Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Wonderful Wednesday!

Hey families!
We have had an awesome start to our short week!  Of course, the kids were already excited that it was a 4 day week, but each day just keeps getting better!

We got our second to last shipment of our flexible seats that were so generously donated by you!  I cannot tell you how much excitement this has brought to our class during reading time.  We are so very appreciative!

Here is our newest seat!

We've got a fun rest of the week ahead of us! We are plugging away in our multiplication unit and it's been so neat to see the strong foundation that these 4th graders already have about it!  We will keep working on our problem solving skills involving multiplication- or as the kids call them... duh, duh, duh... Word problems!

Our first Citizen of the Month assembly is on Friday where each class has nominated a student to receive this award.  The kids voted with a secret ballot for who they thought was the best citizen.  I was so happy to see lots of different names, but we did have one winner!  This will be a surprise for the student (and the rest of the class) as only myself and this student's parents know.  Who will it be?!?!

Have a good week and check back on Friday for an update about the rest of our week and what's coming up next week!

Friday, September 23, 2016

Weekly Update!

We had another amazing week!

In case you hadn't heard, we started receiving our items from our donorschoose.org project!  Oh my goodness, the kids were SOOOO excited as box after box arrived in our room.  It was like Christmas in September!  Thank you for donating and making this happen for our class.  I can't wait to get everything set up so you can see it all.

It was such a busy week that I didn't get to posting as much as I wanted to, so expect a post overload next week!  Here are some fun pictures from our week though!

Here are some pictures of our new seats!!!






Have a great weekend!

Friday, September 16, 2016

Weekly Recap

Happy Friday, families!

What an awesome week we had!

Writing
We focused on leads, imagery, and telling vs. showing this week.  Kids came up with at least 4 different beginnings they could use for one story.  These beginnings were incredible!  Then, we focused on adding imagery and finding places in our stories that could be better developed to engage our readers.  We ended this week's personal narrative focus by redrafting our stories.  We capped off the week with our weekend journal entries, so make sure to look for those in your 4th grader's backpack this weekend!

Working on our leads.  Ask your 4th grader if they recognize whose story this is;)!

Math
We worked on adding and subtracting (with regrouping) into the ten thousands this week.  I have to say, I am SUPER impressed by the kids' ability to pick up on regrouping across zeroes- do you remember how hard that was to learn as a kid?!  Of course, one of our favorite things this week was to get on our iPads during math rotations and work on ST Math.

Don't your friends give you a relaxing massage as you try to figure out a tricky math problem?

Social Studies
This week we took our quiz on continents, oceans, states, and Missouri geography.  The kids are in love with some of the videos we watched, so here's another one if you want to check it out.  Warning, it's pretty silly and you may want to turn down the speakers a bit when it's Africa's turn to talk;).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCYERpZ4Ujc

Reading
Well, in case you haven't heard, which may be impossible, we ended our week with our Reading Fort Party!  I have to say, in my 12 years of teaching, this is hands-down my favorite party!  We got a lot of silly looks carrying in our blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals this morning, but we didn't care one bit!  These kids just love cozying up with a good book.  The rainy weather even added to the ambiance!

The MegaFort





Extra Information
Remember that Friday folders come home each Friday.  Whether or not there is a comment in the comment section, please make sure you sign the folder so I know that you saw it:).  Also, kids should be bringing home their reading logs each day.  The goal with the reading logs are for kids in 4th grade to read at least 20 minutes each night (Monday-Thursday).

Important Dates
September 26- NO SCHOOL
October 4- Picture Day
October 5- 4th Grade goes to the Planetarium (RBHS)
October 19- Early Dismissal
October 28- Classroom Fall Parties


Have a great weekend!  Go Tigers!

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Busy Week!

Hey families,

I hope you are having a fantastic week- I know we are!

 I sent an email earlier this week, but we are SO excited about earning our first party of the year!  The kids picked a comfy reading afternoon.  We will be spending the afternoon cozied up with our flashlights, table forts, pillows, blankets and stuffed animals.  Some friends also earned their personal goal of 50 Dojo points and will be eating in the classroom with me on Friday.  To say I'm excited about this Friday would be a complete understatement!

 Lounging during library

 Apparently this was the guys' corner of the library today

Pulling out our D'Rowe's menus again for some math practice


Have a great week!

Friday, September 9, 2016

Happy Friday!

Hey families!

Today was the day!  We got our iPads!  As you may imagine, this was a very exciting morning for us.  I'm sure you'll hear all about it tonight!  I've had some questions regarding iPad usage.  For fourth graders, iPads will stay at school this year.  Also, iPads will not completely replace everything we are doing in the classroom (chapter books, textbooks, etc.), but rather they will be used a supplement to what we are already doing.  The kids are super motivated by them, so I plan on incorporating them as much as possible.  These will be used for instructional purposes, so the app store is actually disabled on these devices.  Teachers will be the only ones allowed to put any apps on these.  Please let me know if you have any questions about these.

Mrs. Fitch helping us set up our iPads

Writing
This week we focused on identifying story elements in personal narratives.  We worked on finding the "heart" of the story (the climax) first, then looked for the other elements that surrounded it.  Kids then coded their own personal narratives to look for these elements.  I was super impressed that kids were able to identify what story elements their papers were missing and then made goals to improve on these areas!

Partners coding personal narratives


Math
We started Topic 2 this week (adding and subtracting whole numbers).  We took our pretest to see what we already knew and then took off running with our math groups.  We primarily focused on mental math this week.  That's not a comfortable skill for everyone, but we are definitely making strides in the right direction!

Reading
This week we worked on rotating through our stations.  In our small groups, we made reading goals and set meeting norms.  We are going to start our book clubs next week and the kids are super pumped about reading some new books!

Practicing "Read to Someone"

Social Studies
We worked on learning the states that surround Missouri and also did some review on all 50 states.  We will be taking a quiz late next week over the continents, oceans, and Missouri.  Look for a study guide to come home on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  Lots of kiddos told me they're going to the football game.  I will be watching it from the comforts of my own home with two wild and cranky three year olds worn out from tailgating.  Go Tigers!

Friday, September 2, 2016

Weekly Recap

Another great week in the books for Team Pennington!  This week we were busy, as usual!

Writing
We worked on brainstorming ideas for our personal narratives this week.  We started by sketching our ideas and ended the week writing about those sketches.  Man, there are some silly stories that I'm so happy the kids aren't too embarrassed to share with us:).  Sounds like they have a lot of special times they can write about with their families!





Social Studies
We continued our unit on geography.  The kids loved watching a Youtube video called "Tour of the States."  I'm sure they'd love for you to watch it with them- I think we probably listened to the actual song about 10 times over 2 day.  I'm so happy these kids love music!

If you're interested, here's the link to the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E2CNZIlVIg

Math
The kids worked hard preparing for our test over Topic 1 which included money, rounding, and  place value.  We took these tests day and the kids did a great job!  Look for these graded tests to come home next week.  Our next unit is over adding and subtracting whole numbers.

Reading
We got into the full swing of our Daily 5 rotations.  The kids had a great time practicing all of the rotations and are getting ready to jump into our book clubs.  We are LOVING our read aloud, Zach's Lie!  I'm worried that one of these days, the kids are going to stage a walk-out if I keep only reading one chapter a day!



Extra
You'll notice that the kids wrote their own comments on the Friday Folders this week.  The school's expectation is that teachers write comments every other week.  As a fourth grade team, we decided we would have kids comment on their folders the other weeks.  Please still sign on these weeks so that I know these are making it home:).  

Dates to Remember

  • September 5th -NO SCHOOL- Labor Day
  • September 14th- PTA Meeting at 6:30
  • September 26th- NO SCHOOL- teacher work day
  • October 4th- Picture Day
  • October 19th- Early Out
  • October 31st-  NO SCHOOL- teacher work day