A Big Bite

4th grade is so much fun! We work hard and learn so much.  Every day just flies by. :) This past week we completed our first interactive read aloud, Mr. Popper's Penguins.  We spent time working on writing in response to reading, making predictions as a comprehension strategy, analyzing character traits vs. character feelings and developing vocabulary.  We have learned some pretty "expensive," words, like novelty, solemn, and indignant to name a few.  We are using the skills we are working on in word study with our class novel and independent reading.  As a class we have read 172+ books so far this year, this is amazing. :) The Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi is a favorite for many of us.  In math we finished a small unit on place value and have begun another short unit on addition and subtraction.  There will be another assessment this Thursday in math.  Everyone would benefit from practicing their math facts nightly.  We finished our big unit on Maps and Globes in Social Studies and started to learn about Mexico.  We will be focusing on close reading and non fiction reading skills and strategies this week. In tech workshop, the students are continuing to learn about the many  uses of Google Drive.  They are working on a document simultaneously with a partner on two different Chrome Books.  It is very exciting.  In writer's workshop we are finishing our first narrative and will be starting fiction pieces soon.  We are busy writing Haiku poems in poetry workshop and are beginning to "write like readers and to read like writers."  There are two half days this week in order for conferences to take place.  If you have not yet filled out your parent survey for the conference, please click here, the survey is still open.  You only need to submit it once. :)We will celebrate Mr. Popper's penguins on Thursday with "Black and White Day."  A notice went home on Friday and can be found in the important documents gadget.  Halloween is on Friday and the students are invited to bring in a "Party in a Bag,"  A notice went home last week about this as well.  Students can click here to complete this week's survey.  See you on Monday!

Mrs. Williams