News from Mrs. D.'s Rock Stars - Nov. 18, 2015
Celebrate good times, c'mon! You are invited to attend our Fourth Grade Writer's Celebration on Tuesday, November 24th at 7:45am. Our famous authors are excited to share their published realistic fiction stories with you after all of their hard work. The authors have focused on writing strong leads, developing relatable characters, identifying the character's traits and heart's desire, creating problems the character faces, building tension, using dialogue and specific word choice, and closing with excellent endings. Phew! They've certainly demonstrated great stamina throughout this unit.
We're on a roll with Math Workshop in our classroom. It has been exciting to work in groups, and rotate to various activities that strengthen our skills. We kicked off our multiplication unit of study with the array model. So, what is an array, anyway? An array is an arrangement of objects in equal rows and columns. Take a peek around your home. That egg carton in the refrigerator is a 2 x 6 array. These arrays will not only deepen our understanding of multiplication, but will also assist us in making the connection between multiplication and division. Read more here.
The first term of fourth grade has certainly zipped by! Progress reports will come home on Friday, December 4th. The conference dates are December 8th, 10th, and 15th. Please use the link to sign up for a conference.
News from Mrs. D.'s Rock Stars - Nov. 3, 2015
Have you heard the news? Student Council elections are this Friday, November 6th! Student Council is a group of fourth and fifth graders who work together to make a difference at Dallin, in Arlington, and in the larger world. Two students from each homeroom will be elected by their peers as class representatives. Students who wish to run for the position of Class Representative will make a speech to their homeroom class. Students may also make a poster at home to hang up in the classroom. The poster paper will come home with students today.
We're continuing to examine Roald Dahl texts with our readers' and writers' eyes. With our reading groups, we have been considering Dahl's purpose in writing each text, while also identifying similarities and differences between texts. Check out the "Questions to Ask About Reading" document that we've been using in our class to help us dig into the text.
All of that character development has led us to drafting our realistic fiction stories. Today, we conferred with a partner to offer and receive feedback about our writing so far. Next, we'll act out parts of our stories for each other in order to add more details that make the story come to life for the reader.
That's a wrap on addition and subtraction! Well, almost. Our next math unit of study will focus on multiplication. As we launch into this unit, we completed a pre-assessment today. This will help Mrs. D. know what skills we're proficient in and which need some strengthening. We'll begin a Math Workshop model this week, which starts with a teacher-led mini lesson, followed by students working in groups or independently on a variety of differentiated tasks. This is similar to our Reader's Workshop model. We'll continue reviewing addition and subtraction strategies in groups and activities as we begin multiplication.
Mrs. Sherburne's Content Focus classes have us showing our creativity as we design maps of original places using our mapping skills. This cooperative group activity adds a challenge in that each group member is responsible for one part of a larger map that must all connect to one another.
Thanks for reading our class update and for checking out our new site! :)
News from Mrs. D.'s Rock Stars - Oct. 21, 2015
There is a ton of exciting learning happening in Room 225!
Our Roald Dahl author study is in full swing in Reader's Workshop. We have been reading James and the Giant Peach as a class shared reading text, as well as other Dahl texts in guided reading groups. Our focus of the unit is characterization. We have been closely reading the texts to identify the character's internal traits, motives, and heart's desires based on their actions, thoughts, and words. This work complements our Writer's Workshop realistic fiction unit of study. We have generated characters that we want to write stories about, brainstorming their internal traits. To develop these traits, we are now creating actions, words, thoughts, and feelings that we would like our characters to express. Next, we will begin thinking about the arc of our stories.
In math, we have been working with numbers in the hundred thousands, adding and manipulating numbers using a variety of strategies. One new tool that we've created and utilized is the 10,000 chart. You can see it hanging in the fourth grade hallway, all 10,000 squares of it! We will continue to use this tool, as we transition to working on subtracting large numbers.
Our first science unit of study, Magnetism, began with the investigation of how two magnets interact with each other. We discovered that magnets can attract to and repel one another, and noticed the force of magnetism push, pull, and flip magnets. From this activity, we generated questions that we were wondering about and that we wanted to further explore. Students then worked in pairs or small groups to design an original investigation that would attempt to answer our questions. Students gained important learning about the force of magnetism through these investigations. Next, we will learn about the Engineering Design Process through the Engineering is Elementary curriculum unit, Designing Alarm Circuits.
This past Monday, we made our first rotation of classes! Our homeroom is working with Mrs. Sherburne in the Content Focus area of Geography. Students are reviewing mapping skills as an introduction to the unit of study. We will switch classes and work with Mrs. Sherburne four times a week for the next four weeks.
Celebrate good times, c'mon! You are invited to attend our Fourth Grade Writer's Celebration on Tuesday, November 24th at 7:45am. Our famous authors are excited to share their published realistic fiction stories with you after all of their hard work. The authors have focused on writing strong leads, developing relatable characters, identifying the character's traits and heart's desire, creating problems the character faces, building tension, using dialogue and specific word choice, and closing with excellent endings. Phew! They've certainly demonstrated great stamina throughout this unit.
We're on a roll with Math Workshop in our classroom. It has been exciting to work in groups, and rotate to various activities that strengthen our skills. We kicked off our multiplication unit of study with the array model. So, what is an array, anyway? An array is an arrangement of objects in equal rows and columns. Take a peek around your home. That egg carton in the refrigerator is a 2 x 6 array. These arrays will not only deepen our understanding of multiplication, but will also assist us in making the connection between multiplication and division. Read more here.
The first term of fourth grade has certainly zipped by! Progress reports will come home on Friday, December 4th. The conference dates are December 8th, 10th, and 15th. Please use the link to sign up for a conference.
News from Mrs. D.'s Rock Stars - Nov. 3, 2015
Have you heard the news? Student Council elections are this Friday, November 6th! Student Council is a group of fourth and fifth graders who work together to make a difference at Dallin, in Arlington, and in the larger world. Two students from each homeroom will be elected by their peers as class representatives. Students who wish to run for the position of Class Representative will make a speech to their homeroom class. Students may also make a poster at home to hang up in the classroom. The poster paper will come home with students today.
We're continuing to examine Roald Dahl texts with our readers' and writers' eyes. With our reading groups, we have been considering Dahl's purpose in writing each text, while also identifying similarities and differences between texts. Check out the "Questions to Ask About Reading" document that we've been using in our class to help us dig into the text.
All of that character development has led us to drafting our realistic fiction stories. Today, we conferred with a partner to offer and receive feedback about our writing so far. Next, we'll act out parts of our stories for each other in order to add more details that make the story come to life for the reader.
That's a wrap on addition and subtraction! Well, almost. Our next math unit of study will focus on multiplication. As we launch into this unit, we completed a pre-assessment today. This will help Mrs. D. know what skills we're proficient in and which need some strengthening. We'll begin a Math Workshop model this week, which starts with a teacher-led mini lesson, followed by students working in groups or independently on a variety of differentiated tasks. This is similar to our Reader's Workshop model. We'll continue reviewing addition and subtraction strategies in groups and activities as we begin multiplication.
Mrs. Sherburne's Content Focus classes have us showing our creativity as we design maps of original places using our mapping skills. This cooperative group activity adds a challenge in that each group member is responsible for one part of a larger map that must all connect to one another.
Thanks for reading our class update and for checking out our new site! :)
News from Mrs. D.'s Rock Stars - Oct. 21, 2015
There is a ton of exciting learning happening in Room 225!
Our Roald Dahl author study is in full swing in Reader's Workshop. We have been reading James and the Giant Peach as a class shared reading text, as well as other Dahl texts in guided reading groups. Our focus of the unit is characterization. We have been closely reading the texts to identify the character's internal traits, motives, and heart's desires based on their actions, thoughts, and words. This work complements our Writer's Workshop realistic fiction unit of study. We have generated characters that we want to write stories about, brainstorming their internal traits. To develop these traits, we are now creating actions, words, thoughts, and feelings that we would like our characters to express. Next, we will begin thinking about the arc of our stories.
In math, we have been working with numbers in the hundred thousands, adding and manipulating numbers using a variety of strategies. One new tool that we've created and utilized is the 10,000 chart. You can see it hanging in the fourth grade hallway, all 10,000 squares of it! We will continue to use this tool, as we transition to working on subtracting large numbers.
Our first science unit of study, Magnetism, began with the investigation of how two magnets interact with each other. We discovered that magnets can attract to and repel one another, and noticed the force of magnetism push, pull, and flip magnets. From this activity, we generated questions that we were wondering about and that we wanted to further explore. Students then worked in pairs or small groups to design an original investigation that would attempt to answer our questions. Students gained important learning about the force of magnetism through these investigations. Next, we will learn about the Engineering Design Process through the Engineering is Elementary curriculum unit, Designing Alarm Circuits.
This past Monday, we made our first rotation of classes! Our homeroom is working with Mrs. Sherburne in the Content Focus area of Geography. Students are reviewing mapping skills as an introduction to the unit of study. We will switch classes and work with Mrs. Sherburne four times a week for the next four weeks.
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