Week of Oct. 15

I really enjoyed the presentations last week! A lot of effort went into many of them and I was very impressed. Thanks to all my wonderful students and their families and friends for taking the time to create such terrific productions! The next book and project is "student choice", make sure your student chooses his or her own book. I have many ideas for projects on the blog.

The chip reward celebration this time will be a "Fall Festival" on Oct. 26, in the afternoon. We will have music, games and dancing. The date just happens to correspond to the day students may wear costumes (for $1) to school. Parents are asked to supply snacks and drinks. The 4th grade team will get a sign-up list out this week. In order to participate, students must have at least 80 chips per teacher (having not lost more than 20 in any class) and no suspensions or excessive office referrals. This is a reward for behavior, not grades. Let's Monster Mash!

Last week, I sent home a blind reading comprehension assessment. Many of you are concerned about your child's grade on this. Please do not be. If I am concerned, I will speak to you and we'll work out an intervention program. Comprehension is the most difficult skill to master in Language Arts and it is the most difficult skill to measure. Scores for this will usually be lower than other assessments, but it is important for me to see where a student falls in an unannounced, unpracticed assessment. After all, students will not have the questions in advance to the EOG. In fact, because this year it is completely new, none of us have an idea of what the reading EOG will look like. I am working diligently to prepare students for this more rigorous test.

This week in class; we continue with Harriet The Spy. The goal is to complete the book next week and begin the Unit 2, which is focused on animals in writing and reading. This book is really heating up this week and I imagine you will hear quite a bit about the next series of events in our young spy's life.

We will also learn to write dialog  this week. I have observed that this is a skill no-one in 4th grade has mastered, so we will practice this all week.

We will also, in lieu of a vocabulary test this week ( do I hear shouts of joy, again?), students will begin to learn about Greek and Latin Root words. We will also learn some new words from Harriet the Spy. Reading homework continues Mon-Thurs. Please make sure your student reads for the entire 30 minute period. Independent reading is extremely important to student success this year.

From poetry recommended by the 4th grade Common Core:

 They Were My People                                                 by Grace Nichols

 They were those who cut cane

 to the rhythm of the sunbeat

 They were those who carried cane

 to the rhythm of the sunbeat

 They were those who crushed cane

 to the rhythm of the sunbeat

 They were women weeding, carrying babies

 to the rhythm of the sunbeat

They were my people, working so hard

 to the rhythm of the sunbeat - - long ago

 to the rhythm of the sunbeat.