Our Week In Review

What a Week!  The weather continues to be beautiful, and the students have enjoyed their time outside.  Although Halloweeen was Monday, it seems like a distant memory.

Happy Diwali!

We enjoyed our Party in a Bag during snack time on Monday, and then we began our study of Mexico.  We learned about the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico, and even made our own Day of the Dead masks.  We will be learning about the geography and culture of Mexico over the next few weeks.

The children have been enjoying our Interactive Read Aloud, Mr. Popper's Penguins.  We have been thinking deeply about characters, and their traits.  Using how a character acts along with what he says helps us to determine a character's traits.  The children continue to practice this, along with asking "talkworthy questions" during their independent reading.  Please remind your children to read each night, and to write on his/her reading log, in order to keep track of thinking.  We have also been giving many book talks!

Today we wrapped up our unit on patterns.  The children worked hard in this unit!  Next week, as it is a short week, we will review some topics, and enjoy some "penguin math" on Thursday.  Our next unit, going deeper into multiplication, begins the following week.

We are almost finished with publishing our narratives!  Students have worked at elaborating and editing their work.  We will finish these soon, and move onto fiction writing.  We enjoyed a preview to that with our Thursday chart, 'Tell Me a Story'.

Our Student Council election is MONDAY!  Students will give their speeches in the morning, and then we will vote.  Our posters have been hanging in the cafeteria all week!

We also had the chance to review for our science quiz with Mrs. Williams' class. We love Ring That Bell!

Mr. Banks and the fourth graders pulled a joke on the teachers! We thought we would dance to the Macarena this morning, but instead, we heard the Cha Cha Slide!

Way to go!

From the Teacher's Desk

 Thank you for sharing photos of your children on Halloween!  We enjoyed seeing each other dressed up! Thank you 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, fabulous!  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!

I found this brief article by Lexi Walters Wright here.  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, 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

Ladybug Medals- better late than never!