Mr. Blanc's Class

Next week will be the final week of the school year. It will be hard to say goodbye to this group of students, but I look forward to seeing them as the leaders of the school next year! Inquiry Next week students will finish up the field guide they are making on an animal found in our local watershed. Their final piece will be a watercolor painting of the animal and a paragraph of written information. Ask your student what animal they are working on for their project. Idiom of the week : all good things must come to an end Preventing Summer Slide Parents have asked me what their child do to over the summer to prevent the academic summer slide. One recommendation I have is to give your child the expectation to read every day. Build in a half hour time of day in which they always read. Then, talk to them about what they are reading. Have them tell you about the characters and the problem in the story. To help your student with their math, I recommend having them play an online ...

I can't believe we are down to the final two weeks of the school year. I have really enjoyed working with the students in this class! Hopefully we'll have a great last two weeks together. Watershed Field Trip I hope you have had a chance to look at the pictures from our field trip to our local watershed last Thursday. Initially, I was concerned about the weather, but we may have ended up with the best weather of the week. Thank you so much to the chaperones who made the trip possible! Math  We completed our final math module last Friday. Our final two weeks of math will give students a chance to do some inquiry problem solving, coding, and games. Lego WeDo  On Tuesday, 6/13 and Thursday, 6/15 we will be visited by an Innovation Strategist from the District who will lead the class in robotics lessons using Lego WeDo. Have your student tell you about what they make on Thursday. Field Day West TV Field Day will be on Wednesday, June 14th. Fourth grade will participate...

 The field trip to the Cedar Mill Wetlands was lots of fun! I was at the water testing station the whole time, so all of the pictures you see below are from there. I did my best to get pictures of all of the student groups, but unfortunately, I didn't get all of them. Have your student tell you whether their data suggests that we live near a healthy wetlands.   

Reading Most of the groups have now finished their historical fiction book. Once they completed their book they had a written assignment to turn in. Groups that finished their first book then selected another book to begin reading. Ask your student which book they are reading now.    Idiom of the week: hold your horses Math Next week we will wrap up our final math module of the year! Students will take their assessment on module 7 on Friday, 6/9. You can help your student prepare by making sure they are completing their daily homework and going over the practice materials they come home with on Thursday evening.  Inquiry We are right in the middle of our inquiry into the structure and function of natural resources. The natural resource that we are focusing on for this inquiry is watersheds. Last week we spent time exploring what watersheds are and why they are important. On our field trip next week students will be collecting some data to determine whether a l...

Reading Students are beginning to finish or get close to finishing their historical fiction books. Have your student tell you some traits about their main character. Make sure they give examples from the book that support having those traits.  Idiom of the week: the icing on the cake Math We will continue our study of measurement next week. Students will focus on using conversion tables to answer story problems involving measurement, capacity, and length.  Inquiry On Tuesday, we will begin our final inquiry unit of the year. The central idea of our unit will be natural resources have a structure and function within a community. The lines of inquiry are how watersheds work, ways of maintaining balance, and communities effect on environment. Class Visit To help us learn about watersheds, Clean Water Services will be giving us a presentation on Friday, 6/2.  Field Trip On Thursday, 6/8 we will be taking a field trip to the Johnson Creek Wetlands. T...

Reading Students will be continuing their historical fiction book groups. Last week we talked about how when reading historical fiction it is helpful to construct two timelines, one for your character, and another for the events in history. It can be a great visual to see how the historical events impacted the story of the main character. The students worked with their book group members to create two side by side timelines.   Idiom of the week: behind the eight ball Math Next week we will begin module 7. This module focuses on converting measurement units, both standard and metric. It will also involve solving story problems with measurement.  Inquiry The students have been working on writing scripts for their rapid change PSA. On Monday, they will use the school's new green screen to film their videos. We hope to get through all of our videos on Monday, however we have some time set aside on Tuesday that we can use to finish up.  Field Trip   On T...

Math  We will be wrapping up our study of geometry at the end of the week. Students will take the geometry assessment on Friday, 5/12. You can help your student prepare for their test by going over their practice test with them on Thursday evening.  Inquiry Next week students will begin research on a specific way the Earth's surface changes rapidly. Our time next week will be devoted to becoming experts and then the following week students will create PSA's to teach how humans can be prepared for the rapid change. On Friday they picked their top three choices. Students will find out their rapid change on Monday, ask them which one they get. Guest Speaker We are very to lucky to have the opportunity to be visited by Dr. Scott Burns, a local geologist, author, and PSU emeritus. He will be discussing the dynamic geology of the Tualatin Valley and will cover the great Missoula Floods, the forming of the Columbia River Gorge, the geological origins of the Tualatin Valley, ...