Greetings from under the sea!
Grade 4 is busy preparing for our science fair! Our focus is on the coral reefs and how very important they are! 🙂 Look at how hard everyone is working. This is collaboration at its best! 🙂
Long Division
Alas…the time has come! We have started long division! Now, I know that this can be a very daunting topic, but with a lot of encouragement and practice, it will soon become as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Continue to encourage your child to keep practicing. Also, remind them to keep studying their multiplication tables! Division becomes extremely easy once you know your times tables.
I’m also attaching a few photos of our classroom white-board, so that you can get a good idea of the method that we’re learning! 🙂
Class Garden
Grade 4 is adding a Green Thumb to our list of talents this year! This is very exciting! We started this garden because we are continuing our studies on ecosystems and how we can help our environment. We will be planting all sorts of yummy vegetables in our garden, and hopefully we will have a nice, little harvest of our own shorty! 🙂
A special thanks to Mrs. Daniels for supplying some of our soil, and for Mr. Wellington for building our plant box for us!
Field Trip
January 21, 2014
Dear Parents,
Our field trip will be on Friday, January 31. We will leave school about 12pm to go to Safe Haven. We have split the groups up and Grades 4 and 6 will be going in the afternoon. We now have room for a couple of parents to accompany us, please email me if you would like to come on the trip and be in a kayak, or if you are able to drive. We need 2 or 3 parents to drive.
Students are to come to school in their swimwear, shorts and a t-shirt that they can get wet. They should also bring a towel and their P.E kit (along with their sneakers) to change in to
after the trip.
Thanks so much for your help.
Sincerely,
Ms. Cilliers and
Mrs. Suckoo
Ecosystems – Take 2 and 3!
Ok! So we are very excited to learn about ecosystems, and after special requests (plus the Magesto app that I used create the video cut a student out!), we decided to shoot another quick video, and then record a funny, musical one as well! Enjoy!
Take 2:
http://www.magisto.com/video/KFsDZAgZC2lgURViCzE
Take 3 (our funny, musical version):
Math B-I-N-G-O!
We had such a blast on Friday with Math Bingo. We were able to practice our mental math abilities as we played with addition and multiplication sentences.
A Visit from Mr. Courtney Platt
FBCS enjoyed a presentation from Mr. Courtney Platt last week. He discussed with us the importance of protecting the Coral Reef and saving the Nassau Grouper. We all were great listeners, learned quite a lot and asked some pretty amazing questions. We also learned why we should do all that we can to protect the reef fish, and spread the word to others so that we can continue to enjoy this beautiful ecosystem that God has blessed us with.
Here’s a little background on Mr. Platt:
Mr. Courtney Platt minored in marine biology in California. He then taught scuba diving at Bob Soto’s Diving from 1983-1986, during which time he made over 2,400 scuba dives and witnessed the last of our largest, friendly reef fish disappear. He then made over 2,500 dives as pilot of the deep subs diving to 1,000′ between 1986 and 2004. This experience has given him an intimacy with Cayman’s reefs shared by only a handful of people who have worked in our diving industry for many years. He is a seasoned professional photographer, and has been photographing underwater since 1976 with 8 assignments for National Geographic Magazine among his credits!
Thank you Mr. Platt!
Objectives and Homework for January 20-24, 2014
ENGLISH – This week for English, we will be doing out Unit 4 Check-Up and Cumulative Review.
NUMBER THE STARS – We will be starting our new class novel this week. Number the Stars is a work of historical fiction by Newbery Award award-winning author Lois Lowry. It is about the escape of a Jewish family from Copenhagen during Occupation of Denmark on Second World War because of the Holocaust. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_the_Stars)
Each week we will be reading a few chapters in class and completing chapter quizzes. Students are allowed to re-read what we have covered in class, but I ask that they do no read ahead unless they have been given special permission to do so. Please be sure to ask your child questions on what we have read in class and allow them to summarize and describe different events in detail and in order.
MATH – Multiply a 4 and 5-digit number by a 2-digit number.
Homework: Monday: page 136 Sharks All, Iguanas – 1-13, 15, Koalas 1-3, 7-9, 15
PLEASE NOTE: We will be having our Chapter 7 Test on Thursday.
SPELLING HOMEWORK –Study for spelling test this Friday.
Tuesday: page 35-36
Thursday: page 37
SOCIAL STUDIES– Homework: Caribs and Arawaks Project – DUE February 3, 2014 (see handout and previous blog entry)
SCIENCE – Explain how biotic and abiotic factors affect ecosystems.
– Describe how climate affects ecosystems.
– Explain how humans use resources.
We will also be finalizing our science fair topics this week, in order to get started on our research.
BIBLE – Describe how to glorify God through thoughts and actions.
– Answer questions based on a story that focuses on glorying God.
– Sequence the events related to ‘The Fall’.
Homework: – Study Bible Verse for Thursday. (Parents, please encourage your child/children to study and memorize his/her Bible verse. This counts towards their end of term Bible grade.)
Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for His compassion never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
Ecosystems
We’ve been focusing on ecosystems this week in science class, as we gear up for our Grouper/Reef research.We had such a great time this week creating our own ecosystems and enjoying this Christmas weather. Have a look at our video and photos.
http://www.magisto.com/video/PVsfNgMNFmo0TgFgCzE
Objectives and Homework for January 13-17, 2014
ENGLISH – Add ‘er’ to compare 2 nouns and ‘est’ to compare 3 or more nouns.
– Use ‘more’ with long adjectives to compare 2 nouns and ‘most’ to compare 3 or more nouns.
– Use comparative and superlative forms of good and bad (example: good, better, best and bad, worse, worst).
Homework: – Monday page 65
– Wednesday page 67
MATH – Multiply a 3-digit number by a 2-digit number.
– Choose the best strategy to solve problems.
– Multiply a 4 and 5-digit number by a 2-digit number.
Homework: Tuesday: page 129 Sharks 1-12, Iguanas – 1-10, Koalas 1-6
Wednesday: page 130 Sharks 1-12, 21-22, Iguanas 1-10, 21-22, Koalas 1-6, 21-22.
Thursday: – page 133 Sharks and Iguanas 1-6, Koalas 1-3
SPELLING HOMEWORK –Study for spelling test this Friday.
Tuesday: page 31-32
Thursday: page 33
SOCIAL STUDIES– Homework: Caribs and Arawaks Project – DUE February 3, 2014 (see handout and previous blog entry)
SCIENCE – Explain how living and non-living parts of an eco-system interact.
– Define population and community.
– Construct a model of an ecosystem.
Homework: Items to bring for our science experiment on Wednesday:
– gravel – Kai
– spray bottle – Jardae
– sand – Thiy-Ru
– 2, 2 liter, plastic, soda bottles (empty) – Mrs. Suckoo and Aliyanna
– soil – Chesskamea
– plastic wrap – Craig
– rubber bands – Katriona
BIBLE – Read and respond to passage about respecting others, because we are all made in God’s own image.
– Define ‘glorify, praise and worship’ and how to glorify God.
– Explain how to worship and praise God with words and music.
Homework: – Study Bible Verse for Thursday. (Parents, please encourage your child/children to study and memorize his/her Bible verse. This counts towards their end of term Bible grade.)
“…let him who boasts, boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for these I delight.” Jeremiah 9:24
Grade 4 must learn: “I am Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for these I delight.” Jeremiah 9:24b