Team LS News
11-15-19
Important Dates
November 22nd Read-in
November 25th & 26th In-service no school
November 27th-November 29th no school
Service Learning Project Update
Team LS met with Ms. Cashel to begin the process of choosing a topic to focus our service learning on. We talked about democracy and how having a voice in a process is the cornerstone of true democracy. Students formed smaller groups and chose a topic to "pitch". They worked collaboratively and practiced listening skills in order to form a cohesive opinion about why their topic should be chosen. Later, students addressed the Speaking and Listening CCSS: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly. We will continue listening to pitches and come to a consensus for our upcoming project.
Mindfulness with Ms. Palermo
Listening to the Vibratone.
Breathing in calm.
Brainstorming anchor words.
Readers and Writers Workshops
Our first narratives are published! We celebrated our accomplishment with cookies and hot chocolate last Friday. During the latter part of this unit, students worked with writing partners to edit, revise and prepare for publishing. Our published authors shared their work with each other and offered feedback during our celebration. Students clearly understand character development, elaboration, story elements and dialogue. We will continue to write narratives throughout the year, however; the instructional focus and practice will be on informational text.
Readers Workshop
We are finishing up the read aloud, The Tiger Rising. This mentor text has allowed readers to practice analyzing characters, to think about why a character acts the way the act and to determine its importance in the story. We ask ourselves, "What is this story REALLY about?"As we read, we notice patterns, think about objects and characters relationships with others in the story. By reading intensely, we are able to contemplate the theme and message of text. After each mini lesson, students use these skills in their independent reading books. Our discussions have entered a whole new level! Readers are thinkers.
Rhys and Mya are sharing a good story.
Contemplating the author's craft.
Publishing is serious business!
Mystery Science, STEM Lab, & Learning about the Earth!
Mystery Science: The latest experiment "How could you survive a landslide?"
Stem Lab: Students engaged in engineering design tasks to determine effective ways to eliminate erosion.
Inside the Earth: Students are taking notes and learning about the layers of the earth.
Stem Lab Design is Successful!
Stem Lab First Trial
Designing with a $1000 budget!
Math News:
Math Homework: Students made flash cards and reviewed the strategies for multiplication facts. They should spend at least 10 minutes each night practicing math facts. The sheet is due Friday November 22nd.
Bridges Unit Lessons: The focus continues to be multiplication and division. Students are finding factors of numbers from 1 to 36 exploring prime and composite numbers, reviewing multiplication strategies, and practicing strategies for multiplication. They continue to write equations to match word problems.
Number Corner:
- Calendar Grid: Night and Day-telling time and calculating elapsed time.
- Calendar Collector: A Cup a Day-cups, quarts, & gallons
- Computational Fluency: The Number Line & Roll and Compare
- Number Problem Strings: Multi Digit Addition Strategies
- Solving Problems: Place Value, Rounding, & Comparing