Weekly Update

Announcements:

Report Cards:  Report cards went "live" on Friday.  Please contact me if you'd like to schedule a conference.  

Field Trip to the Hyundai Factory:  Our field trip will hopefully happen on Friday, February 27th.  Again, this is an all day field trip and students must wear closed-toed shoes.

Math Project:  Adjusting a Recipe; Due Thursday, February 26th. We will have time on Monday to work on this project as a class and review questions and challenges.

What's Happening Next...

Please read below to learn about what is happening in our units of study.

Reading Workshop:  Historical Fiction Book Clubs

This week we begin Historical Fiction Book Clubs.  It's a challenging unit that invites students to imagine different times and think deeply about different issues that they often have never heard about.  For some students, it is the first time that they read texts with more mature content, and with storylines that are deeply disturbing.  We will be reading amazing, and also challenging texts in class, as a whole class, in book clubs, and independently.  For our book clubs, we will be mixing it up and pairing students with other fourth graders in Ms. MacDonald's class (4A).  

During our last round of book clubs, some parents mentioned how much they enjoyed reading the books their children were reading.  We were so thrilled to hear this!  We encourage parent/child shared reading.  One book we will be reading as a class is Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, a book that takes place in Denmark during WWII.  This is a fantastic, moving book that adults and children will both enjoy. While I don't have a class set, Ms. MacDonald has several extra copies and so does the library/CIC.  If you are interested in reading along and discussing the book at home, send me an email and I can check one out to your child.  Students will continue to have specific reading assignments and reading homework for their book clubs.  We will continue to log reading on a paper, as we did last week, as part of the homework accountability.

Our main objectives for the week in reading are:

• Compare and contrast historical fiction with other genres we have read this year.
• Understand the importance (and challenges) of the setting in historical fiction books.
• Discuss a historical fiction picture book with others.
• Work within a group to create agreements for a being a member of a book club.  

Re-visiting Narrative Writing:  A Small Moment Story
Next week, we will shift to another research unit called Bringing History to Life.  This week, however, we will re-visit narrative writing.  Students will write a "Small Moment" personal narrative where they tell a story about something that happened to them. 

Our main objectives for the week in writing are:

• Brainstorm possible ideas, and choose an idea that will make a good, inviting story.
• Consider our stories, and how we will write them, based on a story arc and identifying rising action, climax and resolution.  
• Re-visit the conventions of dialogue in writing.  
• Practice the art of writing vivid, descriptive, narrative text.

Math:  Metric Conversion and Measurement
We begin a unit on measurement and will focus on metric conversions this week.  Our main objectives for the week are:

• Express metric length and mass measurements in different units. (example 3000 m = 3 km)
• Model and solve addition and subtraction word problems involving metric measurements.  

Science:  Solar Energy
Students enjoyed our Science Focus next week.  We will continue to do a lot of work in science in the coming two weeks, before moving on to our next social studies unit.
Students will be exploring how we can use the sun’s energy and convert it to power/electricity. They will be designing their own solar cooker. 

Popcorn and Poetry Sucess

Thank you to all the moms, dads, nannies, and loved ones who came to celebrate our writing on Thursday!

4E were confident and courageous as they stood in front of a full audience to share their ideas and read their poems. They read loud and proud. Their poems were full of figurative language and emotion. 

Here are a couple pictures from yesterday. I have more videos of students reading their poems that will be shared on their eportfolio blogs!

Congratulations 4E on a job well done. Ms. Lauren and I couldn't be more proud!

Weekly Update

Announcements:

• Poetry and Popcorn:  Thursday, February 19th at 2:30pm.    It's time for our annual Poetry and Popcorn.  Parents are invited to come in and listen to students read aloud their own poetry.  It's a beautiful event and we hope everyone can attend.  If you can donate popcorn, that would be fantastic.  Please email me before Wednesday. 

• Trip to Hyundai rescheduled for February 27th.  Better late than never!  A reminder email will be sent again next week.  

Assignments:

Math Project:  Adjusting a Recipe.  

We will begin this Tuesday.  Projects are due Thursday, February 26th.  

Reading at Home:  

In a couple of weeks, we will launch Historical Fiction as our next unit in reading. Some students had a hard time completing assigned reading in our last round of book clubs.  The historical fiction unit is based primarily on book clubs, and it is crucial the students are doing their reading homework in the evenings.

 Starting this week, all students will be logging their reading on a simple reading log.  While some students enjoy logging on their electronic devices, for ease of tracking, I am requesting that all students log their reading on the paper sheet that I provide them tomorrow.  On this sheet, we are asking for title, minutes read, and a parent signature.  

The end-of-year reading comprehension level for fourth grade is a level T.  This is a very challenging level and most students are not there yet.  Of course, all students make progress at their own rate, and we understand that, but it is important to note that in fifth grade, grade-level texts are much more complex.  It is also important to note that the single biggest factor to improved reading comprehension is time spent reading.

While we regularly give independent reading time at school, conference with students to improve their comprehension skills, I just want to stress again how important reading at home is.  If your child is getting bored with books, switching to picture books is a GREAT way to spice things up.  Picture books come in every reading level and are easy to share with parents and siblings; they also usually take about twenty minutes to read.  Please send me a quick message if your child is resisting his or her reading at home and I can work with him or her to make it a little more exciting.  

Report Cards

As you might know, report cards can be viewed online this coming Thursday, February 19th.  A few notes about this trimester's report cards:

***As we are in the middle of the solar energy unit, students have not been fully exposed to the content or skills needed to meet the solar energy science standards.  All students received a "Developing" mark, and those standards will again be assessed on the final report card.  

Curious About the Specifics?

I absolutely love Student Led Conferences, but I also understand that it's important for teachers and parents to communicate about how a child is doing in school.  I welcome conferences to discuss student progress and individual goals.  If you'd like to set up a twenty minute conference, please email me with a time that works well for you.  Before school or Mondays, and most Fridays after school are the best times for me, but I can also be flexible.  

This week in 4E......

Science:  Solar Energy

With so much happening in recent weeks, we haven't had enough time to really focus on the importance of our solar energy unit.  Solar energy may very well be the future, and we want to ensure that this unit gets enough time!  In the coming two weeks, science will take the main stage in class.  We will integrate learning about energy into our language arts blocks, and specifically the ways we can harness solar energy ourselves.   

This week, students will:

·                Explore different types of renewable and non-renewable energy sources.

·                Learn about the history of solar ovens.

·                Work in teams using Design Thinking to create and test a solar oven.

·                Work in teams to design an experiment to measure the affect of color on temperature.  

For the solar oven design project, the ovens will be made in teams, at school.  Students might come home and investigate resources they have at home (for example, card board boxes) and bring them to school, but the creation of the solar ovens should be done at school, together with their teams.  

Language Arts:

Students have loved the poetry unit, and we are excited for our Poetry and Popcorn on Thursday.  We will be using some illustrating techniques from Lauren Stringer to enhance our poetry.

We will also do some final edits to our Literary Essays which will be due Tuesday February 17^th.

While we wrap up poetry, as mentioned, we will integrate some solar energy reading and research into our language arts time.  Students read about and discuss different renewable and non-renewable energy sources.  They will also read about different solar oven projects that are in Haiti, Kenya, and right here in India.  

Math:  Adding and Subtracting Fractions and a Math Project

This week, students will:

Add and subtract fractions conceptually (using manipulatives and pictures).

Adjust a recipe that has fractions.

Math Project:  Adjusting a Recipe

On Monday, students will choose a simple recipe that has at least four fractions in it.  Using this recipe they will complete a project where they must adjust the recipe for different numbers of people. This requires them to multiply and divide fractions.  

 We will give the students some time in class to work on the project and ensure they know how to figure out the problems and what is expected of them.  However, students will be assigned the completion of this project as homework.  It is due Thursday, February 26th.  

Have a great week!

Literary Essay due Friday

This week, 4E has been working to build a quality literary essay.  Here is the basic format to help and an example draft by Shashwat of how to use the format.

Introduction

Hook a reader:

Introduce your book (title and author)

Quick summary

Thesis Statement: ( statement because reason #1, reason #2, and reason #3)

Reason #1

Point:

Evidence:

Explain:

Link:

Reason #2

Point:

Evidence:

Explain:

Link:

Reason #3

Point:

Evidence:

Explain:

Link:

Conclusion

Restate thesis in new fun way.

Invite readers to ...

Weekly Update

Announcements:

• Literacy Letter: Due Monday, February 9th
• Field Trip to the Hyundai Factory Tuesday, February 10th. Thank you Simone, Niccolo’s mom, and Soni, Kaavin’s mom, for helping chaperone this trip. Please note we will be leaving the school promptly at 8:30 due to the long distance to the factory and will return around 3:00-3:15. A reminder for all students and chaperones that everyone must be wearing close-toed shoes (sneakers, tennis shoes) to visit the factory.
• Visiting author Lauren Stringer will be at AISC February 9th-13th. We will have time with the author Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon.
• Mid-Unit Math Assessment—will continue throughout the week
• Valentine's Day:  Compliment Cards.  I have a tradition in my class where each student makes a Compliment Card for every other student in the class.  Students will be given clear directions and cards will be sent home to be completed by Friday.  We do not have a "party" but more of a celebration of each other.  If you'd like to send treats for Friday, feel free but it will be a small affair.

Here is what we are doing this week:

Poetry:

We continue to study and write poetry this week.  We will be modelling our poetry lessons and objectives after what we learn from Lauren Stringer throughout the week. We have two 45 minute lessons with Lauren Stringer this week. Students have created Basho poems to bring and share with her and we are eager to hear her ideas on what to do next!

Book Clubs:  

Book Club books are finished and we will be working on writing a Literary Essay exploring the characters, themes, and big ideas we have discovered. We will start the essay on Monday and it will be due at the end of the week.

Math:  Fractions and Decimals

The math test scheduled last week has been delayed to this week due to student request for a couple more days to practice. We will be staggering the test over the week.

Students continue to explore fractions and will connecting their fraction knowledge with decimals. Our objectives, this week, are to:

• Add two fractions with respective denominators 10 and 100
• Use decimal notation for fractions with denominators 10 or 100. For example, rewrite 0.62 as 62/100
• Compare two decimals to hundredths with the symbols >, =, or <, and justify the conclusions

Science:  Solar Energy

On Friday, students used their data on earth materials and color in relation to heating and cooling to start designing a home. We will be performing some experiments this week to test our theories about how the sun can help keep houses warm or cool depending on environmental needs.

Weekly Update

Announcements:

·                Field Trip to the Hyundai Factory Tuesday, February 10th. This is a great trip!  We are permitted two parent chaperones, so if you'd like to come along with the class, please email me at tchristina@aisch.org  

Permission slips and an information letter will go home this week.  Please note we will be leaving the school promptly at 8:30 due to the long distance to the factory and will return around 3:00-3:15.

·                Visiting author Lauren Stringer will be at AISC February 9th-13th.

·                Mid-Unit Math Assessment--Friday, February 6th

·                Literacy Letter: Due Monday, February 9th

Here is what we are doing this week:

Poetry:

We continue to study and write poetry this week.  Our objectives are:

·                Prepare a “Basho poem” to use a workshop with Lauren Stringer next week.

·                Consider the deeper emotions in some poetry and reflect on emotions we might want to put in our own poetry.

·                Practice proper prosody when reading poetry aloud.  

Book Clubs:  

Most students will finish this round of book clubs this week.  We will have another round of book clubs soon.

Non Fiction Writing Assessment: We will collect some evidence regarding our non-fiction learning objectives. This assessment is summative of all the work we did in our last unit. There is no good way for the students to study; we are hoping to see them use the teaching points we used in class throughout the unit.

Math:  Fractions

Students continue to do well with this unit! This week, we will:

~Order fractions looking at common numerators and common denominators

~Add fractions with common denominators.

~Solve word problems involving fractions.

We will also take a mid-unit assessment on Friday, which covers:

·                Decomposing fractions.

·                Finding equivalent fractions.

·                Comparing fractions.  

Students can review their notes and assignments to study.

Science:  Solar Energy

Students continue to conduct experiments and collect data on solar energy.  On Friday, they observed different Earth materials in the sun.  This week, we will reflect on our data.  We will also think about solar energy and humans, and design experiments with solar houses.