Grade 4

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Week Ahead, Sept. 23


Week of September 23

I would like to thank all of you for the time we spent together last week talking about your children. I always find conferences rewarding, and value the time we get to talk together about how your children are doing and next steps to help them continue to grow as students.

In Reader’s Workshop our class has continued to build elements of our workshop. Soon they will begin to meet in groups to read and talk about books. We have also started to read online. This week students will also start to access sites related to reading. This will include book themed sites, as well as author’s sites.
In Writer’s Workshop our class is putting final touches on their first personal narrative. Students will be printing these out and have them ready to share soon. Please feel free to ask them to share with you.

In Math, our class is continuing to understand estimation, and what reasonable estimates are used for. One of the most difficult parts of learning about estimation is understanding what is reasonable. Any conversations you can have about making estimates this week will help strengthen what we have talked about in class. We will start with addition and subtraction after our vacation next week.

Our inquiry unit continues to progress and give students the opportunities to evaluate their skills when working in groups. Last week students identified problems they want to solve. We will work this week to understand the problems, and identify possible solutions, which they would be able to present and implement.

Have a great week!
-Martin Reinsmoen

Dates and Reminders
Monday, 23 September - Day 5
MAP Parent Coffee - 8.15 - 9.15 AM,5th Floor Conference Room

Wednesday, 25 September - Day 7
State of the School -  25 September, 8:30 - 9.30, Secondary School Campus - MPH

Sept. 28 – Oct. 6 No School – Fall Break

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The Week Ahead, Sept. 17


4C News - Week of 16th September

This week is parent-teacher conferences and I’m looking forward to this opportunity to meet with and discuss your child’s school life and learning.  
This conference will give us an opportunity to discuss
  • Your child’s transition into a new grade/class/school
  • Results of early assessments, areas of strength, and
  • Relevant next steps
The fourth floor continues to be a productive environment for learning.  Our inquiry unit continues to progress and give students the opportunities to evaluate their skills when working in groups. With our discussions of roles, and how decisions are made, students will start to identify issues or problems at school and home that could be appropriate to solve in a group.  Students will be expected to apply all that they've learned about group work to come up with solutions, agree and present their best idea to the class, and implement the solution.  More to come on this soon when students have constructed the problem and formed a group.

In Math, our class will begin to explore estimation strategies and what reasonable estimates are used for.  We’ll be grappling with the question:  What makes an estimate reasonable?  Students will be working like true mathematician as they will be grappling with estimation problems, reaching a reasonable answer, communicating their thinking, and revising their thinking.

During Reader’s Workshop, students have acquired the skills to be independent readers.  During independent reading time, students read silently and respond to their reading in written form.  In addition to independent reading, students also have a time for choosing a reading related activity such as partner reading, reading responses, listening to audio books, or working on a reading project.  With these skills secure, another component of the Reader’s Workshop will soon be added.  We will begin to work in guided reading groups.  In guided reading, students work in a small group with the teacher.  Guided reading lessons are designed to meet the individual needs of the reader both in reading fluency and comprehension.

Lastly, students continue to develop their personal narrative. Focusing on details, dialogue, and an effective lead, students should feel like they have worked hard, and this is a very good piece of writing for them. Feel free to ask to see the progress they are making on this, as they can all access it online through Google Drive. 


Dates and Reminders:
18th September (Wednesday)               Early dismissal (11:00am)
19th September (Thursday)                    Parent-teacher conferences (No school for students)

Have a great week.
Mr. Reinsmoen

Sunday, September 8, 2013

September 9 Newsletter


Dear Parents,
It has already been a full month of school and the progress each student is making is showing. 

Up coming in math we will be transitioning into comparing numbers and making estimations.  Our previous work with place value and larger numbers will come in hand as we work on our skill of making reasonable estimations.  This past week was the first week that Math Mates went home as homework.  Students should be working on these and bringing them back to school early in the week as they get checked daily.  This also allows them to come in with questions before they are due on Friday.  Students should be showing their work so we can see their thinking process. 

For reading workshop, students are still continuing to develop the skill of ‘thinking about their reading’ and expanding into deeper thought than just a retelling of their book.  We have been working on this by having students write about their reading and we have also tried to meet with students to talk about it as well.  It so very important to dive deeper than just a retelling of the story, because being able predict or connect with the book shows more understanding.  Students should continue to read at least 20 minutes each night.  Reading to your child or having your child read aloud, to you or a sibling, helps with their fluency and should be incorporated along with them reading independently.

Students are beginning the process of picking a specific story to write about in writing workshop.  Previous lessons about detail, expression, and dialogue will be focused on as we develop our stories.  We have been including different examples to help students get a clear picture of a well crafted stories.  The reader of the story should get a feeling of actually being in the story through the author’s narration, and we will continue to work on this process.   

We have really dived into our PYP Inquiry unit, How we organize ourselves.  This past week different guest speakers talked with students about different aspects of group work.  Craig Johnson, the superintendent, discussed the decision making process and used the example of building the new school.  Cindy Cleary, the school counselor, talked with students about different roles in groups.  We will use these different discussions to help move forward in our unit.   

NWEA MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) is this week for grade 4.  Testing will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this upcoming week.  The tests are used to collect more information about your child and help inform the teachers of strength and areas of improvement.  There is no need or way to study for these tests, but there are some tips to help your child.  Make sure they are getting plenty of sleep this week, and also make sure your child is having a healthy and nutritious breakfast every morning.  These two tips are probably the most important things you can do to help your child.

Here's to another great week- Matthew Beniak

Dates and Reminders
  Sept. 9-10 – Picture Day, specific day will be emailed from teacher
  Sept. 10-12 – Grade 4 MAP testing
  Sept. 13 - No School for Students - PD Day for all teachers.
  Sept. 18 - Early Dismissal at 11:00 for ES students - Ganesh Immersion
  Sept. 19 – No School for Students –  PT Conferences

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Sept. 2 The Week Ahead in Grade 4


Dear Parents,

We completed our third week of school already! Daily and weekly routines are becoming better established, our schedule is running smoothly, and the curricula are well underway.

In math this coming week, we will continue our place value work by looking at expanded form and standard form. We will take some time to review the base 10 math system and the relationships between 1s, 10s, 100s, and 1,000s. Placing numbers (up to a million again) in order from low to high will be introduced next. Students are now very familiar with the Maths Mate and that will begin to come home as homework, but with continued classroom support.

In reading workshop, we will continue working with our reader’s notebooks as a way to ‘think about our reading’ by taking notes as we read, and writing reflections on our reading. As mentioned last week, reflections should emphasize sharing the reader’s or character’s thoughts, instead of just re-telling what is happening in the books we read. Each student has an assigned day each week to complete a letter to us about their thinking with their books. Students should continue to read a book of their choice for a minimum of 20 minutes every night.

For our writing workshop, students are writing every day. Most writing sessions end with a sharing of student’s writing work as students read their work aloud. We have been focusing on being detailed and expressive writers and it really shows in student work. We have written a draft of a small moment, or a seed story in class and are starting to review and strengthen this piece of writing in class. Students will continue to be encouraged to add thoughts, feeling, adjectives, and narration to help ‘show’ rather than just ‘tell’ us their ideas.

Our PYP Inquiry unit, How we organize ourselves, began well last week as we explored how our class is organizing itself and through creating class norms. Our guest speakers from the school community will come and talk to the students about decision making, roles, and organization of groups starting this week.

NWEA MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) is beginning this week for some classes, but grade four will not start until 10, 11, and 12 of September. More information about this assessment will follow next week but know that it is a survey of what students know and are learning, and it is not something to study for. Some research has shown that lowering student anxiety is one of the best preparation method for this tool that is designed to helps teachers guide their instruction.

The Art classroom has a blog too. You can find the link to this blog on my blog on the right side. Here it is if you prefer to gotheir directly.

Best Wishes,
Martin Reinsmoen

Dates and Reminders
• Sept. 2 - E3 Activities Begin
• Sept. 10-12 – Grade 4 MAP testing
• Sept. 13 - No School for Students - PD Day for all teachers.
• Sept. 18 - Early Dismissal at 11:00 for ES students - Ganesh Immersion

General Notes and Information

• Please remember to call the help desk at 022-61313600, or even better to email them (ESHelpdesk@asbindia.org) AND me (reinsmoenm@asbindia.org ) AND the classroom assistant Ms. Anita (BillavaA@asbindia.org), if your child's regular dismissal plan changes.
• Attached is a letter from our PTA Grade Level Parent Representative, please read to find out the great work parents are contributing to the coming school year, and how you can help. Note: the attached instructions’ are not attached but let Ms. Sandell know and she can help you out.•      Also attached is our curricular outline for the year. Happy reading!