Reading: We spent read-aloud reading "The Best Part of Me" as a mentor text to our writing this week. We also started a short but wonderful picture book called "You Look Ridiculous" which fits with the same theme as "The Best Part of Me." We'll finish it Monday! Independent Reading is going well in its initial stages in that our readers are finding things they enjoy and finding quiet, personal spots to settle into. I'm excited to learn more about their habits, styles, and preferences this month! Ask your kids about their favorite types of books, articles, or magazines. What do they hope to read this year? What would they like to try that's new? Share some of your favorites with them, too!
Writing: We spent more time brainstorming this week in order to build our ideas section. It's so important to provide the kids with plentiful opportunities to for success in this vulnerable and often challenging subject. We focus a lot of our time on building a class community, learning how to work together and give supportive and constructive feedback, and figuring out what's fun to write about. In this way, I gain access to teaching opportunities because the kids have material from which to teach! We've been working on a short but really wonderful writing piece for our bulletin boards for Curriculum Night. Ask your kids what's the best part of them? :)
4th Grade Math: This week we started our math book and completed lessons 1 and part of two. The first few lessons will take a couple of days as we are slowly learning the pace together! We looked at place value charts and learned how to phrase 10 times as much of a number and 10 times as many. We also solved them in word problems. We had one day of homework and will begin regular homework next week! Ask your student 10x4 tens= tens= hundreds.
Social Studies: This week we began Social Studies with a growth mindset lesson. Due to having Monday off, we only had one session. We talked about the difference between growth and fixed mindsets. We also shared times we have had a growth mindset and times we have had a fixed mindset. Next week the kids will be taking a survey about their own mindset! Ask your child if they can tell you the difference between growth and fixed mindsets.
Science: This week we started our science unit by drawing a scientist and talking as a class about the different types of scientist. We discussed how adults, men, woman, children can all be scientists and how we will be a scientist in our class this year. We then began a two day STEM project on creating the tallest cup tower out of 24 cups. Students are working in groups of 4 or 5 and planning their project together. Some groups had time to test their plan and we will continue it next week! Ask your child what their team plan is for their tower.
Miscellaneous:
- Does your child want to play a band or orchestra instrument, but you feel instrument rental is beyond your budget? PING—Providing Instruments for the Next Generation—can help. PING! loans instruments to D90, D97, and D200 students who qualify for free/reduced lunch or are experiencing a family financial crisis. Please contact us at www.pingoprf.org or 708-524-3001 ext. 2995. Time is running short though—D97 registration for instrumental music closes next week!
A few handy resources for our first week:
Family Welcome Letter
303 Class Page on our Whittier Site
Mrs. Roskos's email: mroskos@op97.org
Mrs. Roskos's Twitter: @Mrs. Roskos
Mrs. Weiss's email: lweiss@op97.org
Mrs. Weiss's Twitter: @Leslie3weiss
