McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of October 27, 2014

If you would like to be notified whenever I post to our class blog, please click on the space to the right, “Follow by Email.”

Reading Workshop

Mrs. Fenwick’s class invited us to meet up with her sixth graders for a goldfish celebration!  Her students prepared a gift bag for each 4th grade reader containing variety of activities related to our read aloud, The Fourteenth Goldfish.  The activities ranged from thoughtful questions to sorting character traits to word searches.  And of course, we indulged in some fish-y treats.

     Please note that I’m increasing the reading expectations to at least 25 minutes per day (still a minimum of four different days per week).  

Writing Workshop

This week, we have focused on writing strong supporting idea paragraphs.  The kids have started their flash-drafts, but I might remove the “flash” part of that as we’re taking our time with this essay instead of writing it quickly, as originally planned.  We studied a “recipe” for a strong supporting idea paragraph, whose ingredients include a supporting idea sentence, convincing evidence (in the form of personal experience, relevant information, and background knowledge), and an ending sentence.  Now, we are revising the paragraphs we’ve already written to make sure we have those ingredients.  Another thing that I discovered needs attention is making sure we stay on topic throughout the whole paragraph.  Yikes!  It’s so easy to let our ideas run away from us!

Math

This week students started working on the third unit of EveryDay Math. This unit starts out with a “What’s My Rule” lesson. Most students quickly remembered doing this type of work from third grade and had a lot of good strategies to use. We also spent time this week working on creating a graph using the data collected from the Halloween survey they completed several weeks ago. I have found that most students are adept at extracting information from a graph, but struggle in knowing how to actually create one when presented with a set of data. This is something we will continue to work on periodically over the next few months.

     Please note: We are now working on learning basic multiplication facts through 10. Students should be focusing on multiplication and subtraction facts at home. The standard is to complete 50 facts in three minutes with a score of 90% or higher.  Students should add the * or x sign to their planners sheets when practicing at home.  When I run out of my supply of planner sheets and photocopy a new batch, I’ll add it in there myself.

Spelling

This week we focused on vowel patterns for long a.  We also reviewed compound words.

Theme

This week students started to learn about Jamestown.  We watched a video from the Jamestown Historical site, read several nonfiction books, and took part in an online simulation called, On the Trail with Captain John Smith.  Students have been taking notes about the poor decisions that were made, the conditions that made survival difficult, and the successes that the colony experienced.  Next week we will learn a little about the Popham Colony before moving on to learn about the Pilgrims and Plymouth.

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, November 3rd - Reading logs due / Swimming

Tuesday, November 4th - Study link due

Wednesday, November 5th - Early Release / Book Fair Family Night - 5:30-7:30

Thursday, November 6th - Spelling due / ABL / Begley Book Fair time

Friday, November 7th - Study link due / Andrew's last day in our class!

Next week is our Fall Book Fair.  Students will have 25 minutes to visit and make purchases (if you choose) during their normal library time.  There will also be a family night on Wednesday, November 5th, from 5:30-7:30pm.  Teachers will have “wish bags” filled with books that we’d love to add to our library collections, if you’d like to donate something.

Have a Happy Halloween weekend!   

Dena

Newsletter for the Week of October 20th

McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of October 13, 2014

If you would like to be notified whenever I post to our class blog, please click on the space to the right, “Follow by Email.”

Reading Workshop

This week we continued to read our way through a few more chapters of The Fourteenth Goldfish.  Through some lively class discussions, I am seeing thoughtful insights into the development of the two main characters.  We are continuing to find examples of Memory Moments and things mentioned Again and Again.  We also started looking at Aha! Moments, when a character realizes something or figures something out.  In this story, the author shows this subtly, and as readers we don’t even know yet what it is the character has figured out!  This is a mark of a book that is for more experienced readers.  Our fourth graders are following the plot — but had most of them been reading the book on their own, they would miss many of these signposts.  It’s hard to understand the concept that we often don’t get that we don’t get it.  Looking for these signposts will help readers understand more sophisticated books.

     One thing that has made this book much more accessible to our readers is the teaching that Mrs. Begley is doing in Theme.  Her part in our Global Read Aloud participation has been to teach about all of the scientists who are referred to in the book — and there are many!  It has been so fun to come upon the name of a scientist as we read and pause, waiting to see the wide eyes of a reader who is researching that scientist!

Writing Workshop

Writing is hard, don’t you think?  Many experts say that it is the hardest thing we ask kids to do.  This week our writers have literally groaned when I’ve told them it’s time to stop writing!  I love that.  

     We have been studying a sample essay and identifying the parts of the essay and the craft moves the author made in order to be convincing.  Also, we’ve been keeping a running list of possible essay ideas.  So, after we’ve added a few ideas to our list each day this week, the kids chose a new one about which to write.  We have chosen a few craft moves to try to work into our writing: using a convincing tone (ask your child what “bus talk” is), trying to organize reasons into their own paragraphs, and anticipating counter-arguments.  Yes, counter-arguments!  They get this!  Toward the end of the week, I showed them the criteria for a strong thesis statement (also known as a claim or a big idea), and on Friday they worked with their partners to revise some weak thesis statement so that they now meet this criteria.  

     Next week, we will pull out all the stops and write a flash-draft of an essay, which means we will write-like-crazy a whole essay across one (maybe two) writing workshop sessions.

Math

This week we spent time reviewing skills taught in unit 2 and students took the unit assessment on Thursday. Your child’s individual profile of progress for this unit will be ready by the end of next week. On Friday students got to work in their IXL account. We have two students who have completed three hours of IXL work so far this year. Congratulations! 

     Next week we will start the third unit which will have a heavy emphasis on learning basic multiplication facts through 10. You can help at home by providing lots of practice opportunities. 

Spelling

This week we focused on the /ow/ sound which can be spelled ou and ow.  Student also practiced applying suffix rules to add the suffixes -ful, -s/es, -er, -est, -ing, and -ed.

Theme

This week students finished their famous scientist project.  Rubrics for the project are in take home folders today.  As an experiment, I graded some of the projects with the students.  This was met with a lot of positive feedback.  Students appreciated having input into their grade and said that they understood their grade much better.  In the future, I plan to do this for all projects.  If students have questions about their grades, please encourage them to ask me questions.  I am a strong believer that feedback helps students become more accountable for their work and effort.  Our projects are being displayed in the glass cases outside our classrooms.  We hope you can take a look as you come in for conferences.

     We also started our new unit, “Survivor: The New World.”  We began by having a whole class conversation about why people might have left their homes for the New World and what they would need in order to survive.  We also learned about the Lost Colony of Roanoke,  analyzing the decisions made by the colonists that might have lead to the failure of the colony.  Next week we will learn about Jamestown.

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, October 27th - Reading logs due / Swimming (please remember your gear*)

Tuesday, October 28th - Study link due

Wednesday, October 29th - Early Release  / Greely Gear orders due

Thursday, October 30th - Spelling due

Friday, October 31st - Study link due - Happy Halloween!

*For swimming, students will need  a plastic bag (for wet items), bathing suit, bathing cap (if hair is 3" or longer), and towel.  They might also want a comb for wet hair.  Students will be bused from GMS to GHS for this activity.  If you have any questions, please contact Becki Belmore, PE teacher.

Conferences start this week!  Please check your time.  We look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s progress.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Dena

Add-on to last week's newsletter: Math & Theme
Sorry for the omission!

Math:

This week we continued to practice subtraction using large numbers and paid special attention to subtracting over zeros. It may be hard to believe but students are begging for problems with lots of zeros! We also introduced the concept of variables in equations this week and worked on writing number models with variables when solving word problems. In addition we focused on labeling answers to story problems as well. Both of these skills are part of the Common Core Mathematics for grade 4.

As a reminder please consider using the math tutorials on my web site if your child is struggling with a particular piece of math homework. You can find the link right on the first page of my site on the top of the right hand column. The link will take students to a page where video tutorials are embedded for viewing.

My site: https://sites.google.com/a/msad51.org/sheila_mayberry/

Spelling:

This we did not start a new unit.  We will be back to our normal schedule next week.

Theme:

This week students finished researching the famous scientist they were assigned from The Fourteenth Goldfish.  Students used videos, articles, and books to gather information.  I modeled how to write a paragraph and students worked in their partnerships to craft a paragraph about their scientist’s contributions.  Now students are working on their final product - their scientist “action figure”.  

Each partnership will need to bring a printed picture of their scientist for this project.  Many have done this already.  Please check in with your child about this.

By the middle of next week we will start our unit on American colonization.

McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of October 13, 2014

If you would like to be notified whenever I post to our class blog, please click on the space to the right, “Follow by Email.”

Reading Workshop

The biggest news in Reading Workshop this week is that we got the names of our 6th grade reading partners!  They wrote us poems to introduce themselves as readers.  Today, we did the same assignment in class, and the final drafts are to be done at home this weekend to be handed in on Monday.  Parents, please read the back of the assignment; your help will mostly be needed for editing!

Writing Workshop

Let the essay writing begin!  We read three essays written by fifth graders to get the gist of what an essay is.  We listed things we notice about essay writing, and I was impressed at what students found: purpose of an essay, the kind of language (not storytelling language), reasons and examples.  So then we used our ABL experiences to write the body paragraphs for a class essay this week.  We did this work all together and wrote “out loud” before writing in our notebooks.  Many students, especially those who have a harder time with narrative-writing, respond really well to the structure of an essay.

Technology

Our students have been learning about their SAD 51 Google accounts.  These accounts include Email and Drive (to create documents, surveys, presentations, etc.), among other options.  Our reading classes are going to use the accounts to share a document with their 6th grade reading partners, and later in the year we can use the accounts for writing projects as well.  It’s an enormous responsibility for children to have access to this kind of technology, and we need your help in teaching children about responsible digital citizenship.  

     These accounts have no email access to accounts outside the district, either incoming or outgoing.  So your child will only be able to receive and send emails to msad51.org accounts such as myself and other students.  The intent of the accounts is for school use only, so students should not be accessing their accounts at home unless it’s for a specific project.  They’re not intended to be used socially between friends.  I will communicate to you when it is expected that they’re using their accounts from home, but that will be very rare.  SAD 51 staff has access to all student accounts.

     Our technology teacher, Mrs. Poissonier, was giving these same messages to the class when I picked them up from Computer class on Thursday, and every time we use iPads in the classroom, I start by reviewing the expectations and telling the kids, literally, that I’m very strict about their usage.  Kids lose the privilege of using an iPad when it appears they aren’t doing what has been asked of them.  Given the fact that there’s often only one set of adult eyes in the classroom, I spend quite a bit of time teaching the children how to follow the LARK expectations: Legal, Appropriate, Responsible, and Kind.

     So, while your child has learned about the Google accounts, please know that we are discouraging at-home use in fourth grade unless it’s part of a school assignment.

Volunteers

I am looking for a parent volunteer to help in the library every other week, to coordinate with another parent who is scheduled on opposite weeks.  Also, I am needing a room parent.  While this sounds like a large job, typically it hasn’t been.  This person would serve as a communications liaison between the PTO and myself for planning classroom help for special activities.  In addition, I might ask this person to arrange food donations for an occasion.  If you’re interested and able, please let me know.  Thank you!

Dena

McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of October 6, 2014

If you would like to be notified whenever I post to our class blog, please click on the space to the right, “Follow by Email.”

Reading Workshop

I have been looking forward to this week for a long time!  We started our work with The Fourteenth Goldfish, our latest mentor text and one chosen from the Global Read Aloud selections.  Mrs. Fenwick (6th grade ELA teacher) and I have been meeting and working behind the scenes to create some shared experiences with two of her classes.  The kids are LOVING the book!

     “Reading is thinking” is one of the most under-stated truths in learning.  Our kids have been developing their skills with envisioning, predicting and thinking about the characters’ feelings since they began to read.  Now that students are reading higher level texts, there are more layers to a story and to a character.  Yes, most readers can follow the plot of a story and can answer questions.  But there’s so much more to think about!  So, how does a reader know what to think about?  It’s not like are signs that the author leaves, saying, “Hey, reader!  Pay attention to this!”  Or, are there?

     Mrs. Fenwick uses a collection of signposts to teach her readers what to pay attention to and what to think about as they make their way through a book.  I borrowed some of them to teach to our readers.  The first two we practiced this week.  A “Memory Moment” is when the character stops the action of the story to share a character’s memory about an event.  When this happens, we need to stop and ask ourselves, “Why might this be important?”  And sometimes authors mention a situation, a word, or a phrase again and again and again.  This is another signpost to pay attention to.  When we read something repetitive, we need to stop and ask ourselves, “Why does this keep happening?”

     In their notebooks, readers have two copies of graphic organizers to write about each  of these signposts.  One chart is for practice with The Fourteenth Goldfish, and the other is for recording their thinking in their independent reading.

Writing Workshop

We watched each other’s iMovies in writing workshop this week, and almost everyone has completed the final draft of her/his narrative.  It was a fun project!  Friday the kids showed off their expertise (fingers crossed) with narrative writing in a school wide writing prompt.  Next week, we will start a unit on essays.  The structure we use for drafting essays is very appealing to most people, as it is formulaic and predictable.  It works well for more sophisticated writers and reluctant writers alike.  The growth of fourth graders’ essay writing will be tremendous over the course of the school year.  By the time we get to the literary essay unit in the spring, you will be surprised at the depth of thinking your child will be able to show!

Volunteers

I have started to sit down and assess the needs of the classroom for volunteer help, and I have more to do.  Thank you to all of you who have expressed interest.  I have sent a few emails for specific jobs that people indicated on the volunteer forms that they might be interested in.  I am looking for a parent volunteer to help in the library every other week, to coordinate with another parent who is scheduled on the opposite weeks.  

     And now I’m ready to schedule some weekly help here at school.  Since the priority for my time is to meet with and support all of the students, I depend on volunteers to do things that complement the work in the classroom, such as project preparation, photocopying, laminating, etc.  It will be different work each week, and the scheduled times can be very flexible — though I do need to be able to depend on people on a regular basis for this work.  If your schedule doesn't allow for this, then there will be other opportunities throughout the year that I’ll put out all-calls for.  But if your schedule does allow for regular volunteering time and you’re able to be flexible about the kind of work you’re doing, please shoot me an email and I’ll set up a schedule very soon!  Thank you!

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Please look through your inbox to find the email about signing up for parent/teacher conferences!  We understand that your weeks are as packed as ours are, and so we wanted to get this sign-up out to you early to give you a chance to make room in your schedule for one of the times we’ve designated for conferences.  We look forward to meeting with each of you!

Math

Students continued to practice addition with large numbers and we also tackled subtraction with large numbers this week. The focus algorithm is trade-first, which is very much like the traditional method learned by most adults. One thing I am still noticing is many students still need to work on basic subtraction facts. Please continue to practice basic facts through 20 at home. Here are several links and the practice time counts toward the required 3x10 minutes of weekly fact practice.

     http://www.thatquiz.org/tq-1/ (mobile device friendly)

     http://goo.gl/Qwg97L (printable fact check-ups)

     http://www.aplusmath.com/Flashcards/Subtraction.html

     This week students were also introduced to Thinking Blocks-Addition and Subtraction which is an iPad app on our school iPads. This app is great to practice solving word problems. The app progresses from two step problem solving to multi-step problems for more challenge. Students are tracking their progress in their math notebooks. 

Spelling

This week students explored several spelling patterns for the j sound.  We also learned about suffixes and the spelling rules that apply to adding suffixes.

Theme

This week we finished reviewing the material in our rock unit and took the quiz on Wednesday.  We are now participating in a mini unit connected to the Global Read Aloud, The Fourteenth Goldfish.  On Thursday we learned about the Nobel Prize and its founder, Alfred Nobel.  It’s perfect timing because the 2014 Nobel Prize winners are being announced this week.  I was excited to share the news that a teenager was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year - proof that kids can change the world too!

     Today, we started researching some of the famous scientists mentioned in The Fourteenth Goldfish.  After completing the research, each partnership will be making a scientist action figure box.  (That’s what the cereal boxes are for - please send more!)  

     I could use some parent volunteers next Wednesday between 9:05-9:40 for Mayberry, 9:45-10:15 for McFarland, and 1:15-1:45 for Begley.  I need the kids to wrap the cereal boxes in craft paper before adding our information.  Please send me a quick email if you can help!

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, October 13th - Holiday

Tuesday, October 14th - Teacher Inservice

Wednesday, October 15th - Full Day / Reading logs due (Students have their current reading logs to be collected on Wednesday.  They also have their new ones for the week of Oct. 13-20 already.  I’ll be looking for the usual 4 days on both logs.)

Thursday, October 16th - ABL

Friday, October 17th - Study link due

There will be no spelling homework next week. 

Have a fabulous long weekend!

Dena

Letters About Literature: a national writing contest for young readers The program Letters About Literature is an annual reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12.  The contest format is simple: students choose a book that matters to them and write a letter to its author about how the book has affected their lives. Afterwards, their entries are mailed to to the national LAL headquarters in Virginia for screening, and the semifinalist letters are sent back to us where they are judged by a panel of Maine educators and community leaders.  There are 3 levels for participants: level one (grades 4-6), level two (grades 7 & 8), and level three (grades 9-12). Each of these levels is judged separately.   The awards Maine's winners will receive: First Place: $100 cash Second Place: $25 gift certificate to a book store Third Place: A certificate Should a student's letter make it to the national level, a panel of national judges for the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress will select one National Winner per competition level to receive a$1,000 cash award. The judges will also select one National Honor winner per competition level to receive a $200 cash award. The benefits While writing about the text, students are put in a position where they must think critically and carefully about the text itself, about themselves, about art and about life. This task is both creative and challenging. The deadlines Entries must be postmarked by: Level three (grades 9-12): December 15, 2014 Level two (grades 7 & 8) : January 15, 2015 Level one (grades 4-6): January 15, 2015 More Information For more information on how to enter, links, and tools, visit the MHC website. The Letters About Literature program in Maine is made possible by the David Royte Foundation.

McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of September 29, 2014

If you would like to be notified whenever I post to our class blog, please click on the space to the right, “Follow by Email.”

Reading Workshop

This week we focused on using precise, accurate words to describe characters’ traits.  We worked on using parts of a story to support our ideas, an important concept we’ll practice all year long.  Through this work, I discovered that we need a lot more experience with vocabulary — good to know!  Next week, both reading classes will begin a very special experience: we are participating the Global Read Aloud.  Check it out: http://www.globalreadaloud.com/.  Mrs. Mayberry and Mrs. Alves (our 4/5 literacy leader) wrote a grant for interested teachers to try it out, and we’ve chosen to read the book, The Fourteenth Goldfish.  This will be the mentor text for our character unit.  Our classes are going to partner with two of Mrs. Fenwick’s seventh grade classes right here at GMS!  We’ll experiment with technology to share the experience with them.  Fun!

Writing Workshop

It’s a pretty big deal when your story becomes a movie.  OK, so our iMovies are very basic, but still…  The kids have done a nice job helping each other out, trying Plan B when Technology Plan A doesn’t work out — the usual experience with 23 kids on iPads!  Next week, we’ll share our iMovies in class.  And then we’ll do a narrative writing prompt, where I’m hoping everyone will show off all they’ve learned about narrative writing these past weeks!

Math

Students continued their work with reading and writing large numbers this week. We also did several activities where we collected data and discovered the statistical landmarks for each data set (minimum, maximum, range, mode and median).  On Thursday we reviewed two algorithms for adding large numbers. Students need to be proficient with either partial sums or the traditional method of addition. I stressed with children that they need to use the algorithm that works best for them and gives them successful answers. In class I will continue to demonstrate both methods in our daily lessons.

Spelling

This week students explored several spelling patterns for the /s/ sound.  We also learned about prefixes and learned the meaning of the prefixes pre-, un-, non-, and re-.  This is the beginning of some extensive work we’ll do this year with prefixes, helping students to understand how this changes the meaning of words and how prefix knowledge can help unlock the meaning of unknown words.

Theme

This week we had the pleasure of a visit from Rich Campbell, geologist.  He brought some cool samples and answered a lot of our geology questions.  Students also completed their final rock project.  Each child had to apply the skills learned during the unit (such as observation, measurement, research) to produce a book about their rock.  

Friday I gave each child a study guide for the upcoming geology quiz. I have also embedded the study guide on my web page in case you need an extra.  Not all students finished their cards in class and may need to finish a couple at home; please check in with your child.  I also worked with each class on study strategies.  We will review next Monday and Tuesday before taking the quiz on Wednesday, 10/8.

Finally, Mrs. Begley is looking for cereal boxes for an upcoming project next week (still intact, not broken down).  If you have some at home, please send them our way!  

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, October 6th - Reading logs due / Sneakers for P.E.

Tuesday, October 7th - Study link due 

Wednesday, October 8th - Math journal catch-up / Early Release / Geology quiz

Thursday, October 9th - Spelling due / STAR testing (math)

Friday, October 10th - Study link due 

Monday, October 13th and Tuesday, October 14th - Holiday / In Service

Students will take the STAR tests for math during their technology class.   This test gives teachers and administrators baseline information about children’s math skills in the fall and spring to track growth over time.  

Hope you’re enjoying the weekend!

Dena