Math Commercials

Last week we used our math skills to eat at different restaurants like the Home on the Range, The Juice Bar, Pizza Planet, etc. Then we created our own restaurants and even made commercials! Enjoy!

Eggspirment!

Right before Easter we did an experiment with raw eggs. The kiddos tried to see how many books they could stack on four eggs. We had some good results, one team stacked 7 books on top of the eggs before they broke!

March/April Update

Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone has been able to get back into the swing of things after Spring Break. The kids have had a great week!

Here are some important dates to be aware o for April:

April 1-2               Writing STAAR

April 10                 4^th grade Spring Program 8:30 am and 2:00 pm

April 18                 No School- Good Friday

April 22                 Math STAAR

April 23                 Reading STAAR

We are finishing up the math curriculum before STAAR with geometry and probability. In reading, we are reinforcing comprehension strategies. We have just finished the battle for Texas Independence from Mexico and we won! We will be moving from energy to adaptations and habitats in science.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!! I hope everyone had a relaxing Christmas break. My family and I spent the whole break at our ranch, which was very relaxing. I know it was hard to get up this early in the morning after sleeping late for 2 weeks and the cold temperatures didn't help, but the kiddos came in with smiling faces this morning.

Here is the January update:

Math- We are starting decimals. We will be comparing and relating them to fractions and money. Next, we will learn how to line up the decimals in order to add and subtract them. Measurement will come next with standard and customary measurements, along with some simple conversions. After measurement, we will jump into the world of Geometry, which is always fun!

Science-We are finishing up our unit on natural resources this week and next, talking about fossil fuels and conservation. Next, we will move into Matter and Energy. We will learn about the states of matter along with conductors and insulators. Moving full force into force, motion, and energy. They kiddos will understand Newton's laws of Motion, 5 forms of energy, and how electricity travels. Then, we will end the 9 weeks with the start of environments.

Language Arts- We will continue to practice expository and narrative forms of writing, along with editing and revising practice. In reading, we will start book clubs and continue to review reading strategies and practice comprehension strategies, too.

Texas History- "Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad!" Yes, we are going to learn about how the Texas Revolution started, the Alamo, and all the other history to go along with our great state's beginnings.

Makin' Butter with Our Book Buddies

The week of Thanksgiving we met with our book buddies to celebrate Thanksgiving. We made butter by shaking containers of whipping cream. After the butter was made we spread it on crackers for a tasty treat!            

Native American Interviews- Lipan Apache

Native American Interviews-Karankawa

Native American Interviews- Comanche

Native American Interviews- Caddo

Native American Interviews- Jumano

Native American Interviews- Tonkawa

November Update

I can’t believe we are already into the middle of November, where is the year going?  Here is the November update:

In Math, we are finishing up our unit on division. I am very proud of the class, as they have really done a great job learning the steps for long division. From here will move into fractions until the Winter holidays, but will continue to revisit past lessons to keep them fresh in the their minds.

Moving along in Texas History, we have been studying the Native Texan Indians. We are ending this unit by having our famous news reporters from Mrs. Ratliff’s room interviewing these incredible Texas tribes. I can’t wait to watch and see what they have learned from their research. The interviews will be presented on this Friday, November 15th. I will post the video interviews on the ratliffsroundup blog, so you can view them. Next, we will jump aboard the ships of famous explorers who came to Texas in search of gold and other riches.

Watch out for the earthquake, oh wait… that’s just a land form. Yes, we are right in the middle of land forms. They are creating land form booklets. Then we look at weathering, erosion, and deposition.

We have started our first book club book as a whole class. I do this to set the tone and expectations for when they start book clubs on their own. We are reading The Mixed Up File of Mrs. Basil E Frankwieler. This is always a fun novel to start book clubs with.  We are still practicing our comprehension skills each week.

In writing we will be looking at writing expository pieces of writing, and also writing one. We are working hard on revising and editing also. Both are key to the STAAR test at the end of the year. In grammar, we are moving into verbs.

Texas Regions Posters

There are four fabulous regions in Texas. Each group did research on their region and made a poster to show what their regions had to offer Texas.

October

What we are learning in October:

Math- we are finishing up multiplication of 2x2 digit numbers this week. Next week we will dive into perimeter and area. Then we will be starting division and continuing that until Thanksgiving.

Science- Weather is where is it at! We will be looking at the difference between weather and climate, but also learning about weather patterns, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and weather mapping.

Reading- We are still fine tuning our reading comprehension skills (sequencing, main idea, summarizing, context clues, character traits, etc). We will start a whole class book club shortly to teach them about how a book club should look and sound (discussions). I'm so excited to announce... we will be starting Wordly Wise vocabulary next week, yea!!! I will alternate Spelling and Wordly Wise each week. The only Wordly Wise homework they will be bringing home is Wordly Wise D. It is a reading passage (which helps with reading comprehension, deeper thinking, and teaching them to look back into the passage for answers) with 15 questions to be answered using a wordly wise vocabulary word in each sentence. I will place a sticker on the front of the book to remind students of the expectations when answering the questions. Parts A-D will be done in class.

Writing- We are about to finish up our personal narratives, and then will dive into some poetry. I love teaching poetry! A noun is a person, place, or thing as School House Rock taught us. In grammar the focus is on nouns and then on to verbs.

Texas History- We are presenting our regions posters today, so look for pictures to be posted soon! Then we start to learn about the explorers that came to Texas and native Americans that our great state.

1st Post of 2013-14 School Year!

Yea! We are up and running. I will post monthly news notes here along with anything exciting we have been doing in class. The year has started off on a fabulous note and I look forward to the rest of the year.

January News Note

Here is the January news note!

Super Science- We are coming to a close in our study of natural resources. We will finish up with how to reuse, reduce, and recycle this week. Then we will take on the topic of matter- the 3 states of matter, density, conductors and insulators.

Marvelous Math- Decimals are where it's at! We are learning how to relate decimals to fractions, including mixed numbers, adding and subtracting decimals, and ordering and comparing decimals.

Terrific Texas History- Finally, we are hearing some familiar names! Texas is being settled and the Old Three Hundred are moving in. We will continue to study the early beginnings of Texas.

Language Arts- In reading, we are continuing to apply our reading comprehension skills to non-fiction and fiction stories within our Storyworks magazine. In writing, the focus in on expository writing and being able to write a response to a given prompt. Spelling and Wordly Wise are still alternating.

Upcoming Events:
Jan 21st        Student Holiday
Jan 25th        Fine Arts Museum Field Trip

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful break. I wanted to thank you so very much for my wonderful Christmas gift. You are all so thoughtful and sweet. We are back in full swing and the past two days have been great. My next post will update you on the what we are learning and upcoming events.

Thank You!!!!

I just wanted to thank each everyone of you for the beautiful flowers children brought me for my birthday! The class made it a wonderful birthday, thank you!

Christmas Program

What a way to bring some Christmas cheer! They class did a wonderful job at the program Thursday night!

Thanksgiving Butter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! On the last day of school before Thanksgiving we made butter with our book buddies. It was a lot of fun to watch the kiddos shake the whipping cream. They witnessed it starting as a liquid and then slowly transforming into whipped butter. After 30 minutes of the kiddos shaking it we finally had butter! We enjoyed our whipped butter spread on crackers. What a way to understand how the pilgrims made butter and all the work that went into making it back then.