Writing good essays and stories takes lots of focused effort and the willingness to spend time and energy in order to produce a piece of work worth the reader's attention.

This week we are developing proofreading skills using an essay that contrasts fantasy fiction with realistic fiction. Fourth graders must learn to read every word--this is not the place for scanning and skimming!

A typical problem such as, "The storys we read fantasy fiction because they all had at least one talking animal for a character," is easily fixed with a closer read. Did you find the error? That's right--it should be 'stories' not 'storys.'

The fourth graders also had some fun learning about figurative expressions, particularly the expressions known as idioms.

"You might find yourself sitting on top of the world after the next Math test. Just make sure you're not down in the dumps when the test is completed because you didn't do all of the assignments or let your mind go off track during an important lesson.

Here's to a great holiday weekend! Follow this link to watch a slide show about the history of Thanksgiving: http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving

It's easy to feel grateful when you live in Port Angeles. Even the rain, and we get lots of it, has its benefits.

Report on a Current Event

With the internet, as well as television, radio, and newspapers, the availability of news items for current events reports far exceeds what was available only a few years ago. The report only needs to be about a paragraph long, summarizing the topic and point made by a news item. Try to find out where the event happened (setting) and then write a few sentences telling about the item.

Cards are available in the classroom for writing the current event report.Of course you can use notebook paper or write it in the Readers' Notebook as well.  There are lots of different kinds of news items as you may already know. Try to find the non-sensational and the non-horrifying kind. Lots of good and worthy things happen in the world, too.

STRONG BEGINNINGS

This week we started working on strong beginnings for our stories and essays. Sometimes it works to begin with a quotation:

In the Attic
by Mei Ann Lee

  "Achoo!" Sarah sneezed in the dusty air. "Looks like no one's been in this attic for years." There was dust everywhere. Camping gear, old toys, furniture, and trash were stacked along the walls. "This is so cool!" she said to her friend Matt.

  The idea is to get the reader's attention and make them want to read the rest of the story or essay. However, use the quotations sparingly. Too much dialogue gets in the way of the plot and cause the reader to become confused and give up. Try to make the reader curious while establishing the setting and characters.

  A strong beginning for an essay can start with a question:

                                                               Clouds
                                                                by Mr. Burnett

  With as much rain as we've had this October, one wonders, will the skies ever clear again? Yet, there is something wonderful about the clouds in the sky during this rainy time of the year. Looking at the clouds is a bit like looking at an oil painting that changes from one day to the next. Let's consider some of the reasons for nature's art work.

  Like in a story, you want to grab the reader's attention in the first sentence or two, and make them want to read what you've written. A question at the beginning of an essay just might make the reader curious enough to read on.

Problem-solving Steps

Were you good at solving word problems? Probably not. Most of us struggled with 'story problems' in school, and many have difficulty with them as adults trying to help fourth graders. Fortunately, difficulty solving word problems in Math is not a permanent condition.

Here are the steps that will help make the process of doing word problems easier:


1.What is the problem?
2. What do you know?
3. What is your plan or strategy?
4. Write the solution (answer) in a complete sentence.

Let's apply those steps to the following word problem.

A penguin can swim 11 miles per hour. At this speed, how far can it swim in 3 hours?

1. What is the problem? How far can it swim in 3 hours?

2. What do I know? The penguin can swim 11 miles per hour, or 11 miles in 1 hour.

3. What is my plan? I will make a table and look for a rule.   Hours      MPH
                                                                                                   1              11
                                                                                                   2              22
                                                                                                   3              33
Rule: add 11

4. The penguin will swim 33 miles in 3 hours.

Most people, at least at one time or another, are capable of getting excited about their favorite dessert. Therefore it makes a good topic for learning to write an essay. Try to decide if the writer below was excited about his favorite dessert. Do you hear the voice of a robot or does it, in fact, make you hungry as you read it?

My Favorite Dessert

  My favorite dessert is blackberry pie with vanilla ice cream. The cold ice cream slides down my throat while the berries crunch beneath my teeth. If the crust is just right you can taste a hint of cinnamon at the tail end. The joy lasts a long time.

 The first time I tasted blackberry pie with vanilla ice cream was at my grandmother’s house a very long time ago. It must have been my birthday or some other special occasion. Otherwise, there probably would not have been any form of dessert after dinner. Dessert is uncommon in my family.

 

  Besides the cold of the ice cream, the crunch of the berries, and the final hint of cinnamon, the appearance of this fine dessert is a thing to behold. It looks a bit like Mount Rainier if the light and the mood are just right. With the vanilla ice cream on top of jagged pie crust and blackberries, you can imagine the majestic mountain right before devouring it.

 

  Much more could be said in praise of blackberry pie with vanilla ice cream, but the experience of eating it should not be delayed any longer. Don’t spend too much time deciding which brand of ice cream to use. Instead get down to the business and joy of actually eating this fine dessert.

 

 

 

Come to Open House tomorrow night in Room 17 at Franklin Elementary School. We'll talk about the new school year, parent/teacher conferences, upcoming projects, and study habits. You can also meet me, if you haven't already, and ask me nearly any question--there are only a few I won't answer!

Meanwhile, encourage your student to read for fifteen minutes each night as part of their homework, and try to capture a news item or current event, either from the newspaper, radio, television or internet. It doesn't have to be a clipping, but it can instead be a short summary of an event heard on the news from television, radio, internet news sites, and news magazines. Cards are available in the classroom for taking notes and writing summaries. Your student knows about these things! See you tomorrow night.

 

Room 17 Report

Mr. Burnett's Class       Franklin School                     

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

August 28, 2012,

 

Dear Fourth Grade Student and Parents/Guardian:

 

     I want to welcome you to the fourth grade and let you know that I am looking forward to having you in my class this year.  You will have an enjoyable and productive year in our room!

 

     You will need to have a book for silent reading at 8:10 each day. You may bring a book from home or find one in our classroom collection.

 

     Since we believe that education is serious business, please do not bring any toys to school because they interfere with learning.  Here are other rules you will be expected to follow:

 

     1. Follow directions the first time they are given.

     2. Stay in your seat unless given permission to leave

         it.

     3. Raise your hand and wait to be called on before

         speaking.

     4. Turn in all assignments on time.

 

HOMEWORK:  Students are responsible for handing their homework in on time. Homework is due the following day and needs to be placed in the correct assignment box before the second bell when school starts. Homework generally consists of unfinished daily assignments, and I ask the students to read for at least fifteen minutes each evening. Occasionally, there will be homework projects that require more than one day to complete, and for these assignments I will give the students a due date.

 

WHEN ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE:  Assignments are usually due the morning after they are assigned. If the assignment is not handed in, the student receives a 0 in the grade book for that assignment, so it is very important that all assignments are completed and turned in on time. Nothing lowers a report card grade faster than missing assignments. If a student is absent, he/ she will have at least two days to make up the assignments after checking with me to see which assignments to make up.

 

GRADING:  No student will receive failing marks on their report card if their assignments are turned in on time and they are trying to do the assignments to the best of their ability. I will present more details on the new report card as they become available to me.

    

                You will earn good grades as long as you listen well in class, follow directions the first time, and complete and turn in assignments on time.

 

HANDING ASSIGNMENTS BACK:  Assignments and papers are returned to the student’s “mail box.” Students are responsible for getting their “mail” and taking it home to show their parents/ guardians. I encourage you to keep assignments rather than throw them away, at least through the end of the trimester. The projects, like the “Family History Report,” you will probably want to keep forever. 

 

I hope some of your questions and concerns about this year have been answered in this letter. You can also check our Franklin website by accessing the Port Angeles School District website. Good communication will help each student succeed in fourth grade. Please contact me with any other questions and concerns.

 

 

Sincerely,

Mr. Burnett (565-1853)                                   

How many fourth graders fit in the back of a Honda Element? Students pondered that question for awhile until they made predictions ranging from five to seventeen. In Math we call that estimation, and with a range that wide, only one thing remained to do. That's right, pop that hatch and climb in one after another until the car fills up. Now, just to be clear, no actual ride was taken since seat belts were lacking, and a ticket or an unsafe trip with nine and ten year olds was not part of the lesson plan. At least not in their teacher's plan. Some did, in fact, think a trip to McDonalds or Hollywood Beach was in order. We stayed in the Franklin parking lot, however.

We managed to cram ten fourth graders in the back of the Honda when all was said and done. Probably a few more would have fit, but this is fourth grade and not the college days of yesteryear when some scholars thought it a good idea to see how many freshman would fit in a phone booth or Volkswagon Beetle. These students will have to wait awhile for that experience.

A perfect day for a field trip! Our class walked to and from the Vern Burton Center in Port Angeles last Friday to attend the children's show at the Juan de Fuca Festival. Despite our preparations for inclement weather, the sun insisted on shining for the duration of our mile long walk. After the show we took time for a picnic lunch on the manicured grounds outside the city council chambers. Passing motorists on both legs of the journey gave us wide birth to cross streets safely. On another note, Room 17 will keep its goldfish who have inhabited our classroom for at least five or six years!

The Crayfish and Snails have arrived! Living organisms in the classroom--and not simply goldfish--welcome the sunny weather in Room 17. The kids are learning about body structures, care and feeding, and the behaviors of crayfish and snails in Science. As they learned from sprouting seeds, animals, too, need food and water to survive, and the means of locomotion to get to it differ from one animal to the next. This kind of diversity in the animal world is one of the reasons this unit is one the students look forward to since the beginning of each year.

Using cubes to understand volume of three dimensional shapes, fourth graders construct rectangular prisms at their desks last week. On Monday we will walk to the high school to see the play "And Then They Came For Me: Remembering Anne Frank." We're looking forward to some good exercise to make us healthier as well as an interesting, informative play production.

This Thursday is Poem in Your Pocket Day. The idea is to tuck a favorite poem into your back pocket to share with classmates, family members, and school staff. Poetry lovers across the country have come up with clever ways to celebrate.

Here in Room 17 we will use Poem In Your Pocket Day to entice students into the world of verse. Most of the fourth-graders have pockets that easily accessible so if someone asks to see an original poem or a copied favorite from one of our students in the hall on the way to recess or lunch, sharing a poem becomes a simple matter of reaching and reading.

Are fourth-graders the only people allowed to carry poems tomorrow? Not hardly. Here's the poem I'll be carrying around with me tomorrow:

The Rainy Day
Longfellow
 
The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

That's rigtht, it's a cypress tree in the Van Gogh painting in the front of the room over the calendar. The bonus question was answered corretly this morning.This afternoon we'll begin the new Science unit, Life Structures, by making a classroom planter where we'll sprout seeds and learn about plant biology.We're also finishing up our latest art project, 'Landscapes in the Style of Van Gogh."

Fractions, central tendency(averages, medians, modes, ranges, etc.), double digit multiplication, long division, and decimals are parts of the broad Math curriculum in fourth grade this year.

Let's put some prepositional phrases in this week's story about someone who is good at a sport. In fact, try starting a sentence with a phrase, eg. "Under the glare of the cranky referee, Ruth waited anxiously for the inbounds pass from Rebecca who was standing as still as a statue." A simile or two in this piece of writing will add some good detail, too.

Friday

Name the word that refers to 'floating debris:' Flotsam
After a hint, the bonus question was correctly answered and were off to another round of current events, art projects, and a new Science unit: Life Forms. Spring is a good time for learning about seeds and that's where we'll start next week with a class planter and an assortment of seeds to sprout over the next several weeks.
Long division, fractions, decimals, probability, mean, mode, range, and median(central tendency) are parts of the broad Math curriculum we're working on now in the fourth grade. However, that does not mean it's time to slack off on practicing math facts. Let's keep sharpening those skills that will apply to so much in the future.

Thursday

Words of the Week: Spring Break
One is reminded of the Beach Boy's instrumental, "Let's Go Away For Awhile." Well, that's all fine and good as long as we come back! Read, rest and return safely!

Friday

With the ranks swelling each week, Jack's (Mr. Foote's) Room 17 Math Club continues to hammer away at multiplication facts, long division, and fractions every Wednesday after school. No one ever promised us Math would be easy or come naturally, but it's nice when good extra help is available and so well-received. Thank you, Jack!

Do you know the difference between affect and effect? See if this sentence from our Reading selection this week helps: The actions of people directly affect the environment in many ways. If that isn't enough help, then look it up in the dictionary!

Our Business Letter project is winding up, and now all we can do is wait by the mailbox, anticipating the arrival of information (and other things) from the American Quarterhorse Association. The suspense is nearly unbearable!

Friday

Fourth graders often like Science because they get to manipulate objects and make things, like a gear mechanism shown at left. We just began a unit on electricity, and the students are learning about receivers, transmitters, and sources while building simple circuits to light bulbs and motors.

Soon the time comes to notice the tell-tale signs of Spring. Already the days are getting longer although it's still pretty cold outside! Snowfall during the last few nights reminds that Winter continues for a few more weeks, and March is typically a wet, windy, and cold month. But, try 'listening' for a tell-tale sign of approaching Spring--those noticed through sight are just too easy for fourth graders. We'll make that a challenging bonus question for the next few weeks

Friday

What a great job the fourth graders did on the paintings this week. 'Still Life in the Style of Roualt' turned out especially well, and you can see our 'gallery' in the hall at Franklin School, just outside of Room 17. Georges Roualt was a French Expressionist painter, briefly associated with the Fauvist movement during the last century. He's known for his bold brush strokes and thick black outlines.

Family History report presentations are nearly finished, and graded projects are on the way home with students.

Friday

Oral presentations continue in Room 17 as the fourth-graders share anecdotes about relatives from their Family History Report project. Everybody has a story (or two), and we appreciate hearing and reading them. The family recipes are pretty good, too!

Long division: divide, multiply, subtract, bring down (rinse and repeat)!

Thanks for the Valentine's Day card!

Friday

The correct name is 'Rosie the Riveter' from the famous WWII poster. Chanelle brought in the answer this morning. Good researching!

We are studying magnetism in Science, and the kids are learning about the forces of attraction, repulsion, and induced magnetism. The study of electricity is coming soon to Room 17! Have a good weekend!

What is unusual about Robyn Smith? That question comes up on one of the mid-year assessments here in Room 17. There might be a clue in the picture at left.

Bonus question: What is the name of the young woman raising her fist in the 'We Can Do It' poster from World War II?

Friday

Family History Reports are in, and they look good! Students will give oral presentations starting next week, and we're looking forward to ancecdotes and family picrtures. Nice work!

Here is an example of a mixed number: 1 2/3 (read as one and two thirds.) Now try converting that to an improper fraction.

Thursday

Bibliography

1. Forler, Mary, August 10th, 1989

2. Burnett, Wayne, May 17th, 1990

3. forler, Jim, May 23rd, 1990

A bibliography is a list of all the sources used in writin a research report. It is found at the end of that report. Usually, it is a list of articles and books used as information sources. For our Family Report, the sources are the people we interviewed, as shown in the example above.

Pajama Day followed by Movie Night! What a good way to end the week for our students. See "Sidewalk Wars" by local movie maker, Leo Bidne tonight before the showing of "Dolphin Tale."

Tuesday

Family History Reports are due next week on Tuesday, January 31st. Students should be finishing up their rough drafts and thinking about designing a cover for their reports.

Bonus question: Name the vocabulary word that describes the answer to a division problem.

Let's be safe out there. The sun might be shining, but plenty of ice still clogs the streets and walkways.

Wednesday

Fractions and Division....lots of practice helps! Next time you have a pizza, try talking about the pieces as fractions of the whole pizza. Eggs might not be as popular as pizza, but the cartons work great for talking about fractions, too.

The kids should finish up their interviews, rough drafts (three or more pages from the interviews), and have a good start on the family tree. Then they'll be in good shape to finish up the project by the end of the month for the due date.

Thursday

Our 'Math Club With Jack' continues on Wednesdays this new year as an after school program for extra help with Math Facts and the ever-challenging effort to learn fractions. Jack Foote is a retired teacher from Port Angeles who taught Science and Chemistry at Port Angeles High School for many years.

Work continues on our Family History Reports this week as the kids learned how to turn interview notes into rough drafts on notebook paper. We decided that each family member interviewed (a minumum of three) deserved at least one hand-written page. They also received folders to keep all the report assignments and materials as that volume grows over the following weeks. Remember, the reports are due at the end of this month.

Bonus Question: 'Which is larger, 5/6 or 4/3?'