The Card File

Mrs. Cards Fourth Grade Class

Pine River Elementary
Room #18
March 3, 2015

http://cardfourthgrade.weebly.com/the-card-file.html

Genius Hour and

Informational Writing
The students are finishing their
Genius Hour research. This week, they
identified the subtopics of their
overarching topics and are working to find
enough information to ensure that their
reports are balanced. Many students have
started drafting, and soon they will be
building web pages through which to
present their information.
The Genius Hour projects dovetail with
a nonfiction writing unit that began this
week.
During
Writers
Workshop,
students are learning how to craft
informational text and include text
features (headings, captions, glossaries,
maps, etc.) that support meaning. These
writing strategies will be incorporated in
the students Genius project drafting and
web site design.

Google Drive

The children have been publishing

documents and collecting Genius Hour
information in their Google Drive
accounts. East China is using Google Drive
for Education as a cloud storage and file
sharing system for all students, and the
students have their own usernames and
passwords and can create and save files

that can be accessed from a computer

anywhere. As a result, many students are
working on their Genius Hour research at
home. Ask your child to show you how
s/he is using this tool.

Mad Measurement
We will continue to have Mad
Measurement quizzes each Friday to
ensure that every student knows the
weekly focus units and the basic Metric
and Standard units that were introduced
during the past several weeks. Knowing
basic units of measurement will help your
child be successful in our forthcoming
measurement unit in math and in applying
measurement skills in the real world.

Solving Real World

Math Problems
We are finishing our unit on solving
word
problems
involving
addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division in
math.
The
students
learned
the
difference between math expressions and
equations as well as the difference
between situation and solution equations.
Also, they used bar models to solve
multiplication and addition comparison
problems, and solved multi-step problems
and problems involving graphs. This unit
required the students to apply a variety
of computation and reasoning skills in real
world situations. In addition to being

better problem solvers, the students

reinforced their computation skills.

Close Reading
We have been focusing on close
reading in Reading Workshop. The
students are learning to read short pieces
of text by reading and rereading in a
deliberate, analytical way so that they
have deeper comprehension. Following is
the process we have been using in class:

First Reading: Key Ideas and Details

Students scrape the surface in this

reading, connecting their background
knowledge with the text and focusing on
key ideas and details.

Second Reading: Craft and Structure

This time, students dig a little deeper,

rereading a paragraph or meaty chunk,
focusing on text features, organizational
patterns, and content vocabulary the
author included.

Third Reading: Integration of

Knowledge and Ideas

The third close reading goes even deeper,

requiring students to synthesize and
analyze information from another text or
media such as a video.
Students record their thinking in written
form using graphic organizers, reading
journals, sticky notes, etc.
The goal of close reading is for students
to read something enough times that they
can understand the ideas, explain the
ideas to someone else, and ask and answer
questions about the text using evidence
from it.

Electrical Circuits
We are building series and parallel
circuits and doing investigations involving
incorporating switches, several light
bulbs, and electric motors into various
circuit designs.
Next, we will be working with
electromagnetism, and the students will:
learn how to make an
electromagnet,
find the relationship between
the number of winds of wire
around a core and the strength
of the magnetic force,
investigate other ways to
change the strength of an
electromagnets magnetic force,
and
use scientific thinking
processes to conduct
investigations and build
explanations: observing,
communicating, comparing, and
organizing.
Students are encouraged to practice
the vocabulary related to this unit. The
vocabulary can be accessed at this link on
our
classroom
web
site.
http://cardfourthgrade.weebly.com/magn
etism-and-electricity.html

MARCH IS
READING MONTH!
From the beginning of the school year,
I have urged my students to get in the
habit of reading for at least twenty
minutes each evening. This reading, in
addition to the great amount of reading
done in the classroom, has truly made an
impact
on
the
students
reading
achievement and reading attitudes.
Today, Pine River kicked off March is
Reading Month with a special challenge
from Mrs. Lemmer. This will give the
students additional motivation to read as
much as possible and continue to cultivate
reading growth and enjoyment. If the
students read 2,015 books, Mrs. Lemmer
will be in the doghouse. In addition, Pine
River will have a Pajama Day and Read-aThon on March, 27.
Each Friday, we will have a special
reading event. This Friday is Read a
Shirt day.

Economics
In our study of economics, the
students are reviewing the role of
scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost in
economic decision making. They are also
exploring the interaction of price,
competition, and substitute goods.
Through various real world examples, the
children are learning that when prices
decrease, demand for that good and
service increases. They are also examining
how an increase in price lessens the
demand for a good or service and can
result in consumers choosing substitute
goods or services.
In addition, students are building on
their knowledge of the factors that
influence economic decision making by
deepening their understanding of
incentives. Using ads and scenarios, the
students are identifying positive and
negative incentives and explaining how
they influence behavior. Some positive
incentives are sales and coupons, and some
negative incentives are library fines and
overdue video rental fees.
Students are reviewing their
economics vocabulary and big ideas
regularly in class, and will be bringing
home their study materials for weekly
practice and review at home.

practice the sample M-STEP items during

the next few weeks.

This spring, Michigan is replacing the 44year old Michigan Educational Assessment
Program (MEAP) with a new online
summative assessment called the Michigan
Student Test of Educational Progress (MSTEP). While the MEAP was administered
in October, the M-STEP will be
administered during a window that spans
from April through early June. The fourth
grade students in East China will take the
test on the following dates:
Tuesday, May 5 and Wednesday, May 6:
English Language Arts,
Thursday, May 7: Science,
Tuesday, May 12 and Wednesday, May 13:
Mathematics.
The
English
Language
Arts
and
Mathematics tests will include both
multiple choice questions and open-ended
response items, while the science test will
be comprised of only multiple choice
questions.
In order to help the students become
familiar with the online format of the MSTEP, I introduced a preview provided by
the Michigan Department of Education
and demonstrated how to use the various
tools and maneuver through the test.
Then, students were given an opportunity
to practice a fourth grade English
Language Arts sample test on laptops in
class. We will continue to review and

In order to introduce parents to the MSTEP and provide an opportunity for

parents to preview the test with their
children at home, I created a video that
you can view at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=NWqOlXIMWoQ&featu
re=youtube_gdata
The M-STEP practice items can be found
at this link:

https://wbte.drcedirect.com/
MI/portals/mi/ott1
(This web site must be opened in Google
Chrome.)
If you have any questions, feel free to
contact me.