Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News

for the week of November 14, 2016

Due Dates / Upcoming Events

Monday, November 21 - reading logs due

Tuesday, November 22 - Home Link due

Wednesday, November 23-Sunday, November 27 Thanksgiving Break

Monday, November 28 -  reading logs due

Tuesday, November 29 - Home Link due

Wednesday, November 30 - early release / McFarlands swim

Thursday, December 1 - math journal pages catch-up is due

Friday, December 2 - Home Link due

General News and Announcements

Thank you to all those parents who set aside time in your schedules to meet with us for a parent/teacher conference to discuss your child’s fourth grade experience so far!  Our next formal check-in will be progress reports at the end of January; we’ll notify you of the specific bring-home date as it approaches.

Classroom climate updates:  Between parents’ support at home, in-class circle discussions about each student’s contributions to our daily experiences, and individual behavior plans at school, we are seeing an uptick in the productivity of our classrooms and an improvement in the overall climate.  It is sometimes shocking how several students’ changes impact an entire classroom!  We continue to work on listening to and following directions promptly and respectfully responding to teachers’ redirections, among other things.  We have much room for improvement, but we are happy to report right now that we are seeing growth!

Thank you to all who have donated or plan to donate to Native Americans here in Maine through Hayden’s family’s project!  The McFarland box was overflowing this morning!  The second and final pick-up date will be Friday, December 9th.

Our Donors Choose project is over half-way funded! If you would like to find out more about this project and how you can support us in obtaining a green screen with lighting please check out this link. The expiration date for our funding request is December 15th.

The Portland Science Center has a new exhibition, Dinosaurs Unearthed. I have a feeling this is going to be a very popular show. Here’s the link for more information. http://www.portlandsciencecenter.com/

Reading Workshop

We have finished Journey!  I’m thrilled with the level of discussion around the character’s change over time, the author’s crafty writing moves, and attention to details that indicate turning points and resolution scenes.  

    Check this out: I was reading aloud a scene in which main character, Journey, and his sister, Cat, are having a deep talk about their mother having left the family:

“‘You and I,’ I said, ‘we weren’t enough.’

“I ate a raspberry.  It was sour, and for a moment my tongue stung a little.”

I read on for another paragraph or two and said, “Wait.  Did anyone catch that?  What the author did back there, with the sour raspberry?”  

    I reread that tiny part, and I told the kids that this book is a level S (they know it!) and that in books at higher levels like this, yes, you might “get everything that’s going on, so I can totally read this book in class, right, Mrs. McFarland?”...But the author expects much more from us.  The author expects us to notice these little details and understand that it’s not just an action that the author chose to put in so we could envision Journey in our minds doing something.  

    The kids thought this over and talked about it and came to understand that Patricia MacLachlan was using the sour taste of the raspberry to reiterate the sourness of what he’d just said.  It wouldn’t do to have made that raspberry taste sweet; it wouldn’t have fit.  And -- this is the very best part -- one student said, “That must be the joy of writing...You get to put in the exact details you want.”  *mic drop*

Writing Workshop

We have made some significant progress on our essay work -- and this is mostly due to the improvement of some key behaviors!  We are writing a class essay just a couple steps ahead of kids writing their own essays.  We took some time to identify possible audiences for our writing, something I’ve been thinking a lot about.  They are motivated by the fact that their writing will likely be read by people outside of our school building.  

    They are chomping at the bit to conduct surveys and interviews to strengthen their evidence and to anticipate counterarguments.  Usually, I wait a lot longer before introducing these concepts, but their motivation is important, so I’m rearranging some of our plans to be able to get to that the week after Thanksgiving.  This week, we accomplished precisely articulating thesis statements (big ideas) and planning essays using a boxes and bullets structure.  That includes precisely articulating five-to-eight supporting ideas, grouping those ideas where there are natural connections to avoid repetition in the essay, and identifying the strongest three ideas to support the thesis statement, those that have earned a spot in our essays.  Yes, this is still 4th grade!

Math

In math we have jumped into the first of two fraction units. Students have been busy learning how to solve number stories using fractions, how to generate equivalent fractions and how to compare fraction values.

Theme/Content

In theme many students are almost done with their final geography project. Creating their own newly discovered island or continent has been a great way for students to apply their new map making skills and use their creativity as well.

    Our next unit will focus on the early settlements of America. Our primary focus will be on Jamestown, but we will also touch upon the lost colony of Roanoke, Plymouth, and Popham. This unit will include several STEM projects as students create their own water filtration system, look-out tower, and rock moving devices.

We are in need of items for these projects. Please see the list below, and if you have anything you can donate we certainly appreciate your support.

• Small yogurt containers
• Cardboard tubes
• Pipe cleaners
• Cotton balls
• Small plastic lids
• Straws - not bendy
• Small plastic cups
• Empty spools
• Plastic wrap

Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News

for the week of October 31, 2016

Due Dates / Upcoming Events

Monday, November 7 - reading logs due

Tuesday, November 8 - Home Link due

Wednesday, November 9 - full day / McFarlands have PE (swimming!)

Thursday, November 10 -  ABL (sneakers are helpful) / math journal pages catch-up due / Book Fair Family Night until 7:45

Friday, November 11 - no school: Veterans Day

Monday, November 14 - reading logs due

General News and Announcements

We are finding ourselves getting serious (*insert stern teacher look*) about behavior expectations, as many of you have heard through recent parent-teacher conferences.  We believe that each day every child deserves to experience a classroom community that is safe, productive, and (hopefully) fun.  One specific behavior that is getting in the way is that a surprisingly large number of students are ignoring directions.  This has been highly unusual in past years, as we run a pretty tight ship, as needed.  

    When directions are followed effectively, the climate in the room is impacted in many positive ways:

• Students feel safe.
• Time is used effectively, which means students have more time for learning.

    When directions are not followed, the climate in the room is impacted in negative ways for all members of the classroom community:

• Students feel confused and anxious.
• Time and energy spent redirecting or repeating the directions takes time, energy, and fun away from learning.

    We need your support at home by talking with your child about her/his contributions to our classroom climate.  Of course, discussions will vary from family to family, especially since there are, thankfully, children who try hard to do the right thing on a consistent basis (and we show our appreciation for that in a number of ways).  We appreciate your time and attention to this at home, as we continue to strive for a positive, caring, productive classroom climate for all students.

Reading Workshop

We are anticipating the turning point of our mentor text, Journey.  We are looking for clues:  First, simply noticing where we are are in the book -- halfway -- tells us that we should be on the lookout for details that hint at change.  There’s also a brand new “character” in the book, Bloom, a cat, who is meeting some of the characters’ needs.  We are also noticing how other characters are reacting and dealing with the main problem in the story (that Journey’s mother has left the family).  And we are seeing certain “moments” that Journey is sharing with his grandfather, and that shows us that there is a change in their relationship.  

    We are also revising a big idea that we’ve been growing in our notebooks.  At first, our idea was, “Journey is an angry person,” and we have revised it to say, “Journey is blaming Grandfather for Mama leaving.”  It’s not a book for light-weights!

Writing Workshop

Essays, here we come!  This has been a most productive week in writing workshop.  I’ve shared samples of essays with both classes, so they can see how an essay is built and how it’s different from a narrative.  We also focused on creating strong thesis statements, and partners revised a number of so-so thesis statements.  Ask your child about “bus talk” and why we’re going to avoid using it in our essays.

    I shared the 4th Grade Opinion Writing Checklist, and we took notes on it to get to know what the qualities are of a good essay.  We will continue to refer to the checklist to help us revise our work throughout the unit, to determine teaching points for mini-lessons, and for the kids to ask me to teach certain skills.  Yes, sometimes I make them ask for it!  This can certainly be a time of significant growth for our 4th-grade writers!

Math

This week students took the end of unit assessment for the second Everyday Math Unit. This assessment encompassed being able to identify factors of a given number, multiples of a 1-digit number, extended multiplication with multiples of 10, area of a rectangle, and multiplication number stories. Your child’s unit assessment packet will be either shared at your conference or will be sent home next week.

    We also kicked off the third math unit this week. This next unit has a strong emphasis on fractions and decimals. Students will also continue to strengthen their multiplication skills in this unit.

Theme/Content

On Monday, students took a break from our social studies unit and enjoyed a STEM challenge. After learning how boats float and the concept of water displacement, they worked in small groups to create their own aluminum foil boats. Their challenge was to build a boat that held as many pieces of candy corn as possible. Below are a few snapshots from this challenge.

Students were also introduced to the final project in our cartography/geography unit.  If your fourth-grader starts talking about newly-discovered lands, just know they are getting excited about their project.  Stay tuned!