Happy Thanksgiving Chrystall Miner Family (and business unit update)

Dear Families,

I wanted to take a moment to wish you all the happiest of Thanksgivings. Enjoy time with your family and be thankful for all you have been blessed with. I am thankful for all of you!

Cheers,
Mrs. Chrystall

PS- your kids have something to give you on Thanksgiving- be sure to ask them in case they forget :)

BUSINESS UNIT UPDATE
In case you hadn't heard, the 4th grade mall grand opening is right around the corner. All the kids have groups and products decided- I have told them to start talking to their parents about their products. In school, we will work on the business side of things and advertising; they need to entirely complete their products at home (they may want to set up work dates with their group mates). The kids will need some parent support with shopping and product preparation. Please keep in mind there is a $10 spending limit per student for supplies. Anything they already have at home does not count towards their ten dollar budget.Thank you for your support from home with this project- I know all of the kids are very excited to become entrepreneurs. Please view the business unit page at the top of my blog for more information.

Mark Your Calendars: Parent shopping at our mall will be on Thursday, December 18th from 11:15-11:45pm. This is right before lunch so you might want to plan to bring your child out/home for a special lunch after shopping at noon (just a thought).

Trimester 1 is officially over...

Trimester 1 has officially come to an end....  We will work on finishing up the heritage project on Monday and Tuesday.  If you are not going to be here next week, you need to work on finishing the project while you are off.  I added some new documents to the heritage page on my blog and the 4th grade blog to help you check that you have followed the requirements.  Although the trimester is over today, report cards do not go home until December 12th.  Us teachers need some time to finish grading final tests & projects, determine final grades, and write thoughtful comments.  :)

New Math?

I just came across this video last night, and I thought it was a good explanation about why math looks "different" nowadays.   The real goal in math is to help kids develop number sense and fluency.  There really is so much math in our everyday worlds and we shouldn't have to take our our iPhone to figure it out.  Although we have the technology, we have to teach our kids enough about numbers to know what to even input into their devices.  Having them memorize algorithms without understanding them, just doesn't work for most kids.  I have heard many people say, "I don't know why they have to change how they taught math; it has worked for hundreds of years."  The problem with that statement is that it hasn't worked.  Do you know how many parents of students, friends, and other adults tell me they HATE math or they just are not good at math?  TONS!  It's because the way we were taught didn't make actual sense and it wasn't engaging.  

PBIS Game Day Celebration! 

Math Class- Metric Scavenger Hunt

We love, love, love our class shirts!  Thanks so much for getting them designed and printed, Jinger :) 

Frank Llyod Wright Workshop- learning with Froebel Blocks!  We can't wait for our rescheduled field trip! 

We saw a You're a Good Man Charlie Brown today performed by OPRFHS students! 

Coming up....

Reading Fiction Test on Wednesday, November 19th
Students will take their Reading Literature final test of the trimester on Wednesday.  Use this link to see the "I Can Read Fiction" statements.  We will also be doing review in class next week. 

Field Trip Thursday, November 20th 
On Thursday, we will be walking to the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio.  Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to chaperone our trip; I randomly selected one parent to come with and contacted that person via email.  

Remember, this a walking field trip and it looks to be pretty chilly on Thursday.  Make sure your child is in comfortable shoes/boots and warm clothes, coats, hats, scarves, mittens (you know the drill)...  

Lots Happening on Friday, November 21

• End of the Trimester PBIS Celebration: Mann School's first trimester celebration will be a Game Day! It will take place Friday, November 21st. Students will have an opportunity to play games they brought from home in their classrooms. Please have your child label any games. No electronic games will be allowed.
• Spirit Day: Friday is also going to be a WHOLE school twin day.  All Mann kids and staff will be wearing jeans and a white shirt to show our school spirit.  We also ask that each child to bring in $1.  This will be donated to the Salvation Army.
• End of the Trimester: Friday will mark the end of the first trimester.  Can you believe it?  Time sure does fly when you're having fun.  Report cards will not go home until December 12th.  

Turkey Trot: Highest Participation!!! 
Students in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade participated in the Turkey Trot last week.  Although, no one in our class won the race, we found when we got to gym on Tuesday that our class had the most students participate in the Turkey Trot!   It was really exciting and the kids got to pick their gym activity for that day as a prize! 

Mystery Reader
Thanks for being a great mystery reader for us and starting to read Jermey Fink and the Meaning of Life.

Buddies: Measurement Activity
4th grade and 2nd grade are both working on measurement in math, so we did an activity practicing our measurement and conversion skills today.  Kids had to measure their buddies height in feet and inches and then convert to just inches.  They also had to use their age and birthday to convert their age to months. Next week we will be graphing the data we collected today.  

Math Meets Art, Heritage Project, Field Trip, Reading Test, iLearn

Art Appreciation: Math Meets Art
On Thursday, Ms. Gillman and Ms. Jaggi came in to lead our class in an art appreciation lesson.  I couldn't have been more pleased with the project they chose, the kids effort during the lesson, and the final products.  I love how rigorous and challenging the math involved in the art project was!  Make sure to stop by the Mann lobby to check out the art work in person.  The ladies already have an art awesome project for December that is related to our upcoming economics unit.
   

Heritage Project
We are now in full swing working on our family heritage project.  This week, the kids focused mostly on writing a six paragraph biography on the person they chose to interview.  Although many of the kids had some writers block coming up with their attention grabbers, they have made great progress in their writing.  Next week, I will share with all the kids a template I created on Pages to fit our project requirement. They can use the template to type and insert pictures into with ease.  Your child will be working on collecting photos on their iPads this weekend.  They should have all their photos gathered by next Friday 11/14.  They need photos of parents, grandparents, the interviewee, and themselves.  They can also gather additional photos of family members and photos of family artifacts that are optional to include.  

Field Trip: Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
On Thursday, November 20th the 4th grade will be a taking a walking field trip to the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio.  Permission slips went home today and are due back on Friday 11/14.  We need one chaperone.  There is a spot on the permission slip to check if you are interested in attending.  I will randomly pick one interested parent to come on the trip and I will email the chosen person on Friday 11/14 once I have all the slips.  Thanks in advance for volunteering :) 

Also, on Monday 11/17 we will have a workshop in school to get us ready for our field trip. 

Upcoming Reading Tests
Over the next two weeks, the kids will have two lengthy reading tests: one on reading fiction standards and one on reading non-fiction standards. Here are the I Can statements that will be covered on the two tests; the dates are included on the document too.  Take some time to talk to your child about these standards to prepare.  

Mystery Reader
Thanks for coming in and being such an entertaining and humorous mystery reader :)  

Box Tops
We are having a Box Top collection class contest at Mann.  Each kid brought home a sheet for this today.  The contest ends on December 12th.  

iLearn Parent Night
Parent Education Night-Nov. 20.pdf - Google Drive

PJ Day

Common Core Math- For Parents

Parent Roadmap: Supporting Your Child in Forth Grade Mathematics 
Well the title of the article pretty much sums it up.  I think this article does a nice job summarizing what the Common Core means for math.  I also really like the tables with examples showing what is learned the grade below and the grade above.

For Parents
I came across this website that does a nice job summarizing each mathematic topic studied by grade level.

Geography Bee!

The Geography Bee is going to be held on Thursday, November 13th at 7:30pm in the Mann Auditorium (immediately following the International Fun Fest once again). It is open to all 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students. If you're interested in participating, please use the study guide below to get ready for the Bee! I had a look through the study guide and there are some really cool and interesting geography facts to learn this year! Let's take home a win at the Geography Bee, Chrystall Miners!

2014 Geography Bee Study Guide