Division Strategies

In class, we've been using a lot of different strategies to solve division problems. Here's a link to a page that shows some of the division strategies we've been working on. Click on this link, or go to the "Math" tab at the top of the page to see how we've been solving division problems! If you have any questions, ask one of us to explain our strategy to you!

Independent Writing Projects

Dear 4-324 Families,

Our Independent Writing Projects officially kicked off today! As part of this yearlong study, students will be responsible for pursuing their own independent writing projects. These projects can be in ANY genre students are interested in.

In past years, students have published a diversity of projects including:

c An anthology of poetry inspired by Tim Burton characters

c A new book in a favorite series and a new ending to a favorite book

c A read-aloud newspaper that included news relevant to characters in our read-aloud book

c A nonfiction book about submarines in World War II

c A graphic novel set in outer space

c A historical fiction piece set in a favorite time period

The possibilities really are endless! Students are welcome to create any type of text that already exists in the world (or to invent their own new genre they wish existed).

Your child’s first independent writing project will be due in class on Friday, December 7. Their piece should be published (either handwritten or typed).

For our first independent writing cycle, your child will have time in class to work on their independent writing piece, but they will be expected to do a large part of the work at home.

If you have any questions, please email me or send a note in to school with your child.

Best,

Katie

Special Reader's Notebook Work

Yesterday, we got special new notebooks we'll be using to track our thinking about our fiction books. Today, we shared the work we had already done in our notebooks and studied the kind of work readers could do at the beginning of a book. Here are some examples. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them:

Write about traits and the evidence you have for the traits for your main character and secondary characters.

Track character relationships with a relationship map and record traits you're noticing.

Create a web of pressures your main character is facing.

Write long about a big idea you're developing and the evidence you have for it

Tell about your character's actions and what might be motivating them to act that way.

Here's a link to the kind of thinking work that could be done at the beginning, middle and end of a book.  I'm excited for Fiction Fridays!

Realistic Fiction Publishing Expectations

Dear 4-324 Students and Families,

         We’ve been hard at work on our realistic fiction pieces for the past several weeks. We’ve created characters that struggle with major and minor problems. We’ve added tension to our pieces using a variety of strategies. We’ve re-imagined easy endings so our stories are reflective of real life. We’ve edited our pieces with different lenses in mind.

         Published realistic fiction pieces are due on Thursday, November 15. A copy of our realistic fiction writing rubric is on our class blog at www.fourthgradeadventurers.blogspot.com. Click on the “Writing” tab to see the rubric.

Publishing Expectations:

c Publish a copy of your piece with the revisions and edits that you made in class. You can publish your piece in script, or you can type the piece. If you type your piece, an adult can help you.

c Create a cover for your piece.

c Turn in your published piece AND your rough draft by Thursday, November 15. You can turn it in early if you finish early.

Optional:

c Create a back cover for your piece with a catchy blurb and publishers’ reviews.

c Create an “About the Author” page to teach your readers more about you.

c Try out other work that will make your realistic fiction piece even stronger.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me or send a note in to school.

Best,

Katie

The Marble Champ

As you're reading "The Marble Champ" by Gary Soto, study the moves Gary Soto is making. What does he do as a writer that makes his piece so strong? Leave your ideas in the margins.

FGA News Launch (Student Entry)

The fourth graders are having an election, and we've created a news program to follow it! We're called FGA (Fourth Grade Adventurers) News, but it's still in development. The election is on November 5th and only fourth graders can vote (The fifth graders also have an election, but we're not covering that). Well, that's all for now, but remember: This is Fourth Grade Adventurers: Where the adventure begins!

Here's our network's official logo!

POW/WWP

I just discovered a whole stack of POWs and WWPs, so the POW/WWP sheet might not have made it to you. If it didn't and you want to get started tonight, here are the two problems:

Problem of the Week: 

Weekly Word Problem

Sample Weekly Word Problem

Last week we solved our first Weekly Word Problem for homework. There will be a WWP almost every week from now on. Here's a sample of how to solve the WWP. All six steps should be completed and clearly labeled. If you have any questions, email Katie or post them in the comments!

Creating Campaign Posters About Our Values

Last Friday, we were delighted to welcome so many families into our classroom for our first Family Friday! As part of our election study, we looked at campaign posters from past presidential campaigns and the ways those posters showed what candidates valued. Then, we selected the values that were most important to us. We created posters showcasing those values, which we revealed through the symbols, colors and slogans we put on our posters.

Here are some of our finished posters! If your poster is not here, it might be because it has your last name on the front of it! We're not posting last names on our blog! To see any poster larger, just click on it!

Multiplication Combinations

One of our big fourth grade goals is learning all of our multiplication combinations up to 12 x12 so well that we know them in a snap.

There are lots of different ways you can study your facts so you can memorize them.

• Play Multiplication War with a friend. Deal out half of a deck of face cards (1 through 10 or 1 through 12) to each player. Both players put down two cards (the factors). Multiply the two cards together to get your product. The player with the higher product captures both cards! The winner is the player who captures all the cards!
• Play Dice War with a friend. Each player gets two dice. At the same time, roll your two dice. Multiply the two numbers on your dice together. The player with the higher product gets a point. The first player to 20 points wins! To switch up the game, have the player with the lower product win!
• Play games online to learn your multiplication combinations. Here's one game online from the BBC. You can choose the multiplication combinations you want to be quizzed on.  
• Have someone quiz you with flash cards! Set a timer each time you are quizzed. See if you can beat your time each time you are quizzed!
• Figure out which facts are the trickiest for you to learn. Place the facts on doors around your house. Before you enter the door, say the fact and the product out loud! You have to get the product correct to enter the room!

How do you study your facts? Leave your ideas here!

Personal Narrative Revision Strategies

We had so many different ideas for strategies we could use to revise our personal narratives. Here are some of them:

• Find the heart of your piece (the most important part). Stretch the heart of your piece, showing everything that happened at that time. 
• Look for times you are just telling your emotions (ex. I was angry). SHOW how you felt instead (ex. I clenched my fists. My heart beat hard against my chest. I glared daggers at him.). 
• Look for times you are just telling what happened in your piece (ex. It took a long time to get to the mall.)  SHOW what is happening instead. 
• Revise your piece to make sure each scene includes a variety of details and not just one type of detail (dialogue, internal thoughts, small actions, and setting details).
• Revise to include the internal and the external stories! Tell about where times you character ran, jumped and played, but also tell about times your character wished, hoped, thought, yearned and desired.
• Write a stronger lead to your piece, trying out a few different versions until you find the one that works.

You can also look at our Writing Rubric under the "Writing" tab to get more ideas for how to revise your piece. As you revise, remember that revision is about making MAJOR changes that improve your piece, not about editing for capitalization, punctuation, spelling or paragraphing.   
Do you know another revision strategy? Add it here in the comments!

Exciting Deliveries!

We were so excited this afternoon because two packages arrived for our class during lunch time. They were filled with books purchased by all of you from our Amazon.com Class Wish List.

Here are our new books! Click on the photo to enlarge it!

Out of all the new books we received, which do you want to read first? Why?

200 Book Challenge Update!

We're only one week into our 200 Book Challenge, but we've already read 59 books as a class!

Out of all the books you've read so far this year, which do you most recommend? Why? Leave your thoughts in the comments so other readers can get ideas for great books to read!

200 Book Challenge!

We officially kicked off our 200 book challenge yesterday! As a class, we set a goal of reading 200 books. Each book we read will be logged in the front of our reading log. Once we hit 200 books, we'll celebrate with a Reading Marathon! We'll wear our pajamas to school, eat breakfast in the classroom and enjoy 90 minutes straight of reading! We can't wait!

Each Friday we'll count the books we've read and watch as we get closer to our goal.

Using What We Know to Create Narrative Notebook Entries

Today we began collecting notebook entries for our personal narrative writing unit. We started by charting all the strategies we've learned for generating notebook entries over our school career!

Click on the chart to see it larger!

Can you believe all the different strategies we already know as writers? We will get to choose from these strategies, any other strategies we know, and all the new strategies we learn as we write our notebook entries this year!

Do you know any other strategies? Leave them in the comments!

Welcome to Our Classroom!

Tomorrow brings the first day of fourth grade! Our classroom is all ready, but it's missing the most important part--all of you! Here are some pictures of what our classroom looked like Wednesday night before anyone arrived. If you want to see a larger version of a picture, just click on it!

Here's our schedule for the first day of school.

Look for this sign Thursday morning in the yard--I'll be carrying it!

 

 

Here's part of our library.

These are the letters you wrote at the end of third grade. They taught me so much about you!

Here's another part of our library!

This year, we'll each have our own jobs and responsibilities in the classroom.

These boards will be filled up with your work!

This is the door you'll enter tomorrow morning!

Welcome!

Welcome to our new class blog! You'll be able to visit our blog regularly throughout the school year to read articles about what we're learning, see photographs of the work we're doing and watch videos of us in action. You'll even be able to check each day to see what's for homework! During the year, I'll teach you how to comment on blog posts and  how to create your own posts. I am looking forward to a fantastic year with all of you!

Check back before the first day of school to see pictures of how our classroom is set up!