Coming Up This Week....

It was a busy week of testing last week, but the kids did a nice job completing the ELA portion of the MCAS.  We have a break from testing during this upcoming week and will take the Math MCAS next week on May 9th and 10th.

Writing Workshop

We spent a lot of time previewing  the regions of the United States.  We looked at maps and watched a few videos to help us determine the regions that we are interested in learning more about.  This week each student will be assigned to a region and will start researching that region of our country.  This week the kids will spend time reading and building background knowledge about their region in order to eventually be able to decide what they will research more in depth.

Science

Throughout the school year we have learned about slow changes that happen in our world and rapid changes to our world.  We have learned about tree root wedging, ice wedging, and erosion early on, and more recently we have been learning about landslides, volcanoes, and now earthquakes.  Ask your child what he/she has learned about slow changes and rapid changes.

The classroom was buzzing with excitement on Friday as the students began to explore more about tectonic plates and earthquakes.  They were able to visit a website that shows where earthquakes are happening in real time.  We will be learning a lot about earthquakes, where they happen, why they happen, and how engineers construct buildings to withstand earthquakes.

I hope everyone has a great week!

~Jen

Coming Up This Week in LL38....

Welcome back!  I hope everyone enjoyed the vacation week!  We are officially in the "home stretch" of 4th grade!  The next few months will be filled with lots of fun!

This Week...
Just a reminder that fourth graders will be taking the MCAS test this week.  We have testing on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  We have had many positive conversations about testing in class the last few weeks leading up to vacation.  I am hoping the students feel confident in themselves!  We will be starting at the beginning of the day, so please make sure your child is on time for school!  Please let me know if you have any questions.

No Homework...
Since the kids will be working extra hard during the day on the MCAS, there will not be any official homework this week!

Researchers!

We will start our Regions of the United States research this week.  Your child will be able to choose one of the regions of the United States to become an expert on!  The kids will be reading articles, books, and watching videos to go along with the regions.  This project is a culmination of many of the writing genres that we have learned this year as well as taking our learning of  reading nonfiction texts and putting them into action in our writing.

Throughout the regions project, the students will research several topics that pertain to their region.  Students will also write an essay about the region and write a narrative story about a topic that has importance in the region!

I hope everyone has a great week!

~Jen

This Week in LL38.....

I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather!  It was great to meet with so many families last week at Parent Teacher Conferences.


** This week (Monday-Wednesday) we will be eating lunch at 1:10 because of 3rd grade MCAS.  If possible, please pack your child an extra snack if you think they will be hungry.  An additional hour and 10 minutes can be rough!  :)

Reading Workshop
The kids were very busy last week.  They spent some time during reading working on open response writing in Google Classroom.  The class was able to try this out a few times and they even created goals for themselves based on my feedback to improve their 2nd open response.  Ask your child what he/she set as a goal for Open Response writing.

Math Workshop
Last week we worked on creating and reading line plots.  In fourth grade, line plots are the way that kids need to plot data.  We used real world data such as shoe size and pencil lengths as data to plot on a line plot.  Ask your child what he/she learned about the parts of a line plot.

Many parents asked about seeing the writing that the kids have been doing during Writing Workshop.  I am very proud of all of the writing that the kids have done throughout the second trimester.  Please take a few minutes to look through your child's Google Drive account to see all of the writing from the past few months!  Enjoy!

I hope everyone has a great week!  Enjoy the warm weather!
~Jen

This Week in LL38....

It is a very busy week coming up!  We have 1/2 days for Parent Teacher Conferences on Wednesday and Thursday this week.  If you didn't sign up for a conference but would like to, please email me and I can let you know the times that I have available on my schedule.  On Tuesday and Friday this week we will be going to the Scholastic Book Fair.

Last week you should have received this questionnaire (link below) for preparing for your child's conference.  It would be very helpful if you could fill this out by Tuesday, so that I can make sure we make the best use of your conference time.  If you would like to email me the answers/questions/concerns, please feel free to do so.  

Parent Conference Questionnaire

Science
     We had a lot of fun learning about the different types of volcanoes last week.  We watched some videos on the types of lava as well as the two types of volcanoes, a cone and shield volcano.  After learning that there are 2 types of volcanoes, the class set out to experiment and determine what kind of lava flows from a cone (exploding) volcano and what flows from a shield volcano. Ask your child the steps that were taken to determine the lava that flows from each volcano.

Reading Workshop

     We continued to read poems from My Man Blue.  We talked about the character traits of Blue and Damon, and discussed the themes in the poems.  Students gathered evidence to back up their thinking about the theme of some different poems.  

     We also went into the computer lab to learn the different tools that will be on the MCAS computer assessment.  The students were feeling comfortable with many of the tools.  

Math Workshop

     We continued to focus on fractions in math last week.  We worked with both improper fractions and mixed numbers. This week we will be learning about line plots and how to place fractions on a line plot.  

I hope everyone has a great week.  I look forward to meeting with many of you this week at conferences.

~Jen

This Week in LL38....

Coming up this week....

We have parent teacher conferences coming up next week on Wednesday, April 5th and Thursday April 6th.  If you haven't signed up for a conference, please do so as soon as possible.  The times are filling up fast!  Here is the link:  Parent Teacher Conference Link  If you have trouble accessing the link, please let me know and I can add your name to the sign up.

Math Workshop

Your child came home with an assessment reflection paper last week.  Thank you for sending those back with a signature.  I will be sending them back home with your child this week so that you have them for your records.

The Math Menu will be a little different this week.  Based on the Trimester 2 Assessment, each student created 3 goal areas that he/she would like to review.  I have shared a document with your child on their Google Docs account.  Each child should click on a link to watch a review video for the strategy to review.  Your child can watch the video as many times as needed.  After watching the video, each student will need to complete the review worksheet. The link is also listed below.

Math Menu Review Week

Reading Workshop

Last week we started our unit on Poetry.  We are starting to talk about Poetry Elements such as stanza, rhyme, tone, and similes.  We will be reading a wonderful book called My Man Blue. This book of poems tells a story about a man named Blue and a boy named Damon and of a friendship that develops between the two.  It is a great book to use to think about character traits, character change, and theme. We use this book to learn about poetry, but to also review some of the skills that we learned earlier in the school year.  

Science

We continued learning about volcanoes and where they are in the world.  The students completed a mapping activity in small groups to see if there are patterns to where volcanoes occur in the world.They also learned about the Ring of Fire. Ask your child what he/she learned in science last week!

I hope everyone has a great week!  

~Jen

This Week in LL38...

     I am so glad tomorrow is the first day of spring!  Hopefully the weather will start to change and give us some warmer weather.  The kids are certainly in need of some outside recess time!

Math Workshop

      We worked on comparing fractions last week.  We reviewed our understanding of comparing fractions to benchmarks such as 0, 1/2, and 1.  The students also learned other strategies for comparing fractions.  Here are the strategies we have learned for comparing fractions:

                                                                

Some students are more comfortable with using fraction tiles, and that is fine too.  Our goal is to move the students along in their understanding no matter what strategy that they are starting with and most comfortable with.  We have been focusing on..."What is the best strategy for ME?"

      This week we will move on to adding and subtracting fractions with common denominators.  We will continue to use the number line as we practice adding and subtracting.  

      The students will also get their Trimester 2 Assessments back this week.  This was an assessment that the kids took a few weeks ago and was a review of the material covered in Trimester 2.  We will spend some time reflecting this week on the assessment.  Each student will notice what they have a strong understanding of and what they will need to work on moving forward.  You will receive a copy of the scoring rubric at some point this week after your child has spent time reflecting.

Writing Workshop

      We started our new writing genre of responding to a prompt.  We spent a lot of time looking at author's craft in a story titled, Wacky Shoes.  The kids did an awesome job reading like a writer.  They spent time looking at how the author started the story, the words the author chose to use, and the events in the story.  The kids then started to write a story about their own pair of "wacky shoes" borrowing ideas from the author of the original story.  It was fun to see the creativity and how the kids can borrow ideas from an author and use it their own writing!

Reading Workshop

     We worked on determining the main idea and important details in nonfiction texts.  This is a tricky skill for fourth graders.  We will continue to practice thinking about topic of a text, what it is telling us about that topic, and the important details that fall under that main idea.  Ask your child how they are using an umbrella to think about main ideas and details!

                                                       

I hope everyone has a great week!  

Jen

This Week in LL38....

Hi Families, 

I hope everyone enjoyed the very chilly weekend!  Even though we are (supposedly) approaching spring, we are in need of a few items in our classroom to keep the germs away.  We are looking for donations of tissues, paper towels, and hand sanitizer. Thank you for any help you can give our classroom! 

Introducing Foxtown....

I am sure your child told you all about our town, Foxtown, which was introduced last week.  We were running our classroom more like a town for the past week.  Students applied for classroom jobs, were paid for good deeds, and paid for classroom "rentals."  Of course the kids were excited to earn money that they could use at our classroom store on Friday.  

Here are some of the highlights from last week's new adventure.... each student has a job that they applied for.  They will hold a job for 2 weeks and each child will get paid at the end of each week.  In addition, students can earn money for coming to school on time, handing in their homework, being ready throughout the day, showing respectful behavior, and being responsible.  When a child earns money, he/she adds the money to  a "checkbook."  They money is added in and then added to their total money.  Students also have to pay for "renting" certain materials in the classroom.  Each child pays a weekly amount for renting the crates and the table/chairs.  On Fridays the bankers collect the rental fees.  Our class store will also be open on Friday.  If students want to purchase an item at our store, they need to withdraw money from their checkbook.  Students are also able to save for bigger prizes such as Gum Day or Choosing a Brain Break.  

Each Friday we also will award a certificate to the Employee (s) of the Week.  Congratulations to our wonderful Computer Technicians last week, Elijah and Gavin, on a job well done!

Employee of the Week- Computer Technician

Employee of the Week-Computer Technician

Collecting Weekly Fees

Ready to get paid for a job well done!

If we have the money we might as well spend it!

Spending money at our class store

Pay Day!

So many choices to pick from

Writing Workshop

We are so close to becoming published authors!  Later this week we will have a celebration of all of the authors for their hard work!  We will then be moving on to a creative writing prompt mini-unit.  We will be able to use our learning from our Realistic Fiction writing unit during the next unit as well.

Science

We got a chance to move back to science last week.  We reviewed the purpose of our Science Notebooks.  We found the importance of taking good notes and observations in our notebook.  We were able to see exactly what we were thinking about back in November during some of our experiments.  We will continue to learn about weathering and erosion this week!