January 14th, 2013

This morning we learned the five Great Lakes of the United States.  They are Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.  We are reading information about these lakes.  THESE FIVE LAKES AND THE SEVENTEEN RIVERS BELOW WILL BE ON A TEST ON FRIDAY.  The students will be given a map showing the bodies of water and numbers associated with them.  They are:

Snake River
Columbia River
Colorado River
Little Colorado River
Green River
San Juan River
Virgin River
Gila River
Rio Grande River
Mississippi River
Missouri River
Arkansas River
Red River
 Ohio River
Hudson River
Delaware River
Potomac River

The river system will also be part of the test.  For example:

What are the sources of rivers (how do they form)?
What is the significance of the Continental Divide?
What is a dry lake?
What can we do to protect our rivers?
What great river has been depleted to the point that it doesn't reach the Pacific Ocean anymore?
etc., etc.

For Language Arts this morning we learned new words:

emulate: try to equal or match, to copy
enervating: causing debilitation
ephemeral: short-lived, like the life of a butterfly
evanescent: disappear, as in a vapor
exemplary: worthy of imitation

We also learned State of Being Verbs.  Then we chose picture fiction books and mapped out the setting (time and place) of the book.  STUDENTS SHOULD MAKE A SETTING WEB OF THEIR BIOGRAPHY FIGURE.  Five settings from the book should be mapped out from the center of the page.  THESE ARE DUE TOMORROW.

For Math, I felt the kids needed more instruction and practice finding shaded area.  A TWO PAPER (FOUR PAGE) PACKET WENT HOME TODAY FOR ALL STUDENTS WHO WERE AT SCHOOL ON FRIDAY.  THE OTHERS NEED TO BE DONE THROUGH EXERCISE 6 BY TOMORROW.  Some students will want to work on their chapter review tonight.  Those who are 100% complete tomorrow will get to be on the computers during math.  The others will be working at the board on review questions.  The chapter 5 test will either be Wednesday or Thursday.

After lunch we had Structured Independent Reading and Meridian Math Club.  During Writer's Workshop we described settings and fantasy surprises.  This is a style that many authors use to catch readers' interests.  Students each wrote their own settings and fantasy surprises..  They will be writing a new one every day this week.  We will choose our favorite ones to type out as story starters and hang outside the classroom.

During 4th Grade Art/5th Grade Science, we discussed the three North Poles.  1. Geographical 2. Santa's Workshop town in Alaska, 3. The Magnetic North Pole.  We focused on the third.  Students observed and experimented with magnetic forces changing compass needles.  We found that electromagnets gave off force fields strong enough to change compass needles.  Some students observed the North and South of their compasses attracting or repelling with various magnets.  My favorite connection was the kids' connections to the use of magnets and electromagnets in turbines, engines, dams, etc, to generate electricity.

After P.E. we crafted the base of our puppet heads and attached them to poles.  We will be making rod puppets with moveable arms.  It is my first time to make them, but we are having fun learning.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR CHILD READS HIS/HER BIOGRAPHY FOR 30 MINUTES EACH NIGHT UNTIL HE/SHE IS DONE.  A BOOK REPORT OF CHOICE IS DUE AT THE END OF THE MONTH.