Manning's Message

Curriculum Night

It was a pleasure seeing many of you on curriculum night!  If you were not able to make the meeting, your student brought home some information. Please look at the Blog photo permission and the Class contact sheets and return them to me.  I am looking forward to collaborating with you to ensure your children have a successful fourth grade year!

iPad Update

We are working to complete the essential Digital Citizenship lessons and the students are learning about how to be responsible and respectful in the digital world, how to protect their private information, and what to do when they encounter mean or inappropriate material online.

Our Digital Citizenship lessons come from a site called Common Sense Media.  This is a non-profit organization, which offers information, advice and tools for helping teachers, parents and kids navigate media and the digital world.   Check them out at https://www.commonsensemedia.org/homepage

Subject Update

We continue to establish and practice our classroom routines and procedures.  The students have been working well as a community and are working toward earning community points to have a classroom celebration.

Language Arts

Daily Five and Cafe

Students have been learning and practicing the processes for reading and writing workshops.   Using the Daily Five structure, the students will be busy completing meaningful literacy tasks.  Their choices will be *Read to self, *Work on Writing, * Word Work, * Read to Someone, and *Listen to Reading.  Currently, we are focused on increasing our stamina to work independently during Read to Self, Read to Someone and Work on Writing.  The students are learning to work independently, and soon I will be also introducing the Word Work.  While the students are completing their literacy tasks, I will be working with small groups or conferencing with individual students.  Currently, I am completing DRA’s (Developmental Reading Assessment) with each student.

While Daily Five is our structure for Literacy Block, the CAFÉ is what we study during the block.  CAFÉ is an acronym for the components of reading:

C-Comprehension, A-Analysis, F-Fluency, E-Expand Vocabulary. The students will learn reading strategies within each category, and these strategies will become tools for them to use to help themselves become better readers and writers.  I will keep you informed when new strategies are introduced. Then, when you read with your child at home, you will be able to reinforce these concepts.

Strategies introduced or to be introduced in the coming weeks are:  Comprehension:  Check for Understanding, Monitor and Fix-up, Back-up and Reread; Ask Questions: Analysis- Ask Questions; Expand Vocabulary- Tune into Interesting Words.  Ask your student how they use these strategies while reading.

In writing, the students have been practicing using the fourth-grade writing expectations to write in complete sentences by making sure they have a subject and a predicate in each sentence.  We are beginning narrative writing and they have been introduced to the narrative writing diamond.  This week we are brainstorming topics for personal and fictional narratives.  Students will begin planning their narrative using a four-square format (opening, setting, main event and extended ending) before they begin to write their opening.   

Mathematics

We have completed Chapter One: Working with Whole Numbers, and the students took their assessment last Tuesday.  They have reviewed and corrected their mistakes.  Many students found that they made errors because of rushing or not paying close attention to their work.  We have identified these as “Sloppy” mistakes.  Finally, students reflected on what they did well on the test and how they can improve based on their mistakes.  The test, their reflection sheet and a BAN document explaining the test went home last week.  Please review them with your student, sign and return to school if you have not already done so.  I will keep these in a portfolio for your child, which they will bring home at the end of each trimester. 

Students will be continuing to learn about the types of mistakes and how we can learn from them.  Check out this article on mistakes by Eduardo Briceño, Co-Founder and CEO of Mindset Works.

http://blog.mindsetworks.com/index.php?option=com_easyblog&view=entry&id=218&Itemid=

This week students will begin Chapter Two: Estimation and Number Theory.  In this chapter the students learn about estimation, factors, and multiples.  Some of the skills that we practice will be rounding. A strategy they have learned for rounding is this rhyme “Five or more, raise the score.  Four or less, let it rest and stay the same.”  Students will also learn how to decide whether to estimate or calculate an exact answer.  We will also practice how to find common factors and common multiples.  Students will also learn about prime and composite numbers.  Students should be practicing their addition, subtraction and multiplication facts nightly.  I will give the students a multiplication chart to assist them with the work we are doing during this chapter.  However, it is important that they know their multiplication facts as subsequent skills are based on these facts.  

I have signed all students up for an XtraMath account and sent a letter home today with instructions on how to get into their account.  We have discussed a variety of ways to practice facts (ready-made flash cards, home-made flash cards (based on problems missed on tests), flash card websites, or other websites such as Fact Monster http://www.factmonster.com/math/flashcards.html, and Greg Tang Math http://www.gregtangmath.com.  You can find many more Math websites in the Math Center at the column to the right of this letter.

Science

We have begun our science lessons by setting up their science notebooks and learning the format for using them.  We have also been learning about asking scientific questions vs non-scientific questions. Scientific questions are testable. A testable question can be answered by is experimenting, observing and measuring.

Check out this video about asking scientific questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqfQpURDoCo

Social Studies

We have begun our study of map skills.  Students are learning about the components of a map: title, legend, compass rose, and scale. This week they will be learning about the four hemispheres and latitude and longitude.

First Three Weeks

We are having a successful and productive beginning of fourth grade.   The students are working together to develop a kind and respectful learning community, and I am proud of their efforts these first weeks of school.

I realize that the first few weeks of school can be overwhelming for students, parents, and teachers.  Remember… to take a day at a time.  I am here to help and will see to it that your child gets the year off to a great start!  So, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I am most easily reached by email: cmanning@shrewsbury.k12.ma.us.

We continue getting to know each other and develop our routines.  We have been working together to build our class expectations and the students have come up with a clear idea of how to be a good classmate.  Look for that poster during curriculum night.

Last week, students also developed a specific individual goal for fourth grade, and we worked together to build our class rules.

Snack

I encourage you to send in a healthy snack for your child to eat during the morning or afternoon. Students may eat their snack whenever they are hungry and we will have “working snack.”  Most students are choosing to eat their snacks in the morning. Remember, we are an allergy aware classroom/school. I also encourage you to send your child in with a water bottle with a secure top.  A water bottle is essential for hydration during these last days of summer as well as throughout the year.

Homework

In the fourth grade we focus on developing organizational skills, which they will use throughout their educational career and life.  Learning organizational skills plays an important role in a student’s success.  Our first organizational unit revolves around using the Plan book, binder and the homework process.

We will spend a great deal of time early in the school year learning the homework process.  The homework assignments will be listed every night in the Student Plan book, and the necessary papers will be placed in the To Do section of their homework folder.  I will initial the plan page before your student leaves.  Please be certain to review the completed assignments and initial the plan page nightly.

Shrewsbury has established a homework policy, which you will find in the student handbook.  At the fourth grade, homework is assigned Monday through Thursday. Homework will consist of daily, and eventually, long-term assignments that reflect the current topics of study.  The average time for completing homework assignments for the fourth grade should be 40 minutes. Please notify me if your child is struggling with the homework and/or if homework is taking longer than 40 minutes, and we will discuss it further.

Language Arts

The students are learning the processes for reading and writing workshops, and are establishing guidelines for working together.  We have explored the different types of fiction and nonfiction books, as we examined the books in our classroom library.  We have determined how to choose a “good fit” book and the students are working toward choosing “good fit” books for independent reading.  When choosing a book the students ask themselves a series of questions to help them determine their purpose for reading, their interest in the topic, their ability to understand the book and their ability to read the words.  We call these questions “I Pick” which stands for:

I choose a book

Purpose-why do I want to read it?

Interest-does it interest me”

Comprehend-do I understand what I read?

Know-do I know most of the words? 

When your child is choosing a book at home, ask them to explain how the use the “I Pick” process and how they know it is a “good fit’” book.

We are reviewing and practicing the Fourth Grade Writing Expectations.  These are the expectations for all written work.  Students have copies of this and their Fourth Grade Personal Word Wall in their homework binder, writing binder and their desk.  The students will continue to have opportunities to practice working toward meeting these expectations on a daily basis.  For homework this week, the students will be writing sentences using their Fourth Grade Personal Word Wall.

4th Grade Expectations for All Written Work Spelling: ·      Personal Word Wall ·      Available text ·      Dictionary when revising Complete Sentences: ·      Write using complete thoughts Mechanics: ·      Capitals at beginning of sentences and proper nouns ·      Punctuation-every sentence needs to end with punctuation ·      Correct Grammar (past/present tense) Organization: ·      Write in paragraphs ·      Spacing ·      Use the whole line ·      Indent paragraphs Puts forth Best Effort: ·      Neat ·      Legible ·      Appropriate letter size

This is how the writing expectations are translated to report card grades.

Report Card Descriptors: Þ  Demonstrates organizational skills Þ  Puts forth best effort Þ  Uses standard English conventions

Math

We kicked off our math program “Math in Focus” with Unit One: Working with Whole Numbers. This unit focuses on placed-value concepts through the ten thousands place and addition and subtraction algorithms.  This week, the students will practice addition and subtraction using a chip-trading model, which is new to them this year.  In this model, each color chip represents a specific power of ten. Students will be using these chips throughout the year.

Supply Wish List

Thank you for your donations!  We will continue to need tissues, wipes, and hand sanitizer throughout the year, so occasionally keep us in mind.

Curriculum Night

Fourth grade curriculum night is Thursday, September 12  at 6:30 in Room 303, then 7:15 for the principals’ presentation in the cafeteria

I look forward to seeing you there!