| Just a word about conferences: I have received replies from most of you and I
think I have been able to meet your needs. I do try to keep to the schedule,
but am willing to offer either follow-up phone conversations or further
meetings if you feel more time is needed. Thank you in advance for your
understanding of this process and its challenges.
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Abby
Here are a few highlights of the past month:
1. Spelling: the kids are working hard at reaching their goal of "0" wrong so
their names can go into the bag in hopes that they will be chosen to either
give the test, or correct the test. Those that are still struggling to reach
that goal are showing improvement each week, which is all we can ask for. Help
your students reach their goal by encouraging them to study, using a variety
of study strategies.
2. Social Studies: We have wrapped up our official unit on maps, but students
will be using their map reading and map making skills throughout the year.
Help your students connect their classroom learning with the real world by
pointing out maps and their uses whenever and where ever they show up in your
lives - on the news, for planning trips, in a newspaper, magazine, book...etc.
We are now learning about landforms using as many different sources and
processes as possible: video to introduce students visually, Smartboard slide
show I created using offering definitions and pictures from the Internet to
help students understand the characteristics of each landform. Students
completed their dictionaries using this information, then used these as a
reference when creating the landforms with the wonderful homemade playdoh. We
will read our textbook to learn more about how these landforms are made, along
with a few read alouds,a bingo game for review, an internet activity (yes! the
new rolling lab is ONLINE!), and finally students will complete a large map of
North America, focusing on political boundaries, major cities, and landforms.
We will then take a quick "tour" of Canada and Mexico so we are ready for the
U.S. regions after the holiday break.
3. Science: Students have been busy studying weathering, erosion, the rock
cycle, and characteristics of rocks and minerals - all of which help them
connect to their study of landforms in social studies. Students are still
working in a hands-on environment in this unit, and will move into exploring
the concept of magnetism with a variety of experiments and activities in the
upcoming weeks.
4. Math: Update still in progress
5. Reading: We are finally in the swing of reading groups, having completed
some whole class instruction/activities regarding general reading strategies
and the GRADE assessments last week. This assessment is used to drive our
instruction and help us to understand what our students need and how they
progress during the year. The reading groups will be somewhat flexible this
year; your child may move between groups depending on the specific needs and
strategies being focused on. We are working on using the following strategies:
Predict, Question, Summarize, Clarify, Visualize,and Connect. Students will be
asked to think about their reading; what they are asking their brains to do to
increase their understanding of the text. Students are using these same
strategies in their content areas, with similar dialogue regarding strategies.
6. Writing: We have had some fun writing our HOW TO BE A..(Halloween creature
of their choice), thinking in particular about choosing the best ideas to work
with from brainstorming lists, using strong verbs to make the writing more
interesting, and being creative in how we approach sharing an idea on paper.
The focus on the writing trait of IDEAS is so important - and we have done a
variety of small class activities to help students understand how to narrow a
topic, finding the small moment that they can describe in detail. We will wrap
up this focus with a final draft of a Fall activity piece they worked on
earlier, reviewing the writing rubric so they know what good writing looks
like with regards to the trait of IDEAS.
7. What else....great Halloween party...rolling labs are up and running,coming
to 4G soon...Still missing some TFK $- $4.40 to Franklin PTO....Mr. Rinker
said kids are doing well with their recorders, but we will be missing music
for 2 Tuesdays, so please have kids keep practicing at home...Great weaving
going on in Art, and of course PE is still providing fun and fitness for the
friends of 4G.
Sorry for the length - I keep thinking I can whittle it down, but so much
going on!!
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