Hello Families,
I will be sending home some student work from social studies today or tomorrow for all fourth graders. The packet, Northeast Region of the United States, is a collection of essays about 8 main topics that students researched for the Northeast Region of the U.S.. Similar to the report card, the score of “3” shows that the student demonstrated appropriate learning for this unit. Some students earned a “4” by demonstrating learning beyond the 8 basic essays. A score below 3 shows that the student did not meet the goals during this marking period. Out of 8 main topics, which are listed on the front cover with the map, students had to complete a minimum of 4 with adequate information to support their thinking. Although many reading and writing goals were addressed with this project, students work is scored based on the social studies content in the main topics. Students live presentation and research work were also taken into account where appropriate. There is a lot of good information in the essays. I can also say that some students have literally rewritten history and geography.
We have started our mini-unit on Connecticut government, history, and geography. We are using our new text resource, Where I live; Connecticut. The site, WhereILiveCT.org has an online copy of the book and additional resources for students. Students should bring home question pages from each chapter. Questions that students have redone will have a circle around the number as well as a “C” to show they fixed it.
In science, students are investigating energy transferred from a rubber band. The next concept will be the role of friction. Look on my blog to see the picture of the day my class shared some learning with our second grade buddies.
Students completed fact fluency assessments in December for multiplication and division. A score of 35 correct products and quotients for mixed facts less than 100 in the given time meets the grade level standard. I will be sending home a progress update for fact fluency that shows students recent performance as well as which fact multiples each student should work on. If a student has not yet met the goal, he/she should be working at home as well as at school. “Your life is much easier when you know your math facts.” –Mr. T.
In reading next week, students will be a part of a book club. It can be a wonderful experience to read and experience an author’s work together with a group of peers. Students must keep an open mind as they may need to widen their book choice range to include texts that they might not normally select as an independent reading choice. Each student must be responsible to him/herself as well as to the others in the group by finishing the assigned pages or chapters on time. Students will be given a reasonable number of pages to read during both in-school and homework reading sessions. It is also important that students are responsible with bring texts to and from school each day.
This week, we will be sending home some data from the information text reading unit. Students wrote some well-supported and excellent thinking about the fire ants and killer bees texts. However, I have noticed that some students are not yet reading the question carefully enough to do the work that is being asked. Other students that did not earn a “3” or higher need to be willing to look back to the text after the first reading to find appropriate and specific support for their thinking.
I will be sending home some student work from social studies today or tomorrow for all fourth graders. The packet, Northeast Region of the United States, is a collection of essays about 8 main topics that students researched for the Northeast Region of the U.S.. Similar to the report card, the score of “3” shows that the student demonstrated appropriate learning for this unit. Some students earned a “4” by demonstrating learning beyond the 8 basic essays. A score below 3 shows that the student did not meet the goals during this marking period. Out of 8 main topics, which are listed on the front cover with the map, students had to complete a minimum of 4 with adequate information to support their thinking. Although many reading and writing goals were addressed with this project, students work is scored based on the social studies content in the main topics. Students live presentation and research work were also taken into account where appropriate. There is a lot of good information in the essays. I can also say that some students have literally rewritten history and geography.
We have started our mini-unit on Connecticut government, history, and geography. We are using our new text resource, Where I live; Connecticut. The site, WhereILiveCT.org has an online copy of the book and additional resources for students. Students should bring home question pages from each chapter. Questions that students have redone will have a circle around the number as well as a “C” to show they fixed it.
In science, students are investigating energy transferred from a rubber band. The next concept will be the role of friction. Look on my blog to see the picture of the day my class shared some learning with our second grade buddies.
Students completed fact fluency assessments in December for multiplication and division. A score of 35 correct products and quotients for mixed facts less than 100 in the given time meets the grade level standard. I will be sending home a progress update for fact fluency that shows students recent performance as well as which fact multiples each student should work on. If a student has not yet met the goal, he/she should be working at home as well as at school. “Your life is much easier when you know your math facts.” –Mr. T.
In reading next week, students will be a part of a book club. It can be a wonderful experience to read and experience an author’s work together with a group of peers. Students must keep an open mind as they may need to widen their book choice range to include texts that they might not normally select as an independent reading choice. Each student must be responsible to him/herself as well as to the others in the group by finishing the assigned pages or chapters on time. Students will be given a reasonable number of pages to read during both in-school and homework reading sessions. It is also important that students are responsible with bring texts to and from school each day.
This week, we will be sending home some data from the information text reading unit. Students wrote some well-supported and excellent thinking about the fire ants and killer bees texts. However, I have noticed that some students are not yet reading the question carefully enough to do the work that is being asked. Other students that did not earn a “3” or higher need to be willing to look back to the text after the first reading to find appropriate and specific support for their thinking.