Ms. Tovey's Blog

English
This week we will begin the chapter on linking verbs. I hope to cover pages 224 - 227 in the English book.

Writing
Last week the children completed their first descriptive writing assignment: What Happened to the Shrouds? The stories were excellent. Please ask your child to see their finished copy when you get a chance.
We will continue to work on descriptive writing this week. The assignment will be more personal this time. Each child will have to think of their most successful moment; either at a sporting event, school event, scouting event, etc. They will then have to describe that event in one paragraph. (8 - 10 sentences) The object again will be to use as many descriptive words as possible. The finished copies will look like the "Faces in the Crowd" section of Sports Illustrated. Be sure to ask your child to see their finished copy at the end of the week.

Science
There are two tests this week.

Tuesday - Herman test, the children should study the page titled The Body's Organs in their notebook.

Friday - The chapter test on the Human Body. This test will cover the notes on cells, tissues, organs, The Nervous system, The Digestive System, The Circulatory, System, The Respiratory System, The Skeletal System and The Muscular System.

Also, next week the children will begin making their human body t-shirts. A note was stapled into your child's assignment notebook. Be sure to read it if you have not done so already.

English
We will continue on with the chapter on linking verbs. This is a confusing topic for some children so any extra review you can give your child will be greatly appreciated. To date I have only covered pages 224 – 225 in the book. I spent a great deal of time last week with the children on differentiating between a helping verb and a linking verb. (quite confusing) This week I plan to cover pages 226 – 227 in the book: linking verbs in the past and present tense.

Writing
Friday we began a Diamante Poem. This can be found on page 177 of the English book. We will finish these poems up on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday we will work on another poem. This poem is entitled I am from. On Thursday the children will type this poem in the computer lab. Please ask your child to see the finished copy. They really do sound quite beautiful when finished.

Science
On Monday the children will be designing their human body t – shirts. On Tuesday the children will work with a partner to write a short description of the organ they have been assigned. Wednesday, the children will travel to the second and third grade classrooms and show their t – shirts and read their description of their body part.

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Break. The fourth grade will be welcoming a student teacher today. Her name is Mrs. Girdauskas and she comes to us from St. Xavier College. She will be spending five weeks in each of the fourth grade teacher's classrooms. She will begin with me.

English
We will continue this week with the chapter on linking verbs. I was unable to cover any English the week before break so I will make it up this week. To date we have covered pages 224 - 225 in the book. This week I hope to cover pages 226 - 229 in the book.
The four types of verbs that have been learned to this point will be on the next test. They are action, helping, irregular and linking verb. The most confusion occurs when the child has to decide if the verb is linking or helping. Any extra review you can give your child will be greatly appreciated.

Writing
We will continue with descriptive writing this week. The assignment for the week will have the children drawing and coloring a monster that they have imagined. They will then write one or two short paragraphs describing their monster using as a much detail as possible. The children will then switch their written assignment with a classmate and the classmate will draw the monster from the written assignment. (Sound confusing? It's really not. ) The point of the assignment is to show the kids that using great detail can create a picture in the reader's head or in some cases maybe not enough detail will be used and then the lesson will be to make the paragraph better so that the reader can get the picture in their head.

Science
Mrs. Girduaskas will spend the next few weeks with kids teaching a unit on Water. This unit will come from the Science book. Please don't hesitate to ask if you would like to see a copy of the book.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Break. The fourth grade will be welcoming a student teacher today. Her name is Mrs. Girdauskas and she comes to us from St. Xavier College. She will be spending five weeks in each of the fourth grade teacher's classrooms. She will begin with me.

English
We will continue this week with the chapter on linking verbs. I was unable to cover any English the week before break so I will make it up this week. To date we have covered pages 224 - 225 in the book. This week I hope to cover pages 226 - 229 in the book.
The four types of verbs that have been learned to this point will be on the next test. They are action, helping, irregular and linking verb. The most confusion occurs when the child has to decide if the verb is linking or helping. Any extra review you can give your child will be greatly appreciated.

Writing
We will continue with descriptive writing this week. The assignment for the week will have the children drawing and coloring a monster that they have imagined. They will then write one or two short paragraphs describing their monster using as a much detail as possible. The children will then switch their written assignment with a classmate and the classmate will draw the monster from the written assignment. (Sound confusing? It's really not. ) The point of the assignment is to show the kids that using great detail can create a picture in the reader's head or in some cases maybe not enough detail will be used and then the lesson will be to make the paragraph better so that the reader can get the picture in their head.
On Thursday, the children will go to the computer lab to fill out a short questionnaire on Martin Luther King Jr.. They will then use this information to write a short biography of his life.

Science
Mrs. Girduaskas will spend the next few weeks with kids teaching a unit on Water. This unit will come from the Science book. Please don't hesitate to ask if you would like to see a copy of the book.