Week of Sept. 24th

It was wonderful meeting everyone last Thursday at Curriculum Night. The students were so excited to read their responses but disappointed to find empty candy wrappers in their desks! Good job parents!!!

Our unit one math test will be this upcoming Tuesday. On Friday and Monday, students will review for the test and can use these sheets to study for the test.

READING
We're continuing to develop the reading life and partner discussions. After each mini-lesson and D.E.A.R. time, students will be given opportunities to discuss what they're reading. Some of our mini-lessons include:

• Readers create buzz about the books they love!
• To become better readers, we have to discuss what we're reading. How do you keep a conversation on track and how can you be a good discussion partner? 
• Readers are like monster truck drivers! Whenever we come across a word we don't know, we have to use different strategies to climb over the hurdle.
• Having a reading companion to discuss our reading with makes us stronger readers. We need to get to know our discussion partners as readers.
• Reading is a lot like going to the movies, the fun part comes after reading time is over and you can talk about what you've read.
• Readers retell what we've read to help organize the story in our head and to inform our partner about what's going on in the story.
• Readers retell the section they just read, but sometimes they add in details from earlier in the story that are important to the part they are retelling now.

            

WRITING

The goal in the launching unit is to build writing stamina, plan out our thoughts before diving in and begin learning about writing different strategies.

• Students continued to plan and write using sensory details. 
• One strategy we've looked at is writers use specific language versus ordinary language. We read the story Night Driving by John Coy and made a t-chart showing the ordinary language he could have used versus the specific language he did use. Students chose their own topic and planned an entry using the specific versus ordinary t-chart. 
• On Monday, students wrote their response using their plan. 
• We channeled our taste buds and explored specific words that help us describe food. Students chose a food of their own that they love and wrote their own commercials promoting their food using specific language. 
• Describing what we see and the exact sounds we hear can be very hard. We went outside and did some observations. Instead of saying that we heard cars or kids playing, we focused on the exact sounds they make. Instead of saying we saw leaves, we tried to describe what the leaves were doing or what they looked like.
• We started our personal narrative unit. We discussed the features of personal narratives and that these stories tend to be about important times in people's lives when they learned something or felt a strong emotion.  We reviewed several stories that we've read this year and discussed what the author wanted us to get out of the story and what feeling he or she wanted us to feel. 

SCIENCE
We continued on with our mock rock unit!

• Students learned the "Rock Song," which was quite entertaining. This song will help students understand the three types of rocks and their cycles.
• Students wanted to know more about what the sand mix from the mock rock was made out of so they mixed it with water and shook it up. We observed the vials and then let them rest.

• Two days later, we went back to observe the vials and noticed that the mix had fallen to the bottom and settled. The students noticed that there was layers in the mix, which meant there was more than one ingredient in the sand mix.  

• They noticed that the water was not as clear as it should so they decided to pour the water out and see what was left behind after it evaporated. 

• Beautiful crystals were left behind in the dish and the students figured out that salt was part of the recipe. 

• Another property that geologists explore is hardness. Students were given four mystery rocks and had to test the hardness to determine the rock type. 

 Math

• Students continued to play games such as Factor Pairs and Multiple Turnover. This helped them understand the difference between factors and multiples. 
• We spent two days finding all the factors of 100, 200 and 300. We began to explore the rule that factors of one number will also be factors of multiples of that number. 
• We continued to test that rule with the numbers 16 and 48. Students did agree that the rule was true and had to find ways to prove that this will work for all numbers. 
• Students practiced solving balanced equations such as 8 x ____ = 10 x 4
• We spent time reviewing the concepts of unit one to prep for our test on Tuesday. 

In the swing of things!

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
     4th grade students are definitely in the swing of things, and they already have so much to share with you at Curriculum Night this Thursday. The students will be writing you a letter about 4th grade. If you are unable to attend Curriculum Night, please feel free to let me know and I'll have your child bring their letter home. 

     Student Council permission slips went home this Monday. If students would like to participate in the election process, please fill out their permission slip and return it by Wednesday, September 19th. 

     I am happy to say that the "blurt alert" cards worked out very well, and the students have made wonderful progress. Our new current goal will be to transition from one activity to the next in a quick and quiet manner, while following all directions. 

READING
     September is about launching the reading workshop, setting up reading expectations and getting ourselves into the reading mind frame. Reading typically starts with a mini-lesson followed by independent reading time. We have spent time talking about the inner conversation that readers have in their mind, and how listening to those thoughts will help us monitor our comprehension. Students will monitor their thinking while recording their thoughts on sticky notes. Currently, I am assessing students to gain a better idea of their independent reading levels. This will help them choose just right books over the course of the year. 

     Here are a few reading mini-lessons that we've discussed so far this year:

• Different ways readers choose books
• Choosing "just right books" for ourselves
• Readers listen to the inner conversation in their head
• What happens when you've realized you've been reading on autopilot
• What happens when you get stuck or have a "huh" moment
• Why do readers abandon books? When should you abandon the book and when should you try to stick it out?

When reading is the best!

Monitoring our inner conversation 

What happens when we're reading on autopilot?

WRITING

     In September, the writing focus is about launching writing, and creating "The Important Book." One part of the launching unit is the writer's notebook, which is a place for writer's to gather seed ideas for future writing assignments. In addition, the back section of the notebook is a resource for students that include different writing strategies that they will learn about. One strategy that we're currently working on is sensory details (see, hear, taste, touch, smell). Students wrote an entry about their favorite place. Next, they planned out different sensory details they could have included, and wrote another entry. All the students agreed that their second entry had better details, which would pull the reader in. Parents, something you can do to help enforce this idea is to be descriptive when telling stories, and try to include different sensory details that will enhance the story.

     We've been working on a special "Important Book" project based off The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. Students generated a list of 100 important things about themselves. They then narrowed their list from 100, to 10, and finally 4. Following the same format as The Important Book, students wrote four paragraphs about themselves, using their top four important things. This project helps launch the writing process, and breakdown the different steps that writer's take (brainstorm, plan, draft, revise, edit, publish). We will use all recycled materials for this project, and it will be on display at curriculum night! 

MATH

Finding factors and
determining if it's
a prime, square
or composite number

     Our first math unit is on factors, multiples and arrays. Students are working with multiplication combinations up to 12 x 12. We've talked about the best ways to represent multiplication (using arrays rather than detailed pictures) and how to write multiplication story problems. A few games we have played, to help practice our math facts are, Factor Pairs and Multiple Turn Over. If you're interested in having a copy to practice at home, I'd be happy to copy the materials for you!

Math Fact
Flash Cards

     In order to build fact fluency, I recommend daily math fact practice for 10 to 15 minutes at home. Students will be taking a fast facts test every Friday. They must be able to answer the problems in three minutes or less in order to move to the next level. In addition, students have created multiplication flashcards, that they can use to study. Students are allowed to bring these cards home, but should keep them in their M.O.O.S.E. so that they are also available to them at school.

Using start with
equations to help
figure out the answer

     

     There are a lot of fourth grade math vocabulary words, and it's important that students review them frequently. Students have started a math vocabulary flashcard ring. On one side is the vocabulary word and the other side is the definition, along with illustrations to help them remember. They can also keep this in their M.O.O.S.E. so they can have it available to them at home and at school. 

SCIENCE

                                             

     Our first science unit is rocks and minerals. We started by reading the book Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor, which outlines ten rules for picking the perfect pet rock. Using these rules, students set out on their own rock hunt, and found their own pet rock. Students then observed their rocks as geologists would, by looking at different properties. We then began the "Mock Rock" part of the unit, which is one of my personal favorites. Students received a "mock rock," made by Mr. Wolfe and I. They observed the different properties such as color, luster, shape and size. This will lead into several experiments, which will be taking place in the next few weeks.  

The school year has officially begun!

     The school year has officially begun! It's been wonderful getting to know your children and I look forward to working with them this year. A good chunk of time has been spent learning about each other and setting up our routines. Some of the ways we have learned about each other is by sharing our summer momentos, participating in a student scavenger hunt and the brown bag activity. Students got to explore the classroom by completing a classroom scavenger hunt and then sharing what they found with other students. We have worked on setting up classroom routines such as snack time, classroom jobs, how to line up and using our M.O.O.S.E. binder. Together, we created classroom rules and expectations. These classroom rules will be the foundation of our classroom environment and will be revisited often throughout the year.      



     In order to be successful in their learning,  students will set goals throughout the year for their grade, their class and even for themselves. The current goal for 4th graders is to raise their hands and interrupt less. Students will monitor this on a "Blurt Alert" card that they'll receive each morning. Each time a student "blurts," they have to put a check on their "Blurt Alert" card. If they receive fine in a day, students will take their card home to show their parents and to have them sign it. The rewards for not filling up a blurt alert card include free choice time and extra recess.