It's been another busy week here in Room 264. It feels good to be back in the swing of things and back to our routines. Here's a bit about what we've been up to...
Art Docent: Big thanks to our Art Docent, Lisa Purdon. We had a couple of great lessons. Using clay, students made a dragon mask, in line with our later studies this year of the Pacific Rim. Lisa fired the masks in our kiln and then we had one more lesson involving glazing the masks. We'll have a quick final lesson where we add decorations.
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| Art Docent Lesson. Glazing our clay masks. Students learned what you see is not what you get--read the label. Purple actually looks pink as you paint it on! |
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| FQR. Students compare notes on their fact/question/response charts during our reading materials adoption field test. |
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| Coding text. Partners work together to show their thinking on a Revolutionary War text and map of Paul Revere's ride. |
Math
- Went from using full circle to half circle protractors for measuring angles
- Worked with map coordinates, scale, and the global coordinate grid system--ie. latitude/longitude
- Extended our partial quotients division algorithm to two digit divisors, ie. 160 / 12
- With my involvement on Issaquah's Reading Materials Adoption Committee, we have the great privilege over the next few weeks to field test, or try out, four potential comprehension resources programs. One or more of these will be the standard for whole class instructional lessons next year. We're getting a sneak peek and the chance to try these great resources, which align with our current reading standards and goals for fourth grade.
- Focused on finding the main idea
- Practiced using an FQR chart to record facts, questions & responses (our thoughts) from non-fiction, historical fiction, and our own independent reading texts
- Learned to code text, showing evidence of our thinking, ie questions, background knowledge, paraphrasing, important information, etc.
- Practiced using an important information/interesting details/my thinking chart to pull important details from a non-fiction text on the revolutionary war
- Learned about different ways to support a thesis statement claim, ie kinds, parts, reasons, ways, or times
- Learned that the three ways should be categories, they should be different, and something students know a good deal about/are interested in/can write lots about
- Held a thesis clinic as a class, looking at boxes (thesis statements) and bullets (supporting reasons) that were working well and ones that needed some tweaking. We brainstormed ideas, setting each student up for success with topics and reasons they'll be able to write knowledgeably about in the coming weeks
- Read, discussed and wrote about the clash of cultures in the 1800s between Native Americans living in WA and Europeans who were here for trading and trapping
- Partner read about fur trapping and mountain men, discussed the Hudson's Bay Company
- Students began to research a notable figure in WA state's early history. They worked collaboratively and took notes in preparation for a short presentation with their group next week
