Welcome to Mrs. Pennington's 2017-2018 fourth grade class! We are going to have a wonderful year. Last year I used this blog as a newsletter, but this year I will be communicating what is happening in our classroom through a weekly newsletter. Feel free to email me if you ever have any questions at apennington@cpsk12.org. Follow me @Mrs_APennington on Twitter to see pictures of our class throughout the week!
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Service Learning Video
Check out the 4th grade service learning video that shows our project from start to finish! You may see a few familiar faces in there!
Service Learning Video
Service Learning Video
Friday, May 12, 2017
Weekly Newsletter
Social
Studies
This week we spent some time working on finishing
our research for our Famous Missourian project.
Remember that kids can bring these home to work on! We will start presenting these on Friday, so
that should give everyone enough time to finish!
Kids will still have some time to work on
these in class next week as well.
Writing
This week we spent
time finishing up our poetry notebooks.
We went through our checklist of poems and made sure everything was
great for our poetry share!
Math
We took our final math STAR test this week
and the kids did great! We also started our new math inquiry unit. I love how excited the kids get when they
know they’ve got a touch problem to solve.
We will continue with this inquiry unit next
week. We will focus on working with
fractions with unlike denominators.
Science/Health
We started our health unit this week. Kids worked in groups to take notes on
functions of our different body systems.
Next week we will learn about hormones and
the different glands in our body. On
Thursday, we will split up into girls and boys and watch the puberty videos. I’m sure you can imagine how excited all of
the kids are for this!
Reading:
This week we
finished up our reading assessments!
It’s been amazing to see how much these readers have grown since the
beginning of the year!
Next week, we will continue to read our
super silly read aloud, Sideways Stories from Wayside School. In reading groups, we will read some fun
articles and short stories.
Here are some pics from our event today:
Friday, March 17, 2017
Weekly Newsletter
Talk about a busy week! With gearing up for the Walk-A-Thon, burying ourselves with fractions, decimals, and percents, Makerspace, STEAM Bus, and finishing our read aloud- we have earned our weekend! I should also mention that we have raised OVER $2000 for our "Miles for Moms" fundraiser! The service coordinator at First Steps was absolutely blown away when I talked to her. We are so proud of these kids!
Science
This
week we focused on communication with waves and devices that we use to
communicate.
Next
week we will discuss technology and how it’s changing. We will also review the unit and take a short
quiz.
Writing
This
week we began to publish our editorials on The Oregon Trail. We discussed adding voice and using precise
word choice. On Friday, we took a break
from our editorials and learned how to proper “Thank You” notes to send to
those who donated to our service learning project.
Next week, we will take our opinion writing
post-test. We will watch a video, read
articles, and take notes on a certain topic.
Then, students will independently write an essay using a rubric as a
guide.
Math
This week we focused on word problems with
fractions. Students used what they knew
about fractions and percents to answer different problems about pizzaJ. We also learned a new decimal game and
practiced adding decimals.
Next week, we will focus on changing
fractions to decimals. We will also work
on ordering decimals with numbers through the thousandths.
Reading:
This week we finished our read aloud,
Mighty Miss Malone. Oh, how bittersweet
it was to finish! The kids loved this
book and sparked some great discussions in our class. Our mini-lessons focused on capitalization
and using commas and quotation marks in direct speech.
Next week, we will focus on commonly
misspelled words and keep track of those in our Interactive Notebooks. We will also read some fun poetry/picture
books during read aloud to help us gear up for our next writing unit on poetry!
Here are some fun pics from our Makerspace today!
School Reminders:
·
March 22nd-
Jefferson City Field trip
·
March
22nd- Spirit Club (grades K-5)
·
March
27th - 31st - SPRING BREAK
·
April
7th- Runge Field Trip
·
April
12th- PTA Meeting at 6:30
·
April
14th- St. Louis Field Trip (more information to come later)
·
April
29th- Flash’s Big Top Circus (more information to come)
·
May
1st-May 4th- MAP testing
Friday, March 10, 2017
Weekly Newsletter
Science
This week students have spent a lot of time
looking at different aspects of sound.
They researched properties of sound like sonic booms, live music, sonar,
echo location and more. Be sure and ask
your child what they researched and taught the class.
Next week students will be learning about
communication waves and how technology has changed what we know about
sound. Friday students will be taking a
short quiz over everything they’ve learned about waves.
Here we are presenting our information on different sound waves:
Writing
This
week students have spent time looking at great examples of research-based
opinion writing. This helped them notice
great leads and conclusions. Students
then looked at the rubric to help them think about drafting their own
pieces.
Next week students will draft their opinion
piece on why people should or should not go on the Oregon Trail. We will spend time discussing how to add
voice in a research piece as well.
Here are some pictures of us reading student examples of editorials and grading them with our rubric:
Math
This week in math we have spent time
comparing, adding fractions and breaking apart.
Students have played lots of games that have helped them realize
similarities in fractions.
Next week students will be applying what
they know about fractions in word problems.
We will also introduce decimals!
Here we are playing "Capture the Fraction":
Reading:
This week we have spent a lot of time talking
about homophones. These are words that
sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings. We have worked in our interactive notebooks
to help us remember differences in these words and when to use which word.
Next week we will be finishing our read
aloud, The Mighty Miss Malone. It
will be a sad day when we have to say goodbye to these characters! We are going
to work on capitalization. Be sure and
ask your child how M.I.N.T. helps them remember what to capitalize.
Friday, March 3, 2017
Weekly Newsletter
We had a great week at BEU! We were super busy and had a lot of fun. We got to begin our Friday with a fun time at MakerSpace!
We also celebrated Dr. Seuss!
Here's a recap of some of the learning that went on in the classroom.
Science This week we began studying sound waves. We read about how sound waves work and kids learned about echolocation and the parts of an ear. Next week we will continue studying sound waves and will focus on how communication happens with waves.
We also celebrated Dr. Seuss!
Here's a recap of some of the learning that went on in the classroom.
Science This week we began studying sound waves. We read about how sound waves work and kids learned about echolocation and the parts of an ear. Next week we will continue studying sound waves and will focus on how communication happens with waves.
Writing
This week we continued building more
background knowledge of the Oregon Trail.
We gathered lots of information and then held another class debate. We came up with topic sentences for each of
our body paragraphs and wrote 3 supporting details for each.
Next
week we will study examples of good editorials.
We will write our introductions and conclusions. At the end of the week, we will discuss
adding voice and word choice. Then,
we’ll finally start drafting!
Math
This week we looked at fractions and how
they can be shown on a clock. This
allowed us to look at different equivalent fractions. We also began adding fractions (even with different
denominators). We capped off the week in
math with taking the STAR Test.
Next week, we will work on ordering
fractions. We’ll learn this by playing a
fun game in partners!
Reading
This week we studied elements of a complete
sentence (subject and predicate). We
practiced writing simple sentences and compound sentences. We also looked at sentence fragments and
run-on sentences as well.
Next week, we will introduce the kids to
some MAP prep websites we will begin utilizing during our Daily 5
rotations. We will also focus on frequently
confused words and when to use them. And
of course, we will continue reading our awesome books in reading groups!
School Reminders:
·
March 7th- Early Out
·
March 14th- Beulah Math
Night (more info to come)
·
March 17th- Miles for
Moms Walk-a-Thon (1:15-2:30)
·
March 22nd- Jefferson
City Field trip
·
March 27th - 31st
- SPRING BREAK
·
April 7th- Runge Field
Trip (more info. to come later)
·
April 12th- PTA Meeting
at 6:30
Friday, February 24, 2017
Weekly Newsletter
We have had a great week here in room 227! Friday was just the best! Our class got to go to a makerspace session with Mrs. Fitch and we capped it off with a pajama/movie/popcorn party!
Science
We
continued learning about waves this week.
Kids learned about how the further away a wave gets from its energy
source, the more the amplitude decreases.
Next
week we will begin studying sound waves!
Writing
This
week we continued to learn more about “Research-Based Editorials.” We compared different essays and even held
class debates to get us in the persuasive spirit. We built background knowledge about the
Oregon Trail since our next persuasive essay will involve researching the
Westward Expansion.
Next week, we will continue learning more
about the Oregon Trail in order to start deciding what position kids will take
on whether or not they would travel on the Oregon Trail. We will participate in another class debate
and start planning our essays.
Math
We are continuing to plug away on our
fraction unit. I am super impressed with
how hard the kids are working on this unit- it’s tricky stuff! We spent a lot of time studying the
relationship between percents and fractions.
We found equivalent fractions and ordered landmark fractions.
Next week, we will start relating fractions
to a clock. We will also start working
on adding fractions.
Reading:
This week we started back up with our Daily
Interactive Grammar Notebooks. We spent
time reviewing the different parts of speech and even got to play Jeopardy
during reading! Kids learned about
progressive tense verbs as we added to our Interactive Notebooks.
Next week, we will focus on elements of
complete sentences. We will also focus
on fragment and run-on sentences. We
will be continuing our read aloud, The Mighty Miss Malone. The kids are loving this book!
School Reminders:
·
March 2nd- Dr. Seuss
Dress Up Day
·
March 7th- Early Out
·
March 14th- Beulah Math
Night
·
March 17th- Miles for
Moms Walk-a-Thon (4th grade service project)
·
March 22nd- Jefferson
City Field trip
·
March 27th - 31st
- SPRING BREAK
·
April 7th- Runge Field
Trip (more info. to come later)
·
April 12th- PTA Meeting
at 6:30
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Happy Thursday!
Friday, February 10, 2017
Weekly Newsletter
We have had a great week filled with fun and learning. The hot topic this week was all about our "student-led" conferences. I can't wait to watch the kids sharing all they've accomplished this trimester! Make sure if you need to reschedule your conference you let me or the office know and we would love to give you a different time! Here's a look at what we've done this week and what's coming up next week:
Science
We
have had so much fun learning about waves.
We have talked about amplitude, wavelengths, frequency and even energy
and force. We have used Slinkys, ribbon,
water and more to create and study different waves.
Next week we will continue our study of waves and talk about how the
amplitude of waves changes as it spreads out, how objects move on waves and
then we will begin learning about sounds waves.
Writing
This week we have finished up our study of
informational writing, Students have published their piece on the Missouri city
they were studying and have written a post-assessment on the Oregon Trail. I am
really impressed with all they have learned about the organization and
structure of informational writing.
Math
This week we took our pre-assessment on
fractions. We have A LOT to learn. J They are super
excited. We also spent some time looking
at all the data we have and everything we have accomplished as mathematicians
this year. Your kiddos have a lot to be
proud of. Students also set goals they
would like to share with you during our conference time together! Next week we will begin our fractions
unit!!
Puzzle Day! |
Reading:
This week we have spent time reviewing how
to monitor and clarify what we are reading.
We discussed how to reread, ask questions, visualize and more. We also talked about how to notice when we
are confused about something we are reading and how that shows us we aren’t
understanding what we are reading. As
student’s reading levels increase, so does the content of the books they are
reading.
Next week we are starting new book club
books. We are super excited to start new
chapter books!
School Reminders:
·
February 13th- Parent Teacher
Conferences
·
February 14th- Spring Class Party
·
February 16th- Parent Teacher
Conferences
·
February 17th- NO SCHOOL
·
February 20th- NO SCHOOL
(President’s Day)
·
March 7th- Early Out
·
March 14th- Beulah Math
Night (more info to come)
·
March 22nd- Jefferson
City Field trip
·
March 27th - 31st
- SPRING BREAK
·
April 7th- Runge Field
Trip (more info. to come later)
·
April 12th- PTA Meeting
at 6:30
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Celebrating Beulah Ralph's Birthday!
Today was a super, fun day! We started the day making hats for Mrs. Beulah Ralph's 90th birthday celebration. It was so fun to watch the kids wear their hats all day, but I must admit it was difficult to take them seriously with these huge, silly hats on:). We explored waves in science today- here are a few pictures of the kids making different kinds of waves. Have a great night!
Happy birthday, Mrs. Ralph! |
Friday, January 27, 2017
Weekly Newsletter
What a busy, busy week! Thank you to all of the parents who shared your careers with us- we loved getting to learn about what you do!
Writing
Writing
We
are finally done taking notes on our cities in Missouri. This week we learned about thesis statements
and topic sentences. Students have been
given a graphic organizer to help them organize their researched
information. This week we started
planning our final piece and next week we will plan on writing, editing and
publishing our pieces.
Social Studies
This week we discussed the purpose of our
government. We talked about what types
of departments a government has and how they are all connected.
Next week we will be starting our new
Science unit on waves. We will learn
what waves are, where we see them, what the amplitude of waves is and what
effect frequency has on wavelength.
Math
I
am beyond impressed with the effort your kids put into learning division. They asked for practice, worked at school and
home to understand it. I am blown
away! There are many students that need
to keep practicing those flash cards each night!
Next week we will be reviewing and testing
over our unit on division. Be watching
for that review guide to come home on Monday night. We will test Tuesday and spend the remainder
of the week practicing division facts and going over the test before starting
our new unit on fractions!!
Daily 5
This week we have continued with our read
aloud book, The Mighty Miss Malone.
I am very impressed with the conversations and questions they are having
about the Great Depression. We have
begun discussing what a good summary is and the purpose of a summary. Next week students will get a graphic
organizer that will help them organize information about what we are reading so
we can easily write a summary.
Important Dates
·
January 31st- Beulah
Ralph’s 90th Birthday!
·
February 3rd- Neon &
Bright Day
·
February 6th- NO SCHOOL (teacher
work day)
February 10th- Yearbook
Orders & Six Flag Reading Minutes Due
·
February 13th- Parent Teacher
Conferences
·
February 14th- Spring Class Party
·
February 16th- Parent Teacher
Conferences
·
February 17th- NO SCHOOL
·
February 20th- NO SCHOOL
(President’s Day)
·
March 7th- Early Out
·
March 14th- Beulah Math
Night (more info to come)
·
March 22nd- Jefferson
City Field trip
·
March 27th - 31st
- SPRING BREAK
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