It was a short week but we were busy growing and learning!

In writing workshop we have been working on responding to reading this week in preparation of the ELA test.  Much of this work is familiar to the students because we are just coming off writing our first drafts of our literary essay.  Much of the written response that the students will see can be planned out and completed using the boxes and bullets structure that we learned back in November during our personal and persuasive essay writing units.  The types of questions and written responses that the students are practicing now are things that they will see when they get to middle school, high school, and college, and I continue to remind them that these skills are ones they will carry with them as they get older.

We have been reading short passages of  different genres, and thinking about the strategies we need to be able to answer questions that go along with different types of text. We discussed that in fiction stories we should be able to answer questions about the characters, about the problem and solution, about the main idea, and about vocabulary.  We will take a closer look at nonfiction texts next week.

In math we wrapped up topic 12 with a topic test yesterday.  This topic taught us how to add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers with like denominators. Overall, the understanding of fractions seemed very strong, I was impressed!  Mrs. O'Donnell is occasionally in our room for math and shared with the students that when we add and subtract fractions and rename them, it's like a puzzle!  I liked this analogy, not just for fractions.  It can ring true for much of what we learn in math.  It can truly be fun if you let it!

We have been reviewing for the science test in May and June and this past week we discussed the water cycle!  In Social Studies the students worked in small groups to look at documents and answer questions.  Each group presented to the class and taught their peers about the games, foods, and new words that the Native American, Dutch, and English have contributed to present day America. 

We were able to get outside with our buddies on Thursday and brighten up the entryway of Glenmont School! We enjoyed the sunshine and being creative with chalk!

On Thursday, after school, I volunteered at the South End Children's Cafe.  The Cafe provides after school programs for children in grades K-6 and serves free, healthy dinners to the children who attend.  I ran into some familiar fourth grade faces while I was there!

Just a reminder that NYS testing will take place over the next few months for our fourth graders.  

ELA: April 5-7

Math: April 13-15

Science (performance): May 26 

Science (written): June 6

I hope you all enjoy the weekend!

These March weeks seem to be flying by!

We were very busy in writing workshop this week putting together all the pieces of our thesis statement, reasons, and evidence.  The students completed their first draft of their literary essay on the topic that they chose.  Most of this week was spent drafting, however some had time to do peer revisions and look over each others work deciding if what the author says really proves their thesis!

In reading workshop we have been focusing on finding meaningful parts in our book to share with our partners.  We know that post-its can make us smarter as readers by making note of the setting, the characters, the problems and issues, as well as our opinions, questions, predictions, and feelings. When we stop and jot about these topics, it helps us to start a conversation with our partners.

In math this week we have been growing our understanding of fractions.  We learned how to use a number line to show how to add and subtract fractions.  We learned about improper fractions and mixed numbers and how to convert one into the other.  In addition, we learned how to add and subtract mixed numbers using two different strategies!  We have a few more lessons in this topic before we take the test at the end of next week!

In Social Studies we learned about many of the contributions and Dutch and English have given to New York State, specifically to the area in which they claimed as New Netherland, present day Manhattan.  I'm learning quite a bit myself!

We got together with our buddies this week on St. Patrick's Day to help administer their spelling tests.  We also got to help them out with a fun making word activity with special St. Patty's Day words.  Thank you to all of you who sent in items for our celebration.  The kids loved all the green foods, and I even got some of them to try something new, despite their uncertainty!

We had a school-wide Innovation Day today which was a big success! The students loved getting to travel to different parts of the school and be in a group with kids of all ages!  There was so much energy throughout Glenmont.  It was really exciting to see the children being given the opportunity to use their creativity in these small groups!

Just a friendly reminder that your child's planner should be signed each night.  I reminded the students that it is not their parent's homework, but that they should be bringing it to you each night to have you sign.  Because of our short week next week we will not be doing word study.

Thanks for all your support,  have a wonderful weekend!

Did you remember to spring ahead this weekend?  I certainly missed that hour!

It was nice to see some of you at Lip Sync on Friday.  I had fun dancing up on stage and I know all our performers did too!  Great job!

In writing workshop we continued working on our literary essays.  Last week we learned how to angle a story to support our ideas.  We also learned how to include quotes, lists, and examples to help support our reasons!  I am modeling how this is done using our mentor text, Fox.  This is a challenging unit, and the students are working really hard!

In reading workshop we discovered many things about the authors we are studying.  We learned that to become an author expert we have to do more than just read the books by that author.  Some of the key questions we asked ourselves and club mates this week were:  'Does the author have a common theme in his/her books?', 'What does the author do the same and/or different in each of his/her books?', 'What do you think the author is known for?', 'What can I learn about myself from this book?'.

In math we are learning how to add and subtract fractions.  Last week we learned strategies to help us when adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators. We took the interim assessment last week as well.  I will use this assessment to see what skills we know and which ones I need to go back and review.

In social studies we are beginning to learn about the impact of the Colonial and Revolutionary war periods on New York and the New Nations.  Right now we are focusing on Colonial New York and Peter Stuyvesant.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  Thanks for your continued support!

We had a very productive week here in fourth grade.

In writing workshop we entered the most exciting part of writing our literary essay, developing our thesis statement!  We looked long and hard at the entries we had already written about our short stories and drafted a list of possible theses.  We chose the one that really stuck out to us, and made sure that we could support it with reasons, ways, times, and evidence.  After we chose our thesis we had to prove it to our partner.  Some partnerships worked together to revise their thesis to make sure there would be reasons or evidence to support it.  We also began to collect evidence and write micro stories that really zoom in on the part of the text shows our reason well!

In reading workshop we are in our second week of book clubs. We continued reading or re-reading the books by our chosen author to notice techniques that they use across their stories.  We studied plot structure and together in groups, the fourth graders had to decide what kind of structure their author was using.  Some authors favor flashbacks, some noticed symbolism, dialogue, or first person narrator.  Each club is working on a chart to record what they notice about their authors.

In math we finished up Topic 11, fraction equivalence and ordering. Overall, this was a challenging topic and the students did very well on their test!  Next week we will move into Topic 12, adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with like denominators.  We will also take an interim assessment next week.  These assessments are given three times a year.  It's nothing to be worried about, the score is not reflected on your child's report card.  It will be a very good indicator of what concepts need to be reviewed prior to the New York State math test in April.

We met with our buddies this week and discussed Innovation Day which is coming up in a couple weeks.  These are very similar to the book clubs at Glenmont that were held the last couple of years. We decided to change things up this year and give students the chance to let their creativity show.  There are about 15-20 different activities ranging from marble run, legos, strawbees, checkers, and PE equipment, and many more!  The fourth graders discussed the activities with their second grade buddies and helped them fill out their list. This will be a very exciting day and our students are looking forward to it!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!