Please Respond

Recently, students have used the following ways to respond to some short read alouds.  These sentence starters use a variety of reading strategies.  Students have enjoyed sharing their responses.

žI noticed…

žThis reminds me of…

žI wonder…

žA question I have is…

žI predict _______ because….

žI think…

žI am surprised that…

žI feel…

• This is about…

New Math- Topic 11

Our new math unit is titled "Adding and Subtracting Fractions."  It's a fairly short unit, with only 4 lessons.  The following are the titles of the 4 math lessons:

• Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Like Denominators
• Adding Fractions with Unlike Denominators
• Subtracting Fractions with Unlike Denominators
• Problem Solving: Draw a Picture and Write an Equation

Anthology Vocabulary

These are the vocabulary words that students learned to go along with the Anthology story, Gloria Estefan.

Key Vocabulary	Definition	Sentence
career (p.565)	What someone does as a job	“She had never thought about joining a band or following a full-time musical career.”
contract (p.568)	A written agreement	“Soon the group signed a contract with Discos CBS International…”
demonstrated (p.570)	Showed clearly	“…Cuts Both Ways demonstrated Gloria’s talent as a songwriter.”
eventually (p.568)	At the end; finally	“But we kept the right to record in English, because eventually we wanted to try for the States.”
specializes (p.568)	To be involved in a particular activity	“Discos CBS International specializes in Latin music.”
tireless (p.575)	Able to work a long time without getting tired	“Gloria is also a passionate, tireless worker for those with troubles.”
worldwide (p.568)	All over the world	“From those albums came a dozen songs that became worldwide hits.”

Assembly Today

We have the pleasure of seeing another Arts and Children assembly today.  David Giese is the performer.  The following information is his biography from the Marshalltown Community Theater website:

After a long history with the Mason City Community Theater, where he served as President of the Board of Directors, David came to MCT and has played the roles of Captain Markinson in A FEW GOOD MEN, Harry Fox in 45 SECONDS FROM BROADWAY during the 2003-04 season and the dual role of Tony Langdon/ Uncle Julian in FOOTLIGHT FRENZY in the 2006-2007 season.  David’s directing credits include: THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, PLAZA SUITE, ANASTASIA, and THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN for the Mason City Community Theater and A THURBER CARNIVAL, GALA 2005: TO BE A MOVIE STAR, and THE MOUSETRAP for MCT.  A retired theater educator, David holds degrees in theater from the University of Northern Colorado and Colorado University.  Currently, David is an adjunct professor of English at Marshalltown Community College.

http://www.mctonline.org/People/G_Folder/Bio_G.htm#G1

Paragraph Assessment

Students recently completed a paragraph assessment.  You can ask your child what their score was and what they missed points for (what they can improve on!) as well as what they did well.  These are the 7 criteria they were graded on based on a rubric:

• Organization: structure, introduction, conclusion
• Ideas and Content: main theme, supporting details
• Sentence Fluency: clarity
• Voice: personality, sense of audience
• Word Choice
• Conventions: age appropriate spelling, capitzalization, punctuation, and grammar
• Presentation: final copy

Dr. King crossword

Students should be able to complete or answer the following questions from our Anthology story crossword puzzle.

Across

1. Dr. King was one of the greatest _______ of the twentieth century.

4. After Dr. King helped organize a _______ , many African Americans refused to ride city buses.

8. What Dr. King worked to achieve

10. Taken into police custody

14. Hero of the civil rights movement

17. A short performance

18. What Jamal got from the principal

19. Object to or complain about something

Down

2. Both the words he spoke and the way he spoke them made Dr. King's ________ powerful and inspiring.

3. City where the famous bus ride took place

5. Dr. King's most famous speech

6. Where African Americans once had to sit

7. She was put in jail for sitting down.

9. The ___________ movement aimed to achieve equality for all.

11. Boy who turned something really stupid into something stupendous

12. Southern state

13. The school held an assembly to celebrate the famous man's ___________.

15. He got Jamal to do some hard thinking.

16. Jamal's little sister

Anthology comprehension skill

In Anthology, students role-played "scenes" from the story and then placed them into a cause/ effect table.  These were the scenes:

Jamal gets a note from the principal.	Jamal is afraid he is in trouble and tries to sneak quietly into his house.
Jamal tells Grandpa Joe about the fight.	Grandpa Joe gets angry at Jamal.
Jamal apologizes to Grandpa Joe for fighting.	Grandpa Joe tells Jamal about Rosa Parks.
She wouldn’t give up her seat at the front of the bus.	Rosa Parks got arrested.
African Americans heard about Rosa Parks’s arrest.	African Americans boycotted the buses.
Dr. King headed the bus boycott and became a great civil rights leader.	Dr. King’s birthday is honored and celebrated with a national holiday.
Dad explains to Jamal that Dr. King worked in peaceful ways.	Jamal has an idea to put on a skit about solving problems peacefully.

Science/ Social Studies Websites

My class has completed a unit on the Mountain States region.  They will start a drugs unit with Mrs. Duff next.  The following are some websites they were provided with for the SS unit and some they will be provided with for the Science unit.

Mountain States:

http://www.nps.gov/meve/index.htm

http://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm

http://visitmt.com/

http://www.visitidaho.org/

http://www.wyomingtourism.org/

http://www.wyomingtourism.org/

http://www.colorado.com/

http://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm

http://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm

http://www.utah.com/stateparks/great_salt_lake.htm

http://www.utahoutdooractivities.com/kennecott.html

http://www.shoshoneindian.com/

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm

http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/nca/ggnca.html

http://www.denver.org/

Drugs:

http://www.drpbody.com/drugs.html

http://www.dare.com/kids/index_3.htm

http://www.thecoolspot.gov/

http://www.toosmarttostart.samhsa.gov/tweens/default.aspx

http://www.bam.gov/

http://www.justthinktwice.com/

http://www.getsmartaboutdrugs.com/identify/your_home.html

http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/

D.O.L.

Yesterday, students completed some D.O.L. (Daily Oral Language) sentences.  I discovered that after going over them, many students still had mistakes in basic spelling, punctuation, and grammar.  By 4th grade, these are important skills to have.  The sentences listed below were the ones we completed.  See if your child can fix all the mistakes!

our class were in the foust elementary spring sing

we laughed dansed and sang all day long

mrs kelly learned us some new dance step

the program was skejuled for 500pm on april 23 2011

hour teacher said you did a exsellant job in the program

Anthology

These are some questions that your child should be able to answer from reading the story, Happy Birthday, Dr. King!  Their answers would reflect their comprehension of the story.

• Why is Jamal's grandfather so unhappy that Jamal fought to sit at the back of the bus?
• What does Jamal learn from talking with his grandfather?  How is he different after the talk?
• How does Jamal use what he learns from his grandfather in his skit?
• Jamal says that he did something "really stupid that turned out to be stupendous instead."  What do you think he means?
• What would you like to do for a school celebration of Dr King's birthday?

Social Studies

This is the remaining of the framed outline we completed in class on the Mountain States region.  It includes some history as well as economic information.  Students should be able to fill in the blanks. 

3.       Women Fight for Their Rights (History)

a.       For much of our country’s history, _____________________, _________________  ___________________, and _____________________  ______________________ could not vote.

b.      __________________  ____________  ___________________, _________________  __________________, and other women led the fight for women’s _________________ for over 50 years beginning in the mid 1800s.

c.       The women spoke a lot in the ____________________  ___________________ region where both _________________ and ____________________ were open to new ideas.

d.      ______________________ was the first state to give women the right to vote.  Many of the __________________ hoped it would encourage women to ______________ there.

e.      In ______________, Congress passed the ____________________  _________________ to the Constitution allowing women’s suffrage across the U.S.

f.        Women continued to fight for ____________________ and in 1924 Wyoming voted for the first woman _____________________________.

4.       The Mountain States Today (Economy)

a.       There are few large ____________________ in the Mountain States.  ___________________ and ___________________________ are the largest.

b.      Much of the region is public land.  It is _________________, __________________, and ___________________ by the government.

c.       The ____________________  _________________ and surrounding area provide varied _____________________ that attract people to it.

d.      ___________________ and ____________________ are the most important industries in the region.

e.      Much of the region’s tourism comes from outdoor recreation, including _________________, __________________  _________________, and _____________.

Paragraph Assessment

Students will be starting their 2nd paragraph assessment of the year next week.  I will be grading on different aspects of writing, including:

• Voice
• Word Choice
• Conventions
• Presentation
• Organization
• Ideas and Content
• Sentence Fluency

These are the types of paragraphs that have been discussed.

Type of Paragraph	What is it?
Procedural	Tells how to do something- uses time order words
Descriptive	Describes something- uses strong, colorful, dramatic details
Persuasive	Shaped to persuade or convince the reader of the writer’s opinion
Informative	Provides information and explanation about a subject
Compare and Contrast	Compares how two things are alike and different

Framed Outline for Social Studies (continued)

1.       Mining in the Mountains (Natural Resources)

a.       _________________ provide lumber and rivers and streams supply ______________.

b.      _________________  ______________ is a resource that is drilled in the Rockies.

c.       Dark blue gemstones called ___________________ are mined.

d.      There is a rich supply of _________________.

e.      The most valuable metal found in the Rocky Mountains is ____________________ but many other metals are mined as well.

f.        During _________________ copper ore is placed in a __________________ and heated to very high temperatures until it melts.  The heavy copper sinks to the _________________ and the top layer called _________________ is taken off.

g.       The Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah is an open pit mine and is the ____________________ mine in the world.

Chapter 10: History and Economy of the Mountain States

1.       The Shoshone (History)

a.       The Shoshone and The Bannock are known as the _________________  _________________ and the Snake River is named for them.

b.      In the mid 1800s, many settlers began arriving in search of ________________ and in the process took lots of grassland and hunted lots of __________________.

c.       ___________________  __________________ of the Shoshone did not believe in fighting with the settlers so he helped the U.S. Army against other tribes.

d.      The U.S. government returned the chief’s help by signing the _______________  __________________  _______________ which established the Fort Hall Reservation for the Shoshone Indians.

e.      Because of the treaty, the Shoshone did not have to ______________ from their land. 

f.        Today, the Shoshone share the reservation with the ___________________  _________________ and equally rule it with two separate ____________________.

2.       Exploration and Boom Towns (History)

a.       The U.S. doubled in size when it bought land from France known as the _______________________  ______________________.

b.      President Jefferson chose _________________ and _________________ to lead an _____________________ to explore the unknown territory.

c.       _____________________, a Shoshone, helped guide and translate on the expedition.

d.      The discovery of ___________________ in 1859 brought a rush of people to the region.

e.      When the gold ran out, people left leaving many _______________  _______________.

f.        In 1869, two railroad tracks met at __________________  ________________ forming the first ________________________________ railroad.  It provided ___________________ and ________________ travel.

g.       Building the railroad was hard and many ______________________ immigrants died from the dangerous conditions.  The railroad also changed life for ___________________  ____________________ because workers killed off much of the _______________________ population.

Anthology Vocabulary

This is our new vocabulary for the story, Sing to the Stars.

Key Vocabulary	Definition	Sentence
Boycott (p.542)	A refusal to buy from a company	“That was the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  And the boycott worked.  We finally won- without fighting.”
Civil rights (movement) (p.544)	Referring to the legal privileges every American citizen is guaranteed	“Dr. King became a great leader of the civil rights movement.”
Fare (p.541)	The money a person must pay to travel, as on a bus or subway	“First, we’d get on at the front of the bus, pay our fare, and get off.”
Protest (p.542)	To express strong feelings against something	“We wanted to protest her arrest and get the same rights that white people had.”
Stupendous (p.547)	Amazing	“What you were a kid, did you ever do something really stupid that turned out to be stupendous instead.”

Math Vocabulary

Students have learned the following vocabulary in math.  You can ask your child to explain them to you more in detail.

• fraction- a symbol that names a part of a whole, a part of a set, or a location on a number line
• numerator- the top number in a fraction; it tells how many parts are shown
• denominator- the bottom number in a fraction; it tells the total number of equal parts the whole is divided into
• region- a figure that is divided into equal parts
• set- a group of objects that have something in common
• benchmark fraction- a simple fraction that is easy to visualize
• equivalent fractions- fractions that name the same part of a whole

Social Studies Lessons 1 and 2

Students should be able to fill in the following blanks with information we have learned in Social Studies.

Chapter 9: Environment of the Mountain States

1.       The Rocky Mountains (Geography)

a.       The Mountain States are located west of the ______________   _______________and east of the states bordering the _____________  _________________.  The states are ____________________, _________________________, _________________________, ______________________, and ___________________.

b.      The Rocky Mountains are referred to as the “_______________” and are known for ___________________ mountain ranges with deep ___________________.

c.       There are a variety of animals that live in the Rockies including ___________________, ________________________, and _________________________.

d.      Plant life changes depending on the __________________________.

e.      Yellowstone National Park is the ___________________ national park in the U.S. and contains some hot springs called ____________________.

f.        The _______________________  ___________________ separates rivers that flow east from rivers that flow west.

g.       Ancient people known as the _______________ or ______________  _______________ lived in Mesa Verde where they built their homes under overhanging cliffs.

2.       Snowy Peaks (Climate)

a.       As elevation increases temperature gets ___________________ and there is more ___________________________.

b.      Much of the precipitation in the Rockies falls as ______________.

c.        All high mountains have a _______________________ above which it is too cold for trees to grow.

d.      ___________________ trees are twisted and bent to help them survive lower _______________________ and harsh ______________________.

e.      The ______________  ____________  _______________ is the largest inland body of ______________  ______________ in the Western Hemisphere because water flows into it but not out so ______________ are trapped in it.  

f.        The Great Salt Lake is saltier than the __________________.