Classroom Update - Week of June 11th

Upcoming Events / Reminders:

• EOG Treats/Mazes Sign Up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4dafa62fa13-eogtreats

• Thursday, June 14th is Flag Day - Students are encouraged to dress in red, white, and blue to celebrate our American and North Carolina flag.

• 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 work on reviewing all genres (nonfiction, fiction, and poetry) in preparation for their final assessment that they will take on Friday. Below are the test taking strategies that we have talked about daily and use.

• Good readers “box in” unfamiliar words and underline clues to their meaning

• Good readers jot down the main idea of each paragraph/section (nonfiction)

• Good readers jot down the problem and solution at the end of the text (fiction)

• Good readers identify the speaker and tone (poetry)

• Good readers jot down inferences that they make while reading.

• Good readers read the questions carefully and highlight important or key words

• Good readers go back into the text and highlight clues to help them determine the correct answer

• Good readers read all answer choices and put a “?” next to choices they think are right and cross out choices they know are wrong.

• Good readers circle the BEST answer.

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 some students will be working on finishing 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. Once finished, the students will be working on a special writing project for this weekend. You will find out more information about this on Sunday. :)

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 computation skills, fractions and problem solving 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?