WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK:

WRITING: We have been learning about adventure stories this week.  All four 4^th grade classes are working in the village, collaborating in groups of 4 on the features of adventure stories.  We learned how the main character (hero/heroine) has certain qualities, such as bravery, being courageous, intelligent, able to solve a problem, and are risk takers.   Sometimes they may have a flaw, but they always go on some type of journey.  Adventure stories are realistic, which means that the setting and the action need to be something that can really happen.  Ask your student about what their character looks like, what they like, what traits they have, and other features of their story.

MATH:  We formed math groups this week and the students went to other 4^th grade teachers.  We are working on building concepts that were on the first interim math assessments the students took.  Each teacher took a specific concept and taught that to 3 different groups this week.  For example, groups that came to my class worked on how to figure out missing numbers in particular patterns (15, 429, 13, 429,

11, 429, what are the next 3 numbers?).

READING: Benchmark reading tests are finally complete.  We started back in our wonderful guided reading groups.  Ask your student about the book they are reading.  We all talked about how the author describes the main characters in their story, and how characters change throughout the story. Some students did some research on ancient Egypt for the book they are reading, while others are talking about Times Square and the cricket that travels there.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We finished our unit on Early Michigan history.  The students participated in a simulated assembly line, “building” Model A Cars in Henry Ford’s original factory.  They learned how hard the work was, how the workers (mostly immigrants) made only $5 a day, and how there many other workers ready to take their place if they made errors.  Ask them about Henry Ford and “his” tough rules!

SCIENCE: We began our next science unit, which is learning how energy transfers from one source to another.  This is one of my favorite and most fun units!  

WHAT ARE WE LEARNING?

WRITERS WORKSHOP: Students have been learning about how authors write about memorable objects in their lives.  They brought in a memorable object, wrote about why it's important to them, and now are in the process of writing deeper.  This means they are rereading their writing and stopping at a part that "touches" their heart, and then adding more details about that part.  Look for student work to be posted soon!


READING WORKSHOP: My reading class finished with the guidelines for reading workshop, working on how punctuation helps us understand the author's meaning.  The students have also begun to write recommendations for books and are placing them in genre baskets.  These recommendations help students find new books that their classmates have enjoyed.
Some students will be working on Edmodo to post research they are doing on their guided reading books.


MATH: Last week students took their first interim assessment, and this week focused on several objectives.  One objective was to re-teach concepts that students are struggling with, such as place value, pictographs, and story problems.  We also began Unit 4, which is working with decimals, place values in the 10ths, 100ths, and 1,000ths. We have also started 4.4, which is working with adding and subtracting decimals.


SOCIAL STUDIES: We have traveled through time as historians, learning about Michigan's Early People, the lumber and mining industry.  We will continue next week on more of Michigan's early industry.  The focus for this unit was how Michigan's economy was built through industry, which brought in people from Europe, built up towns around rivers, and how life changed throughout the past 100 years.

We are in desperate need of snacks!  The students come back from AMPT "starving", and have about 2 minutes to grab their reading materials and snacks,  and go to their reading classes.  We have found that the quickest way to do this (other than the students bringing individual snacks, which is great!) is to have large quantities of snacks, put them into baggies & have the kids grab & go!  We really appreciate all the donations that you have generously sent in.  We are looking for animal crackers, graham crackers, pretzels of all types, popcorn, etc.  THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

1st Quarter Progress Reports

1st Quarter Progress Reports

Progress reports will be sent home on Monday, November 14th. Please sign the note attached indicating that you have received your child's progress report. If you should have any questions and/or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me!

NO SCHOOL THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24 & FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25^TH.

Wednesday, November 30^th.  Additional information will be sent home soon.

WAYS TO DISCUSS BOOKS AT HOME

This list of questions gives ideas for ways to discuss books at home with your child. The questions gradually get harder and get to higher level thinking skills as you go down the sheet.


You can also look at this website for additional questions to ask and discuss during reading:http://readingtokids.org/ReadingClubs/TipBloomsTaxonomy.php

Blooms Taxonomy Book Review Questions

CELEBRATION!!

We had almost 100% participation in Fun Friday today!! Congratulations to all students who passed their first milestone of 4th grade!!  I'm really excited about these exhibitions since the students have already put a lot of time and effort into their beginning research.  A HUGE shout out to all parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and whomever else, for all the support you have given to your student to encourage their success of this exhibition!

MILESTONE 2 OUTLINE

Milestone 2 is due on November 17th.  This milestone is in an outline form.  There are 7 main criteria that must be completed for the exhibition.  Below you will find both the original notice that was sent home near the beginning of school stating the 7 requirements, and also, an outline template.  Students should use this template to complete their outline for their state.  Outlines may be written or typed, but must be neat and legible.  As always, thank you for your fabulous support, and please email me with any questions/concerns.

MILESTONE 2

Milestone 2 Reminder

State Project Revised

OUR GROWING WRITERS...

Our weekend writing assignment that was due Monday, October 18^th was:

If you had to choose between being UGLY and RICH, or BEAUTIFUL and POOR, which would you choose?  Give the reasons for your choice.

Several students wrote extremely well, using examples and details, and captured the idea of how we can be beautiful on the inside, how we can be poor in money, but wealthy in life around us. Please go to the “Student Work” tab at the top of the page so that you may read what they wrote (unedited!)

Our weekend writing assignment that was due Monday, October 18^th was:

If you had to choose between being UGLY and RICH, or BEAUTIFUL and POOR, which would you choose?  Give the reasons for your choice.

Several students wrote extremely well, using examples and details, and captured the idea of how we can be beautiful on the inside, how we can be poor in money, but wealthy in life around us. Please go to the “Student Work” tab at the top of the page so that you may read what they wrote (unedited!)

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED THIS WEEK?

MATH:  We have been focused on math facts this week, using math vocabulary for multiplication and division.  We learned multiples, factors, factor pairs, and products for multiplication.  We also dived into division with dividends, divisors, quotients, and remainders.  Ask your students about “DQ”! We had an awesome math morning today, with students learning how to take notes in their math notebooks.  We decided that some students need number examples to help them with definitions in math, some need word definitions, and some need both number examples and words.  It was really exciting to listen to them talk math and make the decision about how they learn, which determined how they took notes.  This is something that we’ll be doing on a regular basis.  It is important for them to understand note taking, and that their notes need to reflect their learning.  Considering that it’s been a long week of MEAP work, I was overjoyed with their enthusiasm to do math! 

READING:  We have not switched reading groups this week due to the MEAP schedule.  However, the students have been reading everyday as they finish the test.  Again, I am constantly surprised by our kids’ self-motivation.  They are reading all types of genres, from poetry to non-fiction about animals, marine life, space, to all forms of fiction.  It’s a teacher’s dream to have students exploring reading, and not getting enough of it!!  I hope that you are seeing this at home, too.  Keep encouraging them to read at least 20 minutes a day.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:  We are finished with our first science unit, which covered the moon, sun, and the earth. In two weeks we will start our social studies unit.  In our first unit we will learn how to be historians from primary and secondary sources.  Our learning will focus on Michigan history.

WRITING: We are continuing our writing of narrative paragraphs.  Students have learned what makes a strong topic sentence, and how to support that sentence with details and examples.  They are also working on editing skills, looking for capitals, punctuation, spelling, and language errors. They have learned about the 4 types of sentences, subject, predicate, direct object, and prepositional phrases.

SHOUT TO DEVIN RICHARDS!  DEVIN SCORED A 100% ON OUR FIRST SCIENCE TEST.   GO DEVINJ

MILESTONE 1 REMINDER

Milestone 1:

Due Thursday, October 20^th  

·       ALL RESOURCES for the interest project: at least 3 books AND 3 websites on the correct form with a parent signature.

·       PLEASE NOTE: Each student is required to bring printed copies of the information they will be using from the websites and all three of the books that they will be using for their research. Actual websites used for their research must be listed, not “Wikepedia.com”.

**Please see below for the actual form and dates for all milestones if you have not received one from your child.

MEAP Testing will continue next week. Students will be taking the Writing Part 2, and Math tests. Please make sure that your child is in school, gets a great night's sleep, and eats a fabulous breakfast.  Also, please be sure that they are on time!

Tuesday, October 18^th : Mathematics

Wednesday, October 19^th : Writing Day 2

Edmodo is finally here!  Each student has a username and password for our class edmodo account.  They have brought home a detailed letter regarding edmodo, ways that we will use it, and the norms for using edmodo.  Please review the norms with your student, and then have both of you sign the permission form.  Those need to be returned ASAP!

They had a math assignment last night to complete on edmodo.  We learned how to join the math group, find the assignment, do the assignment, and then turn it in.  I will be grading the assignments and they will be posted in the “grades” portion of edmodo.

As always, be email me with any questions/concerns.