Reading in the Wild…

        Last week we got a chance to “Read in the Wild!”  When we came back from lunch on Thursday there was a bag hanging on our door.  The note on the bag said that we needed to read the book just to have fun and enjoy it.  There was a lot of excitement around this!  The kids absolutely love being read to and just sitting back and enjoying the book.  After our class had a chance to read the book we got to pass the book to another classroom. 

Here is the book we read last week….

Hard Workers…

        The kids took their Mid-Year Math Assessment this week.  I am  proud of the kids because they really worked hard and put forth a great effort.  I noticed that kids were going back to double check their work which is always encouraging to see!

        Based on the data that the mid-year has given us, Math At Home (MAH) will be a little different this week.  The kids are going to take a closer look at their assessment and determine what they feel as though they need to work on as a mathematician.  For MAH this week, they should complete the review sheets attached to the MAH page based on the topic that they need to work on. 

What’s the big idea?

        We are continuing to work on reading nonfiction texts during Reading Workshop.  We have been working on determining the main idea of an article or short text.  Thinking about the main idea and the supporting details of a text is typically difficult for fourth graders.  It really takes a lot of practice to become successful at determining the main idea and supporting details. 

        Here is the way that the students have been learning about main idea and detail.

Step 1:  What is the topic?  (Usually one word)

Step 2:  What does the author want us to learn about this topic?  (This is the main idea.)

Step 3:  What are the important details that say something about the main idea or support the main idea.  (These are the details.)

        We have also talked about thinking about a stool or chair when talking about main idea and detail.  The main idea is the seat of a chair and the details are the legs of the chair. The legs/details are there to support the main idea.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend!

~Mrs. Lewis

LL38 Update

Nonfiction Readers….

        Last week we started our nonfiction reading unit.  The kids got to “shop” for nonfiction books from our classroom library.  They had a lot of fun picking out these books. 

        We are going to be spending a lot of time determining the main idea or what the article or text is mostly about.  This skill can be difficult for fourth graders.  We talk about what is the author trying to teach us about a text or what is most important to know about this text. 

        We also have been working on determining text features in nonfiction texts.  We have spent a lot of time looking at text features and thinking about why the author adds them to the text.  We also think about how these text features can help us better understand a text.   Below is a picture of some text features that are common in nonfiction books.

Fun Facts

        Since we have started our nonfiction unit, we have been trying to find interesting facts to share with our classmates.  We are trying to learn a “fact (or more) a day!” 

When I introduced this to the class last week, I showed them a website called Wonderopolis.  It is a great website and app that presents an interesting question and then gives the answer.  If the kids are interested in the topic they can find out further information about the topic by clicking on other links in the Wonderopolis article. 

Marvelous Mathematicians

        We are moving onto our next unit in math which is Geometry.  This is usually a nice “break” for kids since geometry is very visual and hands on.  I sent home the parent letter from Engage NY with your child today. 

The geometry unit does have a lot of vocabulary that goes along with it.  Practicing the vocabulary words at home with your child will help them as they do their work in class.  They should be able to identify the vocab words based on their definition and they should also be able to draw a picture to represent the vocabulary words.  I will be sending home a set of flash cards that your child will also have in school so that you can practice them at home.

        We will be learning these words throughout the unit.  Your child should be able to tell you if they have learned the word in class.  Students should practice the words as they are learned.

I hope everyone has a great week!  

~Mrs. Lewis