We have been working hard and having fun.
We just finished a favorite read aloud, A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck. The students really enjoyed the characters, especially Grandma. And now we have moved onto Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo.
In math, we finished the mid-module assessment. After a quick glance we were proud of all of the students. Because this is a new assessment the fourth grade teachers will need to grade the assessments as a team and we will pass along more specific information about your child's performance at that time.
Fact fluency continues to be a struggle for most students. We will need to set aside more classroom math time for fact fluency work. Please be sure to have your child practice math facts for approximately 10-15 minutes a night. Next week we will incorporate a place to track math minutes on the homework pack.
We will begin working with Bar Models (tape diagrams), the standard addition and subtraction algorithm, and continue our with place value by relating the addition and subtraction problems to representations on the place value chart. We will also work as a class to develop an organized process for approaching word problems.
In ELA/SS we will continue our in depth study of the Haudenosaunee. We have been taking notes while reading in order to develop well organized paragraphs about our reading. Now we are working on writing powerful concluding sentences by asking ourselves, "Why does this matter?" We are taking notes on a new graphic organizer and will incorporate the new graphic organizer into next week's homework pack.
****The reading paragraph in the homework does not need to be a summary. The students may make any reasonable claim about their reading that can be supported by specific details or examples from the text.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Friday, October 4, 2013
Picking up the Pace in 201
We are having a great time while working hard in room 201! We had a great time at the 8 Square Schoolhouse last week. This week we have our routines running smoothly and have started the real work of fourth grade!
Social Studies and Writing:
We have been studying the Haudenosaunee people. This involved reading an article about The Great Law of Peace and then sections of the document. The students have been developing their abilities to annotate the text or mark the text and write their thinking on the page. The students are building background knowledge and using this knowledge to help us answer our guiding question, "How can our school community benefit from the beliefs and agreements of the Haudenosaunee people?"
We are finishing up our first polished writing piece about the Haudenosaunee and will begin a new text next week, The Iroquois: The 6 Nations Confederacy.
We are very excited about the timing of the First Peoples' Festival in Ithaca and hope that many families can take advantage of this free curriculum connection!
Math:
We will complete our introduction to place value, comparing numbers, and rounding next week. After a week of either review or extension activities (on an as needed basis) we will take a mid-module assessment. The next concepts covered will be multi-digit addition and subtraction in isolation and within word problems. Please be advised that mastery of basic addition and subtraction facts are necessary to keep pace with the program. At this point there are not any students that have passed both addition and subtraction on their xtra math assessments. Please help your child master all basic facts in under 3 seconds at home per the weekly homework packs.
Important Dates:
October 5th- First Peoples' Festival
October 6th- Lansing Firehouse Open House
October 11th- Half Day and October Brunch
October 14th- NO SCHOOL
October 15th- Picture Day
Social Studies and Writing:
We have been studying the Haudenosaunee people. This involved reading an article about The Great Law of Peace and then sections of the document. The students have been developing their abilities to annotate the text or mark the text and write their thinking on the page. The students are building background knowledge and using this knowledge to help us answer our guiding question, "How can our school community benefit from the beliefs and agreements of the Haudenosaunee people?"
We are finishing up our first polished writing piece about the Haudenosaunee and will begin a new text next week, The Iroquois: The 6 Nations Confederacy.
We are very excited about the timing of the First Peoples' Festival in Ithaca and hope that many families can take advantage of this free curriculum connection!
Math:
We will complete our introduction to place value, comparing numbers, and rounding next week. After a week of either review or extension activities (on an as needed basis) we will take a mid-module assessment. The next concepts covered will be multi-digit addition and subtraction in isolation and within word problems. Please be advised that mastery of basic addition and subtraction facts are necessary to keep pace with the program. At this point there are not any students that have passed both addition and subtraction on their xtra math assessments. Please help your child master all basic facts in under 3 seconds at home per the weekly homework packs.
Important Dates:
October 5th- First Peoples' Festival
October 6th- Lansing Firehouse Open House
October 11th- Half Day and October Brunch
October 14th- NO SCHOOL
October 15th- Picture Day
Thursday, October 3, 2013
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