Hello Fourth Grade Families!
First, I need to apologize for not getting my weekly blog post out for a couple of weeks! With 'no school' days, special programs, and holidays, I got out of my regular routine. Its crazy how that can throw things off!
Also, not all of you were aware of this, but my son Charlie was very sick over the last couple of weeks. He's doing much better and I'm so thankful for your and your children's prayers! While he was sick, I was out of school one day, and left early one day. Your kids were absolutely wonderful for the substitute teachers, and they got lots of complements on their great behavior. As a parent, I know how good it feels to know that your child is doing the right thing, even when you're not with them (especially when you're not with them!) so I wanted to pass that along to you :) I feel so blessed to be their teacher :)
Happy Birthday Wallace!
This week we'll be celebrating Wallace's birthday! Wallace is such a wonderful part of our classroom community. He always has a friendly smile on his face, and a funny comment on his lips! He never fails to make everyone laugh. He's also a hard worker, and a math wizard. His laid back attitude makes him easy to be around, and I think every kid in the class considers him their friend.
Accreditation Review
This week the accreditation review team will be visiting MID to observe in our classrooms and meet with the administrators and other stakeholders in our school. I know that we have an awesome faculty, and we're doing amazing things in our classrooms. I hope that the review team agrees! Keep us in your prayers this week as we continue the accreditation process.
This week in...
Math - As we started the 2nd quarter, we're beginning to differentiate instruction even more in Math. The kids have started taking pretests for the math units, and then studying the parts of the unit that they missed pretest questions on. Following that, they'll take the post-test, and move on to the next unit. This way, they aren't spending time on things they already know, but are focused on the topics that they specifically need to learn. This week we'll be wrapping up Unit 4 on Division Meanings and Facts, taking the Benchmark Assessment for Units 1-4, and doing the pretest for Unit 5 - Multiplying by 1-Digit Numbers.
Reading - This past week we've been talking about making inferences when we read, and we'll continue that this week. We'll be reading some nonfiction poems and making inferences about what the author meant when she chose certain words and phrases. Two of our book clubs have finished their book, and we'll be talking about starting another one. The other book clubs will continue reading and discussing their book.
For our Read Aloud, we've started reading a historical fiction novel, My Brother Sam is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. It's set during the Revolutionary War, which we'll begin studying in Social Studies this week. The main character, Tim, narrates the story. He's about 10 or 11 years old. His father is on the side of the King, but his brother Sam is a patriot who joins the militia and goes off to fight in the war. This causes a lot of upset in their family, as you can imagine.
Writing - The kids are wrapping up the final drafts of their most recent writing pieces, so we'll be adding those to our writing portfolios. We'll be starting our Sentence Structure unit this week, and will talk about what makes a good sentence. Then we'll move on to better sentences, and best sentences in the next week or so!
Language - This week we're focusing on sentence fragments and run-on sentences. We'll define, identify, and correct them.
Social Studies - As I mentioned above, we'll begin learning about the Revolutionary War, and will focus on the events leading up to the war over the next couple of weeks. We'll begin by talking about the original thirteen colonies, then the different acts that were put in place to tax the colonies.
Bible - This week we'll be learning about Peter's vision in which God told him that nothing he has made clean can be called impure. Our bible verse for this week is: God accepts people from every nation. He accepts people who have respect for Him and do what is right. Acts 10:35
Have a wonderful week!
