What didn't happen this week? We had a doctor, a story-teller, and a sweet dog named Lulu come visit us!
We are well into our unit study of body systems. A HUGE thank you to Jack’s dad for coming to visit us to talk about his line of work as a physiatrist and answer questions from our young medical specialists-in-training about the body system they are researching. Kyle brought several models, books, and X-rays that the 4th graders were very curious about. This week, Caden’s dad will visit us on Wednesday to talk about his work about the psychologist and the neurological system.
Goal-setting conferences are this Friday, Oct. 6th. If you haven’t already signed up for conferences on Sign-Up Genius, please do so. Remember that this is no school that day and there is childcare only during the time of your conference.
Lastly, a friendly reminder to please be in school by 8am so that 4th graders have 10 minutes to complete their morning routine before Morning Meeting formally begins at 8:10.
In Reading and Writing
In Reading we continue to build our reading life. We have been practicing reading with expression as a way to deepen our understanding of a story and as a way to tune into the author’s purpose. Also, we are paying close attention to “reading below the text” to understand the themes or messages the author wants to convey to us as readers.
In Writing, several of us have finished our memoirs. We talked about zooming into a small moment or a “kernel” of a large memory, (ie: waiting in line to ride Space Mountain vs. my entire trip to Disney World) Writers are taking their writing through the writing process and are beginning to get much better at using Gathering Journals as a tool to write stronger and longer.
In Math we have been revisiting multiplication and its relationship with division. We spent time analyzing multiplication story problems and identifying whether they were “comparative” or “equal groups” problems. We played a game called Fact Family Fandango which was also done for homework, and completed a puzzle that required learners to use mathematical language to convince others their solution was correct. Please continue to practice automaticity of basic multiplication facts 2-12 with your 4th grader so that they may recall them effortlessly.
In our IB Unit of Study
Everyone has chosen a body system to research in depth. Ask your learner about the rubric for their unit. We hope you will be able to make our Health Fair/Conference on Friday Oct. 13th (time TBD) where doctors will present about their body system and explain their visual aides or models that they have prepared. All doctors will receive certificates at the end! Hope to see you there!
Coming up…
Friday Oct 6th Parent Teacher Conferences NO SCHOOL
Monday Oct 16- PJS Spirit Week!
Friday Oct. 20th- Bonfire 6-8:30pm
Tuesday Oct. 31 Halloween Parade 8:30-9:30am