Classroom Update - Week of March 12th

Upcoming Events / Reminders:

• Tomorrow, all WCPSS schools will be operating on a 3 hour delay, due to the inclement weather. Arrival times will be between 11:45-12:15.

• 4th Grade Field Trip to the North Carolina Aquarium and Masonboro Island is Thursday, March 22nd. Please plan on having your child to school by 6:45AM that day. We should be back at MES around 7PM that night. More information and reminders will follow soon.

• Monday, March 19th are Spring/Class Pictures. Envelopes were sent home. If you would like a class picture, the cost is $10. The individual spring pictures will be sent home for you to review before purchasing.

• Friday, March 23rd is the end of quarter three and track-out day.

Reader's Workshop:

This week, the students will continue their second novel study unit that will center around social issues. Some of the common social issues that we will be discussing are: Growing Up, Courage & Honor, Culture & Diversity, Overcoming Obstacles, Fitting In, Forgiveness, and Abandonment. The students will study these social issues through a variety of picture books that will be used during the daily mini-lessons and their novel study. The students will take their Social Issues reading assessment, on Friday, March 16th.

Some specific mini-lesson topics this week will include:

•Good readers reread familiar texts to find and identify the social issues thread throughout the text.

•Good readers evaluate situations or character responses that deal with social issues by responding to prompts.

•Good readers talk about what they know about gender, race, or class before reading a story that has one of these at the core of the story.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• What social issue(s) is/are found in the book you are reading?

• What details from the text support it?

• What is fair/unfair in your novel? Why?

• What pressures does your main character have?

• How does your main character behave?

• What might motivate or influence your character to behave that way?

Writer's Workshop:

This week in writing the students will be working on composing their three body paragraphs. They will be focusing on using the "Fab 5" for each paragraph and working on elaborating their details to make them stronger and easy to read and understand. They will also work on writing a clear conclusion at the end of the week.

Fabulous Five Must Haves in Each Body Paragraph:

1.Clear Topic Sentence

2.3-5 Well Elaborated Details

3.At least 3 Transitional Words/Phrases

4.Descriptive or Content Specific Vocabulary

5.Clear Concluding Statement

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• Tell me what you are writing about. Why did you choose this topic?

• How did you begin your introduction? Does it catch your reader’s attention?

• Do you have topic and concluding sentences for each paragraph?

• Do you have at least three details to support each topic sentence?

Math:

This week, in math, the students will continue to focus on patterns. They will be investigating geometric and numerical patterns in sequences and input/output charts. The students will be responsible for finding the rule in given pattern sets and listing the features that they discover in that pattern. On Thursday, the students will be taking an assessment on creating and extending patterns. For the remainder of the quarter, the students will be working on remediating and extending previously taught concepts.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• What is the rule for the following pattern: 37, 32, 27, 22?

• What features does this pattern have?

• Can you create your own pattern using the rule divide 4? What features would this pattern have?

• Can you create an input/output chart with a rule of multiply 3, add 2?

Science:

In science, students are learning about animal adaptations and how the animal's environment can benefit or harm the animal. Students should begin studying their notes. Our Animal Adaptations assessment will be Thursday, March 15th. Students should be prepared to respond on the following topics:

• How can we get the most nutrients from our food? (Eat a variety.)

• What are a couple of very nutritious foods? What vitamins and minerals are in these foods? What do these vitamins and minerals do for our body? Be specific and use words and phrases shared in class and included in our notes.

• What is one of your favorite exercises? What type of exercise does it include? How does it benefit the body? Be specific and use words and phrases shared in class and included in our notes.

• What are some physical and behavioral adaptations of various animals? Is it physical or behavioral? What animal has the adaptation? How does the adaptation help the animal? (Example: A giraffe has a long neck to help it reach leaves to eat.)

• What will happen to a population of animals if their environment changes (food disappears, roads are built, an animal reserve is established, etc.)?