Grade 4

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

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