This Week in LL38....

Last week we officially made it to the 1/2 way point of 4th grade!  I can't believe how fast time is flying!

Teamwork

Ask your child what he/she learned from our teamwork project using 4 pieces of construction paper, a foot of masking tape, and a dictionary!  The lesson that the class learned can be applied to their everyday life, however, we talked specifically about how it applies to math.  

                           

Math Workshop

Last week we started to work on measuring and drawing angles using protractors.  We spent a lot of time learning how to measure an angle correctly, as this skill can be tricky for some students.  It was fun to see the excitement in the classroom when we started to demonstrate 180's and 360's with half and full circle turns. Thanks to all of the work that Mr. Quinn does with the class in PE, it was a review when we started to talk about the degrees in a circle!

We will continue learning some more about angle measurements this week, but will also start to work on classify shapes based on their properties.  

Your child can practice working with angles at home as well.  I have shared a page of websites with all of the kids on Google Docs.  

Reading Workshop

We learned about the different nonfiction text structures in reading this week.  We found that an author will set up nonfiction texts in a way that is structured for the reader.  If we can determine the text structure, it helps us to organize our notes.  The kids learned that once we know the text structure, we can then set up our notes in a way that will help us to stay organized.  Our notes might look different, but the important information will be similar.  Here are some of the structures that we learned about:

Just a reminder....we have a 1/2 day on Wednesday.  

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Jen

Coming up this week....

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  It was nice to get outside on Saturday.  Hopefully you and your family were able to take advantage of the great weather as well!  

Reading Workshop

     We spent a lot of time using the subheadings and/or main idea- "pop out" sentences in our nonfiction texts last week.  Once we were able to determine the main idea of each section of our nonfiction books, it made it easier to take notes.  We also worked on note-taking with the purpose of being able to "teach" a classmate about our topic.  At first the kids were taking many random notes in their notebooks with no organization.  We found that if we categorize our notes it makes it easier for us to teach from and it makes it easier for our partner to learn from.  Below are some pictures of the experts in our class last week!

      This week we will continue to look at text structure and see how that can help us take even more effective notes on our topics!

Math Workshop
     This week your child will be bringing home his/her Module 3 Assessment. This assessment was very difficult and it required a lot of focus and persistence.  After looking at the assessment, I would ask that you return the back page of the assessment rubric stating that you saw the assessment. There will also be a box for you to check off if you would like some practice pages for your child to try out at home.    
     This week for Math Menu homework, your child will need to choose one of the problems that was incorrect on the assessment.  He/she will need to try that problem again.  I will encourage the students to bring home their resource tools that give the steps for multiplication, division, and problem solving so that they can use that to help them fix one of the problems.  
     Like I mentioned in last week's blog, multiplication and division are skills that require a lot of repeated practice.  We will continue to practice at school, but I would encourage your child to practice these skills at home to become more efficient!
     We started our Geometry unit last week as well.  It was helpful that we had had lot of practice with the vocabulary prior to starting this unit.   This week we will start to measure angles.  This is a skill that will require a lot of practice as well.  

Writing Workshop
     We started to type our realistic fiction stories last week.  It is amazing to see how much the students are able to type in one sitting!  We have been working on slowing down each scene to our story so that we paint a picture for our reader.  We will continue to work on this throughout the upcoming week.

I hope everyone has a great week!  
Jen  

This week in LL38

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend!  Here's what we worked on last week and what to expect for the week ahead!

Math Workshop

On Friday the kids took the Module 3 Assessment.  The assessment took a lot of focus and perseverance on the part of the kids!  Some of them haven't finished the assessment yet, so they will be working throughout the next few days to finish the problems that they had left. Multiplication and division is a difficult concept that needs a lot of practice and repetition. We will continue to practice multiplication and division in school, but it would be helpful for the kids to practice at home as well.  Later in the week you will receive your child's assessment.  After looking at the assessment, I would ask that you return the back page stating that you saw the assessment. There will also be a box for you to check off if you would like some practice pages for your child to try out at home.    

Last week we also started to take a closer look at our mistakes.  We can certainly  learn a lot from the mistakes we make.  We learned about 3 types of mistakes and how we can fix those mistakes. Here is a copy of the poster we are using to help us analyze our mistakes.  You will also see these mistakes referenced on your child's Module 3 Assessment when it comes home.  

We also started to learn some of the vocabulary that goes along with our next math unit....Geometry.  Ask your child about the movements that they use to show some of the geometry vocabulary.  Your child should be able to show you point, ray, line, line segment, right angle, obtuse angle, and acute angle.  The movements really seemed to help.  With all of that practice the class was able to try "showing" what they knew last week with pretzels and marshmallows.  Here are a few pictures of their learning!

Reader's Workshop

We started our new reading unit on nonfiction.  It was fun to see all of the nonfiction around us!  The kids took a pre-assessment for this unit.  They also got to see what the fourth grade expectation is for writing about nonfiction.  The class took a look at their pre-assessment and then were able to create goals for themselves using a fourth grade exemplar (an example of what we are looking to be able to do)!

We also learned about what good readers do when reading nonfiction.  First, readers get PUMPED to read the text and connect to a text (even if they don't really like the topic).  Also we learned that readers PREVIEW a text.  Researchers have found that students who preview a text thoroughly before reading are much more successful!  Then we learned that nonfiction readers think about the TEXT STRUCTURE.  Ask your child the different text structures they learned about.    We will continue to learn about text structure this week.  When we know the text structure, it helps us to take effective notes.

A great website that I haven't introduced to the kids yet....is Wonderopolis!  It is a great website that answers many questions that kids have about our world and many other topics!  I am hoping to show this to the class this week, but it would be a great website for your child to try out at home when they are reading!

I hope everyone has a great week!
Jen

This Week in LL38.....

I was excited to hear about all the fun the class had over vacation.  It was nice to get back into our routine last week.

As we enter the new year we are focusing on stamina or the ability to work independently for longer stretches of time. We have been working on building our stamina in a variety of ways since September, but now we are really focusing on being able to hold our attention on independent work for a longer period of time.  We spent a lot of time reviewing expectations and practicing transitions last week to help with this.

Reader's Workshop

Last week the class took an assessment of character traits and theme in a text.  We will continue to review character traits and theme in small groups and during RTI.

This week we will start our next reading unit on Nonfiction.  We are going to be noticing how nonfiction text is ALL around us.  From the directions on a worksheet, to the words on a cereal box, to the washing instructions of our shirt, nonfiction really does pop up everywhere!  I am going to be encouraging the kids to read nonfiction texts at home for their Reading In the Edges.  You may notice that your child is reading nonfiction texts that seem too "easy" for them. At this point I am okay with that. Often times when we read about topics we don't know a lot about, it is important to build our background knowledge.  One way to do this is to read books that are really easy for us to understand.

                             

Writer's Workshop

We started to talk about what authors of realistic fiction write about.  We learned that every great author starts with a THEME.  This went along perfectly with what we had learned in reading.  The kids started to brainstorm story ideas keeping the idea of theme in mind.  This week we will be choosing one of the topic ideas and start typing a draft.  We will be using Google Docs to type our drafts instead of writing them by hand.  I'm sure it will be slow at first, but with some practice it will get easier.

Over the next few months we will be working on Google Docs quite a bit.  It will be important that the kids become more efficient at typing.  Mrs. Gasek, our technology teacher, introduced the class to www.typing.com last week.  It is a fun website where the kids get to practice typing.  Spending a couple of minutes each night, will help the kids to become faster at typing.  This will eventually help them in their day to day typing on the computer as well.  To sign into www.typing.com each student has a username (Google Docs password ending at 2025) and the password is hudson.  If your child has any trouble signing in, please let me know.  This will be in your child's homework planner.  My goal for them would be to practice for at least 20 minutes per week!

Math Workshop

We are finishing up our Multiplication and Division unit in math.  The class will be taking the End of the Module Assessment later this week.  To go along with our focus on building stamina last week, we also talked a lot about using our resources to help us to work more independently.

Our next unit will be on Geometry.  There is a lot of vocabulary in the Geometry unit.  The homework helper packet for Module 4 will be sent home soon.

Here is a copy of the most recent Math Menu:

Math Menu January 2-20th!

I hope everyone has a great week!

~Jen

This Week in LL38....

I hope everyone had a great holiday and vacation week!  It will be nice to get back into the routine of school though.

Literary Essays
Before vacation I had sent out a link for all of the Literary Essay-Beyond the Cover projects that had been uploaded.  I know the holidays get extremely busy, but I am hoping that you might be able to take a few minutes over the next few weeks to take a quick peek at your child's (and maybe even a few of the other kids) Beyond the Cover projects.  You can click the link below.  Choose a video to watch.  After watching the video, please stop by that child's Literary Essay Reflection to make a comment.  (Your child should be able to show you how to do this!)  Enjoy!

** I am hoping that we will get more videos uploaded this week.  

Beyond the Cover Projects

Math Menu
Your child will get a new Math Menu homework packet tomorrow.  This week we will be reflecting as mathematicians and creating some goals that we would like to accomplish.  I have put in a link in case your child misplaces the packet over the next few weeks.

Math Menu Homework- January 3-20

I hope everyone has a great week!  

~Jen