It has been a long test week here in 4th grade. The kids have worked so incredibly hard! I'm proud of the class for taking their time and using all of our test taking strategies. We celebrated on Friday by watching Disney's Moana. We also had a few munchkins thanks to our 3rd place victory in the Soup-a-Bowl. Thursday we had the treat of watching the 2nd eaglet in the DC eagle nest hatch. The kids were so excited! Here is a picture that we captured. Testing took up a good chunk of our time this week but we did still manage to get some math in. We completed our unit on fractions. We have been working on it for some time now. Next week we will move into area and perimeter as well as points, lines, and planes. This will be a review from third grade but we will start to incorporate more complex figures. We will trade in our ELA test prep booklets for math. The date of the NYS math assessment is May 2-4. Friday, we also managed to get to the computer lab. We continue learning about Google Slides. The students have started working on the Earth Day task I've given them. They have been given guidelines on what to include in each slide. They are also given the freedom to design the rest of the slideshow however they choose. We hope to present these before April break! The class is loving our weekly time in the lab. Spelling picks back up again next week. Students are welcome to log on to spellingcity as often as they'd like to practice their words. A few reminders...
I hope you have a wonderful weekend! - Mrs. Kusche
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What a crazy week it has been. With the winter weather strorm and two snow days, our week was a little strange. But that didn't stop all of the fun we were having. This week in ELA all of our centers were St. Patrick's Day themed. Students had a chance to find our fractional parts of their bag of Lucky Charms cereal. I've decided that if I include food in our math lessons the students are much happier! We also learned about some of the history of St. Patrick's Day and tried our hand at Limerick writing. The kids had fun sharing the poems that they had written in small groups. In math we continued our study of fractions. We worked on improper fractions and mixed numbers. We also started adding and subtracting mixed numbers. The kids are doing great! Next week we will begin our next science unit on electricity. The kids are really looking forward to this hands-on unit. Please check back next week for photos. A few reminders... - Please return your child's signed report card envelope at your earliest convenience. - ELA state testing begins next Tuesday (3/28) - No School on Friday, March 24 for teacher professional development - We could REALLY use some more Clorox wipes in the classroom. We wipe down our desks, tables, and surfaces regularly. If anyone is willing to donate , I would really appreciate it. Thank you in advance. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
We had another wonderful week in 4th grade! In social studies we ended our unit on New Netherland. This week students were given a scavenger hunt around the room where facts about the colonial period were posted and they had to find the answers to questions that were provided. It was fun! We will not be given a test on this unit. Students were given a project this week in class that will be used as a test grade for the third marking period. In ELA we continue to work on short and extended response questions. The class is really getting the hang of using our RACER strategy to help organize their thoughts. In small group we continue to work on making generalizations about reading passages. This is a skill that requires a lot of practice and the children have made some nice progress. We also wrapped up the book that we were reading and had a chance to watch the movie. The kids really enjoyed reading "The Witches" by Roald Dahl. Math has been quite challenging lately as we continue our study of fractions. The class has worked really hard and I am so proud of their efforts. Next week, as part of our center work, we will be completing a fractions activity using Lucky Charms in honor of St. Patrick's Day. If fact, all of our center work will be St. Patrick's Day themed! This week was our second Friday in the computer lab. After we took our spelling tests online, students continued working on their animal research slide shows. We used Google Slides and today the students learned how to insert pictures from the internet, change their theme, and alter the font. The projects are looking great! Now that we've reached the end of our second marking period there will be a few minor changes. Students will no longer need a parent or teacher signature in their agendas each night. This is to promote responsibility and independence as we become closer to being 5th graders. Please feel free to continue to check your child's agenda however, a signature will not be checked each day. Because I won't be reading agendas each day, please be sure that your child brings any notes written in their agendas to me first thing in the morning. Or, if it is easier, please feel free to communicate with me via e-mail. Thank you for helping your child to become more independent. Now that our second marking period has come to an end you can expect report cards on Wednesday, March 15th. Also, our students have a half day of school on Thursday. Please send your child to school with a snack. Thank you! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Don't forget to turn those clocks back Saturday night. As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I hope to see you all at the Green Meadow Carnival this weekend from 10-2! Happy Friday! We've accomplished many things this week.
ELA: This week we continued working on preparations for the NYS ELA exam which will be given on March 28th-30th. We spent this week working on reading comprehension skills with multiple choice answer as well as short and extended responses to reading passages. I really don't like to call this "test review". These are skills we have been working on all year. We are just now using them in the same format that the NYS test will be given. Please let me know if you have any questions about the upcoming tests. The class finished reading Shiloh before break. We took a vote and the kids agree that this has been their favorite book that we have read this year. We even had a chance to compare the text to Shiloh the movie. This week we began reading "The Witches" by Roald Dahl. The class is really enjoying this book so far as well. Our Green Meadow Literacy Fair is coming up next week. Many students have completed registration forms for a project they are working on. All are welcome to check out the projects next Thursday, March 9th from 6:00 - 7:30. We hope to see you there! In social studies we continued our study of colonial times. We also worked on a comparative writing piece by comparing roles of men and women in the same way we did when studying Native Americans. We also read about games that were played during colonial times and compared a child's life today to a child's life during the colonial period. Today we started our first of Tech Fridays. We will be going to the computer every Friday morning to take our spelling test online and then kids will use their Google accounts to work on Google Classroom, Google Slides, research, and web development. The class is very excited about it! Our second marking period comes to an end next week. Please be sure to check PowerSchool on a regular basis so that there are no surprises when it comes to report card time. Report cards will be sent home on Wednesday, March 15th and March 16th will be a half day for students so that teachers may hold conferences as needed. If I have concerns and need to request a conference I will reach out to you ASAP. We could really use more Clorox wipes in our classroom. If anyone is willing to send some in to class we would really appreciate it. We are working hard to keep the classroom germ-free! Thank you for your help. Upcoming Dates: 3/9 - Literacy Fair 6:00 - 7:30 3/10 - End of Marking Period 3/12 - Daylight Savings Time 3/14 - Green Meadow PTO Meeting 3/16 - Half Day of School - Parent Conferences 3/17 - St. Patrick's Day 3/20 - First Day of Spring!! 3/28-3/30 - NYS ELA Exam Grades 3-8 Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions. Have a wonderful weekend! |
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June 2017
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