Our Week In Review

What an awesome week!

We have been working hard in all of our subjects, and Mrs. Merten is very proud of us!

In math, we had our first math assessment on Wednesday.  Mrs. Merten will send home the tests on Monday.  Everyone worked really hard to get ready, and almost everyone finished the extra credit study guide! Well Done!  We will begin our next topic, Creating and Analyzing Patterns, on Monday.  This topic will take about 2 weeks to complete.

In Reading, we have continued to work on establishing our Reader's Workshop time.  We have been discussing the strategies that good readers use, and have been practicing some of the strategies.  This week, the children will be "asking questions" during their nightly reading.  Using post-it notes is a great way to track this, as well as recording this on their reading log.  As a reminder- students should be reading at least 15 minutes a night, and the reading log is due, signed, every Friday.  Students are working on their reading stamina, and most are able to read for 15-20 minutes during class.  This stamina will continue to improve as the year progresses.

Here are some of the fourth graders giving their first book talks.  Way to go!

In Writing, we have finished writing our goals for fourth grade. The children did a wonderful job revising their goals, and helping their partners revise as well.  We will finish up the goals early next week, and the children will begin to work on personal narratives.  The children also have written some fabulous Biopoems during Poetry Workshop, and we have started to type these poems using Google Drive.  Today we were able to use the Chromebooks during Technology Workshop.  We loved using them, right at our desks!

We continue to work on creating Puff Mobiles in preparation for our race next week.  The students have been focusing on two goals with this project ~

1. "To work together in cooperative groups."  Each student has a role, and they must all work together in order to create a working vehicle.
2. "To practice using the Engineering/Design process".  The students have learned the steps that "real engineers" use, and have been using these steps in their group design process.  Many teams are working on "redesign" currently.   We will be participating in a fourth grade race next week.

In Social Studies we began to learn about maps and map skills. This is a  topic that will be taught this fall, and the children will practice what they learn each day with "Daily Geography".  

In Science we have started our unit on the Scientific Method and Heredity.  We discussed the steps involved in testing scientific theories and the students created a hypothesis about their "mini ecosystem".  We then created our terrariums today, and left them in the sun.  The condensation from the water cycle can already be seen on the containers!

Finally this afternoon we welcomed a new student to our class. The children are very excited to get to know Ben! We can't wait until next week.

For the students ~ Please click here to complete our FIRST survey! 

Our Week In Review

What a beautiful week, weather wise!  We had a wonderful week in the classroom as well.

This week we really solidified our routines, and the routines have started to become habits.  We worked on practicing our routines in math, and have progressed nicely through our first math unit.  As you know, our first math assessment is scheduled for Wednesday.  A study guide went home with the children, and can be found in the link to the right (where the date is posted).  Students have the option to take home their text books, as well as their blue booklets for help when studying.













During reading, we have reviewed Narrative Elements, and started to practice thinking about those elements while reading independently.  We read two books by Chris Van Allsburg to show plot. The children especially enjoyed hearing Zathura.



We talked a lot about finding "Just Right" books.  Ask your child about the strategies we discussed (including the 5 finger rule and "clunks").  As a reminder, students should be reading the same book at home and at school, nightly.  They should be able to finish the book within 2 weeks.

We have been working on setting goals for fourth grade during writing.  The children have reflected on past successes, and chosen some areas where they feel they can improve.  We will publish these goals next week.

On Wednesday, we were treated with a storyteller, Len Cabral.  He shared some stories in the oral tradition, and talked with the children about writing.  It was a wonderful program, and we are thankful to our Kennedy PCC for funding it.

Wednesday was also Constitution Day.  We gathered as a fourth grade group to celebrate the 227th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.

Today we were visited by our engineer in residence, Mr. Adams (Mrs. Adams' husband). You can find more about his visit, and see pictures and  the videos he showed us by clicking on our NEW gadget, "Fourth Grade News" on the right. We will post grade level events and information here throughout the year on this page.

We are very excited to begin to plan for our PUFF MOBILES. Ask your child about this exciting part of the next few weeks.

Today during Poetry/Technology workshop, the children met with Mrs. Williams about their Bio Poems.  They also learned about the poet Walt Whitman.  In the computer lab students finished getting computers ready for technology by setting up bookmarks and setting up documents in Google Drive.  The best part was learning how we will be able to work together on these types of projects!  We can't wait to get started!