What a good-looking crew we have in Room 5!  It was so great to see everyone all dressed up at the concert on Tuesday night.  The performances were beautiful, and I know the kids all had a fabulous time!

Winter Concert 2016

At our school assembly this week, our class along with our buddies in Mrs. Klugman’s class, got to do the Pledge of Allegiance in sign language.  It was such an amazing thing for the kids to participate in.  Check out the video clip below!  Even some members of our audience were signing along with us!

In writing workshop we are starting a new unit in Literary Essay.  Many of the skills and strategies we learned from Personal and Persuasive essay will be carried over into this unit.  The students will begin to think about how they can write about their reading!

We have grown as readers since September!  Last weekend I was able to get our classroom library updated with some new books and new levels.  The students are very excited about this, and love getting back into their favorite series and fiction books.  We will be starting a new reading unit after we get back from February break.

This week we started topic 10 in math.  We are still exploring different strategies for dividing by 1-digit divisors.  We used rods and unit cubes to provide a concrete model for the steps that we take when we do long division.  I think this really helped some of them to understand why we perform certain steps the way we do.  Math fact practice is critical for these division topics.  Please remind your child they should be going on extra math every night.  This is part of their nightly homework. 

In science we learned about conservation.  We weighed three different shapes of clay three times and discovered that the weight stays the same.  Shape does not determine an object’s weight.  We came up with three different boat designs for our clay and tested these shapes to see if they would float or sink.  I apologize for the clay remnants left on their hands!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Riegel 

This past week we did some exciting things in fourth grade!  I know all the students are really looking forward to our winter concert on Tuesday.  As a reminder, the concert will be held at Glenmont Elementary, not the high school.  There was a note sent home this week stating the change in venue.  All the fourth and fifth graders have been working really hard and I know they’re excited for their performances. 

This week, we started our week off with a close reading of James Taylor's, “Shed A Little Light”.  We dissected the different verses and learned that this song was dedicated to Martin Luther King, a man who sacrificed his life so that others would be treated fairly.  It was a great reminder of why we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. and the students really loved pulling apart the lyrics.   

Check out this amazing rendition we watched:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crKDDS5D_os

In writing workshop we are using all we learned from writing personal opinion essays to draft a persuasive essay.  The students had a short time to draft their essays and now they are working on publishing them. We will have a few days this week to work on them before we move into the Literary Essay writing unit. 

In math, we finished up topic 9, dividing by 1-digit divisors.  The next chapter explores the same topic, but now we will be using fluency to divide 1-digit divisors.  Keep practicing those facts!

We continue to learn about floating and sinking in our science unit.  This week each pair of students got to calibrate their own spring scale using paper clips.  They weighed different objects using their spring scale and we noticed that these measurements were very similar to when we measured using the balance scale.

This week our class and Mrs. Klugman’s class are going to perform the Pledge of Allegiance in sign language at our Assembly on Tuesday.  The students are really looking forward to showing the whole school what our buddy class has been up to!

Thanks for your continued support!

Mrs. Riegel 

Another week under out belts here in fourth grade!  

In writing workshop, we finished up our final copies of our personal essays.  We started the last bend of this writing unit, and are taking all that we know about essay writing to write persuasively.  We know that many of the strategies are the same for personal and persuasive essay, but we started off by tweaking our thesis so that it was something that we would want people to care about.  Today started our three-day process of drafting, and next week we should be all ready to edit this piece!

In reading workshop we are taking all that we know from expository and narrative non fiction to come up with theories about our texts.  We have been jotting down notes, learning new facts and becoming teachers, teaching our reading buddies about new topics.  These young readers love their book group time, and look forward to meeting a couple times a week.  They keep me on my toes, making sure I have their next books ready!

In math, we started Topic 9, dividing by 1-digit divisors.  This topic requires that we really know our multiplication and division facts, as we are using mental math to divide and estimating quotients.  We will most likely be tested on this topic early next week, since it is a short chapter.

In science, we weighed different objects and continued testing whether they sink or float.  We discovered that some objects that weigh more than other objects doesn’t necessarily mean that those heavier ones will sink.  We came up with questions we are still wondering about floating and sinking.

This week, with our buddy class we completed an activity for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Mrs. Klugman read a short book on Martin Luther King and both classes discussed things that they may be dreaming they can do.  All the students created a mobile that had some of their dreams on it.   

Thank you to those who sent in boxes of tissues.  If you haven't done so yet, and are willing to donate to our dwindling supply, we really appreciate it!

Happy New Year to you all!

I hope everyone enjoyed their December break and got to relax and recharge!

We have had a busy week in fourth grade, and a great start to 2016.  On Monday we talked about setting goals and thinking about how we want the New Year to go.  We reflected on 2015, and took some time to write out things we would like to accomplish in 2016. 

In writing workshop we did some revision of our essay drafts.  These opinion pieces are turning out great, and we are now in the process of writing our final clean copy.  In the last bend of the unit we will be focusing on persuasive essay.  We will dive into that early next week. 

In reading workshop we have been comparing expository vs. narrative non-fiction reading.  This week we were exposed to some narrative non-fiction texts and we charted the differences between expository and narrative.  We learned how some fiction strategies that we used while studying characters can also help us when we are reading narrative non-fiction, since this type of text often tells us a story about someone, while also teaching us something.  We are coming to the end of the unit, and I know that the fourth graders have enjoyed growing their ideas and learning about new topics.

In math, we finished up topic 8, multiplying by 2-digit numbers. We learned how to use an array to help us find partial products, and we also learned how to use the standard algorithm to multiply.  Keep practicing those math facts!

We dove right into our science unit this week, literally!  We are studying floating and sinking, and the students have enjoyed making predictions and testing out various objects to see if they float or sink.  We know that size and shape are two characteristics that can affect floating and sinking.  We have also discussed buoyant force, forces, and gravity. 

This week with our buddy class, we learned the pledge of allegiance in sign language!  Ask your child to show you at home. They are becoming sign language experts!

Just a reminder that we have our Glenmont concert coming up on Tuesday, January 26th at 7pm.  This year the concert will be held at Glenmont!

Enjoy your weekend, 

Mrs. Riegel