The Ritenour Review
2017 - 2018 Fourth Grade Weekly News
Code of Hour and Fun Guests
Whew! What a week! I hope you all had a chance to read in the Friday Flyer about our VIP guests at BME this week - the state superintendent, a senator and several administrators from ZCS buildings and department heads from Indiana's Department of Education! Whew! It was quite the entourage in our building and classroom, but what a great opportunity for such powerful individuals to see the capabilities and talents of our students! In fourth grade, we decided to up the skill meter and we opted to work on JavaScript. Dr. McCormick, the State Superintendent, was beyond complementary of the students in our classroom and loved their quirky comments and responses, too.
This past week:
In math, we came to a close on our first fraction unit. Man, oh, man that is a tough unit! I am still grading the last set of tests, but I am so proud of their progress this unit. From the information I pulled from their pre-assessments to the end results on their unit test, I am pleasantly pleased to see the growth. On Friday, we kicked off our last unit before break - multiplication! I think the class is excited to get back into a unit that brings a lot of joy to many.
In reading, we continued working on summarizing non-fiction texts. Our biggest hurdle continues to be identifying the main idea of a text or even a chunk of a text. We tend to get caught up in the fascinating facts and forget to support our main idea with different details. We will continue practicing this skill again this week. Ultimately, this is THE most important comprehension skill for NF. We are mixing up our texts and using different topics to keep our interest level high.
In science, we worked with speed and velocity most of the week. We finished up the week talking about the design components that add friction in good (tires) and bad ways.
Coming up next!
Math: We work on multiplication - Multidigit!
Reading: We practice using our summarizing skills and move into our research clubs.
Science: We will continue building in our Motion and Design unit.
Writing: We will continue working on our thesis statements and revise reasons to support our claims and opinions.
Working with different variables and performing FAIR tests
Special's Schedule
- Monday: STEM
- Tuesday: Music
- Wednesday: Art
- Thursday: Wellness **bring/wear tennis shoes
- Friday: Library
Upcoming Dates!
December 14th - Boone Meadow Voices concert in the BME cafe at 7:00 PM
December 25th-January 5th - School closed for winter break