Guest Blogger: Luis My week as VIP!

It was so fun being V.I.P.! I loved sitting in the director’s chair
and showing my favorite book. Andy was very happy because
he played with Lucky, my sister’s toy dog, and saw my house.
Andy had lots of adventures! So did I! Everyone found out
that my favorite animal was a Tasmanian devil and I got to eat
lunch with my mom! It was my best week ever!

Our next VIP is...

Michael!!! Michael was very excited when he was chosen as our next VIP!! He has a busy week ahead of him!!

This week's learning goals

Reading:

Author's Position

You will be reading sets of non-fiction text to determine the author's position on the topic.  Is the author "for" or "against"?  How does the author feel about a topic?  How do you know?  What evidence does the text give you that supports your answer?

Here is some practice:

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skill_builders/authors_purpose_language_arts_fourth_4th_grade.htm


Math:

Fractions! Decimals! Percents! OH MY!

What's a fraction?  How is it related to decimals and percents?  How do we know which fraction is larger? What order do they go in?  What is an improper fraction? A mixed number? How do I convert them? WHOA! Lots to do and so little time! Don't worry...here is some practice and just pay close attention in class! You got this!

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skill_builders/fractions_math_fourth_4th_grade.htm

Our next VIP is....

VICTOR!!!  Victor was very excited when he was chosen as our next VIP.  I wonder what fun things Victor and Andy will be getting into.

Check back soon to see how Victor's VIP week goes!

Luis's Week as VIP and his Adventures with Andy!

Luis had a great time sharing with the class what he enjoys to do.

On the first day, Luis shared his "About Me" page.  We learned that Luis's favorite movie is "A Nightmare Before Christmas".  

Next, Luis shared his "Me Sack".  He brought in a DS game and used that to share his love of technology.

Luis was most excited to share his favorite book, "Bad Kitty".  He even got a chance to read it to the class.  

Luis and Andy had some fun adventures.  They went to eat and went to the movies.  Unfortunately, Andy and Luis lost their camera!  Oh no!

When we return from break, Luis is excited because his parents are coming to join him for lunch.  

Thanks for sharing your week with us! It was so much fun learning all about you! 

Galileo...Galileo...Magnificooooo!

It's Galileo testing week!  Reading and Writing and Math...OH MY!  I know my students are going to do their absolute best by applying all of our learning and test taking strategies to these tests!

How do you feel about testing?  What are some other ways you can "Show what you know"?

Yay for Luis! He is our next VIP!!!

Luis was super excited when he was chosen as our next VIP!! Can't wait to see how he and Andy have some fun!

Daniela's Week as VIP!

Wow! Daniela had a great week as VIP!  She loves to share her likes and dislikes with the class.  It sounds like she and Andy had a great time with her cousin who was visiting from Mexico.  She enjoyed sharing her favorite book and her ME sack.  We learned that her family is VERY important to her.  She loves spending time with her parents and siblings!  Stay tuned to read about how much Daniela enjoyed her week!

This week's learning goals!

In Math, not only are we analyzing strategies to check for efficiency, but we are also looking at strategies to see where there are mistakes.  This helps us learn how to analyze our own work.

We are also reviewing because next week is...GALILEO!

Get some practice here:

Multiplication and Division

Problem Solving and Word Problems

Number Patterns

Factors





In Reading, we are learning how to use various reference sources!  Atlases, almanacs, dictionaries, thesauri, and the ever so popular, internet!

Here are some GREAT sites to help us practice!

Dictionary Practice


Atlas Fun!

Using a thesaurus!

We're Bloggers! Can you dig it?

Here we are! We are officially bloggers!  Every student in The Hive has their own blog.  

 I will link a blog or to a week on  here so you can also see what these busy bees are blogging about! 

I'm excited for them to have another outlet for their writing and creativity.  

Stay tuned!

Math. Friend or foe?

Hello ladies and gents!  Miss Maya here to ask you the age old question....MATH.  Is it your friend? Is it your foe?  Why do you like it?  Why are you not a fan of it?  What is your biggest success? What do you need to work on?  Answer in a comment below and be sure to add your first name only!

My Week as VIP! By: Nicholas

This week was fun, but now it is done. I experienced lots of fun throughout the week. My weekend with Andy was awesome! Andy and I went to breakfast at the Big Apple. The food there was tasty. 

Andy also got the chance to meet some of my friends at a birthday party. 

Then we went to a softball tournament and won the trophy. At school the following week I felt important being the VIP. I had fun telling the class about me. It was cool showing everyone what I care about in the me sack. I liked showing my favorite book, 150 Amazing Animals. But what made me feel the most special and I liked the most was eating lunch and hanging out with my dad. This week was totally awesome! 

Learning Goals for this week

In reading we will be working hard on building our comprehension by using a variety of reading strategies like drawing conclusions, determining cause and effect, making inferences, and sequencing events.  

When we draw conclusions, we are able to use the information in the text and information from our own life 
experiences. 

Determining cause and effect allows us to see how and why things happen in a text. We can ask "What happened?" and "Why did that happen?" to determine the cause and effect of a specific event.

To better help us understand a text, we can also make sure events are put in order, or sequenced.  Many times, we use ordinal words such as, first, next, then, last, etc.  

Below are some sites that will help you practice these reading comprehension reading strategies. 

Making Inferences Practice

Cause and Effect Practice

Sequencing Practice

Reading Comprehension Strategies Practice/Drawing Conclusions


In Math, we will be creating and solving one step equations that can be solved using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers.  

Equations can be used to help us understand CGI (word problems) and allow us to solve them more efficiently.    We use variables (letters or symbols) to represent what is unknown n the problem.  

Equations Practice

Advanced Equations Practice

The secret is out!! Our very first Mystery Reader!

How exciting! José was very excited when he saw his mom and little brother walk in to be our very first Mystery Reader! She read "Mi Propio Cuartito" (My Very Own Room) in Spanish. Even our friends who didn't speak Spanish enjoyed the story. If you would like to be a Mystery Reader in The Hive, please email or call Miss Maya...but keep it a secret!

Thank you y Muchisimas Gracias to Sra. Mitchel for joining us today!!

Whew...what a week for our VIP!

Nicholas had a great time (check out his post for all that he did).  

Nicholas did a great job on his About Me Page and sharing it with the class.

We loved hearing about all the things he put in his "ME sack" and what they mean to him.

On Wednesday, Nicholas shared his favorite book with us.  You can tell he really likes to learn about the sea.

Thursday, Nicholas shared his Adventures with Andy (and Vader!)

Friday, Nicholas was super excited to have his dad join him for lunch!  Dad was nice enough to bring him some lunch! I'm sure he felt super special!

It was great getting to know you Nicholas! Hope you had a great time! 

This Week's BUZZZZ...our learning goals are...

A brand new week brings brand new goals.  The kids and I had a great time learning about figurative language last week.  We will continue reviewing our past learning goals by applying the use of figurative language in our writing and identifying them in our reading.


This week in Reading:

We will be reading various texts like fables, folktales, fairytales, and legends to identify the moral of a literary selection. 

Vocabulary

• moral-the lesson of a story
• example: Slow and steady wins the race.  The lesson learned from this moral, found in The Tortoise and the Hare, is that just because you are fast, doesn't always mean you will win.  Take your time.

 We will also be looking at mythology to determine the meanings of words and phrases as they are used to refer to characters in those texts.

• examples:  When someone says, "He has Herculean strength!" refers to the mythological character of Hercules.  Hercules was known for his strength.  

In order to understand what these mean, we will be looking at different myths and their characters and how we often use the character's traits to describe things in our every day lives. 

Here is a site that can help you practice this week's learning goals at home:

Reading Practice!

This week in Math:

Whose property is it anyway?  

In order to solve multiplication and division problems, we need to understand some mathematical properties.  This week we will be defining and understanding the Associative and Distributive properties.  Last week, we used several different strategies to solve multiplication.  This week, we will break down those strategies and really understand how and why they work.  We will begin by creating conjectures (rules) to prove and disprove each property.

Examples:

• Associative Property of Addition and Multiplication
• No matter which numbers you associate (group) together in an addition or multiplication problem, you will achieve the same sum or product.
• (6 + 3) + 2 = 6 + (3+2)---if you notice that in the first half of the equation, the 6 and the 3 are associated and in the second half of the equation, the 3 and the 2 are associated  you till get the sum of 11 when you add each side of the equation
• This also works for multiplication: (5 x 2) x 5 = 5 x (2 x 5) 
• you still get the same product of 50 when you multiply each side of the equation

• Distributive Property of Multiplication
• When using the distributive property, you can decompose (take apart) numbers by place value and then "distribute" those numbers to the rest of the problem
• Example: You can have a problem like 23 x 19
• Decompose the 19 into a 10 and a 9 and then you multiply the 10 and the 9 by 23
• 23 x 19 = (23 x 10) + (23 x 9) 

Math Practice

More!

In Writing, we will continue to focus on sentence fluency by using all of the different types of sentences (delcarative, exclamatory, interrogative, and imperative) in our writing.  We will also be learning about simple, complex, and compound sentences.  This will help our writing become more appealing to our audiences.  

Stay tuned:  kids are working on Simile stories! 

Social Studies will continue to be incorporated on a daily basis into our Literacy block.  By reading more non-fiction text, we continue to prepare ourselves for middle school, high school, and college.  

Science:  We get to start learning about Magnetism and Electricity this week!  We will begin with an investigation into magnetism!  I'm sure you will hear all about it! Keep checking in to see the Scientists in room 31 investigating!!

                         

My week as VIP and my Adventure with Andy! By: Kylie! (Guest Blogger!)

-->

I am Kylie and I was our first V.I.P of the year! Iwent to the mall with Andy.  Wechose an awesome skirt together. It is long and is brownish with white polka dots.  I felt great when I put it on for thefirst time. We did the same every day only we were also shopping for differentkinds of non-gender specific baby clothes for my friend’s baby.  We had lots of fun!  I felt like Andy was really alive thewhole time.

Introducing our next VIP!!

Meet Nicholas!!!  Nicholas was very excited this morning when he was chosen as our next VIP!  When asked what he was most excited about for next week, he said, “EVERYTHING!”  Stay tuned for all of the adventures that Nicholas is going to take Andy on!  He will be our guest author on our blog next week!

Wishing Andy and Nicholas a very fun weekend together…hmmm I hope Nicholas’ dog Vader, gets along well with Andy!  Vader is a Great Dane and we all know Great Danes are HUGE dogs! 

Take some TIME and get to know the busy bees of The Hive!

This afternoon, we were finally able to create our glyphs for the month of September!  I searched far and wide for a fun, new glyph and my search ended on MathWire.com!  I found a "Watch Glyph"

Ok, so maybe you are wondering what a glyph is?  Well, a glyph is a pictorial representation of information that the students are asked for.  We can use glyphs to collect data, form collaborative groups, learn about one another, and just have fun!

Here is the key to this month's glyph:

Do you have some TIME to tell meabout yourself?

Strap edges = age

straight = 8

wavy = 9

jagged = 10

toothed = over 10

Strap color = hair color

Holes in strap = number in family

Face shape = favorite subject

round = Math

triangular = Social Studies

trapezoidal = Science

rectangular = Literacy

Face color = house pets

green = fish

purple = birds

red = dogs

blue = cats

orange = hamsters

yellow = no pets

white = other pets

Hands = birthdate

hour hand = month

minute hand = day

(for example, June 4th would be 6:04)

Hand colors = eye color

Numerals gender

Arabic (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...) = male

Roman (I, II, III, IV, V, ...) =female

Take a look at what it looks like when we are creating our glyphs...and the finished products will be posted soon!  Thanks for stopping by! 

What are we Buzzzzzzin’ about this week? Our learning goals are…

In Math, we will be working on the following standards:

1.  Use multiple strategies to multiply whole numbers

2.  Multiply a whole number of up to 4 digits by a 1 digit whole number, and multiply two 2-digit numbers, using strategies based on place value and the properties operations. Illustrate and explain the calculation by using equations, rectangular arrays, and/or area models.

So…we will be focusing a lot on how to multiply numbers using our most efficient strategies.  The kiddos will be introduced to our rubric that we use to evaluate just how efficient our strategies are.  Keep in mind when you are solving multiplication problems that there is more than one way to solve!  This week we will be reviewing various strategies and using our number sense to decompose numbers by using our prior knowledge (factors and multiples) to help us.  You can use array cards, equations, and even draw pictures to help you explain your thinking and make your understanding even deeper.

Remember, it is very important that we know our multiplication facts!  Make sure they are being practiced nightly for at least 10-15 minutes.  If you need flash cards, they can be found in the dollar bins at Target or even at Dollar Tree.  If you are unable to locate any, just let me know and I can print some out for you!

Here are some links to help you practice at home (You can also just write some multiplication problems and refer to your rubric to help you evaluate your strategy!)  I will post the rubric on our school website for you to use at home.

Multiplication Practice

More practice and FUN!

In Reading we will be focusing on the following learning goal:

Identify figurative language, including similies, personification, and

Idioms

Figurative language is a great way to make your writing more entertaining for your reader! It also helps make any story you are reading more interesting.

Figurative language paints a picture in your reader’s mind. 

Vocabulary:

Similie:  comparing 2 things using like or as

         Example:  He ran around the track as fast as a cheetah.

                  Her eyes were bright like the sun.

Personification:  giving human like characteristics to non-human objects

Example:  The pen danced across the paper as she wrote her poem.

Idiom:  a figure of speech used to give the reader an idea without using literal meaning

         Example:  It was raining cats and dogs. 

Here is some practice!

Figurative Language Practice

More!!!

Have fun and let's have another great week!

The V.I.P. is....

Introducing our very first VIP! Kylie!!  Kylie will be taking Andy home to begin their adventure! Stay tuned to hear all about Kylie and her experience next week when she will be our guest author on our blog!  She will be describing her experience as VIP.  I hope Andy doesn’t cause too much trouble for Kylie!  We can’t wait to learn all about her! 

What are we doing today?

Cooperative learning stations allow students to work in small groups and support one another in their learning. Some groups have teacher support, while others are student led. 

Today we are reviewing fact and opinion by working on a sort. By using the sentence frame, "I know that this statement is a ________ because ____________."

Our other stations are independent writing,  

working on grammar usage...

and independent reading.

It is so much more fun when we work together!

How exciting! Our first V.I.P. is...

you will have to stay tuned to find out! Our first student V.I.P. will be chosen tomorrow and they get to take the VIP bag home and start their adventure!  Who's it going to be??? Until then...here we are enjoying breakfast in the classroom and having our discussion of the day. Each morning, I post a discussion topic on the board. While enjoying breakfast, students are encouraged to share their thoughts with their group members. After we finish breakfast, the students summarize their discussion in their writing journal. Take a moment to ask your child about what they discussed!

The latest BUZZ from The Hive! This week's learning goals!

In Reading we will be reading various texts and evaluating the text to compare and contrast characters, events and settings in literary selections.  When you are reading at home think about the characters and question yourself on how they are similar and in what ways are they different.  You can even compare characters from other similar texts to one another.  This also goes for the events and settings in different texts.  Create a graphic organizer that will help you organize what you are comparing and contrasting.  By doing this, you will be able to understand the text and comprehend much better.  Make those connections!

Here is some practice passages you can read online! 

Compare/Contrast Online Practice!

Non-Fiction Compare/Contrast Online Practice!

Even more practice!

Key Reading Vocabulary for the week:

Compare:  finding what is similar (alike) between two or more objects or ideas

Contrast:  finding what is different between two or more objects or ideas

Events: the important events in the plot of the story

Characters:  the people/animals that are critical to the story

Settings:  the location or locations where the story takes place (can be more than one per story)

This week in Math, we will use our understanding of numbers to compose and decompose whole numbers using factors and multiples.  What is that? I knew you would ask that!  Think about what I ask you before we go into the classroom every morning, “What are the factors of 21?”  You need to know what numbers you can multiply together to get 21 right?  Well those are the FACTORS!  By understanding what makes a number, you can use that knowledge to start multiplying and dividing numbers much more efficiently.  When you “skip count” you are listing multiples of the number you are skip counting by.  So when I say skip count by 6 you would say: 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42…and so on.  We will also be learning how to find the Greatest Common Factor (GCF) and the Least Common Multiple (LCM) of two numbers! Oh the fun we are going to have!  Practice at home!

Here is a fun game to play online that will help you practice and review factors and multiples! 

Factors and Multiples Online Practice!

Here's some more! Click here for a LOT of fun activiities!

Key Math Vocabulary for the week:

Compose: put together (in this week’s learning goal it refers to what numbers are made of)

Decompose: take apart (in what ways can you break apart numbers)

Whole numbers: values that are whole and not in fractions or decimals

Factors: the numbers you multiply together to get a product

Product: the result of 2 numbers multiplied together (the answer to a multiplication problem

Multiples: the product is the multiple of both factors multiplied together (what you say when you skip count by that given number)

Greatest Common Factor: when finding the factors of two numbers you find the factor that is COMMON (the same) and the GREATEST( the highest value) and there you have the GCF

Least Common Multiple: when you are listing the multiples of two numbers, you find the LEAST (lowest value) multiple that is COMMON (the same) in both lists.

In Writing, we will continue to work on how to develop a comprehensive and detailed plan. We will all be using a 5 paragraph plan format and focus on our transitions to help build SENTENCE FLUENCY.  Remember: the more time you spend on your plan, the less time you have to spend figuring out how to write your rough draft.  Revisit your plan and add or delete ideas as you go.  Your plan is a work in progress and it is there to help you stay on topic and focus on the main idea of your writing piece.  You will continue to work on your "free choice" writing that you started last week and again you should be referring back to your plan as you write.  

In Social Studies, we will continue to be looking at our new materials and as we read the Non-Fiction textbooks, you will use our Fact/Question/Response graphic organizers as you read.  Remember:  reading Non-Fiction text is going to prepare you for all those textbooks and articles you will be reading in high school and in COLLEGE!  That will get you ready to get those jobs you wrote and illustrated in your Success Trackers!  You need to be PREPARED!  What better way than by learning about our great state of Arizona and understanding the history through texts and articles!  

Let's have another great week in The Hive!!!  We have a lot to BUZZ about!