Our Week In Review

What a week!  We began our week with our fourth grade Community Meeting, where we learned our mantra was "Be and Engineer!"  This was important this wee, as we had a visit from our Engineers in Residence, Mr. Peter Gill and Mr. Andrew Leenhouts.  Both civil engineers are graduates of Franklin High School, and Peter is even a former JFK Ladybug (from Mrs. A.Williams' class)!  They explained how engineers work,and how the design process is important for them in their work.  Throughout the week we worked on planning our puff mobiles, and today we began building them during PBL.  We will have a fourth grade race in the coming weeks!

During reading, we have continued to learn and practice finding evidence to support our thinking.  We have discussed narrative elements, and have enjoyed reading some great stories!  We will continue this work, reviewing reading strategies and practicing them during independent reading zone.  In the coming week, students will be tracking setting, and supporting thinking with evidence from the text.  This will be recorded on their home reading log, in addition to other ways during school.  Thank you for supporting the routine that the same book should be read both at school and at home.  If your child is not happy with his/her book, please encourage him/her to talk to Mrs. Merten.  We will discuss abandoning the book.


During writing, we have been working on elaborating sentences while writing our Hopes, Dreams and Goals for fourth grade.  Students have shared their ideas, and discussed their thinking with a writing buddy. We will be publishing these this week.

We have been learning about addition during math this week.  We discussed various strategies for adding numbers. We also learned the importance of estimating sums before adding, in order to check the reasonableness of our answers.  Next week, we will be taking another math assessment, focusing on adding and subtracting.  Due to the technical difficulties we have been having with Pearson, we will take this math test on paper.  Students received a study guide today, and should be practicing their math facts regularly.

Dance Party Friday

Good News!!!

Looking Ahead ~

We will continue with our Map Skills unit in Social Studies.

We will begin learning about the weather, specifically the water cycle.  This will lead into the creation of our terrariums!

We will continue working on our Hopes and Dreams during writing, and begin to write narratives (both personal narratives and fictional ones).

We will assess our understanding of addition and subtraction skills with our second math assessment next Friday.

As soon as conference dates are confirmed, you will receive a message along with a link to sign up for a date and time that is convenient for you

T-Shirts of the Day!

YES SHE CAN!

Be Humble, Be smart, Rule the World

Author Alert!

Ridley Pearson, author of The Kingdom Keepers series, and Avi, author of Poppy and many, many other books, will be at Wellesley Books in October.  Tickets are free, but required for these events.  More information can be found here.

T-Shirt of the Day

Yes it is!

Our Week In Review

Our first full week was a big success! We began our week, as we always do, with our grade level community meeting.  We end our meeting with a weekly yoga set. We also ended our week with our fourth grade friends.  On Friday we began our day with Dance Party Friday, and later on Friday we gathered to learn about Constitution Day (9/17) through this "virtual field trip" from Discovery Education.  We wrapped up a fabulous Friday with Creative Arts Friday and our end of the week meeting! 

Dance Party Friday!

This week, we had our first math assessment.  The children worked really hard, despite some nervous feelings about this first test.  You will receive the corrected assessment on Monday. There have been several glitches with the technology,  so you may not be able to access the assessment online.  Moving forward this will be resolved, and you will be able to see all assessments online as well.  Beginning next week, our math focus with be addition and subtraction.  If your child is not automatic with his/her addition and subtraction facts, there are some links on our curriculum pages which help provide practice in a fun way.  Additionally, your child could use the website/app quizlet, which is a way to create and use electronic flash cards.  Many children use this app on an ipod/ipad.  To use this, go to Quizlet.com and search for "addition facts" or "subtraction facts". There are many options for flash cards.  This tool can be used for all subjects, and students can even make their own flash cards to help with studying in other subject areas. We will explore Quizlet in the coming weeks during Technology on Fridays.

 We continue to work on our classroom community, and we have really grown!  Students are feeling more and more comfortable working with one another and talking about their thinking.

On Wednesday we celebrated our summer reading with story teller Len Cabral!  He was wonderful.Your children should have many stories to share.  Thank you JFK PCC!

 During Writer's Workshop we have been working on our Hopes, Dreams and Goals for fourth grade.  We enjoyed brainstorming and beginning our writing outside this week.  During this process, we will be focusing on writing clear, descriptive sentences.  This week, we used the "Vanilla Sentence" strategy.  Ask your child to share the difference between a vanilla sentence and an ice cream sundae sentence.

We have been working on various reading strategies during Reader's Workshop, and we will continue to work on our routines for the next week.  By the end of next week, all students will have books in their book bags (added with Mrs. Merten), and should have an established routine at home for evening reading.  If you have any questions about reading or your child's book choice, please contact Mrs. Merten. 

Adding pins to the map~  Ask your child why we do this.

 Each week, on Friday, we end our week with our "High, Low, Bet You Didn't Know", and celebrate one student's accomplishment (this may be kindness, being a good friend, demonstrating excellent effort or something more that the teacher notices).

Looking Ahead ~

• On Monday we will have a visit from our "Engineers in Residence". We will begin our first engineering project next week.
• We will begin our Map Skills unit in Social Studies and our unit about Weather in Science.
• We will continue working on our Hopes and Dreams during writing.
• As soon as conference dates are confirmed, you will receive a message along with a link to sign up for a date and time that is convenient for you