* This week is Earth Week. The students are all invited to wear blue on Monday to help us remember ways we can keep our water clean. On Thursday, we will have a "waste-free" lunch. Our Commons area will also be decorated with the students' leaves that they decorated to teach others what they can do to help our Earth. We will also be watching the movie, "Oceans" on Thursday to celebrate a part of our Earth that we tend to take for granted.
* Tuesday is our field trip to the Art Institute. A note about reminders for that day went home with your child on Friday. Here is a list just to jog your memory:
Field Trip Reminders
- All 4th graders will wear their “I am Ivy Hill” t-shirt
- Wear comfortable shoes---we’ll be doing a lot of walking!
- All lunches need to be PEANUT AND TREE NUT FREE!
- Lunch bags need to be disposable--ALL bags will be thrown out before getting back on the bus.
- All lunches need to be sealed in some way (ie: stapled, taped, etc) so that nothing will leak.
- All lunches need to have your child’s name written on it clearly.
- You will need to bring a drink with you that has not been opened. The drink should also be in a container that can be thrown away before we head back to school on the bus.
- You will NOT need to bring any money since we will not be visiting the gift shop or vending machine.
- You can bring a camera and take pictures IF you are going to be responsible to hold on to your camera for our entire trip and you do not use a flash when taking pictures.
- There will be no snack on Tuesday since we will be on the bus or in the museum at the time.
- If you have any other questions, please ask Mrs. Galazka.
* If your child hasn't received an "I am Ivy Hill" t-shirt, he/she will receive this on Monday.
* Our theme this week in reading is "Explorations". This goes along well with our current History Alive unit! We will use a non-fiction Time for Kids article to review differentiating between fact and opinion.
* Our spelling list this week will contain words with accented syllables. Accented syllables can be at the beginning of a word (as in the word "cancel") or at the end of the word (as in the word "above"). It may seem that the placement of accents in words is often random or accidental, but these are some rules that usually work:
1. Accents are often on the first syllable. Examples: ba'/sic, pro'/gram.
2. In words that have suffixes or prefixes, the accent is usually on the main root word. Examples: box'/es, un/tie'.
3. If de-, re-, ex-, in-, po-, pro-, or a- is the first syllable in a word, it is usually not accented. Examples: de/lay', ex/plore'
4. Two vowel letters together in the last syllable of a word often indicates an accented last syllable. Examples: com/plain', con/ceal'.
* In grammar, the kids will work with adjectives that compare. We will work with both comparative and superlative adjectives. We will also review irregular adjectives that compare such as good/best and bad/worst.
* In math we will spend most of the week exploring area. On Monday, we will practice finding area by counting the number of squares in a grid drawing of shapes. On Wednesday, we will find the area of our skin by tracing our hands on grid paper and using a formula to come up with a total area for our body. Did you know that the total area of your skin is about 100 times the area of the outline of your hand? On Thursday, the kids will experiment with different rectangles to draw conclusions about formulas that work to find the area of rectangles. There will only be one Mad Minutes test this week due to our field trip and other activities in school. It will most likely be given on Thursday.
* The kids had a preview of the original 13 colonies in social studies last week. We learned that the colonies were divided up into 3 regions: New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. Each region was known for different reasons for settlement, geography/climate, job opportunities, and government. The kids will pick out a colony to research and prepare a billboard that advertises to others the advantages of settling in their colony this week. We will present these to the class and take notes to compare/contrast 6 of the 13 colonies (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Georgia). They will then have to decide which colony they would like to live in and why.
* In writing, the kids will create another character from a photo, put this character into a new mundane situation, and begin to develop a story for this character. This repetition provides students with another opportunity to practice skills involved in developing a character and writing a short story. The repetition of procedures, but with completely new material, helps students become experts.
* I told you our schedule was packed! This week is going to fly by with everything we have going on. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. I know this is also an important week for many religions. I hope you enjoy the holiday for anyone who is celebrating this week!
