Reading
This week in reading students will continue reading Finding the Titanic as we work on identifying the main ideas of the chapters in the story. In non-fiction texts fourth graders need to be able to identify the main idea and supporting details in short passages, paragraphs, chapters and books. Main idea is often related to an author's point of view which we focused on last week. Students are also beginning small reading groups this week. These groups allow students to work on reading skills fitting to their needs as well as explore new texts and genres they might otherwise not have encountered. Writing This week students will be selecting a draft from their writing notebook. Throughout the next two weeks students will work to finish this draft, revise it, edit it and publish a final copy. The final copy will be made it to construction paper covered books for our class library. Reading their own work and each other's work as a book can be really exciting for students. The revising part of this project can be challenging for students. Change is hard. It may help to ask your student about their draft and what changes they are thinking about making. Dead Word Eulogy Last week students chose the word they will put to rest with our dead word eulogy project. Many students chose "bad" and "good". Students came up with very creative synonyms for their dead words. This week students will brainstorm events from the "life" of their word. This project can be worked on at home so there is not as much class time devoted to these tasks. I will remind students that they can work on it at home as well. Science This is the last week we will be working on structures and functions of life. Students will do some experimenting with the Bess Beetles this week as we work on comparing structures of life across different species. Election Mini-Unit In honor of the 2016 presidential election, and the unique opportunity that presidential election years offer for learning, I have planned an election mini unit. I plan to start this unit next week (October 24th) and wrap it up the week of the election. The goal of this unit is for students to practice researching and evaluating sources. Ultimately, students will produce comparative candidate profiles which will have the goal of being being factual, accurate and professional. The candidate profiles are meant to communicate information that could inform voters about the candidates. I realize this election year is more heated than in past years, however I have fond memories of researching presidential candidates in grade school as a way of learning about the election process and the qualities of a president. If you don't want your student to participate in the unit, please let me know early this week so I can plan alternative activities. I also want assure you that I have structured our learning in such a way as to promote understanding and not divisiveness. Conferences Please remember to sign up for a conference time on either October 28th or the 30th. Students will not have school these days, nor on Nov. 1st. The PickaTime system will open this Wednesday, the 19th, for signing up. Unfortunately, we don't have time slots for parents to sign up to talk with their students math teacher, so if you have questions for them contact them by phone or e-mail.
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