Farrell’s Fantastic Fourth Grade Forecast!

Read all about it!!

Phew, what a whirlwind these past weeks have been starting off our school year! Our tri-monthly classroom newsletter is written entirely by our fourth grade students. Students choose a topic, brainstorm and sequence ideas to produce their rough draft. They then conference with a teacher, edit and revise and then publish their work by creating their very OWN slide which they can add their own personal flair to! Please be sure to view the entire slideshow with your student as it will be assigned for homework the night it is sent. Students have been working VERY diligently to produce an organized, detail-oriented informational writing piece. It will be amazing to see the progression of their writing as the school year continues.

Please note, the first slide will be devoted to important information and upcoming dates from me. As always, please offer any feedback, we would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Enjoy!

Mrs. Stacey Farrell

Important Dates and Upcoming Events

Thursday, 11/20 PJ/Cozy DayMonday, 11/24- Afternoon conferencesTuesday, 11/25- Evening conferencesWednesday, 11/26- Thanksgiving FeastThursday-Sunday, 11/27- 11/28- No school!

Please be aware that next week, all three school days are half days with a noon dismissal. Sign-up Genius will send out a reminder for conferences. If you cannot keep your conference appointment, please let me know so we can reschedule.

Thank you to our room parent, Mrs. Bernier, for organizing our Thanksgiving Feast sign up. Also thank you to all of you who have or are planning to donate food or you time to help make this feast a success. We can’t do it without you! Please be aware that our feast is not allergy aware, however there will be many safe food choices for your child to enjoy. Everyone is welcome to join us!

News Nook of Mrs. Farrell's 4th Grade Class By: Samantha Zolak

Noelle Bernier does Irish step dance, she loves it because you’re always moving. Kylin Carnie goes to Maine in the wintertime and snowboards, it must be cold there in the winter time. Michael Craig has a cat named Haley. Heather Devine can reach the high bar in gymnastics, she's really flexible! Noah Ihley went speed skating in Iorio Thursday 11/6/14. Nick Johnson got a cute little 8 week old puppy name Honey, Honey is an English cream golden retriever, I have the same dog! Ella Paquette went to the play Annie on Sunday 11/9/14. Haylee Pelaggi plays travel soccer. Emily Sawyer went to the play Annie on 11/8/14 with her twin sister and her friend. Last week Olivia Surro went to a really cool place at the zoo where there were cool but creepy pumpkins carved by pros. Samara White has lots of dogs and all of them have a birthday coming up, her dogs names are Luna, Ison, Budgie, Sadie, Molly and Malikien on the 24th ! And the fantastic News Nook of Mrs. Farrell's Class is done!

Adding and Subtracting Fractions With Like DenominatorsBy Michael Craig

There are many different ways to add and subtract fractions with like denominators. You can use pictures in many different ways to model fractions. You can use adding and subtracting. You can use circles too.

Here are the steps of modeling: 1. Draw and fill in the circles. 2. Add or subtract according to the fractions given. 3. Count it. 4. Find mixed numbers. 5. Write the answer as a mixed number or improper fraction.

Adding and subtracting have different models than multiplying and dividing.

You can find the LCM: Least Common Denominator to help you solve fractions when the denominator isn’t the same.

Adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators is easy. The denominator stays the same.

You can circle model or find the LCM when you are adding or subtracting fractions.

Fiction, Nonfiction, Historical Fiction GenresBy: Kevin Merigan

All books have a genre. The genres that we have been studying are fiction, nonfiction and historical fiction. In nonfiction books, all the information is based on true facts and not made. A historical fiction story has real or invented characters that take place during a historical time. Fiction refers to literature created from the author’s imagination. A story about the White House and who lives there today would be an example of a nonfiction story. The White House is a real place and the president is a real person who lives there. Next is an example of story created by an author’s imagination, which is a fiction story. A spider refuses to come and sit down beside us. A story about Neil Armstrong and the first time a man landed on the moon would be nonfiction. Neil Armstrong is a real person and he was the first man on the moon. This is an example of a story created by an authors imagination so it is fiction we can’t eat candy off our house.

Northeast RegionBy : Emily Sawyer

Do you want to learn about the Northeast region? Well, here are some startling facts that you might not of learned. Lets start with New York City. In NYC the Statue of Liberty is much bigger in person because it is 92 meters tall! There are 354 stairs, just to get to the top! NYC is one of the most enormous cities! The population is 8.406 million people (2013) and went to 8,405,837 people in July of 2013! The Empire State Building is located in NYC. It is 87,120 feet! It takes a long time to get to the top. Central Park is also located in NYC. It is big and green! It is 1.317 square miles!

These are some cool facts about New Hampshire. Did you know…..

-Alan Shepard was the first American to travel into space-1961?

-Franklin Pierce was the 14th president in the US?

-Daniel Webster was a orator and statesman?

Also, New Hampshire has the first in the country primary for the Presidential Election! Here are some facts about Maine and Connecticut. Maine is a good place to go in the summer because is has magnificent weather in the summertime. The area of Connecticut is 5,544 square miles ( 14,359 square kilometers) WOW! That was a lot of startling facts about the Northeast region! I hope you learned more about your homeland!

Quick As Lightning Electricity!By: Mackenzie Flanagan

Did you know that there are two types of electricity? The two types of electricity are static and current. Static electricity is a build up of electric charges. An example of static electricity is lightning. Current electricity is a flow of electrons in a circuit. Current electricity is what we use to power our TV, lights, refrigerators, toasters and other things. There are two types of circuits. One circuit is called a series circuit. This is a circuit that flows in one path. The other circuit is called a parallel circuit . The circuit follows in more than one path. This is just one of the exciting things that we have learned in science this year!

FOUR TYPES OF SENTENCESBy: Sean Richard

Do you know what the four types of sentences are? If not let me tell you. The types of sentences are interrogative, declarative, imperative, and exclamatory. An interrogative sentence asks a question and ends with a question mark. For example: What day is it today? A declarative sentence is a statement that ends with a period. Another example is: We are going to have fun at the football game. An imperative sentence is a sentence that gives a command and tells someone to do something and ends with a period. Do your homework.—is an example of this type of sentence. The last type of sentence is an exclamatory sentence. This type of sentence shows strong feelings and ends with an exclamation mark. For example: Look out, a deer is coming! Knowing what each kind of sentence helps us with our writing and reading comprehension.

Equivalent & Simplifying Fractions

By: Heather Devine

Here is all of what we have learned about finding equivalent fractions and simplifying fractions!

To make an equivalent fraction, find a number that can be divided by the numerator and the denominator! The word equivalent means same or equal. When talking fractions, the value of the fraction stays the same, but the pieces sizes are different. The word simplify means to find the smallest value of a fraction! For example for dividing, 9/27. You find the LCM (least common multiple). In this case, 9 is the largest number that I can find that can be divided by 9 and 27. So you divide 27 by 9 and get 3, which is the denominator. Then you divide 9from 9 and get 1. So your smallest equivalent fraction to 9/27 is 1/3! For example for multiplying, we will use 9/27 again. I can multiply it by any number, but we’ll just use 2. So you multiply 9x2 which equals 18. Then you multiply 27x2 which equals 54! So the equivalent fraction is 18/54! Equivalent fractions are obtained by multiplying or dividing both the numerator and the denominator by the same number!

Now you know more about simplifying fractions, and making equivalent fractions! (click 3 times)

Hi! My name is Noelle and it’s my job to make shiver with fear and grab your vampire teeth before going to bed. Plus to ALWAYS keep your pumpkins out ( then when it’s a year afterwards you get a different pumpkin and the cycle goes on and on ) and remember…… SCARE if you DARE

Where does Count Dracula eat his lunch? At the Casketeria! Ha! Ha! Ha! Welcome Fellow Readers! Your going to be spooktfied when you read about the haunted Pumpkin Parade!

First, I’m going to tell you about the super duper haunted pumpkin categories! They are Best animal (which I did a awesome spider) famous person, Book or Movie charter, sports pumpkins, space and aliens pumpkins, and CrAzYiEsT pumpkin and last but not least automated object.

Oh by the way, are hostess is the teacher you’ve all been waiting for Drumroll please… MRS.FARRELL She is a phenomenal teacher who judged the carried away categories and narrowed them (with the other teachers help) to a first a second third prize. IT MUST HAVE BEEN SO HARD!

Guess What! I know it’s hard but it is time for me to go and crave my Jack-O-Lantern

Bye!

Pumpkin Parade Spookctacular

Continents + OceansBy: Kylin Carnie

Did you know there are seven continents and five oceans? The seven continents include Antarctica, Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa and Australia. We live in the wonderful continent of North America. North America is the third largest continent. There are five oceans in the world. They are the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern. The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean. The Southern Ocean is the last ocean to be named. The Southern Ocean was named in the year 2000. The Southern Ocean completely surrounds Antarctica. It is the fourth largest ocean. I loved learning about the continents and oceans. I hope you like learning about them, too!

Author’s PurposeBy: Noah Ihley

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on? Today we are talking about Author’s purpose. Ipee is an acronym of the four purposes combined I for inform P for persuade and the two E’s for express and entertain. It used to be pie ( persuade, inform entertain) but express is new. Anyway when the author persuades he or she tries to convince the reader the reader to do something it is the P in Ipee. When the author informs he or she tries to teach the reader something it is the I in Ipee. Sometimes the author entertains the reader, it is when he or she tries to hold the attention of the reader through enjoyment, it is an E in Ipee. Sometimes when the author expresses he or she tries to make the reader feel a certain way it is an E in Ipee. Authors always need a purpose if they did not have one it would be boring. That is all the letters in Ipee and this was made to inform you the I in Ipee.

Literary Elements of a Story By: Olivia Surro

Do you know what the Literary Elements are? Well let me tell ya! Stories are made up of four main elements: character , setting , plot and theme. Each of these parts give you an overall understanding of the story. Setting, the setting of the story is the type of tense like past tense and present tense. The setting is also where it takes place and what time. Plot is important in the story because the plot starts with a problem or goal and builds toward the climax. And theme, the theme is the big idea you can look at the plot , setting or characters to determine the theme of the story. For example we read a book in class called Because Of Winn-Dixie and the theme was friendship. It is important to understand the Literary Elements because if you didn’t you wouldn’t be able to understand a book. Well everyone I hope you enjoyed my forecast, Goodnight and Good News!

Bad Picture DayBy: Nick Johnson

Let me tell you about Bad Picture Day. Bad Picture is a writing piece that you get to exaggerate about. When I mean exaggerate I mean that

something could happen but is really unlikely to happen. At the time our real picture day was coming up so we wanted to be creative. The first part

of making your Bad Picture is making a list of what events are going to happen in your writing. Once you’ve brain stormed your ideas, the second part of writing your bad Picture Day is make a rough draft. The third part of making your Bad Picture Day is type it on the computer, after you’ve edited your writing and checked for boring words. I like Bad Picture Day because you get to learn different things like similes and metaphors to include in

your writing, you also learn hilarious and the latest new words. When you use the banish boring words book which or a thesaurus. That’s how you

would write a Bad Picture Day.

Mystery Puzzle ProjectBy Haylee Pelaggi

Have you heard about our Mystery Puzzle Project? No then I will tell you about it. The Mystery Puzzle Project is when we read a mystery book and filled out a big poster board. Then we cut the poster board into a puzzle piece shape that all fit together like clues in a mystery book. A mystery genre is a story that is not solved until the end of the story. There are clues to be collected throughout the story to be solved. The Mystery Puzzle Project is about kids rotating around the room putting the puzzle pieces together and then we write comments about them. The reason we did it is because it was close to Halloween and the theme was MYSTERY. I hoped you liked that presentation! See you soon!

Magnets By: Christian Sobande

Do you know a lot about magnets? If you don’t I can tell you a vast amount of things about them. Did you know that magnets have north and south poles? The North Pole will repel from another north pole but will attract to a south pole. The reason this happens is because there’s a magnetic force pushing them apart and sticking them together. Magnets also have magnetic fields. If one magnet is in another magnet’s field it will either attract or repel. The invisible lines of force can be seen by sprinkling iron shavings around a magnet. The shavings will form the shape of the field. The reason this happens is because certain materials are attracted to magnets. Some of these materials are iron, steel, and cobalt. Have you ever wondered how compasses operate? They have an iron needle that is attracted to Earth’s magnetic North pole. The reason the needle is attracted is because Earth is a giant magnet. Earth has magnetic poles and geographic poles. The magnetic north pole is over 1,600 km away from the geographic north pole. Magnets are all around us they can even be amplified with electricity to make an electromagnet.

Similes , Metaphors and Alliteration !! In this paragraph we will be learning about “ drum roll please… Similes , Metaphors and Alliteration Thank you, Thank you ,

Thank you “. Our first topic is ….. Alliteration. Alliteration is words with the same sound. For example, “sticky syrup stuck on me “you are using the” S” sound . Also, you can use alliteration in the middle or end of a sentence . For example “look at the book you are using the “ook” sound. Speaking of the “S “ sound our next word is Similes . Similes are words that compare two things that are using” like "or” as” . For example,” She is as loud as a lion “ you are comparing her too the lion . Simile's definitely make your writing more interesting . Our last topic is Metaphors . Metaphors are the opposite of similes because they are not using “like” or “as “. For example, I am a chatty bird you are saying something is something else .

I think Alliteration , Metaphors , Similes make your writing AWESOME !!!!

By: Ella Paquette

Brilliant Beginning Hooksby Trevor Vinson

Have you ever heard of a brilliant beginning hook? If you have, well you might learn something new. If you haven’t, pull up a chair! A brilliant beginning hook is supposed to hook the reader in so they want to read more. What I’m saying is that they’re a good way to start a story. There are many kinds of brilliant beginning hooks and I’m going to explain the three basic ones to you. If you ask a question, the reader will read more of the story because they will fascinated by the question. Just like I did at the beginning of this newsletter. If you use a sound, the reader will want to know what the sound is coming from, read more and then like they will like the story. The third basic hook is if you describe the setting. If you describe the setting, the reader will want to know what is happening in the story and keep reading. Those are the three basic hooks!

50 States Postcard Challenge

By: Samara White

Lets learn about the 50 States Postcard Challenge! We separate the postcards on a ring from were they are from, or near. We have a list of States we track down as we receive the postcards from were they are from. We are really having tons of fun receiving postcards from everywhere in the United States and even the world! One was from Japan even if its not in the N.E. region. We have a bunch so far, but we are sure to get more in the school year! Once we get all 50 postcards of the N.E. region we will celebrate in a luau in school! I'm so exited! Some of the postcards are from the governor, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Portland, Colorado, and San Diego. One was from our own classmate Emily. It is really fun to see postcards from all over, someday you might travel there! I hope you had a really good time learning about the fifty states postcard challenge.