Mrs. Grimes' 4th Grade!
September 15-19, 2014
Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, Sept 17- Fourth Grade field trip to Montreat College
Thursday, Sept 18- 3rd-5th grade Dance
Monday, Sept 22- Interims go home
Tuesday, Sept 23- Fall Open House
Don't forget! Field Trip to Montreat on Wednesday!
Home Visits
Thank you again for understanding the importance of making connections with you and your child outside of school!
Curriculum this Week
Reading- This week, we will continue learning and practicing the five stations of the Daily 5. We will continue building our reading stamina during Read to Self, practice Check for Understanding during Read to Someone, and practice our writing and comprehension skills during Write about Reading. This week we will introduce the last 2 stations of the Daily 5 which are Word Work and Listen to Reading.
I will also let all students know their new and current reading level as of Monday. (Feel free to ask your child!). I have explained to students that although they will have a new reading level they may read a book under and above their own reading level depending on the purpose of their reading.
Math- Last week, we decided to practice our place value one more day before having our Place Value quiz. So, this week we will have a quiz on Place Value on Monday. We will then work on adding and subtracting multidigit numbers. For the most part, this should be a review for students but we will be working with larger numbers than what they are used to.
Writing- This week, we will be working on developing characters to use in our stories. We will focus on using characteristics that we want to see in books that we read. You can help your child by reminding them to use correct punctuation and capital letters in their writing.
Genius Hour
This year, the 4th grade team will introduce Genius Hour Projects to our students. The search-engine giant, Google, allows its engineers to spend 20% of their time to work on any project that they want. The idea is very simple. Allow people to work on something that interests them, and productivity will go up. Google’s policy has worked so well that it has been said that 50% of Google’s projects have been created during this creative time period. Ever heard of Gmail or Google News? These projects are creations by passionate developers that blossomed from their 20-time projects.
Goals of this project:
*to promote, support, and model creative, innovative thinking and inventiveness
*to allow students an opportunity to discover/investigate one of their passions and
reflect on/share their learning with others
*provide students and teachers an opportunity to develop skill sets that are valuable in
any learning situation (research, experimentation, collaboration, creativity, problem
solving and critical thinking)
*to provide an opportunity for classes to share their Genius and Passion Projects with
others
Brainstorming:
We have seen some remarkable projects and wonderful ideas come about from our brainstorming process. We are asking that for this project round students work alone on their projects so that we can all adjust to the process. Next time, however we will allow it as an option. At the end of the project we want them to have made something that is a completed product. It could be an event or service to help others in the school or community. It could also be a digital project like a short film or video game.
Proposal:
Once the student has an idea of what project they want to pursue, they begin writing the proposal. This is how the student will “pitch” the project;
In this proposal, students will answer the following questions.
What is your project?
Who is the audience / user base / client base for this project?
Why is this project worthwhile?
What do you expect to learn from this project?
What PRODUCT will you have to show at the end of the course?
What sort of equipment will you need and where will you get it?
What is your timeline for completing (or launching) your project?
Project work time:
Students will work on their Genius Hour Projects during Roots and Wings each day, Monday-Thursday. They will have about 35 minutes each day. We are encouraging students to make a wise use of that time in order in accomplish their project.
Where Parents Come In:
Parents, you are a lovely support system! And like any other project we need your support for this project to be successful. Since some students have shown interest in projects that may require purchases of products/materials, we are asking that you all read over their proposal (attached) and sign this form agreeing to “approve” your child’s project. You will need to purchase items they need for their project and send them in with your child when he/she needs them.