Week of May 3

             

NWEA and M-STEP Testing:

As you know from Mrs. Bawks' recent blog, we will begin our end of the year testing in the next few weeks. 4th graders will begin by taking the math and reading NWEA assessments (this is the assessment that students are given in the fall, winter and spring). Our schedule is:

-Wednesday May 5: NWEA Reading Assessment

-Wednesday May 12: NWEA Math Assessment

-Wednesday May 19: M-STEP Reading Assessment

-Wednesday May 26: M-STEP Math Assessment

Bear Tracks Submissions:

All students are welcome to submit written or art work to our annual Bear Tracks! Bear Tracks is a full-color book showcasing student’s work.  Each participating student will receive their own copy of Bear Tracks.

Accepted works include:

• Poetry

• Short stories (no more than 500 words)

• Songs

• Word Art

• Cartoons

• Drawings

• Paintings

• Any other written or art work that can be digitally submitted and shared in a print format.

Guidelines:

• Please proofread all work before submission

• Inappropriate content will not be accepted

• Students may accept up to two projects.  Please note that both projects will be printed on the same page.

• Artwork must fit an 8.5”x11” format.  

• Enjoy expressing yourself artistically!

All work must be electronically submitted to m.bishop407@yahoo.com

• Subject line: BEAR TRACKS

• Email Body: Must contain your full name, your teacher’s name and your grade level.

All entries due by Monday, May 10th!

Daily Student Health Screener:

Click here for a checklist of symptoms and situations to keep a focused eye on this year. The teachers are logging daily health checks, as well. We are doubling down on health and wellness in efforts to protect our ability to meet for in-person learning. Thank you for your cooperation on this.

Mrs. Bawks' Brown School Family Blog:

Please don't forget to take a peek at Mrs. Bawks' Brown School Family Blog each week. CLICK HERE to read it.

Important Upcoming Dates:

Mon. 5/3 - No School for elementary students

Wed. 5/5 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Fri. 5/7 - Popcorn Friday!

Mon. 5/10 - Bear Tracks submissions due (please see information above)

Wed. 5/12 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Wed. 5/26 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Mon. 5/31 - NO SCHOOL (Memorial Day)

This week's learning:

Positivity Project (P2): This coming week we will be focusing on the character strength of Leadership: "You value each member of your group and inspire people to do their best."

ELA & Writing: This week we will continue to focus on the comprehension strategy of making judgements and asking questions. Students will identify the judgment an author makes in a passage and identify evidence that supports the judgment. Below you will find a document to use at home to connect to what we are learning at school (click to view a larger image):

Last week in writing, we dove head first into our informational writing unit! The students are very excited to write about a topic that they are familiar with to teach others. This week we will focus on narrowing down our topic (we don't want a topic that is too broad) in order to create subtopics to begin some research.

Math:  This week, we will continue our unit on multiplying fractions and mixed numbers by a whole number; we will also circle back around to multiplication and division number stories. Our lessons for the week are:

Monday: No School

Tuesday: I can estimate, find, and assess the reasonableness of answers to multistep division number stories.

Wednesday: I can generate and analyze patterns in rectangular numbers.

Thursday: I can solve multistep number stories involving fractions.

Friday: I can convert between fractions and decimals to solve number stories.

Looking to extend your child's learning in math at home?

I highly recommend having them work on Khan Academy (we use this in class)! Students have access to the assignments that I've put onto Khan Academy for them (they use these during our math workshop time) and they can also work on their "course mastery." Khan Academy will continue to work them through 4th grade concepts and beyond (for those students who are ready to begin learning skills beyond the elementary level) and provides video explanations to help them work through the content. They also have courses to practice reading and language arts, computer programing (Pixar in a Box has historically been very popular with students in my classroom!), growth mindset, careers and much more!

Science: This week, we will examine how important electricity is to our lives. It’s used to power everything from toasters, elevators, and stop lights! We investigated how electrical energy can be stored in batteries, how it flows through conductive materials, and we created our own LED flashlights!

 

You can provide your child with even more examples of ways that electricity is used in your home: 

- Take apart a few battery-powered items, such as TV remote controls, digital cameras, or wristwatches to look at the different kinds of batteries found inside. 

- Ask children to search for devices plugged into electrical outlets around the house. How many things are plugged in? 

 

This is also a good time to discuss electrical safety, such as never sticking anything besides a plug into an outlet and never using electrical devices near or in water. 

 

In a future lesson, we’ll explore how electric outlets work and where they get their energy from! 

Social Studies: We will continue working on our unit learning about our federal government this week. This week we will focus on learning about the powers that our government has. Big ideas from these lessons are:

• In the United States, the government is based on the idea of popular sovereignty which means that the ultimate power belongs to the people in our government. 
• The people agreed to delegate some of their power to the federal government and expressed this in the Constitution.
• All other powers not given to the federal government in the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people. 
• In a few cases, certain powers like making laws and collecting taxes are shared by both federal and state governments.
• The system of delegating, reserving, and sharing of power explained in the Constitution serves to limit the power of government.

Homework:  Homework each week consists of reading 20+ minutes at home (this can be a library book, magazine, newspaper, online book, etc) and practicing multiplication and division facts 1 through 12. Mastering multiplication and division facts is vital to our learning this year.

Thank You,

Mrs. Hassenger