Welcome, “4M Smarties” Parents! Our classroom of 4th graders is up and running! We had a wonderful four days getting to know one another and the routines of our classroom. We played cooperative games with Mr. Davidson, invited classmates to be work partners, and learned new greetings to start each Morning Meeting.
We also got down to work and reviewed the steps of the writing process in order to write a list of “Top Ten Things You Need to Know about Me.” The students brainstormed a list of important facts about themselves and then rank ordered them for their final “Top Ten.” We talked about sentence variety and a learned a few editing marks to improve their final draft. We will use these lists next week to introduce ourselves to each other during Morning Meeting.
For the first two weeks of school, we will be focusing on independent reading. The students collaborated to write a wonderful list of tips to pick a good book. They browsed through books in our classroom library and checked out books at the Foster library. 4th graders are expected to read at least 20 minutes every night. It is my hope that everyone will develop or maintain a good reading habit and be able to articulate their own reading preferences so they can select great books for themselves - a lifelong skill!
The students organized their homework binder this week, but we haven’t started using it yet. We will be practicing the expectations for homework in school next week and I will send home some assignments to show you. Homework will start officially the following week.
This website will be a resource for you and your child this year. I will be sending periodic newsletters through the website with updates about all the happenings in our classroom. There is also a Google Sheets sign-up (above) for volunteering to help with math games on Fridays and photocopying. Please email me if you can not access the Google Sheets sign up.
Curriculum Night will be on Wednesday, September 21st, 6:30 - 7:30. I look forward to meeting you then!
Ask a Fourth Grader…
* What is the #1 thing you want others to know about you?
* What does it mean to be “efficient?”
* What is one way to find a good book to read?
* How do you “buzz” about a book?
* What is the value of 4 in 24,567?
* What did you practice when you played “Human Knot?”