McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of September 15th

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Adventure-Based Learning

Next Thursday, our fourth-graders will participate in our first Adventure-Based Learning session with ABL teacher Donna Murray.  This is a creative, hands-on program that focuses on each child’s role in a group; cooperation; working through challenges; and persevering.  It’s an important part of our fourth grade year.  We are grateful to PTO and Foundation 51, who have funded this program in the past, and this year our district has taken over the funding as part of our curriculum.  Every fourth-grader will participate with her/his class and several other classes about once a month for about an hour-and-a-half’s time.  Each session builds upon the previous one, with students working through challenges as a group.  They follow a protocol to brainstorm ideas, try them out, evaluate their ideas, and then make adjustments to improve.  It’s loud and active and fun!  And there’s a lot of learning going on.  

Reading Workshop

In Reading Workshop this week, students drew and wrote about their favorite environments in which to read.  I have also been reading with students one-on-one, getting to know them as readers and as kids!  We have reviewed reading logs and are continuing to refine the work on those to meet fourth grade expectations.  Next week, we’ll use completed logs to reflect on our reading habits and share book recommendations.

Writing Workshop

We’ve used two books as mentor texts for small moment narrative writing, Salt Hands and Dad and Me in the Morning.  We are using timelines to plan our own narratives, with a special focus on the heart of the story.  Students also determined a message for their stories, writing out specifically what they’re trying to show as writers — and making sure the details from the heart of the story match the message.  Then, as they planned the stories, they color-coded the kinds of details they’re using, trying for a balance of setting details, small actions, and TFR (thoughts, feeling, and reactions).  Today, we started writing these narratives by actually writing the heart of the story first, giving it the most energy and attention.  When we go to write what happened “just before” and “just after,” the kids will see that they otherwise would most likely have started their stories much too early and carried it on too far.  This is big learning!

Math

Students continued to learn about new geometry concepts this week, specifically around right triangles, equilateral triangles, and acute or obtuse triangles. In addition we reviewed for the assessment that all students took on Thursday. I will be sending home a progress profile packet showing your child’s progress by the end of next week. Our next unit moves us away from geometry and centers the focus around numeracy, problem solving and multi-digit addition and subtraction.

Please note that students who needed to catch up on their math journal pages did start bringing them home on Wednesday this week. Most children had ample time in class to complete the pages, yahoo! This independent responsibility for keeping up with work may be new to some students and may take time to adjust to. While Wednesday is the ‘official’ catch-up day, any child is welcome to take their math journal home on other days should they be feeling like they need additional time to work. Another opportunity during the day where students can put in a little extra journal work time is at morning snack. One of us always has a quiet snack room for students to catch up or complete missing work. 

Keep practicing those addition and subtraction facts, with more emphasis on subtraction. Thanks!

Spelling

This week students explored several spelling patterns for long i and also for the /k/ sound.  We also looked at homographs, words that are spelled the same way but have different meanings (and sometimes different pronunciations).  After discussing several words, students selected a homograph and illustrated the two different meanings in their notebooks.

Spelling homework looked better this week.  Please make sure when brainstorming words, that your child is not using proper nouns (like a person’s name).  Also, please double check to make sure they are using real words (I received some doozies on the rhyming section) that can be found in a dictionary.  Thank you for your continued support at home.

Theme

This week “rocked”!  We learned about the three different types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic.  Students participated in various activities where they built rocks and changed them to different rocks (through heat and pressure or melting).  We also finally looked at our halite crystals and eggshell geodes!  Ask your child what we were able to grow! Also, as you look at the labs I've graded, please keep in mind I'm expecting students to use scientific evidence to support their answers; the students are not completely there yet, so I will continue to give feedback to help them improve their work.

Next week we will be learning about fossils!  If anyone is able to donate a bucket or two of air dry clay, please let me know.  I need one bucket for each class.  We will be trying to make our own mold fossils.  Thanks!

Additional activities to try at home:

•Starburst Rock Cycle

•Crayon Rock Cycle

Extra Curricular Activities

Now that school is underway, many extra curricular activities have begun or will begin soon.  Chorus meets on Tuesdays in the morning from 7:30am-8:15am in the music room.  Color Guard will begin on Thursday, October 9th.  The 4th and 5th grade group will practice in the gym from 3-4pm, with a late bus available at 4.  Newspaper and Civil Rights Team will be starting up shortly; we will pass along information as it becomes available.

Due Dates / Upcoming Events

Monday, September 22nd - Reading logs due / Close Buy orders due

Tuesday, September 23rd - Study link due 

Wednesday, September 24th - Math journal catch-up / Early Release

Thursday, September 25th - ABL / Spelling due

Friday, September 26th - Study link due

Have a lovely weekend!

Dena