Our Week In Review

Today was the 45th day of school, which means we have officially completed 25% of fourth grade!  It is hard to believe!  We began our week with the Dig It Program from the Haffenreffer Museum at Brown University.  Thank you to the JFK PCC for generously sponsoring this program!  Mrs. Silvia from the museum will be back 3 more times to discuss Native Americans from different parts of the United States.

The children enjoyed our party in a bag on Halloween.  If you haven't seen our class dressed in their costumes, check out our post dedicated to Halloween!

Many many thanks to Mrs. Rivera for coming in to talk to ALL of the fourth graders about her culture. She shared information about Dia de los Muertos.  It was a wonderful way to start our newest social studies unit about Mexico.We will continue learning about Mexico through our web quest and through reading nonfiction texts during Reader's Workshop.  

This week we began a 6 week unit of study in math.  We will be learning about multiplication and division.  As the children know, learning new information sometimes feels a little uncomfortable.  Mrs. Merten was very proud of how the children persevered through their worry about this new concept!  Please continue to encourage your child to practice multiplication and division facts.  Knowing these automatically will make a huge different when learning multi step multiplication and division.

Creative Arts Friday was awesome again this week!  Students participated in a Mexico web quest, built weather stations in PBL, and completed list poems and partner penguin cinquans.  

From the Teacher's Desk

 Thank you for sharing photos of your children on Halloween!  We enjoyed seeing each other dressed up! Thank you,also,  for communicating with me as often as you have.   I appreciate understanding your successes and your struggles.  As you know, fourth grade is a year to build independence and responsibility.  Typically, at this time of the year, the routines are in place, and students are able to manage a bit more responsibility.  If your child is managing his/ her at home responsibilities, wonderful!  Please do not worry if your child is not managing responsibilities independently at this time. This is a year of learning, and students sometimes need to make mistakes in order to learn the importance of being responsible.  Thank you for allowing these learning opportunities for your child!  As a parent, I realize that it is often easier to fix a situation for your child (bring in a book/folder for example), then to have them have to own up to their error.  Learning a lesson now will resonate with your child throughout their school career. Many students have shared strategies that they have worked on with their parents to help with organization.  Please know your children are hearing you, and appreciate your advice! 

Learning the new multiplication strategies this week has been challenging for some students.  Many of the children want to complete the problems mentally or by using repeated addition. Please know that students must show their work for mathematics, in this case using multiplication, both in school and when doing homework. This allows students to discuss strategies that they used and to analyze any errors they make. Practicing the strategies we do at school, at home, allows students to continue their new learning from the day, to the afternoon, and then into the next day. This makes them feel more confident and able to learn new material. 

If organization is something you continue to work on at home, you may want to check out this article by Lexi Walters Wright.   I copied some of the text, to share 10 strategies to help your child with organization.  If you would like to read the full text, complete with examples, you can find it here.

1. Break Tasks into Chunks
2.  Make Checklists and To-Do Lists
3.  Teach Calendar and Time Management Skills: 
4.  Establish Daily Routines
5.  Introduce Idea Organizers
6.  Use Color Coding
7. Create Fun Memory Aids
8.  Create an Organized Work Space
9.  Do Regular Backpack Checks
10. Help Your Child Think Ahead