Our Week In Review

Wow! This week really went by quickly!  It was filled with many activities designed to help children talk to one another, and we really enjoyed getting to know each other.  

We also took some time to establish class rules. The children worked hard to come up with ideas, which were eventually turned into the rules.

We started to establish our class routines this week as well.  We have discussed how our class will run, and even had a chance to check out our NEW math books!

We learned a lot about each other when we shared our cutout people today.  The children did a great job showing who they are through this project.

Homework Help

Below is a video from teacher tube which shows the steps we learned for the partial quotients algorithm.  It may help with tonight's homework.

What a Week!

It has been a very, very busy week in Room 24.  We have really established a nice community of learners, and the children are excited about all we are doing.

In math, we wrapped up our unit on Place Value and Addition/Subtraction.  We had a great week reviewing these concepts and playing some fun games.  Our favorite is the "CHAMPS" vs. the "Teacher".  We are still the Champs!  On Thursday we spent our math time reviewing our math concepts in centers.

 We were able to practice the things that would be on the test, and ask questions if we were confused.  Then on Friday...we had our first Math Test! Though Mrs. Merten hasn't corrected them yet, she was really proud of how hard we all worked.

In Reading we have been talking about strategies "good readers" use to get better. Everyone has chosen a strategy and is working at practicing that strategy. We will continue learning about some reading strategies next week, and then will begin our first Interactive Read Aloud.  Stay Tuned, I think you will all be excited about our choice!

We had a lot of fun activities this week as well.

On Tuesday we celebrated Constitution Day with the rest of fourth grade.  We watched a couple of quick videos, and then talked about the signing of the Constitution.  One of the videos we watched is the Preamble video by Schoolhouse Rock.



We learned about the Bill of Rights, too!

On Wednesday, we were so lucky to have Storyteller Len Cabral come to JFK. He told some wonderful folk tales and reminded us of the importance of reading.  He also gave us some tips on coming up with ideas for writing.  We just loved hearing his stories!

Today was such an exciting day.  We had Creative Arts Friday today. So far in technology, we have learned to create, name and save a document, choose a printer and print, and set bookmarks and a home page on the Internet.  Mrs. Merten is really impressed with our listening during this time of the day.  During Poetry with Mrs. Williams, we have wrapped up our Biopoems and we started learning about the poet Walt Whitman.  Later in the day, we had a chance to work on our Puff Mobiles with our groups.  We also had our first chance to spend our chips at the class store!  We were so excited to use our chips to buy some fun items.

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Our Week(s) In Review

Getting back to school after the holiday break was tough (even for the teacher) but we made it!  We have buckled down and really gotten to work.

In Reading, we did our first Interactive Read Aloud of 2013, Stone Fox. We really loved the book, despite its sad ending.  We enjoyed watching the tv movie, Stone Fox, this week, and completed a comparing/contrasting activity about the book and the movie.  Many of us enjoyed the book more than the movie.

Next week, we plan on beginning our new Interactive Read Aloud, Snow Treasure.

In math we have been learning a lot about fractions.  Some of this has been challenging for the children, but with practice, they will do great!  We have learned many math games to use with fractions.  If your child would like to bring a game home with him/her, that would be a great way to practice.

In Social Studies, we wrapped up our unit on Canada, and had our unit test yesterday.  We will begin our study of the United States in the next few weeks.  In Science we are wrapping up the first part of our weather unit, Weather Maps and Instruments.  We have a quiz scheduled for next Thursday.  The study guide went home today, and has been uploaded.  You can find the link to the right.

This week was a busy one!  

On Wednesday, the Miscoe Hill Skippers jump rope team came to Kennedy School from the Miscoe Hill Middle School in Mendon.  They came to kick off our Jump Rope for Heart program, and to get our students excited about becoming "heart healthy". They were fantastic! We were all impressed by how much practice these students do. They are really dedicated!  Below are a few pictures and  videos of their performance.

Today was our chorus concert!  We were all dressed beautifully!  Below are some pictures, and a sneak peek of one of the songs.

Before the show!

Mae's introduction

And our sneak peek...