Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News

for the week of October 16, 2017

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, October 23:  reading logs are due

Tuesday, October 24: Home Link due / McFarlands have P.E. (wear sneakers; we start swimming Oct. 31) / ABL (sneakers are helpful)

Wednesday, October 25: Mayberrys have P.E.: come prepared for swimming

Thursday, October 26: be caught up on math journal pages

Friday, October 27: Home Link due

Monday, October 28:  reading logs due

General News and Announcements

Recorder Orders: McFarland students got their order forms today -- and today was the due date!  Ooops, my mistake!  Please try your best to have your child return the form on Monday, even if s/he does not need to purchase a recorder.

Swimming in PE starts soon!

Mayberrys: Oct. 25

McFarlands: Oct. 31

Please see the notice in your child’s planner for details.

Thank you!

Thank you for the donations to our subscription to SpellingCity!  You can expect to see SpellingCity activities come home in the next couple of weeks as a regular homework assignment.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Please check your email for the parent/teacher conference sign-ups.  We have most of you scheduled and look forward to taking some time to talk about your child’s growth and goals for the year!

Academic Updates:

Writing Workshop

Over the past couple of weeks, students have made good progress on writing their narratives.  We are working on revising to make sure we have a variety of details; to make sure we have combined dialogue with actions, setting details, and thoughts/feelings; and to make sure we have a strong lead and a meaningful ending.  Next week, we will focus on revising the heart of the story.

Reading Workshop

We hit the gas this week on reading our mentor text, Journey.  One lesson we did this week focused on how to figure out unfamiliar words.  The strategy is to read on for another sentence or two to look for key words (or clues) that can help us make a good guess as to what the unfamiliar word is.  A second strategy, often used in tandem with the first, is to read “backwards,” to back up a couple of sentences to find key words to help us figure out what that unfamiliar word means.  We practiced this with several words in Journey: peonies (key words: pink and white armfuls, pitchers, smell, blooms), haughtily (key words: ran out of patience, insulted, then he brightened), and banished (key words: lost her patience, go away).  The kids have been practicing with their own independent books.  

    This is an important skill, especially when students read “above their levels” and begin to read faster (not necessarily a good thing) and more fluently.  We can become rather passive and simply move on, missing opportunities to get smarter.

    

Math

This week we kicked off the second unit in Everyday Math. Students learned how to calculate area of a rectangle or square using the formula: A=LxW. Part of this learning included playing Rugs and Fences on ConnectEd. Ask your child to login to their ConnectEd account (login and passwords are in their planner) and challenge them to a fun game. The time spent can count toward their weekly math fact practice minutes.

    In addition to learning how to determine area of a rectangle students also learned about square numbers, how to find all the factors for a given number and how to list multiples of a number. All of this work depends on strong multiplication fact fluency. So…. please continue to support your 4th grader in learning their multiplication facts by making sure they are practicing a minimum of three times a week for ten minutes each time.

Theme

In science this week we spent time reviewing concepts from our Birth of Rocks unit by answering questions on a site called Kahoot. This was a great way to review for the unit test they took on Tuesday.

    We will be leaving science behind for a bit while we cycle back for some geography. Students are creating a ‘cartography flipbook’ which defines various landforms and bodies of water. This project will roll into their final cartography project, to be revealed in a few weeks.

Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News

for the week of October 2, 2017

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, October 9: Columbus Day - no school

Tuesday, October 10: McFarlands have P.E. (wear sneakers) / reading logs are due

Wednesday, October 11: full day / Mayberrys  have P.E. (wear sneakers)

Thursday, October 12: be caught up on math journal pages

Friday, October 13: homelink due

Monday, October 16:  reading logs due

General News and Announcements

Planned Absences

Please be sure to fill out a planned absence form if your child will be absent for a few days for a family event/vacation.

MUG Shots (Mechanics, Usage, Grammar)

Check out the MUG Shots your child does on Wednesdays in Writing Workshop!  This is a quick, easy, fun (in my opinion :) way to get in some age-appropriate grammar and mechanics instruction.  The kids have their hands up the entire time and are highly engaged.  It’s also a good way for them to experience getting “grades” on relatively concrete work, prompting them to think: “What did I do well on?  What could I have done better?  What will I pay attention to next time?”

SpellingCity

We have received a few of donations to help us fund SpellingCity for both classes -- thank you!  If you’d care to donate, we’d be happy to put your money toward the cause.  The cost is $60 per class.  Feel free to send in a few dollars.  https://www.spellingcity.com/

Academic Updates:

Writing Workshop

Almost all students have completed a detailed timeline as a plan for their narratives.  Today, we studied the Narrative Writing Checklist, which details all of the concepts and strategies that we’ll focus on throughout the rest of this unit.  

    All students logged on to SpellingCity this week as well.  As with any online program, there are some glitches, and I’m confident that we will work through them!  The main issue is that students who used SpellingCity last year were brought to their last year’s teachers’ groups.  I’ll work on that…  We will spend some time in class here and there for a couple of weeks getting to know the site and program and activities.  Before the end of October, SpellingCity activities will become a regular homework assignment.

Reading Workshop

We did a lot of independent reading this week. During this time, students are logging their reading, and many are pretty impressed with themselves and their accomplishments so far this year, in terms of how many books they’ve been able to finish!  They are also making connections from our minilessons to their own books and characters.  During this time, I ma meeting with readers one-on-one.  Together, we are noting strengths and setting informal reading goals for the fall.

    One opportunity we have all together as a team is a daily Read Aloud.  We meet in Mrs. Mayberry’s classroom after lunch and enjoy some quiet time as Mrs. Mayberry or I read to the kids.  Mrs. Mayberry started off the year with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.  I followed with Marvin Redpost: Why Pick on Me? and am now reading Granny Torrelli Makes Soup.  This time is special because, while our first priority is to enjoy a good book together, we take time to teach and reinforce the author’s writing moves and to connect to concepts we’re working on in Reading Workshop.  We choose books carefully and for a variety of reasons: to give kids experiences with more challenging texts than what they can access on their own; to expose them to the first book in a series in hopes they’ll continue with the series; to demonstrate higher level thinking with lower-level books; to share our favorites…  Despite the demands on our time and on our students’ time, we’ve prioritized this part of the day because it’s simply good stuff!

    

Math

This week students learned to identify types of angles and to differentiate quadrangles according to the number of parallel sides. We also worked on how to determine the perimeter of a polygon. On Thursday students took the end of unit assessment. I will have assessment packets ready to send home by the end of next week.

    Please continue to support your 4th grader with fact fluency. Our next math unit involves a lot of multiplication and knowing the basic facts will help your child successfully meet the standards in unit two.

Theme

In science students completed an activity that explored the answer to this question; Does a mountain last forever? They learned about the two forces that break apart rock, root wedging and ice wedging.  Below is a short video of our scientists hard at work conducting an experiment with sugar cubes and a tumbler.