Mrs. Alvarado's Class News

Friday, Sept. 30th

Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News Friday, Sept.30th Dear Parents, We had so much fun listening to all of the independent reading projects! Sounds like the class picked really good books to read this month! A new reading project sheet will come home next week! Take a look at what we are learning: Reading- We finished Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing this week. Next week we will be reading mysteries in the book Encyclopedia Brown. Each chapter in the book is a mini-mystery. Our focus lessons will be sequencing, comprehension, vocabulary, and skimming for information. Social Studies- We are knee deep in the early explorers! This week we learned about DaGama, Dias, Magellan, Columbus, and Balboa! Next week we will continue to learn about more discoveries and the men that discovered them! We will be working on a research paper in the media center on Thursday and Friday. Each student will be assigned an explorer to research. Math- We have been working on expressions this week. Next week we will be working on patterns on Monday. Then we will begin reviewing Chapter 6 for a test on Wednesday. Thursday we will begin Chapter 7. Chapter 7 teaches multiplying two digit numbers by one digit. Spelling- Sort 8 – r-influenced a in accented syllables. Writer’s Workshop- I am going to use writer’s workshop time to write about the explorers! I have so many great activities for the explorer unit I can’t fit them all in during Social Studies time! Grammar- We are beginning a unit on pronouns. Have a great fall weekend! Mrs.Alvarado

Sept. 23rd

Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News Friday, Sept.23rd We have had a fun week! The class seems to be settling in and they are learning how to be 4th graders. I am proud to see them taking ownership over their own learning! Take a look at what we worked on this week and what next week brings. Science/Social Studies- We will finish our Science unit with a test on Monday. I will be sending home a study guide Friday with corrected answers to study. I will be sure to send home Science books as well. Then we switch to Social Studies. We will be working on Chapter 3 in Social Studies next. We will be learning about the early explorers. In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue…… Math- We finished up Chapters 3 & 4 with a test Thursday. Chapter 5 is a review of basic multiplication facts. Since basic facts are a third grade skill, I will only be covering multiplication properties and how multiplication and division relate to one another. That is lesson 5.1 and 5.2. No test on Chapter 5. Then we will move on to Chapter 6. Chapter 6 works with expressions, solving for variables, and the order of operations. Spelling- Sort 7 has words with au, aw, and al in accented syllables. Reading- We will be finishing up Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I have graded some excellent comprehension papers this week! I am pleased with the progress I am seeing with sentence structure and comprehending. Next week we will be working on summarizing, comprehension, vocabulary, inferencing, and skimming for information. Writer’s Workshop- We are finishing up the unit on “Ideas”. We will be starting the trait of “organization”. We will begin with using transition words in writing. Grammar- We will be finishing up our verb unit next week. We will work on spelling verbs correctly in each tense and prefixes. Thursday and Friday they will work on review work to show me what they have learned. Have a fabulous fall weekend! Mrs.Alvarado

Friday, Sept. 15th

Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News                                                     Friday, Sept.16^th

Dear Parents,

     We have had a great learning week!  The class has really enjoyed the new science unit.  It was really fun being able to incorporate reading and writing into our science lessons!  Be sure your child is finishing up their independent reading project book so they have time for the project.  The projects are due Friday, Sept. 30^th.  Take a look at next week:

Reading- We finished up the book Frindle this week!  Next week we are going to read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.  Our focus lessons will be on comprehension, skimming for information, and vocabulary.

Grammar- We finished up the noun unit.  We started a unit on verbs.  We will be learning about action, linking and helping verbs.

Math- We worked on graphing this week.  We made double bar graphs, worked on coordinate grid pairs, made grid art and learned about scale and intervals. Next week we will be making line graphs and picto graphs.  We will finish up Chapters 3 and 4 with a test on Thursday.

Writer’s Workshop- We have been working on “Ideas”.  We also wrote a story for a science connection.  The story was the day in the life of a water drop in the water cycle. Next week we will be writing a rain poem. We will also continue with our practice of sentence elaboration and staying on topic when you write.

Science- The class is really having fun with the weather unit.  We will be learning about weather instruments next week.  We will be making a wind sock and researching weather in a non-fiction book.  We will be starting our chapter review next week.  I will send home the study guide early next week so you can prepare for the test.  The test will be on Monday Set. 26^th. I’ll make sure science books come home the weekend before.

Have a fabulous fall weekend!   Mrs.Alvarado

Friday, Sept. 9th

Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News Friday, Sept. 9th Dear Parents, We have had a great learning week! We had a great class discussion about studying for tests. I feel like the class is taking more ownership over their own learning! This is a very impressive group of kids!!! Not only are they smart but they are also very kind to one another! A great combination! Take a look at next week: Reading- We finished The Secret Moose this week. We also started the book Frindle. Next week our focus lessons will be on comprehension, character traits, and summarizing. Grammar- We are going to have a grammar quiz over nouns on Monday. We have been reviewing in class. We will be starting a unit on verbs on Tuesday. Science- We are starting a unit on the water cycle and weather. Today we read a big book to introduce the topic and we worked on vocabulary cards. The class has a set of vocabulary cards now that they can use to study. Next week we are going to be making a water cycle in a bag! We will have Science in our writing class. The class will be hearing the story of Drip Drop. Then they will be sequencing the story. We will also be writing the story of a day in the life of a drop of water in the water cycle. It will be a fun week for science! Math- We started Chapter 3 on graphing this week. We will continue with Chapter 3 and 4 next week. Both chapters deal with graphing. Chapter 3 is learning how to make a graph. Chapter 4 looks at many different types of graphs. I will be testing both chapters together. No test next week. Writer’s Workshop- We are still working on the writing trait “Ideas”. Our lessons will be about sentence elaboration. We will also be working on a combination science/ writing lesson. Spelling- Sort 5- vowel pairs ai, ee, ea. Have a great weekend! Mrs.Alvarado

Friday, Sept. 2nd

Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News                                                     Friday, Sept. 2^nd

Dear Parents,

     In student papers today is an Independent Reading Project sheet.  Be sure to read over the project sheet this weekend.  The project sheet is due Friday Sept. 9^th.  The projects are due Friday Sept. 30^th.  

      On Thursday I sent home timed test packets.  These are due Tuesday.  Don’t forget we have a Labor Day holiday on Monday.

     Take a look at what we are working on:

Reading- We read the book Secret Moose this week.  We will be starting the book Frindle next week.  The author’s name is Andrew Clements.  He has written many books and the main character is usually a boy or girl around 10 years old.  If you are looking for a good book for your child he is an excellent author to try!  Next week our focus lessons will be on comprehension, vocabulary, character traits, and comparing and contrasting.

Grammar- We are working on a noun unit.  We will work on singular possessive nouns, plural possessive nouns and compound words.  We will also start reviewing for a grammar test on nouns.

Writer’s Workshop- We are still working the writing trait “Ideas”.  We will be working on plot development in stories.

Math- We will be finishing up Chapter 2 in math with a test on Thursday.  Chapter 3 introduces graphing.  We will learn how to gather and organize data in order to make many different types of graphs.

Social Studies- We have been learning about the first Native American tribes in North America. Next week we will finish up Chapter 2 with a test on Thursday. We switch to Science after Thursday’s test.  Our first unit in science is on weather and the water cycle.  Perfect timing with all of the hurricanes out in the Atlantic!  Watch the weather with you child and discuss!  We have been talking about hurricanes in class! 

Have a great long weekend!   Mrs.Alvarado