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Mr. Orr
Welcome to 4th Grade, room 9
News : NEWS
April News
Fourth Grade
2008

Dear Parent / Guardian:
    We have been very busy and this will continue throughout the spring.  I am encouraging the students to be well focused on their work as we move through our third semester.   I have explained to them that the end of the year often means that we are even busier than usual.  I am very proud of my class and I know that they will work hard.

Literature: Fourth graders are finishing By The Great Horn Spoon while working on our gold rush simulation project.  Later, we will be reading The Night of the Twister, and Maniac Magee.  Some students will be assigned other literature novels.  Our current theme for the Houghton Mifflin reading series is “Problem Solvers.”

Written Expression:  We took our State of California STAR Writing Test on March 6th.  The students were enthusiastic and seemed to put out a strong effort.  I am proud of their focus and commitment.  The third semester is upon us.  We will continue to write in all three genres; narratives, summaries, and response to literature.  We will definitely write more fictional narratives, as these assignments seem to be the most exciting for the students.  They are also writing tall tales in the library.  This assignment helps them explore the use of hyperbole (exaggeration) in their writing.
     
Math:   Focus is on the conceptual and computational aspects of fractions and decimals.  We are completing a geometry unit as well.  Also, we will be graphing positive and negative ordered pairs and looking at linear function samples.  The students are also studying measurement in both standard and metric systems.  Toward the end of April, we will be working on probability and statistics.  These chapters will be worked on in both math groups (classes).

Social Studies: We will complete our Gold Rush simulation by the end of April.  Our next unit will focus on California after the Gold Rush.
   

Science:  Congratulations to all those students who participated in the CSS Science Fair.  I am proud of you. 
    We are continuing our work on life science including food webs, adaptations, niches, communities and habitat.   We did dissect barn owl pellets and used skeletal charts and classification keys to decide what was eaten in an owl habitat.  There were voles, moles, mice, rats, birds and shrews.  We used our 5 microscopes to look at critter teeth as part of the ID process.  The main idea is to look at what must live in our owl’s food web/habitat.
 We also studied plant science as we prepared for our visit to Lotusland.  We looked at plant adaptations, plant respiration, and types of pollinators.  The Lotusland trip was fantastic and a good culmination to our studies.
     Our next unit is earth science.  
   
Computer:  We have used our laptops across the curriculum to create presentations, explore concepts through research, and learn about other software such as Photoshop.

Art: Chinese New Year projects.

Music:  Recorders and work towards the Spring Sing
 

                 
                                            


Page Last Updated : 2008-04-14 14:31:24 Hits : 1504
Site Last Updated : 2008-04-14 14:31:24 Owner : Joel Orr

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