McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of November 17, 2014

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Reading Workshop

Students put to work their knowledge of identifying signposts on a reading assessment with a short familiar-to-most text, Those Shoes.  The objective is to see how well each reader can independently identify and do some deep thinking about certain aspects of a text.  After the Thanksgiving break, we will be reading LOTS of nonfiction!  Don’t be surprised if your child’s book baggie looks a lot different over the next few weeks!  

     Begley-Mayberry-McFarland readers are encouraged to read like crazy for the Read-a-thon next week!  In fact, students who participate and log on the Read-a-thon paperwork do NOT have to log their reading on class reading logs at all next week!

Writing Workshop

We are winding down our essay unit.  Students are working on final drafts of one of the flash-drafts they wrote independently in class, and I’ll asses those over the next week or so.  Next up is an informational unit focused on personal expertise.  This is a new unit to fourth grade!  Students have, however, quite a bit of experience with this kind of writing in earlier grades at MIW.

Math

This week we explored equations to determine whether they were true, false or incomplete. Students also learned about prime and composite numbers and how to determine if a number is a prime or composite. Since this concept is new to the majority of students we will continue to work on it. With the upcoming Thanksgiving break just around the corner I want to encourage students to continue to practice their basic facts. We often see a dip in their fact fluency after a vacation. Thanks!

Spelling

This week we learned the /oy/ sound can be spelled oy and oi.  We also reviewed the difference between nouns and verbs.  Finally, we studied some Latin roots (voc, ped, struct, and rupt) and talked about how knowing these roots can help unlock the meaning of unknown words.

Theme

This week in our Pilgrim simulation, students built houses, searched for food, and made a peace treaty with the local Native American tribe (aka Mrs. Begley).  Now she can no longer steal tools from the colonists!  Students are doing a great job writing their Pilgrim journals.  I’ve noticed that many students are pushing themselves to add more detail and create a storyline for their character.  

In homework home folders you may notice a rubric or two for some of this week’s journal entries.  Please know that this represents one of the many entries they are writing.  I am only selecting 8 from each class to read and grade each day.

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

No homework during the short week!

Monday, November 24th - Reading logs due / swimming / Read-a-Thon starts

Tuesday, November 25th - 

November 26th-30th - Thanksgiving break

There is a packet about the GMS 4/5  Read-a-Thon, which will take place from November 24th-December 1st.  This is an annual community event for our school, and the money collected goes to support local families with groceries, clothes, and gift assistance for the holidays.  Mrs. Waterhouse has already gone through the information with the kids, but the packet should answer any additional questions.  Please encourage your child to give back by being a part of this special event.  And remember, no class log for those that participate!

Happy Thanksgiving!