March 16-20, 2015

Fourth grade is looking forward to the Port Discovery Children's Museum field trip on Friday, April 24th.  The Six Flags field trip permission slip for May 8th was sent home last week.

Reading

4th grade will begin their novel study of "Shiloh" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  Students will read chapters for homework in addition to studying excerpts in class.  Each student will be assigned their own book that will be returned at the end of the unit.  If the books are damaged or lost the school will need to be compensated.

Book Summary: Marty Preston lives with family in the hills of West Virginia, and he has always wanted a pet of his own. When he discovers a beagle near the river behind his home, Marty names him Shiloh, and immediately wants to take the dog home. Then Marty learns that Shiloh belongs to Judd Travers, a man who drinks too much, hunts out of season, and abuses his dogs. When Shiloh runs away from Travers, Marty plots to hide the dog in order to protect him from his abusive owner. He builds a pen for Shiloh, and sneaks food out of his family’s house to feed the dog. As Marty works to keep Shiloh a secret, he finds himself involved in more and more lies to his family, his friend David Howard, the store keeper Mr. Wallace, and Judd Travers himself. When Shiloh is attacked and injured by another dog, Marty’s secret is out, and Marty bravely determines to tell Judd Travers that he is not going to return the dog. In the woods while on his way to confront Travers, Marty witnesses Travers shooting a deer out of season, and realizes that he can use this information to intimidate Travers into letting him keep Shiloh. Travers does agree to give up Shiloh, if Marty will “earn” the dog by doing jobs around Travers’ farm. After weeks of work for Travers, Marty is thrilled to take Shiloh home as a member of his own family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLnXFbUSGhU

Social Studies

Students will finish composing their "If I Were Mayor . . ." essays for the annual Maryland Municipal League's 4th grade contest.  Each child has the chance to win a $100 prize.  One student will be the winner from the PBES 4th grade on the city level.  They will be invited to the College Park City Hall to recite their essay at a city council meeting.

Writer's Workshop

Last Week students were introduced to creating bibliographies for their nonfiction books.

Students will be conducting their research using index note cards to answer their research questions.  They will also select the writing structure of their books (narrative, question and answer, sections or chapters) and begin brainstorming their introductions.

Updates for the Week of Jan 27- Jan 30

Reading

Guiding Question: How do weather patterns affect our lives?

Texts: "Eye of the Storm", "Sever Weather Safety", the National Weather Service Website

Skills: Cause/Effect, Monitoring for understanding

Spelling: Compound Words

Grammar: Past, Future Tense

Tasks:

1. Summarize the causes and effects of hurricanes.
2. Write a summary of the tasks, risks and rewards that Warren and other storm chasers experience when they record dangerous weather.
3. How does the author's use of various text features and photographs help you understand the life of a storm chaser?
4. Write a review of one of the texts to evaluate how well the author used text features to support their main idea and supporting details.

PCR- Should Warren chase hurricanes?  In a well-organized paragraph, state your opinion (claim) and support your ideas with information from both "Eye of the Storm" and the National Weather Service website.

Social Studies

Black History Month Group Posters

Students are continuing to work together to reflect and report on the achievements and societal contributions of various African Americans as well as constitutional amendments.  They will artistically display their projects in the display case in our school's front lobby.