Last Update!

Oh, I am so sad to be writing this last weekly update for 4E. We have had such a wonderful year and the class has really worked well together. I will miss everyone!

With this in mind, we are going to start a group with everyone's summer email account so even as some us move away, we can stay in contact. Please talk to your child about this and contact me if you have any questions. For students, and teachers, leaving, our accounts will end soon. So, we need to use a separate email account, if they do not have one already. To do this, we need parent permission to open an account. I will be getting in touch directly.

Events:
Monday: 4E Class Farewell Party 2:30-3:30 in the classroom. Parent are welcome.
Tuesday: 4E, A, D Pool Party 1:30-3:30 at the pool. Please send in pool supplies such as full suits, caps, googles, towel, and sunscreen. This is a student party.
Friday: School ends at noon.

This week in 4E.....

Reading
We are finishing our book report project and then will share them with the class.

Writing
We will be finishing our PSA inspired realistic fiction story and sharing them with the class.

Math
We will be playing math games this week!

Inquiry
We will have a PSA celebration and then focus on our classroom community. We plan on making a 4E movie, making summer goals, setting up email sharing, and reflecting on this awesome year!

I can't believe we have come to the end of the year. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all for a wonderful year in 4th grade.
Keep in touch,
Ms. Chris
cthomp0178@gmail.com

PSA Youtube Links

Congratulations to all of 4th grade on the fabulous PSAs that were celebrated today at the auditorium.

Here is a link to all of the 4E videos produced. All of the videos are unlisted so you need this link in order to view to video. Please share these links safety.

Shashi and Niccolo	4E	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQJJ7MKUCtI&feature=youtu.be
Seoyoung and Suin	4E	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x2CXAEEEAU
Nathan, Wooseop, Victor	4E	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bqIJFLNmWE English
Nathan, Wooseop, Victor	4E	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEA3WUy-JzU French
Nathan, Wooseop, Victor	4E	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIsSzTNYAqs Korean
Eric and Ryota	4E	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4htBWKWDrRc
Madi and Charlotte	4E	https://youtu.be/2nagd6ir7VE
Moeno, Akshaya, Ellen	4E	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp1Jc6C3IT0
Yejin and SiEun	4E	https://youtu.be/szn8mjbo274
Kaavin	4E	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0BQNSYi6vE

Update

Dear Parents,

We are down to our last three weeks of the year and I can't help but wonder where the time has gone! The class is busy with projects and end of the year reviews but we are also taking time for some classroom fun. Our read aloud The BFG is almost completed and we will be having a movie viewing at the end of the week!  

Public Service Announcements May 29th at 1:45 in the FAC All fourth graders are hard at work on creating Public Service Announcements on global water issues.  The short videos will be shown on the big screen and we hope that parents and other communities members will come, watch, and learn.

4E Farewell Party:  Monday, June 1st. Details to come. =)

4A & 4E Swim Party:  Our class swim party will be on Tuesday, June 2nd at 1:30.  

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

Math: A Year in Review

Students have been reviewing some key concepts we have learned this year. We will be setting summer goals and taking a End of the Year Assessment on Friday, May 22. 

Water Public Service Announcements

Students are working in teams to create a public service announcement (a short video) that highlights a water issue.  Throughout the project, they will be learning about persuasive techniques and using many of the skills they have learned throughout the year.  

Objectives for the project include:

Researching to find information.

Synthesizing information.

Forming an opinion and identifying a “call to action”.

Writing a story board for a video.

Creating an iMovie on the iPads for publication.

Collaborating with others.  

Identifying the multiple causes and effects of certain issues.  

Reading Running Records

During the reading blocks this week, students will be given running records to assess their end of the year reading levels.  The fourth grade “at grade level” Fountas and Pinnel reading level is S/T.  This is a difficult expectation to meet and many students, honestly, will not attain this level this year.  

The students are such ambitious children who, in my experience, are highly sensitive to not meeting expectations.  They also receive a “developing” on the report card if they don’t reach it, even though they have done so, so well.  It is important to note that target growth in a school year is three levels.  Almost all students have grown three levels this year already, which is a great accomplishment that makes me very proud!   Please help me by supporting your child and letting them know they have done a great job in reading this year!

Overdue Library Books:

Please have a look and send in any AISC books that you might find.  Thanks so much for your help with this. The 4th grade account and many student accounts are still missing books.

Happy Friday

Today, 4E went to the bake sale benefiting Nepal. Then we went to watch the fun swim at the swim meet. Pictures below are from this heat! It was an exciting race!

We ended the day be attending a basketball game. Unfortunately, AISC was not playing and it was our 3rd event so students started to lose control and we didn't stay long.

Overall, 4E has been working hard and we just started a new big project. We are proud of their work and working to end the year on a positive and fun note.

Persuasive Sentence Starters

4E is starting to persuade in our writing.  Here are some sentence starters to help us get started writing down our ideas.

Water Crisis

Watch one or both videos and comment below. Reply to your classmates comments. Let's have a conversation.

Human Rights

The video we watched today.

The Videos for each of the 30 Human Rights is at the bottom of this link.

Remember your homework is to....

Update

I have just finished one and a half days of wonderful Student Led Conferences. These conferences were truly "Student Led" as Ms. Lauren and I tried to stay in the background and really let our fabulous 4th graders share their work from throughout the year. We couldn't be more proud. Here are a few pictures to share!

With this, we would also like to remind every parent that Ms. Lauren and I are always available to meet and discuss your child and their progress or to discuss plans for summer. Please email us to set up a time.

Assignments / Announcements:

WIDA Testing: Ms. Lauren will be beginning WIDA testing this week. EAL students will be pulled periodically throughout the week for an English Acquisition exam. Ms. Lauren will not be in the classroom for the week as she administers these tests.

Running Records: I will be beginning reading assessments this week to determine end of the year reading levels. When Ms. Lauren returns to the classroom next week, we hope to finish all reading tests.

Timed Math Fact Test: Friday, May 8th. We took timed math fluency tests all fall and have been continuing every month in 2015. Our last timed test will be this Friday.

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

Reading Workshop:

Students will be reading independently while Reading tests are administered. We will be reviewing the importance of using reading strategies such as inferring; monitoring character's emotions, thoughts, and actions; and digging deeper into why the author made the choices they did when writing.

Writing Workshop:

Students will utilize the knowledge gained in their Bringing History to Life project to write a short nonfiction text. They will have two class periods to plan, draft, revise, and edit their piece with limited teacher assistance.

We will also be discussing the art of persuasion and begin to work on crafting the beginning of a persuasive essay and storyboard about a water issue.

Math:

Students continue to practice converting fractions, decimals and percents.

-reinforce naming equivalence among fractions, decimals, and percents

-review multiplication and division of decimals by whole numbers

Inquiry:

This week, students will be starting a new project examining the Universal Human Rights Declaration. Monday, students will be asked to make a poster to explain one of the Human Rights. After a review, we will examine how water issues are connected to Human Rights.
In the weeks to come, students will be asked to create their own PSA with a partner to raise awareness or call people to action about their water related issue. It is a very exciting project that should utilize many of the research, writing, and technology strategies we have been working on this year, as well as their growing understanding of the world and people around them.

Have a great week!