It was a pleasure to meet with all of you and talk about your wonderful students during conferences. Thank you for coming in! Continue to look at for posts on seesaw as students share more of the work they are proud of. This week at Hoover:
This week’s focus is the double vowel sound -ie and -ei. The first vowel has a long sound and the second is silent. Also “i” before “e” except after “c” is included:
Science This week we will wrap up our structures and functions of life unit with a group project in which students will use the scientific method to ask and test one question about structures and functions of life. Students will write a report of their question, procedure, and results as a group. Reading In reading this week we continue our focus on expository nonfiction. We are using the strategy of asking questions before reading in order to help us pay closer attention to what we read and learn from the text. Students seem to really enjoy our mentor text for this unit which focuses on animal sense. Writing This week we continue to focus on looking at examples of and drafting personal narratives. As students develop drafts that they think they would like to take through the writing process they may post partial drafts to seesaw for your feedback.
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Congratulations to all of you on awesome fundraising for Hoover. Students had a great time celebrating their fundraising on Friday, and we are so excited about all the fun and academic things this effort allows us to do here at Hoover.
This week is full of fun and important events:
It seems in preparation for a Halloween at school, for the first time in a long time, that our classroom is full of crawling critters: namely, crayfish and Bess Beetles. I was sort of a crawling critter last week, as I was out with a bad cold for two days. If there is anything I missed in that time, which I have forgotten to respond to, please let me know. (Reminder that Halloween is a "sports spirit day".)
Important, school wide reminders:
Spelling Words this week: This week’s list is vocabulary from our recent reading unit:
Reading In reading this week we continue with our study of expository text but we are beginning a new unit which focuses on questioning. In this unit students practice asking and answering questions about nonfiction texts. Writing: Personal Narrative We have wrapped up our first writing unit which was all about students becoming part of a writing community, writing freely in a way that interests them and using the writing process to publish a piece of writing. We will now begin a writing unit in which we focus on the personal narrative genre. Particularly students will publish personal narratives about their name. We will read a number of examples of authors writing creatively about their names and the names of characters and use these examples to craft our own personal name narratives. If you haven't talked to your student in the past about the story or history of their name this would be a great time to start!. Science This week we continue our study of structures and functions with the structure and functions of Bess Beetle anatomy. By the end of the week we will compare this crayfish anatomy as we wrap up our structures and functions unit. Welcome to the second week of October! Students have taken a lot of great pics of our crayfish fun last week. Check them out on their iPads if they brought them home.
My apologies, if I have missed responding to you. I was out on Friday and I am out sick today, Monday. It’s just a bad cold and I hope to be better and back tomorrow, Tuesday.
In this final week of examining expository text features students will read a text on 19th century migration to America. Students will continue to analyze and use text features to better understand the text. Students will also do some writing about reading to demonstrate what they have learned about expository texts. Writing This week students will edit and publish one or more pieces of writing which they worked on drafting and revising last week. This first writing unit, which focuses on allowing students to write freely and using the writing process will then conclude. We will next move to more genre specific writing. Science This week in science we continue learning about crayfish anatomy. We will also explore how their anatomy influences their preferred habitat and behaviors. Spelling Words this week:
Finally, it feels like fall and that is just the perfect weather for school in my opinion. Over the last month students have done a great job of getting to know the classroom, the school and each other. Now that they're feeling much more comfortable we can begin our academic pursuits in earnest.
Important reminders for this week:
This week in reading we continue to read expository texts, discuss our understanding of the text and use text features to better understand what we are reading. This week we will focus more on magazine and newspaper articles. Writing At the end of last week students moved from pre-writing to drafting their first published piece of writing. We are using google docs to type our drafts. This week we will continue to discuss and participate in the writing process moving our first pieces from drafting, to revising, to editing, to published. Number Corner October's number corner focuses on a review of equivalent fractions and money. We will also play a game to review multi-digit addition and subtraction to the millions. Science Last week our crayfish arrived, and much to our great sadness only 3 managed to live through their first night. Fortunately, the company is sending us more this week and we will begin our investigation of crayfish structures. Book Study Our book study focus continues to be a whole class reading of Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehert. This week we focus on how readers keep track of and use important events in the story in order to better understand and summarize the plot. Spelling Words this week: Double Vowel Sounds: -oa and -oe
Some important school/classroom notes:
In reading this week we will begin our second unit. This unit focuses on Expository Texts. We will focus particularly on using text features in expository text to understand the text better. During independent reading time your student will read on expository text of their choosing. You might consider reading expository texts at home during the next couple of weeks (but that's optional). Writing In the third week of our first writing unit students are beginning to have a substantial collection of writing starts and ideas. This week we explore more examples that can be models for our own writing. This week we look at examples of factual texts, both narrative nonfiction and expository. Students will soon choose from among their collection of ideas to draft, revise, edit and publish their first writing piece. Science This week we continue our study of the structures and functions of life with human anatomy. Your student will become an expert in one of the the body systems we are studying: circulatory, nervous, muscular/skeletal, and digestive. Additionally, our crayfish will arrive this week and next week we will delve into studying their unique anatomy.
The first full week of school was full of getting to know each other, our classroom and our fourth grade routine. It was so fun to learn about everyone's hobbies, interests and talents as students shared their Me Bags. We have many martial artists, fine artists, travelers, soccer players, musicians and many students with unique talents and interests. It was a busy week, and I wouldn't be surprised if your fourth grader slept well this past weekend.
Important News for this Week
This week we continue to practice our new reading routines including: individual reading, gathering for reading, talking about reading and writing about reading. Students will also learn about our vocabulary study routine. Writing This week students explore examples from authors who wrote about their own life (particularly Allen Say). We will continue to practice our writing time routine this week, as students build writing stamina and begin collecting ideas for writing in their journal. Science In science this week we continue to explore our brains, and how having a growth mindset improves our brains natural neuroplasticity. Later this week we will move onto exploring other key body systems, beginning with the muscular system. Social Studies We will learn about our last tool this week. Our courage tool. Spelling Words for This Week This weeks words focus on open syllables, particularly the rule "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking".
I hope to see you all at curriculum night and that you have a fantastic week. After an awesome first week, I couldn't be more excited for this school year. We had a blast getting to know each other and launching the school year. We set gold medal goals, made silly skits about how to behave in school, built marshmallow towers, wrote poems, learned about our brains and much more. Throughout September we will continue to learn more about one another, build our cooperation skills and learn the routines and expectations of the classroom; and we'll keep having fun along the way. Some first week notes:
Over the first couple weeks of school I am introducing students to 10 tools that can help them to be successful in the classroom and around the school. These tools help students manage stressful situations, cooperate with others and work towards their goals. Each tool goes along with a classroom "guideline for success."
Reading and Writing This week, as we launch reading and writing, we will build our enthusiasm for the written word by reading and exploring many fun examples of literature. These books will give us opportunities to try out a variety of writing styles and begin to practice our reading comprehension. Science We continue our study of the brain this week, with a focus on neuroplasticity and growth mindsets. Check out this great youtube video on neuroplasticity. Spelling
This week we will begin our spelling routine. Our first 11 words focus on open syllable words (constant-vowel combinations that end with a long vowel sound). Students practice their spelling words for morning work, when they enter the classroom. If they do not complete the work in the morning, then the expectation is that they will finish it for homework. Here are this weeks words:
On this sad and exciting last week of school I thought I'd break it down day by day for you.
Monday 12:30-2:00 is the school wide talent show. Other than that Monday is a normal day. Students will bring home their binders as usual on Monday, but they don't need to bring them back to school after that. Tuesday 10:00 am- 2:00 pm is our class field trip to Chepenefa Park. Students should wear clothes and shoes that they are comfortable to walk and run in. Unless your child does not want a hot dog or hamburger, they need not bring a lunch. Students can bring sports equipment, but they need to be able to carry it to Chepenefa as we walk there, unless a parent is driving to the park and can bring it. Wednesday We are going to have a little class party that students earned Wednesday morning. The afternoon 1:00 -2:30 is field day. Students should wear clothing that is comfortable and shoes they can run in and even get wet in. Thursday This is our last day of school. Our school wide end of year assembly will be at 9:00 am. There is extra early dismissal at 12:40pm. It's been a great year and an amazing first year at Hoover for me. Thank you for all the ways in which you support what happens at school and in the classroom. Let's make it a great last week! |
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