Literacy - We have worked through our latest group novel study of Maniac Magee, culminating in a novel vs movie comparison assignment. We have been working on trying harder novels during our final trimester and students will begin their next small group studies in the coming days. We continue to work through figurative language assignments and discuss literary elements. We will be practicing identifying themes in short stories.
Writing - We finished our final opinion writing assignments and spent some time creating our own Dr. Seuss-style short stories. We will move onto informational writing and utilizing multiple sources to create a research assignment. Students will be choosing new biography books to read and write about - and they will eventually have a solo research project on a topic they choose to finish off our informational writing unit. Math - We have been progressing nicely through Unit 5 in Math - and we will be having an assessment on concepts learned on Friday (4/6). Students have been adding/subtracting mixed numbers, converting mixed numbers to improper fractions, working through word problems with unknowns, and we continue our long division practice. Social Studies - We have reviewed regions of the United States and all 4th graders have completed a study of NH history. During this assignment, students were shown resources to use to find information about the state. Once completed, students were randomly assigned new states to do a solo study (using Google Slides) utilizing the resources discovered from our NH study. Upon completion, we will be moving onto our Electricity/Magnetism unit in Science. MicroSociety - Marketplace is re-opened with new pop-up ventures. Students continue to work, shop, and reflect on their methods of production during MicroSociety time.
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Literacy - Students finished their novel group studies and prepared movie book reports to share with the class. They submitted their independently completed comprehension questions and took time to give themselves and each of their group members a grade. We continue working through our figurative language unit with some simile/metaphor work. Next, we will be doing an author study of the works of "Jerry Spinelli,"beginning with our next group read aloud book, Maniac Magee.
Writing - We began formulating our final arguments for our opinion writing unit. After students complete the assignment, they will be asked to type up one of their arguments to submit. We will spend some time next week for "Read Across America Week" going through some Dr. Seuss stories and 4th graders will be tasked with creating their own short story in the style of Dr. Seuss. Math - We finished Unit 4 and completed our assessment. Word problem practice continues weekly, as this skill can be difficult (for students of all ages!). We began unit 5 with converting mixed numbers to improper fractions (and vice versa) and spent much of our time this week going over the steps to long division. I have been impressed with the progress made already! Science - We finished our Earth Movements unit and took our assessment. 4th graders showed off their knowledge of landforms, natural disasters, the rock cycle, and much more. We will move onto Social Studies and students will be learning about regions of the U.S., some early U.S. colonization, and the history of New Hampshire. MicroSociety - Marketplace is closed for the week as our pop-up ventures are closed. Students whose new pop-up ventures were accepted will open up their ventures in the coming weeks! Any unemployed students will have a chance to rework their resumes to apply to any open positions. Literacy - Student have been assigned reading groups to go through novels identifying common literary elements. We meet every 3 days to review goals, questions, and set up a timeline for expected completion. Students have been working well together through their novels and will end the group study with a culminating activity. I continue to do class read alouds, and we are going through the novel The Landry News which helps explain the importance of a free press in society (and we made connections to our Microsociety block as well!)
Writing - We began formulating our 2nd debate arguments. Students will be tasked with presenting their argument in front of the room, using note cards to help. Our 2nd debate will also turn some attention toward composure and body language, critical elements when someone is trying to win a debate. Important reasons and details are a must, but proper body language can turn a good debate into a great one! Math - We are working through Unit 4 with a focus on liquid/mass conversions, different ways to multiply (traditional, lattice, partial products, partitioning rectangles). We also continue working on fact fluency and have an emphasis on working through multi-step word problems which include estimating, writing a number model with an unknown, solving, and stating whether our answers are reasonable (or not!). Science - We are getting toward the end of our Earth Movements unit, with a focus on identifying types of rocks (check out the photos page!). We have covered layers of the Earth, landforms and natural disasters, and finally the rock cycle. Many students were surprised to hear that rocks are continually recycled, just like the water cycle. MicroSociety - Marketplace has been up and running and Micro City employees have been reporting to work and spending their hard-earned micro cash! Your children most likely have begun taking home products purchased at various ventures, or they have explained some of the services they can receive during Marketplace. Literacy - We complete our novel study of the Indian in the Cupboard, and 4th graders completed a novel vs movie comparison to note the similarities and differences between the two (many 4th graders agreed...the book was better!) We have finished up our middle of the year progress monitoring and many of my 4th graders are making excellent progress in reading. We will assign students reading groups in the following week and students will work together to complete a higher-level novel and present a report to the class.
Writing - We began our opinion writing unit by introducing debate topics. 4th graders are learning how to compose an introduction in which they outline their main ideas. They then turn their main ideas (and intro and conclusions) into 5 paragraph essays. Students are paired up taking opposing sides on a variety of topics and we will begin our first debates next week! Math - We have completed Unit 3 with a final assessment taken last week. We will be taking a small break from fraction work as we begin going through extension math facts and alternative methods to solving multi-digit multiplication (ask your child about the lattice method!) We continue to review decimal to fraction conversions, equivalent fractions, and comparing fractions. Science - We began our second unit in Science, Earth Movements. Students have been learning about how layers of the Earth come together to form our planet. The churning molten core continually pushes large tectonic plates around the Earth, creating mountains and trenches in the process. We spent some time graphing the Earth's volcanoes and noticed the "ring of fire" trend around the globe. We began discussing landforms and natural disasters, and worked solving a mystery about how to protect your home from a landslide! MicroSociety - Marketplace has been up and running and Micro City employees have been reporting to work and spending their hard-earned micro cash! Your children most likely have begun taking home products purchased at various ventures, or they have explained some of the services (Relaxation Center!?) they can receive during Marketplace. Literacy - We began our second novel study of Indian in the Cupboard. We continued working through summarizing and sequencing skills, as well as vocabulary. Students use what they've read to help make inferences related to the text. As we close the first trimester, we will be re-assessing student's reading levels in the coming month to ensure adequate yearly progress.
Writing - We have finished our Narrative writing unit with a comprehensive assignment in which students had to include all aspects of our writing curriculum. Students were tasked with creating a narrative piece including characters, setting, conflict, resolution, dialogue, transition words, powerful word choice, paragraphs, and an introductory hook. Up next, we will be beginning our Opinion writing unit and begin debates! Math - We have completed Unit 2 with a final assessment taken on December 1st. Students have been working hard covering arrays, factors, multiples, time conversions, identifying angles and properties of quadrilaterals. We continue to practice our multiplication skills and utilizing our math notebooks for word problems. We will begin working on fractions, so multiplication skills are an important foundation for this skill. Social Studies - We have finished up our civics and government unit with an emphasis on levels/branches of government. Students were asked to identify responsibilities for each branch of government. We discussed goods and services and what our tax dollars pay for. We also identified members of various levels of government and how individual states also have their own laws. MicroSociety - Ventures and agencies have been meeting with their employees to prepare for the opening of Marketplace next week! Materials have been ordered and production is set to begin next Tuesday. Owners and managers have been tasked with creating employee schedules, setting up payroll, submitting business loan applications, and establishing business checking accounts. Students are ready! Literacy - We finished our first novel unit study on The Tiger Rising. Students handed in their comprehension questions and worked on their movie posters depicting what they thought was an important scene to the plot of the book. In between novel studies, I like to read short mystery stories as my read aloud from the series Encyclopedia Brown. These short mysteries make 4th graders turn their thinking caps on as they listen to clues to try and solve the mystery. We will begin our next novel study, The Indian in the Cupboard, on Monday.
Writing - We completed our which witch activity that had an emphasis on descriptive writing using our senses. The students had a blast identifying which witch was which! We began to discuss adding elements to our story including dialogue and different "hooks" to keep the reader interested. We also completed our first diagnostic assignment on the website NoRedInk, which serves as a guide to lead into some of our grammar work. Math - Unit 2 kicked off with some area and perimeter review. We continue to spend about 10 minutes each math block working with our math buddy to practice multiplication facts. Tremendous progress is already being made! Please reinforce at home as this skill is a wonderful foundation for future math skills. We moved onto factors and multiples and introduced a few games to help us determine which different factors combine to make certain products. Ask your child if they prefered Factor Bingo or Factor Captor! We continue to work through daily word problems with a focus on explaining how we solved. There is a focus on practicing using math vocabulary throughout their explanations. Word problems can be tricky, and practice makes better! Social Studies - We began our civics and government unit with a discussion about the branches and levels of government. We discussed why we have certain "levels" of government and who is voted in as leaders of national, state, and local governments. Students spent some time in the computer lab working through a civics lesson with Ms. Fitzgerald and we will look to continue our government work next week. MicroSociety - Employee rosters have been filled out and students have reported to their first day of work! On the first day, managers and owners helped to create attendance/payroll sheets, set up schedules for their employees, and began creating a needed materials list and mission statement. Owners and managers will work next week to help determine goals for their venture and finalize a mission statement regarding their business. Literacy - We are continuing through our first novel study called The Tiger Rising, one of the titles written by Kate DiCamillo that we will study this year. Students have began using their literacy binders to answer comprehension questions citing evidence from the text. We have been identifying rising/falling actions and comparing relationships between characters. We practice making inferences, which are different than basic predictions. Students are required to use information from the text to make accurate inferences. We will wrap up our first novel unit study with a culminating activity next week.
Writing - As we move through our Narrative Unit, we took a step back to practice making our writing more descriptive. We practiced writing using our 5 senses. Good writers can put a visual in their reader's heads, and we practiced describing objects (hidden "I, Spy" game), scenes, and have completed our Witch coloring pages. Students will write descriptive paragraphs describing their Witch for our "Which Witch is Which" Halloween activity on Tuesday. Math - Unit 1 is complete! We took our assessment last week and I was happy to see the progress my class is making. We started Unit 2 and began reviewing multiplication arrays and areas for rectangles. Each student has been paired up with a math buddy to help practice fact fluency. Every 4th grader has a multiplication goal and they are steadily improving. Stuck in traffic? Give your child single digit multiplication problems to help practice. Also, you can have your child practice on www.xtramath.org at home to help increase their fluency. We have also been doing word problems of the day to help students understand how to EXPLAIN how they solve problems using math terminology. Science - Our Life Science Unit is complete! We had our assessment today and students had to show what they know about all we covered in our first unit. We will move onto Social Studies next week and begin our Civics and Government unit. MicroSociety - Managers have been hired for ventures and agencies. Business proposals that were accepted were announced and we have many new and eager business owners! Students updated their resumes and have been practicing interviewing for positions. Business owners prepared "help wanted" boards for the job fair that starts next week! Literacy - We finished our read aloud The Fear Place and discussed characterization and relationship development between the main characters. We went through a story mountain to identify rising and falling actions, climax, problems and resolutions. We have now begun our first novel study called The Tiger Rising, one of the titles written by Kate DiCamillo that we will study this year. Students have began using their literacy binders to answer comprehension questions citing evidence from the text. This is a difficult skill, but practice makes better.
Writing - Our first narrative stories have been completed as rough drafts in our writing notebooks. Students paired up to peer edit and practice their proofreading skills. Once completed, students utilized the Chrome book cart to type up their stories. Every 4th grader has a rubric with a checklist identifying which features are required in their story (setting, characters, problem/resolution, transition words, powerful language, mechanics, etc). I request each student use their rubrics to give themselves a grade prior to handing in the assignment. This is helpful for students to keep them aware of what features I am looking for when grading their writing assignments. Math - We went through our estimating and multi-digit addition and subtraction practice. We already shaved off over 2 minutes from our "I Have, Who Has" multiplication game. Ask your child! Single digit multiplication facts are a must. Students have been using the XtraMath website for quick practice. This website can be accessed at home at www.xtramath.org. Your child can be logged in using their first name and their pin is their date of birth (MMDD). If your child loves spending time on tablets, have them do their Xtra Math drill first! We moved onto measurement conversions and began identifying some geometry terms (point, lines, line segments, rays...) Science - Food chains and webs were completed and students worked on identifying producers, consumers, and decomposers. They then tried their hands at the food chain game (see our photos tab!). We discussed how natural disasters can affect ecosystems, such as the CA wildfires. We ran through a mystery science experiment in which pictures of habitats from today were compared to fossils found in that location. Imagine the students surprise when they learned whale fossils were found in the Sahara Desert and palm tree fossils were found in Antartica! This sparked a rousing discussion of how the Earth changes over time, and they had to explain how fish fossils were found on top of a mountain. We are finishing up our first unit with a comprehensive assessment to come at the end of next week. MicroSociety - Management 101 class began for all MicroCity residents interested in managing a venture or agency this year. 4th graders worked on resumes and practiced identifying characteristics they possess which would benefit their employer. We discussed how to make our resumes stand out and some of my entrepreneurial students submitted their own business proposals for ventures they would like to start at MACS this year. Literacy - We reviewed a lesson in types of genres which led to a full reorganizing of the classroom library. Students now have access to multiple titles across several grade levels and genres. We continue to discuss elements of literacy as we work through our read aloud The Fear Place. We have been emphasizing characters' relationships and how they change throughout a novel. We discuss rising and falling actions and how the author uses powerful word choice to build up tension leading to a climax. We distributed our Reading Log to help keep track of books finished in 4th grade. This is a helpful tool to keep track of titles students read and to make sure they are reading books that are a good fit for them and perhaps venture out into a new genre!
Writing - We dove into our first unit on Narrative Writing with a lesson on "What is a Story?" We connected our writing with literacy and discussed what types of elements are usually found in a story (setting, plot, characters, etc) and how to best incorporate these elements into their own writing. We began brainstorming and completed a "Story Map" of our first narrative. Students will be tasked with creating an engaging story (ask them about how to use a hook to keep a reader interested!) using the elements we've discussed. We discussed introducing problems and resolutions into our writing. Students were shown self-rubrics to help them make sure they are including all required elements in their writing. We continue to do weekly spelling and word work to practice unfamiliar terms. Math - We spent some time reviewing estimation ("whyyyyy do we have to esssstimate?") to help show students that estimating can help catch silly mistakes. Now that they are able to round to certain place values, 4th graders began use estimating strategies to help complete basic arithmetic problems, as well as longer number stories. The creativity was flowing as the entire group helped develop an engaging number story about how many gummy worms were consumed by their classmates. We will use these strategies as we move into triple digit addition and subtraction problems. Science - We finished our creature feature assignment along with detailed drawings of how certain features of their creature help them survive in a specific environment. We also completed our first science vocabulary assessment.. We utilized our Science readers to review Energy in an Ecosystem and the difference between producers, consumers, and decomposers. I showed a time-lapse clip of fungi growing in a dense jungle to show how decomposers help break down dead plants/animals and return nutrients to the soil. Plenty of curious minds in my class so engage your child in a conversation about science! MicroSociety - The votes are in! MACS students voted in new President, Vice President, Senators, and Class Representatives. We reviewed check writing, balancing our ledger, taxes, and discussed venture possibilities for students. Management 101 has begun for any student interested in managing a business. We will discuss resumes, job applications, and business proposals in the coming days... Literacy - We began literacy this year by reviewing some elements of literature (Plot, Characters, Setting, etc) as I began our first read aloud book, The Best School Year Ever. We reviewed "story mountain" and detailed how stories and movies tend to follow a pattern. We spent some time figuring out the best way to find independent reading books (ask your child about the 5 finger rule!) and we began our beginning of the year reading assessments.
Writing - We started our school year creating a graffiti board of ideas to help get our creative juices flowing. Students prepared their Writer's notebooks with a proofreading cheat sheet and wrote our first "piece" of writing about our summer vacation. Students then worked in pairs to help practice proofreading stories. We will look to begin our Narrative writing unit in the coming week. Math - We began 4th grade by doing a quick recap of end of 3rd grade skills. These include place value, rounding, and comparing numbers. We also completed our beginning of the year math assessments and I have been impressed with the previous knowledge already displayed by my new class! We toured our Math Workbook and began completing some early pages. We introduced some math games and worked well in groups. For your reference, single digit multiplication skills are a must! While many of my students have this skill mastered, please take time to practice with your child. This will serve as a great foundation for higher-level math skills Science - We began our first unit which will include Living Things in Their Environment, Energy in an Ecosystem, and How Ecosystems Change. We began by reviewing a pond ecosystem, defining living and non-living organisms that make up an environment, and discussed some previous knowledge about carnivores, herbivores (they've eaten herbs before!), and omnivores. We closed the week by having students drawing and labeling their own pond ecosystem. MicroSociety - We had our first town hall meeting in which the character trait of the month (Assertiveness) was detailed for the student body. We spent some time reviewing differences between agencies and ventures, allowed students who held government positions last year share examples of their daily work, and began to go through a list of some potential ventures that sounded appealing for 4th graders. As students will be getting paid for their Micro jobs (as well as their classroom jobs), we closed the week by spending some time creating wallets to hold our money. ** We had a great first full week of school. Expectations have been set, but need to be continually reinforced. Please remember all students are to complete a nightly reading (20 minutes) and a writing prompt in their Reader's notebook (3-5 sentences summarizing the passage they read). As the year progresses, unfinished work from class may be sent home to complete for homework. You can check the homework tab of my website for more information. |
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April 2018
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