Warm Wednesday

Gosh, it feels like summer doesn’t it?

We started work on a research project in Tech Lab today. We read another chapter in Horn Spoon, and we continued our work with functions and equations. We had another productive play practice – this time with the benefit of Mr. Pratt there! – and the students went to Mr. Pratt to learn more about the Gold Rush.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 11-15 five times each in cursive. Write a sentence in cursive for each one. (2) Do “Meter and Rhyme Schemes” page 307 and “Homographs” page 308 in the Practice Book. (3) Do the study sheet for Great Horn Spoon chapter 8. (4) Do “Multiplication and Division Patterns” on pages 422-423 of the math book. Also do “Experience Expressions” on the back of the answer sheet.

Terrific Tuesday

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 6-10. (2) Do “Vocabulary” page 302 in the Practice Book. (3) Do By the Great Horn Spoon! chapter 7 study sheet. (4) Do “Addition and Subtraction Problem” on pages 418-419 of the math book. (5) Finish “Hidden Picture” graphing.

Quick Post

Mr. Pratt was out with bronchitis, so I was pretty busy trying to fill his shoes practicing the play. It sure makes me realize how much talent he has!

We had a good, productive day. Mr. Garrison was Mr. Pratt’s substitute, and the students went to him for History while I led his class through the beginning of the magnetism unit I did with our class last week.

Students had ample time to get started on the homework below.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 1-5. (2) Do “Phonics” page 302 in the Practice Book. (3) Do the Latitude and Longitude worksheet (4) Do By the Great Horn Spoon! chapter 6. (5) Do “Formulas,” Math pages 418-419. (6) Do Hidden Pictures 1. This will be due on Wednesday.

Finding our Compass

Today was again a productive day, and we had a pretty good time even if the teacher was a little grumpy. We checked, corrected, and discussed all our homework. We read a pretty interesting selection on coral reefs from the Treasures book. We did a little more work on our language periodic assessment. It’s the last one for the year! I’m happy about that!

We did a couple of fun activities in Science today. The students made compasses using a doughnut magnet.

Then they became magnetism detectives. They had boxes in which magnets were hidden. They had to figure out where the magnets were in each box. This was chaotic but a lot of fun.

We read another chapter in By the Great Horn Spoon! and reviewed coordinate grids. They also had A LOT of time to get a head start on the assignments below.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 16-20. (2) Do the spelling jumble. (3) Do “More and Most” pages 299-300 in the Practice Book. (4) Do the Great Horn Spoon chapter 4 study sheet. (5) Do “Problem Solving” pages 410-411 and “Test Prep” on pages 412-413 in the math book. (6) Do the weights and measurements study sheet.

Washers and Spacers

It was a pretty ordinary Wednesday. We checked, corrected, and discussed homework. We read a selection from the Treasures reader about coral reefs. We went to Tech Center where the students finished working on their “podcasts.”

After recess, we continued our discussion of magnetism. The students learned yesterday about how opposite poles attract. Today we did an experiment to measure how much other objects can weaken that force of attraction. The students had a balance with two cups in it. One cup also had a magnet in it; this one sat on a plastic pole with another magnet. In the other cup the students placed washers until the force of magnetism broke.

They then began putting spacers – they look like small poker chips – in between the two magnets to determine what would weaken the magnetic force. They graphed the results.

We did more work on coordinate graphing and we ended the day with play practice.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 11-20. (2) Do “Hyperbole” page 295 and “Description” page 296 in the Practice Book. (3) Do By the Great Horn Spoon! chapter 3. (4) Do  Math “Length of Line Segments” pages 408-409 in the Math book. (5) Do the Measurement worksheet.

Inductive

Today zipped right along. We checked, corrected, and discussed homework. We had a particularly productive practice with the “Marian, the Librarian” sequence in The Music Man.

In Science, we discussed the idea of induced magnetism some more. Students experimented in determining how induced magnetism in one iron object could create further induced magnetism in others. They had a lot of fun doing this as you can see!

We read another chapter of By The Great Horn Spoon! We continued working with coordinate graphs in math.

Homework: (1) Do spelling words 6-10. (2) Do “Vocabulary” page 291 and “Compare and Contrast” page 292 in the Practice Book. (3) Do the “Magnet Meets Magnet” study sheet. (4) Do the study guide for By the Great Horn Spoon! chapter 2. (5) Do “Shapes on a Coordinate Grid,” Math pages  403-404. (6) Do the Measurement worksheet.

Magnetic!

I hope everybody had a nice break. Mine was too short and after spending all that money getting the house painted, there was nothing left to go on a trip anywhere. Oh, well. We did start by sharing our vacation experiences this morning, and as some of the students discussed going to Hawaii, Mexico, and Russia I felt like I had traveled a bit through their experiences!

We began some of our test prep today in place of the usual journal writing. After that, we went to the auditorium where the students did some Music Man rehearsal. It was a bit painful to discover how much they had forgotten, but I am sure they will quickly remember some of the lines and songs which they used to know so well.

We are starting on our magnetism and electricity unit in Science. The students began today by testing various materials to discover if they were attracted to magnets or not. They came quite quickly to the conclusion that only objects containing iron were attracted to magnets.

They also went around the room and tested everything they could find to see if these things contained iron. They liked being iron detectives!

We began reading By the Great Horn Spoon! today. This is a fantastic novel about the California gold rush.

We also started learning about Cartesian coordinate graphing in math today. Amazing what these fourth graders learn these days, isn’t it?

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 1 – 5 in the usual way. (2) Do “Phonics” on page 290 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the study sheet for chapter 1 of Great Horn Spoon. (4) Do “Graphing” on pages 402-403 of the math book and the “Treasure Map” activity on the back. (5) Do the Weights and Measurements practice sheet.