Monday (a little late) Update 9/15/14

Sorry I'm late!  I had a busy weekend, that turned into a busy Monday, and I never got my update written.  So I'm sitting down on Tuesday evening to tell you about our week.

Last week
The 4th graders took their Geography test on Friday morning and I was seriously panicked when I COULDN'T FIND THEM on Friday afternoon as I was leaving school!  I had planned to grade them over the weekend.  Fortunately they turned up on Monday morning in the same pile that I had looked through 3 times on Friday afternoon (how does that happen?!?).  So I'm getting them graded tonight and will send them home tomorrow to be signed and returned.

In Literacy we talked about strategies for picking 'just right' books.  We used the PICK acronym:

We also talked about using the 5 finger strategy to see if a book is a good choice for them.  This is how you do it:

1. Open up a book to any page
2. Read the page
3. Hold up one finger for every word that you don't know.  

If you hold up 0-1 fingers the book is probably pretty easy for you, 2-3 it's just about the right level of challenge that will help you grow as a reader, 4-5 it may be too hard and frustrate you as a reader.

We talked about the fact that it's ok to choose an easy book sometimes, and it's ok to choose a hard book sometimes, but most of the time we want to choose books at that just right level of challenge.  I never tell kids that they HAVE to read books that are a certain reading level, but will try to steer them toward choices that will be interesting, enjoyable, and (just the right amount of) challenging.

This week in...

Bible
In 4th grade, we're talking about how the Holy Spirit arrived following Jesus' ascension.  The Holy Spirit gave power to the disciples so they could carry out the command Jesus had given them to share the good news throughout the world.  The concept of the Holy Spirit is hard for an adult to wrap his or her head around, much less an 8 or 9 year old.  So, today we did an object lesson using two ziplock bags.  We labeled one 'believer' and one 'unbeliever'.  We then blew air into the 'believer' bag to fill it up, as we're filled with the Holy Spirit when we ask Jesus into our hearts.  We talked about the fact that even though we can't 'see' it, we know the Holy Spirit is with us in the way that we feel that prompting to do the right thing, or suddenly remember a bible verse just when we needed it.

Literacy
Our Accelerated Reader program starts this week, and both 4th and 5th graders will begin taking AR quizzes on books that they read.  When they pass the quizzes they earn points based on the difficulty level of the book.  We'll set goals together each quarter to determine how many points each student will try to earn.  This week we'll be talking about setting SMART goals (another acronym for you!).  A SMART goal:

S - Stretches you, or challenges you to do something you haven't done before.
M - is Measurable so you can see if you've met your goal.
A - is Achievable.  Not too easy and not too hard.
R - is Realistic (we won't set a goal for 1,000 AR points, but will talk about what's realistic).
T - is Timely.  The goal needs to be met in a certain amount of time.

We'll be setting SMART goals in Reading, Spelling, Writing, and AR this week and next.

We'll continue to work on our Reading Response letters, learning what needs to be included in order to be successful.  And, we'll learn to write down our thoughts on sticky notes during the week so we remember what we want to write about when our letters are due.  Our first letters will include our impressions, connections, and questions about the book each of us is reading during Read to Self time.  We'll write them in a friendly letter format so we can practice the things that need to be included in a letter (date, greeting, body, closing, signature).  As we continue to write Reading Response letters, we'll begin to vary the content so we're writing about different aspects of our thinking.  I'll be writing back to the kids each time they write a letter, so it'll be like a written conversation about their reading.  I'm looking forward to sharing them with you at Parent-Teacher conferences!

Social Studies
4th grade is learning the basics about the geography of Canada before we launch our unit on the French and Indian war next week.  This background knowledge will help our understanding, as some of the activity took place in what is now Canadian territory.

5th grade is continuing their Geography unit.  We recently talked about how latitude impacts climate, and are now learning about how longitude and time zones are connected.  Tomorrow we'll blow our minds trying to figure out the International Date Line!  We should be wrapping up late this week or early next week and will then prepare for the September Geography test.

Have a great week!