Mr. Blanc's Class

There is no school on Friday, 1/29. It is a Staff Development day. When students return from the weekend they will have a reading log due. They will also take a test on their vocabulary words. They will be given new vocabulary words to study for next week's test. Help your student prepare for their vocabulary test by having them practice defining the words, or have them use the words appropriately in a sentence. Last week in math students took their end of module 3 test. They will get their scored test back when they return to school on Monday. Please look over your student's test with them and go over any problems they may have missed. Next week we will begin module 5. We are skipping module 4, which covers geometry, and jumping to the next two modules, which cover fractions and decimals. We are doing this because fractions and decimals are huge units and we want to make sure they are thoroughly covered before students take the Smarter Balance state assessments. We will come...

When students return to school on Monday, 1/25 they will have reading logs due. The reading logs can be completed online or on paper if there is no access to a computer. There was no spelling packet sent home last week, so the only homework due on Monday is the reading log. There will be a slight change in the weekly homework beginning next week. Students will continue the reading logs, but instead of spelling packets they will be given vocabulary words to study. They will then be tested on those vocabulary words the following Monday. The first set of vocabulary words will be terms that are related to westward expansion. In writing, students are working on informational papers about the Corps of Discovery. We have learned about finding reliable sources, how to avoid plagiarism, how to organize our information, strategies to start our topics, and strategies to end our topics. At this point students should have a first draft complete. Next week, we will use a checklist to revise and ed...

Here is a link to the Oregon Trail video game introduced in class. http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html

There will be no school on Monday, 1/18, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. When students return to school on Tuesday, they will have a spelling packet due. In addition, they should have their reading log submitted online. If your student doesn't have access to a computer, they can complete their reading log on a piece of paper.  Our inquiry study of westward expansion is off and running. Each of the students selected a topic related to Lewis & Clark and the Corps of Discovery and has been practicing their informational writing skills by researching and writing about the topic. Next week they will get a chance to meet with another 4th grader from Ms. Youm's class and share their first drafts with each other. We will also begin learning about the migration that brought pioneers to the west in the 1840's and 1850's. Soon students will be placed in teams and begin a simulation along the Oregon Trail. Reading will be integrated with our study of westward exp...

We had a nice first week back from winter break. I enjoyed hearing about all of the fun activities students did over the break. We will now be returning to our routine of turning in a spelling packet and reading log each Monday. The reading logs can be completed online. Students will take a test on the words from their spelling packet on Monday as well. In math we have started our study of division. Students will be solving problems using the standard algorithm (long division) and place value charts. They will also be checking their answers by multiplying. By the end of the week they will be solving story problems using division. Our weekly fact practice will now focus on dividing by a different number each week. Next week we will work on improving our speed and accuracy in dividing by 2's. Students are expected to complete the math lesson each day. If they don't finish it in class, they need to take it home and return it the next day. Friday is the one exception. Each Friday...