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Friday, March 24, 2017

Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News
for the week of March 20, 2017

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:
MEA Testing all week, first thing in the morning for a little more than an hour.
Monday, March 27 - weekly reading logs ARE due
Tuesday, March 28 - no Home Link due to testing / McFarlands have P.E. (sneakers, please)
Wednesday, March 29 - early release
Thursday, March 30 -  no math journal page catch-up due to testing
Friday, March 31 - no SpellingCity activities due to testing / no Home Link due to testing
Monday, April 1 - weekly reading logs ARE due / March reading calendar ARE due

General News and Announcements
Please make note on your calendar for June 20th.  All fourth graders are scheduled to go to Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH.  If we have enough Mayberry and McFarland chaperones, we will plan for our classes to attend.  We’d like at least seven chaperones per class, and the more, the merrier!  We will send home a formal notice about the field trip in the coming weeks.  If you are available to chaperone, you can let us know now, and/or wait until that notice comes home.  It’s a super trip!

Looking for old mice! Not the squeaky kind, but the computer kind! Often our students find the trackpads on their ChromeBooks are difficult to use, and they might prefer a mouse. If you have one just sitting around collecting dust we would gladly make a new home for it. Thanks!

Academic Updates:
Reading Workshop
This week has been a mix of historical fiction and MEA test preparation.
    For historical fiction, students have chosen chapter books from our classroom collection.  Since I have multiple copies of a several of the titles, a number of students have created their own casual book clubs.  Some of the most popular titles this week have been:
  • Sarah, Plain and Tall series, written by Patricia MacLachlan, author of our mentor text for character, Journey
  • Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
  • books from The Little House on the Prairie series
  • books from the Dear America and My America series
    Mrs. P. in the computer lab has been teaching the kids how to use the online tools for the MEA and how to do the basics, such as log in and change between screens.  I have taken some of the released questions and planned out strategies, tips, and tricks, which will hopefully help kids make decisions as they navigate the tests next week.
    Please know that a consistent message from Mrs. P., Mrs. Mayberry, and me has been that the tests are to show us how well our school has been teaching our students and how well our students have been learning what we’ve been teaching.  The tests are important for those reasons, but they aren’t tests that will affect aspects of students’ lives (like getting into Harvard or going to 5th grade).  It is normal for students to be a bit nervous for something like this.  Today, we shared our feelings and asked questions about the test at our morning circle, and it seems that most students are a little nervous and yet are looking forward to a change in the regular schedule.

Writing Workshop
This week, we have read “The Marble Champ,” our third and final story in the literary essay unit.  We had some lively discussions trying to identify possible big ideas to write about for a literary essay.  It’s becoming second nature for our writers to delve back into the text to determine if there’s enough evidence to support an idea.  In some cases a student has pointed out that while a thesis statement might be true, it really wasn’t what the whole story is about...which shows some evaluative skills -- impressive!  Soon, students will choose one of the two stories and will develop a thesis statement for a literary essay, leaning on some peers for support.

Math
This week students learned the initial steps for partial quotients division. I must say they grasped this new algorithm quickly and seemed quite excited about it. As fourth graders they will be dividing up to four digit digit dividends by a one digit divisor. We also spent time this week converting U.S. customary units of weight (tons, pounds and ounces).

Theme

My student scientists conducted two science activities involving speed and energy this week. Using miniature cars and a ramp, they collected and analyzed data on how far the car will go when released from various heights. This hands-on activity helped students understand the concept that a moving object will move with greater speed and travel a longer distance with more energy.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News
for the week of March 13, 2017

Due Dates / Upcoming Events
Monday, March 20 - weekly reading logs due
Tuesday, March 21 - Home Link due
Wednesday, March 22 - early release
Thursday, March 23 -  math journal pages: be all caught up
Friday, March 24 - SpellingCity activities / Home Link due
Monday, March 25 - weekly reading logs due

General News and Announcements
Dear Families,
Thank you for your kind words of support after the loss of my mother.  The kids’ cards and sensitivity were much appreciated, too!

Parents: Please check whether your child is doing homework; more than a couple McFarland students are treating it as “optional.”  (I’m baaaaaaa-aaaaack!)

Weekend Homework: Many McFarland students have a weekend “re-do” assignment, a simple, easy shamrock project.  We are going to focus on thoughtful ideas and improved quality of work on round two.  This assignment is due on Monday, and your child may need help setting aside some time this weekend to complete it.

Conferences: Please search your inbox for spring parent/teacher conference sign-ups, if you have not done so already.
Academic Updates:
Reading Workshop
We are reading a book called The Memory Coat about a family who comes to America from Russia.  Students are learning reasons families and individuals came to America through Ellis Island and the risks and fears associated with it.  Our homeroom read aloud (for the McFarlands), Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, features the title character as an immigrant from Italy.  That’s not what the story is about...but it’s a fun connection -- and we’re enjoying help from Cora and Sofia in translating some of the Italian phrases Granny Torrelli uses!
    Next week, we will continue reading books about immigration through Ellis Island, and I will also be asking students to commit to choosing a HF chapter book after some book talks.  We’ll continue to reinforce the skill of identifying themes and will work toward synthesizing our knowledge about the time periods of slavery and immigration to grow our own ideas.

Writing Workshop
The theme work we are doing in Reading Workshop connects directly to the literary essay work we are doing in Writing Workshop.  We read a new story, Sebastian’s Roller Skates, which offers several possible focuses for big ideas for literary essays.  We are looking at ways the main character changes, what he learns or realizes over the course of the story, and identifying the theme of the story by using details from the text and then evaluating possible themes to determine the most accurate ones.  We’re bringing in concepts about the story mountain structure to determine turning points, zeroing in on details that indicate a change in the character.  There’s a lot of rich discussion, and the kids are getting lots of experience annotating their copies of the stories (which I call, “writing all over it”) for specific purposes.

Math
Even with a rather chopped up week we managed to jump into unit 6 and completed the first few lessons. Students reviewed the concept of fact families with multiplication and division and then applied that learning to extended division. In addition, we spent time working through some MEA math practice problems in preparation for the upcoming state testing.

Theme
To help support students when reading historical fiction in Mrs. McFarland’s reading class I taught several lessons this week covering the topic of immigration  in the United States. Students took a virtual field trip to Ellis Island and got to hear stories of young immigrants today. We also read Journey to Ellis Island, a true story of a young Russian immigrant and his experiences as he processed through Ellis Island in the early 1900’s.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News
for the week of February 27, 2017

Due Dates / Upcoming Events
Monday, March 6 - weekly reading logs due
Tuesday, March 7 - Home Link due
Wednesday, March 8 - early release
Thursday, March 9 -  math journal pages: be all caught up
Friday, March 10 - SpellingCity activities due: short o with no o / Home Link due
Monday, March 13 - weekly reading logs due

General News and Announcements
Welcome back to our newsletter and full 5-day weeks of school!
Academic Updates:
Reading Workshop
Mrs. Mayberry and I have been collaborating for our historical fiction unit in reading workshop.  She is spending a few days to give students background knowledge on the same time periods that I am focusing on in reading.  This week that is slavery.  In reading class, we have read several books set in the time period of slavery in the United States: Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad, Henry’s Freedom Box, and Freedom Song.  The latter two are stories about Henry “Box” Freedom, a slave who escaped to the north by mailing himself in a wooden crate.  We compared and contrasted the details of the stories, using the Authors’ Notes to help determine what information is factual and to help us understand why authors might have different details.  
    The reading skills we are focusing on right now are envisioning and empathizing.  Next week, we will add identifying a theme and synthesizing details.

Writing Workshop
We are in the heavy-lifting work of writing a literary essay, and we are working HARD.  We have reviewed how to write a strong thesis statement and how to build a solid plan for the essay.  We are writing the first one together as a class, and the collaboration has been lively and productive.  Students are showing off their close reading skills and are truly analyzing the text to support ideas.  This unit is truly a culmination of lots of reading and writing skills from throughout this entire school year!  
    Next week, we will draft supporting idea paragraphs that include evidence from the text, transitions, and explanations as to why those details support our ideas.  This is the kind of work I was doing in eighth grade!
Math
This week students finished up with the last few lessons in unit 5. These lessons included finding lines of symmetry and determining types of angles. In addition, we spent time reviewing unit skills learned before vacation. Next week students will take the unit assessment and we will be starting unit 6.

Next up: long division! Brush up on those multiplication facts please.

Theme

To help support students when reading historical fiction in Mrs. McFarland’s reading class I taught several lessons this week covering the topics of slavery in the United States and the Underground Railroad. Students watched several short videos, BrainPops and listened to a book called, Freedom Over Me by Ashley Bryan. Students brought up a lot of questions and reactions as they learned about this period in our history.