In the last week of September we make the transition from introducing ourselves, new procedures, and new learning tools (like iPads) to using the community we have built and our tools in our 4th grade academic pursuits. Students will attend their first math class this week, continue to investigate body systems and dive into the world of personal narratives in reading and writing. To be aware of: I will be absent this Friday (September 30th). I will also be absent the following Thursday and Friday (October 6th and 7th). I promise this is not something I make a habit of, a number of important life events just happen to all fall at the same time for me this year. Luckily, our sub will be Mrs. Lampi, who often subs at Hoover, and who knows many of the students. Reading In class this week we will read Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey as part of our continued study of journeys and story elements. This week we will focus on the setting of stories. We will make setting maps for some of the stories we have read in class and students will create setting maps for other stories they are familiar with. Ask your student about the time and place of stories they are reading or watching. Ask them to share details about the setting. Often times we have to infer aspects of the setting. For example, in Wonder we can infer that Auggie, the protagonist, lives in Manhattan because he talks about his friend moving out of the city to live in Bridgeport, CT. Additionally, I will ask students do one reading homework assignment this week. All students need to continue practicing summarizing. After we read Grandfather's Journey in class students will be asked to summarize this for homework. The homework assignment will go home on Wednesday and is due on Monday, Oct. 1st. Writing This week we will continue to build our writing community and our habits as a writer. We will look at a few Jack Perlutsky poems and think about how they can inspire us to write, whether poems or prose. We will also read more of Allen Say's stories as we begin to investigate the genre of personal narrative. Ask your students about Tea with Milk and The Bicycle Man in the coming days. I’m Sorry Science We are continuing our study of body systems this week. Students will be making an infographic about a body system they are investigating (Skeletal, Muscular, Nervous, or Respiratory). Last week students read about their body system and really enjoyed watching videos about their body system and reading more here. We have discussed the importance of infographics as a tool for communicating scientific information to the public. Spelling and Grammar All students took a developmental spelling test at the beginning of the year. Different students need to work on different letter and sound combinations. In the coming months I will work with students specifically on their areas of spelling need. This week some students will work on differentiating between the "er", "ir" and "ur" sound. If this is something your student works on this week I will send home their work, so you are aware. All students have been working on learning parts of speech, identifying them in sentences and parsing them. So far, we have covered nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and articles. This week students will learn about conjunctions and prepositions. Upcoming School and Classroom Events
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