Classroom Update - Week of July 31st

Welcome Parents and Students to the start of a terrific fourth grade year! I am very happy to be your child's teacher and I know that through hard work, Collaboration, Communication, Critical thinking and Creativity (these are our 4C's) we will have a very successful and fun year together. Each week, I will be publishing our "Classroom Update", which will give you an idea of what we will be learning each week and some questions that you can ask your child at home to elicit discussion about your child's school day.

Updates / Reminders:

• Monday, July 31st is our first day of school! Students can start arriving between 8:45-9:15. Our classroom room number is 410 and we luckily will not be moving rooms this year, since there are only five 4th grade classes.

• Please make sure you review your child’s LIGHTHOUSE binder and classroom handbook. This is an important organizational tool that we will be using this entire year and it will hold many important papers. Check your child’s binder regularly to look for updates.

• There were also many important papers that went home today in your child’s LIGHHOUSE binder. Please try to return this paperwork back to school with your child by Friday.

• Please visit the MES website for more information about Student Clubs! Many have applications that need to be filled out by a certain deadline.

• Please mark your calendars for Open House! It will be held on Thursday, August 10th from 6:00 - 7:30. I hope to see you all there!

• If you have a child that has been identified as Academically or Intellectually Gifted there will be a parent informational meeting on Thursday, August 10th from 5:15-5:45 with Mrs. Heir, our AIG teacher.

• Our first early release day is Friday, August 18th. Students will dismiss at 1:15PM. I will send out a Google Form closer to the date to determine any changes in transportation.

Reader's Workshop:

This week in reading the students will work on practicing the components of reader’s workshop/Daily 4 (Read to Self, Work on Words, Work on Writing, and Work on Reading) and in doing so, practice strengthening their reading stamina, engagement, and further develop their lifelong love of reading. Below you will find some important mini-lesson topics that we will focus on this week. You can use the questions to the left to engage your child in a discussion of what is going on in reading.

• Good readers pay close attention to clues that the author gives and pairs it with their own background knowledge (schema) to help them in making inferences.Good readers identify and use their best and worst reading times to help them learn how to change their reading lives for the better.

• Good readers learn to recognize books that are on their own personal level, so they can practice reading smoothly and with accuracy and comprehension.

• Good readers “take off the brakes” as they read, sometimes picking up their own reading pace a bit, so they can take in both the details and the whole of what they are reading.

• Good readers use multiple strategies to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• How do you plan on pushing yourself as a reader to read longer and stronger?

• What are some times when you felt like your reading was at its best? Worst?

• Show me a place in your book, where you used text clues and your own background experiences to make an inference?

• How can you tell if you are reading a “just right book”?

• What are some strategies that you can use when you come to a confusing part when reading?

Writer's Workshop

This week in writing, the students will learn different strategies for generating ideas for personal narrative writing. They also will practice “trying on” some of their ideas to see if they would make strong stories to take through the entire writing process. Below is a list of writing strategies that we will use this week.

Strategies for Generating Personal Narrative Writing:

• Think of a person who matters to you, then list clear small moments you remember with him or her.

• Think of a place that matters to you, then list clear, small moments that you remember there. Choose one to sketch to pull out further memories.

• Think of personal treasures that are important to you, then list clear small details/memories associated with that object.

• Think of things that you know and can do well, then list clear, small moments that you remember about it.

• Study the writing of authors we admire, by reading and asking, “What did this author do that I could do to make my own writing more powerful?”

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• Tell me about some of the story ideas that you have journaled about in your writer’s notebook.

• Is there a story idea that you are leaning towards writing about for your personal narrative writing assignment this quarter?

Math:

This week and next week in math the students will work on place value. They will focus on reading numbers, writing them out in written form, and drawing (using base 10 drawings) to the millions. It is important that the students understand that each place value is 10 times the place value before it. For example, the hundreds place is 10 times the tens place. They will also work on rounding to the nearest ten, hundred, and thousand. They will learn several strategies to help them with rounding, including a fun “Rounding Rap” that they will glue in their math notebooks.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• How would you read the following number: 2,548,394?

• Show me how to make a base ten drawing of the number 4,596.

• How are the 8’s in the number 8,888 similar and different?

• What would 3,349 be if rounded to the nearest ten? Hundred? Thousand?

Social Studies:

This quarter the students will be learning about the history of North Carolina. They will begin by focusing on the first people of our state, the Native Americans and how their lives changed after the arrival of the Europeans. They will also begin to learn more about each region, (Mountain, Piedmont, and Coastal Plains) how it was settled, and the impact that it had on the development of the community.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• How were various Native American groups changed after the arrival of the Europeans?

• Tell me about the disappearance of the colony of Roanoke.

• What do you think happened to these colonists?

• Why did England want to establish colonies in America?