Classroom Update - Week of June 4th

Upcoming Events / Reminders:

• 4th Quarter Interims went home last Friday, please make sure to sign and return by Friday

• Dates for the EOGS for 4th graders will be on Monday, June 18th (Math) and Tuesday, June 19th (Reading). Please let me know, as soon as possible, if you think your child will miss this week of school.

• Our End of the Year Class Picnic will be on Tuesday, June 26th from 1:00-2:00PM at the picnic tables in the front of the school building. We will be celebrating with Ms. Wade's class and more information will follow closer to the date.

• Meet the Teacher for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year will be on Tuesday, June 26th for tracks 2, 3, and 4 from 5:30-6:15PM.

• Our last day of school is Friday, June 29th. Report card will go home with your child that day.

Reader's Workshop:

This week the students will begin to study the genre of poetry. The students will learn to apply the following strategies when reading poetry texts :

• Readers read the poem 3 time (1-for fun, 2-for meaning, 3-for structure or figurative language)

• Readers make judgments about the speaker in a poem (Who it is and what they are feeling).

• Readers identify the tone of a poem to better understand what the poet is trying to convey.

• Readers make judgments about the layout of a poem to help them make predictions about the mood or tone (i.e. white space, bold, italics, punctuation, shape).

• Readers notice figurative language and use it to help them make a clear mind movie. (Highlight: metaphor, simile, idioms, personification, etc.)

Students will also continue to have two reading passages to complete for homework each week that coincides with the genre we are currently focusing on. Students are required to show their thinking by annotating their thought process as they are reading, as well as applying the strategies they have learned thus far.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• What are the characteristics of the poetry genre?

• What reading strategies do good readers use when reading poetry?

• Show me how to “map out your thinking” when reading poetry.

• Give me an example of a metaphor, simile, personification or alliteration.

Writer's Workshop:

This week in writing, the students will finish up their their persuasive writing. They will be utilizing a checklist to help them ensure that they have everything that they need for a complete essay. They will all be publishing a final copy on Google Docs to turn in this week.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• What changes have you made to your writing?

• How did you choose to end your writing?

• Did you use a creative technique to make it more memorable and/or convincing?

Math:

This week in math, we will be working on reviewing previously taught concepts in preparation for the EOG. We will be focusing on geometry, place value and computation skills this week and your child will have homework that relates to that this week. There will not be a weekly math review this week and next, however the students will have a little bit more math homework in general to help with the review process. If you are looking for additional math practice, all students were given a user name and password to IXL today. This is online math practice that we are trying as a school the last few weeks of the quarter. The website is https://www.ixl.com/signin. If you need help logging in or your child has lost their information, please do not hesitate to contact me over email or Bloomz and I can also send it that way.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• What areas in math do you feel like you need the most help with in preparation for the EOG?

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies the students will continue to look at maps of North Carolina to determine the ways in which transportation has changed. They will also learn more about the natural resources in our state and humans have had an impact on them in both positive and negative ways.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• How has people impacted NC’s natural resources?

• How have people adapted to the changes in NC’s environment?