Meeting Gronk!

Today in class we were talking about sports because everyone at school was buzzing about the Red Sox game tonight.  We got on the subject of the New England Patriots and the kids were talking about how awesome Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski are.  They were completely surprised when I told them that I had met Gronk.  They wanted me to post the picture of us on the blog so here it is:

 

 

The Red Sox are World Series Bound!

What a season the Red Sox have had!  I'm so excited that they are headed to the World Series!  I'm looking forward to seeing them battle it out against the St. Louis Cardinals!  To celebrate the Red Sox's success we will be having a "World Series" of our own in class.  Here are the details:

     It's always been my desire to get my students excited to read but sometimes it's a struggle.  Since most of them love sports, I'm using that to get them excited to pick up a good book!  For the next two weeks, in class, we will be having a "Reading World Series."
     Students are being divided randomly into two teams (Red Sox and Cardinals).  When they read each night they will fill out a reading ticket that I have sent home.  Students need to bring the reading ticket back on the following day.  Every 15 minutes of reading will earn their team a base hit! The team with the most runs on the last day will earn a special reward.
     The reading incentive will last 9 days (9 innings).  On Monday I'll be sending home a letter and their reading tickets for all 9 days. 
     Please encourage your children to read and take part in a our friendly competition!  Play Ball!!

 

 

Team News: Week of Oct. 14-18

We are officially done NECAP testing!  It was a long couple of weeks but we made it.  I don't know about the kids but I know I'll be happy to get back to a normal schedule!  We didn't do regular Math work this week because we were taking the Math NECAP but we did do a Literacy story.  We also continued on with learning about European explorers settling in New Hampshire.  Next week we will read about NH's first 4 towns.

Literacy:  We read a story called My Brother Martin.  This is a story about Martin Luther King Jr. written by his sister.  We focused on Author's Purpose. These two students were inspired after reading about MLK.

Check out the poem they wrote:

Martin Luther King Jr.

White and black,

young and old,

joined together after the speech!

Who is this hero that saved us all?

Martin Luther King!

He's the one, after all!

Writing:  We started writing personal narratives.  Ask your children what their story is about!

Reminders:  Picture Day is next Thursday, October 24.  Also if you want to place a scholastic book order they are due on October 25. 

Team News: Week of Oct. 7-11

Only a 4 day week but we sure were busy!!!  NECAP testing started this week and the kids worked really hard on the first two sessions of the test.  NECAP testing will continue next week with the one remaining reading session and three math sessions. 

Math:  We worked on making tessellations with multiplication problems.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy creating their artwork.  We continued with our multiplication unit focusing on prime and composite numbers and multiplying by powers of 10.

Social Studies:  We read about the Abenaki tribe and did a note taking activity.  Students took notes on general information about the Abenaki, their homes, women's work, and men's work. 

Next week:  We will start our first story in Unit 2 of our literacy anthology.  We will start reading about the first towns in NH in Social Studies.

Thank you to everyone that came to open house last night.  It was nice to meet so many of you!  I hope you enjoyed seeing your child's work. 

Team News: Week of Sept. 30-Oct. 4

Another busy week has flown by!  I can't believe how quickly the time is going!  I am enjoying each and every day I get to spend with my 4th graders!

Literacy:  This week we read Because of Winn-Dixie in our anthology.  It is only a very short piece of the book (1 chapter) so I have been reading the book at bus time each day so they can hear the whole story.  Our comprehension skill this week was sequencing so we talked a lot about finding the important events and putting them in order.  The students continue to do great with their work plans.

Math:  We began multiplication this week by starting off learning about factors and multiples.  The students seem to be catching on to multiplication pretty easily but it's super important for them to keep practicing facts at home. 

Social Studies:  We finished up our information paragraphs about the NH regions and began typing them.  We moved on to learning about the Native Americans in NH.  Ask your child to share some facts about the Abenaki tribe.

Writing:  We are finishing up our first picture writing books (NH regions).  These books will be on display at Open House.  I can't wait for you to see the work your children have done.  I think you'll be blown away!

Next Week:  We begin NECAP Testing on Tuesday.  We will be doing three sections of the reading test.  We will not have a literacy story because of the testing so we'll be focusing on some writing and other projects.  Please make sure your children get enough sleep on the nights of testing...we want them to be ready to do their best!

Reminders:  No school on Friday because of a Teacher's Workshop.

Fun with Multiplication Arrays!

This week we focused a lot on using arrays to help solve multiplication problems.  Students had a homework assignment to bring in items from home that could be used to create an array.  Today we put the arrays together and students had the opportunity to go around to each array and solve the multiplication problem.  Here some pictures from today's exploration:

These array projects will also be on display at our Open House on Wednesday night!