Classroom Update - Week of November 6th
- Jennifer Bracke
- Nov 6, 2017
- 4 min read
At Home Book Survey - Please Complete!
Please take a few minutes to complete the following short survey regarding your at home libraries. We are looking to gain some information about how many books students have at home so we can better support literacy at home. Thank you!
Classroom Spelling Bee
On Thursday, November 8th, my fourth graders will be participating in our classroom spelling bee. I will be holding the spelling bee first thing in the morning at 9:20, so please try to be on time. The first and second place winners in our class will go on to compete in the school wide spelling bee on December 5th. Spelling bee practice lists were sent home on Friday, if your child would like to prepare.
Fall Conferences
Fall conferences will be held in the next few weeks leading up to our Thanksgiving holiday. An email will be sent out tomorrow with a SignUp Genius link with dates and times for you to choose from. These conferences should last about 15 minutes and your child should plan on attending with you and bring their LIGHTHOUSE binder as we will be looking at some of the data in it.
Downtown Raleigh Field Trip – November 30th
On Thursday, November 30th, our class will be going on a field trip to downtown Raleigh to visit the North Carolina Legislative Building and the North Carolina History Museum. We will be eating lunch downtown at the picnic tables outside of the museum. If your child will be bringing a lunch from home, please have them pack it in a disposable bag (Ziploc ones work great because they don't rip). I already have my five parent chaperones, however I am in need of 2-3 large coolers to hold the lunches. If you are able to send one in for us to borrow that day, it would be greatly appreciated!
Upcoming Events / Reminders:
Don't forget that this Friday, November 10 is Veteran's Day. There will be no school. Enjoy the long weekend!
November 21st is Early Release. School will dismiss at 1:15.
November 22-24 is our Thanksgiving holiday break - no school
November 30th is our field trip to downtown Raleigh. The students will be visiting our Legislative Building and the North Carolina History Museum. Parent Chaperones will be needed for this trip, so please make sure that you have taken the time to register. More information about this trip will be going home soon.
December 5th is Literacy Night. Mark your calendars more information will follow soon!
December 21st is not only an Early Release Day (school will dismiss at 1:15) but also our last day of the quarter.
Reader's Workshop: In reading this week, the students will continue to analyze the text structure of nonfiction texts. The text structure refers to how the text is organized or the manner in which the author is presenting the information. The students will also learn how each text structure has a thinking map that is paired with it to better help them understand the text and more concretely visualize how the text is organized.
The Text Structure We Will Focus on Over the Next Two Weeks Include:
-Description (bubble map)
-Sequential (flow map)
-Cause & Effect (multi-flow map)
-Problem & Solution (flow map)
-Compare & Contrast (double bubble map)
Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:
What text features did you notice while reading?
How did the text features enhance your comprehension or understanding of the text?
What are the five main text structures that we studied this week?
What are some qualities that the description or sequence text structure has?
What vocabulary is essential to know to deepen your understanding of the text?
Writer's Workshop:
This week in writing the students will be working on drafting their animal research. They will be writing their draft in their journal and will eventually publish the document in MS Word by using text features. This week, a strong emphasis will be placed on writing a complete body paragraph. As they draft their body paragraphs, they will be using the Fab Five (see below) to help them ensure that they have all components of a complete paragraph.
Fab Five:
A topic sentence that states the main idea
At least 3-4 supporting detail sentences
Transitional words/phases
Content specific vocabulary
A concluding statement that restates the main idea in a new way
Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:
What is the Fab 5?
How are you making sure to include the Fab 5 in your own body paragraphs?
Math:
This week in math, the students will be working on writing multiplication and division comparison equations. For example, they might complete a problem using these comparison statements:
Rashme picked 15 apples, while her little brother Eli picked 3 apples. We can compare by saying Rashme picked 5 times as many apples as Eli picked because 15 is 5 times as many as 3. A second way we can compare two quantities is to describe the smaller amount in terms of the larger amount. This requires a unit fraction. If we divided Rashme’s apples equally into groups of 3, we would get 5 equal parts. Each of these equal parts is called 1/5 (one of the 5 equal parts). We can compare by saying Eli picked 1/5 times as many apples as Rashme picked. 3 is 1/5 as many as 15.
The students will then finish the week by taking an assessment on this skill Wednesday. Starting on Thursday, the students will be working on problem solving using CUBES.
LearnZillion offers some helpful videos on Multiplicative Comparisons that you may visit for further practice with this standard.:
Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:
Can you share with me an example of a multiplicative comparison statement?
What are the two ways we can use multiplication and division to compare the two quantities?
What are some strong problem solving techniques that you have learned this week?
Social Studies:
This week, the students will continue to learn about the three different branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial branches. They will also be investigating how a bill becomes a law and how all three branches have to work together to make this happen.
Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:
What are the roles and responsibilities of the three branches of government?
Can you explain how a bill becomes a law?
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