A Big Bite

Our first full week was great! We had Len Cabral tells us stories as a celebration of summer reading.   We have been writing all of our hopes and dreams for fourth grade in writer's workshop and writing bio poems in poetry workshop.  Developing routines in reader's workshop has been our focus and will continue to be for the next few weeks.  We also had two great book talks. We love sharing great books with others.  I am ordering Amulet 8 and Mighty Jack 2 this weekend.  There will be a sign up/waiting list for when they come in.  We have had several people sign up and are ready to talk about great books next week.  The place value test is complete and the effort was wonderful; great job by everyone, we learned so much!  Participating in centers was one way that we prepared for the test.  We will engage in  math centers throughout the year in addition to enrichment math projects to synthesize and apply the fourth grade math standards.  

Creative Arts Friday continues to be a fan favorite this week.  Ask your child about their experience.  Another focus this past week has been  on working cooperatively in groups in preparation for all of the group work that we will do this year.  Our first project kicks off next week with a presentation on the Engineering Process by former FPS students and current engineers.  It will be so much fun!  Ask your child about the many ways we have been preparing to work in cooperative groups.

Science and Social Studies get underway next week, in addition to word study.  All of the pieces are coming together for a great year with this group of learners!  Ask your child to tell you all about the pictures below; they show many highlights from our week. 

We took time this week for a mid morning meeting to discuss how to handle conflicts with each other.  We agreed to apologize and "make a repair," if we hurt someone, and we also agreed to "forgive and forget." This is SUCH a great group of students who will have an amazing fourth grade experience as they grow and change throughout the year. I am looking forward to watching them continue to grow into the wonderful people that I know they will be.

It was great to see so many families this week at the curriculum afternoon.  If you were unable to make the meeting, the meeting Agenda and the handbook were sent home with your student.  In addition, I have been calling families to check in to see how things are going so far this year.  If you have not received a call from me, don't worry!  I plan on completing all calls by the end of this week.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me: williamsa@franklinps.net or call em at 508-541-5260 ext 2023 and I will return your call ASAP.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Williams

End of the week meeting.  Our first "yarn web." So cool!