We had a great week last week!

In Writing Workshop we continue to work on our essay writing.  We learned some different strategies for generating essays; think of a person, a place, or an object and write long about it giving lots of details.  We learned how to "freewrite" and just keep writing whatever pops into our head.  As a class we discussed the qualities of good freewriting.  It's amazing the volume of writing that these young writers are producing in their writers notebook!

In Reading Workshop we have been studying non-fiction text.  Last week we studied main idea and came up with supporting details that went along with the main idea from a specific page or section. We broke up into small groups and each group read a page from a chapter in our social studies textbook. An expert from each group stood up and taught the class about the main idea of their page and three supporting details.  They really enjoyed working together in small groups and using the different text features we have studied!

In math we are at the end of Topic 5.  We have learned different strategies for how to break apart numbers to multiply, multiply using mental math, multiply using compensation, rounding to multiply, and using estimation to multiply.  The students will be tested on this topic on Tuesday. Keep practicing those math facts over the holiday!

In Social Studies we researched the Algonquin Indians on the computers last week.  We compared the Algonquins to the Iroquois Indians.  The students loved getting on the laptops and I can tell they are really experts on navigating technology!

Thank you so much to those of you who volunteered and sent in items for our Thanksgiving Feast with Mrs. Klugman's class.  The students all had such a great time.  They enjoyed making hats, eating a delicious Thanksgiving lunch and most of all spending time with their buddies.  We could not have done it without your support...thank you, thank you!

 

Tables are set with our homemade placemats

And decorations of course!

It was quite the feast!!!

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Mrs. Riegel

Wow!  What a great week of finishing up different units of studying and diving right in to some new learning!

In Writing Workshop we had our fourth grade publication celebration.  We split up into different groups among the whole fourth grade and got to read the stories to students who we don't usually get to work with.  I love how these stories took me to many different places!  We began our opinion writing unit this week.  The students learned how to write an essay by choosing a topic or something they feel strongly about, and supporting that topic with three details.  We call this structure boxes and bullets.  The box being the main idea, and the bullets the three supporting details.  Right from the beginning the students wrote an essay on something they felt strongly about, and now we are working on going back and revising that writing to follow the boxes and bullets structure.

In Reading Workshop we started our non-fiction reading unit.  Ms. Martin, Ms. Mihok and I decided to pool all of our non-fiction books together and divide them into categories in an effort to create a larger non-fiction library for the fourth graders.  Each student chose two books they believed they were experts on and explained in their book groups why they thought they were an expert on this book.  We discussed the differences between fiction and non-fiction and started to think about how certain headings or other text features can help us think about what each page is mostly about.

In Math we are in the middle of topic 5.  We have learned how to multiply by tens and hundreds and also how to break apart numbers to make it easier for us to multiply.  These strategies will help us when we learn how to multiply using mental math.  Keep practicing those facts at home!

In Social studies we continue to learn about the Iroquois way of life.  One thing we have learned about the Native Americans and recreation is that they played the game of lacrosse.  I brought in an  old "woodie" lacrosse stick to show the kids and they loved seeing how this compares to lacrosse sticks that are made today.  

As you are aware, together with our buddy class, we are having a Thankgiving feast this week!  The kids are all very excited about this and we will have some fun activities planned for them on Friday.  If you haven't had a chance to sign up, we have a couple more volunteer slots available.  Please visit the link below. Thank you to those who have already signed up to donate an item or volunteer!

http://mriegel.bringit.bz/public/136679

I attended a yoga benefit yesterday at Siena college as a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House and the Africa Yoga Project.  The AYP helps educate youth in Africa using the transformational practice of yoga.  The day allowed me to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for as this holiday season approaches.  Thank you to each and every one of you for letting me work with your amazing children everyday and for your continued support.  I am beyond grateful.

Namaste,

Mrs. Riegel 

Happy Friday!  I can't believe it's already November.  Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!

We finished up a number of things this week and next week will be filled with many new units and exciting learning!

In writing, we worked long and hard on publishing the final copies of our stories.  A lot of time and effort was put into these realistic fiction stories, and the students worked really hard to make their stories great! We are looking forward to our fourth grade writing celebration on Monday.

In reading we wrapped up our unit on characters.  Many strategies for character study were reinforced over the last couple months, and many new strategies were taught as well.  The students have really become experts on studying the characters in their books.

We finished up Topic 4 in math and will begin Topic 5 next week.  Topic 5 explores multiplication. Daily practice of facts on xtramath is really helpful for fact fluency.  Please make sure your child is practicing every night!

In science, we finished up our unit on rocks and minerals.  In social studies we began studying the Iroquois. We learned about the Haudenosaunee Tribe and the Five Nations, specifically about recreation, where they lived, and tribal organization.  This is a fascinating topic and I can tell the fourth graders really enjoy learning about the Natives!

I spent my lunch period yesterday with the "Sparkle Pugz", the October table of the month.  I love getting to know them outside of the classroom!

Friday is one of my favorite days! No, not because it's the end of the week...but I know that Mrs. Seebode always has a performance in store for me when I pick the students up from music class.  I love starting my day hearing these young musicians!  Here's a little sneak peak...

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!