What's going on in room 406!?
Good Afternoon Families,
It has been a busy, busy 4 weeks here in fourth grade. We have hit the ground running with all of our academics. Below you will find an update on math, ELA, and writing.
In math we are working through the Unit #1 dealing with place value, adding and subtracting to the millions place. I will be sending home a parent letter which will show you the different strategies we are learning. Please look for that in your child's blue assignment notebook/folder. It should help with any questions or concerns your or your child are having.
Each unit comes with quick quizzes that are to be administered at certain points of the chapters. These quizzes are 5 questions (not totally 5 points) and are a quick snap shot of your student of how they are doing with the material thus far. These quick quizzes are graded. We have had two so far of the three that need to be taken in Chapter #1.
In ELA we have finished reading our novel Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing . The students really enjoyed this book. If you get a chance please ask your students about it. We will be taking the test on Wednesday of this week. We have done some vocabulary work using dictionary skills, and will continue to do some comparing and contrasting work with this novel as well. After this week we will enter a small science unit dealing with the body systems. It is a great portion of this unit and the students love that they get to sneak some science learning in to their days.
In Writer's Workshop we have been working on the steps to crafting a a piece of narrative fiction. We started out by learning about two ways to come up with or develop story line ideas by either choosing small moments in our lives and basing the story off of that or by choosing to write about a story the writer's wished existed in the world. After that we talked about how to to develop our characters with exterior qualities (looks, etc.) and interior qualities (emotions, etc.). The students needed to develop a character that would fit their story line. Today we talked about how to develop a specific character's struggles and motivations. We talked about thinking about what their character wants in life or wants in the story and then talking about what kind of things would deter that want or goal from being accomplished (essentially the problem in the story).
Writer's Workshop is a learning experience for us all; students and teachers alike. Although this is true, I am very happy with the work and the enthusiasm the students are showing during our writing time.
Classroom Reminders
With it being the fourth week of school, I am beginning to expect a little more out of the students each and every day. I am beginning to expect that the students know what it means to Be Respectful, Be Responsible and Be Safe. These are no knew expectations or rules to the students, but they are something that will help with behavior issues/management. Below you will find some tips on how to help your child succeed:
1. Remind students to do their homework and please check it over and sign their assignment notebook. This is a very important part as I sometimes have them write notes or I write notes myself in these notebooks. This is also where you will find all of the important paper work that gets sent home on a daily basis. I have had a few children come up to me and say, "My mom or dad forgot to sign my notebook, Mrs. Cummings." While I know that life can be very busy, I remind my students that it isn't their parents' job to remember to sign. It is the students' job to present their work, notes or whatever it may be to their parents, have a conversation about the material and then ask for you to please sign the notebook. This is showing responsibility. Homework is very important. I do not give it often and try not to send a lot of work home, but when I do it MUST get done otherwise that student will be behind in the learning.
2. We are having a hard time as a class as a whole remembering to be at a level 0 (no talking) when I am giving directions or during how group instruction. It is very hard for me to do this when there is talking. If you could please have a chat with your students about how it is respectful to listen with your whole body to what the teacher is saying as you may miss important information. If I have to remind the students (individually or as a whole) they will either owe me a straw or a perfect minute.
3. Please send you student with some sort of light jacket for recess. I know this week the weather is going to be quite warm, but it won't be for long.