It's hard to believe that my maternity leave is now over and I will be rejoining my fourth grade classroom this morning. While I will miss my little one, I know that she is receiving great care and I look forward to finishing the school year with your child.
Changes:
Classroom Website:
There will be a few changes that I will be making for the remainder of this school year and one of them will be my website. Starting this week (I am still currently working out some kinks and hope to have it up by tomorrow), I will be switching to a Blogger site and there you will find our Weekly Updates (formerly the Bracke Bugle), which will be posted by Monday each week. You will continue to use this to read about what the students will be learning about, good questions that you can ask your child at home, as well as any important updates, so please check back weekly. I am hoping that you will enjoy this format more and find it easier to access on all devices.
Bloomz:
On Monday, a form will go home in your child's binder regarding a new classroom app that we will be using to keep you informed and updated on classroom happenings, calendar events, sign-ups, and etc. This will work both on computers and smart phones/devices and it will be a great tool to keep you engaged in our classroom, as well as recieve quick updates and photos all in a private and secure environment. While I will still send emails, Bloomz will be an important tool that I will use to send quick messages, so I encourage all of you to sign up as soon as possible, that way you won't miss out on updates and reminders!
Upcoming Events/Remiders:
Election Day:
As a reminder this Tuesday is Election Day and our school is a polling site. Administration has asked that all students wear their yellow donated Morrisville T-shirt so that all students and staff be easily identified. Please have your child wear their yellow shirt (not just a Morrisville T-shirt). On this day we will be eating lunch in the classroom. All students who wish to purchase lunch may still do so. Remember there will be a 2 hour delay which means students are tardy if they show up after 11:15.
Spelling Bee:
We will have our classroom spelling bee on Thursday, November 10th. We will start the spelling bee first thing in the morning, so please make sure that your child is at school and on time that morning. Spelling lists were sent home about a week ago. The top two spellers will go on to our school-wide spelling bee on Tuesday, December 6th.
Veteran's Day:
This Friday is Veteran's Day and there will be no school. Enjoy the long weekend!
Book Fair:
The Scholastic Book Fair will be coming to Morrisville on Monday, Novmeber 28th. Students will have a chance to preview the books at some point during the school day to create their wish lists. They may bring in money to purchase books after this point during the morning or with a parent after school. You will also be able to purchase books at Literacy Night on Tuesday, December 6th.
Symphony Field Trip:
Our class will be attending a field trip to the Meymandi Orchestra Hall in downtown Raleigh on Friday, December 16th. We will be leaving school at 9:30 sharp, so please make sure that your child is at school and on time that morning. Mr. Sharpe also requests that students dress nicely for this event. If your child wants to bring a change of clothes for when we return, that is fine.
What We Are Learning This Week:
Reading:
This week in reading the students will continue to analyze the text structure of nonfiction texts. The text structure refers to how the text is organized or the manner in which the author is presenting the information. The students will also learn how each text structure has a thinking map that is paired with it to better help them understand the text and more concretely visualize how the text is organized, as well as help them with identifying the main idea. The students will work on analyzing the following two questions using Push Your Thinking:
-What is the text structure and how do you know?
-Why do you think the author chose to organize the text that way?
The Text Structures We Will Focus on This Week:
-Description (bubble map)
-Sequential (flow map)
-Cause & Effect (multi-flow map)
-Problem & Solution (flow map)
-Compare & Contrast (double bubble map)
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
-What are the five main text structures that we studied this week?
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
-What are the five main text structures that we studied this week?
-What Thinking Map matches each text structure?
-What are some qualities that the description or sequence text structure has?
-What vocabulary is essential to know to deepen your understanding of the text?
Writing:
This week in writing, the students will continue their research of their North Carolina topic for the class alphabet book. They will be using laptops, iPads, and the Media Center to search for resources that answer their research question(s). The students will then start to write a rough draft paragraph, making sure to include the following:
Every Paragraph Should Have the FAB FIVE:
1. A topic sentence that states the main idea
2. At least 3-5 supporting detail sentences
3. Transitional words/phases
4. Content specific vocabulary
5. A concluding statement that restates the main idea in a new way
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
-What question are you choosing to focus your research on your topic?
-What interesting facts are you learning about your topic?
-What are some possible text features that you could use in your articles?
Math:
This week in math, the students will be working on writing multiplication and division comparison equations. For example, they might complete a problem using these comparison statements:
Rashme picked 15 apples, while her little brother Eli picked 3 apples. We can compare by saying Rashme picked 5 times as many apples as Eli picked because 15 is 5 times as many as 3. A second way we can compare two quantities is to describe the smaller amount in terms of the larger amount. This requires a unit fraction. If we divided Rashme’s apples equally into groups of 3, we would get 5 equal parts. Each of these equal parts is called 1/5 (one of the 5 equal parts). We can compare by saying Eli picked 1/5 times as many apples as Rashme picked. 3 is 1/5 as many as 15.
The students will then finish the week by taking an assessment on this skill Wednesday. Starting on Thursday, the students will be working on problem solving.
The students will then finish the week by taking an assessment on this skill Wednesday. Starting on Thursday, the students will be working on problem solving.
LearnZillion offers some helpful videos on Multiplicative Comparisons that you may visit for further practice with this standard.:
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
-Can you share with me an example of a multiplicative comparison statement?
-What are the two ways we can use multiplication and division to compare the two quantities?
-What are some strong problem solving techniques that you have learned this week?
Social Studies:
This week, the students will continue to learn about the three different branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial branches. They will also be investigating how a bill becomes a law and how all three branches have to work together to make this happen. They will end the week, by comparing the similarities and differences between state and local governments.Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
-What are the roles and responsibilities of the three branches of government?
-Can you explain how a bill becomes a law?
-How are local and state governments similar? Different?
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