Checking In With 4B 2014.2015

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Friday, October 3, 2014

MAP testing is over and your child's report will be available with his/her report card in early November. Remember that report cards no longer have grades. Instead they are developmental codes that inform if your child is beginning, developing, applying, or extending for a particular standard from the Common Core Standards.

Children must show "evidence" of working without teacher support for most standards and for literacy this evidence comes from student Stop N Jots, literacy letters, running records reading assessments, and the like.

Most of the report card standards are yearlong skills and a code of DV for trimester one means the child is on track. If you see NA, it means we have not taught the skill yet.

There are students in 4B who are struggling to build habits that provide evidence for reading skills because they do not Stop N Jot or write a literacy letter that contain text details with their personal ideas. A code of "B" for beginning would be appropriate in this case. I will hold 3 way conferences between parents, teachers, and student if a student has a report card with many "B" codes and they are NOT an English Language Learner.

Here are brief blurbs about our current units of study

During Reading Workshop, on Monday the 6th many grade 4B students will begin their first Book Club. We are staggering book clubs so that some students can still have Guided Reading with a teacher, while others are doing Book Clubs, which are more independent.

Book Club kids have reading homework every night and their Stop N Jots will help them to talk with their club members during the meeting. Students will have "Accountable Talk" sentence stem cards in their hands to help them as well. Ask your son or daughter to show you these cards. These sentence stems are a guide for parents too. "What can you infer about how ___ was feeling in that part of the story? Why? What is the text clue for that?"

During Writing Workshop, all 4B students have built a story arc: a narrative story built scene by scene with a beginning that introduces the characters and a small problem, a rising action that builds the problems, and a resolution that brings a sense of closure. Our teaching points have aimed to help 4B writers add dialogue, feelings, strong word choice, and time transitions that help us follow the story more easily. Please read your son or daughter's story and ask him or her: "What is the heart of your story?"

We have noticed that many of these 4B stories send a message to have courage, to value friendship and family, to be kind to animals and the like. All beautiful hearts from big hearted kids that you have raised!!!

Social studies began with our National Identity poster making, and now we will begin a mapping activity using Google My Maps. This is a new Google tool that has a SHARE feature so that all of us can add to the map. We will explore Landforms using this tool! Fun!!

For math, thank you to Ms. Rose, Ms. Janet, Ms. Marie-Pierre, and Ms. Aurore for running Math with Moms. You do not have to be a native speaker to join us on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the mornings. If you'd like to join, please email me.

This week we made a big push into problem solving using the 5 point problem solving sheet. All students have 9 word problems that they will finish by this coming Wednesday. The first box seems to be the most difficult: Write an Answer Statement. Check out your son or daughter's problem solving booklet.

These I can statements continue to be our focus:

I can recognize that in multi-digit whole number, a digit in one place represents ten times what it represents in the place to its right.

I can read and write larger whole numbers using numerals, words, and expanded form

I can compare two large numbers using symbols to show the comparison

I can round whole numbers to any place value

I can add and subtract large numbers and subtract across zeroes

I can use what I know about addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to solve multi-step word problems involving whole numbers

I can use different problem solving strategies to show how I solved a word problem

I can determine whether a given whole number up to 100 is a prime or composite number and explain my determination

I can solve for a variable

For math homework, ALL students have paper homework for the week of Oct. 6: Problem Solving and then a packet of place value practice skills.

Thanks for reading!

If you have any questions please email me us tbritt@aisch.org and ddeanna@aisch.org.

Ms. T and Ms. Deanna

Monday, September 29, 2014

My Personal Goal: Build Reading Habits

This year my personal goal is to build better habits around reading. This means reading at my just right level all the time. And, Stop N Jotting well with all 4 parts: Code, Text Clue, page number, and my big thought. As I finish a book, I will paste all of my stop n jots into my blue Reading Notebook. I will then use the tally chart. This will allow me to set goals for the type of Stop N Jots that I need to make for my next book. To track, I will take pictures of each Reading notebook page that I make for each of my books and post the photos to my blog.

My Academic Goal: Build Math Fluency

This year my goal is to build my math fluency. My steps toward improving are as follows:
1. I will use hoops/loops
2. I will use flash cards
3. I will use online games like Freerice.com
4. I will use Oswego to track my speed
Then, as I get faster, I will print up my Oswego certificates and take photos to post my progress on my blog.
This goal is important because I feel "not so smart" when my times tables are wrong! Okay, I don't need to be super fast, but I want to be accurate!
Cheers,
Britt

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

News for the 19th of September

Dear Families:

Here is a mix of last week's news and some current news in bold letters.

Dates to Note:

*September 23 (Tuesday): MAP Language assessment
*September 24 (Wednesday): MAP Math assessment
*September 30 (Tuesday): MAP Science assessment

Here are brief blurbs about our current units of study:

During Reading Workshop, we will soon have our first round of Book Clubs. There are many Common Core Standards for speaking, listening, and coming prepared for accountable talk with classmates. Most students will be "beginning" and "developing" these skills during trimester one. During trimester two, we spend a lot of time in Book Clubs reading the genre historical fiction; this is another opportunity to move toward full independence in these standards, which means "applying" on the report card.

We will send home more information about "Accountable Talk" including sentence stems for parents to talk with their children about their reading.

During Writing Workshop, we are building story arcs. We have started this writing genre by building a small problem that will naturally expand into larger problems and eventually a climax. Next, students focus on time order words as a tool to push their story forward scene by scene. Most students develop simple plots based on overcoming a difficult time at a new school or in a new place; dealing with being bullied; or, trying something new and challenging for the first time. Many students "borrow" ideas from their favorite children's books. These are all healthy ways to begin our first multiple page story.

Social studies begins with our National Identity poster making. This is a fun way to express ourselves and it makes for a colorful classroom. We launch our study of South Asia with a lesson on the Superlatives of South Asia and mostly India.

For math, our unit is called Place Value. Student "I can statements" help in understanding what that really means. Many of these statements link with the next big push, which is multiplication and division with problem solving/word problems as a focus.

I can recognize that in multi-digit whole number, a digit in one place represents ten times what it represents in the place to its right.

I can read and write larger whole numbers using numerals, words, and expanded form

I can compare two large numbers using symbols to show the comparison

I can round whole numbers to any place value

I can add and subtract large numbers and subtract across zeroes

I can use what I know about addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to solve multi-step word problems involving whole numbers

I can use different problem solving strategies to show how I solved a word problem

I can determine whether a given whole number up to 100 is a prime or composite number and explain my determination

I can solve for a variable

For math homework, all students are working on either multiplication or division skills at home, and all students are working on reading and writing large numbers and long division with a check using multiplication. Any place value game is also crucial. For differentiating online games, use IXL grade 4 place value and multiplication and division games first. Then, if those games are hard, move down to grade 3. If those games are easy, move to grade 5. Use Khan Academy after IXL.

For a student to be APPLYING for multiplication and division facts in grade 4, which means ON GRADE LEVEL, a student must answer 50 facts for 1 to 12s in about 3minutes by the end of grade 4. So, be sure to encourage your son or daughter to spend 10 minutes multiplying and dividing facts from 1 to 12. Here is another link to use:

Online practice with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with an answer check feature (lizardpoint.com also has geography games)

http://lizardpoint.com/math/index.html

*Free Rice and Oswego are great links too!

LINKS For PLACE VALUE

Practice Reading Numbers: Especially Really Big Numbers

http://www.mathcats.com/explore/reallybignumbers.html

Fun RACE CAR Place Value Games

http://www.math-play.com/math-racing-place-value-game/math-racing-place-value-game.html

Number Top It

http://media.emgames.com/emgames/demosite/playdemo.html?activity=M2A050&activitytype=dcr&level=2

Learn about the world through Large Numbers
http://www.factmonster.com/

Practice Addition Facts
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/matching/AdditionX.htm

STEP BY STEP Long Division Diagram