McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of October 27, 2014

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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