Archive for February, 2014


Reminders

Just a friendly reminder that we’re having our Read-a-Thon tomorrow. Students are encouraged to bring a good (long) book, 1 pillow and 1 small stuffed animal. We’re raising money for our upcoming field trip. Money is not due tomorrow, however. It is due Wed, March 5th so that you can collect this weekend from friends and family members. Of course, this is not required.

Field trip to the Capitol is next Friday, March 7th. We will leave school at 7am and get back around 4:30-5pm. Please note that there will be NO bus transportation after school. You will need to arrange pick up at Northwood around 4:30. Please return field trip permission slips ASAP. Students will have to bring a sack lunch.

Texas Public Schools week is next week! Fourth grade is inviting parents into your child’s classroom on Wednesday, March 5th from 10:30-11:15. We will be presenting our biography projects on the Lone Star Legends. We hope you can make it!

Maturation classes are also next week so please return the permission slip whether the answer is yes or no ASAP.

Definitely a busy week, but Spring Break is right around the corner! Happy weekend! 🙂

STAAR Practice Apps

Our librarian passed along some practice STAAR apps that I wanted to share with you. They do cost $2.99 each, but thought you might be interested. The app says they’re alligned with Texas Objectives that will be tested on STAAR in April. Here are the links if you want to check them out.

4th Grade STAAR Math

4th Grade STAAR Reading

4th Grade STAAR Writing

Again, absolutely no pressure to buy these apps. Just wanted to spread the word if you were interested since I’ve had parents ask for extra resources to practice these skills at home. Thanks for all you do!

 

Lone Star Legends Research

We are currently studying biographies in reading. We’re also doing some research on Lone Star Legends, famous Texans. Each student has a Lone Star Legend they’re researching, and they will complete 2 technology projects that will be featured next week during Texas Public Schools Week. 4th grade’s time is March, 5th from 10:30-11:15 in your child’s classroom. Come see their biography research projects!

Here are some sneak peaks at our research!

research1           research2

 

Here is the resources page for the research project if your child wants to do some research at home or you have a question about this project.

 

http://neisd.libguides.com/lonestarlegends

 

Language Arts Practice

As you know STAAR is quickly approaching. Everyone has been working hard to master the 4th grade skills and content objectives. Here are some helpful websites that piggy back on what your children have been working on at school. Use them at home if you can.. practice makes perfect!

All Subjects Website: 

This website has our Texas content objectives broken down one by one with websites to help kids practice each skill. This site is AMAZING!!! (This site also has math) Bookmark this one.. it’s a keeper!

http://www.pasadenaisd.org/sailon/grade4.htm

Poetry websites to Explore:

www.poetry4kids.com

www.gigglepoetry.com

Irregular Past Tense:

http://www.ixl.com/ela/grade-4/identify-the-irregular-past-tense

http://www.ixl.com/ela/grade-4/form-and-use-the-irregular-past-tense-set-1

http://www.ixl.com/ela/grade-4/form-and-use-the-irregular-past-tense-set-2

http://www.ixl.com/ela/grade-4/form-and-use-the-irregular-past-tense-set-3

http://www.ixl.com/ela/grade-4/form-and-use-the-irregular-past-tense-set-4

Plurals:

http://www.kwiznet.com/p/takeQuiz.php?ChapterID=1981&CurriculumID=14

http://www.quia.com/rr/6516.html

http://www.funbrain.com/plurals/index.html

http://www.manythings.org/wbg/irr-plurals1-jw.html

Possessive Nouns:

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/exploring_possessives/index.html

Context Clues:

http://www.angelfire.com/md/byme/guesswhat/guesswhat.html

http://www.quia.com/rr/151544.html

http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=191

Homophones:

http://www.quia.com/cb/6344.html

http://www.quia.com/quiz/285436.html?AP_rand=798734387

http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=191

 Making Sentences:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en30stru-game-make-a-sentence

Parts of Speech:

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/invasion/invasion.html

 

 

More Geometry Fun!

symmetry                          vertices

Writing Olympics

Today 4th grade took part in the Northwood Writing Olympics! We started our day with an Opening Ceremony in the Cafeteria.

richter flags           flag opening ceremony

Our master of ceremonies, Ms. Dickson, talked to us about how Olympians always try their best, never give up, and have confidence in themselves. 5th grade writing super stars gave their advice on how to write a 3 or 4 composition.

noelle and hannah

Then, Mr. Harrington acted as the Olympic President and opened our Winter Olympics!

harrington

This week each class made a banner that they ran through before going back to their classroom to participate in the games.

richter banner

richter1

We had 4 rotations dealing with writing, editing and revising loosely based off the Winter Olympic sports. They corrected convention mistakes in a game of hockey. They were pumped up for prompts by trying to distinguish between narrative and expository. They made all the “write” moves by planning a narrative composition, and they showed STAAR style by adding details to sentences.

door signs

My Olympic game was of course hockey related! I broke each class into 2 teams and had a sentence with a mistake on the Smart Board. Whichever team guessed the mistake correctly got a point and got to shoot a hockey puck into a “goal” for an extra point. Everybody did a great job recognizing mistakes and knew how to correct them!

hat trick       ansleyhockey

paige

After the games, we had a closing ceremony in the library. We played the National Anthem and Ms. Sharrer gave out real engraved gold, silver and bronze medals to members that showed superior Olympic values and perseverance from each 4th grade class. Congratulations to all the winners and participants! Here’s a picture of our very own Hailey with her gold medal!

hailey gold medal medal collage

Thank you to all our Olympians and to my wonderful team who helped make this day so special for the 4th grade!

richter class online

 

Geometry

This week we started our Geometry unit. After discussing vocabulary terms this week and doing various explorations, we took to the hallways and found examples of real life angles and lines. Below are our pic collages each group made. See if you can find more of these angles and lines at home, on the playground, and anywhere really!

right angles pic collage

perpendicular lines pic collage

obtuse pic collage

acute pic collage

 

parallel lines pic collage

 

 

2014 Olympics

Since tonight is the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia we explored some Olympic sites today in the computer lab. Here are 2 websites the kids really enjoyed if they want to explore them more at home.

Time for Kids: Olympics

http://www.timeforkids.com/minisite/2014-sochi-olympics

NBC Learn: Science and Engineering of the Olympics

http://www.nbclearn.com/science-and-engineering-of-the-2014-olympic-winter-games

(There’s even a science of NHL hockey that explains geometry, which we just started.. how cool!)

The kids were very excited to browse and learn about the Olympics! Next Friday we’re having a Writing Olympics that will be 1/2 day activity on the 14th. Stay tuned for details. For now, here are some pictures from the computer lab this morning.

GO TEAM U.S.A!!

olympics3                 olympics2

olympics4                  oylmpics1

 

Here’s a picture of Barrett making us a Winter Olympics Google Tour of the last 6 Winter Olympics. Stay tuned!

barret olympics

 

Popplet Lite App

This week we have been testing out a free iPad app called “Popplet Lit.e” It is a graphic organizer creator. My students have been using it to define key vocabulary term during math stations this week. Click on the image to see it larger. We hope you enjoy!

wyatt and isabel pop          paige pop         nya pop

 

hailey poplet damion poplet caleb poplet

 

barrett pop

Moms

Dear moms,

We love you. <3

From,

Miss Richter’s Class

 


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