Monday, January 12, 2015

LL38 Update

Nonfiction Readers….

        Last week we started our nonfiction reading unit.  The kids got to “shop” for nonfiction books from our classroom library.  They had a lot of fun picking out these books. 

        We are going to be spending a lot of time determining the main idea or what the article or text is mostly about.  This skill can be difficult for fourth graders.  We talk about what is the author trying to teach us about a text or what is most important to know about this text. 

        We also have been working on determining text features in nonfiction texts.  We have spent a lot of time looking at text features and thinking about why the author adds them to the text.  We also think about how these text features can help us better understand a text.   Below is a picture of some text features that are common in nonfiction books.



Fun Facts

        Since we have started our nonfiction unit, we have been trying to find interesting facts to share with our classmates.  We are trying to learn a “fact (or more) a day!” 

When I introduced this to the class last week, I showed them a website called Wonderopolis.  It is a great website and app that presents an interesting question and then gives the answer.  If the kids are interested in the topic they can find out further information about the topic by clicking on other links in the Wonderopolis article. 




Marvelous Mathematicians

        We are moving onto our next unit in math which is Geometry.  This is usually a nice “break” for kids since geometry is very visual and hands on.  I sent home the parent letter from Engage NY with your child today. 

The geometry unit does have a lot of vocabulary that goes along with it.  Practicing the vocabulary words at home with your child will help them as they do their work in class.  They should be able to identify the vocab words based on their definition and they should also be able to draw a picture to represent the vocabulary words.  I will be sending home a set of flash cards that your child will also have in school so that you can practice them at home.



        We will be learning these words throughout the unit.  Your child should be able to tell you if they have learned the word in class.  Students should practice the words as they are learned.


I hope everyone has a great week!  
~Mrs. Lewis


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