Our Week In Review

We began our week with our Fourth Grade Community meeting, where the fourth graders received a surprise package!  It was filled with a penguin, and our new Interactive Read Aloud, Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Florence and Richard Atwater.  What a fun way to introduce our book!  We began reading this week, and the children are enjoying reading about Mr. Popper and Captain Cook!  During this read aloud, we will be working on the following:

• to make predictions to help understanding
• to understand characters through thinking about their character traits, and to show evidence to support this
• to ask "talkworthy" questions

We also continue to celebrate the books we love through giving book talks daily. Congratulations to all who have given a book talk, or signed up to give one.  We have students signed up for book talks through the middle of next week.  Way to go!

We have been working on Multiplication during math.  The students have been learning strategies to help them figure out their multiplication facts.  In addition , they should be practicing facts regularly, in order to be more automatic with them.  We will continue with this unit through next week, with our test tentatively scheduled for 10/18.

Our puff mobiles are coming along, and the children truly persevered through some difficult challenges.  They are learning the importance of careful planning before acting on an idea.  Despite the fact that some puff mobiles don't move very quickly, the teams continue to work on redesigning with a positive attitude!!!  Our race is TUESDAY!

analyzing our data

 During science we continued to learn about the water cycle, and we also worked on making observations.  We observed the water cycle in our terrariums and did a diagram of what the terrariums look like.  Students worked hard at using scientific language.

 Open House was awesome!  We had 100% of our class come to room 24 on Thursday night. Thank you for making this night so special for the students.  You may have seen some of Mrs. Merten's old friends stop by.  They enjoyed seeing how things have changed.

Thank you to everyone who participated in "Think about it Thursday"!

Dancers of the week!

Wearing our Ladybug Race Medals, and sharing our acts of kindness!

From the Teacher's Desk

Please contact Mrs. Merten if you haven't been receiving parent emails.  To sign up for a parent/teacher conference, please view sign up here.

Looking Ahead:

• We will continue to learn about multiplication, with our test tentatively scheduled for 10/18.
• During Social Studies, we will continue the study of maps, globes and how to use latitude and longitude to find exact location.  Our test is scheduled for 10/24 (a study guide will follow).
• We will be reading Mr. Popper's Penguins for the next several weeks during reading.
• We will be sharing our narrative ideas and drafts with one another during writer's workshop.

Way to Go!

Good News!!!

T-shirt of the Day

She is!

T-Shirts of the Day!

Many positive messages today!

YES IT IS!

Every day!

She does have a "pawsitive attitude"

Yes she is!

Our Week In Review

Puff Mobiles, Author Visit, Terrariums, Math Test ~ What a week we had!

The fall weather has thankfully arrived!  We have been busily working in room 24, and have enjoyed a fun-filled week of learning!  Here we are working on our listening skills.

We wrapped up our second math unit about addition and subtraction.  The students worked very hard to practice this topic, and their hard work showed on our test.  The Pearson Realize technical glitches have been resolved, and students should be able to log into this site next week.  Students should continue to practice their addition and subtraction facts, as this will help with our next unit, multiplication.

We continue to redesign our puff mobiles, and will have a race in the next few weeks!

We have published our Hopes and Dreams and our Biopoems, and these will be on display this Thursday at Open House.  We are learning how important your audience is when writing, and we will continue this discussion throughout the next week, while we work on narrative writing.

We began learning about map skills during social studies this week, and have been focusing on looking at a world map and identifying our location using direction words as well as by learning about the hemispheres.  This unit will continue for another few weeks.

During reading, we have continued to work on fine tuning our routines for Readers Workshop, while we practice finding the setting, theme, and main characters of a story.  Understanding these topics will help us as we begin our first Interactive Read Aloud next week.  Some students have started to share their favorite books with our class!  This is an excellent way to find new books to read, and to practice speaking in front of a class.

We also had a wonderful virtual visit with author Amy Nielander, author of  The Ladybug Race.  Amy shared her writing process with the students, and also shared that she was rejected 12 times before getting her book published!  If you would like to order a copy of her book, please return the order form by Thursday.  Thank you to JFK PCC for funding this visit.

Finally, during science we began our unit about the weather.  Students learned about the atmosphere and about the water cycle.  We build terrariums on Friday, and will be observing them throughout the year, watching the water cycle in action.  Talk to your child about their experiences in science this week.  We have been discussing the following question in class:

We found this little guy, camouflaging himself on the pavement.  Thank goodness Mrs. A.Williams picked him up!

What is this?  Ask your child

"If water on the earth continues to cycle, and we never lose water, why do we have water shortages in Franklin during only some parts of the year?"  Students have really had some interesting ideas about this!  Check out some water cycle videos below!

Looking Ahead ~

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

We will observe the water cycle in our terrariums and we will also explore weather instruments.

We will continue reviewing personal narratives in writing

We will begin learning about multiplication in math.

Conference dates have been confirmed, and  you will receive a link to sign up for parent/teacher conferences soon

SURVEYS

Please take a minute to share your feelings about fourth grade. Choose the appropriate link to complete:

• Parent Survey
• Student Survey

Here is our GOOD NEWS of the week!

Author Alert!

An Unlikely Story in Plainville is having a few exciting authors in the coming weeks.  Tickets are free, but needed to attend.  Use the links below to sign up or get more information.  Keep up with their free events by following the Unlikely Story Event Calendar.


Brad Meltzer - Author of the Ordinary People Biography Series (10/4)

Lauren Tarshis ~ Author of the I Survived Series (This has been VERY popular with our class) (10/24) Tickets become available on 10/3.