A Fabulous Week

The Verdict is in.....

     This week in reading we looked more closely at the chapter book that we are reading as a whole class, The Hundred Dresses.  One of the major themes in this book is bullying and making good choices even though it might be difficult.  

Early on in the week, the students were asked to describe one of the main characters in the story, Maddie.  This character seems as though she cares about Wanda, the girl that is getting bullied because she doesn't actually participate in the bullying that is going on. Maddie also seems to "care" about Wanda because she wants to get her friend to stop bullying Wanda and eventually wants to speak up to the bully, but is too scared.  The majority of the class felt as though Maddie was a caring character.  

The class then read a Scholastic News article about bullies and bystanders.  After reading this article the students were again asked to judge Maddie as a character now that they had learned more about bullies and bystanders from another text.  Many still felt she was caring.  

Since our class was split on this issue of Maddie as a character, we held a People's Court debate about the topic.  Students got together in pairs with a person who felt the same as they did about Maddie and then those partnerships got together with the rest of the kids that felt the same way and created a speech to support their thinking.  They had to use evidence from the text and/or article to support their thinking throughout this entire process.

          On Friday we held our first official People's Court to debate the issue of Maddie as a character.  Students were reminded that at the end of hearing each side on this debate they would have to decide on their final verdict.  Was Maddie caring or not caring?    Ask your child what their verdict was!  

I was so proud of the kids for listening to both sides so that they could make a decision about Maddie based on the evidence.  It was fun and powerful learning for both the students and myself.  

I am creating an iMovie out of our debate.  I am hoping to post it at some point next week after we have our own "viewing" party in the classroom.  

   

Hard-working Authors!

        In writing this week the kids decided on a story that they were going to “commit to” and write using newly learned strategies.  They had to think closely about their main character.  They also started to plan out their story by using a story arc.  A story arc is a way to make sure that their story follows the pattern that most fiction stories follow.  In this plan, the characters are usually introduced, a problem occurs, and then problem tends to get worse and worse for the characters.  In the middle of the story, there is usually a turning point or the part of the story where the characters change or learn a lesson.  After that there is usually some sort of resolution.  This type of plan really allows the students to think very clearly about how they envision their story to play out.  

Working with Area and Perimeter

          In math we started our new math unit on multiplication and division.  This unit starts off with having students think about what they learned in third grade about area and perimeter and apply it to real world situations.  There was some hands on work to go along with this as students needed to create diagrams with certain dimensions.  

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!  

~Mrs. Lewis

This Week in Fourth Grade....

Thank you!

     It was great to be able to meet with so many parents last week during conferences.  I am hoping that you found your child's conference helpful.  We have been working on setting goals in the classroom, so it was nice to be able to share those goals with each family.

Genius Hour Project

    I wanted to let families know about a project opportunity that their child could work on at home if they want to.  It is called Genius Hour.   This project is completely voluntary.  It is something that my students worked on last year, and since it was so motivating for those kids I wanted to let you know about it.   

     This independent project allows students to learn about a topic that they are interested in learning more about.  After learning about the topic, students decide how they want to present their new knowledge to their classmates.  After creating a presentation, students get a chance to be the "expert" and teach their classmates about their topic.  

     Genius Hour is a project that would be completed at home and could be worked on when a student has time.  Last year when I did this with my students, some children were finished faster than others. The objective of the project is to promote a child's curiosity and give them an opportunity to learn more about a topic of interest.

     If you would be interested in having me send this independent learning project home with your child, please email me.  I have a packet that can be sent home with your child to help  guide them along the way.

Moving on in Math...

     We just finished our measurement unit in math last week.  It was a quick unit on converting measurements.  We will now be moving onto a much longer multiplication and division unit.  I am posting the link for the parent letter to this new math unit.  I will also send home a hard copy of the letter early next week.  

Multiplication and Division Parent Letter 

BOKS

     BOKS starts this week!  I just wanted to remind students who signed up for this before school gym/activity program.  I am very excited to see so many kids in our class sign up for this great program. I am lucky enough to be one of the adults that get to help out and exercise with the kids each week.  It really is a lot of fun and a great way to start the day!

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend!  

~Mrs. Lewis

Busy Week Ahead!

Writing Celebrations

     On Friday we celebrated our essay writing as a class.  Each student was able to read a classmate's essay and then compliment that writer on what they did a nice job with.  Many students were able to compliment more than one classmate.  The kids did a great job with carefully thinking about what their classmates did well as writers.  The writing celebrations will be shared with the authors next week.

Storytellers

     In writing, we are working on gathering ideas for realistic fiction stories.  We have learned that authors will often take small moments that have happened in their life and turn and twist it a little bit to make it “realistic” fiction.  We spent lots of writing time brainstorming writing topics that we care about.  This will help us as we start to think about what kind of topics are important to us as we start to draft realistic fiction narratives.

Conferences

     Just a reminder that this week we have parent/teacher conferences.  You should have received information about signing up for conferences last Wednesday.  If you aren't able to get onto the website, please let me know and I can put your name into a time slot.

Please be on the lookout for a conference planning questionnaire that will come home with your child on Tuesday.  If you can fill that out and send it in with your child on Wednesday it will help me make sure that I address any concerns that you have about your child at his/her conference.  This has helped in the past since we only have 10 minutes for our conference.

I am also going to attach the page here.  You can fill it out and send it in with your child OR you can email your responses to me.  

October 2014

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I thought it would be helpful to get some information from you before we have our conference this week.  You will not be receiving a report card at the conference so it leads us to truly being able to have a discussion about what we all see happening right now and where we need to strengthen your child’s academic and social skills. With that in mind, please answer these questions as best you can and return it to school by Wednesday, October 15^th  so that we’re all ready to discuss your child in a timely manner.

          1. What strengths do you see your child showing?

          2. What weaknesses do you see your child showing?

          3. What questions do you have about homework so far this year?

4. What social concerns do you have for your child this year?

5. What other topics would you like us to discuss?

Sincerely,

Mrs. Lewis

Thank you for your help in this!  I am looking forward to seeing everyone at conferences this week.  

~Mrs. Lewis

Moving On....

Moving On...

This week we will be finishing up two units.  We will be starting a measurement unit in math and we will be starting our realistic fiction unit in writing.  

Inferring

In reading we started our unit on Making Inferences last week.  We had lots of fun watching Pixar "short" movies.  These movies don't have any words, but the kids were able to make a lot of inferences about what was going on.  Here is one that we watched last week:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIlIVFBBbNw

The kids have learned that inferences are taking "evidence" from the text (or movie) and your background knowledge to determine what is "probably true" or an inference.  

If you choose to watch this video with your child, they can show you how they make inferences.  We watched the movie one time through and then we paused the movie the second time through when we could infer.

This week we will be focusing on making inferences about characters.  We will start by making inferences about ourselves as people.  The kids will brainstorm traits to describe themselves.  Then we will move on to taking a closer look at characters in the books we are reading.

Measuring in Math

I have attached the Parent Newsletter for our upcoming Measurement unit.  This unit is very short, but very in-depth.  I am hoping you find these newsletters informative and helpful.

http://commoncore.org/maps/documents/tips-for-parents/Eureka_Math_Grade_4_Module_2_Tips_for_Parents.pdf

Math Night at Farley

Just a reminder that there will be a Math Night about Engage NY at Farley this week.  Math Night is this Wednesday, October 8th from 6:30-8:00.  This will be an interactive night for parents around our new math program.  

It was great seeing many parents at Open House last week!  I hope everyone has a great week!

~Mrs. Lewis

Picture Perfect Week!

Magnets!

     Earlier in the week we got to experiment with magnets in our Magnets and Electricity science unit.   The kids learned a lot about the ways that magnets interact with each other.  It is always so neat to see the fascination in the eyes of 9 and 10 year olds as they watch a magnet on the bottom of a desk move the magnet on the top of a desk!  There was certainly LOTS of excitement in the classroom.

Lots of Questions...

     In reading workshop we have been working on asking questions over the past few weeks.  The kids came into 4th grade knowing a lot about stopping and asking questions as they are reading.  We have been working on focusing our questions to make sure that they are talk-worthy or "thick" questions instead of always asking "right there" questions.  Thick questions usually start with WHY or HOW.  In addition, thick/talk-worthy questions can ask the reader to describe the lesson in the story or use a word to describe a character.  These types of questions usually encourage the children to think more deeply about what is happening in the story.  These types of questions also require the reader to go back into the book and find "evidence" or words in the book to back up their thinking.  Getting into the habit of asking these types of questions takes some practice.  We have been practicing as a whole class, with partners, and independently. 

How can you help your child at home?

     Often times fourth graders like to read independently, however, it is also important to read with your child.  Picture books are also a great way to share a book with your child!  I will usually read a picture book to the class on a daily basis and they really do love being read to!  

     Even if your child is reading independently, you can ask them to share with you a question that they had while they were reading.   Below is a great chart that gives some sentence starters for asking thin (right there) questions and thick (deep) questions. Having a discussion about any question is also very beneficial for your fourth grader.    

                                                  

     I am looking forward to seeing you at Open House on Thursday, October 2nd!  There will be 2 sessions to accommodate families that have two children.  The first session will go from about 6:30-7:00 and the second session will start around 7:15.  I will share information about our classroom expectations and the fourth grade curriculum.  I hope to see you there!

Enjoy the warm weather!

~Mrs. Lewis

A Rewarding Week!

Dance Party!    

     Let's start at the end of the week and work back!  It was a great end to the week.  As a class, the kids worked together by being respectful, responsible, and ready and filled the class Paw Print chart. At the end of the day on Friday we had a Newspaper Dance Party.  Each person had a piece of paper to dance on.  Sounds easy, but the fun part was every few minutes they had to fold their paper in half.  As the paper got smaller, so did their dance floor.  It was a lot of fun to watch!  We certainly have some very creative dancers in our class!

    

Building our Independence

     Throughout the week we worked on building our independence.  We talked about what it looks like to read and write independently.  To go along with our growth mindset discussions, we have talked about the importance of practice.  Each day we have been working towards building our stamina, or the amount of time that we can read and write independently.  The more time that they spend reading and writing independently, the more success they will have.  The hope is that this becomes a routine for the students in the classroom.  

Encouraging Math at Home

     As you may have heard, we are using a new math program called Engage NY.  There are many components to this program including whole group instruction, small group instruction, and independent work.  Since the program is new this year, there is some new terminology that is being used in the classroom.  I am attaching a link so that you can go on and read the parent newsletter for our first math unit.  We will be finishing up this unit on place value within the next 2 weeks.  I will then send the link for our next unit.  

Engage NY parent letter link 

 http://hudsonmathfacts.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/9/5/10957324/grade_4_module_1.pdf

Mrs. Buscemi's Math Website -- One of our math specialists has some great links on her website for math.

http://hudsonmathfacts.weebly.com/

Xtra Math

     Late last week your child came home with a letter about a math fluency website that we will be using.  It is called Xtra Math.  It is a program that I have signed the entire class up for.  Each child has their own log in code.  Ideally, I would like your child to use this program 4-5 times per week.  The program starts off with addition fact fluency and moves through the other operations.  Each child moves at his/her own pace.  Fact fluency is extremely important as we move on in math, so I am hoping that this program will help your child succeed.

I am looking forward to another great week.  This Friday, September 26th we have school Picture Day.  Order forms will be sent home early next week.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

~Mrs. Lewis

Last Week in LL38.....

Good Job LL38...

      I am really proud of the kids for taking responsibility for turning in their homework on time this week.  Almost the entire class turned their homework in the day that was due.  I love to see them taking responsibility for their learning in this way!

Reading in the "EDGES"....

     I had the kids experiment with reading in the "edges" this week for homework.  We talked a lot about improving as a reader requires that we practice reading.  I challenged the kids to find time to read in the "edges" of their days this week.  Maybe they didn't have time to sit and read before bed for a full 20 minutes, but were able to find bits of time to read.  For example, many of the kids talked about reading while waiting for a sibling to finish a practice or while driving in the car.  These are great examples of finding time in the day to make reading a priority.  

     During reading on Friday, I had the kids reflect on how reading in the "edges" went for them.  In their reflections some students talked about how they were proud of themselves for finding 20 minutes (or more) each day to read, or that they were able to read 10 minutes on the way to a practice and then on the way home as well.  This was GREAT to hear and helps support the growth mindset that we are working on this year.  

     I reminded the kids that reading is reading, so it doesn't matter if they are reading to themselves, to a parent, sibling or even a stuffed animal. :)  Any reading that they are doing is better than not reading at all.  Picture books are also a great way to share books with your child.  

Opinions Galore!

     In writing we worked as essayists to share big ideas about topics that are important to us.  We were able to observe and notice the set up of an essay and try planning essays.  One of the important part of an essay is providing clear reasons to back up our thesis or opinion.  The kids have loved sharing their opinions with their classmates.  We will continue to work this week on pushing our thinking and adding details to our essays.

 Book Orders

     Book orders went out on Friday.  They are due on Friday, September 19th.  You can order online at www.scholastic.com or send in the order with your child.  If you order online our class code is  GXC4P.  If you choose to send your order into school, please send checks made out to Scholastic Book Clubs.

Thank YOU! 

     It was a great first full week of fourth grade!  Thank you to all of the parents that shared information and important insight with me about their child on the pink Getting to Know You form.  This is so important in helping me get to know your child as a person and a learner.  Also, our storage cabinets are overflowing with tissues, disinfectant wipes, and additional supplies.  Thank you for sending in all of this for our class.  It will come in handy as the year goes on!

Have a great weekend!

~Jen