Week 7

Reading: This week our main focus is on understanding characters.  The students will be making inferences about characters based on what they do and say.  The students will be looking at their actions and personality to make predictions about what they might do next.  We will also be talking about point of view and reading with expression.  These are great things that you can bring up with your children as they tell you about the books that they are reading.

Vocabulary: (Quiz on Friday) horrified, seafaring, foaming, yearning, tidal, outcast, memorable, condition, betrayed and shortage

Spelling: This week, our words are homophones (words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings).  The words on their own are not all too difficult, but it is very important that the students understand what the meaning of the word is and are able to use it in a sentence.

Math: We will be finishing up our Math Menu on Wednesday and then moving on to work more specifically on addition later in the week.

Alabama History: We will be using all that we learned in Montgomery to help us understand the three branches of government and what our local government does for us.

Science: The students talked more in depth today about high and low pitches: what causes them and what sorts of things make those particular sounds.  We will also examine a few instruments this week as we learn more about what makes high and low pitches.  There will be a quiz on Thursday that will include: sound discrimination, vibration, and high and low pitches.

Montgomery

Wow!  What a day, what a trip!  The children were very excited for this field trip, eager to see all that our state's capital had to offer.  We saw so many wonderful sites, and learned so much about our great state!  I know the children will enjoy learning even more about everything that we saw as we go through our year of Alabama History. 

Here is our day in pictures...

Matthew with the statue of Rosa Parks

Lissette at the Rosa Parks Museum

Aidan with the Rosa Parks statue

The class standing on the steps of the Governor's Mansion

The stairwell and chandelier inside the Governor's Mansion

The dining room inside the Governor's Mansion

The Alabama shaped swimming pool installed after Governor Wallace was shot to help him with his physical therapy.

Lemonade and cookies given to us by some of the staff of the Governor's Mansion!  

The old train station near where we boarded the river boat

The Harriott II Riverboat

Abby and Lissette enjoying lunch on the riverboat

The dining room on the riverboat

Wyatt enjoying the cruise

Hailey enjoying the cruise

Harrison enjoying the cruise down the Alabama River

The captain of the ship quizzed the children on their knowledge of Alabama.  They shouted answers up to him, but if they were wrong, he would toot the very loud horn

The staircase inside the Capital building

The rotunda inside the capital building

The students getting the best view of the dome from the floor!

The old House of Representatives room

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the preacher

The students with Bill Thompson, presiding judge of the court of civil appeals and a Homewood resident!

The Judicial Building

The State House

The Capital Building with flags and stones from each of the 50 states

Thank You!

I was truly overwhelmed yesterday by the generosity and kindness from each of your children! I was inundated with cards all made with love by these incredible kiddos. I received cards, beautiful flowers, cupcakes and a delicious lunch from the class. Thank you all so very much for thinking of me on my birthday; I had a wonderful day!

Bookmarks

Yesterday, the children made bookmarks for a local organization called Urban Kids. Urban Kids runs an after school program for some of the children in Birmingham's west end. This was just the first of many community service projects we will do together as a class; I loved seeing how excited the kids were to create something for someone else, taking careful time to decorate these bookmarks, knowing that they would brighten someone else's day.

Week 6

We have a busy and exciting week ahead with lots of learning going on in the classroom plus our big field trip to Montgomery on Thursday!  Your child will be bringing home a few reminders about Montgomery today, so please be on the lookout for those.

Reading: This week we are taking a break from our Harcourt Journeys book to look more in depth at monitoring our own reading comprehension.  This morning, we read a very moving story called How Many Days to America by Eve Bunting.  The children had lots of lingering questions at the end of the story, so it was a wonderful way for us to discuss those thoughts that we all have in our heads as we read.  I have asked them to pay attention to those inner conversations this week as they read.  Your child has a homework assignment this week for reading to find a book with a theme and then describe the events in the book, what the theme is and how he/she determined the theme.  There are no specific vocabulary words this week.

Spelling: No spelling this week

Language Arts: The children will take a capitalization and proper noun test this afternoon.  We will spend some of our language time this week working on cursive handwriting and preparing for the Owl Update that we will begin writing shortly.

Math: This is an exciting week for math as we begin our first menu.  Ask your child to tell you more about what a math menu is.  We will be working on adding and subtracting whole numbers and money.  As your child completes his/her math homework this week (there will not be math homework every night), let him/her share with you how he/she solved the problem.  I am encouraging children to use whatever method is easiest for them, such as breaking the number apart, looking to make tens, or rounding the numbers first.

Alabama History: As we prepare for our field trip, we will be looking at our state symbols and what makes our state unique.  We will also focus on the three branches of government.

Science: The children will discover the differences between high and low pitches and how these different sounds can be generated.

Paul DeMarco

This morning, the 4th graders were treated to a visit by Representative Paul DeMarco who represents this area in Montgomery. He spoke to the kids about his job as a representative, how a bill becomes a law and a little bit about the Alabama government buildings we will be seeing next week! The kids were great listeners and asked great questions!

Character Partners

Today, the kids met their character partners! We are paired with Mrs. Crimi's 1st grade class. We have already spent some time together, getting to know one another, but today was the first day that the students worked one on one (or two on one in some cases). They were all thrilled to meet their character partner and get to know the student they will be working with throughout the year. Today, the students did a "Get to Know You GLYPH" and found things that they had in common with one another.

We are all looking forward to a great year with our character partners!