Math Homework Highlights

As mentioned in our weekly newsletter, the first three weeks of math homework serve to review concepts and skills from 3rd Grade. Homework is designed to take students approximately 10-15 minutes to complete each night and is reviewed in class each Wednesday (discussion of Monday and Tuesday content) and Friday (discussion of Wednesday and Thursday content). As we have in-class discussions of the homework, Mr. Pinchot and Mrs. Phillips facilitate the discussions around strategies the students are using to complete the problems. These strategies are highlighted on the document projector and students are required to take notes in pen so that they have accurate and helpful information to reference later on. Misconceptions are also addressed when students approach problems incorrectly, as our philosophy is "Mistakes are LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES". Homework is not graded, however, every three weeks a Homework Quiz is administered (which will count as a test grade) so that students can demonstrate mastery of concepts and skills that have been addressed.

How thorough is my child's approach to homework?
*Does your child take 10-15 minutes to complete each assignment?
*Does your child take thorough notes in pen each Wednesday and Friday in class?
*Does your child reference notes from previous homework assignments as needed and use these notes to study for quizzes? (This Friday, September 10th will be our first Math Homework quiz of this school year.)
*Does your child attempt every problem? Does your child refer to the Math reference pages in the front of the planner, or ask a "Study Buddy" or teacher for direction when help is needed? Mr. Pinchot and Mrs. Phillips are available before and after school and you are always welcome to email us with questions and clarifications also.

Current Topics of Focus
Factors, Multiples, Arrays
**Click the "Factor Game" (in the Math Links section to the left) for a challenging game in working with factors!
Factors are numbers that are multiplied together to get a product. (3 x 4)
Multiples are the product of two factors being multiplied together (12). Multiples are synonymous with skip-counting. (ex. Multiples of 3 are 3, 6, 9, 12... Multiples of 4 are 4, 8, 12...)
Arrays are a model used to see the relationship between factors and multiples. In the array below, a 3 x 4 array has a total of 12 square units.
Multiplication and Division Word Problems
To distinguish between multiplication and division word problems, our focus is to visualize the problem. All problems involving multiplication and division involve "groups" of items. We also ask ourselves if we know the total number of items. If we know the total, we will divide. If we do not know the total, we will multiply the number of groups by the size of each group to find that total.

Patterns
All of the patterns we are studying right now involve whole numbers. If they are ascending (numbers getting larger), we need to determine if the "rule" is addition or multiplication. If the numbers are descending (numbers getting smaller), we need to determine if the "rule" is subtraction or division.

Perimeter and Area
Perimeter is a measure of the distance around a figure.
Real-World Examples: fence around a backyard, frame around a picture

Area is a measure of the number of square units within a figure.
Real-World Examples: grass covering a back yard, tile covering a kitchen floor

Our new math standards have adjusted the formula we use for finding area from "length x width" to "base x height". The approach is the same. If we know both dimensions (of a square or rectangle), we simply multiply the two dimensions together to find the total area (number of square units in the region).

Happy Homeworking!!
Mrs. Phillips :-)

A Glimpse into ELA

What Have We Been Doing In Skills Block?

We have been working on Write For Today, which is daily practice in learning editing skills in our writing. This week, we have been learning about proper nouns and capitalization, -ed suffixes, there, their, they're, and commas. We have also been working on Read For Today, which is a “warm-up” daily reading where we practice careful and critical reading by using our reading strategies.

We are also learning how to write Cursive every day, by practicing each student's first and last name.

How Do We Respond To Our Independent Reading Literature?

We respond to our independent reading by writing a one sentence summary for each chapter in our Reading Journal. This is finding the MAIN IDEA of each chapter and will help us become proficient readers. By doing so, we track our reading and it helps us remember what we read. You know what’s cool? Our teachers read our summaries and write us notes about the book we read. They ask us questions, and we get to respond back. It is pretty neat writing notes back and forth to our teachers.

A Peek Into Independent Reading

Oh, to sit back with a great book and snuggle our cuddly little stuffed animal friends with classical music playing softly in the background…It doesn’t get any better than this!! Independent reading time is the best! Books take us to faraway places, and we get to meet all kinds of characters. We just love this precious time to get lost in a great book.

Painting A Picture With Words In Writers Workshop

After reading our book of the month, Otis, we used this mentor text to write descriptive paragraphs. Since we are studying nouns, we wrote about people, places, things, and ideas from this book. We wrote a descriptive paragraph on the main character, Otis. Then, we wrote a descriptive paragraph on the setting which is a farm. After that, we wrote a descriptive paragraph on the big yellow tractor which is a thing. Finally, we wrote about the idea of friendship which is the theme. We are learning that to write descriptively, we need to use our senses. Now, we can write a paragraph with a topic sentence, lots of supporting and sensory details, and a concluding sentence. (If your parent writes us a comment on this post, you, the student, will receive $10.00 in Behavior Bucks to spend at our Auction. We want all of our parents and students to read our blog daily.)

Chet's Creek First Day of School

from the Duval County Schools Website)
Students and Staff are "Cultivating a Community of Excellence" at Chets Creek Elementary
The theme this year at Chets Creek Elementary is "Cultivating a Community of Excellence!" and to kickoff 2010-2011, students were welcomed back with a variety of exciting and interactive activities.

Farming and gardening decorations were on display throughout the building, and outside were tractors with real farmers. Twenty-five farm animals were on school grounds for the students to see with an animal guide, and the watermelon wagon drove around campus to pass out juicy slices to all the kids.

Students visited the cold crop planting center to learn about harvesting food, and the Beekeeper association made a special appearance with self-contained beehives for the students to observe.
Farmers spent time in classrooms reading to the students, and then everyone had the chance to learn about what is in one of their favorite meals during the farmers’ "Everything on a Cheeseburger Comes from the Farm" assembly. At the end of the day, the farmers prepped a plot of land for Chets Creek Elementary to start a school garden.

For more pictures from opening day, visit the flickr photostream of Chets Creek Elementary's Instructional Technology Coach Melanie Holtsman.

Kazoos

This week our class had fun making straw kazoos in science class. The class had a blast trying to make sounds from a homemade instrument. We took drinking straws and cut out flaps which would vibrate as children blew through the straw. The class discovered that the pitch of the sound could be changed by changing the length of the kazoo. The longer the straw the lower the pitch. Ask Mrs. Phillips how her kazoo turned out. Enjoy watching Heather play her kazoo.

In mathematics, we are currently working in a short unit called "Numeration". Focuses are to represent numbers in various forms up to the millions place (7-digit numbers). Below is a basic 4-digit number example:

Standard Form: 2,345

Word Form: Two thousand, three hundred forty-five

Expanded Form: 2,000 + 300 + 40 +5

We are also rearranging digits to make numbers to fit rules:

Example:

digits: 6 5 0 1

Largest number you can make with these digits: 6,510
Second largest number you can make with these digits: 6,501

Smallest number you can make with these digits: 0156

Third smallest number you can make with these digits: _______

(If you are a student wanting to earn Behavior Bucks, figure this problem out and leave the correct answer as a COMMENT with your first name and last initial!-NO last names please!) Click the "Comment" link at the end of this blog post to leave your comment.

The link below offers extra support (worksheets) for students to use in practicing and developing these skills to build a deeper conceptual understanding of "place value". Thank you to Nathan's mom for sharing this wonderful site with me: superteacher.com!

Check it out! Here is the link to take you straight to the place value practice sheets:

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/place-value.html (Answer keys are provided too!!)

Love,
Mrs. Phillips

4-Corners' Orientation

Thank you parents and students for coming to our Fourth Grade Orientation. It was so great to see familiar faces from last year and also to meet our new learners and their families. We welcome you to our 4-Corners team and are looking forward to spending an exciting and productive year with you. Here are some important reminders from Orientation:

• We must know how your child is getting home each day.
• The best way to contact us is by email.
• Students need their supplies on Monday, August 23.
• We need all forms filled out and returned by Monday or Tuesday (Aug, 23 or Aug. 24).
• Please join PTA for $5.00. They do incredible things for our school.
• Please send in $5.00 for Weekly Reader to support our nonfiction learning.
• Please support our class by volunteering in or out of the classroom. We need your help!
• Make sure your child comes to school on time and remains at school until dismissal.
• Please stay informed via our Newsletter, our Blog, the Connection, the Monthly Calendar, and the Student Planner.

Thank you for being a part of our team and giving us your support!

Welcome Back Students and Parents!

We are so excited to start a brand new year teaching 4th grade here at The Chets Creek Farm! This year, we will be cultivating a community of excellence as we sow our seeds and nurture a new crop of 4th grade students. We hope that you had a fun-filled summer and are ready to start working in the fields of learning. Farming is hard work, but we are going to harvest bountiful crops! So get ready to plant those seeds, grow like a beanstalk, and produce remarkable results!

Bravo!!

What a spectacular performance last night from our special Four Corners Crew! Our students AMAZED family and friends in their awesome performance of "A Better You, A Better Me"!! We have received many compliments and raving reviews and we are SO PROUD of each and every one of our STAR PERFORMERS! Congratulations to all of our kiddos! Here are our stars:

A Better You, A Better Me Expect Respect Trust is a Must Fight Fair I Will Care For You
The CitizenSHIP
Reprise: A Better You, A Better Me