Learning Updates 5.18.12

Dear Families,

First I wanted to say thank you for the thoughtful cards and gifts for Teacher Appreciation this week. I feel very appreciated and very fortunate to work with your children. It's a joy to work alongside them--to be a community that learns and grows together.

I can hardly believe that it's May 18th and we have only about one month left together. This year has absolutely flown by, but we have so many fun things and so much exciting learning still to come. This week also flew by. Here's what we've been up to...

Monday we toured the State Capitol buildings. Click to view all the pictures from our trip!

Using quartzite as "grinders" against other rocks. The chipped off fragments fell to black sheets of construction paper.

Students discovered that not all rocks have the same hardness. This pumice rock is being pulverized by the quartzite.

Field Trip

• We took a field trip Monday to the Olympia State Capitol. We toured the Legislative Building including Governor Gregoire's Office, the House and the Senate. We also toured the Temple of Justice (Supreme Court), and saw the Governor's Mansion from the outside. Our tour guide was amazing and had a great sense of humor. Students learned many new things that dovetail nicely with our State Government unit we just finished. Thank you to Christa Elin, Cari Kovats, Kim Mitzel, and Nancy Chabot for chaperoning.

Click to see lots of great pictures of our field trip. Thanks to Nancy Chabot for sharing many of these photos with us!

Math

• Studied weight, geometric solids (3D shapes), and explored volume of rectangular prisms

Writing

• Began a new writing unit on Literary Essays
• Students are reading from a packet of five short stories. These are high quality literature, packed with lots of meaning
• We're learning strategies right now for how to read carefully, deeply, and uncover/record our own thinking about these stories

Reading

• In our Challenges book study unit we learned a couple different vocabulary strategies including using context clues/word parts and creating word webs to remember new vocabulary
• We also began responding to our reading in our response journals
• Students are loving these books
• Started a new read aloud: Hound Dog True--ask your child what's happened so far

Science

• Students tweaked different variables (ie slope, amount of flow, landforms using clay, etc.) in their river table setups to try and change the shape of the river as much as possible
• Looked at examples of erosion and deposition, and we discussed what happens to rocks over time
• Students used quartzite rock to try and grind other rocks like pumice, limestone, sandstone, and slate. They made observations and discovered that the hardness of rocks differs.
• Discussed glaciers and modeled how glaciers shape land--ask your child about this!

Learning Updates 5.11.12

Happy Mother's Day! And a beautiful and well-deserved Mother's Day at that. To all the moms, I hope you're enjoying a relaxing, wonderful day filled with all your favorite things. Thank you for all the love, support and encouragement you provide your child.

Here's a quick update from our classroom this past week:

River Tables. Students simulated the effects of water on land by seeing what happens to a pile of sand when water flows through it. All of this is part of the new science unit we started this week--Earth's Changing Surface

In our second river table investigation, teams tried tweaking a number of different variables and conducting multiple trials, with the goal of seeing the most dramatic river shape. They elevated their table, increased water flow, put clay in place to simulate landforms, and much more.

We began a new literature study unit on Challenges. Thank you to everyone for your involvement earlier in the year with Donor's Choose. This is one of the sets of books funded with your help! This group presented their poem, the challenges it talked about (in this case, moving to a new place), questions they had as a group, and connections they made with the poem and their lives.

MSP

• We're done! Finished Writing #2 (Expository--Essay Writing) on Tuesday and Math on Thursday morning
• Thank you again to Elizabeth Dorrance for providing tasty and nutritious snacks to the whole class on both writing days. They loved them!

Reading

• Started our Challenges thematic literature unit
• Students will be choosing from a selection of books based on their interests and reading level

Math

• Took the Unit 10 math test on Monday
• Started Unit 11 on weight, volume, and capacity
• Mr. Ciraulo worked with us on Wednesday for the final time this year. The class has become much more proficient in the four step problem solving method thanks to his help

Social Studies

• We wrapped up our Washington Government unit this week
• Field trip to Olympia Capitol Building on Monday. Students need to arrive at school at 8:10am! We'll meet in our classroom. Students need a disposable sack lunch.

Learning Update 5.4.12

Dear Families,

With MSP testing and our Author's Chair, this week absolutely flew by. Here's our update:

Writing

• Wednesday we held an Author's Chair for students' fictional narrative stories!
• After an impassioned discussion, the class was adamant about sharing whole class so that they could hear each and every story.
• Students did a great job listening, engaging, and thinking about each piece
• Click to view a full color .pdf version of nearly all our stories. We published in a picture book format and the stories turned out great.
• Also, click to view pictures from our Author's Chair Celebration!

We did it! Our published authors proudly display their hard work.

Mrs. Otley joined in the celebration. She was surprised to find that she and even her husband made cameo appearances in some of the stories.

As students listened to each author's story, they had to provide feedback by writing at least one thing about the author's writing that was exceptional. We gathered this feedback together and made a book as a gift to each author. I would share a handful of insightful comments that were written each time as a new writer got set to share. This lifted the quality of our thinking and feedback about each piece. It also was good timing for students to point out the characteristics of great narrative writing the day before they took the Narrative Writing MSP! :)

Math

• Finished up Unit 10 on reflections and symmetry. The class has had a great time studying this material
• We'll take a Unit 10 assessment on Monday

Reading

• Students worked on a Washington State Government scavenger hunt, by reading and gathering information from their Social Studies books

Social Studies

• Learned about the three branches of government, checks and balances, our representatives, how a bill becomes a law and more
• We'll try to wrap up this unit early next week before we head to Olympia for our State Capitol field trip on Monday 5/14

MSP

• We're halfway there. Students took the Reading MSP on Tuesday morning and took the Writing #1 (narrative) MSP for most of the day Thursday.
• Big thanks to Elizabeth Dorrance for providing our students with their own nutritious snack bags during the Writing MSP. These were a big hit, and Elizabeth wrote an encouraging message in each one!
• Tuesday 5/8 we'll take the Writing #2 (Expository--essay) MSP for most the day, and Thursday 5/10 we'll finish MSP testing with Math. Snacks will be provided again on Tuesday only.
• Thanks for your encouragement at home and for making sure your student gets good rest the night before and has a good breakfast on our testing days

Learning Updates 4.27.12

Dear Families,

We had another great week together as we nearly brought the month of April to a close. Read on through the captions to find out why students just could not stop saying the word "fun" this past week. Remember, you can click on a picture to view it at full-size.

Students could hardly contain their excitement with the mirrors we've been using in math to reflect and "move" objects on the page!

"This is fun!" was a very common phrase across the week during math :)

Art Docent lesson on transformations--reflections (flips), rotations (spins), and translations (slides). Perfect timing! Same day, in fact, as when we began to study the same content in math. Thanks to our Art Docent, Lisa Purdon, for another great lesson!

Students created a base shape--ask them how. This was a very interesting set of steps. Then they decided what the "rhythm" or pattern would be--flips? slides? or turns?--across the page. Students performed the transformation, then traced in pencil, then over in sharpie marker, and finally adding color with crayons.

Trade Simulation! 4th grade students participated in a simultaneous trade simulation as part of our Pacific Rim Trade unit in Social Studies.  Our class had 5 groups, each trying to build a car. Other classrooms tried to "build" airplanes, computers, and homes. Groups started out with some of the required inventory, but also had to do a fair amount of trading within and between classrooms.

Let's make a deal! Students in our class met with trade representatives from other classes to trade inventory.

Keeping very careful track on the in-class and traveling trade representatives' inventory sheets was very important!

Finished Art Docent projects. Also, our essays are finally up on the wall! :)

Mirror mirror. Partners had to mirror a series of moves made by one another during math class in order to model the concept of reflection.

Reading

• Continued studying the concept of theme in reading
• Looked at the song lyrics of "Yellow Taxi" to analyze theme. I didn't tell students at first that it was a song, so they were surprised when I played it for them. We compared the difference in rhyme and meter between the two forms
• Students looked at a poem by Shel Silverstein called Smart, analyzed theme and responded to their reading

Writing

• We're so close to wrapping the fictional narrative unit. Students have been working so hard to publish their picture books. 
• Author's chair is soon to follow!

Social Studies

• Wrapped up our Pacific Rim trade unit with a couple quizzes
• We'll quickly cover some Washington State Government information and then move back to Science

Math

• Started Unit 10, and if you haven't read the captions for the above pictures--students love it!

Learning Updates 4.20.12

We had a great week back from Spring Break, filled with lots of learning. Here's a bit of what we've been up to:

Math

• Finished Unit 9 and worked on the unit math review in class on Friday
• Unit 9 test on Monday--as we wrote in their planners, students should study for the test over the weekend

Reading

• Worked on the reading skill of comparing/contrasting using two different photos. We did some whole class and teacher modeling, and then students tried it independently on a new set of photos. Students made some great inferences and conclusions about the similarities and differences they saw
• Started to talk about theme (the lesson or author's message)--we'll do more with this next week

Writing

• We're going in to publishing mode! Many students finished their rough drafts of their realistic fiction stories and conferenced with me. We'll do more conferences the beginning of this week and get everyone publishing their picture books. Very exciting!

Social Studies

• Delved deeper in our Pacific Rim Trade unit. Learned about Fair Trade through a story called Zapizapu. Ask your student to tell you about this. Specifically, what drink from our lives does Zapizapu represent and what is some evidence from the story to support this?
• Students met in small expert groups and read about one of five different Pacific Rim countries. They highlighted, mind mapped the information, and planned a presentation for the class, plus worked a bit on a visual aid poster. Groups presented their information on Friday to the class and we all took notes.

Expert Groups. Students read and highlighted information about their Pacific Rim Country.

Learning Updates 4.6.12

Wherever Spring Break finds you I hope you have a safe, fun and relaxing time with friends and family.

Here's a super quick update from this week:

Researching and taking notes on the Pacific Rim and its connection to trade and Washington State.

Proud published authors. Fourth graders shared their published essays and second graders shared their published realistic fiction pieces. It was fun for us to compare our current work in that genre to that of our second grade buddies.

Social Studies

• Started Pacific Rim unit, learned that Pacific Rim is ring of countries around outside of Pacific Ocean that engage in trade with one another
• Students read and took research notes on the topic

Math

• Working a great deal with percentages--calculating them from fractions both mentally and on the calculator
• Solved story problems and made sense of survey data by converting between fractions, decimals and percents

Reading

• Met with our second grade reading buddies--we each shared published writing pieces
• Working to make inferences from short mystery stories involving a fictional crime--students focused on the background knowledge and text clues that led them to that inference

Writing

• Continuing to make progress on our realistic fiction stories. Talked about grounding our characters in a setting rather than having them floating in space, worked on writing 2-3 potential endings, talked about how we only revise our best work--the work we care about and that revising is "re-seeing" possibilities, and reviewed charts/lesson topics from earlier in the year in the hope that students will call on these earlier learning in their writing now. Not bad for one week!

Learning Updates 3.30.12

Evaporation experiments in progress--surface area (front), type of liquid (back left), adding an object--sponge vs no sponge (back right)

Air movement--fan vs. no fan. Other experiments that groups conducted: temperature--fridge vs. room temp., and light--dark cupboard vs window sill vs fluorescent light.

100ml of different liquids. Did type of liquid affect rate of evaporation? Ask your student. Groups presented their findings and conclusions on Friday.

Writing procedures and materials lists--before conducting their experiments, groups had to write a detailed plan as well as a hypothesis of what they expected to find.

Writer's Workshop debrief and sharing. Students were eager to share the leads they wrote for their realistic fiction narratives. They envisioned with a partner the sort of story this sets up and discussed whether that matches where they think the story actually needs to go. Students are more apt to make these front end revisions before they've written great volumes and are committed to that story.

Science Fair was last week and we had some great projects:

Art Docent--thank you to Lisa Purdon and the Grand Ridge PTSA for a great opportunity. Instead of creating art this time, students had a chance to view a special exhibit from the Bellevue Art Museum. Students did some in depth thinking and had a great discussion about each of the seven pieces in the exhibit.

Recorder Concert. The culmination of the fourth grade recorder unit was a concert for the school in the afternoon on Tuesday and also a concert for parents in the evening.

Other Odds and Ends

• Finished Math Unit 8 and started Unit 9 on fractions, decimals, and percents
• Math tests are headed home today
• We're making great progress on our stories in writing, learning about character traits, story mountains, and leads
• Focused on visualizing strategy and responding to our reading. Ask your child how "Still Pictures," "At the Movies," and "Experience the Story" work. These are the three different response strategies I modeled and we practiced this week.
• Finished up our Matter unit in science