Hello!  I decided to change Super Kids to Rocket Math.  Both are forms of fact practice, but Rocket Math is more individualized.  Also, the problem solver may look a bit different on Thursday.  Some weeks I will be using problems connected to what we are studying in class.  I am expecting the kids to use the PICS chart to break their problems apart and explain thinking step by step.

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

I hope you had a fun and restful break.

We are jumping in right where we left off.  Next Friday (Jan. 13) is our area and perimeter test.  After that we will begin two digit nultiplication, so get those facts memorized!  We are also wrapping up our work on elapsed time.

In writing, the kids are writing essays about new year’s resolutions.  Then we will move on to narrative writing.

We are wrapping up the thirs habit of great reader: “Great Readers Use What they Know.”  This week’s instruction focused on making connections and next week we will work on making inferences.

There is never a dull moment around here!

Dec. 16th at 1:30 

Participation dependent on completion of November book project (timeline poster about a biography).  Please contact me if you need help!!   After lunch, we will do Rocket Math and read aloud.  Our party will follow that (around 1:30). The plan is to play board games and do Christmas crafts.  Since the kids eat at 12:05, we won’t start offering snacks until 2:00.  Please let me know  if you are able to help with goodies so I can plan ahead for snacks.

THANK YOU!!

Hope everyone enjoyed a great Thanksgiving! It was great to have the students back today after almost a week! We enjoyed conferencing with most of you early last week. If we did not get a chance to sit down with you (because of weather or busy schedules), please let us know. We have student work and progress we’d like to share with you!

Here’s a brief look at this week:

Reading: In our shared reading time we will be practicing strategies for combining related information, activating background knowledge, and considering purpose. We will also continue meeting in our book groups as well as earning reading counts points!

Math: We will begin working with perimeter this week and continue practice with elapsed time. We’re also moving forward with our math facts!!

Writing: Working with word choice and adding detail is our next teaching step (as we discussed with many of you in conferences!) This week we’ll be doing several mini-lessons on elaborating and using descriptive words in our writing (replacing the word “stuff”, similes, etc).

Social Studies: We are finishing up our Washington State relief maps – using sharpie markers to add detail (capitals, major cities, rivers). We will also begin talking about weather and climate.

Don’t forget to bring back any overdue library books you may have at home!

We’re looking forward to the November Biography Book Projects coming in this week too!

The kids have made it through their first all day write! Our fourth graders have worked their way through all stages of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, final copy) to produce an expository essay. Our task was to choosea day of the week and explain, in severalmparagraphs, why it was our favorite or least favorite day. The kids are expected to write in organized paragraphs with an introduction, a conclusion, and with elaboration. This will help prepare them for the MSP writing task in May. I am proud of all their hard work today!!

Monday was busy! It was great to watch the 5th grade Boo-ographies in the morning and celebrate as a class in the afternoon – with lots of treats! We also had Computers and Steps to Respect in there! Wow! :)

We finished book project presentations last week and students had some opportunity to look for Biographies for the November project. Looking forward to those! They will also have some practice with timelines in class to help prepare them.

We are finishing up the first round of book groups within the next week and continuing to work toward Reading Counts points!

We’ve started working with probablity vocabulary in Math and did some final review and assessment on Median, Mode and Range!

We’re gearing up for our all-day write and field trip to the Symphony next week!

Enjoy your weekend!

Reading: We are working on asking explicit and implicit questions as we read, and trying to answer those questions.

Math: We have made line plots, bar graphs, and worked with median, mode and range in a set of data.

Spelling: There has been a focus on suffixes and the sounds of /c/.

Social Studies: We made posters in groups about the five types of landforms found in our state. That information is going into a flap book.

Writing: We are in the middle of writing our first 5 paragraph expository essays about our favorite places. Soon we will be scoring them and getting ready for our first all day write on Nov. 8.

Our first book order of the year went home today. Please order by Oct. 12 if interested as I am wrapping it up on the 13th.

We just started a brand new unit on math on data & statistics. Today the kids predicted how many raisins are in the mini boxes. (You’d be surprised how many fit in there.) Tomorrow we organize and graph our data into a line plot.

To help with the large classes sizes we are managing at third and fourth grades, the district has hired Alisa DeMir to teach science.  Removing one subject from our planning really frees up time to work on individual student needs and contact parents, and makes science instruction much more consistent.  Our class will have science every Wednesday from 2:15-3:00, every Thursday from 11:20-12:05, and every other Monday from 8:30-9:15.