 1-2 boxes of Caprisun fruit punch.If you child is in Ms. Causey's homeroom: Please send in Halloween stickers or foam shapes for students to decorate their bags. The 4th grade room moms will be providing bags for the students to collect their prizes & candy. If possible, please be sensitive to the fact we have students with nut allergies when making your purchases.We also need 7 volunteers (or more) to help with the students. Please e-mail me directly if you can volunteer.
Thank you so much. This should be a fun event!
Cheryl Barlow, Linda Trickey, Betty Klein, and Tobi Moore
4th grade room parents

Tiger News

School Pictures

School pictures went home today. Please look them over. If you are going to purchase the pictures please send the money back in (envelope is inside the package). If you are not going to purchase the pictures please send them back in.

Guest Speaker

Thank you to Mrs. Perry for taking the time to come and speak with our class about the importance of India in connection with our explorers unit. Mrs. Perry was able to talk about the Silk Road, spices, gold, and the history of India. Students were able to get hands on experience with silk and other artifacts from India. They now have a better understanding of why European explorers wanted to get to China and India for trade. Thank you Mrs. Perry!

Character Traits

We are working on using stronger character traits in our writing. Be sure to ask your child about the lesson we did today to practice applying them to characters from great movies.

Red Ribbon Week (10/24-10/28)

Monday: “Red Ribbon Day”—Students should wear a red shirt. They will receive a Red Ribbon that they are encouraged to wear throughout the week.

Tuesday: “Hugs not Drugs”—Students are encouraged to bring a stuffed animal to school.

Wednesday: “Shade Out Drugs”—Students are encouraged to wear sunglasses to school.

Thursday: “Put a Cap on Drugs”—Students are encouraged to wear a baseball hat

Friday: “Team Up Against Drugs”—Students are encouraged to wear team jerseys.

Spelling 10/18

nonstop,turkey, they'd already, coffee, ability, rewarding, wounded, nonsense, invisible

We are in need of LARGE brown construction paper. It measures about 12 x 18. I need one large piece per child for a writing lesson (about 65 pieces). If you are willing to pick some up at Office Depot or any supply store please let me know before I order some myself. I will need the paper by Thursday for a lesson on Friday. As always thank you for your support!

TAG PARENTS:

Tuesday Mrs. Shams will be taking the TAG kids (usually she takes them on Friday). They will miss a very important lesson on Tuesday. If possible please send them to my room for morning remediation (just to catch up) either Tuesday morning or Wednesday morning. I will be doing a miniature version of the lesson both days from 7:20-7:40.

Informational Writing Unit

This week we start our second writing unit. In this genre we will be learning about informational writing. This type of writing is based on the knowledge of a given topic. Our prompt will be focused on explorers in connection with our current Social Studies unit. During this unit we will continue to use children’s literature (6+1 Traits) to model for students organized writing structures. We will also be focusing on character traits, topic sentences and sentence fluency.

NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY!

There is no school on Monday because of conferences. If your child has me for Science/Social Studies please email me if you would like to meet on Monday. Most times are full, but I have a few openings. I have sent home three notices for conferences.

Explorers Unit

This week we started our next Social Studies unit on Explorers. Students will study how early explorers such as John Cabot, Vasco Nunez Balboa, Juan Ponce de Leon, Christopher Columbus, Henry Hudson, and Jacques Cartier interacted with the Native Americans. We will also study the reasons for their explorations and the obstacles they faced. Students will also practice their map skills. Students should be familiar with continents and important European countries associated with this unit.

Science Test

Reminder: Science test tomorrow on Weather. Study guides went home last week.

Spelling 10/10

forgiveness, wasn't, glisten, families, dangerous, undecided, farewell, purpose, don't, paragraph

Parent Conferences

Parents,
On Monday a letter will be going home about conferences. Conferences will be held on 10/17. Parents will meet with their child’s SCIENCE teacher. That teacher will give them an overall update for all content areas. If your child has me for Science and you want to go ahead and set up a time for 10/17 please feel free to send me an email. Conferences will be 15 minutes long. I will set them up on a first come first serve basis.

WEATHER TEST

The Weather & Water Cycle test will be next Wednesday. The study guide is going home with students today. Students are also receiving their graded Water Cycle Quiz today so they may have it to study over the weekend. On Monday students will be doing a hands on performance assessment where they will need to apply their understanding of weather predicting and weather fronts. Students are encouraged to review weather predictions over the weekend. Reminder: All tests have questions on them from previous units!

Stars

Parents,
We need SMALL star stickers for an activity next week. If you are willing to donate any please email me. Thank you!

GREAT VIDEO!

Check out this video!!! GO 4th GRADE!!!

Cut and paste this link:

http://mysandyspringstv.com/community/archives/365

Air Pressure

To help us learn more about how hot air and cold air interact with each other we did our "egg in a bottle lab". Tonight students need to finish the lab sheet for this activity.

Have you checked the weather today?

http://www.weather.com

http://www.wunderground.com

http://www.11alive.com/weather

Today we made anemometers in class.

Tiger Trot-A-Thon

Spelling 10/3

noisy, invisible, stepped, they'd, reusable, practicing, several, readily, achieve, pollen

Spanish Heritage

Friday the PTA hosted a cultural performance for the school in honor of Spanish Heritage month. Some of our 4th graders got the chance to join in the fun!

THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE...

This week in Science we used the mobile lab to research weather instruments. Students worked with a partner to present their information to the class.

Tiger News 9/30

SUPPLIES

Parents,
This week for Science we need the following supplies. If you can send any of these in for Monday morning please send me an email. Thank you as always!
1.Bag of plastic straws (not bendy)
2.Straight pins
3.Four containers of Play-Doh (any color)
4.A dozen eggs
5.Glass bottles with smaller openings (pictured below)
6.Cotton balls (3 bags)