October upon us

Happy FALL!! It's truly here!  I can't believe how quickly time is rolling by!

As the year continues forward, our routines are taking shape.  We are moving into a rhythm that helps us to move through our days more efficiently and effectively.  Thank you for supporting this on the home end.  Whereas it is ultimately the child's responsibility, it is also appropriate and helpful for you to provide reminders and support at home as they will gradually learn to take on the full responsibilities of remembering homework, folders, planners & signatures.

Last week we took some time to assess our first unit in Math.  At the beginning of each unit we have a pre-assessment and then a post at the end to help us establish growth goals.  We will continue to work with multiplication and review the concepts as we move forward.

Next week we will begin work on our next unit - Place value and Big numbers.  This will serve as a refresher and extension of the multi-digit number sense.  We will be working with numbers into the millions.  This unit will also lead us into working with the traditional algorithm methods for addition and subtraction. Now that the foundational, conceptual understanding of our base 10 number system is better understood, the algorithms will help them to become more efficient and effective in their processes.

I am very pleased with the writing I see this group working on.  They have been very busy generating multiple entries to offer a variety of ideas for later writing.  This week we chose from our entries to develop into our narrative project writing.  We will use this piece to learn more strategies of planning and developing a focused piece.  We hope to begin drafting it out in full later in the month.

Our Reading groups have launched and the kids seem to really enjoy our format.  It's more like a book club.  Kids are in small groups of 4 or 5 reading a book at their instructional level.  There is a weekly reading assignment that is accompanied by a themed worksheet that focuses on different reading strategies.  Last week we focused on the introduction and making predictions.  Next we will move into a characterization and building connections.   You will see these worksheets coming home in the Friday Folder as well.

Geology and Geography merge as we study the Regions of the US and Landforms.  We have recently begun our "Cooperatives".  Cooperatives is a mix and match time with all the other 4th grade classrooms.  It is a time for the kids to work together in small groups.  There are six different hands-on activities that the groups will be cycled through.  All materials and student friendly directions are available in the marked tub for their activity.  The focus of this rotation of activities is learning more about landforms.  Some of the activities include a definition matching game, a web quest, an erosion experiment, studying earthquakes &volcanoes and a 3-D clay model.

We have a very special STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) project coming our way.  In the past we have had an Artist in residence, this year we have a STEAM teacher in residence.  The week of Oct. 24th, he will be working with the whole 4th grade on building and "Amusement Park" with the guiding theme of landforms.  Kids have been organized into groups of 3 or 4 to begin working on their ride and other ideas to fill in their area of the park.  We are working with the IDEA Lab, Art and Music teachers as we collaborate on all the fabulous ideas.  Stayed tuned as this comes together over the next few weeks.

This coming Friday, Oct. 14, we have a Field Trip to the Botanic Gardens.  They have a new education wing that we will be exploring.  Our focus will connect to our Science study of Structures of Life as we dissect flowers and learn about the plant structures.

Since our schedule promises to be a bit wacky over the next few weeks with the days off school, field trip, STEAM project and conferences, our weekly schedule is going to be a bit jostled.  This week will start off as a regular week, but due to the day off and field trip, we will hold off on Spelling and Math quizzes until the following week - Wed. Oct. 19.  This will help to keep the routine in tact, but not rush the learning process.

It was great to see many of you Friday night at the Macy's home.  A BIG thank you to the Macy family for hosting a wonderful gathering.  I'm looking forward to upcoming conferences.

Please scroll down for pictures. Also please read the additional note at the end from Senora Nunez, our new Spanish teacher.

Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs. Amaral

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Hola from Sra. Nuñez:

We are off to a great start in Spanish this fall. We are training our ears to listen for key structures in Spanish.  We have acted out several mini-stories about a cat.  The students are doing some reading in Spanish based on the target vocabulary of the week.  The past few weeks we have focused on "va a" (he/she goes), "ve" (he/she sees) and "se llama" (he/she is called). This year we are using the curriculum "Cuéntame" by Carol Gaab.  We will be soon tailoring our vocabulary so that we can read the book, 
"Berto y sus buenas ideas."

Surf & Sand - How much of our Earth is water?

"Moving Day"

Place Value - Big Numbers

Cooperative Group Activities