A Full Week!

We have a full week starting today!  I am so happy about all of the great things we have coming up!!

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!