Hello families,
It's hard to believe we're already at the last week of this school year. Know that your support has made this wild ride into a fabulous year for our almost 5th graders and we're grateful for the time to work with your kiddos. This last week's schedule will be a little different because we're completing a video project that integrates our subjects. As always, the schedule with links will be in BLEND for our zoomies. A few other details to consider this last week:
We will relax our last day together with some games and a movie. Please see email sent earlier for details! Best, Jen and Jewellyn
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It’s our last full week together! While the school year is winding down, we are continuing to work hard and to make the most of every moment!
Readers will be exploring the nonfiction strategy of Sketch Noting and working with poetry! As an integrated unit, they will be creating small vignettes - describing a specific scene with a character of their creation. They will hone their ability to show their reader what is happening in and around their character. We will also be exploring more by way of vocabulary to provide a large base of specific word choices they can use in their pieces. Mathematicians will review a variety of math concepts through games this week. We’ll build our number sense, develop our mental math skills, and have a lot of fun while learning. This week will also be our last Fraction Friday, so we’ll make the most of it with some fractions on a number line. Know that most of our math games only require paper, pencil, and dice or a deck of cards so ask your 4th grader about what games they learn this week that could be good review opportunities all summer long. We’re launching to the moon during our last week of science! We’ll explore the terrain, meet some space experts, and consider why the moon is so important to our home planet. Through Minecraft Education and NASA, we’ll design lunar base camps and lunar terrain vehicles. It’ll be a fun week of STEM and creativity! Whew! Last week flew!
The 4th grade TEAM worked so hard on their STAAR assessments and in BLEND. We are celebrating how they have grown in terms of turning things in ON TIME and ensuring it is quality work. They continue to use the checklists, to dos, and feedback in important ways. This week readers will be embarking on a new journey with a classroom Linda Su Park has penned. They are asked what ONE thing -- no qualifications on size -- they would save if they had to escape a fire in their home. Each character’s item gives us a glimpse into what they value and who they are...it will be exciting to infer that together. Writers will be creating expositories to give incoming fourth graders a glimpse into their year. Looking back at highlights and examples of things they have done gives them a chance to review and solidify their learning as well as show them how far they have come. Mathematicians are building their persistence muscles and remembering that math is open, creative, and visual. We’re solving a series of problems to review big concepts that will help us to enter 5th grade as confident mathematicians. Last week we worked with division and pattern seeking. This week we’ll continue to look for patterns as we review decimal concepts. We’ll start by relating decimals to prices and then use models and division to explore unit prices. We’ll end the week by building decimal equations and proving their accuracy visually. In social studies, we will be exploring types of study, research, and critical thinking. We will be doing inference and point of view with primary source artifacts from The Bob Bullock, and we will have the opportunity in small groups to use our historian knowledge to escape a virtual room! First off, thank you so much for the showering of cards, gifts, and words of appreciation last week. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch from Torchy’s and have a beautiful orchid plant to nurture which will remind us of your sweet kiddos each time we see it.
This week we have the opportunity to show what we have learned via the STAAR test. This will be the first time we’ve taken it online too. We know there are some nerves, but we’ve also told them that that’s NORMAL. They are gearing up! Get good rest the next few days, and fuel them with a good breakfast. Having them here on time is important...when they are feeling rushed, that’s not an easy start to the task. Send some snacks that are easily accessible and disposable as well as a full water bottle. We should be done before lunch, so kids can get lunch from the cafe or bring as usual. Looking forward to a great week! At least we hope...that rain was refreshing last week!
This week Team 4th grade is finishing our class novel, Eleven, by Tom Rogers. We have learned so much from our character Alex about taking responsibility, owning mistakes, and experiencing hard times. We’ve also LOVED the way Tom has crafted this book. We know that everything (every word, punctuation mark, and how he constructs each sentence) is ON PURPOSE. As readers, we are learning to pause, talk about the craft, and think about each part. We are learning to do that in our own independent reading, and it’s deepening our comprehension! Writers are exploring more work with Jason Reynolds. As the Library of Congress’ Literacy Ambassador this year, he’s provided new ways to think about writing and new topics. We have the opportunity to choose a genre to write...and our audience. This week we will spend time reviewing for next week’s STAAR tests. We know that practice builds confidence and comfort with format, so we are carving this week to do just that. Students will have opportunities to make informative mistakes with this practice and ask questions. We’re also pausing to celebrate how far we’ve come across a wide variety of math topics this year. Each day this week we’ll review concepts, vocabulary, and strategies. We’ll look back through our notebooks as a resource and remember when we first learned each concept. Reviewing is an active process so we’ll think about effective study strategies and action steps too. 4th grade scientists will learn about structural and behavioral animal adaptations this week. They’ll virtually explore the fabulous San Diego Zoo and will create a slide deck about an animal of their choice. Through the week, they’ll have time to revise and edit. We’ll share and learn from each other’s expertise next week! |
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