Weekly Update

Happy American Thanksgiving! I hope you had a lovely long weekend with family. I love this time of year as we are reminded to give thanks for all we have. It is important to stop, reflect and be thankful. This weekend, I was sitting in the sun and relaxing on India’s Goan beaches and I was so thankful for my experiences here in India both in and out of the classroom.  Everyday I get to work with an exceptional group of teachers, students and parents. I am a lucky lady!

Please read below to learn what’s happening in our units of study this week:

Tech Rotations: Monday Afternoon
We have another round of fourth grade tech rotations on Monday. Different teachers visit the room and teach students five different mini-lessons regarding technology. This session's lessons are:
**Leaving Quality Comments (led by Ms. MacDonald)
**Compfight/Creative Commons Photos (led by Ms. Carlina)
**Citation Machine (Led by Ms. T.)
**Digital Footprint (Led by Ms. Chris)
**Google Search Tips (Led by Ms. Priya)

Math:  Multiplication and Division Assessment

We took a multiplication and division assessment before break. It was a hard test. We knew it was going to be a hard test. The skills used will continue to be addressed throughout the year. Not surprisingly all students need to continue to work on multi-step word problems. Often students do the first step and miss the second part of the question. This is why we ask students to start a word problem by determining what the answer sentence will be, to determine what the problem is asking them to do.

We will review the assessment on Tuesday and send it home to share with parents. Remember, this is a continuing skill set. We will continue with word problems and long division this week. Next week, we will begin decimals and fraction equivalents.  More on decimals and fractions next week!

Social Studies:  Data Mining in South Asia

Students are working in partnerships on a Data Mining project to learn more about life in South Asia.  In this project, they create graphs on different data points, then make inferences about life in those countries based on that data.  For example, last week students looked up the literacy rates for men and women in ten different countries, including four South Asian countries and their home countries.  This week, we will create graphs, compare and contrast data, and make inferences regarding poverty, school-life expectancy, and life expectancy.  Data Mining is fun and so, so educational.  Be sure to ask your fourth grader what they’ve been learning in social studies this week!

Reading and Writing Workshop:  Non-Fiction Research and Non-Fiction Writing

This week, students will begin drafting a non-fiction piece of writing on a topic related to water.  We will have specific mini lessons in reading on:

**Note-taking strategies for non-fiction texts.

**Finding the main idea in a non-fiction text.

**Creating a vocabulary word bank and “using the lingo” of experts.

**Using photos and captions as ways to gather information.  

We will have specific mini-lessons in writing on:

**Drafting a non-fiction text based on what we know.

**Making a plan to research what we don’t know.

**Adding useful text features to a non-fiction text.

**Writing captions.

Have a great week, everyone!