This week your child will be working on fractions in math, continuing our investigation of Energy Transfer in science with magnets, finishing up our nonfiction reading unit on expository text and narrative text, finishing up our persuasive writings, and continuing our units in Vocabulary and Making Meaning.

Just like in the past, Holmes Elementary will be hosting the Breakfast Gallery.  Breakfast Gallery is next Friday, May 3.  Please come to school and enjoy our artwork displayed  in the hall. 4th grade is invited to wander from 8:00-8:30. (K-2 is 8:30-9:00) We ask that all 4th graders be in their classrooms by 8:45 so we have time to get our morning started before we head over to the Intermediate School for our visit with the 5th graders and Principal Lewakowski.

My class has been doing a great job at Staying In The Green.  We are upon day 80 and looking to reach it this week.  The prize for the whole class staying 80 days in the green is eating lunch in the classroom.   Anything over that will be added to the class total and we will have an end of the year party to celebrate those days in the Green!

Please note that breakfast will change slightly next Thursday and Friday.  See below:

On Friday, May 3, limited breakfast service will be available to students due to the Breakfast Gallery.   A cold breakfast will be available for any student wanting breakfast.  They may receive their breakfast from the hallway kitchen door.  Mrs. Warner will be there to serve any student wanting breakfast.

There are only two more book raffles for this school year, Tuesday, April 30, and Friday, May 31.  I would appreciate any donations toward Scholastic books, gift cards, candy, etc… that would make our last book raffle a blast for 4th grade.   

Have a wonderful week,

Mr. Keller

We had a busy week this past week with measurement quizzes and test (all on the computer), nonfiction reading, persuasive letters, and even a little Willy Wonka put on by our H.S. students.

We had a interesting and new experience in math this week.  The students tested on the computer with their quick quizzes, practice test, and test.   It ranged from multiple choice questions to short answer questions.  I thought my students did great working quietly and trying something new.  If you want to see their scores, go to Think Central Math and ask your child to show you their online math library.

Last week a note went home called Save the Dates.  If you can’t find that letter, here is a copy of that letter: Save the Dates 2013

Have a great day!

Mr. Keller

 

 

 

Students today had to experiment with circuits and random items to see which items were good conductors of electricity.  They had to experiment with a washer, paper clip, Styrofoam peanut, safety pin, a piece of paper, iron nail, and a rubber  band. Which ones do you think would be a good conductor of electricity?

 

Dear Families,

We are midway through our measurement unit for math.  Please remember to be saving the workbook pages coming home each day for this unit.  Those pages can be useful to your child when completing his/her math homework.  The pages have the measurement conversion charts posted on them.  If you have recycled these pages, please see the tables below.

Sincerely,
Mr. Keller

 

 

 Here are some links for review for the metric system for Unit 5 math.

 

Conversion between metric units: video explaining the metric system

The Metric System lesson: How do you convert from Meter, Liter, Gram using prefixes. Video by a teacher.

 The Metric System: 4th Grade Metric Measurement online activities.

The Metric System Basics: PowerPoint

Good Monday Room 12 Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful break and enjoyed some time off school.

Math:  Starting a new unit on Metric Measurement.  Students will become familiar with metric units of length, capacity, mass, and time, as well as the size of each when compared to each other.

Reading: We are navigating nonfiction in expository text by determining importance and synthesizing.  We are learning how to ready our minds to read nonfiction, looking for the structure that exist within a nonfiction text, and choosing the just-right texts and reading with stamina in nonfiction.

Writing: We are in a unit on persuasive letter writing.  Students are to create a persuasive letter in which they state a point of view and then support their position with evidence in the form of reasons.

Science: We are in our Energy Transfer unit.  This week we will be looking at Electricity as a form of energy by looking at balloons and static electric electricity and how many ways can you make a light bulb light using a battery, current electricity, wires, and a light bulb.

Dates to put on the calendar:

May 30 – Chicago Trip 6:30 AM – 9PM

June 4 – 4th Grade Celebration 6:30PM @ SLMS auditorium

June 6 and 7 – 1/2 days

June 7 – Last Day of school