Oct. 28-Nov. 1

Conference Week:  Don't forget that your child should attend their conference with you!

Coming Up:
Thurs. 10/31-Halloween Parties
Fri 11/1 - No School (Parent/Teacher Conferences)
Mon 11/4 - No School (Teacher Institute)
Fri 11/8 - PV PTO Family Bingo Night 6:30-8:00pm
Mon 11/11 - Veteran's Day Assembly 8:10am
Thurs 11/21 - PV Roller Skating Party 3:30-6:30pm
Fri 11/22 - End of 1st trimester
Wed 11/27- Fri 11/29 - No School Thanksgiving Break



SEL:
Lesson 6: Understanding Different Perspectives
Concepts Objectives—
People can have different perspectives about other people, places, and situations.
Perspective taking is a central component of empathy.
Students will be able to:
Identify differing perspectives in given scenarios
Generate prosocial responses to scenarios in which different perspectives could cause a conflict.
*Purple sheet home activity due on Monday for Different Perspectives.


Spelling -  NONE
Due to the shortened week and the holiday, there will be NO spelling lesson this week.


Reading - Unit 1 - THEME: "Courage"
In reading will be to close read the fiction piece titled, Happy Birthday Dr. King. Students will work in small groups to answer text-dependent questions and to use context clues to find meanings of unknown words. They will also be creating a digital notebook of vocabulary words for the story. 

English - Capitalization & Punctuation
Commas in a series and other uses for commas are our topics next week. Then we will go into the use of quotation marks. This lesson is challenging, so we will spend several sessions on this topic.

Social Studies - The Southeast
We will complete our study of the Narragansett People with a small project titled "The Narragansett Village", which will be due on 11/5. Students will draw and label a model of what a Narragansett village of the past would look like based upon what we have studied about their culture. Look for the project description sheet to come home on Monday. 

Our study of the Southeast begins with students creating a map of the region. A QUIZ on the map will be scheduled for the week of 11/4.

Science - Energy Conversions
Writing an argument about the blackout is the topic of the week. Students will be introduced to the terms "evidence" and "claims" as they apply to science. 

Mrs. Spakausky's Math Class: Unit 2:  Multi-Digit Multiplication & Early Division
Here is an overview of Unit 2.  The highlighted areas are the focus of the week!

Module 1
Building Multiplication Arrays
Session 1 The Great Wall of Base Ten
Session 2 Unit 2 Pre-Assessment
Session 3 Metric Units of Linear & Area Measurement
Session 4 Multiplying by Ten
Session 5 Building Multiplication Arrays

Module 2
Arrays & Ratio Tables
Session 1 Sketching Multiplication Arrays
Session 2 Quick Sketches & Strategies
Session 3 Multiplying by Ten, One Hundred & One Thousand
Session 4 Building Ratio Tables
Session 5 Multiplying Single Digits by Multiples of Ten

Module 3
Multiplication Stories & Strategies
Session 1 Multiplication Story Problems
Session 2 Multiplication Story Problems
Session 3 Doubling & Halving
Session 4 Multiplying with Money& Units of Metric Measure
Session 5 Another Look at Multiplication Strategies

Module 4
Early Division with Remainders
Session 1 A Remainder of One
Session 2 What Can You Do with the Remainder?
Session 3 Remainders Win
Session 4 Multiplication & Division
Session 5 Unit 2 Post-Assessment

Oct. 21-25

Ending our week with some Social Emotional Learning (SEL) BINGO, during a grade level assembly!

What FUN!

PRIZES given!!!

Coming Up:
Thurs 10/24 - Picture Retakes (This is a rescheduled date.)
Thurs. 10/24, Tues 10/29 & Wed 10/30 - Parent/Teacher Conferences
Fri 11/1 - No School (Parent/Teacher Conferences)
Mon 11/4 - No School (Teacher Institute)
Fri 11/8 - PV PTO Family Bingo Night 6:30-8:00pm
Mon 11/11 - Veteran's Day Assembly 8:10am
Thurs 11/21 - PV Roller Skating Party 3:30-6:30pm
Fri 11/22 - End of 1st trimester
Wed 11/27- Fri 11/29 - No School Thanksgiving Break

SEL:  Lesson 5: Understanding Complex Feelings
Concepts Objectives--
It is possible to have more than one feeling at the same time.
Being able to understand that others might have complex feelings is an important part of empathy.
Students will be able to:
Identify multiple feelings in a given scenario.
Give possible reasons for multiple feelings.


Spelling -  Unit 8 - Grade Appropriate & Domain-Specific Vocabulary
This week's spelling/vocabulary list will include a variety of words that are appropriate for 4th-grade students. Instead of studying a spelling rule, we will focus on the definition of these words and how they might be used in reading and writing. Part of this week's lesson will also highlight how to use reference materials such as a dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, and encyclopedia. The final TEST is scheduled for Friday, 10/25.


Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"
Next week's task in reading will be to close read the fiction piece titled, Happy Birthday Dr. King. Students will work in small groups to answer text-dependent questions and to use context clues to find meanings of unknown words. They will also be creating a digital notebook of vocabulary words for the story.


English - Capitalization & Punctuation
Commas in a series and other uses for commas are our topics next week.


Social Studies -  The Northeast / The Narragansett
We will complete our study of the NE region with a look at the Native Americans of the area, the Narragansetts. Our focus will be on the culture and traditions of the group and how they have changed over time.

Mrs. Spakausky's Math Class: Unit 2:  Multi-Digit Multiplication & Early Division
Here is an overview of Unit 2.  The highlighted areas are the focus of the week!

Module 1
Building Multiplication Arrays
Session 1 The Great Wall of Base Ten
Session 2 Unit 2 Pre-Assessment
Session 3 Metric Units of Linear & Area Measurement
Session 4 Multiplying by Ten
Session 5 Building Multiplication Arrays

Module 2
Arrays & Ratio Tables
Session 1 Sketching Multiplication Arrays
Session 2 Quick Sketches & Strategies
Session 3 Multiplying by Ten, One Hundred & One Thousand
Session 4 Building Ratio Tables
Session 5 Multiplying Single Digits by Multiples of Ten

Module 3
Multiplication Stories & Strategies
Session 1 Multiplication Story Problems
Session 2 Multiplication Story Problems
Session 3 Doubling & Halving
Session 4 Multiplying with Money& Units of Metric Measure
Session 5 Another Look at Multiplication Strategies

Module 4
Early Division with Remainders
Session 1 A Remainder of One
Session 2 What Can You Do with the Remainder?
Session 3 Remainders Win
Session 4 Multiplication & Division
Session 5 Unit 2 Post-Assessment

Oct. 14-18

Enjoy Pics from our Northeast Feast

Coming Up:
Thurs 10/24 - Picture Retakes (This is a rescheduled date.)
Thurs. 10/24, Tues 10/29 & Wed 10/30 - Parent/Teacher Conferences
Fri 11/1 - No School (Parent/Teacher Conferences)
Mon 11/4 - No School (Teacher Institute)
Fri 11/8 - PV PTO Family Bingo Night 6:30-8:00pm
Mon 11/11 - Veteran's Day Assembly 8:10am
Thurs 11/21 - PV Roller Skating Party 3:30-6:30pm
Fri 11/22 - End of 1st trimester
Wed 11/27- Fri 11/29 - No School Thanksgiving Break

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
There will not be a formal Second Step lesson this week. Instead, we will spend our morning meetings doing team-building activities. We will also be practicing more "Calm Classroom" breathing techniques.  Be sure to ask your child about these activities. On Friday, the entire fourth grade will play a game of SEL Bingo. The game will review the topics that have been taught since the beginning of the year which include empathy, listening with attention, being assertive, and respecting similarities and differences.

Spelling -  Unit 7 - "Suffixes "-ness", "-less",  and "-en"
This week's spelling/vocabulary list will include words with the suffixes -ness, -less, and-en.  We will study the definitions of these suffixes and how to determine the meaning of unknown words by breaking the words into base words and suffixes and by using context clues. The final TEST is scheduled for Friday, 10/18.

Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"
The Courage unit begins by exploring how one person can make a difference. In order to gain some background knowledge of Dr. Martin Luther King,  students will work in small groups to close read a biographical article about his life. They will also independently watch a video about him and answer text-dependent questions related to the video.


English - Capitalization & Punctuation
This chapter in English focuses on the correct use of capitalization and punctuation. The first few lessons review sentence structure, the capitalization of names, people, places and pets, and abbreviations.

Social Studies  - The Northeast
The final draft, which will be typed, of the Northeast Trip descriptive paragraph is due on Wednesday, 10/16. Students should submit their projects through Google Classroom by 8:00 a.m. that day.

We will complete our study of the NE region with a look at the Native Americans of the area, the Narragansetts. Our focus will be on the culture and traditions of the group and how they have changed over time. We will also spend some time creating the Northeast portion of a United States Map. This is a year-long activity that is completed region by region.

Science - Energy Conversions
Students will work with a Science simulation APP to create and modify electrical energy systems.  Students will finish the simulation to create energy systems and learn to define an electrical device.

Mrs. Spakausky's Math Class: Unit 2:  Multi-Digit Multiplication & Early Division

Here is an overview of Unit 2.  The highlighted areas are the focus of the week!
Module 1
Building Multiplication Arrays
Session 1 The Great Wall of Base Ten
Session 2 Unit 2 Pre-Assessment 
Session 3 Metric Units of Linear & Area Measurement 
Session 4 Multiplying by Ten
Session 5 Building Multiplication Arrays 

Module 2
Arrays & Ratio Tables 
Session 1 Sketching Multiplication Arrays 
Session 2 Quick Sketches & Strategies
Session 3 Multiplying by Ten, One Hundred & One Thousand 
Session 4 Building Ratio Tables
Session 5 Multiplying Single Digits by Multiples of Ten

Module 3
Multiplication Stories & Strategies
Session 1 Multiplication Story Problems
Session 2 Multiplication Story Problems
Session 3 Doubling & Halving
Session 4 Multiplying with Money& Units of Metric Measure
Session 5 Another Look at Multiplication Strategies

Module 4
Early Division with Remainders
Session 1 A Remainder of One
Session 2 What Can You Do with the Remainder?
Session 3 Remainders Win
Session 4 Multiplication & Division
Session 5 Unit 2 Post-Assessment

Oct. 7-11

Coming Up:
Mon 10/14 - No school (Columbus Day)
Tues 10/29 & Wed 10/30 - Parent/Teacher Conferences

Our first PRIDE! Award was this last week.  D for Determination...congrats to our September winner, Moxi!

Halloween Project, in progress:

Show and Tell earned with enough Goody Tickets-
Congrats, Phillip......he was happy to show and tell about his four legged friend:

Spelling -  Unit 6 - "Suffixes "-ed" and "-ing"
This week's spelling/vocabulary list will include words with the suffixes -ed and -ing.  We will study how adding these suffixes to base words changes their spelling. We will also take a look at synonyms and antonyms for each of the words. The final TEST is scheduled for Friday, 10/11.

Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"
The Courage unit begins by exploring how one person can make a difference. In order to gain some background knowledge of Dr. Martin Luther King,  students will work in small groups to close read a biographical article about his life. They will also independently watch a video about him and answer text-dependent questions related to the video.

Science - Energy Conversions
Students will work with a Science simulation APP to create and modify electrical energy systems.

Pics from building a system.  We made the blade spin with solar energy.

Social Studies  - The Beautiful Northeast
The chapter 4 TEST is scheduled for Tuesday, 10/8. Students should review the textbook, review pages, and workbook pages to prepare for the test. A study guide was sent home on 10/3.

We will also begin a descriptive writing project in which students will describe an imaginary trip to the Northeast region. As they describe their journey they will write about the geography, resources and fishing industry of the region. The rough draft of the Northeast Trip descriptive paragraph will be due on Friday, 10/11.

The students thought it would be fun to have a Northeast  Fest, with items brought in that represent the NE.  If you would like to participate in this event Friday, please sign up for an appropriate NE food item to bring in.  See the email for sign-up.


Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
The topic for the week of 10/7 will be respecting similarities and differences. The concepts of this lesson will include the idea that people can have similar or different feelings about the same situation and that being able to notice and understand others' feelings is an important part of empathy. Our goal is that students will be able to identify clues that help them recognize other people's feelings and also be able to identify similarities and differences between how two people feel.

SEL: Lesson 4: Respecting Similarities and Differences
Objectives:
People can have similar or different feelings about the same situation.
Being able to notice and then understand others’ feelings is an important part of empathy.

Students will be able to:
Identify clues that help them recognize other people’s feelings
Identify similarities and differences between how two people feel

Mrs. Spakausky Math:
Unit 2 will start tomorrow with a pretest.