McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

update for the week of November 16, 2015

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, November 23rd- Reading logs due

Wednesday, November 18th-November 29th - Thanksgiving Break

**In light of the short week, Mrs. Mayberry and Mrs. Begley will not be assigning spelling and math homework.  Please use the time to practice your multiplication facts.  Mrs. McFarland will still collect reading logs after the holiday break, so don’t forget to get your four reading sessions in!**

Please help your child be prepared for each swim class.  Your child’s swim bag should include: swim cap for hair longer than 3 inches, swim suit, goggles, towel, hair brush or comb.  

Mrs. Reichert, the long term substitute for technology class, has introduced the classes to an online typing program, Typing.com.  Kids will have time with the site in class, but she is encouraging kids to practice at home too.  Below is the login information if you decide to access this program.

Login Info:  Username - greely first initial,last name (no spaces)

ex. greelybreichert

PW - msad51lunchcode ex. msad5124879

Academic Updates:

Reading

If your child hasn’t already told you about our friend, Journey, it’s time to ask.  Ask how Journey changed from the beginning of the story to the end: his relationship with his grandfather, his hopes about his mother, and what Journey “got” in the end.  Monday and Tuesday, we will watch the Hallmark movie version of the book -- of course while taking notes on a Venn diagram to compare and contrast them, in preparation for our upcoming unit on nonfiction!

Writing Workshop

We are winding down the essay unit.  Students will be using their Google accounts to type their final drafts next Monday and Tuesday.  Cross your fingers that the technology will work, as it’s not a guarantee...

Math

This week has been one for review and assessments. Students have taken the end of unit 2 assessment, and a cumulative assessment which covers concepts taught since the beginning of the year. I am also conducting individual interviews aimed at assessing students overall multiplication facts and the strategies they use to solve unknown facts.

Spelling

This week students spent several days learning about contractions.  We also talked about the job of an apostrophe in both contractions and possessive nouns.

Theme

This week we have been immersing ourselves in a simulation to understand what life would have been like for the Pilgrims back in 1620.  Students are participating in activities to learn about the culture back then (how they lived, what they ate) as well as the things they did for survival (hunting, fishing, trading).

    After vacation, we will be embarking on a culminating project.  Students will be creating a keynote or Google slide presentation, giving their top 5 tips for surviving in the New World.  They will incorporate evidence from our research over the last four weeks.  This project will be completed in class and will be used in place of a formal quiz.  Project requirements and scoring rubric will be presented up front, as well as samples of work so students will know how they will be assessed.

McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

update for the week of November 9, 2015

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, November 16th- Reading logs due/ swim bags for P.E.

Tuesday, November 17th- Home link due / Box Tops collected

Wednesday, November 18th- Early Release / PTO Parent University

Thursday, November 19th -  Spelling due / Color Guard 3:00-4:00pm

Friday, November 20th - Home link due

Please help your child be prepared for each swim class.  Your child’s swim bag should include: swim cap for hair longer than 3 inches, swim suit, goggles, towel, hair brush or comb.  

A volunteer need: All classes have been invited to participate in a door decorating contest.  The theme is "fall," and the date of the judging will be Tuesday, November 24th.  I would love to have a parent volunteer take this over: from the concept, to the materials, to any coordination w/ kids, to the decorating.  It's a FUN activity -- but I'd like to slide it off my plate.  If you'd like more information, please contact me soon!  Thank you!

Academic Updates:

Math

This week students continued to work with multiplicative comparisons using unknowns. We also introduced properties of both triangles and quadrilaterals. The week finished up with an introduction to lines of symmetry. In addition, throughout the week we also continue to reinforce multiplication facts and skills covered in previous lessons.

Spelling

This week students participated in another word building activity.  We also practiced making compound words and adding the suffix -ment to various base words.

Theme

This week we finished our research on the Jamestown colony.  Students had one more opportunity to explore On The Trail With John Smith, the online simulation.  We took one day to learn about the failed Popham colony.  I'm impressed with the students’ ownership of their knowledge.  As we read about Popham, students debated about whether certain decisions were smart or not, citing evidence from prior colonies studied.  Just in time for Thanksgiving, we will be focusing on the Plimoth colony next week.

Reading Workshop

Envisioning...rubric...turning point...Journey...yadda, yadda, yadda...The highlight of our week was easily our new BOOK BAGS!

Thank you to the talented relatives of Adam and Sofi!  

Quotes heard during the Book Bag Distribution:

“Ooooooooh…”

“Aaaaaah...”

“Those are awesome!”

“I don’t know which one I want!”

“I want that one...No, I want that one...I don’t even care which one I get!”

“This is the best day of the year besides vacation days!”

Writing Workshop

Students were well-prepared early on this week with survey and interview questions and quotes and statistics.  We are working on using a variety of kinds of evidence to support our ideas.  Next week: introductions and conclusions, anticipating counter-arguments, citing sources (ooooo, advanced!), and typing final drafts using our Google accounts!  At least, that’s the plan.

McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

update for the week of November 2, 2015

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, November 9th - Reading logs due / Conferences / Internet Research Prep (Writing Workshop homework) due for those who chose that / swimming

Tuesday, November 10th - Study link due / Newspaper and Chorus after school / Survey/Interview Prep (Writing Workshop homework) due for those who chose that / Book Fair Family Night 5:30-7:30pm

Wednesday, November 11th - Veterans Day No School

Thursday, November 12th -  Spelling due / Color Guard 3:00-4:00pm

Friday, November 13th - Home link due

Please help your child be prepared for each swim class.  Your child’s swim bag should include: swim cap for hair longer than 3 inches, swim suit, goggles, towel, hair brush or comb.  

Academic Updates:

Reading

This week, students focused on the reading skill of envisioning.  Earlier this week, the Begleys brought home a graded envisioning page (a white activity with a green feedback sheet stapled to it).  The McFarlands will have theirs early next week; I haven’t graded them yet.  As you can tell, we are working toward more formal reading responses to give readers instruction and practice with using written words to explain their thinking.  Next week, we will again focus on envisioning, and you’ll see that the responses will be more writing-based.  

    When possible, I share with students the grading tool, what it looks like, and what is on it, so they know in advance how their work will be assessed.  We find that this can motivate many students to plan and revise their work to meet 4th grade expectations, and we find that a grade of “partially meets” or “does not meet” can motivate students to increase the quality of their work the next time.

    We are also using our class read aloud, Journey, to follow big ideas in a text.  Now, we are a little more than halfway through the book, so we are anticipating the turning point.  This is when something happens to motivate a change in the character, a change usually being that s/he learns or realizes something.  I’m encouraging readers to pay attention to the possibility of a turning point in their own books, thinking about changes in their characters.  This is definitely “big picture” thinking, and it’s hard!  Most 4th-grade readers can recall details about the plot of a story quite well, and this shift to following the character’s internal story is different, higher-level thinking.

Writing Workshop

Writers got a great start on a new essay, this one about a thesis statement of their own choosing.  Your writer brought home writing homework over the weekend to prepare for survey, interview, and research work on Monday and Tuesday.  Students can choose to complete one or the other, or both.  Please help your child set aside 15-20 minutes or so this weekend to complete this work.

    After reviewing this assignment in detail with both writing classes, I can see where I could make the work clearer on the two sheets.  When you and your child are reviewing the assignment and have the sheet(s) in front of you, check out these (hopefully) helpful details:

• All writers need to choose one kind of evidence to prepare for: survey, interview, statistic, or quote.  That means that all writers have some writing homework this weekend.  Your child may have brought home a purple sheet or a green sheet, or s/he may have chosen to bring both home.
• Instruction and time to work on this evidence will happen in class Monday and Tuesday.  The homework is the preparation that needs to be done, so the in-class work can go smoothly.
• Writers may choose to prepare for more than one of these kinds of evidence.
• The purple sheet has space to write the prep work for a survey on the front and/or an interview on the back.  That work is due on Tuesday.  There is more space than is needed, in case writers choose to do more than one survey question.
• The green sheet is for the prep work for researching a statistic or a quote.  Writers do not have to do both, but they can if they want.
• Writers may choose to research a quote or statistic at home at home this weekend, with the help of their parents.  Or, they can do it in class on Monday.  They do need to write the supporting idea they’re considering, just so there’s a bit of a plan in place for that in-class research.

Math

This week students worked on converting units of time to smaller units of time and solved time related number stories. In addition, students were introduced to the concept of multiplicative comparisons.

Spelling

This week students reviewed compound words.  We also brainstormed words the fit the patterns for long /a/.  Finally, we worked on the suffix -ed.  Students sorted word cards based on what sound the /ed/ made (t, d, or id).  

Theme

This week we traveled to the New World!  On Monday, we learned about the Lost Colony of Roanoke and analyzed the decisions made that led to its failure.  On Tuesday, we started to explore the colony of Jamestown.  We looked at the hardships colonists would have to survive on the trip across the Atlantic.  Over the next several days students explored many resources (online simulation, books, videos) to learn about the struggles of the early settlers.  Students are asking many great questions (Why did the Native Americans surround James Fort?  What is Yellow Fever?) which we are posting to the Wonder Wall.  I’ve been assigning student “researchers” to look up the answers as we go.  It’s my goal to inspire kids to be self-directed learners this year when they have questions so that they can see that they can seek out knowledge themselves.