Over the past week, the students have been working on writing an autobiography poem and creating a self portrait. What beautifully talented, unique kiddos these are!
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
What to Work on at Home
Each night, your child will have reading homework. Please encourage him/her to read for about thirty minutes each evening. They will also have some sort of reading log to fill out each week. At least once a week, please sign off on this.
Students should expect math homework a couple nights a week. Often times math homework will be differentiated, so students should be able to complete their work independently.
Throughout the year there will be tests and/or projects in science and social studies. I will try to post study guides or ways to study on the blog.
Right now, there are two important things that are not assigned each night but that are very important for a smooth start to our fourth grade year:
Cursive
Please help your child to practice cursive writing each night if he/she is not yet writing in cursive with speed and ease. You could print out cursive worksheets from the internet at sites like this one: Cursive Pages.
Multiplication Facts
We will not be working on multiplication for another month or two, but that does not mean your child should not be working on his/her facts. Please help your child to become comfortable with his/her multiplication facts so that he/she knows his/her facts quickly and accurately. These can be through flash cards purchased at the Dollar Tree, simply calling out facts, or you can certainly use fun apps and games:
Multiplication.com
Fun4thebrain.com
Apps:
Code Squad
Times Table
NumbrsLeague
HyperBlast
Match-Up
Mad Math
Thank you for your help and support at home!
Students should expect math homework a couple nights a week. Often times math homework will be differentiated, so students should be able to complete their work independently.
Throughout the year there will be tests and/or projects in science and social studies. I will try to post study guides or ways to study on the blog.
Right now, there are two important things that are not assigned each night but that are very important for a smooth start to our fourth grade year:
Cursive
Please help your child to practice cursive writing each night if he/she is not yet writing in cursive with speed and ease. You could print out cursive worksheets from the internet at sites like this one: Cursive Pages.
Multiplication Facts
We will not be working on multiplication for another month or two, but that does not mean your child should not be working on his/her facts. Please help your child to become comfortable with his/her multiplication facts so that he/she knows his/her facts quickly and accurately. These can be through flash cards purchased at the Dollar Tree, simply calling out facts, or you can certainly use fun apps and games:
Multiplication.com
Fun4thebrain.com
Apps:
Code Squad
Times Table
NumbrsLeague
HyperBlast
Match-Up
Mad Math
Thank you for your help and support at home!
Mrs. Story
Today, Mrs. Story, our new assistant principal came to read to stories to us. She read Being Wendy (an excellent choice as her first name is Wendy and both she and the main character have red hair!) and You Are Special. It was a treat to have story time with her and give the students an opportunity to meet her!
Monday, August 17, 2015
First Nine Weeks, Week 2
We had a wonderful first week together last week. I believe the students and I are both eager to get into the "meat" of 4th grade!
This week, students will be presenting their personality bags on Wednesday to the class and on Thursday to our Character Partners in Mrs. Buie's 1st grade class.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) night is Open House. This is a time for parents to come into the class and learn a bit more about what we will be doing in 4th grade and my expectations for the year. Please try to come to the classroom from 6-6:20, 6:30-6:50 or 7-7:20.
Reading: In reading this week, we will be doing a couple of different assessments as I get to know your children better as readers. We will also be discussing best practices as far as reading and choosing books.
Math: Our focus is place value for the next few weeks. We are starting with reading and creating large numbers, number sense activities and writing numbers in standard, expanded and word form. Later on in the week, I hope to begin our first math menu. Math menus are a way for students to solve difficult, multi-step, realistic problems using a variety of strategies, working at their own pace, and working individually or on their own to challenge and further their understanding of a particular concept.
Language Arts: This week, we will be working on identifying nouns. We will also spend some time reviewing lower case cursive letters.
Alabama History: We will focus on land formations as we begin to look at Alabama's geography.
Science: We will be investigating opaque, transparent and translucent objects this week as we begin our unit on light.
This week, students will be presenting their personality bags on Wednesday to the class and on Thursday to our Character Partners in Mrs. Buie's 1st grade class.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) night is Open House. This is a time for parents to come into the class and learn a bit more about what we will be doing in 4th grade and my expectations for the year. Please try to come to the classroom from 6-6:20, 6:30-6:50 or 7-7:20.
Reading: In reading this week, we will be doing a couple of different assessments as I get to know your children better as readers. We will also be discussing best practices as far as reading and choosing books.
Math: Our focus is place value for the next few weeks. We are starting with reading and creating large numbers, number sense activities and writing numbers in standard, expanded and word form. Later on in the week, I hope to begin our first math menu. Math menus are a way for students to solve difficult, multi-step, realistic problems using a variety of strategies, working at their own pace, and working individually or on their own to challenge and further their understanding of a particular concept.
Language Arts: This week, we will be working on identifying nouns. We will also spend some time reviewing lower case cursive letters.
Alabama History: We will focus on land formations as we begin to look at Alabama's geography.
Science: We will be investigating opaque, transparent and translucent objects this week as we begin our unit on light.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
World Map Activity
How good is your world geography? Could you label the oceans and the continents easily? Could you place them on a map? Could you make the shape of each continent?
Your fourth graders took on that challenge today! Oh, and did I mention, there were no maps allowed? Nor scissors? These fourth graders took on the challenge in stride, working together to design, tear out, place and label the continents of the world on a blank blue "canvas." They worked well together and really showed great sense of where the continents and oceans are on our planet.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
First Day of School
What a fun, energetic, enthusiastic, kind group of students! I am very excited about our year ahead! We had a great first day!
Throughout the day as we went over procedures and rules that need to be discussed on the first day of school, I kept referring back to Shades Cahaba's mission statement: Shades Cahaba educates, respects, protects and loves children. With each aspect of this statement, we talked about rules and procedures that applied and why they are in place.
This morning, we played a couple of math/logic games that you could play together at home. The kids worked really well in pairs and in small groups. In "Sum What Dice" the kids used some logic and a little bit of "dice luck" to try to use all numbers 1-9. Have your child teach you how to play! We even talked about ways that you could play it at home without the supplies we had in the classroom.
The students also worked on "Toothpick Challenges." These are quite challenging, but I loved seeing the children's perseverance as they worked together to solve as many of the puzzles as they could. Y'all could also do this activity at home, too!
The students worked on a get-to-know-you activity where they looked for classmates that met certain, "requirements." Students quickly learned names of their classmates and found things they had in common.
Together we read an article about the new grading systems (not really new to your children, but new to you and I). We worked on discussing topics with partners and in small groups as students shared their insightful opinions about why or why not homework should count as part of their grade. I wanted to make sure that students understand that although homework does not technically count as part of their grades, it is assigned to increase their knowledge which will help their grades.
We read "Oh, the Places You'll Go" before the end of the day. Dr. Seuss, the genius that he is, does a marvelous job of weaving a fantasy story full with important life lessons. Some that we picked up on were: be brave when facing difficult situations or problems; don't sit around and wait when you can do something; and you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. Wonderful lessons for a wonderful year ahead!
This morning, we played a couple of math/logic games that you could play together at home. The kids worked really well in pairs and in small groups. In "Sum What Dice" the kids used some logic and a little bit of "dice luck" to try to use all numbers 1-9. Have your child teach you how to play! We even talked about ways that you could play it at home without the supplies we had in the classroom.
The students also worked on "Toothpick Challenges." These are quite challenging, but I loved seeing the children's perseverance as they worked together to solve as many of the puzzles as they could. Y'all could also do this activity at home, too!
The students worked on a get-to-know-you activity where they looked for classmates that met certain, "requirements." Students quickly learned names of their classmates and found things they had in common.
Together we read an article about the new grading systems (not really new to your children, but new to you and I). We worked on discussing topics with partners and in small groups as students shared their insightful opinions about why or why not homework should count as part of their grade. I wanted to make sure that students understand that although homework does not technically count as part of their grades, it is assigned to increase their knowledge which will help their grades.
We read "Oh, the Places You'll Go" before the end of the day. Dr. Seuss, the genius that he is, does a marvelous job of weaving a fantasy story full with important life lessons. Some that we picked up on were: be brave when facing difficult situations or problems; don't sit around and wait when you can do something; and you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. Wonderful lessons for a wonderful year ahead!
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