Newsletter Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News

for the week of April 23, 2018

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, April 30: weekly reading logs due

Tuesday, May 1: April Reading Calendars are due / Home Link due / McFarlands have P.E. (sneakers, please)

Wednesday, May 2: early release day

Thursday, May 3: math journal pages due

Friday, May 4: Home Link due / SpellingCity activities due + in-class test

Monday, April 7: weekly logs are due (8 days)

Special Announcements:

Tuesday’s author visit from Andrew Clements was excellent!  As a former teacher, he’s a natural in front of a large group of children.  He started by showing us photos of himself as a child reading favorite books and being read to by his parents.  Lots of his photos included bookcases and bookshelves stocked with books from his childhood, from his grandparents’ collections, and of course books he’s written.  Some of Andrew Clements’ big ideas were:

• Writing is hard work.  I don't wait for ideas to come to me.
• Writers use things that happen in their own lives as parts of their writing.
• I wouldn't be The Visiting Author here today if my parents hadn't read to me/given me books/shown me how important books are.
• Teachers aren't going to do your work for you; their job is to help you do your best work.
• Inspiration happens after you start writing.

FREE National Parks Passes for Fourth-Graders

Saw this on-line the other day… http://www.dontwasteyourmoney.com/child-4th-grade-get-free-national-parks-membership-family/?utm_campaign=getcrafty&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=partner&utm_partner=getcrafty

Academic Updates

Writing Workshop

This week, we did some review work with personal and persuasive essays in preparation for Friday’s writing prompt.  Next week, writing teachers will score all of the prompts and will use the results to reflect on current instruction and plan for future instruction.

Reading Workshop

We used our reading workshop time this week to kick off our newest writing unit: poetry!  The Crossover is a Newberry Winner written in verse.  Check out the book trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=modPFEyuBYg

And check out a short interview with the author, Kwame Alexander: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=8ygCxaDqswA

The book is intended for middle-schoolers, and the content reflects that; it’s not a “light” read.  We listened to the dynamic audio version this week. Students had the option to just listen or to work on any of a number of related activities while we listened:

• vocabulary bingo - words from the book, complete with definitions
• tracking Josh’s feelings throughout the story
• reading along with a copy of the book
• a story mountain
• using a film strip to illustrate scenes
• “texting” me or a reading partner thoughts, comments, and questions

  

No, Connor’s not asleep; there’s a book in his lap!

 

Owen, reading along

girls “texting” each other about the book, Vocabulary Bingo off to the side

Layla following along and Hailey “texting” me

Besides enjoying the story and language of this unusual book, we’ll revisit it to study the author’s craft as we explore poetry this spring!

Math

This week we brought unit 6 to a close. Students started the week with a review of division and how to interpret a remainder in a number story. We also spent some time with measurement conversions involving units of weight. At the end of the week students completed the unit 6 assessment. Progress results will be sent home soon.

Theme

Upon our return from vacation we continued our colonial unit with an emphasis on the early settlement of Jamestown. Students are enjoying the reading of Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone and in one of the scenes they learn that the colonists struggled with finding clean, drinkable water. As a spinoff, in science, students created a device to filter some very dirty water. They were very successful and found that water can be cleaned pretty well with a few simple items.

Newsletter Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News

for the week of April 2, 2018

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, April 9: weekly reading logs due

Tuesday, April 10: Home Link due / McFarlands have P.E. (sneakers, please)

Wednesday, April 11: full day

Thursday, April 12: math journal pages due / No SpellingCity this week

Friday, April 13- Sunday, April 22: April Vacation: no school

Monday, April 23 : weekly logs are due (8 days)

Special Announcements:

Thank you joining us over the past two weeks for Parent Teacher Conferences.  It’s a great way for us to share what’s happening in our classrooms, your child’s progress, goals, and things you’d like us to focus on for the last quarter of the school year.  

Stones of Kindness

In anticipation of the Habitat for Humanity walk students painted stones with positive messages to leave along the trail for both the school walk and the community walk. We have heard from several participants this week who found our rocks and sent us messages of thanks.

Academic Updates

Writing Workshop

Lots was accomplished this week!  Students put their heads down and dug into writing three full supporting idea paragraphs for their literary essays.  Thank you for your support at home -- including not helping too much!  Students have been busy finding evidence to support their ideas and then telling why that part is important enough to include in the essay (What does it show about their ideas?).  They’re working on writing sentences that make sense (this is harder than it sounds), using transitions, correctly punctuating quotes from the text, and writing strong ending sentences.  

    As promised, we have already started attacking our Run-On Sentence Epidemic.  We revised and edited part of a literary essay written by a former student. I’ve started a chart on the wall listing all the kinds of “problems” we fixed on his essay, so that students can use it as a sort of to-do list for ways they should be revising their own writing.  Next week: ending sentences and conclusion paragraphs, some advanced work with figurative language, and a mini-lesson just for those who need it about how to use punctuation when a quote from the story involves dialogue.

Reading Workshop

This week we joined reading partnerships to form book clubs.  Each reader chose a section of the assigned book to share, and clubs followed the “Save the Last Word for Me” format to run their book clubs (see chart below).  Three out of five clubs have met so far, and the others will meet on Monday. Round two next week!

Save the Last Word for Me:

Book Club Meeting Directions

DURING THE BOOK CLUB MEETING

Steps for the meeting:

1. Gather close together in your book club.  Bring all copies of the books.
2. One member will share a section of the text.  The member does not share at this time why s/he chose that section.
3. Next, each member will respond to that section of the text (see sentence starters below).  This is your chance to push your own thinking!
4. Once all members have responded to the first member’s section of text, that member will have The Last Word.  S/he will respond to the group’s ideas and share why s/he chose that section.  Build on to the ideas shared in the group.
5. The next member of the group will then share the section of text s/he chose.  
6. Repeat steps 2-5 until all members have shared their parts of the text.

Sentence starters to respond to a club member’s share:

• When I hear that part, I think about…
• That part is important, because…
• I learned that…
• The author is trying to show…
• That part connects to…

Math

This week students continued their work with division using the partial quotients algorithm. I have posted a tutorial on my web page for both students and parents to access at home. In addition, students learned to interpret what to do with a remainder when solving division number stories, they discovered how to convert U.S. customary units of weight: ounces, pounds and tons and how to measure degrees in an angle using a full circle protractor.

Phew, we covered a lot this week!

Theme

Our classes have started a new history unit in theme this week. In this unit our students will learn about the early colonies that founded our country in the 1600’s. We specifically focus on the lost colony of Roanoke and Jamestown. They will gain an understanding about the time period; why colonists came to our shores, challenges early settlers faced and why some colonies failed while others succeeded. We will weave in a few science related activities in this unit as we move forward.