Friday, January 31, 2014
Wacky Olympics Training Video
Special thanks to Team Jones for helping me create a training video for the Wacky Olympics 2014. Invitations will come home soon for your teammate to joins us in watching teachers from different schools battle it out on February 28th in the HS gym.
Monday, January 27, 2014
A Full Week!
We have a full week starting today! I am so happy about all of the great things we have coming up!!
In Reading Workshop this week we are going to be focusing on using textual evidence when discussing text, answering questions about text, and writing about a topic. The topic this week will be Child Labor. We are going to spend time highlighting for meaning, reading with a purpose, and comparing different articles on the same topic. The technical term for this is Close Reading. Close Reading is a large section of the common core standards.
We are about to have a REVOLUTION in Social Studies. The colonists are NOT happy with the British raising taxes and it is time to fight back.
Report Cards will be loaded to BC@Home on Friday. A guide to the new report card was sent home last week. Please remember that there are changes to the grading this year. It is very difficult for a child to receive a "4" because they must demonstrate an advanced understanding and show initiative to be challenged. Proficiency at the fourth grade level is a "3" and if a student is working to demonstrate a skill, that is a "2." I am looking forward to meeting with many of you for conferences. Just a reminder that we are on a tight schedule and must adhere to our start and end times in order to accommodate everyone. If you have not yet signed up for a conference but you are interested the link is:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/9040E48AFAA2DA57-february
We have enjoyed our recent time with buddies as well. Last Friday we studied the Antarctic. It is fun to see the 4th grade faces when we do activities with the Kindergarten class!
Thank you as always for everything you do to support our classroom!
Don't forget that WEDNESDAY is the CHOIR/ORCHESTRA concert!
Math this week will focus on wrapping up our study of long division. Today we will be playing a computer game (Snork's Long Division) to get some additional practice with the steps. Almost all of my mathematicians have mastered this!! We will also be moving on to 4 digit division tomorrow. Again, this is a skill that takes practice and thought. Rushing doesn't help anyone get the problems correct.
In writing this week we will finally be coming to a close on our personal essays. The students have worked very hard gathering, organizing and revising evidence to support their personal thesis statement. We will be working hard to revise introductions and conclusions this week before publishing. We will then be moving into the final section of this unit, persuasive essays.
In Reading Workshop this week we are going to be focusing on using textual evidence when discussing text, answering questions about text, and writing about a topic. The topic this week will be Child Labor. We are going to spend time highlighting for meaning, reading with a purpose, and comparing different articles on the same topic. The technical term for this is Close Reading. Close Reading is a large section of the common core standards.
We are about to have a REVOLUTION in Social Studies. The colonists are NOT happy with the British raising taxes and it is time to fight back.
Report Cards will be loaded to BC@Home on Friday. A guide to the new report card was sent home last week. Please remember that there are changes to the grading this year. It is very difficult for a child to receive a "4" because they must demonstrate an advanced understanding and show initiative to be challenged. Proficiency at the fourth grade level is a "3" and if a student is working to demonstrate a skill, that is a "2." I am looking forward to meeting with many of you for conferences. Just a reminder that we are on a tight schedule and must adhere to our start and end times in order to accommodate everyone. If you have not yet signed up for a conference but you are interested the link is:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/9040E48AFAA2DA57-february
We have enjoyed our recent time with buddies as well. Last Friday we studied the Antarctic. It is fun to see the 4th grade faces when we do activities with the Kindergarten class!
Thank you as always for everything you do to support our classroom!
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
4 Day Week
Welcome to a four day week! We will be busy but have fun too!
I would like to point out that HW is becoming an issue again. 11 assignments were missing today and 18 were turned in with no name. Your students know we will be working on this but anything you can do at hw time to help with binder and assignment checking would be a huge help.
We will continue to study long division this week. I will post a video next around the correct steps. We have been working on it now for 3 days and it should be getting easier. Feel free to help your mathematician at home on 1-2 problems but let them do the remaining 2-3 problems on their own. Again, knowing math facts will really help this process!
In Reading workshop we will conclude our unit on summarizing. They are getting better! The big idea is to only include the important details. We have moved from comics to short stories and will conclude the week by summarizing their partner books.
It is time to draft our Essays. We have done a lot of work prepping and organizing for this. I hope to have completed drafts by Friday! Then we will work on revising and making this work the best it can possibly be.
Our study of Colonial NY is coming to a close this week as well. Today we had a pop quiz to check for understanding and make sure everyone is paying attention to the work they have done in class. It was not great. We will be reviewing all of this information and taking a test on Friday.
Thanks for all that you do at home. You are wonderful!
I would like to point out that HW is becoming an issue again. 11 assignments were missing today and 18 were turned in with no name. Your students know we will be working on this but anything you can do at hw time to help with binder and assignment checking would be a huge help.
We will continue to study long division this week. I will post a video next around the correct steps. We have been working on it now for 3 days and it should be getting easier. Feel free to help your mathematician at home on 1-2 problems but let them do the remaining 2-3 problems on their own. Again, knowing math facts will really help this process!
In Reading workshop we will conclude our unit on summarizing. They are getting better! The big idea is to only include the important details. We have moved from comics to short stories and will conclude the week by summarizing their partner books.
It is time to draft our Essays. We have done a lot of work prepping and organizing for this. I hope to have completed drafts by Friday! Then we will work on revising and making this work the best it can possibly be.
Our study of Colonial NY is coming to a close this week as well. Today we had a pop quiz to check for understanding and make sure everyone is paying attention to the work they have done in class. It was not great. We will be reviewing all of this information and taking a test on Friday.
Thanks for all that you do at home. You are wonderful!
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Colonial NY, Personal Essays, Summary, and Division
We had a nice first week back from a two week vacation. I am so proud of my learners. Great job friends!
This week will be another productive week. In math, we will be continuing our study of division. We have a test on Chapter 9 Tuesday and will learn longer division next week.
We have picked our topics for our Personal Essays and laid out the organization. Making a plan makes writing so much easier! We have started collecting mini-stories that fit into the "reasons" to back up our thesis statement. We are going to continue to collect stories, facts, and evidence this week. This is hard work and it takes good focus.
Reading workshop focused on characters last week and we will continue this next week as well as starting a unit on summarizing. I am noticing while reading book letters that it is not always clear when they summarize what is happening in their book.
Our study of colonial New York will continue this week as well. It has been interesting to learn how the Europeans immigrated to New York. Some worked as tenant farmers, endangered servants, or even slaves. We have learned what adults do for jobs and what children do as part of their chores.
I have been sneaking into choir rehearsals for the last few weeks and I am really impressed with the quality of singing your students are capable of - just wait until the concert. You will be so proud!
I look forward to another great week of learning!
This week will be another productive week. In math, we will be continuing our study of division. We have a test on Chapter 9 Tuesday and will learn longer division next week.
We have picked our topics for our Personal Essays and laid out the organization. Making a plan makes writing so much easier! We have started collecting mini-stories that fit into the "reasons" to back up our thesis statement. We are going to continue to collect stories, facts, and evidence this week. This is hard work and it takes good focus.
Reading workshop focused on characters last week and we will continue this next week as well as starting a unit on summarizing. I am noticing while reading book letters that it is not always clear when they summarize what is happening in their book.
Our study of colonial New York will continue this week as well. It has been interesting to learn how the Europeans immigrated to New York. Some worked as tenant farmers, endangered servants, or even slaves. We have learned what adults do for jobs and what children do as part of their chores.
I have been sneaking into choir rehearsals for the last few weeks and I am really impressed with the quality of singing your students are capable of - just wait until the concert. You will be so proud!
I look forward to another great week of learning!
Friday, January 3, 2014
January 2014!
Happy New Year Friends!
This year is going to start off with some great and challenging work for our fourth grade class. I look forward to getting back on a regular classroom schedule and watching the great minds at work.
In Math, we will begin DIVISION on Monday. This means that those mathematicians who do not know their facts will be struggling. (Not with the concept, but with the computation.) Please keep up the fact practice through this unit on division! Xtra Math provides great practice and is linked above. We will begin with simple division and by the end of the week we will be working with remainders.
In Reading Workshop, we will be starting a character study. We will be using the same Boxes and Bullets structure in our reading as we have been using in Writing Workshop when developing essays. My readers will take a deeper look at characters: who they are, how they change, and try to stand in their shoes and truly understand their actions.
In Writing Workshop, we will be choosing topics for our Persuasive Essays and develop our thesis and examples that support our thesis. This is going to be challenging for some writers but once our topics are chosen, it will become easier to write.
Our Social Studies curriculum takes us from Explorers to Colonial NY. New York has been discovered and it is time for it to become settled with immigrants from Europe. This unit will take us several weeks to work through. They will enjoy watching NY grow and change.
Thank you to all of my friends who chose to complete the extra credit work for the SS test. Grades improved greatly with those points.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy vacation. The snow is piled up today and I hope you are staying warm. Happy final weekend. Thank you again for your generous gifts (I bought ski boots from Amazon over the break!!!!). I am so lucky to have such a generous and hardworking group of students.
-Laurel
This year is going to start off with some great and challenging work for our fourth grade class. I look forward to getting back on a regular classroom schedule and watching the great minds at work.
In Math, we will begin DIVISION on Monday. This means that those mathematicians who do not know their facts will be struggling. (Not with the concept, but with the computation.) Please keep up the fact practice through this unit on division! Xtra Math provides great practice and is linked above. We will begin with simple division and by the end of the week we will be working with remainders.
In Reading Workshop, we will be starting a character study. We will be using the same Boxes and Bullets structure in our reading as we have been using in Writing Workshop when developing essays. My readers will take a deeper look at characters: who they are, how they change, and try to stand in their shoes and truly understand their actions.
In Writing Workshop, we will be choosing topics for our Persuasive Essays and develop our thesis and examples that support our thesis. This is going to be challenging for some writers but once our topics are chosen, it will become easier to write.
Our Social Studies curriculum takes us from Explorers to Colonial NY. New York has been discovered and it is time for it to become settled with immigrants from Europe. This unit will take us several weeks to work through. They will enjoy watching NY grow and change.
Thank you to all of my friends who chose to complete the extra credit work for the SS test. Grades improved greatly with those points.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy vacation. The snow is piled up today and I hope you are staying warm. Happy final weekend. Thank you again for your generous gifts (I bought ski boots from Amazon over the break!!!!). I am so lucky to have such a generous and hardworking group of students.
-Laurel
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