Monday, September 23

I am still a little under the weather so the class being noisy and my voice being icky made listening a little inefficient. Anyway, we managed to get through the day! We began our day with a Science Inquiry project on Weathering and Erosion. They love Science because they get to DO but they can't forget the learning part too. In Math, we worked with multiplication. Students NEED to know their basic facts--no student scored proficient, or even above 60%, with their basic facts timed test when given 5 minutes. Yuck! We have gone away from timed tests as a district and I don't really believe in limiting students on the time they get to work, however, when it comes to their basic multiplication facts, in order to move on to 4-digit by 1-digit, knowing those facts and knowing them quickly is important. Please help your kiddo to practice these this week so that they don't struggle when learning tougher products this week. We also looked at arrays in Math in finding factors for numbers by reading One Hundred Hungry Ants. (A-hey and a-hi dee ho!) After recess, we went to the Library Media Center to take the TRAILS test. I'm not sure what they acronym stands for but it is a 16 question assessment on using sources and the library. It fits in with the Common Core in English/Language Arts and Mrs. Dorr does a great job going over the assessment results with the children and when they take it again in the Spring, they show tremendous improvement. When we came back, we read from Wonder. I'm not sure about your child, but this has become my new "favorite book!" It is worth the overdue fees I'm going to pay! :) Students also had some time to read silently. Quite a few kiddos need to build their stamina with reading. They have been choosing picture books only and not really reading when they are supposed to read independently. Please help them to build this stamina by reading 20 minutes at a time at home and choosing books that are longer and they have to return to instead of finishing in one sitting. In Writer's Workshop, we talked about opinions and persuasive writing. It is wonderful to have opinions and to express those opinions but they also need to be backed up with evidence and facts. We worked just on forming opinions and one reason for this opinion but will build this to three reasons with evidence and facts by the end of the unit. 4th graders should write multiple paragraphs. Finally, we concluded our day with a pre-test for Word Study. Their list is written in their planners if you'd like to peruse it. (If not, they didn't have enough time and will finish it in the morning.)