Hello Everyone!

We have had a wonderful week in the classroom! The class is working hard, but they also know how to have fun together.  Here is a run-down of our academics this week:

Math: We are starting double digit multiplication! This sounds a lot scarier than it is, and we will take it one step at a time. This week, we worked hard to understand that 13 X 8 is the same thing as 10 X 8 PLUS 3 X 8.  As I always tell the students, 10 is our best friend, and breaking double digit numbers into tens and ones makes everything easier.  Some students still prefer to draw out their equations and count by ones, and this is perfectly okay and developmentally appropriate. But we will keep pushing into more efficient strategies as they are able to understand them conceptually. 

Reading: Our work this week was all about figuring out how the characters in our book are complicated, just like real people. We thought about ourselves and how we are complicated -- for example, we are different at school than we are with our cousins or our friends. The character in our read-aloud book, Ghost, is also complicated. The students are working to figure out how the characters in the books they are reading are multi-faceted and complicated as well.  

Writing: Today we started writing the drafts of our narrative stories, and the class is so excited! They have done a lot of planning -- thinking about their characters, their problems and the scenes that make up the story arc. Now they are ready to get writing! Next we will tackle the hardest parts of writing -- revision and elaboration!

Science: Thanks to many flower and plant donations, today we dissected flowers (I totally forgot to take pictures!) We identified roots, leaves, stems, and flowers and discussed their functions. Then each student got to dissect 2 flowers and discover the goodies inside. Mr. Bouchard brought in his digital microscope so we could REALLY see the stamen, pistil, stigma, seeds, etc.  I was impressed by how much the class already knew, but there was a lot of new learning as well. Next week, we will get to make our individual terrariums, complete with little plants!

Social Studies: This week we learned about implicit bias. We learned that we all carry opinions and attitudes that come from somewhere -- the media, advertisements, friends, family, etc. We got into a wonderful conversation about advertising and the notion of beauty. These kids are perceptive! Then yesterday we revisited our identity maps and tried to make a distinction between the parts of our identities that we really own and the parts that others have "labeled" us with. This was heady work, but I was proud of the deep thinking the students did!

Today we also made some harvest crafts. Forgive me if you get straw all over your house this evening!  Our little terracotta pot scarecrows are perhaps a little messy... you should see the classroom floor!

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Halloween weekend.

We have made it through our first week of full-time instruction! I am amazed at the resiliency and flexibility of this lovely group of students. They smiled and learned and generally rocked every day this week!  It definitely makes me think "We've got this!"

Here's a quick run-down on academics this week:

Math: We finished up our first multiplication unit and are moving directly into a second one. In this unit, things get a little more complicated as we begin multiplying double digit numbers and learning more about division. We will take it slowly and make sure we don't leave anyone confused!

Reading: We are still reading our fiction books and learning various strategies for comprehension. These include noticing the behaviors and habits our characters exhibit, paying attention to setting, and thinking about character traits. The students all wrote me letters today, and I was impressed at how much they are noticing as they read their books.

Writing: We are working slowly on gathering ideas for our narrative stories. The students are anxious to begin actually drafting their stories, but I am making them hold off until they have done a lot of planning. The more they plan, the easier it will be for them to write an organized and understandable story later!  It's like holding horses back at the races, but I will prevail!

Science: We did 2 more fun labs this week, starting with bubbles and finishing up with mixing yeast with hydrogen peroxide to create heat. We learned how to use a thermometer accurately and wrote down all of our observations. Next week we will begin a science unit on plant structures and their functions. I am hoping to have each student make a terrarium, so I am looking for 2-liter plastic bottles (like the kind soda or seltzer come in.) If you ever have bottles like that at your house, please rinse them and send them in!

In other news, we lost our first fish yesterday... It was hard for the students to see one of their pets die, but we talked a lot about the fragility of fish and how short their lives tend to be. We have 2 new fish in the tank, and I will try to get a few more once I know there is no lingering disease in the tank.  I guess even the sad events teach us something!

We have started a video class dictionary! Be sure to ask your children about this. Our first words are savory, perspective, and obscure. Please try to use those words around your dinner table or as you run errands. The more they hear them being used in normal conversation, the more likely they are to learn them well enough to use them in their own speech or writing!

I will not be sending any homework home for the foreseeable future unless there is important work that doesn't get completed during the school day. This may change in January, but for now I hope the students can enjoy their after-school and weekend time playing outdoors and connecting with family. Of course I highly encourage reading every single night so that it becomes a habit!

As always, contact me with any questions or concerns. I am loving being with your children every day!

 

 Hello everyone. I am excited about having everyone here together on Monday! Of course, we will need to spend some time getting to know each other, reviewing safety protocols and procedures, and figuring out how to operate in a large group. Although the classroom is not fully set up yet (that will happen over the weekend) my plan is to have only desks, all 3 feet apart (side to side and front to back) and a laundry basket for each student in the hallway for backpacks, coats, etc.  I think this will work well to keep us safe and comfortable. Of course, things change quickly and we will all need to be flexible! Please let me know if you have safety concerns or any questions about how things will look next week.

In academic news, we worked hard this week! The students found all the factors of 100 (all the equations that equal 100) and then used those to find factors of 200, 300, 400, etc. Understanding how to do this is a critical foundational skill as we get into more difficult multiplication. It was tedious work, but well worth it!

We also worked hard as writers. We learned about how to make a complete sentence and how to write a paragraph with a topic sentence and supporting details. We will come back to both of these over and over this year! Punctuation seems to be our nemesis…. I’ll be doubling down on that this year!

In reading, we have worked on a variety of comprehension strategies. We have discussed the importance of visualizing what is happening in our books, and we have learned some ways to move beyond retelling the story to building some ideas about our characters.  Now that we are going to be back in the building full-time, I have ordered physical Reader’s Notebooks for everyone. We will keep the digital ones as a back-up in case things change, but I would always prefer to have the students use a notebook than a screen!

We continue learning about the scientific process during science class. Mostly, we are learning about fair testing and how to make sure we have constants and variables. This week we figured out which paper towel was the most absorbent, and Bounty won! Next week we will work on figuring out which paper towel is the STRONGEST, which is an entirely different question and needs a different procedure. On top of having fun, the students are learning how to hypothesize and collect data!

Our social studies curriculum for the next few weeks will be entirely focused on kindness and community. We have already read a few books about the importance of names. We will also discuss implicit bias and its implications, and of course we will continue to talk about ways we can be kind and inclusive in our small classroom community as well as in our larger town community.

I have put the weekly schedule on the google classroom, but I will also send you a link to it. We have Music as our unified art subject right now, but that will change to Art or Spanish later in the year. PE, Guidance, and Library should stay the same (if ANYTHING can stay the same, that is!)  We will keep our current sharing schedule.

I had told the students to bring their chromebooks and charging cords to school because I was told we would be keeping those here. Today I heard that we are going to continue having the students take home their chromebooks daily, just so we are prepared in case we switch back to Stage 2 or Stage 1. Please continue having your children charge their chromebooks overnight and have them bring them to school (fully charged) each day.  The routine we have established seems to be working, so we will keep it just the same. I apologize for the change in communication!

Tuesday is "bedtime day!" Students can wear pajamas, wear their slippers and socks while in the classroom, and bring one stuffed animal or blanket. They will need to have proper outerwear and shoes for PE, however.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the sun!

 Happy sunny Friday! I hope you all have plans for a lovely weekend. We have worked hard this week, and I think all are happy to be heading into the weekend.

In math this week, we continued to learn about factors and multiples. We practiced a variety of comparison problems (some of which really required us to think about division) and discussed prime numbers as well. Next week we will move into finding factors of 100 and the multiples of 100. You'll see that work reflected in the worksheets that come home.

In reading, we worked a lot on what it means to "retell" versus "summarize." We also discussed other things we could write about when jotting ideas (who are characters are, what traits they have, etc.) Finally, we learned about synthesizing -- making connections between events in the book and previous events. This sort of thinking about books is new for fourth graders, and I love watching them make these connections and deepen their comprehension.

I was ready to move full-steam ahead into our first writing unit but decided to take a pause until we are all here together. Instead, we spent time this week discussing the elements of a friendly letter. I am  hoping this will make the weekly letter writing a little easier. Next week we will tackle sentences structure (with some diagramming!) and paragraph writing. That should help the students a lot as they begin our first unit.

This week's science was all about the scientific process and constants versus variables. Be sure to ask your children what they learned about balsamic versus white vinegar and about food coloring and hot water! I hope to continue doing fun labs like this at school for a few weeks so that we all understand the process and how so much of it comes from questions.

Finally, in social studies this week we learned about using our "social filter." We discussed the role of filters  in general (for coffee, in pools, etc.) and the discussed how our brain can filter our thoughts before they come out of our mouths. Our thoughts belong to us and we can think whatever we want, but we need to think and pause before letting them come out of our mouths! We ask ourselves if they are truthful, helpful, and kind. If the answer to any one those is no, we don't say them! 

That's all for this week. Enjoy your weekend, and as always, feel free to be in touch with questions. It's a team effort!

Another week has flown by! It feels like we have been super busy this week, but it's hard for me to remember exactly why.... it must be Friday!

In math this week, we rolled up our sleeves and got started with our multiplication unit. We reviewed "equal groups" problems and how to use arrays and known facts to help us solve unknown facts (i.e., 8X7=8X5 + 8X3).) Yesterday and today, we looked at word problems that are comparison problems. The math is the same, but the story context is different. This seemed tricky at first, but I know the understanding will come in time.  Next week we will continue working on solving a variety of story problems and honing our strategies for multiplication.

In reading, we worked on coming up with strategies for readers to try when they are struggling to read or understand. The class made some great suggestions! Then we had a pre-assessment (which I call a survey) so that I can check in on comprehension. I read the story to them, but asked them to answer questions about the character and the themes of the story. This was challenging for them, but that is because we haven't learned it yet. It will get easier!

Writing time has mostly been spent doing free writing, but that will change next week as we begin our first true unit. We will be writing fictional narrative stories, and the students always love that!  This week we discussed ways to find ideas, and we learned about how writers can use mentor texts (including short films) to launch a writing piece by writing a sequel, changing the ending, changing the characters or setting, etc.  I hope this helps those who struggle to find ideas!

Our science time for the next few weeks will be spent learning how scientist plan and conduct experiments, make hypotheses, and plan for fair testing with constants and only one variable. We will be figuring out which paper towels are the most absorbent. which liquids dissolve marshmallows, and other such silly things. It should be fun!

I know we have postponed our parent conferences for now, but I am always happy to discuss your children with you and answer any questions or concerns you might have. Although there are tricky parts about this hybrid model, one silver lining has been that I feel I have gotten the opportunity to get to know them all pretty well, even with fewer days! I am really enjoying the group, and love bragging about them. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to set up a time to "meet."

I hope you all have a restful weekend and get the opportunity to enjoy the glorious fall!