What a beautiful fall day! I love that the colors are just starting to turn! We have a gorgeous tree outside our classroom window with the reddest leaves! We have had a week full of fun and learning!
Reading ~ We have finished our first reading unit and have talked about the art of sharing our thinking about the books we are reading with our reading partners. We discussed what it means to “listen well” and what it looks like. Students practiced “listening well” with their reading partner. Our next unit is Following Characters into Meaning. We will be reading the book Tiger Rising as a part of this unit. If your child has a copy at home please feel free to allow them to bring it in. I only ask that they don’t read ahead of the class.
Writing ~ We are continuing to draft our realistic fiction stories. Students have learned the acronym SAID for creating their scenes. We have talked about each scene needing said, “Scene description, Action, Inner thought and Dialogue and Details.” While conferring with students I noticed that many are switching point of view mid-story and also switching tenses. We worked on cleaning up these errors as well.
Math ~ We have completed our first math unit and took our Practice/Review test today. Students that score 85% or better on the practice test do not need to take the final test on Tuesday. For those students that did not score 85% or better we will do a class review and small group re-teaching of missed skills. They will then bring home a practice test to complete for homework Monday night and will take the final test on Tuesday. 4th grade follows this testing cycle for ALL math tests.
Science ~ We had a great time at the White Pines Intermediate School Planetarium and learned a lot about the seasons and phases of the moon! We also learned in class that the Earth’s tilt (23.5 degrees) is the reason for the seasons. Students created a paper flap book to demonstrate this concept.
As always, remember to check out your child’s blog for the week. You can access the blogs by clicking on the Student Blog link under the Blog Roll on the right hand side of this page.
We also had a couple of special visitors this week! On Monday, the Zero Waste In Landfill team came and talked to the 4th graders about the importance of Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. The 3 Rs! Students have been sorting their lunch trash this week with the goal of reducing our waste! We are even composting our scraps!
The fire department also stopped by for their annual fire safety week visit! All students that turned in a completed Fire Escape Plan received a SLFD water bottle. We also had an opportunity to tour the fire truck.
Check out our photos from the week!
Fire Safety
Zero Waste In Landfill
Science
IMPORTANT DATES!
Monday – Friday, October 12-October 16 – OEDT Returnable Can Drive
Monday – Wednesday, October 19-21 – Conferences. Your conference slip will be coming home Monday.
Friday, October 23 – No school
Thursday, November 5 – All Janie’s orders must be picked up from school between 5:00 and 6:30 PM – NO EXCEPTIONS