April News!

Happy Spring! 

A few upcoming dates to remember:

April 22 - No school for students: Assessment Day
April 24 - Science Fair boards and notebooks due
April 25 and 26 - Overnight field trip to Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  Leaving after school on the 25th and returning around 1:30pm on the 26th.

May 3 - Space Day/Star Wars Day & Spelling Bee
May 17 - Spring Festival (Greek Themed!)
May 20 - No School for Students: Teacher Work Day
May 27 - No School for Students: Memorial Day 
May 30 - Field Day
May 31 - Family Conferences

LifeSkills:

Being different, acting different, and looking different are targets for bullies. Division III students have been learning ways to deal with others who say hurtful words and do hurtful actions by practicing the problem solving process, role playing ways to solve conflicts with peers, and creating their own scenarios. 


World of Math:

In Dr. Ricotta's class, Unit 9 is coming to a close and Monday will be the day of the test. Students have been implementing their multiplication facts with decimals.  Not so difficult if you remember to place the decimal in the right place!  Same with division.  Estimation has been an interesting method in where to place the decimal.  Practice problems for multiplication and division of decimals can be found on web sites, such as: 

http://www.education.com/worksheets/fourth-grade/math/

http://www.mathworksheets4kids.com/activities/4th-grade.html

http://math4children.com/Grade4/worksheets/index.html


Ms. Brown's class is beginning a comprehensive review of their learning this year in preparation for the end of year assessment, as well as taking the opportunity to experience those we have mastered on a deeper level in preparation for next year.  Last week, students prepared a "wish list" for our work during this quarter, and their list includes more work with fractions and decimals, strategies for multiplication and division, multi-digit addition and subtraction, and more work with probability and data.  Students are also creating a reference book for these concepts to take with them on to the next level of math.

Ms. Burns' class is currently working on equations and formulas for area, perimeter, and circumference.


Art of Language

It is really amazing to see how much our students have grown this school year.  They've improved as critical readers, informational and explanatory writers, and they have learned to craft persuasive and opinion pieces and explore the opposite side of an issue. This quarter, we are focusing on the narrative.

Many works of fiction have an underlying theme of change that moves with the characters throughout the story. To tie in with this quarter's big idea, Ms. Brown's class, students are reading My Daniel by Pam Conrad, looking at it through the eyes of a fiction writer.  We are exploring the changes that happen within the characters themselves and the ways the author communicates those changes to her audience. We are taking this analysis into our own fiction writing, planning out narratives, and exploring ways to communicate our stories to our audience.  Ms. Burns' class is also currently focusing on fiction writing and are taking their creative ideas through the writing process.

In Dr. Ricotta's class, students are exploring biographies. Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney and Dr. Suess all had at least one thing in common - they all believed in the importance of learning from our past. Since the inquiry unit on Pioneers, the DIII students have been fascinated with history.  Carrying this interest into language arts, students have been able to choose a famous historical figure from available biographies. Reasons for reading biographies are many, but here are just five:

1.  Biographies allow you to stand on the shoulders of giants.
2.  Biographies remind you that history repeats itself. 
3.  Biographies promote self discovery.
4.  Biographies allow you to see the world in new ways.
5.  Biographies give you mentors at a distance.


Do you know which 'giant' is mentoring your child?


Scientific Inquiry 

We've just embarked on a new science unit having to do with life cycles of organisms. This unit includes work towards mastery of Colorado third grade life science standards. The essential questions we will attempt to answer are: 

Why do different stages take longer in different organisms? 

Why are the stages different?

How is it possible for organisms not to change? Why do organisms change?

Why do organisms have different life cycles?

How are the development/life cycles of organisms different?

How does environment affect development of organisms?

How do needs of organisms change throughout its development?

How can we predict the life cycle of an organism?

Students are working through several simulations via explorelearning.com and doing individual research.  

We are planning to have a guest speaker coming at the end of the month to discuss the unique life cycles of various insects in addition to our field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on the 25th of this month.


Historical Inquiry

In May, we will begin a study of architecture during the Medieval period.  Students will be focusing primarily on the architecture of churches during this period.  If you have research resources on this topic, please let your homeroom teacher know.