We are now beginning our regular homework schedule of 40 minutes per day (Monday-Thursday) , plus nightly reading. I have added several new websites below for the students to use to practice the skills we are now covering.
These links will bring you to child friendly websites that go along with our current units. By going to several of them during the week, your child will have the opportunity for additional skill practice using an interactive format, instead of paper and pencil. The homework policy for Grade 4 is 40 minutes suggested per night, so using these websites for a total of 160 minutes weekly would meet the expectations. Reading nightly and completing a reading log is an additional expectation.
Regions of the United States
This link will provide you with information about each region of our great country, including links to learn more about the states in each region.
Google Apps email
This is the new email program that MSAD #44 uses, instead of Novell Groupwise.
Xtra Math
Halloween Math Games
Kids Vote for President
http://www.gregtangmath.com/
This is a fun new math website that I signed us up for. I am really excited to try it out!
Lego City
Carnegie Library Storymaker
Scholastic Study Jams
This link will bring you to the home page for Study Jams. From there you can select either Math or Science, and browse the topics to find what you need more help with or just a topic you are interested in learning about.
Physical and Chemical Changes
Great explanations of the difference between physical and chemical changes, as well as great videos on this topic.
Factor Fun Game
Try to get the highest score by picking a product with the least valuable factors. Remember that prime numbers and numbers whose factors have already been taken will cause you to lose your turn.
Story Starter Machine
Generate a story starter for yourself, pick a format, and start writing! Don't forget to print before you shut down, since this cannot be saved.
Chinese Zodiac
Enter your birth year to learn more about the animal that represents you. Fill in the chart to teach me some of the personality traits from your year, as well as some famous people who are also that animal. Then research the same information about 2012, the year of the Dragon, and fill in your chart.
Chinese Proverbs
Proverbs are sayings that have a moral or an important meaning, but they don't always say it in the way you might expect. Copy three of the Chinese proverbs onto your homework chart, then write down what you think that they mean.
Scholastic Election 101: Info for Kids
This article will give you an overview of the upcoming presidential election and some of the candidates who are in the race. Be sure to discuss it with someone at home after you read about the candidates and the issues.
Character Scrapbook
You can use this fun activity at home to respond to books you are reading there. Remember that you cannot save your work, so be ready to print or you will lose your work once you navigate away from the page. You can also just do it for practice, without printing.
Claus.com
Check out this fun Christmas website. Be sure to read some of the news articles at The Polar Post, and stop by the Post Office to email Santa! You won't want to miss The Naughty and Nice Archives...what list are you on???
Novell Email Log-In
Mr. Kuzyk helped us in the Dell Lab last week with our email log-in and password information. Students should now know their current and accurate information, but if you are still unable to get into your email, please let me know as soon as possible.
Baxter the Dog's Blog From the Blaine House
This is the blog that we learned of while at the Blaine House. Baxter is Governor LePage's dog, and he blogs about daily life at the Blaine House. Who knows, maybe a visit from CPS students could make it on the blog for today!
Multiplication Games
Our current math chapter focuses on basic facts in multiplication and division. Many students in our class need practice memorizing their facts, especially higher factors such as 6, 7, 8, and 9. These games will give them some fun ways to learn the products.
Raz-Kids
All students now have their own account on Raz-Kids, an interactive reading website where they earn "stars" by reading books, taking quizzes, and recording themselves reading. Once they have earned enough stars they can use the stars to "buy" cool things to decorate their Raz Rocket. Each student has an "Assignment" tab, which brings them to the books at their assigned level. If you find these assignments to be too difficult or too easy, please let me know so I can adjust their level. The students also have access to the Book Closet, which allows them to see poetry books, fairy tales, and books at other levels. While I am fine with them browsing in the Book Closet, the majority of their time on Raz- Kids should be spent completing their assignments, since reading at their own level is going to be the biggest help in making reading progress.
Please remember that if your child is using the option to record themselves reading (which can be done on most laptops and with most webcams), the microphone WILL pick up background noise. Since I am sure neither you nor me would like your private household conversations to be recorded and sent to me, please have your child record themselves in a quiet place when all others in the room know they are being recorded. Thank you!
Energy Kids
This is a very informative website about energy, our current science unit. There are fun games, riddles, and a quiz that you can take. There is also an information link if you need to learn more before testing your knowledge.
Time for Kids
This is the website for Time for Kids, the weekly news magazine that we use in our classroom to cover current events and informational text. Browse this site to find follow-ups on articles we read together, to read news stories about new and different topics, or to play online games. If you find something really cool on this website, please let me know so I can share it with your classmates.
IXL Math
All students have been provided with their personal username and password. I would like everyone to do at least 40 minutes on IXL this week. They can do any topic under the fourth grade lessons to simply get used to the website.
Patricia Polacco
We started the year with an author study of Patricia Polacco. This link brings you to her website.
Splat 100 chart
Former students had a lot of fun using this interactive 100 chart. It can be used to find patterns, count by twos, five, etc. This could be a helpful link for when we begin multiplication, or anytime they need a 100 chart.
Barnes and Noble Online Storytime
This link will bring you to hundreds of books being read online, many of them by the authors themselves. There are also other cool videos, like interviews with the authors, illustrators showing how they create their work, etc. There is a featured story each month, but you can also search for specific books and authors from their archives.
I Spy Games
For all of my I Spy loving students, here is a link to some I Spy beat the clock games and puzzles, as well as I Spy riddles like we do on our computers at school. Great for visual discrimination and problem solving skills!
TumbleBooks/ Portland Public Library
Interactive books that the computer will read to your child. Lots of choices of titles, including non-fiction. There are also links to activities and games to play after you read. My favorites are Word Catch and Match the Sentences.
Houghton Mifflin Math
Our class is currently doing Chapter 4 (Basic Facts in Mulitplication and Division), which is in Unit 2. This link brings you to Houghton Mifflin's Eduplace, which is our current math program. Some of these links will have you choose a specific lesson. Other links are to games which apply to topics covered in the fourth grade math standards.
