Reminder: No School on Monday, September 7 due to Labor Day & No School on Tuesday, September 8 due to a Teacher Professional Development day.
Reading - We wrapped up our first reading unit this week. We discussed how important it is for readers to share their reading with others. Fourth graders were paired up with a classmate so they can frequently share their thinking about what they are reading. Classes developed expectations for accountable talk such as making eye contact when someone is speaking and asking follow-up questions about their reading. Readers also learned how to stop and jot their thinking as they read. Finally, classes read and then wrote down their thinking about the main character in
Thank You, Mr. Falker as a pre-assessment to Unit 2. Classes also worked on English Language Arts (ELA) Acuity on the computer. Next week, we'll being our 2nd Unit:
Following Characters Into Meaning.
Writing - Our writing mini lessons this week focused on grammar. Each day students learned about one of the following: adjectives, verbs, adverbs, homophones & pronouns. After learning what each part of speech was, students practiced spicing up their writing by adding more interesting language to their writing.
Math - In math, we studied special quotients such as 0 and 1. Students also used multiplication facts to find division facts. Finally, students practice solving problem situations by drawing a picture and writing an equation to match. Classes took their Topic 1 Assessment to end the week. Next week we'll begin Topic 2 which is a shorter unit on patterns. Students will also complete the Math Acuity on the computer as well as on paper.
Science - In science, we continued our Ecosystems unit. Some topics we learned about are how plants interact with animals (pollination/seed dispersal), how people disturb the balance of ecosystems, and Missouri fossils. Finally, students chose a Missouri animal to begin researching for their research topic. We'll continue our research next week as well!
Social Studies - Students continued to study Missouri's geography including how rivers and lakes are used in Missouri and effects of flooding. Next week we'll look more closely at Missouri's 4 geographical regions.
