Nov. 12-16

Veteranś Day Assembly

Coming up:

November

Fri 11/16 - End of first trimester

Wed 11/21 - Fri 11/23 - No School (Thanksgiving Break)

December

Tues 12/4 - Early Dismissal 11:00am

Mon 12/24 through Fri 1/4 - Winter Break

Spelling -  Unit 12 - Homophones
The week of 11/12, the list will contain words that are homophones. A homophone is a word that sounds like another word, but has a different spelling and meaning, for example, bear and bare.  The final TEST for the homophone lesson will be on Friday, 11/16.

Week 12 Word List

Quizlet  https://quizlet.com/165859341/integrated-spelling-and-vocabulary-week-12-16-sp-7-vocab-flash-cards/

https://quizlet.com/165866906/integrated-spelling-and-vocabulary-week-12-12-sp-5-vocab-mod-flash-cards/

Reading - "Courage"
Students will take the comprehension and vocabulary QUIZ for Lou Gehrig on Thursday, 11/15. The comprehension portion of the quiz will be open book. Students should review the word work on Google Classroom and the text-dependent questions from the story to help them prepare for the quiz.

English - Capitalization & Punctuation
Capitalization of places and things, abbreviations, and commas in a series are our topics for next week.

Social Studies - The Southeast - Coastal Plains to Mountains
We will continue our study of the geography of the southeast.

Science - Energy Conversions
Forms of Energy and how to write an argument using claims and evidence are the topics for the week.

Mrs. Spakauskyś Math Class-Unit 3-Fractions and Decimals
We will begin unit 3. The students will review fraction skills and concepts and extend their understandings to mixed numbers, improper fractions and more sophisticated strategies for generating equivalent fractions.

Nov. 5-9

I hope you all enjoyed Halloween as much as we did!  Thank you to our amazing parents who took time out of their busy schedules to help out with our party.

We will be spending some time next week as a class learning about the importance of Veteran's Day.  We will finish the week with a school-wide assembly to honor our veterans.  We are having a red-white-and-blue spirit day on Friday to show our support for the veterans and armed forces. 

FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS SHOULD WEAR WHITE ON FRIDAY. Thank you to all who have served!

Coming up:

November

Fri. 11/9-Veteran's Day Assembly 8:00am-FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS SHOULD WEAR WHITE ON FRIDAY

Fri. 11/9-Pizza Lunch in the classroom  (sponsored by Marissaś family)

Fri 11/16 - End of first trimester

Wed 11/21 - Fri 11/23 - No School (Thanksgiving Break)

December

Tues 12/4 - Early Dismissal 11:00am

Mon 12/24 through Fri 1/4 - Winter Break

Spelling -  Unit 11 - Words with "ei" & "ie"

This week's list contains words that have the letter combinations "ei" and "ie". We will study the rule for spelling these words. The final TEST is scheduled for Friday, 11/9.

Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"

The next story that we will read in the Courage unit is a biographical piece about baseball player Lou Gehrig. While studying this text, we will continue to practice our close reading skills and focus on identifying statements that are facts and statements that are opinions. Students will work in small groups to respond to text-dependent questions and there will also be vocabulary work. Look for a QUIZ on the Lou Gehrig story and vocabulary to be scheduled for the week of 11/12.

English - Capitalization & Punctuation
Using quotation marks will be our focus this week. This skill can be quite challenging so we will spend extra time on it.

Social Studies - The Southeast
The Southeast Map QUIZ is scheduled for Mon., 11/5. Your child should study the map that he/she created and use the blank copy in the binder to practice. A word bank with names of states and water areas will be provided.

Science - Energy Conversions
Students will continue to explore electrical systems by completing a simulation online. We will also look at what uses electrical energy. This past week, students worked in small groups to create a system that would cause a fan blade to spin. They were given a solar panel, a motor, a fan blade, and two wires. Once they built their system, they had to hold the solar panel to a heat lamp to test it. They were all successful in getting the blade to spin in both directions. Below are some photos of their investigation...

Mrs. Spakausky's math class:    In math this week we will continue Unit Two, Module Three, Multiplication Stories and Strategies. Students investigate the effect of doubling and halving factors in multiplication combinations. The students should also be practicing their multiplication facts nightly.  Next, we are working on division with remainders.  The students will learn how to divide a 2-digit number by a one digit number with remainders.

The Unit 2 Test will be coming up this Friday.  A study guide will be coming home this week.

October 29-November 2

Coming up:

10/26- No School - Conferences

It was a pleasure to meet with so many of you during conferences. Please do not ever hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns that you may have about your child's progress.

10/29 - No School - Teachers' Institute

10/31-Halloween Parties and Parade

The Halloween celebration will be on Wednesday, 10/31. Students will change into their costumes at 12:45, and the parties will begin at 1:00. The traditional PV parade will begin at 1:55. Students must be able to put on their Halloween costume in 5-10 minutes by themselves. Fourth grade will have designated classrooms for girls to change in and for boys. They will NOT be allowed to change in the bathroom. No props that resemble a weapon should be brought to school. THANK YOU to all the parents who are helping to make this a special afternoon for our classroom!

Spelling -  Unit 10 - Suffixes -ment, -tion and -ly

This week's list contains words with the suffixes -ment, -tion and -ly.  Students will study the definitions of the suffixes and how they change the root words that they are attached to. We will also look at antonyms of the spelling and vocabulary words. The final TEST is scheduled for Friday, 11/2.

Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"

We will compare and contrast two other faces in history that showed courage.  We will learn about Jackie Robinson and Malala Yousafzai.  How did these two people show courage in their own way?

Writing-What is a Story Arc?

This week we will learn what a story arc is.  A story arc is a way to organize the story in writing before actually writing the story.  It helps the author get ideas down and think things through so they will make sense  You can think of it as a plan on paper for the story

Social Studies - The Southeast

Our study of the Southeast begins with students creating a map of the region. Look for a QUIZ on the map to be scheduled the week of 11/5.

Science - Energy Conversions
Building a simple electrical system and examining its parts will be the focus of Science this week.  In these pictures, students read about SYSTEMS in more depth.  

The Chapter Question is:  What happened to the electrical system the night of the Errgstown blackout?

WE will investigate what a system is and how electrical energy in a system is used.

The KEY CONCEPTS:

*A system is a collection of interacting parts that work together.  Each part in the system plays a role to perform an overall system function.

*Light, motion, sound and thermal energy are all forms of energy.  You can observe evidence of these different forms as outputs of electrical devices.

(There is no textbook for science.  Only student workbooks).

Mrs. Spakausky's  Math Class:.  In math this week we will continue Unit Two, Module Three, Multiplication Stories and Strategies. Students investigate the effect of doubling and halving factors in multiplication combinations. The students should also be practicing their multiplication facts nightly. Next, we are working on division with remainders.  The students will learn how to divide a 2-digit number by a one digit number with remainders.

October 22-26

Coming up:

10/26- No School - Conferences
10/29 - No School - Teachers' Institute

10/31-Halloween Parties and Parade

The Halloween celebration will be on Wednesday, 10/31. 

Students will change into their costumes at 12:45, and the parties will begin at 1:00. The traditional PV parade will begin at 1:55. Students must be able to put on their Halloween costume in 5-10 minutes by themselves. Fourth grade will have designated classrooms for girls to change in and for boys. They will NOT be allowed to change in the bathroom. No props that resemble a weapon should be brought to school. THANK YOU to all the parents who are helping to make this a special afternoon for our classroom!

Students working with partners---We are responding to questions about Martin Luther King Jr.ś  ''I have a Dream Speech¨

Our new student, Emma!  Welcome to Prairieview!!!

What is Cause and Effect?  

Students defined and came up with key words for finding a cause and effect relationship.

Spelling List for Unit 9

Spelling -  Unit 9 - Prefixes pre-, re- and mis-
Words on this week's list will include the prefixes pre-, re- and mis-. We will study the definitions of these prefixes and how they change the meaning of the root word that they are attached to. The final TEST is scheduled for THURSDAY,  10/25.

Reading - Unit 1 - "Courage"
We will be having a quiz comparing the story Happy Birthday, Dr. King and the song PRIDE.

Social Studies - No Social Studies for a few weeks, so we can dig into our new science unit.

Science-Energy

We will start our new unit on Energy.  During the first chapter, the students will have a Question that will guide them throughout.  The Chapter Question is:  What happened to the electrical system the night of the Errgstown blackout?

WE will investigate what a system is and how electrical energy in a system is used.

The KEY CONCEPTS:

*A system is a collection of interacting parts that work together.  Each part in the system plays a role to perform an overall system function.

*Light, motion, sound and thermal energy are all forms of energy.  You can observe evidence of these different forms as outputs of electrical devices.

(There is no textbook for science.  Only student workbooks).

Mrs. Spakauskyś Math Class--Unit 2

In math this week we will continue Unit Two, Module Three, Multiplication Stories and Strategies. Students investigate the effect of doubling and halving factors in multiplication combinations. The students should also be practicing their multiplication facts nightly.  Next, we are working on division with remainders.  The students will learn how to divide a 2-digit number by a one digit number with remainders.