Friday September 23rd

Greetings from Studio 223!  

What a great week it’s been. Students have been working hard.  We have been watching for what we call sign posts in our reading and tracking when characters act in an unexpected way.  We have  then been discussing how this effects the story.  In writing we have been reviewing the characteristics of narrative, opinion and expository/ informational writing.  They worked hard to identify supporting details for a main idea of a paragraph.  In math we have been working on rounding numbers with a vertical number line, and multiplying ten times as many, a tough concept to understand, when it's the understanding we are after more than just add a zero.  Using ten marks.com has been great for me, I've really been able to use homework to give individual attention to those who need it.  I hope it has been working well for you.

In the pictures below you will see the students working on their first S.T.E.M. project.  We started by discussing the design process, and then trying it out.  These pictures are taken when they went back to redesign.  I wish I had thought to take pictures the first time they made the paper airplanes, they were all working individually at their desks.  It was a dramatic change when they redesigned how they collaborated with each other.  If there are any parents who use the design process or have any real life experiences with it and and would like to share those experiences with the class please contact me.  We'd love to have you!

Looking forward to another great week!!!

First S.T.E.M. Project

Great First Week!!

Hello,  I hope your child came home enjoying the first week as much as I did.  It is so fun getting to know 20 students.  We are beginning to build our new community of learners and as I see it we are off to a great start!  We read some books that stressed the theme of the month, which is "Living Together Differently"  I hope we all come to appreciate and support each others differences so we all have the best 4th grade experience possible.

First Day August 30, 2016

Wow!  What a great day I had getting to know twenty great kids.  We read books, learned each others names and shared some of who we are.  We started what I see as being a great 4th grade experience.   The video is how the students were feeling on this first day of 4th grade.

Update: April 5, 2016

We have started some new routines in regards to homework the last couple weeks, I hope that all has gone smoothly at your house! TenMarks.com in math for homework I am loving.  I feel like it is a great opportunity for me to check in with the kids who got any problems wrong and actually give more individual attention then I was able to do before.  I've even had some kids come to me and say "I didn't get #..."  and we can look at it together and go over it.  I am going to continue using this, if you have any concerns about it please let me know.   In Math class we are almost done with our fraction unit and will be moving on to decimals.  The class really seems to have a solid grasp of fractions.

Something else I tried this week, was an ELA packet.  It is a review of the concept we are learning in school.  I am hoping that the packet due on Thursday will help manage time with all the spring sports that are starting.

Thanks to everyone on your help with the STEM maze projects.  We had a lot of fun making them and then remaking them to improve them.  There were some great in class collaborations on what would work better and how mazes could be improved.  The true design process.

The Voices of the Past project is in full swing.  I hope you are enjoying this, I enjoy talking to the kids about the project at check in time.   Again if any questions come up please email me.

Until next time!

Update: February 29, 2016

     This week started off with our morning meeting, which the students are now taking turns hosting.  It is nice to see them in the leadership roll.  

     The students started a STEM project on Friday where their task was to design a maze that a marble could be maneuvered through.  They were very excited and have started to bring in materials from home to help them construct it.  It is fun to see their "designing minds" at work.  

     We will finish our book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon this week.  The students have been so engaged in the twists and turns; I think we are all anxious to hear the final outcome for our protagonist Minli.  Ask your child about the book.  

     In Math this week we will continue to work on fractions.  We are building an understanding of equivalent fractions using multiplication.  This process might be more familiar to parents then what the students have been doing in drawing the area model.  Remember the goal is understanding not just a rote memorization of a process. We have talked about it at school, but so parents understand too, if there is ever stress at home, just drop me and email.  I will work with your child at school to complete homework.   

    In ELA this week we are working on sentences.  It was a great moment in class when someone noticed in a book we were reading the use of a semi-colon that we had discussed today in class.  Always looking to make our sentences more complex and interesting, without creating run-ons.

     Remember Friday is a 1/2 day, with dismissal at 11:40.  

Collaborating on our Mystery Skype

Update

Wow! We have been so busy in class flying along through the year. We have been tweeting, doing Mystery Skypes, and participating in the Global Math. Today when we came back we jumped into a Mystery Skype. Working together we were able to guess that they where from Alabama. It is always fun after we guess to chat with the other class and find out about them. Creekside Elementary, is in Harvest AL, which they told us is near Helen Keller's birthplace. I think the kids were most impressed by the fact that they said if they get an inch of snow they close school for days. It was a nice real world example of climate in different regions as we start our weather unit in science.

 Our Exciting Exploration projects are going GREAT! It is so fun to see the variety of how kids are presenting and the depth they are putting into the topics they are selecting.

 This week we are continuing our interactive read aloud Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin. The students are enjoying the story and the connections they are making as we read this very complex text keep exceeding expectations.

 In Math we are continuing our fraction unit. We spent time before vacation building the foundation for the more advanced concepts.

 Until next time!