Weekly News 1/31

Our literacy and inquiry have blended together and we've been deeply immersed in our systems research and writing! We started by writing a flash draft trying to add detail about each of our subtopics.  That helped students begin to see holes in their research and where they needed to find more information. From there we've been working on main idea sentences.  We explored how authors make these main idea sentences engaging and then found some that we wanted to model our sentences after.  Students have been writing furiously on their topics and are coming up with some creative and engaging pieces! We hope to have these completed in the next couple of weeks.  

Third grade math:
It's math fact bootcamp time! Students self-assessed on math facts that they need to work on and are making daily choices in order to reach their math fact goals.  Students have been playing games, making flashcards, quizzing each other and hopefully practicing at home, too! Please encourage your child to practice for a few minutes at home each night.  They all have a specific goal they are working on! 

Fourth grade math:
As we finished our unit reviewing multiplication vocabulary, it has become clear that the unit was a challenge for some because they don't have mastery of their multiplication facts. I stressed the importance of knowing their facts as we move into more complex concepts. It has been shown that students who have their facts mastered are more confident in tackling new mathematical challenges. I will send home Xtra math passwords again today.  There are also lots of great suggestions to ways to practice here. 

Third grade immigration day:
Third grade parents mark your calendars for March 13th! Your child will be participating in an Ellis Island Immigration simulation on that day with the other third graders.  This day will be part of a larger study in our classrooms on historical fiction, the power of story, multiple perspectives and history. We need some third grade parent volunteers for that day for the quarantine station!  Please let us know if you'd like to help out.  

It would be helpful at home to start talking about any immigration stories that you might have in your family.  Where are your ancestors from? What are their stories?  We will start sharing soon! 

Learning Showcase:
We are inviting parents in for a learning showcase on Friday, February 21st from 8:45 to 9:30.  Feel free to drop in any time during that time and your child will be individually showing you some things that he or she is working on.  It shouldn't take more than 15 minutes or so- if you're able to drop in we'd love to see you! 

Communication Assembly:
Our students helped plan and run a whole school assembly on communication! Students learned the sign language signs for see, say and brave and taught the whole school as we sang along to "Brave".  It was awesome!

Valentine's Day:
Students are welcome to bring in Valentines on February 14th for a Valentines exchange.  We just ask that if students are bringing them in that they bring one for everyone! 

Fourth grade STEMbassadors:

Have a great weekend! 

Weekly News 1/24

Even though it was a 4 day school week, we managed to pack a lot into it! The students have been working hard to become experts on their systems for inquiry. We are reading a variety of texts and taking notes on the parts of our systems, how our systems interact with other systems, as well as finding some facts that are just plain cool! As we reach the end of the research phase of our inquiry students will be sharing what they learned by writing a nonfiction piece. Speaking of writing, this week we began to look closely at nonfiction texts to discover ways that writers make their texts interesting.  Students noticed a variety of strategies such as detailed descriptions, use of vocabulary and different text structures.  As we write our own nonfiction, these will become our mentor texts and criteria to know if we are on the right track.

In math both grade levels finished up their current multiplication units.  Up next for 3rd grade is multiplication boot camp.  And 4th graders will be working on multiplying large numbers.

Progress reports are going home on Tuesday, so be on the lookout!

Our Valentine's Day celebration will be simple--we will just be exchanging cards with our classes.  If you child would like to make cards, please be sure there is one for each child in his or her class (not both classes).

Weekly News 1/17

Another week has flown by and we have been busy! Here's a quick snapshot of what we worked on:

-Identifying main idea and supporting details in non-fiction texts
-Researching our systems for inquiry
-Paraphrasing and note taking
-Organizing notes into categories
-A guidance lesson about making a plan and following through
-3rd grade math: understanding the difference between multiplication and division
-4th grade math: problem solving with area and perimeter

Upcoming dates:
-Monday, January 20- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
-Tuesday, January 28- Progress reports go home

We hope you enjoy your long weekend!

Weekly News 1/10

Happy New Year! We are back into full swing and ready for the new year! We started the year off by looking back at our second quarter goals and deciding if we have met them or if we still need to work on them and how we can continue to work on them.  Then, we decided on a word we wanted to focus on this year- hopefully you've seen them on Seesaw and you can check them out below. 

Literacy and Inquiry:
This month literacy and inquiry will be fully integrated as students research and explore a system of their choice and then write to teach others about that system.  We have spent a lot of time refining our system topic ideas and coming up with a focus question.  The bulk of our literacy time has been about previewing a text before reading to predict the main idea and then working to find the main idea of a text.  We will get into researching our topics next week!

Third Grade Math:
Third graders have been focusing on building their understanding of multiplication and division.  We have been working on equal groups, arrays and story problems.  Up next will be a "Multiplication Bootcamp" where we will focus heavily on math facts for a week or two.  Any practice at home will be very beneficial!

Fourth Grade Math:
Fourth graders have been working on reviewing and applying multiplication vocabulary.  We have explored the concepts of factors, multiples, and prime and composite numbers. This week we did a "multiplication reality check" to assess how well everyone has their math facts memorized. This was a wake up call for many that they need to be working more to get these facts down.  If you need any suggestions on things you can do at home to help, please reach out to Mrs. Ganier!

Immigration Day:
Third grade parents mark your calendars for March 13th! Your child will be participating in an Ellis Island Immigration simulation on that day with the other third graders.  This day will be part of a larger study in our classrooms on historical fiction, the power of story, multiple perspectives and history.  Fourth grade students will have a choice of a few different time periods to immerse themselves in and third graders will be focused on the Ellis Island immigration time period. 

Upcoming:
2nd quarter closes Friday, January 17th
Early release- Friday, January, 17th
No school- Monday, January 20th

Have a wonderful weekend!