Highlights from Week 28!

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break! We hit the ground running this week with lots of new units and preparing for our state testing that will start THIS week! As I explained in the last post, 4th graders will be starting the writing portion this week (Writing Day 1: April 29 and Writing Day 2: May 1). 3rd graders will be working in other 2/3 classes on Tuesday and Thursday as 4th graders work on writing. 

PLEASE remember to bring back the Top Secret envelope with encouraging letters by Monday. Thank you to those who have already brought them back - it is so great to see your support during this time for your children. They will need all the love and positive words to get through these days! 

There will be NO homework for 4th graders this week and next. 3rd graders have homework this week (not testing), but will not have homework next week. Because there isn't homework given out, there will be NO Homework Club this week and next week! Please make sure that you pre-arrange rides on Homework Club days.

Highlights:

-We finished our Expository Writing unit and will take the next several weeks to free write and get back into a routine of building our writing stamina without prompts and set writing genres. Students will get to write in any form and freely write (which in my opinion is the best kind of writing there is)!

-In math, we took our unit tests this week (topic depending on which group: fractions/geometry). This week we will start a new unit: Mrs. Froberg's group - area/perimeter, Ms. Staab's group - decimals (fractions extended), and Mrs. Deese's group - coordinate planes. 

-Mrs. Froberg started a Historical Fiction Book Club unit in reading. Students are in new book clubs now and set group expectations and nominated a group leader. Mrs. Froberg started a new read aloud which doubles as our class book club: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  The topics in the historical books can be heavy and pertain to many world events. For example, Number the Stars takes place in Austria during the World War II time period - we have been talking about these events and asking lots of deep questions about humanity and life. This week, we will explore more in depth the setting and time period of each different book. Please ask your child about their book club book and what they have learned so far in a first couple chapters. 

The book club novels: (not pictured: Letters From Rifka)

-Lastly, Ms. Tedi Yasuda & Mrs. Wilson have started a coding program with some of the classes for our Technology class. Students log in to their own accounts with their username and password (they should know theirs, if not, please email me), and go through the different levels. This is a free account that can be accessed at home! You can find the site here: www.code.org. It is a truly amazing program for K-12 - Bill Gates (Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), and other software engineers, professional athletes and celebrities appear to lead the tutorials to engage students! AND it features Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies which is a huge motivator!

Important Dates:

-We have another field trip May 9 to the Moore Music Theater with all of the other 4/5 grade classes. Please be on the look-out for the field trip form and return promptly. 

-May 16 is our annual Jog-a-thon! The pledge envelopes have gone home with instructions and details. Please look over it and see what is special for the fundraising of 4th graders. The money raised will go towards their 5th grade camp fund next fall!

Highlights from Weeks 25-27

For the past few weeks, Room 307 students have been preparing for our state standardized testing: MSP (Measurement of Student Progress). For third graders, it will be the first time taking the test in reading/math. For fourth graders, it will be the second year and they will be tested in reading, math, and writing. Our testing schedule is as follows:

Writing Day 1: April 29th

Writing Day 2: May 1

Math: May 6

Reading: May 8

Please help to make sure that students are getting plenty of rest and eating a healthy breakfast to gear up!  Recent homework has been adjusted to help prepare also - this will help you and students gauge what the questions will be like and which concepts will be covered. Feel free to contact me if you have questions regarding testing!

Highlights:

-We finished our Narrative writing practice, and started on our Expository writing. Students are learning how to write 5-paragraph essays and the focus and determination has been astounding! The quality of writing has been improving and students are showing what they have learned throughout the year. 

-We are into our second fractions unit!  Equivalent fractions, mixed numbers, improper fractions, adding/subtracting mixed numbers are all concepts we have been covering in fractions!  Here are some pictures of students working on visualizing and manipulating fractions through our fraction materials:

-In reading, we just ended another book club unit and students were digging deep into the books and challenged within their groups to think in new ways.  Each group met once a week to discuss and share their ideas from the past week's reading. The next reading unit will be Historical Fiction Book Clubs.  As students get more and more used to sharing their thinking, I can see their conversation skills improving dramatically!  

-We are moving into our last science unit for the year: Sound. 

-With our Buddy Class, we made a fun country study map of Germany. This was displayed at the Taste of Leschi several weeks ago.

We also made healthy smoothies with our buddies and Mrs. Froberg taught us how to make them!

-Our weekly class meetings are now student led!  It has been exciting to see how students are learning to step up and lead the group in discussing issues, coming up with solutions and implementing those new ideas. Some ideas have worked and some have not, but the lesson is learned and the decision-making process has been very interesting:

-April Fools was full of tricks and fun activities. Students were surprised to walk into a classroom with 1st grade chairs!  They were switched with another classroom's chairs!  We also ate some brown E's and tried to solve an "impossible" word search. 

-Last but not least!  Way to go to all students who attended the State Chess Tournament today - you are amazing!

Happy Spring Break!!

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!

Highlights from Week 18!

We had a short week with Monday off to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr! Next week, we will have another shortened week with Friday off for our day between semesters. Can you believe that it is already the middle of the school year?? After that day, our specialist time will switch: PE will be on Monday/Wednesday and Art on Tuesday/Thursday. In addition to our Art/PE specialists, our third graders will be starting music next week! Leschi has hired a new music teacher for students in grades K-3. Every other week, classes will meet with the music teacher for 30 minutes twice a week. Our class was assigned Monday and Wednesday from 9:50-10:20. During this time, the 4th graders in our class will continue to have work time in the classroom.

Highlights:
-We are well into the drafting portion of our non-fiction research books. Students are learning to use their notes to write about their topic in their own words. We will continue this work for the next few weeks.
-New math units have started for all three math groups. Ms. Deese's group will begin a unit on Multiplying with Decimals, my 4th grade group is learning Multiplying with Double Digits, and my 3rd grade group is learning Division Concepts. During this unit, I will also be pulling small groups to review and learn some new geometry concepts that you may see in the homework as well.
-In science, students were introduced to three types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. We will begin studying each of our 12 types of rocks and learn what makes each unique.
-Every student has written a bio on their Medieval Times character. Those introductory letters are hanging outside our classroom - come check it out! Ms. Anders is helping us by making busts of our characters with clay during art!
-Next week will be our last week dissecting non-fiction books in reading. The unit starting in February will be Poetry! Another exciting part of reading time is our new couch in the classroom! We had a classroom meeting today setting up some rules and expectations on the couch - here it is!

-Genuis Hour: we took some time off from Genuis Hour during the holidays and because our weeks have been so short recently. However, we continued today with learning how to set up a website! Students were so excited and engaged in learning how to create their own site. A parent letter has gone home today that has a permission slip portion so that parents can sign off on students creating a site. It is a student blog through Weebly, and teachers have the access and control what can be published on each site. If your child is going to present their information through a blog, please sign the form. The blog is only for the Genuis Hour Project and posts must be related to the topic. It is optional, so students are not required to make their own blog. Here is an infographic on how blogging can help students:

-We are going on our next field trip on Valentine's Day with Ms. Deese's class! We will be going to MOHAI, so please return the field trip form with $4 as soon as possible. Please consider chaperoning as well! Thank you!

*We will have our first auction next Thursday (January 30th). If you would like to donate any cool little prizes or funds for me to get prizes, please let me know as soon as possible!! 

Highlights from Week 17

Happy Seahawks weekend!  Leschi celebrated Blue Friday and here is how many students were dressed! 

How we decorated our room :)

Highlights:

-Students are finishing up taking notes on their non-fiction books and ready to begin drafting this week!

-My math group took the math test on Friday and did very well. I graded and passed back the tests so please ask students to see how they did. Ms. Deese's math group will be taking their math test on double digit division on Wednesday. Both groups will start the new unit this week. 

-We observed more of our rocks this week and will learn to categorize them in science: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. 

-Students were assigned roles/characters for our Medieval Times unit. They will be making their characters using clay during art class this week. With Ms. Deese's class, they worked on the castle and will finish the castle model this week!

-In reading, we started the second half of our nonfiction unit on Narrative Nonfiction and comparing it to Informational Nonfiction text. Students also had deep discussions on nonfiction articles from our Scholastic Magazines. Check out the picture of the group of boys having a conversation below!

-With our Buddy Class, we watched a Martin Luther King Jr. video and worked on some writing together.

Going to the Super Bowl! Go Hawks!!