Coming Up This Week...

     I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend!  We were very busy last week continuing to practice our classroom routines and expectations.
     Thank you so much to all of the families that donated items to our class last week. The yoga mats were a big hit.  The tissues and hand sanitizer will certainly come in handy over the next few days and weeks!
   
Reading Workshop
     We started talking about how readers stop and jot while reading.  We read a mysterious story called The Stranger by Chris VanAllsburg.  We worked on stopping and jotting down our thinking and we also gathered clues from the text to try and figure out who the stranger actually is.

                                                               
     We also practiced asking questions that would get us talking.  Asking questions while we are reading helps us to read actively.  Thinking about questions we have and looking for answers is important, however, in fourth grade we try to start thinking more deeply about what we are wondering.  These questions that get us thinking more deeply are called "talk-worthy" questions and are sometimes referred to as thick questions.  These types of questions usually have more than one answer that can be backed up by evidence from the text.  We read the story Mr. Peabody's Apples and practiced asking talk-worthy questions.

                                                                  
Here is a sample of some question starters that you can use at home when you are discussing books with your child.  After your child shares his/her answer, you could ask your child "What makes you think that?"  This gets your child into the habit of going back into the book to find evidence (or words from the text).

                                                      

Math Workshop
     We started Math Workshop last week.  Each of the kids is now on a Math Team.  We started our first Module on Place Value.  We are working on the place value chart and thinking about what happens when numbers get ten times bigger or smaller.
     This week we will continue practicing this.  We will also start to work on comparing numbers and showing numbers in different forms.

Picture Day
This Friday, September 23rd is Picture Day.  Your child was given his/her picture form on Friday.  You can send the form back at any point during the week and I can hold onto it for your child.

I hope everyone has a great week!

~Jen