Highlights from Week 24!

With a field trip to the Pratt Fine Arts Center and a Nutrition Workshop from Beecher's Cheese Foundation, we had lots going on in Room 307! This will be a short post with many pictures to show our week instead! Here are some of the pictures from both events that took place this past week:

The nutrition workshop held in our class:

The vegetarian chili we made!

Highlights:
-Before embarking on our Expository Writing unit, we are taking a short couple weeks to review all the concepts we learning in writing narratives this year. The 4th grade MSP will have two different types of writing prompts on two days: narrative writing (writing to tell a story), and expository writing (essay type writing).
-We took our math tests in Fractions and Division units, please make sure to check your child's test to see their score.
-We also took a figurative language quiz during Readers Workshop. We have one final week on learning about poetry before moving on to the next unit!

Highlights from Week 23!

First off, I want to say congratulations to two of our students who participated in the Global Reading Challenge at the Semi-Finals today in downtown! The two students were part of the winning team at our school (In-School Challenge) and were able to compete today at the Semi-Finals. They were one of the two teams that won today, and will be advancing to the 19th Annual City Final on Tuesday, March 18 at the Central Library Microsoft Auditorium. If you are able, please go and support our Leschi students March 18, at 7:00pm!

This week was Read Across America Week and we celebrated Dr. Seuss with many fun activities. We had an all-day reading adventure on Monday and students brought pillows, pj's, and slippers to wear all day in the classroom. It was a fun, relaxing day with some treats and crafts including: a healthy version of Cat in the Hat snack! Today, with our Little Buddies, we also made butter after reading "The Butter Battle Book" by Dr. Seuss. It was such a fun time, and students got a good work out shaking up and making their butter!

Next week will be extra busy with a field trip on Wednesday to Pratt Fine Arts Center to make a mosaic and watch how glass is made. We will also be doing some print making as well - please return your student's field trip form if you have not done so. On Thursday, we will have a wonderful opportunity to have Beecher's Flagship Foundation come to our class and lead a workshop all morning called: "Pure Food Kids Workshop." Please check out the link for more information on the workshop.

Highlights:
-In Writers Workshop, we will be starting a brand new unit on Expository Writing/Essay Writing. Fourth graders will be taking the writing portion of the MSP (Measurement of Student Progress) next month, and we are preparing students to be succesful in writing expository writing given a prompt.
-Students working on Division units will be taking their math test next week on Wednesday! Please make sure that you are looking over the yellow study guide with your student. Also after every unit, I return all math work from the unit that has been graded. It would be helpful for families to look through those sheets and see where extra help may be needed. Students working on their Fraction unit will be taking their test the following week to get more practice.
-We are also finishing up our Rocks and Minerals science unit in the next couple of weeks. In April, we will begin our last science unit: Sound.
-Poetry reading has been going very well! After studying the structure of poems: white space, stanzas, line breaks, repetition, rhythm/meter, rhyme scheme - we launched into learning about figurative language. We learned so far: idioms, simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and personification. Next week, we will learn a few different types of poetry and move into the next reading unit.
-IMPORTANT: Our class has been chosen to be videotaped for the purpose of educating families on the different programs at our school. Next week, a videographer will be coming in to tape students working. PLEASE return the green permission form that gives permission to us to have your child in the video. If you do not want your child in the video, please make sure of it on the permission form. We need it back right away! I'm sorry for sending home so many permission forms, but our class has been busy with so many events! Your attention and punctuality in returning the forms is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

*Please remember it is Daylight Savings this weekend: spring forward!

Highlights from Weeks 19-22!

I've completely fallen off the schedule in the weekly updates! I apologize for delaying in posting pictures and all the things that have been happening in our classroom. We have been busy and worked really hard during the month of February! February was Black History Month and our class studied different artists and made poster projects using everything we learned from our Nonfiction Text reading unit. There were lots of other celebrations and events including: Valentine's Day, field trip to MOHAI, 100th Day of school, and an entire week off for our Mid-Winter Break!

Highlights:
-Students published and a few are still publishing their non-fiction research topics. It was a long unit on learning important skills such as: note-taking, summarizing/paraphrasing, drafting informational text, revising, editing, and keyboarding/formatting. These are all skills that will be a foundation for all other essay writing and reports that students will be required to write in middle and high school. We are getting a head start!
-We finished up our multiplication units and just started a Division unit in math for the 3rd/4th grade group. The 5th grade group started a Fractions unit. The next math test will come up in the next couple of weeks.
-In science, we are continuing to work on our Mineral Guide and doing field tests (just like geologists do!) to learn about each type of mineral for the unit.

-We finished our Nonfiction Reading unit and just started on a Poetry unit for Readers Workshop. It has been really fun to learn and review poetry skills and how to analyze text. We also started a poetry novel by Sharon Creech, called Heartbeat.

Here are some pictures of some of the events that we had the past several weeks! Starting off with our field trip, Valentine's Day treats, 100th Day activities, and a visit to a weekend chess tournament!