Our Week In Review

This was a really busy week for fourth graders!  Our class went to the book fair on Monday, and some of us went to the Ice Cream Social and book fair last night.  In art we painted Sumi-e Paintings, which are Japanese ink paintings painted using a one stroke technique.  Then we wrote haikus about our paintings.  We also got to use microscopes to look at cells.  We looked at Franklin pond, creek and swamp water, and we found a lot of interesting things to see in the water.  We started to learn about Mexico, too.

We heard information about the student council, and a lot of kids are interested in running for student council.  Students have to inform Mrs. Y. on Monday if they are interested in running for student council.

**Thanks to our walkers and bus students for our blog update!

From the Teacher's Desk
This week was much better as far as students returning homework on time.  I was proud to see the students' renewed effort!  Many students are offering to donate and/or lend their used books to our class library.  I have told the children that book donations are absolutely welcome, as long as parents are aware of this.  If your child wants to donate or lend books to our classroom, books are always welcome. Please just jot a quick note or send an email letting me know that you are aware, and whether you are lending or donating the books.  There is also a school book drive taking place at school.  If you have books to donate to any grade level, just send them in with your child.  There are boxes in the cafeteria for all of the donations.  I can send your child down to the cafeteria to put the books in the boxes.  Teachers will sort and distribute all of the books to the classrooms.

Thanks again for all of your support!

Wellesley Booksmith Welcomes Children's Author

I have posted the link to the Wellesley Booksmith in the "Great Links" section of this blog. The Wellesley Booksmith hosts many children's authors throughout the year. My experiences with their presentations have all been excellent. Authors will sign new or used books, and give a presentation about their careers and books. It is well worth checking out authors that your child is interested in.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, at 6:00 PM, Trenton Lee Stewart will be at the Wellesley Free Public Library to discuss the release of his third book in the Mysterious Benedict Society series. Information about his presentation can be found here.

Check out the Mysterious Benedict Society books here.

Library Book Sale

The Friends of the Franklin Public Library are having a book sale this Friday and Saturday. If you are a member of the friends, you may shop on Friday afternoon. Otherwise, the sale is open to the public on Saturday. On the Franklin Public Schools website there is a coupon for a free book. Parents need to go here and click on the link under 'NEWS YOU CAN USE'. Then click on the Book Sale link to see the flyer and coupon.

Our Week In Review

Last week, we had Open House. It was so much fun. Everyone's parents liked the room and we showed our families our library, our terrariums and a lot more. On Friday, we got to have our first extra recess. We earned 15 points. Now we have 7 points toward our next reward. We will get to vote on that this week.

Tomorrow we get to shop at our class store! Some kids have more than 30 chips!

Our class has read 96 books so far this year, which is AWESOME! Anyone who ordered the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid got their book today. Some kids are already reading it ~ and some were even reading it on the bus.

Today in science, we learned about different types of lenses, and how they magnify things. We will be using microscopes in the next few weeks.


Thanks to our bus students for helping with our blog update!

MANY THANKS

From the Teacher's Desk...

Thank you! I have received many donations for our class store, and am grateful. The class store is a fun and motivating way to reinforce good work habits, school skills and behavior. I have found that this method of reinforcement works, and allows me to focus on the positives. Thank you for your continued support.

Our Week In Review

This week, we built puff mobiles with a group. A puff mobile is a car made out of 10 straws, 4 beads and one sheet of paper. To make it move, you have to blow on it. After we finished making our puff mobiles, we had a big puff mobile race. The race was in the gym and the whole fourth grade was there. In our class, The Hurricane Mobile and Flamerunner had the first ever "puff off". Flamerunner was the winner of the puff off! The winner of our class race got to go to the finals, but he didn't win. The finals were one puffer from each fourth grade class. Only one car won each race. Then we had a race of girl puffers and a final. Then we had a race of boy puffers and a final.




Boys' Puff Mobile Race



Girls'Puff Mobile Race

In writing, we finished our rough draft of our Bio Poems. In science our grass started to grow and we measured it every day. Last week we made our terrariums. We noticed the water cycle happening in them. It was really cool. (Thanks to TP and AJ for writing our class blog this week!)

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From the Teacher's Desk....

Building our class puffmobiles was a great lesson in working together and using the design process. The children created designs before making their vehicle and then they had to go through the "redesign" process. The race was the culmination of all of the work that went into this project. (and it was FUN!) This week was a bit better with homework, but there are still some issues. MAny of the students are forgetting to ask you to sign their assignment notebook and their weekly reading log on Thursday night. Although we are working on independence this year, if this is a problem for your child, perhaps a gentle reminder would help. I would suggest asking him/her, "Do you have anything for me to sign tonight?", rather than simply reminding him/her about the assignment notebook and log. Thanks for all of your support with your children thus far. I am pleased about our progress! I'm looking forward to seeing you at Open House on Thursday night!

Coming Soon!

Soon, I am going to start having the students help me with blog updates. Beginning this week (if the time doesn't get away from me), I will have a couple of students working on writing our "Week in Review" section of the blog. I will still blog often, with tips and information that I believe is important/valuable for families, but I think that the "kid's view" of what goes on in our class is just as valuable. I hope you find that the information written gives you something to talk with your child about.

For now, I'd like to share one more bit of information about assignments. At times, you may receive a paper from a student that says "parent signature" or "please sign". Understand that I ask for a signature not so that your child is punished, or gets into trouble, but because I want to be sure that information is communicated to you in a timely manner. If you get a paper that has a signature requested on it, and you have questions/concerns about this, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Our Week In Review

This week, I thought I would post a bit about our week in the classroom. I hope that you have already heard a lot of this information from your child.

As you know, the children received the grades for their first math tests on Monday. I was really pleased with how they did! As with this test, I will try to send out a study guide for tests, and to give a week's notice. Sometimes with math I do give fewer days, depending on when we finish up the teaching portion of the unit. Keeping that in mind....we will have our first Social Studies test on Tuesday, 10/6. This will be on map skills, including latitude and longitude. I haven't announced the test at school, but will be announcing it on Tuesday. We will finish up the information for this unit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

We started two science experiments this week. First, we planted grass seed in 3 different types of soil- potting soil, sand, and a mixture of both. Students are learning about the scientific method, and each made a hypothesis about the grass. We will begin measuring the grass on Tuesday. We also were able to make terrariums. We used the steps of the scientific method to actually write up a lab report. Then we planted our plant clippings into the soil, added water and covered them. The children were so excited when we could actually see the water cycle in action-before the end of the day on Friday. We will view these to see the progression of the water cycle. Thank you to all of you who sent in extra jars and all of those plant clippings. We used almost all of them!


Classroom update about homework: This week I noticed that more students were forgetting items at home, which resulted in homework being missing. As you know, the focus of fourth grade is helping the students become independent, however some students still need reminders. Please check in with your child to see how they are doing with this. If he/she is forgetting things like getting the assignment notebook signed or library books, please try to remind them. I find that creating a list for children to follow helps them to remember all of the items they need. Next week, I will no longer be checking all of the assignment books nightly, rather, I will be doing "spot checks" to check that all assignments are written and materials are packed for those I'm checking. This is another step in the independence process.

Just Right Books

You may have heard the term "Just Right Books" from your child. A just right book is one that your child enjoys, can read with few errors, and has vocabulary that is understandable. It is expected that these books will look a bit easier to you than ones that your child has read previously.

When choosing a just right book, I've asked the children to follow some steps:
1. "5 Finger Rule": Students should open the book to a page (not the first one) and read it. Each time there is a word that needs to be sounded out, or is hard to read, one finger goes up on your child's hand. If 5 fingers are raised at the end of the page, that book is not "Just Right".
2. "Clunks": Reading the same page, students should keep track of "clunks". A clunk is a word that your child may be able to read, but does not understand. Three clunks on the page is the maximum.
3. Read the back: Students should read the back (or inside jacket) of a book in order to be sure that the book is interesting to them. I'm really stressing that the book must interest your child. Please stress that it needs to interest them, not me, a friend, or family member.

I have really been working to stress for the kids that reading is work, but it should be FUN! If it isn't fun for a student, I am working to help them get there.

Welcome Back!

Homework Questions?- I have some answers!

So far, getting homework completed has gone smoothly in room 24. I am pleased and proud of the students for showing such maturity and responsibility. I know that this will continue. When working on homework or looking at homework that has been completed, I think it is helpful to keep the following information in mind:

• Homework is designed to review the day's lessons. If your child is having trouble with the homework, it is important to let his/her teacher know. Feedback such as this is an integral part of the home/school relationship.
• Written homework should not take more than 45 minutes nightly. Some assignments are assigned over a few nights. Encourage your child to do a little bit each night, to avoid a build up of homework the night before assignments are due. If your child is spending more than 45 minutes on homework, please initial the homework with a quick note that says this, and I will accept the homework as complete.
  
• Most homework assignments are reviewed in class, rather than collected. This allows me to quickly assess the students' knowledge of the previous day's lessons, allowing me to provide review/enrichment as needed. Although the students are correcting the pages with a pen, I do see each assignment. Occasionally, I will collect and correct homework assignments.
• Homework is something that your child should be able to complete with minimal support from home. I recommend encouraging your child to use his/her student reference book for support in math. Please continue to encourage this independence.

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Below are some homework tips for the students:

Here are a few study tips that can help you do well.

• Use your Assignment Notebook(ANB): Write down your assignments every day, even when you think you can remember what your homework is without writing it down!
• Check off each assignment in your ANB after you have completed it.
• When you are finished with your homework, put it in your backpack right away.
• If you have a test coming up, study a little bit each night. You will have plenty of notice to do this.
• Use your study guides. You will be told what to study.
• When you have a long-term project, do a little every day. Chances are, you will get it finished even before it is due.