McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of September 22, 2014

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Adventure-Based Learning

Thursday we had our first session of ABL with Mrs. Murray, and it went really well!  It began with an introduction of the High Five of Respect, a guideline of expectations for all students: I will take care of myself, I will show compassion, I will tell the truth, I will take responsibility, and I will include others.  The kids were engaged in several partner games, including one where two partners had to tie a shoe using only one hand each.  Mrs. Murray does a great job helping students reflect upon and process what they did well, what worked, and what changes they had to make in order to be successful.  Toward the end of the session, students worked in their focus groups (a group of 5 or 6 kids from our class, not to be confused with intervention groups at MIW) to try to keep a balloon ball aloft by using two-finger touches only.   Again, students used a protocol for evaluating their process and made plans to make adjustments to increase the number of touches.  We had some discussion in the classroom afterwards, and I talked a bit about how one goal of the challenges is to get students to a point of (mild) frustration — and then giving them a protocol and support for how to work through it.  Talk about a life skill!

Reading Workshop

In Reading Workshop this week, students worked on the concept of envisioning.  They added details to illustrations of scenes from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, a book all three classes have heard read aloud.  At the beginning of the week, the kids took a survey using their collected reading logs from the past three weeks.  The survey is a Google form, and we used iPads to complete the survey.  The survey is still live on my web page (you can get there through the msad51 web site) if you’d like to take a look.  Next week, I’ll share the results with the kids, and we’ll set goals for at-home reading.

Writing Workshop

We’ve made enormous progress on narratives this week!  The kids worked on creating powerful, sophisticated leads by studying the lead in Jane Yolen’s book, Owl Moon.  That lead gives a ton of information in one sentence, using a number of setting details, showing who is in the scene, and using action.  So students practiced with the narrative I’m writing.  We listed setting details, characters, and actions that would be at the very beginning of my story and then chose ones to use in the lead sentence.  We built a long sentence, modeling it after the lead in Owl Moon.  After practicing with my story, students then went back to their seats with the confidence of having had a crack at it already, and wrote leads for their own stories.  Also, we worked on endings, where the goals are to show the message of the story, to show how the character changed, and/or to show that the character will be OK.  We work all this magic by using an action and/or TFR (thoughts, feelings, and reactions).  Next week: editing and illustrating!

Math

This week students reviewed their Unit 1 assessments. Please look for the assessment packet in your child’s planner. They also took a pre-assessment for unit 2 which will help me plan for the unit and which skills need more emphasis. This next unit covers numeracy - reading, writing and understanding numbers up through 1,000,000; solving multi-digit addition and subtraction problems; examining and interpreting data. We jumped in with numeracy this week and I must say most students have a pretty strong sense of place value.   

Spelling

This week students explored several spelling patterns for long e.  We learned about different blends and how they change the sounds of words.   Finally, we looked at homophones - words that are spelled differently but sound the same.  After discussing the infamous there/their/they’re, students illustrated the different meanings in their notebooks and we read a homophone book, How Much Can a Bare Bear Bear?.

Theme

This week we learned all about fossils.  Students read an article in the National Geographic Explorer and watched a Brainpop video to build prior knowledge.  We also buried gummy bears in layers of “rock” (bread) to see the fossilization process itself.  So far we’ve had one donation of air dry clay, so some of the classes have made a trace fossil, but we are waiting for one more bucket to be donated so that all can partake in this activity.  

Also, students will need to find a rock to bring in to class next week, no bigger than their fist, for our final project.  Finally, we will have a visiting geologist next Wednesday.

STAR Testing

Starting next week, all classes will take the STAR tests for reading during their technology class.   This test gives teachers and administrators baseline information about children in the fall and spring to track growth over time.

Our Own 4th Grade Classmate Devin, a Guest Author at Prince Memorial Library!
Wednesday, Oct. 1 @ 6:00 – 7:30 pm, Maine Student Book Award Author Talk, Megan Frazer Blakemore, Grades 4 and up, special guest author, Devin, Greely Middle School 4th Grader, books for sale, refreshments.

Due Dates / Upcoming Events

Monday, September 29th - Reading logs due / Sneakers for P.E.

Tuesday, September 30th - Study link due 

Wednesday, October 1st - Math journal catch-up / Early Release

Thursday, October 2nd - Spelling due / STAR testing (reading)

Friday, October 23rd - Study link due 

Enjoy the last few drops of summer this weekend!

Dena