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