Thursday, January 19, 2017
Come See Room 302 Perform at Assembly
It is Room 302's turn to do a presentation at the school celebration assembly on Monday January 23rd at 9:00 am. The kids have prepared a presentation that showcases the math karate program we use to learn multiplication facts. The presentation will last only a couple of minutes, but it will have a touch of theatrical flair to it. You won't want to miss it. The kids are very excited. We hope you can attend!
Where we've been, where we're going
Happy New Year. I want to provide you with a quick rundown about what we have covered, what we are working on currently, and what is coming up.
In math we spent much of the early part of the year reinforcing foundational skills around number sense (factoring and multiples, prime numbers, etc.) and with the operations multiplication and division. We then did a short unit on measurement, having some fun with measuring various dimensions of our classroom, weighing the pros and cons of the metric system versus U.S. customary units, and seeing exactly how long is 100 feet. We are currently working with geometry concepts such as the properties of polygons (triangles, quadrilaterals, etc.) and measuring, adding and subtracting angles. In a few weeks we will begin our work in fractions and decimals, an important (and challenging) part of the 4th grade curriculum.
For reading we started the year with a unit on fiction. Much of our work focused on close analysis of story characters, exploring how they change and grow in response to the challenges they confront during the story’s narrative arc. The students learned how to read closely and notice all the textual clues to be found in and that enrich high quality fiction. These include the recurring appearance of specific details and images that support story themes and the meaningful and evocative names that authors very purposely give to their characters (ask your child about Bradley Chalkers). We had tremendous class discussions during these lessons. You would be very proud of the deep and thoughtful analysis your children engaged in. We recently began our new reading unit on non-fiction. More on that to come…
We began our year in writing focused on penning narratives, or stories. Our first unit focused on personal narratives, real small moment stories from the kids’ own experiences. The children learned about the steps of the writing process, from generating ideas and drafting, to revising and editing. We then extended those skills to writing realistic fiction, focusing on character development, constructing stories with strong narrative arcs, and writing engaging dialogue. We just started our new unit on writing opinion and persuasive essays.
In math we spent much of the early part of the year reinforcing foundational skills around number sense (factoring and multiples, prime numbers, etc.) and with the operations multiplication and division. We then did a short unit on measurement, having some fun with measuring various dimensions of our classroom, weighing the pros and cons of the metric system versus U.S. customary units, and seeing exactly how long is 100 feet. We are currently working with geometry concepts such as the properties of polygons (triangles, quadrilaterals, etc.) and measuring, adding and subtracting angles. In a few weeks we will begin our work in fractions and decimals, an important (and challenging) part of the 4th grade curriculum.
For reading we started the year with a unit on fiction. Much of our work focused on close analysis of story characters, exploring how they change and grow in response to the challenges they confront during the story’s narrative arc. The students learned how to read closely and notice all the textual clues to be found in and that enrich high quality fiction. These include the recurring appearance of specific details and images that support story themes and the meaningful and evocative names that authors very purposely give to their characters (ask your child about Bradley Chalkers). We had tremendous class discussions during these lessons. You would be very proud of the deep and thoughtful analysis your children engaged in. We recently began our new reading unit on non-fiction. More on that to come…
We began our year in writing focused on penning narratives, or stories. Our first unit focused on personal narratives, real small moment stories from the kids’ own experiences. The children learned about the steps of the writing process, from generating ideas and drafting, to revising and editing. We then extended those skills to writing realistic fiction, focusing on character development, constructing stories with strong narrative arcs, and writing engaging dialogue. We just started our new unit on writing opinion and persuasive essays.
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