This Week in LL38....

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We have MCAS testing on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

Reading Workshop

There was a lot of excitement last week as we watched the book trailers for the book club book choices.  All of the kids were able to get one of their top 3 book choices.  Each book club has created a set of rules that they will have for their club so that it will run smoothly.  This week each book club will start reading their book.  Like my email said last week, some students will need to do some of the book club reading at home if they don't have time to finish the agreed upon chapters at school.  Each group will also be creating a calendar to help them keep track of when they will be reading and when they will be meeting to discuss their book.


Writing Workshop

The research groups were created last week as well.  Each student was able to choose a region that they were interested in learning about.  After finding out the name of the region they would be researching, the kids started to read through some of our region books to build some background knowledge.

We also looked at a few research papers from former fourth graders.  The kids were able to get an idea of where they are "going" in their research.  This helped them to understand the expectations and gives them something to work towards.  The kids started to brainstorm some topics that they were interested in learning about.  This week the kids will be choosing the topics that they will research.

Science

We had a fun (and sweet) time learning about the different types of tectonic plate movements.  The class got to try out and see the different movements for themselves.  They learned how tectonic plates move to create trenches, mountains, and earthquakes.  Ask your child what he/she learned about tectonic plates!

Math Workshop

We started our unit on Decimals last week.  The class learned about decimals in the tenths and hundredths.  We were also able to make connections between fractions and decimals which seemed to be very helpful!  This week will will practice comparing decimals.

I hope everyone has a great week!
~Jen