Our Week In Review

What a great week!  The Red Sox won the World Series, Trick or Treating, and we are almost finished reading  The One and Only Ivan!

We were all happy with how the story is finishing up.  We have learned about tracking characters in a story and monitoring their character traits.  We talked a lot about the difference between a feeling and a trait.  This story is rich in vocabulary and language and has offered us the ability to think deeply about our first book.  The children did a great job with it! 

Since we have just about finished reading this book, we all know how it will end (SPOILER ALERT!).  Here is a page from Zoo Atlanta, where Ivan eventually ends up. They have outlined the "real Ivan's" life in a timeline, pictures and a video of him. We will view this page on Monday. 

In Math we have started to learn about division.  We will use many of the same strategies for solving division problems as we learned for multiplication.  Once the children see the connection between the two, learning division should start to feel easier.

In Science we have started our unit on Heredity!  We had the opportunity to share photos of our ancestors (and/or our parents).  We enjoyed noticing some similarities we have seen with our classmates and their families and had a few great discussions about inherited and non-inherited traits.  Though we have just started this unit, an extra page of vocabulary was sent home with your child this week.  If he/she would like to being making flashcards or preparing for our test, this is a great way to get ahead.

We have arrived in Mexico!  We are learning about the geography, art and culture of this country.  On Halloween we learned about the Day of the Dead (el dio de los muertos) and about the celebrations that take place in Mexico on November 1st.  

From the Teacher's Desk:

Overall the students are doing a fine job completing homework and returning it to school  Some students are struggling with the organization of this; completing the homework at home but leaving it there, or leaving materials at school.  At the end of each day we have a dedicated time to write in our assignment notebooks, get our mail and pack up our materials.  Please check in with your child to see how he/she feels homework is going.  If you have been returning to school regularly after hours to collect materials for homework, please let me know. Checklists or an added teacher check could be something to help with this.  

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GENERAL HOMEWORK TIPS FOR PARENTS 

(Reposted from the Department of Education. You can see the full article here.)

✪ Make sure your child has a quiet, well-lit place to do homework. 

Avoid having your child do homework with the television on or in places with other distractions, such as people coming and going.

✪ Make sure the materials your child needs, such as paper, pencils and a dictionary, are available. Ask your child if special materials will be needed for some projects and get them in advance.

✪ Help your child with time management. Establish a set time each day for doing homework. Don‘t let your child leave homework until just

before bedtime. Think about using a weekend morning or afternoon for working on big projects, especially if the project involves getting together with classmates.

✪ Be positive about homework. Tell your child how important school is. The attitude you express about homework will be the attitude your child acquires.

✪ When your child does homework, you do homework. Show your child that the skills they are learning are related to things you do as an adult. If your child

is reading, you read too. If your child is doing math, balance your checkbook.

✪ When your child asks for help, provide guidance, not answers. Giving answers means your child will not learn the material. Too much help teaches your child that when the going gets rough, someone will do the work for him or her. 

✪ When the teacher asks that you play a role in homework, do it. Cooperate with the teacher. It shows your child that the school and home are a team. Follow the directions given by the teacher.

✪ If homework is meant to be done by your child alone, stay away.

Too much parent involvement can prevent homework from having some positive effects.  Homework is a great way for kids to develop independent, lifelong learning skills.

✪ Stay informed. Talk with your child‘s teacher. Make sure you know the purpose of homework and what your child‘s class rules are.

✪ Help your child figure out what is hard homework and what is easy homework. Have your child do the hard work first. This will mean he will be most alert when facing the biggest challenges. Easy material will seem to go fast when fatigue begins to set in.

One more thing... our teachers dressed up this Halloween as four of the Power Rangers! We loved seeing them this way!

And...Spotlight on Sarah!  The teachers just LOVE her shirt.

Our Week In Review

 Our week was filled with science activities.  We have been closely monitoring our growing grass seed, and have found that some of our hypotheses were right on the money!  We will continue to grow and water our grass for another week or two, and then develop a conclusion to our experiment. We also had a chance to look in microscopes at salt and at pond water.  We worked with Mrs. Williams' class and enjoyed sharing our water samples.

 

We also learned some new games in math to help us to practice our multiplication facts. This week we had a chance to play Baseball Multiplication and Multiplication top it.  Both of these games can be played at home with dice or playing cards, and are excellent ways to practice math facts.

From the Teacher's Desk:

Our first science quiz/assessment is scheduled for Tuesday.  The children have a study guide, with the vocabulary needed written on the back.  I have asked all students to bring home their science folders.  In addition, we took some time today to look at the test, so that the children will not be surprised when they see it.  I have explained that tests are not to "trick" students, a test is simply one way to determine what they are learning.

I have seen some improvement with students completing homework and returning it to school, however it continues to be a struggle for some children.  Please check in with your child to see how homework is going. Remembering to pack it is just as important as completing the assignment.  If you are looking for some suggestions on helping with homework, you can find some here.

School hours ~
Our school opens the doors at 8:15 each morning. This allows the children to enter the building, arrive at their classes and unpack before school officially begins at 8:30 AM.  Many of the children are entering our classroom at 8:30 or later.  If the children enter the classroom later than 8:30, they are marked late for school.  Additionally, I begin some type of announcement or discussion after the school wide announcements in the morning.  If your child is arriving at 8:30, taking 5-7 minutes to unpack his/her bag and get settled, he/she is missing some important information for the day.  Often times assignments required at that morning time are not completed, and the day begins with a challenge.  I've been encouraging the children to arrive sometime between 8:15 and 8:25, so that they have ample time to get organized and unpacked before instruction begins.  I realize that this isn't always possible, and that the morning time can be hectic, but I wanted to be sure all families were aware of this.

Our Week in Review

This was a very busy week in Room 24!  We continued to work on learning about place value and we practiced addition and subtraction.  We are really focusing on using the "traditional algorithm" to add and subtract.  Your child will be able to show you this method, and you probably will remember this from your own childhood!  We have our second math test on Tuesday.  A study guide went home, and you can also find one in our important documents gadget to the right.

In writing, we have been working on writing some seed ideas. The children are familiar with this, and it has been a good way for me to see their writing skills and to hear their voice!  We have finished writing goals for this school year, and some of the children were proud to say they have already accomplished one or more!

In reading, we continue to focus on reading strategies and thinking while we read. I have continued to remind the children that the same book should be read at school during reading zone and at home for the nightly reading.  Regular reading of the same material allows the children to focus on plot, characters and their traits, and other higher level reading skills.  I'm looking forward to starting our first interactive read aloud in a week or so.

This week we worked diligently to prepare for our puff mobile races.  We worked in groups to:

• work cooperatively
• practice the engineering steps 
• create a puff mobile

This ended with a rousing race in the gym.  Your child can tell you the specifics, but our class did REALLY WELL!  

The beginning of the design process

Testing designs

Testing our designs and choosing a puffer!

choosing jobs and beginning our design

ready to race!

Classroom winners

ready to race!

ready to race!

Classroom winners ~ boys

Classroom winners ~ girls

ready to race!

Our winning group

BEFORE THE RACE!

Here are a few videos from the race!

 










From the Teacher's Desk:
The students have adjusted very well to the expectations of fourth grade.  As you know, we are focusing largely on independence and responsibility.  To that end, I have stopped checking assignment notebooks, with the exception of a few students. Students have been responsible for bringing home their materials and writing in their assignment books.  I have checked the books on Friday when I check for a parent signature as well.

I wanted to mention our homework policy.  You can also find it in our student handbook.  Each term, students are all given a "freebie". This is one missed homework assignment, no consequence, the student just has to bring it in the next day. After the freebie, a student who misses an assignment a second, third or fourth time, must make it up (in some cases redo it) at recess. After that he/she can play. After that fourth miss, the student must miss the recess, do the homework, and write a letter to you to be signed.  This is so that you are aware of the missed homework assignments and is a clear way for me to communicate that to you.  Homework includes:  the nightly written assignment, his/her library book, his/her nightly reading book (to be brought to and from school), the reading log (due Friday) and the parent signature in the assignment book (due Friday). The written assignments must be complete.

I know that as the year goes on, this will become second nature to your children.  At this point, several students have used their "freebie" plus at least one more assignment.  I'd appreciate it if you take a minute and talk with your child about his/her homework progress.  If your child has missed assignments, sometimes it is helpful to set up a regular location for homework, and to have some type of checklist to be sure items are packed correctly.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this.


Enjoy the long weekend!
~Mrs. Merten

Our Week In Review

This week we continued learning about clouds, and created some cloud collages. The children are working hard and learning a lot of science!




In Reading, we continued to learn about myths. We may have the chance to write our own myths over the next few weeks.

Today we were assigned a new project called ROCK POETRY. Your child has a packet of information about this project. Rock Poetry Day will be a fun one!

In English today we reviewed some of the parts of speech that we've learned so far this year. Below are the Schoolhouse Rock videos for nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. We found that it is much harder to recognize a part of speech when we learn about them together instead of separately!

Nouns



Verbs


Adjectives


Adverbs

From the Teacher's Desk

Next week, on Monday and Tuesday, the fourth graders will take the Reading MCAS. There will be no formal homework on these days (with the exception of reading). I know that the children will work as hard on these days as they did on Tuesday.

Our new term began just a few weeks ago. I am already seeing some issues with homework. Many of the children are doing a great job with remembering everything needed for the day, however about half of the children already have at least one homework miss for this term. I have started to "step back" a little with some homework checks, to allow the children to be responsible and independent. For some students, this has been fabulous. Please help to encourage your children with homework. Having a clear place for homework and a solid routine may help if your child is struggling with this. Ask your child about his/her homework. If they aren't sure, please have them check in with me. I'm hoping the summer-like weather is partly to blame, and things will become better once the weather is a little cooler.