English Landing T-Shirt Sale

Mixtures & Solutions Home Learning Activity

Check out the link below for the Science home learning this week:

Separating the Mixtures

Curriculum Updates November 16-24

Compose Yourself - Congratulations to the 4th graders on an awesome musical performance!  You were very entertaining to watch!

Reading - Students worked hard this week to compare and contrast two different nonfiction texts on a similar subject.  We not only compared information, but also thought about the lesson that we can learn from texts and compared that as well.  Next week, students will be working on the ELA Acuity.

Writing - We are wrapping up their opinion writing this week and next.  Fourth graders have worked hard to provide persuading evidence for their topic.  We'll work on revising and editing and will have a final copy finished soon!

Science - Fourth graders learned how to measure force with a spring scale this week by conducting an experiment.  After choosing 3 items of various weights, students pulled the objects on either the carpet or the smooth desktop to figure out which took more force.  Students also took their force and motion test this week.  Our next unit will be on mixtures and solutions.

Math - Your child has now learned 3 different ways to solve a 2 or 3 digit number multiplied by a 1 digit number.  Ask them to show you how to break the numbers apart, solve the expanded algorithm, and the standard algorithm (the one you learned in school!)  By teaching kids 3 strategies we're hoping that the students choose one that works best for them and that it helps them find accurate answers.  Please practice multiplication facts!  The faster kids are at their facts, the easier it is to learn to solve larger multiplication problems.

Curriculum Updates Nov 2-13

Reading- We have continued our study of non-fiction the last 2 weeks.  Students have practiced finding the main idea and details several times.  We also studied the text structures authors use to help readers better understand the information.  For instance, sometimes authors use a problem solution structure to their writing, but other times the information might be in a sequence.  Finally, we have begun to compare and contrast 2 texts on the same subject.

Writing - Students opinion essays are starting to really take off!  We have used an outline to help keep their paragraphs organized.  They have worked on their introduction and their reason paragraphs.  Students are including both their personal experiences as well as an interview in each paragraph.

Math - Fourth graders are finishing up Topic 5;  Number Sense:  Multiplying by 1-Digit Numbers this week by taking their test.  Results will come home next week.  We reviewed breaking apart numbers to make them easier to add as well as rounding numbers to estimate.  Finally, students worked on explaining whether an answer is reasonable or not by using estimation.  Next week we'll begin Topic 6:  Developing Fluency:  Multiplying by 1-Digit Numbers.  We'll teach the standard algorithm (like you probably learned in school) as well as another method.

Science - We are immersed in force and motion in fourth grade.  Students have learned about Newton's 3 Laws of Motion, velocity, speed, three types of motion (straight, curved, & vibrations), as well as how gravity affects objects.  To end our unit, students are participating in experiments to help them understand the concepts.  Ask your child about the experiments.  We'll wrap up our unit next week, review, and take our test.  Our next unit will be Mixtures and Solutions.

MakerSpace Materials Needed

Force and Motion

Check out the following website for ideas to learn more about the concepts in our force and motion unit.  

19 Fun Ideas & Resources for Force and Motion

Curriculum Updates Oct. 19-28

Fall Festival -Thank you so much to all the parents who helped plan, organize, and run our 4th grade Fall Festival parties.  The kids had lots of fun eating caramel dipped apples with pretzels, making pet rocks and their homes, dancing, and playing a word-making game.

Reading - We began Unit 3; High Interest Informational Text Sets this week.  The main focus of this unit is to be able to understand the underlying structures of texts to help them understand the overall text structures of non-fiction.  This unit will address students' abilities to determine the main idea of a text and summarize the text, including how key details support the main idea.  In addition to work on determining main idea, this unit places a strong emphasis on supporting students' abilities to make inferences and grow ideas, always grounding their ideas in text evidence.  The unit will also work to support students in describing text structures of texts or parts of texts.

Priority Standards for unit:
● RI4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says
explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
● RI4.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details;
summarize the text.
● RI4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or
technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific text information.
● RI4.5 Describe the overall structure (e.g. chronology, comparison, cause/effect,
problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.
● RI4.6 Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or
topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided.
● RI4.8 Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a
text.
● SL.4.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups,
and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and tests, building on others’
ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Writing - Students are putting the finishing touches on their realistic fiction stories.  We can't wait to share their hard work with you at Parent Teacher Conferences!

We'll begin Unit 3; Boxes and Bullets this week.  This unit begins with a quick intense immersion into the whole process of writing this new kind of text. This unit meets the needs of 4th grade opinion writing. In this unit, students will learn a variety of more sophisticated strategies for introducing their topics, and students will learn to provide reasons to support their opinions, as well as facts and details to elaborate on these reasons.

Priority Standards for unit:
● W.4.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons
and information.
a. Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational
structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.
b. Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.
c. Link opinion and reasons using words and phrases (e.g. for instance, in order
to, in addition.)
d. Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.
● W.4.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
● W.4.5: With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing
as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
● W.4.7: Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of
different aspects of a topic.

Social Studies:  Students are finishing up their economic business plans this week.  We're creating study cards and will take our final economics test this week.  We'll switch to science and start our Force and Motion unit which is always lots of fun because there are several experiments.

Math:  We'll finish up Topic 4 on addition, subtraction, and estimating this week by reviewing and taking our test.  We'll share results with you soon.  We'll begin Topic 5; Multiplying by 1-digit numbers after conferences.

Park Hill Earns the Missouri Quality Award Again!

Interim Superintendent Dr. Jeanette Cowherd announced recently that the Park Hill School District received the Missouri Quality Award for the second time.

Park Hill was the first school district to earn this distinction when we received it in 2009, and we are now the only district in the history of this award to earn it twice.

The Missouri Quality Award recognizes an organization's commitment to meeting its customers' needs and to using the best-available processes for everything it does. This award is aligned with the exacting standards of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Park Hill’s processes align with these standards, which the Excellence in Missouri Foundation determined by carefully reviewing our district application and conducting a thorough site visit of our schools.

The Missouri Quality Award demonstrates to the Park Hill community the world-class level of excellence that our schools are achieving.

It also comes with a detailed report from the site-visit team, which will identify both strengths and opportunities for improvement. As we did last time, Park Hill will take that report and use it in our continuous improvement efforts.

Monster Scholastic Book Fair

Our annual Book Fair is coming soon!  Again, this year the Book Fair will be held in the Media Center during the times offered for Parent-Teacher Conferences.

October 28 from 5:00 - 8:00 pm
October 29 from 12:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Curriculum Oct. 12 - 15

Cardboard Challenge- One highlight of our week was the opportunity to participate in the English Landing Cardboard Challenge!  Students first watched the video of Caine's Arcade  to see what the cardboard challenge is all about.  Then our 4th graders worked with their 1st grade buddies and their imaginations to make a plan and then they used cardboard boxes and tape to create their idea.  We ended up with some super cool creations!

Reading- We continued our discussions of theme this week both in our book club books and our classroom read aloud, Tiger Rising.  Students also learned how authors use symbolism in their books and worked to identify symbols in their books.  Next week we will wrap up our unit by having one last book club meeting.

Writing - Fourth graders continued to work on writing their rough drafts of their realistic fiction story.  Students are working to type their stories using Google Docs.  Our plan is to be finished with our stories by the end of next week!

Math - In math, students worked on adding and subtracting larger numbers, using mental math strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems, and using estimates to check the accuracy of their work.  Next week, we'll finish Topic 4 by reviewing and taking our final test.

Social Studies- We continued our economics unit by learning about taxes, and the difference between savings and investments.  Students applied their knowledge to their economic business plan.

Curriculum Updates October 5 - 9

Reading - This week students practiced summarizing their book club books.  They also began thinking about the larger, universal lesson that the author is trying to teach us.  Students began to determine theme in both our classroom book; Tiger Rising and their book club books.  Next week we'll continue to work on determining themes.

Writing - Our realistic fiction stories are all in the drafting phase.  Students are drafting their story's scenes.  Fourth graders learned about dialogue and why author's use dialogue in their writing. Next week, students will finish their drafts and will begin to revise their writing.

Math - This week students took their pretest for Topic 4 and began learning some strategies for mental math.  They also are learning to round numbers in order to find an estimate when either adding or subtracting.

Social Studies- In our economics unit students learned about supply and demand and how these affect the price.  We discussed how consumers, producers and the government are independent.  Students applied their knowledge to their business that they are creating.

PowerBlock - Look for a letter in your child's back pack about PowerBlock which begins next week!

Curriculum Sept. 21- Oct. 2

Reminders:
Oct. 1 - Picture Day -  Order online at mylifetouch.com Use code KM985101Q0 
or you can return the order form your child brought home.

Oct. 8, 2015: Early Release Day:  School Dismisses at 1:30pm

Oct. 23 2:00-3:00:  Fall Festival Party- Our theme is 70s Retro

Reading - We are continuing to read Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo as a class to practice making inferences, describing characters, and summarizing.  Students practice these same skills independently in their book club books.  Teachers meet with students weekly for a collaborative book club discussion.  

Writing - Students have picked a topic for their realistic fiction piece and are currently working on developing their character both internally and externally.  Students will also use a story arc to help them plan out their story.

Math - Fourth graders are working on comparing, ordering, and rounding numbers in our current place value unit.  Students will take their Topic 3 test at the end of the week.  We'll begin Topic 4 next week.  

Science - Our animal research projects are complete!  Students did a fabulous job making computer presentations and presenting their findings to their classes.

Social Studies - We finished up our geography unit and are now diving into an economics unit.  We'll spend this unit learning about economic topics such as natural resources, renewable/nonrenewable resources, supply & demand, goods & services, financial investments vs. savings, and taxes.  Students will choose a business partner and then they will develop a business that provides either a good or service.  

Parent-Teacher Conference Sign-up

Parent and Teacher Conferences will be held on Wednesday, October 28 and Thursday, October 29, 2015. We need your help to achieve our school goal of 100% parent attendance at conferences.

Conferences are twenty minutes in duration and are scheduled back-to-back beginning at 5:00pm on Wednesday. Once again this year, we are using the online SignUp Genius tool to schedule conferences. Please click on the link to schedule your conference appointment:

Here is the link:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d49afa622a5fe3-English

Early Release Dates

Fall Career Share Signup... For the Guys

Sept. 14- 18 Curriculum Updates

Reading - We began our second topic this week:  Following Characters Into Meaning.  In this unit readers will be focusing on strengthening their abilities to make interpretations of texts.  This is a unit which teaches students to read with inference and interpretation, developing text-based theories about characters, supporting those theories with evidence from the text, and viewing characters and their motivations through a different lens.  Students began reading a book club book this week and started learning about their main character by thinking about internal and external traits as well as motivations, desires, and obstacles in their life.

Writing - Fourth graders worked this week on publishing their piece from Unit 1.  Next week, we'll begin Unit 2.

Math - Students worked this week to generate a number or shape pattern that follows a rule.  Often these patterns were found in tables.  Students learned to find the rule and fill in missing numbers.  We ended the week by learning to draw a picture or use reasoning to problem solve.  Next week students will take their Topic 2 Test and we'll begin Topic 3.

Science - Students continued to research a Missouri animal this week and began creating a digital presentation (PowerPoint or Google Slides) to share the information with the class.  Students will be presenting these projects next week.

Social Studies - We finished up our first unit of geography this week, by discussing urban, rural, and suburban communities.  We also learned about Missouri's Art and Culture. Students will be assess on this unit before we begin on our next unit.

Picture Day is Coming Soon!

English Landing School
Picture Day: Thursday, October 1
Picture Day ID: KM985101Q0

Picture Day is Thursday, October 1. 
Simplify Picture Day by ordering online at mylifetouch.com. No need to send cash or flyer back to school when you order online

• See more options available online
• Use credit card or PayPal on our secure site

Pedidos en español disponibles por internet. ¡Encarga hoy en mylifetouch.com!

 

Student Expectations for Responsible Computing

Red Thursday!

English Landing will once again participate in our long standing tradition of wearing red for the Kansas City Chiefs home opener on Thursday, September 17^th. This is a unique change since most “red” celebrations occur on Red Friday with the first home opener coming on the following Sunday. This year the first home opener falls on a Thursday. This day is now being called “RED THURSDAY!”  Here is the official statement from the Chiefs website.

Curriculum Updates: Sept. 9 - Sept. 11

Thanks to all the families who came to Touchdown Family Math Night!  It was fun seeing families play math games together.  If you were unable to attend, look for some math games to come home next week.  These would be great games to play for home learning.

Reading - Students focused on completing their English Language Arts Acuity Test this week to provide teachers with some baseline data to help guide instruction.

Writing - Fourth graders worked on revising, editing, and publishing their small moment piece of writing from the introductory writing unit.  Next week we'll be making plans for writing a realistic fiction story.

Math - On Wednesday, fourth graders took the Topic 2 Pretest on the Pearson SuccessNet website. We began Topic 2 - Generate and Analyze Patterns.  On Thursday, students learned about repeating patterns.  On Friday, students found the missing rule in a pattern and learned how to explain the pattern's rule. Topic 2 is only 6 lessons long so we'll be finishing all the lessons by the end of next week.

Science - Each 4th grader has chosen a Missouri animal and they working to research the animal's environment, interactions with other plants and animals,  specialized structures, and special behaviors that help the animal survive.  Finally, students are researching how humans have helped or harmed the animal. We are finding out that there are a lot of interesting animals in Missouri!

Social Studies - We finished up learning about the 4 geographical regions of Missouri this week.  We are also studying how all the regions are interdependent on one another.  Finally, we discussed the similarities and differences between rural, suburban, and urban areas in Missouri.

Touchdown Family Math Night

We are looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!  

Missouri Animal/Ecosystem Research

Use these links to help you find a Missouri animal to research:

Missouri Department of Conservation
Xplor - Missouri Dept. of Conservation Kids Site
National Park Service
State Symbols of Missouri

August 31 - Sept. 4 Curriculum Updates

Reminder:  No School on Monday, September 7 due to Labor Day & No School on Tuesday, September 8 due to a Teacher Professional Development day.

Reading - We wrapped up our first reading unit this week.  We discussed how important it is for readers to share their reading with others.  Fourth graders were paired up with a classmate so they can frequently share their thinking about what they are reading.  Classes developed expectations for accountable talk such as making eye contact when someone is speaking and asking follow-up questions about their reading.  Readers also learned how to stop and jot their thinking as they read.  Finally, classes read and then wrote down their thinking about the main character in Thank You, Mr. Falker as a pre-assessment to Unit 2.  Classes also worked on English Language Arts (ELA) Acuity on the computer.  Next week, we'll being our 2nd Unit:  Following Characters Into Meaning.

Writing - Our writing mini lessons this week focused on grammar.  Each day students learned about one of the following:  adjectives, verbs, adverbs, homophones & pronouns.  After learning what each part of speech was, students practiced spicing up their writing by adding more interesting language to their writing.

Math - In math, we studied special quotients such as 0 and 1.  Students also used multiplication facts to find division facts.  Finally, students practice solving problem situations by drawing a picture and writing an equation to match.  Classes took their Topic 1 Assessment to end the week.  Next week we'll begin Topic 2 which is a shorter unit on patterns.  Students will also complete the Math Acuity on the computer as well as on paper.

Science - In science, we continued our Ecosystems unit.  Some topics we learned about are how plants interact with animals (pollination/seed dispersal), how people disturb the balance of ecosystems, and Missouri fossils.  Finally, students chose a Missouri animal to begin researching for their research topic.  We'll continue our research next week as well!

Social Studies - Students continued to study Missouri's geography including how rivers and lakes are used in Missouri and effects of flooding.  Next week we'll look more closely at Missouri's 4 geographical regions.

Effects of Floods

Take a look at the following links to learn about the Great Flood of 1993.  Make a list of effects of the flood in your social studies notebook.


Great Flood of 1993
Effects of the Flood on Wetlands
National Weather Service and Flood of '93
Causes and Impacts of the Flood

Curriculum Update Aug. 24-Aug. 28

Reading - We continued our first unit by discussing which books are just right books to help them grow as readers (those that kids can read smoothly, with accuracy and comprehension).  Fourth graders also learned to mark their reading with codes to help them read a text closely.  Finally, we talked about how important it is to talk about what you're reading and get book ideas from others.  We have a special form to provide book recommendations to each other.

Writing - We began our first week of writing this week.  We made a list of our 13 best memories, drew a neighborhood map to help us remember stories from our life, decorated our writing notebooks with pictures of our favorite things, and compiled our writing territories.  Hopefully all this idea collecting will eventually help kids when writing their longer pieces this school year.  After kids brainstormed ideas, they chose one of their favorites and started drafting the story.

Math - This week fourth graders learned the distributive property, found patterns,  and studied the meaning of division.  Students used either a drawing or a model to help them represent a division story.  We also have shown how multiplication and division are related.  Next week, we'll wrap up our unit and take our test.

Social Studies - For our first unit we are studying Geography.  This week we discussed different types of maps along with keys/legends, how grids or latitude and longitude are used on a map, and how a map scale helps us measure distance on a map.  Next week, we'll begin to study recreation in Missouri and how rivers are used as well as what happens when rivers flood.

Science - This week we continued our study of ecosystems and animal/plant adaptations.  We are focusing on the following two reporting topics:

Reporting Topics
Ecosystems - 3.0 level:  Describe how different environments support life, explain how a specific organism may interact with other organisms or their environment, classify organisms as producers and consumers and differentiate between types of consumers, and identify examples in Missouri where human activity has had a beneficial or harmful effect on other organisms.

Adaptations - 3.0 level:  Identify specialized structures that help plants/animals survive in their environment and predict which animal/plant will be able to survive based on these structures, identify internal cues & external cues that cause organisms to behave a certain way (migration, hibernation).

First Quarter Reading and Writing Curriculum Overview

Reading Unit 1:Getting to Know Yourself as a Reader

Overview of Unit:  In this unit, students will learn how to author their reading lives by becoming a classroom community of readers.  Students will also obtain the identity of being a reader by setting goals, creating a life that revolves around shared books, and helping students develop a sense of personal agency in their lives.

Priority Standards for unit:

• RL.4.1; RI.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• RF.4.3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

• RF.4.4: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• SL.4.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• SL.4.4: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Writing Unit 1: Getting to Know Ourselves as Writers

Overview of Unit:  In this unit, students will learn how to author their writing lives by becoming a classroom community of writers.  Students will generate many seed ideas and draft a short, narrative piece to start the year and build stamina around writing. Additionally grammar, language and conventions standards will be taught to set up this expectation in all writing across the year.

Priority Standards for unit:

• W.4.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
• W.4.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

• L.4.1: Demonstrate command of conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• L.4.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
• SL.4.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Reading Unit 2:Following Characters into Meaning

Overview of Unit:  Readers focus on developing ideas about characters and their motivations. This unit pays attention to student stamina, choosing books, and setting goals as readers.

In this unit readers will be focusing on strengthening their abilities to make interpretations of texts. This is a unit which teaches students to read with inference and interpretation, developing text‐based theories about characters, supporting those theories with evidence from the text, and viewing characters and their motivations through a different lens. Students will consider big-life issues that relate to many stories and determine how these issues affect the message of the stories they are reading. Your students have already done some of this thinking in prior years, and you’ll want to help them transfer these skills even as they learn new ones.

In Topic 1 (Bend I) of the unit readers will read to envision, predict and infer about characters. During these lessons students will move forward asking themselves how they can get lost in the world of the story and while doing that get to know the characters so well that they get lost in their world.

In Topic 2 (Bend II) of the unit readers will build theories about characters. During these lessons students will focus on reading to develop precise, defendable, grounded ideas about characters within and across books.

In Topic 3 (Bend III) of this unit readers will work to study characters and build interpretations. Students will focus on finding recurring images, objects and details and demonstrate how they support or contribute to the overall theme of the text.

Priority Standards for unit:

• RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• RL.4.2 Determine theme of a story, drama or poem from details in the text; summarize the text
• RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g. character’s thoughts, words or actions)
• SL.4.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Writing Unit 2: The Arc of a Story

Overview of Unit:  In this unit, students will be crafting realistic fiction stories as a form of narrative writing.  This is the first time in their elementary education that narrative writing isn’t about a personal narrative, so while you will lean on that experience to guide the teaching of this unit, students will be thinking about narrative writing in a whole new way.

Topic 1 (Bend 1): Creating and Developing Stories and Characters that Feel Real

The goal of this bend is for students to collect many story ideas and trying a few of them out to see if they can become possible stories.  They will practice storytelling to a partner in order develop rich language to embed within the story, understanding the power of voice.  They will then work to develop strong characters who can carry the story.

Topic 2 (Bend 2): Revising and Drafting with an Eye toward Believability

In this bend students will create story arcs that plan out their story in two to three scenes.  Using this tool they will begin to draft their story in a story book to give them an authentic feel.

Topic 3 (Bend 3): Preparing for Publication with an Audience in Mind

In this bend, students will prepare their piece for an audience through focused drafting, revising, and editing.  Students will pay great attention to the power of place, the character’s struggle, how the problem is dealt with, and a quality resolution.  Because of this, revision work will happen early on while many are still drafting.  However, due to the length of the piece in conjunction with the craft and structural elements they have to think through, early revision will be necessary so they can be doing it early on.

Topic 4 (Bend 4): Preparing for Publication with an Audience in Mind

In this bend, students conceive, develop, plan and carry out their own independent fiction projects, taking what they have learned in the previous three bends and applying it to a new story on their own.

Priority Standards for unit:

• W.4.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
• W.4.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• L.4.3:  Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading or listening.

Math Fact Practice

Do you need to practice your math facts?  Check out these websites that Mrs. Peeler's class found.  You can email your teacher with other good websites you know about, so we can add them to the blog!  
HoodaMath
Arcademic Skill Builders -  (scroll down and click multiplication or division and grade 4)
Math Playground
Mad Minute Math
IXL Math Practice

Curriculum Updates August 17- 21

We are off to a great start in 4th grade this year!  We spent the first few days getting to know each other, doing some team building activities, creating ground rules, writing a mission statement, and reviewing the Student Discipline Code of Conduct as well as our English Landing SOAR rules.  One of the 4th graders' favorites was the straw activity.  Groups of 3 or 4 were given 40 straws and a yard of tape.  Their challenge was to build the tallest tower in 15 minutes without doing any talking!  The towers the kids built were pretty impressive, and they managed to do it without speaking to one another.  The kids did get creative in ways to communicate and really worked as teams to build.

Reading - We launched Reading Workshop by having many good discussions on how to make reading the best it can be.  First students created a timeline of themselves as a reader; thinking about when reading was great for them and when it has been the pits.  Students created reading resolutions to focus on for the year.  We also discussed when it is ok to abandon a book.  Some classes also
took the STAR Reading assessment.

Math - During math time we were busy discussing how Math Workshop will look.  We also began Topic 1; Multiplication and Division:  Meanings and Facts.  So far, fourth graders have learned several multiplication properties; Commutative, Identity Property, Zero Property, and Distributive Property.  We are using these properties to help solve multiplication facts.  Next week, we'll look at patterns in multiplication as our problem solving skill.  We'll also study how multiplication and division are related.  Fourth graders will also take their STAR Math Assessment on the computer.

Science - Our first unit this year is about ecosystems. We studied characteristics of various ecosystems, and how producers and consumers play a part in an ecosystem.  Next week we'll begin to look at plant adaptations.

Room Parents Needed

Please see the link below if you are interested in signing up to be a classroom room parent.

Thank you!!

Room Parent Sign-Up Link

Room Party Sign-Up

If you are interested in signing up to help plan and organize a room party this year, please follow the link to Sign-Up Genius.

Thank you in advance for all your support!

Sign-Up Genius for Room Parties

Fourth Grade Parent Virtual Orientation Video

In order to learn more about fourth grade curriculum, grading, and procedures, please view our Virtual Parent Orientation video.

Parent/Student Handbook

The 2015-2016 Parent/Student Handbook is now available on the district website at http://www.parkhill.k12.mo.us/cms/one.aspx?portalid=62500&pageid=808658

Park Hill will offer this 2015-2015 Parent/Student Handbook online.  If your family does not have internet access, the English Landing office will supply you with a printed version.

Welcome!

Welcome to fourth grade!  Thank you for visiting our Fourth Grade blog.  Please bookmark this website.  Visit this blog whenever you have a question and check it often for updates and important information.  We'll continue to add new posts and information throughout the school year.