It has been a great week in 4th grade! We are getting in to the swing of our routine and really plugging away at our curriculum. This week also kicked off our popcorn bucket fundraiser, and I am amazed at how many popcorn buckets have already been sold!
In Reading Workshop this week we have continued to read our class read aloud, The Tiger Rising. We have worked on our retelling skills, reviewing how to retell chronologically (start at the beginning and retell the big events, skipping the small details, keeping the retell brief) and we learned how to pause to synthesize, retelling only the part you just read and reaching back in to the story to add in related parts that help you grow your understanding of the character’s actions and emotions.
Students have begun writing Realistic Fiction stories in Writer’s Workshop. We started by coming up with lots of ideas for stories we could write. Students then selected one of their ideas and got to know their main character by writing out his or her internal (character) traits, external traits and how their character sees him/herself and how others view or act toward their character. We also talked about how all stories have a problem and we started our drafting by only writing out the problem scene. We also blogged today (as we will every Friday).
In Math this week we finished up our first topic on Place Value. Students constructed arguments to prove or disprove another student’s conjecture (theory that has not been proven). We are also taking our first math test today. In 4th grade we use a 3 day testing cycle, first we give what we call a practice test, then we have a review day where we go over the practice test together and then do small group re-teaching as needed for skills missed. On the third day we give the final test. Students that score 85% or higher on the practice test do NOT have to take the final test, they have the opportunity to work on some math enrichment activities,
In Science we are continuing our study of the moon by learning about the phases of the moon. On Thursday we will be visiting White Pines Planetarium with Mr. Keller’s class to learn more about the phases of the moon and the Earth’s seasons. Unfortunately, the planetarium can only seat 50 people, so we will be unable to bring parent chaperons. Thank you for all of the Oreo cookie donations! We are all set now and will be doing our Oreo moon phases activity next week!
Check out your child’s blog here:
Important Dates:
Thursday, September 29 – Field Trip to White Pines Planetarium
Friday, September 30 – Homecoming and Spirit Day (Homecoming Parade @ 6pm)
Tuesday, October 4 – Student Council meeting 8am (elected representatives only)
Tuesday, October 4- Parent Math Meeting – Details to be announced
Friday, October 7 – Honors Choir begins
Wednesday and Thursday, October 19 and 20 – Parent/Teacher Conferences
Thursday and Friday, October 20 and 21 – 1/2 days