Don't forget that Tuesday evening is our curriculum night! It starts at 6:30. One more reminder: your child will bring his/ her iPad home each night. He/ she is expected to return to school with it fully charged each morning.
Reading: We continued reading Shiloh this week and it's been great fun! We've started slowly, taking the time to learn about the author, discuss the genre of the book (realistic fiction), and talk about the characters and setting. I also previewed some fun things we'll incorporate into our language arts workshop this year, including a book challenge, a weekly reading log on their iPads, and book clubs. Ask your reader what book they chose from the library on Thursday. Read with them this weekend and ask them what they like about the book they chose (they should be able to tell you something specific!)
Writing: Writing workshop developed beautifully this week. We spent our time building ideas and talked about how writer's collect their ideas. We did full workshop with independent writing time and class sharing, as well as sharing homework with their tablemates. Already their comfort level is growing in sharing and discussing their own work. I'm so pleased with their open-minded attitudes! Ask your kids what's on their "I Wonder" list or their observation list. Ask them to describe their perfect day.
4th Grade Math: This week we started our new math books and got right into the swing of math! Students start our math class with a daily math review and we correct it together. We then correct homework together and get review what we learned the day before. Then is on to new material! This week we have been working with the place value chart. We have learned the phrase 10x as many as. These lessons will help us and we learn regrouping in addition and "borrow and carrying" in subtraction. Ask your child if they can explain 10x as many as 5 tens _ hundreds.
Social Studies: This week we started our Social Studies unit on current events. We read about the meaning of Labor Day and how it started on Tuesday by using an app called News-o-matic (it is not on our student Ipads but I used it on my Ipad.). Later in the week we looked at our class blog and saw all of the different kid news websites the students can read on and then we signed up on their student accounts to Newsela.com. Lastly, today we discussed September 11th by reading Scholastic News. Ask your students to show you a news website from our blog.
Science: This week all of the 4th graders did a STEM science experiment to kick off our year. We will be working on these experiments throughout the year. Our first experiment was a group project to make the largest tower out of 24 mini-cups. Each student thought about a plan first and then worked with their group to write and draw their idea. Students were given time to make their tower and then work on another plan if it did not work. Look at our pictures to see what we did!
Miscellaneous:
Writing: Writing workshop developed beautifully this week. We spent our time building ideas and talked about how writer's collect their ideas. We did full workshop with independent writing time and class sharing, as well as sharing homework with their tablemates. Already their comfort level is growing in sharing and discussing their own work. I'm so pleased with their open-minded attitudes! Ask your kids what's on their "I Wonder" list or their observation list. Ask them to describe their perfect day.
4th Grade Math: This week we started our new math books and got right into the swing of math! Students start our math class with a daily math review and we correct it together. We then correct homework together and get review what we learned the day before. Then is on to new material! This week we have been working with the place value chart. We have learned the phrase 10x as many as. These lessons will help us and we learn regrouping in addition and "borrow and carrying" in subtraction. Ask your child if they can explain 10x as many as 5 tens _ hundreds.
Social Studies: This week we started our Social Studies unit on current events. We read about the meaning of Labor Day and how it started on Tuesday by using an app called News-o-matic (it is not on our student Ipads but I used it on my Ipad.). Later in the week we looked at our class blog and saw all of the different kid news websites the students can read on and then we signed up on their student accounts to Newsela.com. Lastly, today we discussed September 11th by reading Scholastic News. Ask your students to show you a news website from our blog.
Science: This week all of the 4th graders did a STEM science experiment to kick off our year. We will be working on these experiments throughout the year. Our first experiment was a group project to make the largest tower out of 24 mini-cups. Each student thought about a plan first and then worked with their group to write and draw their idea. Students were given time to make their tower and then work on another plan if it did not work. Look at our pictures to see what we did!
Miscellaneous:
- This year we will be trying a new parent/school connection in our room and we are very excited! Each week we will have a mystery reader in our classroom and they will read their (or their child's) favorite book. Our mystery reader time will be on Mondays right after lunch- 11:45. Our students will have a few guesses of who our reader is before they enter the classroom and then our reader will share the book with us. Typically mystery reader will last 15 minutes. Parents are welcome to join us in our room or you are also welcome to Skype (or FaceTime) into our classroom if you are working. We hope that everyone will be able to join us for at least one reading session. Parents, grandparents, guardians, aunts, uncles, older siblings, etc. are welcome on their reading date! Mrs. Weiss will be sending a sign up email next week!
- Join Girl Scouts: Hey fourth grade girls! If you're interested in joining Girl Scouts, now is the time! Have your parent email Mary Furman or Jen Mitchell (marefur24@yahoo.com/jenwmitchell@gmail.com).
- Check out this month's D97 Librarian Newsletter for book and research resources, book recommendations and more! - https://www.smore.com/g0qx9-d97-elementary-library-news"
