Science!!

 Hello again!  We had another great week here in Room 11!  In ELA this week we reviewed paragraph writing.  After reading about endangered sloths last week, students chose another endangered rainforest animal to research and write a paragraph about.  We reviewed the parts of a paragraph and how to write strong introduction and concluding sentences.  After writing their paragraphs, students created a slide about their chosen animal.  We also started working on making inferences this week.  We reviewed what an inference is and discussed how we need to use our own background knowledge, along with clues from the text to make inferences while reading.  We practiced this skill by finding clues in pictures to make inferences, and doing the same while watching Pixar Shorts.

In Social Studies this week students continued to learn about the lives of the Haudenosaunee people.  They read about their education, their work, their government, their festivals and more.  They worked on comparing and contrasting how the Haudenosaunee lived with how we live today.

In Science students learned how humans use the energy from food to make our bodies move like cars use energy from gasoline to move.  Then, they began an activity where they used rubber bands to create a model of an amusement park ride that stores energy and spins.

We also had the awesome opportunity to go to Science Demo Day this week at the High School.  High School science students helped our kiddos participate in experiments like elephant toothpaste, glow in the dark bubbles, extracting DNA from strawberries and more.  This was such an awesome morning and the kiddos had a great time!!

As you can see, we were very busy during this shortened week!  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

A few reminders:

• Please have kiddos bring a water bottle to school each day.
• Friday February 3rd is the Beast Challenge at 8 AM for those who want to participate.
• Tuesday, February 7th is a half day for students.  They will be dismissed at noon.

Here are some photos from Science Demo Day:

Wands!

Hello families!  We had a short, but busy, week here in Room 11!  In ELA this week we continued to focus on Main Idea and Supporting Details.  We read an article this week called Rescue in the Rainforest about a young sloth named Snow White who was rescued in the rainforest in Costa Rica.  She was taken to The Sloth Institute where she was nursed back to health and released back into the wild.  Before reading the article, we read about rainforests and discussed what endangered species are and the effect of deforestation on the environment and animals.  Students worked to summarize the main points of this article, and to find the main idea of different sections of the text.

In Social Studies this week students started to learn more about the life of the Haudenosaunee people in New York.  They used the book If You Lived with the Iroquois... to complete task cards answering questions about what they ate, their medical care, their homes and more.  Next week, we will continue to learn more about the Haudenosaunee.

In Science students explored how friction impacts motion.  They used cars and ramps to experiment with this.

We ended the week with Diagon Alley day!  Students made wands and spell books as well as oragami pets to bring with them to Hogwarts!  We had such a fun afternoon doing this.  Thanks so much to everyone who volunteered to come in and help!!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!  As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

A few reminders:

• Wednesday, January 25th is our Science Demo Day at the High School.  We will be leaving Charlton Heights at 9:00 and returning around 10:30.
• Next week is the Great Kindness Challenge week at CH! Each day has a theme.  Monday is Kindness T-shirt day.  Tuesday is wear your favorite sports team.  Wednesday is Crazy Hair and Sock day.  Thursday is Superhero Day.  Friday is Spartan Gear day.  Friday is also Popcorn day at lunch!

Here are some photos from our afternoon at Diagon Alley!

Week 2!

Hello again!  We had another great week here in Room 11!  In ELA this week we continued to work on finding main idea and supporting details.  We moved on to using longer, more complex texts and worked to find the main idea of larger sections of text.  We read two interesting narrative nonfiction articles this week and discussed the difference between narrative nonfiction, historical fiction and realistic fiction.  The Flaming Sky was about the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.  We enjoyed learning about zeppelins and how they were truly a luxurious form of travel during their time.  We also read Out of the Flames about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911.  We read the story of a girl named Katie who survived the fire and how this fire had positive effects like new fire codes and improved rights for workers.  In both of these articles we worked on summarizing, as well as finding main ideas and supporting details.

In Social Studies this week we continued to learn about early people in New York.  We read about the two main language groups in New York, the Haudenosaunee and the Algonquian.  Students then completed a venn diagram comparing and contrasting these two groups.  Next week we will be diving a bit more into the Haudenosaunee people and learning about how they lived.

In Science this week students did stations where they observed different scenarios and looked for evidence of energy in each.

As you can see we were very busy in fourth grade this week!  I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!  Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

A few reminders:

• No School on Monday, January 16th for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• Friday, January 20th is the Beast Challenge at 8:00 AM for students who want to participate.
• Science Demo Day at the High School will be on January 25th.

Here are some photos from our week:

First Week!

Hello everyone!  We had an awesome first week of 2023 here in Room 11!  I am so excited to be back at CH and I am really enjoying getting to know this awesome group of kiddos.  We started our week by doing some goal setting.  Students worked on setting personal goals and school goals for the new year.  We also worked as a class to set goals for us as a group.  

In ELA this week we focused on main idea.  We started by reading short paragraphs and identifying the main idea as well as details that support the main idea.  We really focused on choosing details that specifically support the main idea.  Then, we read an article called The Weird and Wonderful Octopus and practiced this skill by identifying the main idea of each paragraph and finding supporting details.  After that, students read a short book about elephants and worked to find the main idea of larger sections of text as they read.  I am impressed with how the kiddos are already doing with this skill!  It can be tricky!  We will continue working on main idea next week.

In Social Studies this week we began our unit on the early people of New York.  We read about how scientists think the first people came to the Americas and eventually to what is now known as New York.  We watched a video about how the Ice Age created a land bridge between Asia and the Americas so that hunter-gatherers were able to cross where they couldn't before.

We had our first Science switch this week.  Our class will be doing science with Mr. Deso for this marking period.  They started their unit on motion energy!

As you can see, we had a busy start to 2023!  I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend.  Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.  I am looking forward to a fabulous rest of the year!!

A few reminders:

• Please be sure that your child has working headphones at school.  We use our Chromebooks quite a bit so it is super important for them to have these.
• Please send your child with a water bottle each day.  I am happy to give them a cup of water if they forget, but the spill risk is significant!! :-)
• Read for Ronald McDonald House forms came home today.  Our month for this program starts today!  All the information you need is in the envelope.
• I sent home a note about Science Demo Day which will be on January 25th.  This is an awesome opportunity for 4th graders and we always have so much fun!

Here are some photos of us running through Platform 9 and 3/4 into our new year!!