We cannot believe we are already 3 weeks into school! The time is already flying by! The 4th graders are getting into the hang of all of our classroom routines and we have already covered so much.
These last few weeks in writing, students have been working on the skills to plan for realistic fiction stories. We have practiced as a class creating t-charts to track external and internal character traits, giving our characters struggles and motivations, plotting story arcs, and developing ways to brainstorm seed ideas. These 4th graders are digging deep for story ideas that are important to them and allow them to write with feeling. They are also basing their stories off of their own experiences in order to write something they can relate to. It's amazing how many mature ideas they have!
We finished the first section of Unit 1 on Factors, Multiples and Arrays today. Students had the opportunity to find all of the arrays or factors of a number using grid paper. We discussed that prime numbers are those which only have two factors, 1 and the number itself and composite numbers are those that have more than two factors. We also practiced telling multiplication story problems and playing games to brush up on multiplication facts in order to be more efficient in solving arrays. Next week we will begin more work with multiplication. Students have been sent home with multiplication cards that they should be practicing for about 10 minutes each evening. Once they become fluent with them they can narrow it down to the ones they are still learning.
Thank you to those of you, who considered chaperoning our H.O.C. trip but Dave Steele has committed to come to H.O.C. for the full 3 days. Thank you Dave! We look forward to having him join us for this exciting trip!
We are looking forward to seeing you at Parent Information Night this Tues., Sept.
20th from 7:00-7:30.
Best,
Kelley and Cindy
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