Literacy - We continued our new novel unit study, Maniac Magee. We also finished middle of the year reading assessments and many students are making positive gains. We continue to supplement our daily independent reading with comprehension strategies practice. We learned about figurative language (similes and metaphors) and will continue through idioms this week.
Writing - We continue to work on weekly spelling. We finished our letters to Mrs. Bottomley and had them printed and signed. We watched a student debate take place and set up our 2nd in-class debate. During our second debate, students were able to choose from 12 available opinion prompts and everyone got to pick a side. They were then paired up and got to work gathering information to help them win their argument. Student's began debating last week and have been doing a tremendous job. The focus has been to offer a strong introduction to outline your reasons, explain your reasons with examples, and to finish strong! More debates to come this week. This is an excellent exercise in gathering information, organizing a writing piece, and taking a shot at public speaking! Math - We continue through Unit 4 and have been focusing on 2x2 multiplication, area and perimeter of irregular shapes, and we introduced long division! Many students are finding division not nearly as scary as they expected. All of our work to strengthen our multiplication skills has really paid off during our division work. We created a 4TH GRADE ROCKS 'N' ROLLS sign with each student assigned a letter to draw on a graph paper, figure out the area and perimeter, and we will hang up the finished piece during the upcoming week. Stay tuned! Science - Our continued our next Unit, Earth Movements! We had a scavenger hunt, set up fortune tellers, and even had a snowball fight! (Check out the photo's tab for more). We designed new ways to save our houses from landslides and will look to finish this unit within the next 1-2 weeks. We will then move on to Magnetism (while sneaking in some prep work for upcoming NECAP testing). We continue to learn about the rock cycle and will focus on classifying and identifying the three types of rocks in the upcoming weeks. MicroSociety - Students are hard at work during Micro and are enjoying their free time during Marketplace. Ask your child what they like best during Micro? Are they happy in their job? How do they think they could improve their workday?
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Mr. Clermont's class welcomed two new students, Music DeBow and Aiden St. Laurent! Welcome to MicroSociety!
Literacy - We began our new novel unit study, Maniac Magee. We also began middle of the year reading assessments. This data will help inform decisions as to which group students will attend during our WIN (What I Need) time. Students were introduced to daily reading trackers that focus on applying comprehension strategies (Summarize, Predict, Evaluate, Question, Connect, and Visualize) to their independent reading block during literacy. Writing - We continue to work on weekly spelling. We kicked off our Opinion Writing unit with our first class debate! The first debate focused around this central issue: "Should children be allowed to eat candy?" Students were split into two teams and each created convincing arguments. They were then tasked with caucusing and choosing a representative to offer final statements. We started writing our letters to Mrs. Bottomley stating how students deserve more recess time! Will their arguments be convincing enough? We will continue to work on formatting opinions and practicing debate skills throughout the unit. Math - We finished Unit 3 and began Unit 4 upon returning from break. We are focusing on 2x2 multiplication and students are making great progress. We are practicing different multiplication strategies to find what works best for each student. We practiced converting metric units and turned old favorite card games into math games! Science - Our continued our next Unit, Earth Movements! We started a new extension curriculum program called Mystery Science and began learning about volcano's, different lava types, and natural disasters. We continue to learn about the rock cycle and will focus on classifying and identifying the three types of rocks in the upcoming weeks. MicroSociety - Students are hard at work during Micro and are enjoying their free time during Marketplace. Ask your child what they like best during Micro? Are they happy in their job? How do they think they could improve their workday? |
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April 2018
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