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.