Highlights from Week 12!

Happy Thanksgiving!! I wanted to say a sincere thank you to all the families who came out to parent-teacher conferences. It was so nice to see all of you and touch base on the progress of your child. This year, as you know, we had student-led conferences and it was such a powerful experience for me to watch each student take ownership of their learning! We prepared a lot for it, and the work paid off! Even for students who felt nervous at the beginning ended the conference confidently and I was so proud of each of them. I would love to get some feedback on how the experience was for you and your child - you can even leave a comment at the end of this post! :)

We had our Thanksgiving Potluck on Thursday, and it was so much fun! THANK YOU to families who were able to contribute to the potluck - the food was delicious! Friday, we went on a field trip to the Washington Park Arboretum. It was a cold, but sunny day and it was nice to get out and explore around the park. I have attached a couple pictures from the field trip at the end of this post.

Highlights:
-Almost everyone is finished with publishing their realistic fiction story. Many were able to take home their published copy in their conference folder, but for those continuing, the story will come home next week. Our next writing unit will be: non-fiction.
-We also wrapped up our Multiplication & Division unit in math and took our test on Thursday. The tests were graded and passed back - please look over it with your child. On Monday, we will take a pre-test on the next math unit: Multiplication for some and other will begin a Division unit.
-In reading, we are finishing up our book clubs and working on a Character Poster as a group. Groups will present their posters to the class and discussing their learning about the characters and their struggles.
-In addition to the book clubs for our reading time, we will begin our book clubs for the Global Reading Challenge. If you are curious about the 4th grade reading challenge, please check out this website to find out more information.
-Students have been really excited about beginning our Classroom Economy. A letter will come home the Monday we get back to school. It will explain how the economy will work, and many students who were in my class previously will know all about it. For those of you interested in how it works, please check out this website: www.myclassroomeconomy.org. I model my class economy system from this site, and it will give all the details.
-Last but not least: an exciting update! Starting in January, we will have a new student teacher joining our classroom! Ms. Froberg will come once a week for the first couple months and transition into a full-time role in the spring. Please welcome her to our class community when you see her around :)

In honor of Thanksgiving, I want to thank you all for reading this blog and for keeping up-to-date on your child's classroom events. It really makes a difference - Happy Thanksgiving!

Highlights from Week 11!

We have just 1 week left until our fall conferences begin! I sent out a reminder form with the schedule and a confirmation sheet that parents can return back to school. Please make sure that you return this form and mark your calendar for the exact time. As you can see from the schedule, most conferences are back to back, so it is very important that families are on time to the meeting. Students are required to come to the meeting because they will be leading the entire conference! We have been writing invitations to families about what to expect and next week will be spent practicing and role-playing how the conference will go. 

Another event that is coming up next week is our field trip on Friday (11/22) to the Washington Park Arboretum. I am still missing many field trip forms so please return those with $6 as soon as possible. I am also in need of a couple more chaperones (we have 2 so far). If you are available next Friday, please consider joining us! It will be a good time :)  

Highlights:

-Students have started to publish their final draft of their realistic fiction story. We are hoping to get these finished in time for students to share at the conference.

-Our Multiplication/Division math unit test will be given on Thursday, 11/21. I am emphasizing showing work for full credit on the math test. When reviewing the study guide and other math work (which will be sent home on Monday or Tuesday), please reiterate this with your child!

-Because we finished up our science unit on plants and will take a field trip to the arboretum, we are taking a month break from science and focus more on map skills. We will be make maps of Washington State and begin our learning about our history. The next science unit will be Sound beginning in January.

-We are finishing up our first round of Book Clubs in reading. We will get into another group based on the Global Reading Challenge books that students choose. Our 4th graders at Leschi compete annually in the GRC and more information about this will come closer to January/February. Our 3rd graders will also read in book clubs and will compete on a smaller scale. It is our first year at Leschi implementing the GRC for 3rd graders. 

-Please check your emails for a special event that may be coming up next week - I need parent help through VolunteerSpot!

-Last week, we went to join the writing celebration in our Buddy Class (Room 206). Students were able to participate in the gallery walk and read the Kindergarten/1st graders' published writing. Here are some pictures from that event:

Highlights from Week 9 &10!

With all of the festivities from the previous week, I am combining the updates from the past two weeks into one post! I cannot believe it is already November! The weeks are flying by... which brings me to my first reminder to families about wearing coats to schools. Our new school policy is that most days, we will be sending students out for rainy day recess. PLEASE make sure that your child is wearing a coat with a hood - if you do not have one, please talk to me and I will help to provide a raincoat for your child to wear. I always tell me students, "We live in Seattle... it rains! You must wear a coat on rainy days!" Which leads into my next reminder: students are getting colds and many are sick. If your child is too sick to come to school, please keep them home. It is in the best interest of the child and for other students if your child takes the time to rest and get better!

In other news, our class is preparing for conferences that are coming up! This year, students will be required to come with families to the conferences and they will lead the discussions. I will send out more detail in the coming weeks, but please sign up if you have not done so. Next week, I will send out reminders of times that families have signed up for.

Highlights:
-Last week, we made apple sauce in the classroom and wrote "how-to" steps on making apple sauce. We used a Crock Pot, so it was really simple and delicious! If you would like to make it at home, here is the link: Sarah's Apple Sauce.
-We continued writing our realistic fiction story drafts and many have started the revision process.
-Our math unit will end next week! The unit math test will be given on the following week before school gets out. I am emphasizing students showing work in all of their math probelms. Parents can help by also reiterating this point at home with homework.
-We started our Ice Cream Sundae Challenge for learning our multplication facts!
-In our Book Clubs, we are learning the different roles each member: predictor, summarizer, questioner, and wordsmith. Students get a chance to have each job and the discussions are centered around these roles.
-Last week, we also went to Peppi's Park to plant in the woods with our little buddies from Room 206. It was such a lovely time and I want to thank parents who came out to help and lead the small groups! :)
-Here are some of the pictures from the events from the past two weeks!

Highlights from Week 8!

I apologize for being a couple days late on our weekly update! Last week, we began lots of new units and routines. Here are some of the following highlights from the week (as well as an update about the field trip to the Center for Wooden Boats)!

Highlights:
-We began our realistic fiction writing unit and spent the week brainstorming and prewriting. We developed our characters, their personalities and stuggles throughout the story.
-In science, we continued observing our plants after we used our bee sticks to pollinate them - we will look for the pods that will develop over the next several days.
-We are well into our math unit on Multiplication and Division: we also started working on problem solving in math with word problems!
-Book Clubs have started! Students met in their groups and discussed the group norms: rules that will be followed by each member. Students are taking the responsibility of reading together, compromising, and having a deep book discussion.
-Here are the overdue pictures from our field trip!

Highlights from Week 7!

We just got back from our field trip to the Center for Wooden Boats and it was a blast! Thank you to the chaperones who came with us and helped paddle in our boats - it was so helpful and exciting to have you join us. I will update again with pictures in a few days along with some students posts about our trip. We also just had our Open House last night and had a great turnout! Thank you to all of the families who came and got to see all the things that have been happening in our classroom. I hope you also got to snap a few pictures at our photo booth station - I will get those pictures printed and sent out as soon as possible.

Highlights:
-We just finished our Personal Narrative writing unit and had our celebration on Thursday. Look below for some pictures from the gallery walk that we did. Students were able to read each others' published writing and leave compliments. On Monday, we will begin our new writing unit on Realistic Fiction!
-In science this week, we dissected flowers and looked carefully at all of the parts and functions.
-Our multiplication/division unit in math launched this week as well. Students are asked to practice their multiplication facts so that ALL are memorized!
-We are digging deeper into analyzing characters from the books that we are reading. We used different graphic organizers to look at the inner thoughts of our characters and comparing and contrasting them with other characters. We will continue this work next week.
-A great website for practice keyboarding skills is Dance Mat Typing. Please use this website to practice typing skills!
-I will be sending out information for Volunteer Spot: a website that helps me get supplies needed for different activities and crafts. Please check this out if you are able to contribute in any way! Thank you!

Highlights from Week 6!

In this short week, we had many things happening! We finished MAP testing and will test one more time in the spring - if you would like to know your child's score, we can discuss it at our conference coming up next month. Yesterday, we had a guest visitor/teacher and also Jesse's father, Doug, come and share about his knowledge of bees. We have been studying plant growth, pollination, and the structure of a bee. He came to show us his bee suit that he wears when he collects the honey in their backyard. Students were able to ask LOTS of questions and even sample some pure honey! Check out the picture below of Doug showing us his suit and doing a Q&A.

Highlights:
-Students chose their personal narrative draft that they want to revise, edit, and publish in the following week. We will hopefully have some published or in the publishing stage when parents come for Open House.
-As mentioned before, we learned about bees this week. Our plants have flowers budding and we are learning about how important bees are in the pollination process. We made a bee stick and have table groups of "bee condos" - please ask your child about this!
-We took our unit test on Addition & Subtraction today. I will grade and return the tests early next week. Our next unit will start on Monday and it is: Meaning of Multiplication & Division.
-In Readers Workshop, we worked on asking questions while reading and did a fun inferencing activity using a Pixar short film - it was a lot of fun!
-PLEASE turn in your field trip form as soon as possible. I still have many that have not turned in their forms.

Highlights from Week 5!

We had an extra busy week! Today alone we had MAP testing (math), picture day, spelling tests, Buddy art time, and a special assignment from Mr. Moriarty, our PE teacher. He has chosen our class to collect some data and a packet will go home today. It will be to keep a pedometer for a few days and record how many steps were taken on those days. There is information in the packet, a parent survey, and a permission form in there. Please return it as soon as the four days are up (you can choose which four, but the packet is due on Thursday). Here are some highlights from the week:

Highlights:
-Starting next week, I will be sending home a blue half sheet of paper to students who do not finish their work plans by Friday. The expectation is that every students completes their work, because I differentiate and make sure that it is at their level. Students will write their plan for how they will make up the work, whether it is by missing recess to complete it in class, or taking it home as additional homework.
-We began drafting our personal narratives (small moments) and learned about how to start a story to grab the attention of the readers.
-Our plants are really growing tall! Next week, we will observe the buds and flower that are starting to grow - we will also look at bees and how animals and plants are interdependent.
-We continued our math unit on: Addition & Subtraction, and the unit test will be on Thursday (October 10th).
-In Readers Workshop, we are looking into reading strategies such as visualizing, making connections, and making predictions. As students read, they are responding to the text using these strategies. Students record in their Readers Notebooks their thinking and response to text.
-If you haven't turned in your field trip form, please do so immediately!
-We will have another field trip in November related to our plant science unit - be on the lookout for that field trip form as well!

Have a great weekend! :)