Sunday, November 15, 2015

November Update!

I can't believe it's November and our first trimester is coming to a close.
Reminders: Report Cards go home December 9th
                     Parent Teacher Conferences December 10th

Students write questions before, during and after read aloud.
Reading  This trimester we have been working on looking at characters and setting more in depth. Students are able to understand how the setting can affect the plot of a story and can identify character's traits and how they change throughout a story.  We have just begun learning about themes of stories and themes of people's lives in non-fiction readings.  Students are learning about universal themes such as compassion, loyalty, honesty, perseverance and kindness.  While in reading groups students are learning when to "stop and jot" down notes in their reading, whether it be new vocabulary, a question they have while they are reading or an aha moment for something they think is important.  Students are reading  books at their instructional level while they meet with me and are reading non fiction texts relevant to our current science and social studies units.  Children also practice their reading fluency in partners and work on their cursive during our language arts block.

Writing  The majority of the first trimester is spent teaching students about narrative elements and how to write a narrative.  Students should now understand that their narrative should focus on one small seed idea and include things such as a setting, details, "showing not telling" emotions, and a beginning, middle and end.  We have been working on expanding our vocabulary and word choice.  Students made their own personal thesaurus to keep in their resource section of their binder.  Students took a break from narratives and wrote about a day in the life of a pumpkin where they assumed the pumpkin's personality.  Recently we read a book called In November by Cynthia Rylant and students wrote their own In November using their five senses to describe what November is to them.  Our second trimester will focus on Opinion Writing.

Practicing multiplication during math centers.
Math  So far we have covered place value up to the millions, addition and subtraction properties, as well as multiplication and division properties.  Students are able to estimate numbers, find factors and multiples and complete algebraic equations.  We are currently working on multiplying multiple digits by one digit.  We will then be moving on to multiplying by two digits on the bottom, followed by long division.  Students were recently given a new xtramath.org account, which is set up for their fourth grade skill set.  Students should be completing this once a day at least four to five days per week.  Their login information can be found in their planner and a letter went home explaining how to login from home.  This is a drill and practice site which has proven to help students become more fluent with their math facts.  I receive weekly reports which show me how the students are progressing and how many times they log on.  Most times, students are afforded the opportunity to log on during the day.

Social Studies   We are currently finishing our chapter on the Northeast.  Students have learned about the landforms of the Northeast, the people who settled there, the plants and animals and the Northeast today.  We will be moving on to the Southern region next.

Costume Fun!
Science  We are plugging along in our new science kits.  These new kits come with amazing hands on opportunities for the students to experiment with electricity, magnetism, energy and sound.  We have currently completed the electricity unit and are in the middle of the magnetism unit.  The kids are having a blast and I am certainly learning a lot as well!