Our Week in Review

What a busy week we had! We began our week with our 4th grade meeting, where we learned our mantra, "I Have a Dream" in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  Our activity was posing like a variety of athletes.  Check out some of our poses below.

MATH UPDATE

We wrapped up the first part of our fraction learning today with a fraction assessment.  The students worked very hard to learn these new concepts. In our next math unit, we will build on our fraction knowledge and extend it to addition and subtraction of fractions.  If your child is still unsure about fraction concepts, here are some suggested at home activities:

• Practice multiplication and division facts.  Knowing these facts automatically will help when finding equivalent fractions. This will also help to understand and identify prime and composite numbers, as well as finding factors and multiples of a number.  There are several websites on our Curriculum Links page which can help with this, but simple flashcards are also effective. Students should be doing xtra math 4 nights a week as well.
• Play online math games ~ the children love to have computer time. This is a great way to reinforce their learning.  Math games can be found on the Curriculum Links page above, and there are some fun games for comparing fractions and finding prime and composite numbers. on that page.
• Use the Pearson Realize website.  There are many games there. Students can also find the "Center Activities" when they log into Pearson. These are some of the math games that we use in class.
• Students can play "Build a Hexagon". This is a dice game and the students use pattern blocks to represent fractions.  Students are able to bring these home if interested.

In class, we will continue to have a teacher table during math, and the students can also check in with a teacher first thing in the morning or at the end of the day.  We are working on reflecting on our learning, and asking specific questions.  For example, rather than saying, "Can you help me with fractions?", students are asked to be specific, such as, "Can you help me when comparing fraction on a number line?".  This allows the students to realize and celebrate their successes while understanding areas that need a little more time and practice.

READING UPDATE

We have almost finished reading nonfiction books about dogs. We took all of our learning about a specific dog, wrote summaries, and even determined what type of family would be a good fit for this dog.  There was a lot of deep thinking going on!  We will wrap up our study with a celebration on Monday!

We have extended our understanding of character traits to our friends and even ourselves. This week we had to write characters traits to describe ourselves, and then we discussed our traits during our Morning Meetings.  This will continue next week.  Ask your child what his/her character traits are!

WRITING UPDATE

We are well into our essay unit in writing. We will be writing opinions and persuasive essays.  Many children find this genre of writing easier because of its structure.  

SOCIAL STUDIES UPDATE

We have finished our study of the Northeast, and our travels will take us to Washington, D.C. next week.  We will begin learning about the monuments and memorials of Washington, D.C., and practice our nonfiction reading/research skills by researching 4 monuments or memorials from Washington, D.C.  The research will be done at school, and there will be an at home piece to this assignment as well.  Details will be sent home next week.

Here we are learning about the Iroquois and sharing our learning with the class.

During Creative Arts Friday we have been very busy! During Project Based Learning time, we are working on researching a National Park , in order to complete a project about that park with our group.  During Technology Workshop we have been working on creating videos to share some learning with other fourth graders. Today we worked on planning our learning and writing scripts. We have been learning about free verse poems during Poetry Workshop and we even were able to cut paper snowflakes to use as our muse!

Congratulations!  Hard work pays off! Way to go!

Check out our Mannequin Challenge in our twitter feed.  What fun!

From the Teacher's Desk:

Overall the students continue 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, leaving materials at school, or forgetting to obtain parent signatures on reading logs or in assignment notebooks.  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.  Though our fourth grade focus is on "independence and responsibility", students master this at different rates. If you have been returning to school regularly after hours to collect materials for homework, please let me know.  If your child is having difficulties, perhaps an assignment notebook check at home daily would help. Checklists or an added teacher check could also be something to help with this. 

Though I've posted the tips below before, I wanted to share them again.  Sometimes making one adjustment to homework time can make a big difference.  As always, please contact Mrs. Merten with any questions or concerns specific to your child.

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.