Second Week Update

It's been a busy week in the 4th grade! Here's a little bit about what we've been up to...

Language Arts
We began with creating our writing binders and completing a short writing assignment, based on The Important Book. It gave the learners a chance to quickly review and go through the steps of the writing process. We touched upon some of the "six traits of writing" such as word choice in this lesson as well. We explored our Write Source books, which will be used as a reference during Writer's Workshop. For Word Work we practiced cursive and introduced No Excuse words (there is a copy in their homework folder). During Reader's Workshop, we talked about our class library, genres that we are familiar with, and introduced our Reader's Notebooks. We filled out personal surveys about reading (the writing version was assigned as homework and is due on Tuesday). We'll give more details about Writer's and Reader's Workshop at BTS night next Thursday.

Math
This week math was filled with exploration and assessment. Before we did any math this week, we shared our feelings (both good and bad) about it. We talked about how we would spend the year building on what we already knew and that it was my job to help them to discover their strengths and help them grow. Then we read the book Math Curse where the girl discovers that everything can be made into a math problem. It is really a fantastic book! We then solved some of the problems from the book. We also spent part of the week working on transitions and expectations during math centers. The learners were really engaged and focused, which was impressive considering how many of us there are in the classroom! We played math trivial pursuit, explored coins and combinations that made one dollar, played Uh oh 99!, and explored geoboards. Thursday was spent completing a challenging math assessment. The learners worked incredibly hard considering that it was assessing what they should know by the end of fourth grade. I will give the same assessment at the end of the year to show how much they have grown.

Unit Study
This week we talked about the units we would be completing during the course of the year. The learners were really excited about the science units. We also talked about how they would use their knowledge from last year about California regions and Native Americans and build on it. We will be starting our electricity unit in the upcoming weeks and will also be learning about Explorers. We also talked about our larger theme for the year which is, "It takes many voices to tell the story of California." Learners also discovered that the white binders they were asked to bring in would house all their unit activities. The learners decorated covers for the binders. Next week we will use the artifacts to create an artifact museum. We will then start to look at how or why our family came to California and create family timelines. Stay tuned for more info...

Earthquake Kits
We have received some of these, but not many. Please send yours in if you haven't already.

Back to School Night
Don't forget that next Thursday is Back to School Night. We will be going over lots of curriculum and classroom information at that time so we hope you can attend.

Classroom Jobs
Most of the classroom jobs have been filled, but we still need a field trip organizer. All the trips are scheduled, so your job would basically be collecting money and recruiting drivers. If you are interested please email us directly so we can give you more information. It would be great to have someone in place before back to school night.

Volunteers
We have some opportunities in the classroom to volunteer. We are currently looking for some volunteers for our Book Groups in Reader's Workshop. include reading a novel and participating in a literature circle with a group of about 6-7 learners. There will be some information about how to facilitate and guide the learners, as we will try to have the learners take on the responsibility of running their meetings. I already have a few parents who did it last year and enjoyed it on board for this year. It will be happening on Monday and Tuesday mornings before recess time. It will most likely be a 45 minute slot that will start soon after school begins, but it may end up being scheduled a little later and ending before recess (10:25). If you're interested and available, email Lale at lalebeller@gmail.com.
There will be some more opportunities coming up as well.


If you have any questions or concerns about anything at all, please let us know, so we can address it. We're looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Lale and Elysha
lalebeller@gmail.com
ahsyle@gmail.com