MrHowd.com

Spelling:  We finished learning two more rules for capitalization:

• Capitalize titles of people, books and songs.
• Capitalize the names of days of the week, months, and holidays, but not seasons.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 21-23 are available and due Friday.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles. Some groups worked on questioning as a reading strategy.

Writing: We talked about making characters seem real by writing realistic dialogue, and making them act like real people.

The next piece of writing will be a fiction piece, due Monday, November 30. Students should be prewriting at this point.

Math: Students completed a math test over these ideas:

• Data landmarks (minimum, maximum, range, mode, median)
• Bar graphs
• Addition
• Subtraction
• Reading and writing large numbers

Science: None today due to extra time with science yesterday.

Social Studies: We continued to learn that immigrants and African Americans moved into Michigan during the 1900s to get jobs in factories, to escape poverty and to look for more freedom.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• The Fourth Grade Musical is Thursday, November 12 at 7:30 pm.
• Need to make, change or check your Fall Parent Teacher Conference time? See here.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.

Spelling:  None today due to student’s getting new seats.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 21-23 are available and due Friday.

Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles. Some groups worked on synthesizing as a reading strategy.

Writing: We reviewed the idea that all stories have characters, plot (usually a problem to solve), and setting. Students also spent some time prewriting about the characters, plot and setting of their next story.

The next piece of writing will be a fiction piece, due Monday, November 30.

Math: None today due to a practice for the fourth grade musical.

There will be a test tomorrow over these ideas:

• Data landmarks (minimum, maximum, range, mode, median)
• Bar graphs
• Addition
• Subtraction
• Reading and writing large numbers

Science: We reviewed the last experiment and took notes in our minibooks about the differences between mass and weight:

• Mass is measured with a balance by comparing an unknown object to a known mass.
• Weight is measured with a spring scale and is the force due to gravity. Mass does not depend on gravity.
• Weight changes with location, but mass does not.

Social Studies: None due to extra time with science.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• Need to make, change or check your Fall Parent Teacher Conference time? See here.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.

Spelling:  We reviewed rules for capitalizing words:

• For specific names of people;
• For specific names of places.

We’ll review two more rules for capitalization next week.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 18-20 were due today. Students also completed a cursive quiz.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles. Students also completed an informational reading test.

Writing: Today was a publishing day, and a personal narrative, slightly fictionalized, was due into portfolios. The next piece of writing will be a fiction piece.

Math: Students completed a MiniQuiz over addition, subtraction and bar graphs, and we played a game to review for Monday’s math test over these ideas:

• Data landmarks (minimum, maximum, range, mode, median)
• Bar graphs
• Addition
• Subtraction
• Reading and writing large numbers

Science: Students did an experiment to measure the mass of several objects using a balance. Homework is to complete the experiment questions, if not done in class.

Social Studies: None on Fridays.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 4

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• The end of the First Marking Period is today, November 6.
• Need to make, change or check your Fall Parent Teacher Conference time? See here.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.

Spelling:  We practiced possessive pronouns today, learning that possessive pronouns do not have apostrophes:

• It the their dog. The dog is theirs.
• It is our dog. The dog is ours.
• It is her dog. The dog is hers.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 18-20 are available and due Friday.

Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles.

Writing: Students used their technology time today to edit and publish their personal narrative. Students did this using their MrHowd.com Google Docs account (docs.mrhowd.com). Using Google Docs, students started typing their personal narrative. They can access this from school, home or any other internet-connected computer. Students can also share their document with me or others for comments or suggestions.

The next piece of writing will be a personal narrative that has been slightly fictionalized, or, in other words, a personal narrative based on a true story. This piece of writing will be due Friday, November 6. This will be the final writing piece of the first marking period.  Students should be publishing by now.

Math: We continued to review the trade-first method of subtraction. Homework is to complete Journal pp. 47, 49.

Science: We reviewed the last experiment and took notes in our minibooks. We learned that weight is how much gravity pulls an object (or the force exerted on an object due to gravity).

Social Studies: We started learning that immigrants moved to Michigan in the early 1900s to work in factories.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 4

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• The end of the First Marking Period is Friday, November 6.
• Need to make, change or check your Fall Parent Teacher Conference time? See here.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.

Spelling:  We reviewed the homophones there, their, and they’re and students practiced matching the correct homophone to sentences.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 18-20 are available and due Friday.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles.

Writing: Students reviewed the grade they received on their most recent piece of writing. Check SnapGrades and click on “writing” to view your student’s grade and suggestions for improvement.

We talked today about how much time would be needed to complete an average piece of writing. Many students guessed 30-90 minutes. But it’s much more:

1. If an average student works on writing for 10 minutes per day at school, 4 days per week, and,
2. If an average student works on writing for 10 minutes per day after school, 4 days per week, and,
3. If students are allowed 3 weeks to complete each piece of writing…
4. That results in 80 minutes per week, 240 minutes for a 3-week writing piece. In other words, an average piece of writing takes a total of 4 hours to complete.
5. If a student works 20 minutes per day at school and home, that would add up to 8 hours of work!

The important message is that an average piece of writing takes more than 4 hours of work, and the easiest way to do this is to work on it a little each day. Students who only work on their writing at school, or who try to finish up a late piece of writing only at recess, are bound to earn unsatisfactory grades, because they’ll never have the opportunity to spend the time it takes to write a quality piece of writing.

You might want to ask your student how much time they have been spending on writing each day.

The next piece of writing will be a personal narrative that has been slightly fictionalized, or, in other words, a personal narrative based on a true story. This piece of writing will be due Friday, November 6. This will be the final writing piece of the first marking period.  Students should be editing by now.

Math: None today due to extra time with writing.

Science: None today due to library.

Social Studies: None today due to art.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 2
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 4

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• The end of the First Marking Period is Friday, November 6.
• Need to make, change or check your Fall Parent Teacher Conference time? See here.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.