We enter our fourth week of learning this Monday, and your students are beginning to become comfortable with the pace and rhythm of the classroom. The expectations they have begun to set for themselves are high, and they are beginning to see the rewards of those expectations. This week your students will begin to learn how to seminar. This is a difficult skill, as it requires not just having something to say, but also begin able to listen to what is being said by others. The best way to help develop their ability to do this is to begin (if you haven't already) to engage them in discussions about things that really matter. Ask for their opinions and show them what it looks like to thoughtfully consider them. The topics of these discussions should of course vary based on what each parent feels is important and appropriate to discuss with their fourth grader, but yours will be their best example of how to engage in fruitful conversation about what is True, and Good, and Beautiful. This Week:In Spalding this week we will be starting list N in the Spalding blue book. Please make sure your students have this book as it is absolutely necessary to the curriculum. If your student is new to Spalding, or just rusty with the phonograms, please be reviewing them for about 10 minutes a night. I am told there is a Spalding Phonograms app that can be found in the app store on i-phones. I am unsure about Android. There will be a spelling test on Friday. In Literature we will be discussing our seminar questions all week and having our Seminar on Friday. Students will be assessed on how well they answer the questions, but also on how well they foster a group conversation. If you want to help them get better at this skill, foster such conversations at home. Teach them what it looks like to listen and respond respectfully to points being made, even if you don't one hundred percent agree with them. In Science we will be finishing our review of the scientific method and conducting our first experiments! We will be looking and experimenting to find how many times you can fold a piece of paper in half and the effect of a penny being flung around the inside of a balloon. Your students will learn that experiments should be precisely measurable and repeatable in order for us to be sure that their results are reliable. In Math we will be doing a whirlwind review of long division and fractions. Most of the content that we cover this week should be that which your students have seen before, but it will be the most challenging content that they would have experience with. Long division can be scary for fourth graders, so we will make sure that we note any students that are having trouble and be working with them to create comfort and familiarity with splitting wholes up into equal parts. This will of course lead us straight to fractions, another area of math that seems difficult but is actually quite simple when you understand it. There is basically only one concept in fractions that you and your students need to drill: When you split a whole into equal parts, you can name the parts. Everything else is a convention. Keep this in mind when trying to deal with difficult problems. In ELA we will be reading and summarizing stories together as a class. This is the first step in learning how to compose clear and excellent summaries; an important skill for both reading comprehension and writing. A great way to help students become better at this skill is to have them summarize movies or stories you are encountering at home in complete sentences. This can be spoken, and can follow the format of "What happened first? What happened next? What happened last?" Upcoming Assessments1. Spelling test on Friday. 2. Literature Seminar on Friday. 3. Scientific Method quiz on Friday. 4. Math test on Friday. Other AnnouncementsRemember that this Tuesday is our first PSO family night at Peter Piper Pizza. It will be at the location on Dysart and will be a lot of fun! Check the Chronicles for more details.
Another thing to look out for are Deficiency Notices coming out next week. This is our way to let you know if your student is struggling to meet their academic goals for the quarter. A deficiency notice is not a death sentence for the quarter and can be quickly remedied with focused determination on the part of your student. If you receive one, make sure you are working with them nightly to get their homework done, and please feel free to email me with any questions you have about how to best help them.
This WeekIn Spalding this week we will begin our Spalding word notebook in earnest. We will complete the important rule pages in the beginning of the week and do our first 10 words on Thursday. There will be a spelling test on Friday (the 25th) on words drawn from rule page 2 and the 10 words we do on Thursday. Thursday night students will complete Spalding practice homework, and will require your help to do it correctly. Instructions will be sent home with the students. In Literature we will continue reading Prince Caspian and bring our story almost to an end. In the chapters ahead this week we will meet some terrifying creatures, and watch as Peter the High King fights the Usurper Miraz in a duel to determine the fate of Narnia. Be sure to ask your students what lessons we have learned from Caspian and the Pevensies. In Math we will continue to build our familiarity with numbers. One skill we will focus on is depicting and manipulating numbers using pictures. The symbols that we use to represent numbers are useful, but they can be restrictive if we cannot imagine numerical amounts outside of them. We will be looking at bar models and pictorial representations of problems in order to see that the world of numbers stretches beyond what we may imagine. For instance, in what ways can we show the difference between two numbers without using a subtraction symbol? Pictures and models are the foundations upon which our ancestors built mathematics, and by understanding these more ancient techniques your students will become more comfortable with mathematics in general. We will have a quiz on Wednesday (the 23rd) to assess how well students know their multiplication facts, specifically the facts for 2-5. In Science we will of course be talking about the astronomy behind a solar eclipse. What causes them, and why are such phenomena so rare? We will also be exploring the fundamentals of the scientific method, focusing specifically on the skill of careful observation. Our ability to observe and learn from our environment is the key to human progress and ingenuity. This has been true from Archimedes "Eureka" moment in his bathtub to the most cutting edge labs of modern day. In English Language Arts we will be reviewing the function of nouns, the "Naming Part" of the English language. Our ability to name things is key to our ability to understand them and create identity and sense out of the world around us. We will see that names can be common or very specific, and that we have the flexibility to use pronouns to take the place of nouns and make our speech more fluid. I hope to help your students gain a deeper understanding of our ability to name things in language, which is far more exciting than commonly understood. Upcoming Assessments1. Math assessment of multiplication facts. (Wednesday the 23rd) 2. Spelling test (Friday the 25th). Words will be drawn from rule page 2 in the Spalding notebook and from the 10 words we practice on Thursday. 3. On Wednesday students will do an ELA MAP assessment to help us determine what skills they will need reinforced for AZMERIT testing. They will each need a pair of headphones for this, so please make sure a pair makes it into their backpack by Tuesday. Other AnnouncementsCurriculum night is this Thursday(the 24th). Please arrive at 6:00 pm for an overview of what and how your student will learn this year. The event should be over by 7:00 pm.
As always, feel free to email me if you have any questions! During the first week we spent a lot of time going over and practicing procedures, and your students did rather marvelously. Both I and Mrs. Macleod were impressed by their effort and dedication to learning. This week we will begin diving into the content which will be the vehicle of learning this year. This WeekIn Spalding we will be setting up our Spalding notebooks and reviewing our phonograms. We will have a spelling test on Friday based on the words that will be on rule pages 1 and 2 in their Spalding notebook, but students should not try to memorize the spelling of those words. Instead they should work on memorizing the phonograms and their sounds and recalling the rules of spelling that we will go over through the week. In Literature we will continue reading Prince Caspian and exploring the story of the Pevensie children as they return to Narnia. Students will have reading and a worksheet every night as homework, so make sure you are checking to make sure it is getting done. It is ALWAYS beneficial to have your student read to you or another adult or older sibling. The benefits that are returned on such time investments are incredible. In Math we will be reviewing mental math strategies for doing subtraction. A skill students reviewed last week which will also be critical to their success with mental math in subtraction is "making tens." Making tens involves breaking apart numbers in your head in order to make groups of ten, which are easier to work with mentally. For example in the problem, 48+13, we would take 2 out of 13 and mentally add it to 48. This would change our number sentence to 50+11, which is far easier for us to add to the sum of 61. Mental math strategies give your student a comfort with math which leads to confidence and enjoyment. Encourage them to practice their mental math skills and they will greatly improve their math fluency. In History we will be learning about the fall of the Roman empire. Both internal and external forces had a part to play in the demise of the greatest power the ancient world had ever seen. Be sure to ask your students what weakened Rome and who ultimately toppled it in 476 A.D. In English Language Arts we will review the formation of Spalding cursive letters. After Tuesday all students will be expected to write in cursive at all times, unless otherwise stated. Require your scholar to write in cursive, and call them to a high standard of neatness and letter formation. Students will rise to our expectations, and if we are firm in our desire for neat and ordered handwriting, then they will surprise us with their ability to write beautifully. We will also be reviewing the concept of parts of speech in the English language and the role of nouns. A specific skill we will be learning is how to identify the difference between a common noun and a proper noun. Nouns are all around us every day. Help your student by asking them to identify whether a noun that comes up in conversation is a proper noun or a common noun. Ask them to explain why they give the answer they do in a complete sentence. If you make a habit of little reinforcement lessons like this, your child will easily pick up grammar concepts as they grow as a scholar. Upcoming AssessmentsThis week there will be several tests and quizzes at the end of the week: 1. Spelling Test (Friday the 18th) 2. Mental Math Skills Quiz (Thursday the 17th) 3. History Quiz on the Fall of the Roman Empire (Friday the 18th) *Quiz and test dates are subject to postponement if the teacher feels the class needs extra time learning the subject. Quiz and tests dates will never be given earlier than scheduled. **There may be a pop quiz the following week on common vs. proper nouns. Make sure your students are practicing at home! Other Announcements1. Remember that this Friday is a half-day! Students should not bring a lunch and dismissal begins at 12:00 pm.
2. We are planning for the upcoming partial-eclipse on August 21st. Because of the inherent dangers the eclipse poses to our students' eyes, we will likely be watching a live stream of the eclipse in our classrooms. We are taking every precaution to protect your students, but also give them access to this rare and exciting experience. The first week of school is a week of learning how we will be learning how to learn. Its a mouthful, but that is what our mission this week boils down to. Your students will be learning (mostly re-learning) the procedures that will define their day-to-day in fourth grade at Archway Trivium East. They may come home very tired and maybe even a little discouraged at how much there seems to be, but you needn't worry. Your students will very quickly become comfortable in the community of learning we are striving to create these first few days. This WeekWe will be learning our class procedures throughout the week, and the content lessons won't start until we have achieved excellence in performing those procedures. There will be review lessons later in the week checking the students for skills expected to have been learned in 3rd grade, and revealing any gaps that need to be filled before we dive into 4th grade content. Again, your students may come home beleaguered this first week. Learning procedures is hard, especially if they are new, but once we have these out of the way we can start the real learning and discovery that this year promises to unfold. If there are any supplies your child still needs to bring, make sure you get them in this week! Starting next week the students are going to need Prince Caspian and their composition notebooks every day. Upcoming AssessmentsThere will be a couple of assessments this week that will help me identify where your students are leveled in Math and Reading. These will not be counted for a grade and are merely tools for me to see if there are any gaps that need to be filled before we jump into 4th grade content.
These lessons will be on Wednesday and Thursday. |
AuthorBurk Ohbayashi is a husband, a father, and an educator. Archives
March 2018
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