Our first full week of fourth grade was great! Both classes leaped into curriculum and learning, while still working to establish routines. Mrs. Walther and I are so impressed with the children's attitudes and willingness to work hard. ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS In the first two weeks of ELA, students completed some "getting to know you" tasks. They completed a reading survey and a survey about how they like to learn. They also worked hard on their "ALL ABOUT ME" towers. Students wrote information about themselves on index cards, which were then built into towers and displayed in the hallway. This week, we brainstormed ideas about friendship: *What is friendship? *Why is friendship important? *How do you make a friend? *How do you keep a friend? Then we listed activities we like to do with our friends, and qualities we like in a friend. After that, students wrote a Friend Wanted Ad, explaining what they are looking for in a new friend. These will be typed and posted in the hallway. Hopefully some new friendships will be formed! We also completed our beginning of the year spelling assessment, which will be used to form spelling groups. We will spend this week working on the routines for spelling, and groups will begin the week of Sept. 8. Finally, students are very excited about two other things we practiced this week...mentor sentences and Mystery Word of the Week. A mentor sentence is taken from a picture book that will be read each week. It is then studied and analyzed in various activities through the week, and a quiz is taken on Fridays. The skills learned and noticed from this mentor sentence can then be applied in our own writing. You may have been asked by your child this to help him or her figure out our mystery work this week. Each day clues are given about a word (synonyms, antonyms, part of speech, etc.), and on Friday we learn the mystery word. Students are VERY excited about this activity! Ask your child:
*What was the mystery word this week? *What qualities are you looking for in a new friend? SOCIAL STUDIES: Students were excited to delve into our OHIO textbook this week. We are beginning the year with some essential skills that will carry us through the rest of our learning. Maps will be a large part of our study this year, so we began with map skills. Students reviewed cardinal and intermediate directions and practiced using a compass rose. Map scale was also introduced and we practiced using rulers to find distances on a map. Ask your child: *Let's look at a map. Show me the compass rose. What direction is _______ from ______? *Now find the scale. How far is it from ____________ to ________________? GROWTH MINDSET: We also spent some time this week discussing growth mindset. People with a growth mindset: *want to learn *see effort as a way to succeed *embrace challenges *learn from mistakes *learn from negative feedback *find inspiration in the success of others The opposite of a growth mindset is a fixed mindset. Each day we are discussing an idea about the growth mindset and working to foster these behaviors in our classroom. Look for a letter to come home next week with a bit more information about this idea. In the meantime, I leave you with this quote from Carol Dweck, a pioneer in the Growth Mindset movement:
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AuthorAnne Kenney Archives
May 2016
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