Thursday, August 30, 2018
Hard at Work Drafting
After many lessons on gathering ideas, discussing character traits, finding a problem your character can have and solve, and writing the heart of your story these kiddos are beginning to draft their Realistic Fiction pieces. Look how hard they are working!
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Monday, August 27, 2018
Mystery Reader - Mrs. Keutzer
Today we had our first Mystery Reader of the year! Mrs. Keutzer shared the book “King Hugo’s Huge Ego” with our class. She discussed with us about being humble and kind. We enjoyed the story, and we learned a great lesson! Thanks for coming today!
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Weekly Update : Aug. 27 - 31
Weekly Update
Important Reminders:
Important Dates to Remember:
Check Out What We Are Learning This Week:
Writing:
We are continuing to work on our Realistic Fiction pieces. Last week, we created our character and came up with a problem that character would face that can be solved by the character. This week, we will plan the Story Arc for our Story (the problem, the climax, and the solution). We will also work on the scenes for our story, writing a great Lead, and we will focus in on the Heart of the Story.
Reading:
We will continue to read Tiger Rising, while focusing on retelling & synthesizing, envisioning while reading, setting goals for ourselves as a reader, and developing ideas about characters as we read. I will model these skills using Tiger Rising, and the students will then practice these skills with their independent books.
Math:
We will continue learning Place Value skills in Ch.1. We will work on comparing numbers, ordering numbers, rounding, and problem solving. We will review Ch. 1 on Thursday, and will take the Ch. 1 Test on Friday.
Spelling:
I'm using the Inventory Test the students took last week to create spelling groups. Their first Spelling Sorts should come home this week.
Social Studies:
We will have a Quiz on the Continents & Oceans on Monday, learn about the 5 different Regions in the US, and the climate and vegetation in those regions. We will also look at the affects of the different geography, and how maps are created. We will begin our Cumulative Project for this chapter on Wednesday, and will make Salt Maps of the US on Friday. We will let these maps dry over the long weekend, and will then paint them the following week.
Have a great week!
Important Reminders:
- We will have a Social Studies Quiz on Monday, and a Ch.1 Math Test on Friday.
- Please remember to check, and initial, your child's planner every night. Homework and important notes are written in the planner daily. Thanks for your help with this!
- Weekly Reading Logs will start this week. I'll send home the Reading Logs on Monday, and they will be due the following Monday. As a reminder, they need to read 20 minutes for at least 5 nights.
- I sent home login information for Prodigy. This is a fun game that also includes math. We will be using this website as part of our Math Stations. Students may of course logon at home, but Prodigy is NOT homework.
- Another website/app that we will be using this year is SeeSaw. I also sent home information for joining our classroom on SeeSaw. We will use SeeSaw throughout the year, but not every day. It's just another tool we can use to help our learning.
- Please send a snack with your child that is NUT FREE every day, as we do not eat lunch until 12:40. Thanks!
- We will be going to the Library every other week on Mondays, unless we do not have school that Monday and then we will go on Tuesday. However, Mrs. Graef asked if our class could come again this week to finish up her book talks and the book trailers about the Mark Twain Nominees. So, please plan to bring library books on Tuesday to either renew or return. Thanks!
Important Dates to Remember:
- Aug. 27-31 - Leader of the Week = Aislyn
- Aug. 27 - Our First Mystery Reader
- Aug. 28 - Gunner's Birthday
- Sept. 3 - No School
- Sept. 5 & 13 - Intake Conferences (use this link to schedule your conference now: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4aacac2ca4fc1-intake )
- Sept. 7 - Mystery Reader
- Sept. 7 - Concord Movie Night - Come visit me at the Snack Table
- Sept. 10-14 - Leader of the Week = Cadence
- Sept. 10 - Aislyn's Birthday
- Sept. 13 - Thomas's Birthday
- Sept. 14 - I will be at a new textbook adoption meeting for Science in the afternoon
- Sept. 17-21 - Leader of the Week = Kaden
- Sept. 19 - Early Release & Buddies
- Sept. 24-28 - Leader of the Week = Kaybree
- Sept. 28 - No School - District PD Day
Check Out What We Are Learning This Week:
Writing:
We are continuing to work on our Realistic Fiction pieces. Last week, we created our character and came up with a problem that character would face that can be solved by the character. This week, we will plan the Story Arc for our Story (the problem, the climax, and the solution). We will also work on the scenes for our story, writing a great Lead, and we will focus in on the Heart of the Story.
Reading:
We will continue to read Tiger Rising, while focusing on retelling & synthesizing, envisioning while reading, setting goals for ourselves as a reader, and developing ideas about characters as we read. I will model these skills using Tiger Rising, and the students will then practice these skills with their independent books.
Math:
We will continue learning Place Value skills in Ch.1. We will work on comparing numbers, ordering numbers, rounding, and problem solving. We will review Ch. 1 on Thursday, and will take the Ch. 1 Test on Friday.
Spelling:
I'm using the Inventory Test the students took last week to create spelling groups. Their first Spelling Sorts should come home this week.
Social Studies:
We will have a Quiz on the Continents & Oceans on Monday, learn about the 5 different Regions in the US, and the climate and vegetation in those regions. We will also look at the affects of the different geography, and how maps are created. We will begin our Cumulative Project for this chapter on Wednesday, and will make Salt Maps of the US on Friday. We will let these maps dry over the long weekend, and will then paint them the following week.
Have a great week!
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Social Studies Outside - Why Not?
Since the weather is beautiful, we took our Landform projects for Social Studies outside to work on! 
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Writing Partners
Today we met with our writing partners for the first time! 🤗 We worked together to list ideas on an A to Z chart. This chart will help us when we are stuck, and we do t know what to write about. We’ve spent several days so far building our Idea Section innour Writer’s Notebooks. Check out the partners below:
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Weekly Update: Aug. 20-24
Weekly Update
Important Reminders:
Check Out What We Are Learning This Week:
Writing:
We are working on building our writing community, and coming up with some ideas for our writing. On Wednesday, we will begin our first Writing Unit- Realistic Fiction. In this unit we are really focusing on creating and developing stories and characters that feel real. The first few days of this unit we will begin doing this by learning how fiction writer's get ideas for their stories from small moments in their lives, as well as imagining books that they wish existed in the world, and issues that they have in their lives.
Reading:
Our first Reading Unit is - Interpreting Characters. Our read aloud for this unit is The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. We will spend the first few days of this unit establishing a reading life. We will be reading intensely, taking responsibility for reading with-in reach books, and working together to create procedures and routines for finding books. We will also be building our stamina as a reader. The students should be able to read 45 minutes independently at this age, and we will spend this week working up to that time.
Math:
We will begin our week discussing Stations and how stations should look, sound, feel, and what to do if you have questions during your station time. We will also be taking the pre-assessment on ALEKS so that the students are able to begin working on their ALEKS PIE as soon as possible. We will be using ALEKS as one of our stations. We will begin Ch. 1- Place Value on Wednesday. In Fourth Grade students need to know Place Value up to the Millions Period. We will review the vocabulary words Digit, Standard Form, Expanded Form, Word Form, and Period. The students will be able to read and write numbers to the Millions Place. They will need to be able to write the number to the millions place in standard form and expanded form. I will send home Vocab Cards for this chapter on Wednesday. Please keep them some place safe so you can use them to help prepare for the chapter test.
Spelling:
This week the students will take the beginning of the year Inventory test. I will use this test to determine the level/sort your child will be on. We will use our spelling time to practice our spelling words, as well as to do Grammar lessons.
Social Studies:
We will alternate Social Studies and Science. We are starting the year with Social Studies. We will be learning the geography of the United States. We will discover how to read a globe to find places on Earth, learn about different landmasses and bodies of water found on Earth, and explore the political and physical geogrpahy, climate, and vegetation of the United States. In this chapter, we will be making a Salt Map of the United States. Be on the lookout for a note coming home regarding the Salt Maps.
Have a great week!
Important Reminders:
- Please remember to check, and initial, your child's planner every night. Homework and important notes are written in the planner daily. Thanks for your help with this!
- I will be using Class Dojo this year as a management and reward system for our classroom. A note will be coming home Monday with info on how to login as a parent so you can view your child's Dojo account.
- A Leader of the Week letter will also be coming home on Monday with your child's Leader of the Week date. I will also send home a reminder letter the week before your child is to be the Leader
- Weekly Reading Logs will start the week of Aug. 28th.
- I will also be sending home login information for Prodigy and SeeSaw. Prodigy is a Math program/game that we will be using in stations this year, and can be used at home. SeeSaw is an online tool that we will be using throughout the year as well.
- Please send a snack with your child that is NUT FREE every day, as we do not eat lunch until 12:40. Thanks!
Check Out What We Are Learning This Week:
Writing:
We are working on building our writing community, and coming up with some ideas for our writing. On Wednesday, we will begin our first Writing Unit- Realistic Fiction. In this unit we are really focusing on creating and developing stories and characters that feel real. The first few days of this unit we will begin doing this by learning how fiction writer's get ideas for their stories from small moments in their lives, as well as imagining books that they wish existed in the world, and issues that they have in their lives.
Reading:
Our first Reading Unit is - Interpreting Characters. Our read aloud for this unit is The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. We will spend the first few days of this unit establishing a reading life. We will be reading intensely, taking responsibility for reading with-in reach books, and working together to create procedures and routines for finding books. We will also be building our stamina as a reader. The students should be able to read 45 minutes independently at this age, and we will spend this week working up to that time.
Math:
We will begin our week discussing Stations and how stations should look, sound, feel, and what to do if you have questions during your station time. We will also be taking the pre-assessment on ALEKS so that the students are able to begin working on their ALEKS PIE as soon as possible. We will be using ALEKS as one of our stations. We will begin Ch. 1- Place Value on Wednesday. In Fourth Grade students need to know Place Value up to the Millions Period. We will review the vocabulary words Digit, Standard Form, Expanded Form, Word Form, and Period. The students will be able to read and write numbers to the Millions Place. They will need to be able to write the number to the millions place in standard form and expanded form. I will send home Vocab Cards for this chapter on Wednesday. Please keep them some place safe so you can use them to help prepare for the chapter test.
Spelling:
This week the students will take the beginning of the year Inventory test. I will use this test to determine the level/sort your child will be on. We will use our spelling time to practice our spelling words, as well as to do Grammar lessons.
Social Studies:
We will alternate Social Studies and Science. We are starting the year with Social Studies. We will be learning the geography of the United States. We will discover how to read a globe to find places on Earth, learn about different landmasses and bodies of water found on Earth, and explore the political and physical geogrpahy, climate, and vegetation of the United States. In this chapter, we will be making a Salt Map of the United States. Be on the lookout for a note coming home regarding the Salt Maps.
Have a great week!
Saturday, August 18, 2018
Straw Towers
We spent some time in groups discussing a plan for building the straw towers, then we built the straw towers, and then discussed how things went. We discussed how working cooperatively in groups is important when trying to complete a task, and how we need to make sure everyone has a role to play. This is always a fun activity to get the year started, and it allows for some great discussion. Check out the towers below:
The tallest tower that stood by itself for at least 10 seconds!
Great tower - almost the tallest!
These girlies had a great idea, and if they had way more supplies and time they would have built the strongest tower ever!
A very tall tower, but a little too much tape made it heavy. Great job!
Love this idea! The base was great. Got kind of wobbly, and if they had more time they would have reinforced the straws with more.
These boys had a great tower, but it fell over right at the end because it got too heavy with tape.
The tallest tower that stood by itself for at least 10 seconds!
Great tower - almost the tallest!
These girlies had a great idea, and if they had way more supplies and time they would have built the strongest tower ever!
A very tall tower, but a little too much tape made it heavy. Great job!
Love this idea! The base was great. Got kind of wobbly, and if they had more time they would have reinforced the straws with more.
These boys had a great tower, but it fell over right at the end because it got too heavy with tape.
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