Sep 7th Update

Announcements:

 ·                Math Tests: Students will receive their math tests on Monday and take them home to be signed by parents. Please send these tests back on Tuesday.

·                Student Council Representative: We will be having our elections for Student Council on Monday.
·                Ms. Chris is Absent from August 10th-16th. I am heading stateside to attend a wedding. In my absence, a full time sub will be with the class and as much as possible, a TA, EAL teacher or other 4th grade homeroom teacher will also be in the classroom to help keep grade level consistency. I will talk with the kids about my absence on Monday.

Please read below to learn about what is happening in our Units of Study:

Reading Workshop:

This week, we begin a new unit called "Following Characters into Meaning". The student objectives are:

·                Make "mental movies" of what is happening in our stories.

·                Envision the setting and discuss the importance of setting in stories.

·                Develop theories about characters, but revise these theories as we learn more about characters as the text progresses.

Literacy Letters

Literacy letter has the requirements for the weekly literacy letters. As the year progresses and students are more adept at writing about their reading, I will offer more creative options for the Literacy Letter (and it might not even be a letter!).

Writing Workshop

Students have been developing characters for their realistic fiction stories. Such creativity exists among these students!

This week students will:

·                Use a story arc to map out their stories

·                Write scenes that include action, dialogue, and emotions to show what is happening in their stories.

Math

Students took the first geometry assessment last week and tests will be sent home to be signed on Monday. We will continue to work toward mastering all of the geometry objectives listed on the students self assessment. In addition to taking a pre-assessment over the coming unit, we will begin to work on number sense objectives.

Students will:

·                Read and write number through the millions in standard and expanded form.

·                Compare multi-digit numbers based on meanings of the digits in each place, using <> and =.  

·                Use models to demonstrate understanding of place value.  

·                Identify place value names for multi-digit whole numbers.

·                Round numbers.  Find “Nice Numbers” (ie Round numbers) to add and subtract mentally with ease.

Science

Students will explain the experiments they tried at home using the scientific method. Students will also:

·                Compare and contrast simple circuits, parallel circuits, and series circuits.

·                Explore electromagnetism.

Scientific Method Presentation

Four students have shared the experiments they did at home. We have enjoyed listening to the different ideas and findings our friends have discovered. Students should continue to bring in their at home experiments.  Due date is September 19^th.