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!

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

This Week's Happenings!

Hey Families!

We have had a busy, busy week!  I just wanted to a quick post with some fun pictures I've taken this week.  Check back Friday for a recap of the week!

When you read a poem about armpits, you typically receive this response.

And this one.

Today we worked with money and making change.  What better way to do it than to run a restaurant!  Even better, let's pretend it's D'Rowe's.  Kids placed orders and  made change for each other.  Then, in guided groups, it was my turn to be the customer!  I ordered a lot of food and had a lot of correct change returned to me!

One turkey wrap with fries, coming right up!

And last, but not least...here's a group picture of a lot of our class waiting for the rest of the friends before morning meeting!

I'll post more on Friday!  Have a great rest of your week!

Happy Friday!

Hey Families!

We had a great week in 4th grade and it seriously went by FAST!

Writing
We started the week with our personal narrative pre-assessment.  The kids had to write about their best friend.  Then we moved into studying published personal narratives as well as some super kid personal narratives from previous 4th and 5th graders.  We ended the week writing in our weekend journals- I hope you're enjoying those!  The kids were so excited to share the letters you wrote back with their friends- thank you so much for taking the time to write those.

Social Studies
We started our geography unit this week.  We started with talking about where we are in the world (planet, hemisphere, continent, region, state, city, street).  One of the kids' favorite parts of social studies this week was watching a silly clip of a talking map telling us all about the continents and oceans.  That "Europe" was a real ham!

Math
We got into the full swing of our math groups this week and had so m uch fun!  We definitely have our rotations down.  Our first topic focuses on numeration.  We reviewed standard, expanded, and word form this week as well as rounding.  Today, we are focusing on values of money.  We will most likely be ready to take our first math test at the end of next week.  Look for a review to be sent home on Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

Reading
This week we focused really hard on our reading stamina.  On day 2 of stamina, I was completely blown away that the kids read for 27 minutes!  We are talking about true, engaged reading for almost a half an hour for 19 4th graders- wowzas!  We will slowly be working our way up to doing our Daily 5 rotations.

As you can see, we had a really busy week!  In addition to these subjects, we are still working on building our community.  One fun way we did this was when kids worked in groups to make something out of some random items from my craft cabinet.  They had to problem-solve, work as a team, and make decisions together.  The results were pretty fun- some hot air balloons, a faulty security camera, a trumpet, and a paddle ball game!

We are also working on our class rules (if these rules seem familiar, they are from the Whole Brain Teaching model that lots of schools in CPS use):
Rule 1:  Follow directions quickly
Rule 2:  Raise your hand to share an idea
Rule 3:  Raise your hand to leave your seat
Rule 4:  Make smart choices
Rule 5:  Keep your dear teacher happy
We are doing a great job with these rules, although we are really working on #1 and #2 :).

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Working on that Stamina!

Hey families!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We got right back into the swing of things on Monday.  We have been plugging away at our beginning of the year assessment, but there'a light at the end of the tunnel!  By the end of the week I expect most of those to be finished!

We started math groups yesterday and the kids got the hang of the rotations really quick!  There are 4 rotations after a whole group lesson:  Meet with Mrs. P, Independent Work, Math Game, and Computer.  So far we've had zero issue getting the classwork done in the given time, so hooray for no homework!

Speaking of homework, in case you haven't checked it out in the handbook yet, BEU has a school-wide homework policy.  Starting soon, students will be bringing home a reading log with suggested reading times that increase as students get older.  This is the only homework your student will receive (unless they don't finish work given during class- this should be very rare).  Hopefully this will allow your family time to spend more quality time and not feel so stressed at the end of the day.

Lastly, today we started working on our reading stamina.  We talked about what it means and what it looks like.  For our first day, I am happy to report that the entire class was able to read without distraction for a solid 8 minutes.  This may not sound like a lot (especially to those kiddos who could read 24 hours a day), but to get 19 kids to read without dazing off into the sunset on the first day of practicing is pretty cool!  I snapped some pictures so you could see how awesome we did!

I hope you have a great week and check back in on Friday for a recap of the week!



 

First Week Down!

Hey families!

We had an absolutely amazing first week at BEU!  I can already tell we've got lots of personality, brains, and are just plan fun- we are going to have a fantastic year!

There were so many favorite parts of this week for me, but one of the best parts was an activity we did based around the book The English Roses.  Our class really put our thinking caps on and made predictions about the book based on random quotes I had copied, cut out and handed to kids.  As a group, they came up with some incredible predictions and really used each other to connect their ideas.  Another favorite of our class this week was "Come on 6!"  It is a super fun dice game that's easy to learn and easy to play!  If you play with your 4th grader, watch out because they can get pretty competitive;).  The kids also enjoyed playing Part/Whole Bingo too!

Today the kids will be bringing home their "Weekend Journals."  These journals will come home most Fridays with a letter your fourth grader has written to you or to someone else in the family.  Your job is to communicate back to your child in the form of a letter in that same notebook.  There are directions on the front, but it's really as simple as that!  This will be really fun to look back on at the end of the year and hopefully for years to come!

Kids asked me on the first day if they could bring a snack and I told them that was just fine with me!  I will not be providing a snack, but I am more than happy for your child to bring their own and eat it in our long stretch in the morning.  Kids can also bring water bottles and leave those on their desks throughout the day.

Friday folders will also be coming home most Fridays, but not this week.  Your fourth grader will start bringing home these folders next Friday.

As always, please contact me if you have any questions or just want to check in.  You can always reach me by email at apennington@cpsk12.org or at the BEU office.  Have a great weekend!

Welcome!

Thank you for a great Meet the Teacher night!  It was so fun meeting all of the new 4th graders and their families!  Hopefully we will be able to use this as an additional communication tool so you can be in the know about what's going on at school.  I will be posting at least two times a week, so check back often!  In addition to this blog, you can also keep in touch with our class through Twitter.  My Twitter handle is @Mrs_APennington.