Early February Update

LITERACY: ANIMAL DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Fourth graders are underway in Module 2 of our new literacy program EL. This unit integrates science concepts with non-fiction reading skills and informational writing. Our guiding questions and big ideas are:

• How do animals' bodies and behaviors help them survive?
• How can writers use knowledge from their research to inform and entertain?

Our two mentor texts are Venom and Animal Behavior: Animal Defenses. Through engagement with these resources students have made inferences and supported them with details and examples from the text. We've also learned how to efficiently take notes on reading passages and then use those notes to paraphrase a text in an accurate manner. While close-reading passages we've worked to determine the author's main idea and cite key details in support of our thinking. At the conclusion of this first of three units in this science related module, students will read an informational text, answer text-dependent questions, and write a summary of the articles identifying the main idea and its supporting details.

Example Student Work Pages

MATH: FRACTIONS

Last week we kicked off our fractions unit of study in math. Students began with a brief review of fractions as parts of a whole and how to represent them. Using physical fraction strips combined with visual representations helped solidify previously addressed third grade fraction concepts. Work has been done around understanding fractions greater than one whole along with using the numerator and denominator to reason about the size of fractions. In our next bend fourth graders will extend their understanding of fraction equivalence, comparing fractions, and ordering of fractions on a number line. This will be followed by adding, multiplying and decomposing fractions. Lastly, we'll conclude with the relationship between decimal notation and fractions.

Example Student Work Pages

   

BETHANY BIRCHES 

Thank you to parents and guardians who have already signed up to pitch in during our end of the year class camping trip! You can find a link to the sign-up in the Helpful Links section of this blog.

BridgeUP PROGRAM

Our BridgeUP theater partners have shared the play we'll be performing and it's...Macbeth! Scotland, witches, ambition, deceit, prophecies, conscience, and more. Yes, it's a tragedy.

Email from February 2

BridgeUp Schedule

    

PEER-to-PEER CONFLICT RESOLUTION

The focus of our lessons of late during our Second Step social-emotional learning block has been on determining the difference between big and little problems. We've defined big problems as those which make you or someone else feel unsafe or that are physically dangerous. These are the types of situations that require an adult to intervene in order to help solve the conflict.

Little problems create feelings of disappointment, frustration, or annoyance. While not ideal, emotions like these are normal and occur regularly throughout one's life. We want students to be able to navigate these situations and accompanying feelings independently when possible and so are giving time in class to arrive at productive strategies to address them. Students will practice using I-Messages with different scenarios and then, ultimately, apply these skills when organic conflicts arise with peers. Through this instructional sequence students will be leaning on our past work of using their empathy skills, being assertive, and understanding different perspectives.

SUPPLIES, SNACKS, FAMILY DIRECTORY

Please check in with your fourth grader to ensure they have the necessary school supplies to make it through a typical day successfully: personal pencil sharpener, pencils, scissors, and colored pencils. You may also want to ask if they have enough snack during our mid-morning fueling period.

We will do a voluntary Valentine's Day card exchange on Wednesday, February 14. You can access class rosters at this WES Family Directory link or via our Helpful Links section.

Mid-January Update

COPY of RECENT UPDATE

A SAMPLING OF STUDENT WORK PAGES & INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES

 Student Math Resources

       

Math Menu Items

     

Literacy Tasks: to be addressed in the coming weeks

  

  

Second Step Slides (social-emotional learning) 

     

 

Fall Update

As we close out the first week of October we would like to share the learning from the last few weeks and provide a brief preview of the learning ahead. 

LITERACY

We are deep into our first Literacy Module entitled, Poem, Poetry, and Becoming Writers. Students have learned to "close read" through our story Love That Dog while simultaneously analyzing the poems our main character reads on his poetry journey. Using poems such as "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost and the first stanza of William Blake's "Tiger", our fourth graders have learned the characteristics of poems: structure (lines, stanzas), rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and imagery. They have also worked hard to communicate the gist of a piece of writing, write a summary, compare poetry to prose, and understand theme. Our pace through Love that Dog quickens moving forward as the story comes to a climax and our fourth graders crystallize their learning about poetry.

As you may have heard we took a spontaneous hike to the summit of Mt. Peg on Wednesday after Mr Mumford and Mr. U were inspired by a spontaneously created poem from one of our fourth graders. We used this experience on that beautiful day to collect images, words, and moments that might be a source of inspiration for future poems and writings authored by your children. 

MATH

In Math we have reviewed the important concept of place value and multi-digit addition. In previous grades students learned a few different ways to add multi-digit numbers. We introduced a few other strategies including the US Standard Algorithm. By the end of this unit students should be comfortable and accurate with using many of these strategies. This past week we focused on multi-digit subtraction. Students reviewed a few strategies they know and learned two more including expanded form and the US Standard Algorithm.

This week our fourth graders will be introduced to the fourth grade Math Menu. The practice of Math Menu, one that most of our students are familiar with, allows our fourth graders to continuously practice past learnings at their own pace through guided choices. While there will be time to work on the Math Menu in school, students should feel empowered to bring their Math Menu home to work on - although this is not a requirement. 

SCIENCE

Our fourth graders seemed to enjoy the opening activities of our first Science unit entitled, "Changes in the Earth's Surface." They looked at images of the earth's surface, hypothesized what force caused the change, and categorized those forces into fast or slow processes. Students will continue to uncover the natural forces that shape Earth's landscape (glaciers, weathering, erosion, root and ice wedging) while looking for evidence to support their thinking about those changes. 

WIN

This past week we began our first WIN cycle. During this time our fourth graders meet with a teacher to focus on skills and learnings catered to the needs of groups of students. For example, Mr. Mumford and Mr. U's WIN group is focusing on Reading Volume and Fluency while Ms. Sleeper's group is focusing on Math understandings. 

FLEX

During our FLEX periods these past few weeks Mr. U and Mr. Mumford have introduced the concepts of Growth Mindset and Mindfulness respectively. While these sound similar they are distinctly different. Growth Mindset, popularized by Carol Dweck, is the understanding that intelligence and ability is not fixed but is developed, like a muscle. Simply, growth mindset is the belief that individuals get smarter. Mr. U's class discussed the traits of determination, perseverance, resilience, and stamina as powers that help us be more growth oriented. Mr. Mumford's class has been working on Mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of recognizing the power of one's mind to become more aware of itself, its body, and its surroundings. Through daily active practice Mr. Mumford's class is building mindfulness. While these are ongoing practices, each class will switch their emphasis so that all our our fourth graders develop these important understandings.

This seems like an appropriate place to mention that two Fridays ago our students went to the Town Hall Theater to watch a performance of "Dot Dot Dot." This musical, based on the book The Dot, contained many of the same messages we are hoping our fourth graders are learning through these types of lessons. 

Lastly, both classes have or will begin explicit cursive instruction. Using the Zane-Bloser method of handwriting practice our fourth graders are learning the strokes needed for effective cursive handwriting. Effective handwriting and letter formation is an important pillar for reading and writing and compliments the keyboarding our fourth graders are also practicing. 

As always, thank you for your continued support. 

RECESS FUN

  

  

  

  

SNACK TIME

  

    

STEM ROBOTICS

  

  

  

CLASSROOM RESOURCES & STUDENT WORK