I cannot believe that today begins October. Your kiddos have been so busy creating systems for us to organize and run our classroom efficiently. They spent over a week brainstorming how to organize our classroom library and arranging books into categories that help them find books to read. Students have also been practicing stop and jots with our class read alouds and independent reading books. I will be helping students to choose just right books and they begin reading intensely.
We have spent the first few weeks of school practicing writing with focus. Students have focused on a single moment and on perspective. This week students will focus on setting and on objects. This practice helps guide students into incorporating detail into their pieces. Students writers have also begun to give and receive feedback. Feedback comes from teachers in the form of quick over-the-shoulder conferences during writing as well as written feedback in their writing notebooks. Students also have the option to share their writing at the end of each lesson and they practice giving one another specific feedback using sentence starters such as : "When you used the word or phrase____________, it made me feel__________________." Students are quite eager to share their writing.
We have spent our first few weeks of math, reviewing multiplication and sharing strategies to multiply. Students are working to build fluency in multiplication facts through review of multiplication combinations. Our goal is that students develop efficient strategies to solve multiplication problems that they can rely on as numbers become larger. This week we will begin our second math unit which focuses on display and interpreting data.
We have also learned about our Fantastic Elastic Brains and the need for learners to have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. We have a display in our classroom with the type of language learners with growth mindset include in self-talk when working on challenging tasks. We will continue this week by focusing on grit and how to develop grit in academics.
Finally, fourth and fifth grade students this year are piloting an assessment program called iReady. This is a computer-based assessment tool which will help teachers tailor their instruction to meet learners where they are throughout the year and provide specific learning supports and extensions in literacy and math. I'm excited to have another data point to help me to be the best teacher I can for every student in my class.
I continue to enjoy getting to know all of the boys and girls in this fourth grade class. Each day, I get to have some one-on-one time with different students and I'm so excited to learn more about their home life, interests, and goals. I can tell this year is going to be a great one. Thank you for all that you are doing to support your child's fourth grade year.
We have spent the first few weeks of school practicing writing with focus. Students have focused on a single moment and on perspective. This week students will focus on setting and on objects. This practice helps guide students into incorporating detail into their pieces. Students writers have also begun to give and receive feedback. Feedback comes from teachers in the form of quick over-the-shoulder conferences during writing as well as written feedback in their writing notebooks. Students also have the option to share their writing at the end of each lesson and they practice giving one another specific feedback using sentence starters such as : "When you used the word or phrase____________, it made me feel__________________." Students are quite eager to share their writing.
We have spent our first few weeks of math, reviewing multiplication and sharing strategies to multiply. Students are working to build fluency in multiplication facts through review of multiplication combinations. Our goal is that students develop efficient strategies to solve multiplication problems that they can rely on as numbers become larger. This week we will begin our second math unit which focuses on display and interpreting data.
We have also learned about our Fantastic Elastic Brains and the need for learners to have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. We have a display in our classroom with the type of language learners with growth mindset include in self-talk when working on challenging tasks. We will continue this week by focusing on grit and how to develop grit in academics.
Finally, fourth and fifth grade students this year are piloting an assessment program called iReady. This is a computer-based assessment tool which will help teachers tailor their instruction to meet learners where they are throughout the year and provide specific learning supports and extensions in literacy and math. I'm excited to have another data point to help me to be the best teacher I can for every student in my class.
I continue to enjoy getting to know all of the boys and girls in this fourth grade class. Each day, I get to have some one-on-one time with different students and I'm so excited to learn more about their home life, interests, and goals. I can tell this year is going to be a great one. Thank you for all that you are doing to support your child's fourth grade year.