We are finishing up with the early days of learning routines and beginning of the year assessments and are starting to "settle in" to the very important work of 4th grade. SOCIAL STUDIES: We are establishing a base of skills that will be used all year in social studies. We spent some time reviewing map skills which included the parts of a map, using the scale, and practicing relative location. Then we moved on to reading and using timelines. Discussing the concept of BC and AD with children in always interesting at this age, as they begin to really understand the vastness of time. Also, on Friday, a very important packet came home with your child. This is an at-home project that can be completed any time between now and April 22. Please look for this packet and email me with any questions! QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD: *What does BC stand for? What does AD stand for? *What direction is Michigan relative to Ohio? What direction is Kentucky relative to Ohio? LANGUAGE ARTS: Students enjoyed practicing skills as they read about roller coasters. When reading a non-fiction piece about the Fury 325 roller coaster, students reviewed the process of leaving their tracks of thinking, or annotating, the text. RAP was also introduced, which is a way to help students fully answer written comprehension questions. R=restate the question in the answer A=answer all parts of the question P=prove the answer with evidence from the text We started our spelling routine this week. Each student is placed in a group based on a day of the week. Words will be sorted with the teacher on their day one week, activities will be done throughout the week for practice, and the following week, on your child's "day", there will be a written spelling test. Then we will take a week to work on other types of word and vocabulary activities. The following week the cycle will begin again. Reading the mentor sentence book each Friday is a highlight of our week. Enemy Pie and The Man who Walked between the Towers both led to great discussions in class. Skills covered through our mentor sentences have included propositions and subjects and predicates. Questions to ask your child: *What day is your spelling day? *What was the boy's dad trying to teach him Enemy Pie? *Tell me about The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. SEPTEMBER 11th I feel strongly that our children should know about this tragedy in our nation, but I keep the information fairly brief and not too detailed due to their age. We started the conversation by reading a passage about the events of the day and practiced the skill of annotating, then I shared my story with the kids. On Sept. 11, students shared their interviews in small groups, then created the "one word" art piece. Thank you for sharing your 9/11 stories with your children.
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AuthorAnne Kenney Archives
May 2016
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