Jan. 7-Jan. 18

Jan. 7- Jan. 18

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful break, filled with family, friends, fun and relaxation! My exciting post-surgery news is that I am walking (at times more of a hobble) WITHOUT crutches! I can see the strength building day by day in my knee which is a relief for me. Here is an update on the next couple weeks.

Language Arts:

We will resume our spelling/vocab activities.  Lesson 7 words connect to our math unit.  Please see the list below:

Please remind students to complete at least 4 Spellingcity activities and the meaningful sentences activity on Google Classroom. For your reference, I don't post these Google Classroom assignments until the words are introduced in class.

We hope you enjoyed reading your child's Important Book. Our gift to you was also a learning experience!  Students modeled their writing after The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown.  Students practiced writing well-developed paragraphs: main idea, details and conclusion. We were very impressed with the finished products.

Along with The Important Book, we will continue to spend much time on our narrative fiction writing!   This rubric outlines how your child will be graded. Our rough drafts are still a ways away!

Historical fiction book talks are due on January 31st!  We have been so impressed with the improvement on the book talks! Please keep encouraging your child to make eye contact and engage with the audience. This book talk is very close to the others we have done, with the exception of adding more details about the historical time period when explaining the object. If they can't sustain eye contact for an extended period of time, more work needs to be done! Don't forget about the object and RAH calendar. To earn the points on the RAH calendar the following must be present: correct total of at least 100 minutes weekly, a parent signature and brought back on time. Finally, as you listen to your child's book talk, ask yourself if the story makes sense! Do you have enough information to make sense of the book? If you have questions in your mind, help your child to add and explain more. Thanks for your help! Here is the graphic organizer students were given.  This rubric will be used to assess the students as they give the book talks.  Please note that the time limit is now between 2- 3:30 minutes to allow for the added requirement. 

Social Studies:

We have now finished both the New England Colonies and the Middle Colonies. To allow students the opportunity to teach the class a specific topic about the Middle Colonies, we put the students in small expert groups. Each group was responsible for first learning about their assigned topic, creating a presentation and finally teaching the class about it. Overall, students did a great job! Most created slideshows and other visuals to enhance their topics. Many also created a review game using the Chrome Books (like Kahoot or Quizzizz). Students were graded using a rubric under the categories of 1) public speaking skills 2) reporting information 3) use of visual aid 4) notetaking and 5) vocabulary words. We will do the same procedure with the Southern Colonies, as students were highly engaged and motivated to teach their peers. We will switch up the groups for this round, but the goal is about 2-3 students per group. Goals for next round: working on making eye contact and engaging with the audience and finding perhaps other fun ways to present material to the class. We definitely have some teachers in the making in our class! Smaller assessments were given for both the New England and Middle Colonies. The final assessment will be after the Southern Colonies projects. 

Colonial Day:

A letter went home before break outlining this very fun and educational event that fourth graders truly enjoy! Please refer to this letter again for your convenience.  Colonial Day will be on January 25 in the pm.  We highly encourage all students to dress the part!  Please note all students need to bring in at least one clean, long, athletic sock for a colonial craft activity.  THANK YOU!

Math:

We are currently on Unit 4 (Multi-digit multiplication). Last year, students were exposed to multi-digit multiplication but did not master the skill. This year, they will need to be proficient in the skill using partial products. Many love the lattice method, but they are encouraged to solve the problems using other ways. Without the automaticity of multiplication facts, students may fall behind as we get into harder concepts. Please help your child learn his/her single digit multiplication facts. Reflex Math is a great tool for this. Students that have gotten 100% fact fluency on Reflex Math have moved on to Prodigy, which is another math game online that is application of facts. Here's the link if you want to check it out:

https://www.prodigygame.com/

Coming up in math is the 4th open response! A major goal for students is to learn how to EXPLAIN and model both in words and pictures how a problem was solved. We've come a long way but will continue practicing this with every unit.

Here is the link to Unit 4:

http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/4th-grade/em4-at-home/

Social Skills:

While I was gone, Mrs Tomlinson used our SEL (Social Emotional Time) to create The Important Books. This coming week we will jump back into our Second Steps program. We will continue discussing how to deal with those that are different from us or those that have a different perspective.

Important Dates:

Mon., 1/7: Classes resume

Wed., 1/9: Junior Achievement in the pm

Fri., 1/18: Vocab/Spelling Lesson 7 tests, Discovery Science in pm and Mid-Trimester Reports go home 

Mon., 1/21: No School, MLK Jr. Day 

Fri., 1/25: Colonial Day in the pm

Thur., 1/31: Historical Fiction Book Talk due

Thank you for your support and let me know if you have any questions!