Hi parents! It has been awesome getting to sit down with you during conferences. As quarter 1 winds down, just a few things for your information:
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We started our September in celebration for our 4th graders who grew in their Lexile points for the month of August. Fall conferences begin tomorrow. Just a friendly reminder to please come to our conference prepared with 2 or 3 of your child's strengths and 2 or 3 goals that you have for him or her for this year. I'm looking forward to meeting with you!
Reading: Students are close reading texts about how governments help their citizens, identifying key details, main idea, text evidence, and comparing and contrasting two texts. We are also using context clues to help define unfamiliar words.
Math: We have wrapped up our unit on place value understanding and our assessment was today. We will be starting the next module on metric measurement tomorrow. Writing: Students have been learning how to write better narratives, we have drafted our desert narratives and are in the process of revising and editing. Tomorrow, we will begin publishing our narratives in Google Docs. Science: We did a couple of explorations and activities to learn about sound waves. Today we started an exploration of light waves, and for the rest of this week, we will be exploring the use of electromagnetic waves to communicate using morse code. Picture day is on Thursday! We had a productive third week of school, as we have settled into our daily routines and the learning has begun in full-force. I thank you for your patience as our homework calendar has evolved over the last 3 weeks depending on our needs. You'll see some additional information on our Week 4 homework calendar which you may see, as some of your students have brought it home today. I will fill out Friday's column, as well as the behavior report, so there is no need to fill those sections out. We have had our first math assessment, which I will be sending home for signature next week. Please keep an eye out for it. Academic updates: Reading: We have started in on our first unit in Reading, which is titled, "Government in Action." We were learning about key details and main idea, graphic features, the long a spelling patterns, and analyzing author's evidence. Math: We have started experiencing multi-digit addition and subtraction, using rounding to estimate the reasonableness of our answers, and applying our knowledge to multi-step word problems. Writing: Narrative writing is our focus this quarter, and students have begun working with their first writing prompt. Students set their goals for their narrative writing and are looking forward to working to reach them. We are in our planning stage, and next week we will begin drafting our narrative stories. Social Studies: California Regions came to a close when students did short presentations on what they learned from their research, as well as filled in a chart with their learnings.
Science: We have begun learning about different types of waves and next week we will be doing a few explorations and activities with sound waves. Have a great weekend! I've sent your 4th grader's friday math quiz home. Students are to correct any mistakes, and get parent signatures. Please review this quiz with them, sign, and return to school as soon as possible. Thanks so much!
The robotics team is looking for new members this year. Please use the QR code below or click here to fill in the online application due tomorrow!
First things first, I have created a video giving a tour of our class website, which also gives a guide on how to get into Achieve3000 at home, as well as expectations for the homework calendar. You can find the video here. Lots of new learning has been taking place this week in reading, writing, math and social studies! Reading: After your 4th grader took their beginning of year LevelSet to find out their Lexile scores (ask your 4th grader what theirs is), we established expectations for reading articles and completing activities here in class. We have talked about author's purpose and its relation to text type. And finally, we explored different text structures for nonfiction and learned how to identify each text structure. Writing: Students learned the structure of answering constructed response questions and did much practice in that arena. They also wrote their first narrative to showcase to me what they had learned in 3rd grade.
Math: Comparing numbers, rounding, and estimation is what our focus was on this week. We looked at real-world applications on why estimation would be helpful. Students have a mid-module assessment coming up next Tuesday. Please review the math notes on our class website with your 4th grader to start their review. Social Studies: Students researched their region of California, and we started compiling the features of that region today. We had a wonderful first week of school! We have been introduced to and were practicing our various classroom routines in our effort to be efficient learners so that we can maximize our learning time. One major routine that we've been practicing is our morning routine, read to self time, and morning meeting procedures. We have also been getting acquainted with what will be the standard homework throughout the year. The students have worked on their "Green Flash" language and grammar piece here in class this week, and today, they brought it home along with their Math Review. This weekend, please see that your 4th grader has their Math review strips cut and glued into their Math Review Homework Spiral so that next week's homework will run smoothly.
Another note about homework. As much as possible, I will hope to have the Green Flash and math review ready by the Friday before the weekend. Students may get a head start on the homework by starting on it the weekend before it is due. Some may find that more convenient if they are involved in many after-school activities during the week. For example, since they brought their homework home today (Friday), they may begin working on it this weekend so that they may ensure they get all the their homework completed by when it is due. Have a wonderful weekend! Thanks so much for all of the supplies you have been providing both your 4th grader and the generous contributions to our shared class supplies. Every little bit has helped and will continue to help throughout the year. 4th graders will be coming home with math review homework today. I instructed them how to set it up at the end of the day today. See below for what it should look like today. The boxes I created are a sample of how they can set up their page. I put another sample with an alternative setup on the homework assignments page for Week 1, which you can find here. Also, if you haven't yet returned the yellow parent survey or the pink contract, please do so as soon as possible. There will be a few more forms coming home tomorrow. Thanks for your patience with filling out the beginning of year items. They are quite the task but are super important.
Please make sure you are reviewing the homework calendar that is coming home every day and signing each day letting me know that (1) you have seen it, and (2) you have checked to see that they have completed it. Thanks so much for your support always! |
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