Weekly Update

On Thursday, we celebrated the girls earning 50 class compliments by bringing in a stuffed animal or a lovey, and visiting the school cafe for an afternoon treat. There was lots of silliness, sugar, and fun on our visit!

The girls have worked so hard this week taking lots of ERB tests! We have two tests left on Monday and then we are finished. They are learning how to take a standardized test and how to take one on a computer. I am proud of them and their hard work and focus during this testing week.

In the midst of testing, we continued reading All of a Kind Family and writing a hashtag to summarize each chapter. We also completed a writing lab where they wrote a procedural paragraph explaining to do something of their choice. We had an open book Wordly Wise quiz yesterday and a short math assessment today on unit 2. Whew! That is a lot of learning and activities in addition to the ERB testing.

To get some fresh air, the girls took pictures around the campus and wrote about something for which they are thankful. The overall theme of gratitude in this class is that the girls are thankful for their friendships. This is a kind group of girls and relatively drama free, which makes me a happy teacher!

Reminders

• Carpool helpers for the next two weeks (because they're both short weeks) are Amelia and Juliet
• Monday is the last day of ERB testing so they may bring slippers to wear for the occasion
• Monday is the last day to bring in canned goods for our LS Outreach project
• On Tuesday, we will visit St. Christopher's for our annual Math Expo and the girls will need to wear their field trip attire
• No homework next week due to ERB's and Thanksgiving break!
• Scavenger Hunt!!

Weekly Update

This week was another great one and it is hard to believe that we have entered the month of November!

Math: The girls did well working with long division this week. We will continue to practice this skill and I will give them an assessment next week. Because we will be taking the ERB tests, I will allow them to use notes and it will be more of a guided assessment. The girls listened to an online tutorial about how to make a bar graph using Google Sheets. They used this to make a bar graph about the candy they collected on Halloween. I was so impressed by their independence with this activity! They listened, listened some more if necessary, and completed their graphs without much assistance. Bravo!

Language Arts: We began our class novel, All of A Kind Family. They seem to be enjoying this story about a Jewish family of five girls at the turn of the 20th century. We are tying this into our decade study and looking at similarities and differences between our lives today and their lives then. I showed the girls how we have the novel recorded and linked on our fourth grade website so that they can listen and read if they choose. We will continue with this novel over the next few weeks. Next week we will have a Wordly Wise quiz and spelling quiz on list 6. Again because of the ERB tests, I will allow them to use more tools to work through the assessments, including their Wordly Wise workbook.

Reminders

• Next week's carpool helpers are Selah, Addisyn, and Claiborne
• ERB Testing will begin next week. Please read this letter with more information. This is our testing schedule and you can see that there is a change from the one I emailed out this week. We will use Monday to work through some practice tests and then start the actual tests on Tuesday. 
• On Tuesday, November 20, we will visit St. Christopher's for our annual Math Expo 
• No homework next week due to ERB's
• Scavenger Hunt

Weekly Update

We had another fun week with lots of extra fun and excitement! On Monday morning, we started the week by having a "Read-in" with our eighth grade big sisters. The girls read a book with their big sister and then we went out to the playground for some outdoor fun.

Halloween was great fun and I was so impressed with the girls' WW costumes. They were original, creative, and fun! Check out everyone's costumes.
In math, we continued to practice multi-digit multiplication and the girls seem to be getting the hang of it. Next week, we will dive into long division and spend lots of time practicing this skill. In this week's papers, I am sending home a report from the website That Quiz. This is the site I use to assess the girls on their facts knowledge. The report is helpful because it shows the particular facts that they frequently miss. I went over this with them and encouraged them to look at the facts they frequently miss so they know which ones to further review. For the most part, the class is doing well on the weekly facts check and their knowledge is transferring to their multi-digit computation. The focus of next week's fact contract will be a mixed review of multiplying by 2 through 9.

For this week's, 3WT (3 Word Thursday), we tried something different. We completed it in class on a collaborative Google Slide document. The girls did well with this and followed my direction of staying on their slide. They presented their writing to the class today, which helped them catch small mistakes they have made in their writing. Here it is!
We also started a gratitude journal for the month of November. Each school day, they will write something for which they are thankful. It is important to slow down and focus on our blessings so this is a way to help with this.

Reminders and On the Horizon

• Next week's carpool helpers are Vivienne and Emily
• Student Holiday on Monday, November 5
• Candy tally chart due on Tuesday
• ERB Testing will be the week of November 12 - 16
• Scavenger Hunt

Weekly Update

I finished the parent-teacher conferences this week and want to thank everyone for coming to meet me. The partnership between me and you is so important and please know I am here anytime, and love working with your sweet daughters!

Next week will be a fun one with Halloween on Wednesday! We look forward to seeing the girls dressed up as a Wordly Wise word. On Wednesday afternoon, we will have our Halloween party. There will be NO homework on Halloween night so the girls can have a fun night of trick or treating.


Math: The girls did very well multiplying two, three, and even four digit numbers by a one digit number. When we moved on to multiplying a two digit number by a two digit number, there was more confusion. We will continue to practice this next week with computation practice in the workbook, as well as EdPuzzles and Musical Moments. I have showed your daughter how to multiply by a two digit number with the traditional algorithm so feel free to support her at home with this method.

Language Arts: We discussed the difference between simple and compound sentences and learned about conjunctions that can be used to connect two simpler sentences. Ask your daughter about FANBOYS. We are close to finishing our class read aloud, Fish in a Tree. It really is a fabulous book! Next, we will read a novel called All of a Kind Family. Each girl will have her own copy of the book to read. We will read some in class, independently, in pairs, and at home. We have a recording of each chapter for the girls to listen along as they read, if they would find that helpful. I will explain more to the girls next week. Their realistic fiction book and notes are due by Friday. In class, we will make a book trailer using a site called Animoto. This week, the girls brought home their dresses they designed after we read The Hundred Dresses. This was a fun project and I am proud of their designs and the encouraging quotes the included. Here are their creations!



Our Innovation Day on Thursday was an amazing experience and I hope your daughter shared a bit about what she learned from Sportable. It was a memorable day!

Reminders:

• Next week's carpool helper is Sloane
• Wordly Wise Dress Up Day is Wednesday! Details here!
• Scavenger Hunt

Weekly Update

I have enjoyed meeting with so many of you for parent-teacher conferences and look forward to meeting with more of you next week. Here are some curriculum updates.

Math: We have jumped into unit 2 and spent some time this week reviewing addition and subtraction of multi-digit numbers. We also reviewed how to estimate a problem and why estimating is beneficial. In most of my math conferences, I have mentioned a site called Matholia that we subscribe to for the girls. This is a great resource at home for extra reinforcement of skills. Your girls have their login information in their binders and should know how to access the site.
This week, we tried a new activity this week called Which One Doesn't Belong? It was really interesting to see how the girls thought about this type of problem. I am talking a lot with them about thinking outside of the box and that sometimes there is more than one answer. As long as they can justify their answer, it works. Here is the WODB that they wrote about. We will continue to solve more of these open ended and creative problems.

Language Arts: The girls did a great job writing a story about a witch casting a spell on them. They are in display in the hall and their stories are full of details and great descriptions. Next week, we will review run-on sentences and discuss ways to avoid using them in our writing. As we continue to work through Wordly Wise, the lists get more difficult so the girls and I will discuss how when the work gets harder, we have to work harder!

Reminders and Announcements

• Next week's carpool helper is Riley
• The girls will need their recorders in music beginning Tuesday, October 23
• Thursday, October 25 is a late start day for Lower School and also Innovation Day in the Lower School
• We will make up our last swim class that we missed today on Friday, October 26!
• On Halloween, the girls may dress up....but as a Wordly Wise word. Details here!
• Scavenger Hunt

Weekly Update

This was quite a short week! After returning to school on Tuesday for a 4 day week, an early dismissal Thursday, and a delayed start Friday, the girls stayed focused despite the schedule interruptions. Here are some curriculum updates and reminders.

Math: The girls did well on their first math assessment. We took the test on Tuesday and today, I passed it back for them to make independent corrections. I emphasized the importance of learning from our mistakes and also identifying where we went wrong in our math calculations. I will be sending home the tests in the folders on Monday and you will see two scores. The first score is in purple and this was before they made their corrections. The second score in pink is after corrections. I am proud of them for their perseverance and finding their errors. We also did an edible math activity this week involving candy corn and factors. Anything edible is always fun! Next week, we will jump into unit 2, which focuses on the four operations of whole numbers. In the folder on Monday, I will include a challenge packet from the Greg Tang math site that is due by October 31. It is an optional enrichment activity that I hope many girls will complete!

 

Language Arts: We reviewed parts of speech by using some cute animal images. Check them out here.

We also started our next writing lab. The girls took a before and after picture of themselves using Photobooth. They started writing a story about a witch casting a spell on them in honor of Halloween. We will finish this writing lab next week and hang them out on the bulletin board outside of the classroom. They love to take pictures of themselves so this was a fun activity!

Social Studies: We continued talking about key events from the first decade of the 21st Century by briefly discussing the events of 9/11. We will discuss this more next week and read an article aimed at children that describes what happened. On a lighter note they watched a commercial about the very first iPod that came out in 2001. They then compared and contrasted it to today's version. Fun!

Reminders and Announcements

• Next week’s carpool helper is Alice
• I will send home the Friday folders on Monday...sorry for the delay but I wanted time to check through all the math tests
• Next Thursday, October 18, is a student holiday for the official conference day
• The girls will need their recorders in music beginning Tuesday, October 23
• Thursday, October 25 is a late start day for Lower School
• We will make up our last swim class that we missed today on Friday, October 26!
• On Halloween, the girls may dress up....but as a Wordly Wise word. Details here!
• Scavenger Hunt

Weekly Update

This was a great week full of lots of learning and excitement! The girls are enjoying their swimming unit in PE, which will continue next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. During our regularly scheduled PE classes, Mrs. Sterling has been coming in to have lessons with the girls. She has been discussing decision making and provided the girls with scenarios in which they had to make a decision together. She will work with them next week as well.
The girls are enjoying leading the Lend a Helping Paw outreach project and will continue to collect items from classrooms through next Friday.

Curriculum Updates

Math: We have concluded unit 1 and we worked through a review sheet yesterday and today. This has come home with the girls in their Friday folders and we discussed ways in which to review for the test. The test will be on Tuesday! I emphasized that if they can complete the items on the review sheet, they will be able to complete the test. We did an activity involving math and memes this week that was a huge success. The girls were asked to design a meme to reinforce a math concept and they had to choose between factors, multiples, and order of operations. Here is an example of one:

Language Arts: The girls summarized the story elements from the book project book by using a taco! They described each story element on a different part of the taco. They look great and this was a fun way to share their books! Here is an example:

Social Studies: We began our decade study by looking at key events from the first decade of the 21st century. On our History 4 Fourthies site, we have key events listed under each decade. We will start by looking at recent events and then we will move back to the turn of the 20th century. The job the girls completed this week involved the launch of Facebook in 2004 and whether it is an appropriate tool for children. We will continue with more from our history site this week.

Reminders and Announcements

• No school on Monday
• Swimming on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 
• So the girls have a private way to communicate with me about concerns or questions, I have provided a "Let's Chat" mailbox. So far I have a received a few notes in this box, which helps me know ways in which to help the girls in a private way. Ask your daughter more about this!
• Science Atom Project due: Friday, Oct. 12th 
• Click here for our "how to" technology videos
• Scavenger Hunt!