Earth Science Home Learning

Check out these websites for this week's home learning!

Rocks and Minerals

Rock and Mineral Identification

Rocks, Minerals, and Soils

Weathering and Erosion Study Jam

Erosion Game

Red Friday

Dear English Landing Chiefs Fans,

            English Landing will participate in RED FRIDAY in honor of our Kansas City Chiefs playing in their first divisional playoff game since 1994. Students and staff are encouraged to show off their Chiefs’ pride by wearing a Kansas City Chiefs shirt or red on Friday, January 15^th!   The Chiefs will play against the New England Patriots on Saturday, January 16^th at 3:35pm on CBS. The Chiefs could play in the American Football Conference Championship if they win, and then maybe the Super Bowl! Thanks for supporting our community on this day. 

#chiefskingdom

Registration Open for Park Hill Spelling Bee

Registration Open for Park Hill Spelling Bee

Registration now open for Park Hill Spelling Bee
The Park Hill District spelling bee will be held Saturday, February 6, 2016 at Park Hill South High School with the winner advancing directly to the Scripps National Spelling Bee held near Washington, DC., May 22-27, 2016.

Awards will be presented to the top ten finishers. All current Park Hill 5th-8th grade students are eligible, but students must register by January 8, 2016. Register thru the link below, or by going to the “Parent Resources” section of the Park Hill School District website.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/spellingbeesignup

Division Games

Play these division games to practice your long division skills.  You'll need scrap paper for some of them.  Leave a comment to tell me which game(s) are your favorite.

Snork's Long Division Game
Division Millionaire Game
The Number Monster
Division Facts with Remainders Game
Math Frog Dividerama!

Career Share for the Gals

Multiplication Games

Multiplication Unit

2 digit by 2 digit practice
Batter's Up Baseball-try for a home run! Use scratch paper!
Soccer Shootout-Use scratch paper!
Math Journey-Use scratch paper!

Electricity Practice

Try these different electricity activities to help you learn about electricity!  Please post a comment after you've tried several different activities to let your classmates know which activities help you learn best and why.  Thanks!

Science Kids Electricity

Electricity Interactive Fun  - This site has lot of different things to try.


Static Electricity on Wonderopolis

Check out these StudyJams to review what we've learned from our electricity unit. Make sure to watch the slide show or video and test yourself too!

Current Electricity & Electric Circuits

Electricity

Other practice:

Activity 1

Activity 2 - click on the picture

Curriculum Updates

Reading - We are currently working on Unit 4 in reading.  Students are working in historical fiction book club groups. As a class we are reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  At the end of December, fourth graders were working on writing good summaries.  Our current SMART goal is for all students to be able to write a good summary of their book club reading using the 'somebody, wanted, but, so, then' model.  This coming week we will discuss symbolism and themes in our reading.

Writing- Students are creating a newspaper about their book club book.  So far students have written the weather section which describes the mood of the book, the horoscope section which predicts the main character's future, and a person of the week section which describes the main character's traits.  Next week we'll continue to work on an advertisement to match the symbolism in the book.  Students will also write a main event section which will describe an important event in the book.

Math - We have been working on learning multiple strategies for multiplying 2-digit x 2-digit problems.  So far kids have learned how to use a matrix (also called the box method), an expanded algorithm, and the standard algorithm.  Our goal is to teach kids multiple strategies so they not only understand the process they are following, but they can choose a method that works best for them. Our next unit will be Topic 9 - Number Sense:  Dividing by 1-Digit Divisors.

Science- We started our electricity unit before break and will continue the first 2 weeks in January. Students will have an opportunity to make circuits, test conductors and insulators, and make series and parallel circuits.   Students will learn the difference between open and closed circuits, conductors & insulators, and series & parallel circuits.   This is usually a favorite 4th grade unit!

Reporting Topics:
The student will:

• construct and diagram a complete electric circuit by using a source (e.g., battery), means of transfer (e.g., wires), receiver (e.g., fans, resistance bulbs, motors, fans) and observe the evidence of energy transfer in a closed series circuit (e.g., lit bulb, moving motor, fan). 
• classify materials as conductors or insulators of electricity when placed within a circuit (e.g., wood, pencil lead, plastic, glass, aluminum foil, lemon juice, air, water).