Welcome Sofia!

We have a new friend in our class! She fits right (in as you can see)!
Welcome Sofia!

Vacation is FAST Approaching!

And we have LOTS to do before then…

Today we had "go with the flow Monday!". It proved to be very popular and just meant that we did things in a strange order and some for longer than others. Doing this, we were able to get a few things completed before our NEW STUDENT starts with us on Wednesday.

Check our our Explorer bulletin board (below). Each pair of students did a great presentation on their explorer today. We all took notes and we will have a test on Wednesday. There is also a study guide coming home today (just in case the notes were not a thorough as they should have been). I am proud of the research and hard work that went into this project.

Today we learned the standard algorithm for two digit x two digit multiplication. You may now speak about it with your mathematician. Phew! We will spend a few days working on practicing this and reviewing this year so far.

In reading workshop, we will be wrapping up the NF expository text structures and working on smaller NF readings. My readers seem to be enjoying themselves with this unit!

Our Essay topics will be chosen tomorrow for their BIG essay. We have spent a lot of time looking at ways to generate ideas/topics and develop their thoughts. We have a nice list of phrases that help with this in our Writer's Notebooks. We will have writing HW Tuesday and Wednesday this week about elaborating our thinking.

Thank you for everything you do at home to support your learner!!!

Explorer Project

Writing… longer and longer essays!

This week we have focused a lot of attention on reading Non-Fiction and the text structures that authors use to convey their thoughts. We have worked on definition, description, and process so far and will conclude the week with classification and comparison. All of this great work in reading non-fiction is really helping us come up with great ideas for our writing unit on essays.

The focus of this week has been coming up with great ideas for essays. We have been concentrating on writing long (free writing)and really developing our ideas. This will continue through the week as we begin to pick our first essay topic to be published.

In Math, we started a combination chapter on Topics 7 and 8, multiplication of two digit numbers. Please refrain from showing your child the standard algorithm before it is taught in school. This week we will be focusing on alternate strategies to multiply including drawing models, estimating and finding compatible numbers. Today we even learned to use an expanded algorithm (check out their HW to see their hard work). Tomorrow they will learn about the "0" placeholder and finally on Friday the "Standard Algorithm"!

Explorers are the big idea of Social Studies this week - including appropriate ways to do research online and CHECKING sources! Thanks to Eric - they found a "Fake" explorer site in the mix! Students will make a poster presentation of their assigned explorer tomorrow and Friday.

Thank you for sending in Holiday Items for the collection box. We did a great job as a class!

I hope everyone is staying warm. Thanks for all that you do for Team Jones!

Three Weeks

We have a great three weeks ahead of us before winter break. It will just fly by.

In Reading Workshop we are beginning our study of Non-Fiction. We will be covering four different types of writing, five different strategies for organization, and the best ways to read and take notes of information learned.

We began our next writing unit of Essay on Monday. We wrote an on-demand prompt on a topic of their choice. Today we had Essay Boot Camp and learned the skills to write a well organized essay. We all wrote on the topic: I love ice cream! We will be working very hard on this unit over the next few months.

Our math unit is focusing on one digit times multi-digit numbers. This is a quick one and we will be completed by Friday. Following that we will be starting a combination chapter on Topics 7 and 8, multiplication of two digit numbers. Please refrain from showing your child the standard algorithm before it is taught in school. This week we will be focusing on alternate strategies to multiply including drawing models, estimating and finding compatible numbers. Students will be continuing their fact practice at home as well.

Our unit on Explorers begins tomorrow. Students will be completing research on an explorer and presenting this to the class. We have spent a good deal of time on how to complete research so it should be no problem at all. I look forward to their presentations.

I have enjoyed hearing about your Thanksgiving breaks and I hope to see you soon!

Gratitude Makes YOU Happy!

Turkey Trot

Mineral's SONG

Types of Rocks

Our World: The Rock Cycle

More geography lessons on Types of Rocks at NeoK12.com  

Rocks and Minerals Academy

Tomorrow starts the Rocks and Mineral's Academy! That is an entire week of science! I have found over the past 10 years that this is the best way to help my scientists really dive into the scientific concepts. We will be working with Mrs. Nicholson's class (Mrs. Higgs right now) and have combined lab teams. There is a list of vocabulary coming home tomorrow. Please spend some time each day reviewing this vocabulary. It will help your scientist to dive deep into the unit. During our "non scientific" periods of the day we will be wrapping up our first unit on multiplication, our Thanksgiving math projects, our Reading Groups, and our fiction pieces.

I hope you can join us on Friday during Rocks and Minerals!


Thanks for all that you do!
Laurel

Fantastic Week

What a fantastic week we have coming to a close. We are experienced readers and writers of inferences. This is a difficult skill and I am so impressed with the hard work being put into practicing it! Next week we will work on inferring the meaning of words.

The fiction pieces being completed during Writing Workshop are coming along very well. Some writers have even begun publishing. These pieces will continue on even when we move onto our next topic.

Our next Social Studies unit is on the Explorers of New York. To prepare for our project, we have spent time as a class learning the best ways to complete research and take notes. This is a skill that takes a good deal of practice! We are using a great website to help us: RESEARCH SITE. Check it out!

We completed our study of addition and subtraction in math and next up is multiplication. Keep practicing those facts!! It will only help!

Thank you for all of your support and the amount of encouragement you give your students.

Have a great three day weekend!

Subtraction with O's

Class Dojo

Crazy Halloween Week?!

Not in our class... it will be just as smooth as ever!  I hope everyone enjoyed Spooktacular.  I was at Elsmere's "Halloween Happenings" and fun was had by all (I volunteered in the quiet craft room, can you blame me?!) .

This week will bring closure to our first book groups.  We have been working at discussing what we read with our groups.  This is a skill that we will master in the next month or so... it takes a bit of time to feel comfortable and take risks.  We will also conclude our study of questioning.  After a little assessment on Friday, it seems that we need a few more days on the subject.

Writing Workshop has been a flurry of activity with our new fiction pieces.  These are independent works and they are well underway.  Most of my writers are drafting already.  We will be celebrating our Realistic Fiction pieces, drafting fiction, and getting great entries in our Writer's Notebooks.

Math has brought us to a unit on Addition and Subtraction after a quick stop for problem solving skills. We will be estimating and preforming exact calculations. I will continue to remind my mathematicians to check their work!

Reading Workshop and Math focused a lot on Fluency last week... reading and recording our voices on iPads and practicing math facts on the computer with XtraMath.  Ask your 4th grader about fluency!

Finally, we will be looking at Native American's today.  It will be a nice conclusion/introduction to Explorers.

A friendly reminder that spelling tests are Tuesday and Thursday... help your student with their words nightly!

Tuesday is our final conference day... it has been such a pleasure to meet with each of you over these three weeks.

Thanks for all you do!

Conference Day #2

This week will be another great week in 4th grade!  We are busy readers, writers, mathematicians, and historians. 

Chapter 4 in math will begin on Wednesday or Thursday after we spend a few days reading and solving word problems.  This seems to be an area that my mathematical friends could use some practice with. 

We will complete our study of Questioning this week as well as we practice answering questions from using short texts. I will be a sticker for complete sentences.  It is better to master this skill now!

Our Realistic Fiction pieces are complete and we will be moving onto a quick unit on Fiction. My writer's will be asked to follow the same steps we took with our realistic fiction pieces and complete the writing cycle on a topic of their choosing.  (They don't know this yet and WILL be excited!)

Our study of the Native American's will come to a conclusion this week and we will have a SS test on Thursday.  A study guide will be coming home on Tuesday along with flash cards for vocabulary words.  I encourage students to spend some time studying on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Don't forget to verify the great reading that your students are completing at home on Reading Rewards each week by Monday morning! 

I look forward to more conferences on Wednesday.  It was wonderful to meet with my first 11 families last week.

Partners

We have math partners, reading partners, writing partners, and more.... it is so much fun to learn as a team!

This week we will be working hard with our partners to solve math problems, discuss what we are reading, and revise and edit our writing.  It is so helpful to use a friend to elevate our learning.

Here are a few pictures of us working with our partners!  Check out how engrossed we are with our learning!

Rounding Rap

Leveled Books

What is a "just right book" for your reader?  Here is a list to help!

Click to view: Leveled Book PDF

Place Value, Book Groups, and Publishing...

Last week was very busy! 

We finished chapter 2 (patterns) in math and had our second test, we revised much of our realistic fiction story and drafted our endings, we learned about the Native American's in NYS and practiced the pronunciation of their names, and finally we had a wonderful field trip to the Half Moon.  Phew.  I was also happy to hear that while I was at my conference on teaching writing, the students were well behaved!  

This week is going to be another full week! I am getting ready as I type and look forward to teaching some great concepts!

In math we will be taking a close look at place value.  This is a spiraling unit and I hope to build on previous knowledge.  This unit will take a little over a week.

In Writing Workshop, we will be revising and finishing up our first writing piece - Realistic Fiction.  We spent a lot of time working on an ending that could really happen.  Hopefully all pieces will be completed by Friday.

In Reading Workshop, we will be starting Questioning. We will focus on two types of questions (Right There and In your Head) broken into four smaller categories. The types of questions are determined based on where the answers can be found. Students will be asking questions and answering questions throughout this unit. One of the major shifts in the Common Core for students is being able to support their thinking and answers to questions with evidence from the text. We will discuss this at length during this unit.

Social Studies will focus on the differences between the two major Native American tribes in NYS the Iroquois and the Algonquin.  

Please don't forget to validate your readers entries on our Reading Rewards log each week!

Patterns, Native Americans, Drafting and more...

Last week was very productive and also full of fun.  I hope the same will be true this week!

In math, we will be wrapping up our short unit on patterns.  Again, the mastery of multiplication facts helps to make this unit much smoother!  We will be ready for our second math test on Wednesday or Thursday.  Please remember to continue working on math facts nightly!

In reading workshop, we are ready to begin small book groups and get into the "just right" chapter book.  Up to this point, we have been taking a close look at the genre's and literary terms. I have been flexible with the books that my readers have been choosing as we get into routines and structures in Reading Workshop.  Beginning Monday, we will all be in chapter books. I will also be sending home a list of books that are "just right"if you need help picking books at home or at the public library.

We have been been working hard during Writing Workshop time.  Students have created a strong main character and started thinking about their secondary characters. They have created a want for their character and thought about what is preventing the character from getting what they want. They have planned multiple story arcs or paths that their stories could take. Thursday we began drafting, keeping in mind writers should be showing not telling. This week we will look at strong leads, powerful endings and the heart of our story. 

After our first Vocab/SS Quiz, I have decided to spend more time on the vocabulary for our second unit (Native American's).  We started making flash cards for vocab words.  These cards will come home next week for continued practice.  We will be studying Native American's for several weeks.

We also have our Field Trip to the Half Moon this week!  We will jump ahead in SS slightly to learn about Henry Hudson on his ship the Half Moon.  Thank you for your support in our adventure.

I have two meetings this week during school time.  I am hoping for a perfect report from the substitutes!   Please remind your student that when a substitute is in our class the same rules apply as when I am there.  

Enjoy your Sunday!

Can we make something like this?

Wonderful 2nd Week

It was a very busy week but a great one!  I am so proud of my readers, writers, and mathematicians.  We have been hard at work.

In Reading Workshop we studied the different genres.  Understanding the genre helps us to better comprehend the book.  Next week we will be working on the elements of a story including: plot, setting, atmosphere, characters, narrator, conflict, theme, tone, and foreshadowing.

In Writing Workshop we picked the seed idea for our first piece of writing and we have begun to develop the main character.  Next week we will be working on secondary characters and mapping out the story before we begin to draft.

In math this week we worked on properties of multiplication and developing a better fluency with our facts.  We will be finishing up our first chapter on Monday and we will have our first math test on Tuesday.  Wednesday, we will begin to look at patterns.

Our Geography study continued in Social Studies and included readings on the waters and landforms of NYS.  Our vocabulary this week is geography terms.  This should better help us understand the land and water features of our state.  We will likely have a social studies quiz on Thursday.

Thank you for encouraging your student to read and practice their math facts each night!  It was a pleasure to meet most of you last night.

Have a great weekend.

Open House Videos

Getting Ready for Open House

Will I Am's Performance... Click here... What I Am...

Our Performance is coming soon!

Fabulous Week!

We have had a great first week in Team Jones.  I am so happy with the routines that are being formed and the positive attitude of each student.

We have been working on Reading and Writing Workshop routines.  I am pleased with the reading and writing that your students have been able to accomplish this week.  Beginning next week, they will have reading and writing homework.

Our math curriculum jumped right in with multiplication.  Next week I will give a mad minute to access their multiplication fluency. Please help your mathematician study their facts- it will make them so much more successful with mathematics this year and in the future!

Social Studies begins in fourth grade with a study of NYS geography.  We made maps of New York and will begin to study the landforms and natural resources that our state has to offer.

This week we were able to get through 125 priority words for our spelling program. I will be correcting them this weekend (exciting stuff!).  Beginning next week, each student will have 5 spelling words.  These are words they have spelled incorrectly on the pre-test and are individualized for each student.  Students will be tested on their spelling words 2 times per week.  Once a word has been spelled correctly on three tests, it will be replaced by a new word.

Word Ladders have been morning work for the week.  I use them to help expand their vocabulary and follow directions.  Next week we will be starting formal vocabulary study.  The words will be social studies terms. Vocabulary will normally run from Wednesday-Wednesday.  A quiz and new words will be given each Wednesday.

I am so excited about this year ahead.  I hope you are hearing positive comments at home! I look forward to meeting you next week at our Open House.

Happy Wednesday!

1st Day!

I loved our first day together.  You are a great bunch! 

Just a few of the cool things we learned today:

Team Jones' Class Rules:

1. Follow directions quickly
2. Raise your hand for permission to share
3. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat
4. Make smart choices
5. Make your dear teacher happy!

                 Show your parents our fancy hand signals! 

Cryptozoologist (from our read aloud) - the study of and search for animals and especially legendary animals (as Sasquatch) usually in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence.  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cryptozoology 

Happy 9th birthday to Anya and Andrew - turned 9 on 9/9! 

Reading Rewards.com will be the fun way to log our reading.  (Remember we will practice it for a week or two before you have to do it!)

I can't wait to get to know you even better!  Have a great night!  

P.S. You are awesome!

Communication Questionnaire for Parents

Parents please take a moment to fill in the communicaiton questionnaire found HERE at your earliest convenience! This will help me remain in contact with you throughout the year.  THANK YOU!

Schedule for Specials

The new specials schedule has been completed!

Please come to school prepared each day for the following classes:
Monday - PE (Mrs. Charvat)
Tuesday - Art (Mrs. Buckley)
Wednesday - Music (Mrs. Platek)
Thursday - PE (Mrs. Charvat) and Choir (Mrs. Seebode)
Friday - Library (Mrs. Eldeen)

Our lunch time is 11:10-11:35 followed by recess from 11:35-12:00.

Welcome to Team Jones!  I can't wait to get to know you!

Enjoy Summer!

Welcome to 4th grade!  I hope you enjoy your summer vacation.

More information to come on the 2013-2014 school year soon!