Miss Dixon's 4th Grade Blog

There is NO homework this week! Yay for short weeks!

Here’s a music video from what we learned last week:

Have a great fall break!

Homework this week (and for the rest of the school year) can be found under the homework tab. Please Bloomz message or email me if you have extenuating circumstances as to why your child can’t do homework. I’d rather have the reasoning rather than just dock their citizenship grade.

We are also doing a book report for next month. Here is the information I went over with my students:

The book you choose to read should be appropriate for your reading level and a minimum of 100 pages in length. The book cannot be one you have read before or one we have read in class. If you started the book during the summer but haven’t finished it, you may use it. We will do sign-ups for when you will present your book report. All presentations should be 3-5 minutes long.

The book must be fiction.

Your first quarter book report is due on NOVEMBER 8-10. You will sign up for a time/day to present.

Present your book to the class:

• All presentations must be 3-5 minutes.
• Share a brief summary of your book.
• Tell us enough to get us interested, but not so much that it ruins the ending. 
• Give the book a rating of 1-5 stars, depending on how well you liked it. The more you liked it, the more stars you will give. Explain to the class why you rated it the way you did.
• Be prepared and use good presenting skills (speak loudly).
• Use one of the Creative Ideas below, or get approval from Miss Dixon if you have an original idea.

Creative Ideas :

• Write a TV or radio commercial advertising the book.
• Prepare a skit about your book and perform it for the class.
• Design a book jacket (different from the one it already has) illustrating your three favorite scenes. Include a summary on the inside cover. 
• Build a diorama (in a box) of your favorite scene or setting.
• Design a map of the area where the story takes place. Make sure to include a scale and legend.
• Make an illustrated time line for a historical book. 
• Design a vacation or informational pamphlet about a location in the book. 
• Design a mobile, using pictures of characters or places in the story. 
• Pretend you are a book critic for a local newspaper or TV station and share your review of the book.
• Dress up like a character in the book and describe the role that character plays in the book.
• Compose a song about your book, an event in the book, or one of the characters and sing or play it for the class.
• Prepare and perform a puppet show.
• Make a collage about your book.
• Pretend you are a newscaster from the local news. 
• Create a “Wanted” poster for a character from the book. 
• Write a news article on the book; answer Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Pretend you are a newscaster and give us the information in a live news broadcast.
• Create a comic strip.

Let me know if you have questions!

Here are a couple of videos! The first is about our fun field trip to This is the Place. The second is a song we learned to help us learn the water cycle. Enjoy! 

Here’s a fun opportunity if you’d like to do this with your kiddos!

Here’s the homework for this week. Make sure you double check the blog to know exactly what assignments are due:

MONDAY
-Read 20 minutes 
–Readworks article – “Panning for History”

TUESDAY
-Read 20 minutes
–FrontrowEd Assignment – Fact Practice #52

WEDNESDAY
-Read 20 minutes
–Readworks article – “The Science of Fun!”

THURSDAY
-Read 20 minutes
–FrontrowEd Assignment – Targeted Practice #73
THURSDAY NIGHT – Click on this homework form link and fill out the form. It will need a parent signature.

Let me know if you have questions! Thank you for encouraging your students to do their best!

Just a couple more details for the field trip tomorrow! Students should:

• Wear white shirts and khakis (if at all possible)
• Bring home lunch if they signed up for it
• Bring backpack
• Wear good shoes – we’re walking a lot!
• Bring a water bottle
• Bring a jacket

The only thing students can have on the bus is a book.
So excited! It’s going to be a blast!

This week we’re doing homework in full swing! Below is an outlined schedule of what your child should be doing every night!

MONDAY
-Read 20 minutes
–Readworks article – “Say Hello to the Giant Gorilla”
(If you don’t remember how to get onto Readworks, see the homework post from last week.)

TUESDAY
-Read 20 minutes
–FrontrowEd math assignment – #91 targeted practice assignment
(Our classroom code for FrontrowEd is fp4erg. The kids have used this code dozens of times, and most will probably have it memorized)

WEDNESDAY
– Read 20 minutes
–Readworks article – “What Happens When it Rains”

THURSDAY
-Read 20 minutes
–FrontrowEd math assignment – #83 targeted practice assignment
FILL OUT THIS FORM! – This holds students accountable for reading and requires a parent e-signature. Students should only fill this out on THURSDAY NIGHT! Not earlier or later! 

There is no spelling homework. Our 4th grade team has decided to do spelling a little differently, so there won’t be anymore spelling homework!

Our This is the Place field trip is this Thursday! Hurray! Thank you for all the parents that volunteered to come! The winners of the drawing to come have been contacted. 
Please email or Bloomz message me if you have any questions! 

Here are some pictures from our STEM project last Friday. THANK YOU so much for all of your donations! We had a blast building our shelters.


We also sang about adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers:



Also – I’m changing up homework just a little bit. I will have a post about homework on Monday, so look for that! 
Thanks for letting me teach your kids!

Spelling words for this week:
bolt, mold, toll, shadow, flow, mows, lower, blown, quote, mole, stone, stove, chose, sole, stole, goal, groan, load, roasting, woe.

Also, I’m adding an assignment on readworks.org. Have your kids go to www.readworks.org/student. Then enter our class code: 443ZVK
After this, the default password for all students is 1234 – they can change the password after they log in to their quest password.

They need to read the article “Must-See TV”, then answer the corresponding questions by Friday. Please email me or send me a message on Bloomz if you have any questions. 
Thanks!

We will be having a test on these words on Friday. I recommend that my students study these words, especially since we will have less time to study them at school this week.

minding, climb, mind, pies, die flight, sigh, kite, file, wipe, inside, pride, line, alike, time, twice, cry, sly, shy, spy

I want the kids to understand really what makes the long “i” sound, so they can spell all words with a long “i”, not just the ones on the list. 

Also, Quest is doing a cookie dough fundraiser to help raise money for the school. Administration is hoping this fundraiser does well enough that we don’t have to do any other fundraisers or galas. 

Thanks for your help and encouragement!